“I do believe in spooks. I do believe in spooks. I do! I do! I do!”

Actually, I don’t believe in “spooks,” ESP, alien abductions, or much of the other paranormal rot that crops up so often this time of year, but apparently 24% of 1,013 polled adults do. While I take issue with surveys asking a relatively insignificant amount of people their opinion and then projecting those numbers on the whole of the population, I have run into many people who have some, erm, interesting ideas about rather ordinary phenomena. I’ve been told that cats can detect human souls, that saber-tooth cats were aquatic predators and bit their prey sideways, that there are living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea (the “Ropen”), and that an abandoned mine shaft was filled with “spirit orbs,” among other

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