he metro area.9 The Great Lakes Ghost Hunters Society and the Ghost Huntersof Southern Michigan are just two of the organizations that supposedly embrace the unknown,even claiming to have documentation of “floating orbs [and] ethereal specters.”10 “Armed withvideo cameras, sophisticated recording equipment, and an undying belief in the inexplicable,”11the ranks of the ‘ghost hunters’ are growing. This is most likely due to the fact that Americansociety is “[inching] ever closer to embracing phenomena that science [cannot] answer.”12 Evenhighly esteemed academic publications such as the Journal of Scientific Exploration “now treatthe paranormal with as much respect and analysis as physics or the chaos theory.”13 Thepossibility of life existing on other worlds has been the subject of speculation for years.14 InMay, 1988, NASA began using a “super computer” that is intended to pick up signals from anydistant civilizations.15 Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, has launched manyprojects over the years, but has yielded nothing so far.16 Despite the lack of evidence, manyAmericans have no doubt that aliens exist. This is the result of their belief system. “Whethersomething’s really there or not may be irrelevant,”17 because many Americans tend to fall backon faith. “[Jill Cook Richards] is twenty-eight years into a career as a self-described psychic,”18which depends exclusively on her faith. Richards relates the story of how, when she was young,she always said she wanted to talk to God. Because of this, she claims that “when things startedcoming to me, they came to me as voices. It's the voice of God talking.”19 At the age offifty-two, Richards can still support herself and her husband with the money she earns as aprofessional psychic.20Ghost hunting clubs, alien-searching satellites, and psychics are ...
