Encounters, Evidence, and Unexplainable

This is another client suggested topic and one I like because it allows me to get in touch with my woo-woo. And, this topic is one that can make someone question the sanity of someone else or even their own. It is controversial but it is a topic that has long been a point of curiosity around the world and I believe, because they can’t find the science to explain it, the topic is many times discounted out of hand. Leaving those of us that do believe or at the very least consider that the topic may have validity to be thought to be daft or “out there”.  And to that point, I need to say that a lot of folks believe that I am one of the ones that is “out there”. The interesting thing is that I debated the ideas for this episode with the biggest sci-fi invention of the age- artificial intelligence or ChatGPT the contemporary version of DATA 1.0. (Star Trek Next Generation)

I want to preface today’s discussion by saying that I am a fan girl of reality TV for Ancient Aliens, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, The Dead Files, Ghost Hunters, and Kindred Spirits. I have watched all these shows since their day 1 or pilot episode. My interest in all types of paranormal investigation shows goes all the way back to Paranormal State before the accusations and debunking of the show was a thing. I am grateful for the exposure I got from that show to Lorraine Warren and Chip Coffey.

I have also been known to watch marathons of The Ghost Adventures and The Ghost Brothers various series. Paranormal lockdown is a favorite along with Portals to Hell. I personally love Jack Osborne as a paranormal investigator. And I recently became an avid fan of Expedition Big Foot after attending a presentation by Russel and Myria at my first Phenomecon Conference in 2022.

But my interests do not just stop with aliens and ghosts. I am interested in psychic mediumship (not that I am one) and the effects of quantum physics on energy in and around us. I have strong interest in multiple universes, string theory, and other theoretical physics postulations and believe there is an interplay of all the above for things we do not or cannot find the absolute answers or proof for. That is what I like most about these topics, they cannot be absolutely proven or disproven, and there is always room for discussion and alternative explanations in the realm of all possibilities or simply woo-woo.

So, let’s get started. I call this episode Encounters, Evidence, and the Unexplainable.

Across time… across cultures… people have described encounters they can’t explain. A presence in an empty room. Lights in the sky that don’t move like anything familiar. A moment where reality feels slightly off. And what makes these stories powerful isn’t just what happened it’s how people describe it. I am an experiencer, meaning I have experienced things that can’t be explained by science, and by virtue of that I am a believer in the paranormal. So today, we’re not just exploring the paranormal we’re looking at scientific evidence, listening to people who experienced it, and asking what it all might mean.

Before we go deeper, I want to pause for a moment. Experiences like these can feel incredibly real because they are real experiences. But there are also times during stress, grief, or even lack of sleep where the mind can create sensations that feel just as external and vivid. That doesn’t make those moments meaningless and it doesn’t make anyone weak. It just means the mind is powerful and sometimes tricky.

So, as we go forward, it’s worth holding both ideas at once, that something meaningful happened and that understanding why is part of the journey. And if you have had experiences that feel overwhelming or hard to make sense of it’s always worth talking to someone you trust, or a professional who can help ground that experience.

I have had several clients that have experienced things that cannot be explained like video security footage of lights going on and off in their house and an “alien looking” entity standing at the front door in their ring camera. We worked together to figure out how my client could cope with what was happening while looking for an explanation the seemed reasonable to them.

The paranormal is not just one thing, it’s many. Ghosts and hauntings, UFOs and aerial phenomena, Cryptids, Psychic experiences, and Near-death experiences or NDEs. For example, the Discovery Channel series The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch demonstrates a variety of the different categories of the paranormal but often the experiencers and witnesses describe the same feeling like a presence, a shift in reality, or something just outside what can be seen or easily understood.

First, let’s look at UFO encounters starting with the USS Nimitz UFO incident. In November 2004, during training exercises off the coast of California, the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group began tracking unknown objects on radar. The objects appeared at 80,000 feet, then rapidly descended to near sea level. They moved in ways that didn’t match known aircraft capabilities.

Fighter jets were sent to investigate. David Fravor, one of the pilots, described seeing a white, oval-shaped object, nicknamed the “Tic Tac”, that had no wings, no exhaust, and no visible propulsion. He reported, “It accelerated like nothing I’ve ever seen… and then it was gone. No wings. No exhaust.”

Shortly after, another crew captured infrared video (FLIR) showing a fast-moving object with no visible means of propulsion and unusual flight behavior. The footage was later released by the U.S. Department of Defense. This is where experience meets measurement—radar, infrared, trained observers, and still… the conclusion was simply: unknown.

