Years ago, as a graduate student studying earthquakes, I developed an interesting hypothesis that connected earthquakes with perceived ghostly experiences. I started to turn that idea into an unofficial research project that I hoped would give me the opportunity to do two things:
- I wanted to see if there really was a connection between earthquakes and ghostly encounters people were having.
- I wanted to use the paranormal as an opportunity to introduce people to real science, and I wanted to better clarify the limits of what we could understand with real science. I wanted to be a bridge between science and the paranormal.
I didn’t know how to get funding for the project, so I started it as a labor of love. It actually started to take off and I was even meeting and working with ghost hunters, when a couple of things happened. First, the site that had taken me so long to build got hacked. I fixed it, and then it got hacked again. Second, I got a job with “real” scientists. I was terrified of the impact on my career if “real” scientists found out I was doing anything related to the paranormal (even if my work would have established a new, “rational” explanation for paranormal events, and it would have been an amazing science-communication opportunity). And so, when I had the opportunity to take a job working with some of the most elite scientists in the world, I quit my ScienceGhost project. I quit out of fear that I wouldn’t be accepted.
I’d kept the URL though. There was clearly a part of me that always hoped I would come back to this. It’s who I am. I love the mysteries of the world. I want to be that bridge between what we understand fairly well and what still falls into the category of the unknown. I want to help non-scientists understand how science works, and I want to help scientists recognize the limitations of their work.
Long Covid was the wake-up call I needed. Recovering from that illness and all of my other chronic conditions took place outside the realm of current scientific and medical dogma. I want to use this site to provide information for others who are desperate to be healthy, and who haven’t found sufficient help from either western or alternative medical models. I am now in awe of how the human body works, in awe of how my human body works. There’s so much we don’t understand, and I increasingly suspect many of our basic assumptions about health and biology may not be right. And so I also want to use this site to question everything we think we know about health and well being.
I feel like I’ve been hiding under a sheet for decades, but instead of spooking others, it’s me who’s been too spooked to share what I think and feel. It’s time to let go of fear and face the spook that’s been haunting me.