Brian Laythe, paranormal investigator with Indiana Paranormal Group, spoke at IU Southeast about his research with paranormal phenomena to help students better understand the science behind ghost sightings.
“My goal is to provide scientific research,” Laythe said. “I want it to be a science again.”
Laythe said he has been studying the paranormal for about three years and described himself as a skeptical believer. While he realizes there are downfalls to researching the paranormal, he said he understands peoples’ skepticism in believing certain evidence.
Laythe said it is not his goal to disprove people’s skepticism. He said his job is to capture anomalous phenomena using recorders, and it is the viewer’s job to interpret what evidence he finds.
Meghan Kahn, assistant professor of psychology, said she was interested to see evidence of the paranormal and to see how Laythe put the scientific method to use in evaluating the phenomena.
“I would categorize myself as a skeptic, but I find it interesting what we might be missing,” Kahn said.
She said she believes there are forces on earth humans are not able to sense.
“We detect so much less in our environment, even less than other animals,” Laythe said.
Laythe said ghost hunting has existed for about 20 years.
Laythe said most ghost hunter’s findings are “subjective haunting events.”
He defined these as feelings of being “spooked out.”
He said these are not reliable sources because they cannot be tested.
Laythe spoke about subjective haunting events causing people to hallucinate.
“The human mind is capable of remembering all kinds of stuff that in fact did not happen,” Laythe said.
However, Laythe also explained not every ghost sighting can be written off as a hallucination.
“There are things that happen that there is no way on God’s green Earth that could have been from some kind of hallucination,” Laythe said.
Laythe said the problem ghost hunters continue to have is, during the paranormal events, no one captures the phenomena.
Brittany Sizemore, psychology senior and secretary of the Psychology Club, said she is usually skeptical when hearing about a ghostly encounter.
“Paranormal activity is not just about ghost hunting,” Sizemore said.
She said she especially appreciated how he incorporated the scientific methods into his work.
“It enables you to look at this from a scientific point of view,” Sizemore said. “Without data, you’re not credible.”
Laythe explained his research methods in evaluating paranormal phenomena in detail, as well as the phenomena he has encountered before. Laythe also mentioned doors moving and “childlike” voices.
By BRITTANY POWELL
Staff
bripowel@ius.edu