Now for a closer to home example the Phoenix Lights. The Phoenix Lights is one of the largest and most widely witnessed UFO events in U.S. history. On the night of March 13, 1997, thousands of people across Arizona, including Phoenix, reported seeing a massive formation of lights in the sky. The lights appeared in a V-shaped or boomerang formation, they moved slowly and silently across the sky, and some witnesses described a solid object blocking out the stars.

The military later said that part of the event was caused by flares, however that explanation does not explain the reports of a solid craft and the stars being blocked from sight. There were thousands of witnesses who described the formation as to big to be an aircraft and that it was completely silent. Actor Kurt Russell witnessed this and described, “Six lights in a V… just sitting there.” Fife Symington also described, “It was enormous… and silent.” Thousands of people… one shared moment. And even with explanations… the experience remains unexplained.

Currently there are some among psychotherapy professionals that have become more sensitive to the abduction phenomenon. The experience is real to the abductee and helping them make sense of their experiences is a necessity to promote good mental health for them and in society at large. Mocking and dismissing these folks does not make their experience feel any less real for them. I thought about volunteering where I live to be part of the therapeutic community that helps abductees recover their lives from their experiences but I cannot afford the specialized training to be of maximum use to folks who are suffering as a result of their experience.

Now, let’s talk about my favorite paranormal topic, Hauntings & Poltergeists. Let’s start with the Enfield Poltergeist, which is one of the earliest and most famous and controversial paranormal cases ever investigated. It took place in a modest council house in Enfield, North London, between 1977 and 1979. Peggy Hodgson and her three children lived in the council house. They reportedly heard strange knocking sounds in the walls, furniture reportedly moved on its own, and it was said that objects would be thrown across the room.

The police were called and one officer even reported seeing a chair move on its own. Janet Hodgson, who was eleven at the time, seemed to be the central target. She appeared to levitate out of the bed, and spoke in a deep, male voice that was recorded on tape. Janet Hodgson stated on multiple occasions that “It was in the room… it was there.”

A well-known paranormal research duo of the time named Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair were asked to investigate. They had recordings of the voice Janet spoke in and photos of the alleged levitation. They had dozens of eyewitness testimonies, and they themselves stayed in the house with the family and did long term observation. Maurice Grosse said, “I saw things I could not explain.” Guy Lyon Playfair stated his perspective as, “Some of it was faked, but not all of it.” This is a good example of belief and doubt… existing in the same place. There were reports that the children were pranking and making a bid for attention, but not all of the experiences could be explained by these reports that debunked some of the activity.

Probably one of the most well-known “horror stories” of the paranormal is the Amityville Haunting.  In 1974 Ronald DeFeo, Jr. murdered the six members of his family. One year later the Lutz family moved into the house. After 28 days the Lutz family moved out claiming that they were experiencing intense paranormal activity. They reported strange odors and cold spots, doors and windows slamming, a green slimy substance on the walls, a pig-like looking entity that was seen by one of the kids, and the husband, George Lutz, waking at the time of the murders every night, which was 3:15AM. He reported, “There was something in that house, something evil.”

This story became the basis for multiple movies, documentaries, and paranormal investigations. And once a story becomes widely known it becomes harder to separate experience from influence. The Amityville Horror is a case where a real tragedy became the foundation for a haunting story. One that some believe and others see as a mix of fear, suggestion, and storytelling leaving lots of unresolved questions.

A final note about hauntings, and it seems to be the most sought-after evidence of a haunting is the EVP. EVPs are voices in the noise that are sometimes only heard after being pointed out. As an avid fan of “ghost hunting” and investigative paranormal shows, I find that I am easily suggestable especially when I hear what sounds like it could be a voice but cannot make out what it is saying. But once one of the investigators suggests that it is saying something specific then when it is replayed, I do indeed hear what has been suggested. And once your brain locks onto a pattern it’s hard to let it go.

My daughter and I went to the Nutt House Hotel in Granbury, TX and did an overnight investigation of the hotel rooms up over the little mercantile that was on the ground floor. The story is that the Nutt House Hotel is a historic hotel in Granbury, Texas, known both for its 19th-century roots and its reputation as one of the area’s most talked-about “haunted” locations. Some stories suggest the presence of a former owner or resident spirit lingering in the building. We stayed in the room that was reportedly the most haunted. We were in that room only because it was the last room available when I made our reservation. I had a voice activated recorder in the room for the whole night and there was only one potential EVP that happened and that was when I asked into the room after the investigation was over and we were going to bed, if whoever was there was tired of being investigated and I got a clear, whispery “yes” on my recorder. It was an interesting night.

