Introductions Are In Order

Welcome to the Paranormal Inquiry blog! As the name implies, my contributors and I hope to share entertaining paranormal stories, videos and pics, as well as give our take on said items. As a first post, I wanted to introduce myself as well as tell you why I became interested in the paranormal. I call myself Betty Lou, and I currently am a Biology PhD graduate student at Boston College. As of now, my goals in life include finishing school and eventually opening my own lab focused on RNA-protein binding, RNA mutagenesis, and early RNA evolution (including the beginnings of life). Where did I come from? My hometown is in southern Minnesota where I attended Roman Catholic pre-school through high school; however, I would not call myself religious in any fashion at this point in my life. I went to UW-Green Bay for college where I played DI vball for four years, then I got a real job in a genetics lab for two years. February 2010 I decided to attend Boston College for my PhD studies and moved here in July.

The paranormal has always held a certain fascination with me. I grew up watching “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” and reading Goosebumps books. At sleepovers, my friends and I would always watch scary movies like Scream. When I hit my teens I began hearing the supposedly real haunting stories, as well as UFO and cryptozoological stories, thanks to the internet. Although I always find paranormal stories entertaining, I firmly believe 99% of them have a natural explanation (and sometimes that explanation is that the story was made up). I have never in my life had a paranormal experience, and I look forward to the day that I do. The things that really interest me are the scientific explanations for paranormal happenings. For instance,

How exactly to EVP’s occur? Why do they only show up when the recording is played back?

Are near death experiences real? Can it be measured effectively?

What type of brain functioning makes some people identify themselves as vampires, mediums, psychics, werewolves, witches, and so on? How do their brain chemistries differ from a “normal” persons?

How legit or not legit is Paranormal TV? My gut tells me not very, but as Carl Sagan always said, “I try not to think with my gut. If I’m serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble”. Therefore, I hope to examine the evidence of all these questions and more in future posts. I hope to find some cool science mixed in with the paranormal, but I will also post anything just downright entertaining as well. Le chaim!