I think there can be plenty of explanations for paranormal-type incidences. For example, way back when I was a member of AS, there were several events that occurred in my residence, including one night when I was gramming with someone on the site--it was around 2 a.m. in the morning and my clothesdryer (which was not running at the time), launched itself from its place, hit the wall across the hall from it and landed on its side at an odd angle, wedged in between the two walls of the hallway.

If that's not odd enough, leading up to that night there had been so many incidences that I actually sat and continued my thought in the gram and sent it off before getting up to move the thing back into position.

I moved a few months later, a state away and the incidences followed me. I don't know why that surprised me--things had moved at school and work--trashcans, coffee cups, dry board erasers, whatever (other people witnessed several of these incidences, so I know it wasn't all in my head!). But when it followed me across state lines, I don't know, it hit me the wrong way, I guess you might say. I'd had it up to here with whatever the heck it was.

I called in someone with about 30-odd years in paranormal investigation (technically she was retired, but she came in for me as a favor). She spent a couple of hours in my place and then made a diagnosis--it wasn't a "ghost," it was me. Don't laugh, she called it a "leaky aura."

She recommended some exercises written about by W. E. Butler, Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie. Lo and behold, things stopped moving around. When I get extremely upset or run down, or I don't keep up with my meditation exercises, things may start moving again. There have been days that my coworker won't let me in the room because every time I walk in the door, the computer goes down (he's a computer programmer, so he gets kind of testy about these things). Thankfully, though, those days are getting rare. I've actually been able to wear a watch for a year now (never before possible).

After going through this for as many years as I have, I've learned to keep an open mind with others' stories and problems. I'd love to join or create a paranormal research group locally, but I'm not quite yet to the point that I'd trust myself around expensive equipment.