Always curious

As the adoring daughter of a mechanic, I grew up with an appreciation for rational explanations for things, basically always believing that, with enough tough research and willingness to dig, I could find easy explanations for anything that seemed strange at first.  Occam's Razor - the theory that "all things being equal, the simplest explanation is more likely than a complex one" is like poetry to me... absolute truth, and put so simply and beautifully.

At the same time, I have ALWAYS been in love with the fact that there are still undiscovered things on this planet (despite the overwhelming assumption that the human race has explored every exposed surface of the Earth - the collective human ego is ENORMOUS).
Despite the amazing advances in technology and exploration, we still don't know it all.  According to a 2011 New York Times article, scientists discover and catalog more than an estimated 15,000 new species every year.  According to NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) we have only explored 5% of the oceans, which account for over 71% of the Earth's surface.  Add to that, it is estimated that there are even still 100 uncontacted human tribes on Earth, mostly in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Peru.  There are vast areas that can only be reached on foot (and have not yet), and some of the mountainous areas of New Guinea and jungles of Africa and the Amazon have yet to be explored by civilization.  There are vast quantities of information about our own visible, tangible planet that we, as a human race, do not know or understand.  (Although you often hear less-educated people claim we, as a race, have explored everything except the deep ocean.)

That being said, how much research do you think has been aimed at trying to understand those things that cannot be easily seen or measured or understood?  Not much, until relatively recently.

My personality has always kept me open to other points of view... I've never felt that I know it all... there are always more things to learn.
I feel that the more educated you are, the more you are aware that you don't know anything.
SO, from an early age, I was open to the idea that there are "things" I can't see, but are truly there.  After all, energy is neither created nor destroyed - so where does human energy go when it does not have a body anymore?  It has to go somewhere...

All this curiosity and openness to learn more came to a screaming pitch, when in a span of 11 months in 2010 to 2011, I lost both my in-laws (who lived with us), and my own father, my stable rock, the rational mechanic/gardener who taught me so much and made me who I am today.  The loss of my own Dad at only 62 years old was sudden and unexpected and heartbreaking.  I had to learn more.  I had to know more.  And so here I am today.   


I know our loved ones are not far... but I would like to know more, and understand as much as I can from the living side of the equation.


(To be honest, my dad would shrug his shoulders and give it one of his mild-mannered characteristic chuckles if he were here alive today as I got into this field, but he would support me regardless.)


The existence of ghosts has yet to be proved or disproved (enough for EVERYONE) beyond the shadow of a doubt... I just know that there is more out there than what we can perceive with our basic senses.

A note to all those strict non-believers out there.... I am a skeptic. A skeptic is not a non-believer... it is simply a person who looks first for rational explanations.  Not every claim of paranormal activity is truly paranormal, and in all truth, most are not.  Most have other rational and natural explanations.
I am doing this because I want to find evidence if I can, and if I can't, I at least want to experience more.

To refer to one of my all-time favorite movies, Contact, based on a book by the same name by Carl Sagan, an AMAZING man:
When the theologian is talking to the scientist about the existence of a God or a greater power, the scientist argues that it's impossible for her to believe in something that cannot be proved.  The theologian asks "Did you love your Dad", and immediately she seems offended that he could even ask (because he died long ago, and she completely loves him), and she responds "yes." He responds "Prove it," which she, of course, cannot.

Some things may be true, but we may not be able to prove them.  We take love on faith....