Analyzing Linguistic Characteristics in Requests for  Paranormal Investigations

Mark Boccuzzi

Mark Boccuzzi Windbridge Research Center

Abstract

I conducted my first paranormal investigation in 1999 and shortly after that set up websites to collect requests for investigations. Since then, I have received and catalogued hundreds of these requests. In reviewing them, I noticed striking changes in their content and tone. Early emails expressed a more inquisitive attitude toward understanding the unusual events that the experiencers were reporting. Sure, there were a good number of requests that included reports from fearful experiencers who simply wanted their unexplained events to end, but it was my impression that around 2007 the descriptions of paranormal activity changed from frightening to downright malicious. I decided to explore this idea using text analysis techniques on my catalogue of case requests.

Author Biography

Mark Boccuzzi, Windbridge Research Center

Mark Boccuzzi is Executive Director of the Windbridge Research Center and managing editor of Threshold: Journal of Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies. Mark has spent more than a decade investigating spontaneous cases of apparitions and related haunting phenomena. Mark’s research interests include intuition, animal psi, applied psychokinesis, photographic anomalies, distant mental interactions on living systems, and instrumental transcommunication (ITC). He is the author of Visualizing Intention: Art Informed by Science.