[NightSeeker]

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong section for this post.


Has anyone noticed an increase in paranormal activity in the year or so? I ask because I hear more people around me talking about relatively recent (within the last two years) experiences that they've had. What are your opinions on what might be causing this increase? Is it because people are more open to at least the possibility of the paranormal? Is it because there's lees of a stigma attached to talking about it? Is it because of some sort of shift/increase in energy?  Is it because it's 2012? What do you think?

Suggestions:

1. A (continuing) greater interest and awareness.
2. The media feeds on - and creates more - interest in ghosts, ghost hunting, mysticism, angels, witchcraft, vampires, etc. Its all about the Almighty $
3. In the post-modern, post-Christian age, people are increasingly hungry for some sense of "spiritual" experience. 
4. The plethora of "ghost hunter" TV shows leads more people to actively seek out paranormal or supernatural experiences - and when you're actively seeking, you're more likely to "experience" one.

Cognitively speaking, there may be other reasons. Since the early 1990s psychologists have carried out a huge amount of research into the cognitive processes underlying belief in the supernatural. One thing that they discovered was that those who believed tended to have a weaker understanding of syllogistic reasoning (basically, evaluating whether a conclusion necessarily follows from two premises). Their concept of randomness is also distorted, leading them to see "meaning" where there is none, and they are more suggestible. There is also growing evidence that "believers" tend to be more prone to false memories.

That might be translated by some as a long-winded way of saying more and more gullible people have access to the internet year after year. But I specifically did not say that.