Something Sean said…
Recently I was chatting to Sean Cadman, one of the organisers of Paraforce UK regarding a recent investigation that he been on and he offered up an interesting point. Interesting enough to make it here to the Psi Theory Blog.
Basically Sean was taking part in John Blackburns Event at the Old Victorian School in Long Eaton and something rather strange occurred to him. He found himself in a corridor alone at one point and as he walked along it in the dim light, he felt as if he had bumped into someone. You know the kind of situation, the one where you accidentally catch their arm and/or shoulder as you pass them, so much so that it catches you and throws you off course a little. Like most of us in this situation Sean instinctively apologised, how very British of him right. The problem was that he didn’t receive an apology in return, in fact there was total silence and well no one there either. Sean checked the area and from where he was walking there wasn’t anything that could have had this effect on him. So he left the area slightly puzzled with an experience under his belt.
This seemingly paranormal encounter appeared to leave Sean thinking deeply though and rather than attributing this to a physical manifestation of a ghost from the location, he theorised quite a different idea.
Sean wondered about all this talk of multiverses and wondered if in some other reality he may have walked the opposite direction down the corridor, but because this reality was close to ours there was a cross over so to speak. Hence as he walked the corridor he may have bumped into himself from another reality. Now that’s thinking out of the box and my kind of thinking too.
Obviously playing on Sean’s mind a little, he decided to post this thought on social media and it sparked a little discussion on the topic. Something else I am a fan of too, friendly discussion on out of the box ideas around the Paranormal.
Not such a crazy idea…
The interesting thing here is that I don’t discount Sean’s thought process on this and as a matter of fact it is one possibility, if the multiverse Theory is correct, that could potentially explain ghosts in my opinion.
Now I am not going to claim to have a working knowledge of quantum mechanics or the multiverse theory here, so please feel free to comment if I get something wrong or miss something fundamental here. Small scientific disclaimer to say the least there.
Here’s where I like Sean’s thinking on this, the concept of multiverses is something that serious mainstream science is looking into, its a modern day version of the world being round argument. That being said we may be a long way off proving the existence of multiverses just yet, whereas the Earth being round was kind of obvious when you start to look. Yes, I know back in the day there was less tech so probably not that obvious or easy to prove. However the fact of the matter is that we managed to prove it in the end and that was built on a theory, an idea that someone had.
So, lets assume that multiverse theory is accepted to a degree and let’s equally assume that each new reality is created from a point of decision or change. A point whereas there was a possible number of outcomes and for each of those outcomes a new reality formed. As I write this blog I am listening to a track by the Cranberries from their recently released album, a decision made based on the loss of their lead singer not long ago. A talent that will be greatly missed. However in another reality I would be listening to a different track and in yet another reality I wouldn’t be listening to music at all. You get the idea right?
In Sean’s case he was walking one way down the corridor, but in a similar reality he was walking the opposite direction. This is what spiked my interest in this theory. You see in these two realities we can assume that Sean was pretty much doing exactly the same thing; he was at the Old Victorian School, he was there on the same relative date and time, he was investigating the paranormal, he was probably there with the same people too, he was even walking the same corridor for the same reason. There was only one difference, the direction of travel down that corridor. Now the reason for the difference in direction could be for a multitude of reasons. It could be the orientation of the other reality is the opposite to our own, hence what seemed like the opposite direction was kind of the same direction. Perhaps the decision that lead to the split between these realities was Seans choice to walk the corridor a certain way. Regardless it lead to there being more similarities between the two realities than differences, which could possibly bring the two closer together almost overlapping each other. Hence the reason Sean bumped into himself was that he was the only thing not behaving the same as the other reality. Now that’s some paranormal thinking right there, but something based on scientific theory! I’m not saying that this is indeed the case and Sean bumped in to himself from an alternate reality, there could be a logical explanation for this too, but I am glad there are more people thinking beyond that standard form. Let’s face it Sean could have said he bumped into a ghost in the corridor, but equally this would have not really told us much other than a common understanding of a ghost is a recording of someone that has passed away.
Touching on the logical…
Earlier I mentioned the possibility of a logical explanation and well I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t touch on it briefly here. There is also a distinct possibility that this entire experience could be a complete misconception of something rather simple. Its important to mention that I am not discounting Sean’s experience here, but simply offering up an alternative possibility and one that could often be overlooked.
This explanation could be one of a physiological involuntary response or as I like to call them, an oddly timed muscle spasm. So, basically as Sean walks down the corridor he is focused on investigating the Paranormal, which effectively means he is looking for ghosts already. This mindset already in play can influence his comprehension of his environment and the events which occur within it. As he makes his way along the corridor he has a muscle spasm, which feels very much like he bumped into someone. Given that he is seeking ghosts he concludes he bumped into one, probably not even giving a muscle spasm a second thought. This isn’t saying that Sean is discounting the logical though, remember he took the time to look for an explanation, but couldn’t find one. However not every explanation that’s logical is obvious either, often these are clouded by are own perception.
However what’s important to mention at this point is that although I offered up a muscle spasm as a logical explanation, its still only a theory of what may have occurred. At the end of the day we really only have the anecdotal experience of Sean on this one and he’s memories of the event that occurred. The human mind isn’t always the best for giving accurate reports of the events that have occurred and in situations like this we are often left with a theory of the events explanation.
What do you think?
Given this is an actual situation that occurred to Sean recently I thought it might be great to open this up to everyone else out there. If you were at the Old Victorian School with Sean and John Blackburn, what were your thoughts when you first heard about this experience? Have you experienced anything similar to this during any of the investigations you’ve attended? Do you have a theory of what you think ghosts are? Let’s start a discussion..
Ashley Knibb 