Problems in Paranormal Research comments

The article is about skeptics not accepting research materials or approaches of people investigating paranormal things. They question the use of various devices by paranormal investigators including EMP detectors. I would add to that EVP, electronic voice phenomena.

The EVPs detected are often very hard to make out and takes a lot of work to come out with just a few words. This opens it up to some fairly good objections.

Another thing I'll add is that in science repeatability is an absolute requirement. If two substances are added to produce result x, then if you do that a hundred times x must appear as the result a hundred times.

Paranormal matters are not repeatable with any degree of reliability. If a Bigfoot is seen in an area, for example, and it does certain things then that does not mean that more people going into the same area will all see the Bigfoot doing the same things.

The paranormal often involves living beings of some kind and, in some cases, beings that are not living. Living things don't generally do exactly the same thing exactly the same way over and over which then makes it hard to say such-and-such actually exists. Getting proof of something in a scientific investigation is relatively easy but getting a scientific level of proof in a paranormal matter is almost impossible.

There's also a self-fulfilling prophecy involved. If paranormal phenomena are not considered 'real' by scientific then they won't study them and will assume that the phenomena is not real.

Another factor is definitions. Exact definitions are hard if not impossible to come by in the paranormal. This sets it apart from science where exact definitions are required.

Another factor: science can be expensive but the expenses involved can be covered by grants, etc. The equipment can be very expensive, also.

Paranormal researchers are not funded to any degree similar to hard science. Thus, buying very high quality instruments or designing and building new pieces of equipment may be quite impossible.

The site noted in the article to link to doesn't seem to exist any longer.