Okay, next, let’s look at what could be considered everybody’s favorites, the cryptids. Cryptids are creatures that are reported in folklore and eyewitness accounts but have not been scientifically confirmed. There are reports all over the world of cryptids like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Mothman, the Chupacabra, the Jersey Devil, the Thunderbird, the Skunk Ape, the Tasmanian Tiger and the Yeti. Cryptids are explored through a field called cryptozoology, which focuses on searching for these undocumented animals.

Probably the most well-known cryptid is Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Bigfoot is the most searched for cryptid on the North American continent. Bigfoot is reported to be a large, ape-like creature said to inhabit forests in North America, Canada, and Alaska. It is described as 7–10 feet tall, has a strong foul odor, and is covered in hair. The most famous evidence includes the Patterson-Gimlin film. The Patterson–Gimlin Film is a 1967 short motion picture that allegedly captured a living Bigfoot in Northern California. Filmed by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin at Bluff Creek, their evidence became sone of the most famous and controversial pieces of purported cryptid evidence in history, shaping modern Bigfoot imagery and debate. Bob Gimlin defended his film stating, “I know what I saw.” That statement certainty shows up again and again in cryptid lore, not maybe I saw it but, I know what I saw.

The Discovery Channel Series Expedition Bigfoot has played a noticeable role in bringing cryptozoology into a more modern, tech-driven spotlight—but its impact is a mix of visibility, innovation, and controversy. The show emphasizes tools not traditionally associated with earlier Bigfoot investigations like thermal imaging allowing for detection of heat signatures at night, environmental DNA (eDNA) in testing soil/water for unknown species, LiDAR scanning for mapping terrain and identifying anomalies, and audio analysis for studying unexplained vocalizations. The series has had a great impact because it helped shift Bigfoot research from purely anecdotal reports toward something that appears more scientific and data driven. Expedition Bigfoot has not solved the mystery but it has changed how the mystery is explored.

The next most famous cryptid is the Loch Ness Monster or Nessie. Stories of a mysterious creature in the loch date back to 6th century accounts, including a tale involving Saint Columba, who reportedly encountered a “water beast.” Modern interest surged in the 1930s, when a road was built along the loch, increasing sightings. The most iconic image is the 1934 “Surgeon’s Photograph,” which appeared to show a long-necked creature rising from the water. Decades later, this photo was revealed to be a hoax, but it cemented Nessie’s global fame.

Numerous scientific searches using sonar, underwater cameras, and even DNA sampling have been conducted in the loch. But, no conclusive evidence of a large unknown creature has ever been found. Josh Gates and his Expedition X team investigated the loch and found some interesting evidence of something large living in the loch, but no direct evidence of the “monster” known as Nessie.

Some common explanations are misidentified animals like seals or large fish, floating logs or wave patterns, optical illusions caused by the loch’s dark, peaty water, hoaxes and exaggerated eyewitness reports. Despite the lack of proof, Nessie remains one of the world’s most famous cryptids, drawing tourists and fueling ongoing curiosity about what might lie beneath the surface of Loch Ness.

And now I’m changing gears here. So, let me ask a serious question. Do you believe that those who have crossed over or transitioned are or can still be near us? Do you think psychics like Chip Coffey, Amy Allen, Theresa Caputo, Cindy Caza, and Kim Russo can really talk to the departed? Is it possible that psychics can actually provide evidence to law enforcement that has been revealed to them by deceased victims to help solve the victim’s murder or death? Or is it just entertainment?

This is another part of the paranormal that has no valid scientific evidence, other than the say so of the family member that the psychic is reading, that the information that they are getting could only be told to them by the departed themselves. I think, this one is a choice to believe more than it is an evidentiary thing. They did some testing on Theresa Caputo in one of her episodes where they had and EEG hooked up to her while she read someone and they did see brain wave activity that was out of the norm. So, is that proof of psychic ability? This is a tough topic to even validate let alone prove or disprove. This is why, I think, it is a choice to believe in it or not to believe.

Moving on, let’s talk about a topic that does not fit the strict paranormal definition but is definitely outside the normal, and that is Near-Death Experiences or NDEs. Near-death experiences are vivid, often life-changing experiences reported by people who come close to death or are temporarily clinically dead and later revived.

Across cultures and backgrounds, people commonly report and describe similar elements like a sense of leaving the body or an out-of-body experience, moving through a tunnel or darkness toward a bright light, feeling intense peace, calm, or euphoria, encountering beings, relatives, or a presence, and a sense of being told or choosing to return to life.

