"You're crazy for believing that!"

While recently at my old game of checking out message boards and sites about ghosts and hauntings, one of the bigger boards in the states had something going on that really got my goat... as usual.

Now, some of you might read this and say "Hey! Blatant self interest! You admit this is a field of interest to you and that fiancée of your's is into this stuff, isn't she???"

Well, yes... but let me explain all...

As occasionally happens, someone posted to a large "ghost" message board a report of sighting a UFO. The post was labeled "off topic" and was a generic "I saw a weird disk in the sky moving erratically" kind of thing... nothing terribly special... but the responses were less than intelligent, in my humble opinion.

Like clockwork, the "ghost purists" jumped up and, for lack of a better term, mocked and basically ridiculed the report. They made comments like "Oh yeah? Did E.T. phone home using your cell phone?" and "UFO reports don't belong here. We're dealing with *real* paranormal phenomena."

This kind of attitude boggles me, personally.

You see, on this message board and these posters to it, the idea that a small, round, somewhat transparent dot on a photo is a "genuine ghost" is completely acceptable... The thought that they ran into a spectral being (not necessarily 'human') that ordered them to leave via "psychic impression" is absolutely reasonable... The concept of a smokey mist photographed in a cemetery in winter cold is definite proof of an apparition is not a reach... But the concept of someone glancing into the sky and seeing something flying about that the person couldn't quite place as a "normal" thing? Well, that's just crazy!

Yup, the traditional "We're not loopy, you're the one who's loopy for YOUR beliefs!" at play.

From a psychological standpoint, one might hypothesize this is based on "transference" or, in layman's terms, the "ghost purist" who are tired of being told that ghosts may not exist, pick up the mantel and start whining that another type of unknown phenomena cannot exist. It allows them to feel the "superior intellectual" role of resident sceptic to a "weird" belief... despite their own beliefs in the paranormal.

Now, in fairness, there were three "loud" anti-UFO ghost-folks on this board (who do match the items I listed above about orbs, mists, and psychic warnings,) and about five other responders who answered with a more tempered reply.

Since the poster of the sighting had indeed said that the subject of their message was "off topic", they really hadn't broken any rules. They didn't claim anything above and beyond the idea they saw a strange "thing" moving erratically over head... and they had posted, many times before this, on the topic of ghosts, there was no real issue with most... again, just the three "ghost purists" ballyhooed the item. You see, to them, belief in UFOs apparently equals "insanity" and belief in ghosts, well, that's just normal and sane.

Here's a table to think about below...