“Give us a Sign of Your Presence”: Paranormal Investigation as a Spiritual Practice

Finding God in Grain: Crop Circles, Rationality, and the Construction of Spiritual Experience

“…My findings suggest that crop circle belief construction relies upon a unique combination of rationality, culture, and experience. Like other supernatural belief systems, croppies build a belief system through “spiritual bricolage” (Bruce ; Eaton :408; Heelas and Woodhead ). Belief involves a mixture of scientific (or pseudo‐scientific) methods and “free‐floating interpretive resources” of many sorts (Eaton :407).…”

“…Like other supernatural belief systems, croppies build a belief system through “spiritual bricolage” (Bruce ; Eaton :408; Heelas and Woodhead ). Belief involves a mixture of scientific (or pseudo‐scientific) methods and “free‐floating interpretive resources” of many sorts (Eaton :407). This bricolage and mixture of belief rely upon the existence of several forms of rationality.…”

“…On one hand, in seeking, finding, and creating spiritualities, croppies and other New Age believers “are empowered to define their own unique belief systems and relationships to what they believe to be sacred” (Eaton :390). However, these definitions of belief systems are not only based on individual experience (epistemological rationality) or perceptions (subjective rationality).…”

“…These paranormal and supernatural searchers “[D]ream of the day that the scientific community is forced by the weight of evidence to announce to the world that Bigfoot [or any paranormal/supernatural phenomena] is real” (Bader et al :128). In this way, some believers fuse science and spirituality (Baker and Baker :582), relying “upon the cultural legitimacy of science and technology as a means of reinforcing the meaningfulness of what was essentially a spiritual quest” (Eaton :403). For many believers, it appears to be only a matter of time until science can be applied to explain these events and when that day comes, believers will be vindicated.…”

Feeling spirits: sharing subjective paranormal experience through embodied talk and action

“…Paranormal investigation groups have become increasingly popular in the last 10-15 years, influenced largely by the rise in paranormal TV shows (Hill 2010;Eaton 2015). The purpose of these groups is to visit reputedly haunted locations and, through spiritual or scientific means, document and experience paranormal events (Eaton 2015). In doing so, they regularly record their activities on video as a means of documentation, and thus provide a rich set of visual data of experiences taking place.…”