Research on Unexplained Phenomena
未明現象研究
RESEARCH DIRECTION
Since 2010, I have been collecting and examining reports and materials concerning supernatural phenomena, unsolved mysteries, religious experiences, mysterious events, and related subjects from around the world. During my studies in Religious Studies, I learned to document and examine such material through qualitative research, analysis of religious phenomena, and comparative approaches to cultural context.
When we encounter an event or phenomenon that cannot yet be adequately understood, from which field should we begin, and which methods should we use to investigate it?
This question led me to propose and advocate Research on Unexplained Phenomena as a broader research direction.
Many events commonly described by the public as “supernatural,” “paranormal,” “mysterious,” or “anomalous” may in fact involve very different dimensions. Some may relate to human perception, consciousness, or memory; others may involve environmental conditions, physical factors, or instrumental error. Still others may be shaped by religion, culture, or personal experience, while some may involve mechanisms that have not yet been adequately understood within existing fields of knowledge.
Research on Unexplained Phenomena therefore does not begin by defining a phenomenon as supernatural, anomalous, psychological, physical, or as belonging to any other predetermined category. Instead, it selects appropriate methods of observation, documentation, analysis, and verification according to the available evidence and the specific research question.
WHAT IS AN UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON?
My current definition of an Unexplained Phenomenon is:
An event, experience, object, or state that has been reported, observed, or documented, for which the currently available evidence and appropriate research methods remain insufficient to make a sufficiently reliable determination regarding its nature, origin, cause, mechanism, classification, or factual status.
For example, when studying near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, religious visions, or other exceptional experiences, researchers may first need to understand what the experiencer actually perceived, how time and space were experienced, how the sense of self changed, and how the individual interpreted the event. Such questions may be approached through phenomenological or other qualitative research methods.
If the research question further involves brain activity, environmental conditions, physical measurements, statistical effects, cultural origins, or historical records, the investigation may then draw upon neuroscience, psychology, physics, medicine, religious studies, history, or other relevant disciplines and methods.
In terms of research attitude, I also draw on aspects of the methodological spirit of epoché, or suspension, in phenomenology.
This involves temporarily setting aside predetermined judgments about the mode of existence or nature of an event and first describing and analysing how the phenomenon is experienced, reported, or observed. When the evidence remains insufficient, there is no need to immediately determine whether the phenomenon is supernatural, psychological, physical, human-caused, religious, or something else.
RELATIONSHIP TO RELATED RESEARCH TRADITIONS
Parapsychology
Research on Unexplained Phenomena overlaps substantially with Parapsychology.
The Parapsychological Association currently describes the core of parapsychology as the study of psi or psychic experiences, including telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition. Its research scope also includes topics such as reincarnation, near-death experiences, mediumship, out-of-body experiences, hauntings, and poltergeists.
Many phenomena and questions investigated within parapsychology may therefore also become subjects of research on unexplained phenomena. The two, however, are not equivalent.
Research on Unexplained Phenomena does not require psi, psychological processes, or consciousness phenomena to serve as its starting point. Instead, the disciplines and methods employed are determined by the specific research question and the current state of the evidence.
Psychical Research
Psychical Research predates modern parapsychology.
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), founded in 1882, was established with the aim of investigating human capacities and related phenomena that appeared difficult to explain under existing hypotheses, while approaching such questions with scientific seriousness and attempting to minimise prejudice.
The SPR continues to state that the organisation itself does not adopt a collective position on whether particular phenomena exist or what they ultimately represent, but instead seeks to gather information and advance understanding through research and education.
Psychical Research is not limited to mediumship, religion, spirituality, or metaphysical questions. It has also investigated telepathy, apparitions, mediumship, hauntings, and related subjects through both case investigations and experimental methods.
From the perspective of research history, Psychical Research can therefore be regarded as an important precursor to modern parapsychology, as well as part of a broader research tradition.
Anomalistics
The Journal of Anomalistics currently defines its scope as including scientific anomalies, exceptional human experiences, and so-called para-sciences, while also accepting empirical research, methodological studies, conceptual analysis, philosophy of science, history of science, and other interdisciplinary approaches.
Anomalistics and Research on Unexplained Phenomena therefore overlap to a considerable degree, but their naming logic differs.
In my view, an important distinction is that anomalous emphasises a deviation from an established model, expectation, or assumed state of normality, whereas unexplained first describes a condition in which the available evidence and current knowledge remain insufficient to make a reliable determination about the phenomenon.
WHAT CAN BE STUDIED AS AN UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON?
An unidentified aerial observation, for example, may become a legitimate subject of research, but it should not be classified as evidence of an “extraterrestrial civilisation” before investigation. Likewise, a reported ghost sighting may be documented and investigated, but the existence of a ghost cannot be assumed merely because such an experience has been reported.
Research on Unexplained Phenomena may therefore involve human consciousness and exceptional experiences, natural and environmental observations, unidentified aerial or maritime phenomena, religious and spiritual experiences, questions concerning mind–matter interaction, and other interdisciplinary subjects. Whether a particular case should be regarded as “unexplained,” however, should be determined according to the specific research question, the available evidence, and the current state of knowledge.
An event may be provisionally classified as unexplained because the available information is insufficient. With new evidence, subsequent observations, or findings from other disciplines, it may later receive a reasonable explanation and be reclassified as psychological, physical, environmental, human-caused, cultural, or another recognised type of event.
What we hope to do as researchers is to gradually bring what remains unexplained into clearer understanding.