FT274


In the future, 2010 may be seen as a year when parapsychology posed some major challenges for mainstream science. And perhaps even more interestingly, the reactions of critics to these challenges may give – albeit unintentionally – a remarkable encouragement to fortean thinking of all kinds.

In spring 2010, Dr Barry Colvin published an acoustic analysis of poltergeist raps recorded around the world, over a 40-year period.[1] While poltergeist raps and normally produced raps sound similar, instrumental analysis reveals a different sound pattern with each of the alleged poltergeist raps. If this effect stands up (attempts at replication are being encouraged), it constitutes the first instrumental – as opposed to anecdotal – evidence for a spontaneous paranormal effect.