ARIGs and gatekeepers

"Scientifical Americans" is a book by Sharon A Hill, an American geologist and skeptical blogger. It was published in 2017. Unfortunately, the book is badly written and extremely tedious. It looks like an extended draft. I had expected it to contain more field notes and entertaining anecdotes from the author´s forays into paranormal research, but instead it´s a frankly boring work concentrating on "the method" or "the process" of science. Perhaps Hill really didn´t have fun when joining ghost-hunters on nocturnal expeditions to Civil War battlefields?

Hill have attempted to study what she calls ARIGs or Amateur Research and Investigation Groups. At least in its current incarnation, this is a relatively new subculture that seems to have gotten off the ground around the year 2000. Two typical representatives are the ghost-finding group TAPS and the Bigfoot "hunters" of the BFRO. Both were made popular by TV shows, "Ghost Hunters" and "Finding Bigfoot" respectively. I never seen "Ghost Hunters" (I think), but I did find "Finding Bigfoot" at least mildly entertaining. The ARIG concept is fairly simple: amateurs equipped with various technological gadgets roam supposed "paranormal hot spots", often at night, hoping to gather evidence for whatever paranormal activity they happen to be interested in. Bonding, search for higher meaning, and a subcultural identity are just as important to ARIG participants as the thrill of experiencing the paranormal. It´s a hobby, but often an important one to the people involved. Many join ARIGs after having had paranormal encounters by themselves. Together with other like-minded individuals, they want to find answers, or at least belong to a social group that doesn´t ostracize them. Hill concentrates on ARIGs which deal with ghosts or cryptids (hidden monstrous animals), but there are also ufology groups that fit the description (these are discussed more in passing). Of course, grifters and hoaxers can also join or form ARIGs for reasons all their own.

Since ARIGs claim to gather evidence of the paranormal, their relationship with science (which mostly rejects such claims out of hand) is bound to be rocky. While a few ARIGs are explicitly religious, most are "secular". Many claim to be scientific, while many others are eclectic, accepting Ouija boards, dowsing rods or mediums as valid ways to contact ghosts or spirits, alongside more scientific methods. As a skeptic, Hill naturally believes that the "scientific" pretensions of the ARIGs is mostly bunk. Cases aren´t properly documented, mundane explanations are rejected out of hand, the scientific-sounding terminology of the researchers frequently make no sense (how does "quantum entanglement" explain ghosts?), folklore is accepted as fact, and so on. Expensive techno-equipment is an important part of the sciency image of these groups. Actual scientists are accused of  being closed minded, but when ARIG claims are subject to rigorous testing, they always fall short. The most extensive DNA study of supposed Bigfoot samples, for instance, failed to find anything else than DNA from known animal species. Curiously, ARIGs have very limited contact with parapsychologists, who try to develop scientific methods to study certain unusual phenomena. 

Maybe I´m naive, but I was surprised by the close connection between real life ARIGs and various scripted American TV shows. Many ghost-hunting groups in the United States are associated with TAPS from "Ghost Hunters", or consciously mimic their antics, even including their T-shirts! It´s as if people don´t understand that the shows really are scripted. People are in effect LARP-ing as LARP-ers. Or so Hill believes. When hard evidence for the paranormal proves elusive, ARIGs can embrace conspiracy theories or move even deeper into the paranormal. Cryptozoologists who fail to find Bigfoot might conclude that he isn´t a real flesh-and-blood animal after all, but a space alien or interdimensional being, perhaps even a deity of some sort. That would explain how Bigfoot can avoid (scientific) detection. The author believes that this "supernatural creep" have become more and more common in the ARIG milieu.

"Scientifical Americans" is unabashedly elitist. Or at least comes across that way. It´s not always clear whether Hill *wants* scientists to be "gatekeepers" (her word) that attack all paranormal claims as a threat to their institutional authority (and perhaps to society), or whether she simply describes what´s actually going on, but in such a dispassionate way that she sounds supportive of the practice! For instance, Hill points out at several points that scientists who become interested in paranormal topics are often ostracized by the scientific community, even when they use strict scientific protocol when approaching their chosen subject-matter. But surely that is a bad thing? The author is dogmatically materialist, and really seems to think that "supernatural" explanations can be rejected out of hand. The matter was settled long ago, since everyone knows that the SPR or the parapsychologists failed to find any evidence for the supernatural. But perhaps the matter was settled only because certain gatekeepers chose to *define* science as materialist, period? Since ghosts simply *cannot* exist, it´s not clear what kind of evidence would convince the author that they do...

At one point, Hill writes about her encounter with two true believers in the existence of "the skunk ape", a Bigfoot-like creature said to inhabit swamps in the southern United States. Chris and Mark, as they are named, live in Florida and believe that the mysterious creature lurks in a place called the Green Swamp. Apparently, the two men have a conflict of sorts with the author, since she refused their offer to travel to the swamp and see for herself. The interesting thing is that Hill seems genuinely astonished by Chris´ and Mark´s reaction. Why *should* she undertake a potentially dangerous trip to a remote swamp in Florida in search of a creature that simply can´t be real anyway? The ARIG teams may do all kinds of things wrong, but perhaps this incomprehension is also part of the problem...