Much of the focus in our first two posts has been on our goals and how we aim to accomplish them. I thought it might be beneficial to take a step back and share why I decided to form this organization and take on this mission from a personal perspective.

I consider myself a scientifically minded and skeptical person. However, I also believe in the existence of paranormal activity that current science cannot yet explain. The lack of attention this subject receives from the scientific community frustrates me deeply. So, why do I believe?

I grew up in a “haunted” house. It was an old, poorly maintained home where I, along with family and visitors, experienced countless unexplained phenomena. Looking back, I see this as a missed opportunity to investigate the paranormal. At the time, I didn’t realize how rare it is to encounter so much activity in one location.

It wasn’t until high school that I began actively trying to debunk or “prove” the phenomena we experienced. One recurring event involved kitchen cabinets mysteriously opening and items, even heavy ones, falling to the floor. To investigate, I tested the cabinet doors for balance and found they would not swing open on their own. I also checked for evidence of animals, like mice, that might have pushed items out, but found none.

Determined to find an explanation, I installed strong magnetic latches on the cabinets. These magnets held the doors shut with significant force; the door would flex under pressure before the magnet released. For a couple of weeks, the cabinets stayed shut.

Late one night, I heard a loud bang in the kitchen. When I got there, the cabinet doors were wide open, and the floor was covered with cans and other items. Upon inspecting the latch, I discovered the magnet stack from the latch was lying six feet away. The housing for the magnets was still attached inside the cabinet, and the metal plate that connected the door to the latch was still in place on the cabinet door.

The pin or screw that held the magnet stack in its housing was missing. Even if the pin had worked its way loose or broken, the magnets should have remained in place. Furthermore, if significant force had been applied, the magnets should have stuck to the metal plate on the cabinet door. To this day, I can’t explain how or why this happened.

This was just one of many strange events in that house, but one incident stands out above the rest—it still motivates me to seek answers.

When I was 14, I often stayed up late playing video games or watching TV in the front of the house. On several occasions, when I went to bed, I noticed a broken piece of furniture—a bedside table drawer—sitting in front of my mother’s bedroom door. The drawer had come apart, leaving two wooden pieces in an “L” shape. We had kept it, planning to repair it.

Over the course of a few weeks, I repeatedly moved this piece of wood out of the way, worried my mother might trip over it in the dark. At the time, I assumed our cats were responsible for moving it, possibly using it as a scratching post.

One morning, my mother mentioned the drawer was back in front of her door. I told her I had moved it the night before, and she said she had moved it several times as well. Suddenly, I had the realization that this wasn’t ordinary.

While sitting at my computer near the doorway, I could see her move the drawer pieces to their usual spot out of the way. My mother went into the kitchen and jokingly said, “Keep an eye on it—make sure it doesn’t move!”

As I worked on the computer, I saw the “L”-shaped wood pieces lift into the air, about three feet off the ground. They flipped over mid-air, and I turned just in time to see them slam onto the floor right in front of my mother’s bedroom door.

This was the first time I’d seen an object move on its own. It was both terrifying and exhilarating.

The thud was so loud it shook the house. My mother heard it from the kitchen and ran into the hallway, asking if she had just heard the drawer move. From where she stood, she could see the drawer lying in the hallway.

The only possible explanation I could come up with was that I had somehow moved the pieces myself during a break from reality. But that theory didn’t make sense—I would have made noise crossing the hall, and my mother would have heard me. Plus, there wasn’t enough time for me to move the drawer, return to my desk, and hallucinate the entire event before my mother arrived.

After catching my breath, I reluctantly inspected the wood pieces. When I picked them up they fell apart into two separate pieces, possibly from the force of the impact. This added to the eerie nature of the event. My mother and I decided to throw the pieces away, and she went without a bedside drawer until she replaced the table entirely.

To this day, I have no logical explanation for what happened. This experience—and others like it—solidified my belief that some phenomena simply cannot be explained by current science.

I know this post is long, but I hope it provides insight into why I am both a skeptic and a believer. My experiences drive me to explore these mysteries and advocate for the scientific study of the paranormal.