From a scientific perspective, researchers studying NDEs suggest possible explanations like oxygen deprivation affecting brain function, neurochemical responses during trauma, and brain activity patterns during cardiac arrest. These are believed to produce vivid, realistic experiences.

Or, is it just quantum physics at work? People sometimes connect near-death experiences (NDEs) with quantum physics to explain consciousness beyond the body. But the reality is a mix of speculation, metaphor, and emerging ideas, not established science.

There are a few ideas about this which are:

1. Consciousness beyond the brain. This is a popular idea where consciousness might not be entirely produced by the brain but instead accessed or filtered by it. Some speculative interpretations of quantum mechanics suggest reality is not fully solid or fixed and observation plays a role in how systems behave. This leads to the idea that consciousness could exist independently of the body. This is not proven in physics, it’s a philosophical extrapolation.

2. Quantum mind theories. This is where some researchers controversially propose that consciousness may involve quantum processes in the brain. These processes could, in theory, behave differently near death. For example, quantum information might persist briefly after brain activity stops. Again, this is highly debated and not widely accepted.

3. Non-locality which is often misapplied. Quantum physics includes non-locality where particles can be correlated across distance or entangled. This is sometimes used to suggest that the mind could exist “outside” the body. But there is no scientific evidence linking entanglement to human consciousness in this way. However, all of these happen in the movies!

 What science actually supports through mainstream research is that NDEs occur through brain activity under extreme stress, oxygen deprivation, neurochemical surges, and memory and perception effects. These can produce experiences that feel vivid, meaningful, and “more real than real”.

Why people connect NDEs to Quantum Physics is because quantum physics deals with a reality that does not behave the way we expect and NDEs feel like experiences that don’t behave the way we expect. So, people naturally try to connect the two. There is a growing idea that consciousness might not be fully explained by the brain and some people look to quantum physics for answers. But right now, that connection is more theoretical than proven.

The key takeaway from this is that NDEs are real reported experiences. Quantum physics is real science. But the connection between them is speculative, not established. Not proven or disproven. Quantum physics shows us that reality is stranger than we thought but using it to explain near-death experiences is still more of a question than an answer.

Others see NDEs as evidence of an afterlife, a glimpse of consciousness beyond the body, and a spiritual transition that is interrupted. There are compelling, remarkably consistent descriptions worldwide. They are often reported as more real than ordinary life, and many people say the experience changes their beliefs permanently.

Near-death experiences are moments where people come closest to the edge of life and return with stories that are strikingly similar, yet still not fully understood. Even in clinical settings these patterns repeat. Which raises the question, is this something beyond us or something the brain does when pushed to its limits?

There is another layer to all of this and that’s religion. Because when you step back a lot of what we call ‘paranormal’ today has existed in various religious traditions for thousands of years. Encounters with unseen beings, voices, visions and a sense of a presence. And what’s interesting is that the experience often stays the same but the explanation changes. One person might say angel. Another might say spirit. Someone else might say alien or something happening in the mind. Same moment, same experience, different meaning.

Religion often answers the ‘why.’ Why it happened. What it means. What comes next? And maybe that’s why these experiences feel so powerful because they connect to questions people have always asked. What happens after we die? Are we alone? Is there something beyond what we can see?

In this day and age of cameras everywhere it is getting harder and harder to poo poo the recordable evidence of paranormal occurrences. We have congressional investigations into the UFO/UAP issues and reexamination of the Operation Blue Book investigations. We have scientific instrumentation recording unexplained phenomenon on Skinwalker Ranch and in the forests of the Northwest in search of Bigfoot.

Today we are exploiting all the tools and measurement devices at our disposal to find explanations for the paranormal. But again, what I like about the paranormal, is so far, it cannot be definitively proven or disproven and leaves a lot of room for belief, skepticism, and disbelief. And the best part is we get to pick which one we are or be all of them.

So where does that leave us? We have experiences that feel real, evidence that something happened, and explanations that don’t fully agree. And maybe the goal isn’t to force an answer but to stay open. And at the same time, staying grounded matters. If you’ve had experiences that feel overwhelming or difficult to understand, those deserve support, not just interpretation.

Curiosity is powerful but so is taking care of your mind. Whatever you have experienced hold onto the curiosity. Just leave space for more than one explanation. And if you need to, find a trusted other or a professional that is open to the paranormal to talk to about your experiences and help you make sense of what happened.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you find this topic engaging and interesting. If you do, then I would appreciate it if you gave this episode a like and please consider subscribing. I will be back next week with another client suggested topic. Stay woo woo folks!