Was It Paranormal?

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Was It Paranormal?
November 5, 2011
By Steven Symes
Paranormal Old Pueblo

Editor’s Note: Paranormal Old Pueblo welcomes Steven Symes to our growing list of contributors. Many readers will recognize Steven as the former Salt Lake City Paranormal Examiner from Examiner.com. Steven’s first contribution also serves an an introduction to Steven’s philosophies and experiences associated with the paranormal. We look forward to reading more of Steven’s work.

I was about 14 years-old and was active in my Boy Scout troop. We went to a remote area of New Mexico, near Tierra Mala–or “Bad Land” as it translates from Spanish–at the edge of a large wilderness preserve. The purpose of our trip was to construct some dams that would slow erosion at a ditch on the edge of the preserve.

To get to the edge of the preserve, we had to get off the Interstate and drive down a small, two-lane highway quite a ways, and then go on a dirt road for several miles. Needless to say, we were not camping anywhere near anyone else, and there were no fire pits, bathrooms or other forms of civilization. I actually enjoy this kind of camping, being out in the middle of the wilderness without other people nearby. The area where we were camping used to be the location of several now-defunct homesteads.

After dinner, when the sun had set, three of us went down the road to investigate what looked like the ruins of an old house and barn. We walked the quarter mile or so down the dirt road, out of the stand of trees where our camp was obscured and to the ruins. After we poked around in the ruins for some time all three of us noticed a bright light appear across the clearing from us. The light was probably at least a good three hundred yards from us, but it was fairly bright.

My first reaction was that it was a car’s headlight, but it was a singular light so I reasoned it was a motorcycle’s headlight. The light was shining straight toward where we were, and we stood mesmerized by it when a second, singular light appeared from behind the first light. The second light moved quickly toward us, closing the gap at a scary pace.

One of the two other boys who were with me wanted to hide and see who showed up, but we convinced him at almost the last minute that his idea was a bad one. As we ran down the dirt road I turned around just in time to see the second light arrive where we had been not twenty seconds previously. I also could not hear any engine noises, but that may have been because I was panicking or running too hard to hear much of anything.

For whatever reason the second light did not follow us, but we could still see the first light through the trees as we ran down the road, right up until we reached our camp. At first our leaders thought we were making up a story, but when they realized we were being serious they grabbed their guns and went to investigate. Of course the lights had disappeared, leaving no trace behind.

What haunted me about the lights was a realization we had the next day as we were driving home. We passed the area where the one light had advanced on us and noted that the ground was extremely hilly, yet the light did not bob up and down as it approached us. To this day I have no good explanation for how this could have been, and I do not know if I ever will. I have thought about the possibilities, which include spirit activity (the area figures greatly into local folklore), ghost lights, UFOs, local law enforcement or some guys who were out for a good time that night.

What always gets me, no matter how much I study the paranormal is how some people so quickly conclude that any strange event must be paranormal. These people do not stop to think of any possible alternative explanations for an event, instead embracing fully that the event was the product of the supernatural. Even more interesting to me is that many of these people somehow know exactly what paranormal phenomena created the event. If these people see a strange light in the sky, they automatically jump up and down and declare that they saw a UFO. If these people are hiking in the woods and see a dark form moving through the trees, they proudly declare that they saw Bigfoot.

These people never stop and ask the critical question that I always ponder when I run into something unexpected or strange: was it really paranormal?

I find that the longer I work with the paranormal, especially collecting experiences from the general public, that I am becoming more and more skeptical. Sadly, my skepticism pays off as the amount of people with genuine mental problems and those who engage in hoaxes for five minutes of fame are plentiful. To not have a certain level of skepticism would be to waste my time chasing down completely worthless leads to stories.

One thing I do struggle with, though, is the school of thought that everything paranormal can be measured through scientific methods. I know people use scientific methods to validate paranormal events, and I am not criticizing that by any means. However, I also realize that our scientific knowledge is limited, and so to leave the recording or validation of paranormal events only to science can lead to errors. This, of course, opens up a huge debate about what alternative forms of measurement people should use, which gets controversial and can turn heated.

I admit I do not think I have all of the answers on what methods of measurement work, which ones do not and what is the best way to establish the validity of all paranormal events.

Part of me likes the wonder and the uncertainty of that event so many years ago in the middle of New Mexico. There is something disquieting but at the same time reassuring that I cannot fully explain what happened, reminding me there is so much more to this universe than I am probably even ready to understand.

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