Are you a total believer, a cynic, an open-minded skeptic, or a skeptical believer? Is there a right or wrong way to be? Where do you fall on the scale, and how flexible are you? In a moment, we'll ponder these ideas.

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Welcome to the PEEP Podcast. I’m your host Nicolle Morock, and on this episode, we're talking about the skeptical scale.

But first! I need your help, and here's the deal: While I enjoy talking about the paranormal, parapsychology, energy healing, ghosts, symbolism, mythology, positivity, gratitude, psychic abilities, and more, I'd rather listen to other people talk about these things and have the chance to humbly and earnestly ask questions. So, if you or someone you know has stories to tell and experiences to share, please get in touch! I would absolutely love to have you on the show! You can be as anonymous as you like, or not anonymous at all. It's totally up to you. Just fill out the form at peeppodcast.com, so your message stands out in my email inbox. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

The topic of being a skeptic versus a believer has been coming up a lot in my conversations lately, and with my personal journey returning me to the path I was on in my late twenties and pointing me in the direction of becoming an energy healer as well as accepting my natural role as an intuitive, I feel like this is as good a time as any to discuss it.

People who've only known me as a meteorologist or a digital advertising professional or an SEO content writer are surprised when they learn about my life outside of work. I mean having a podcast that explores the links between science and psi sparks some questions from coworkers. The conversation usually leads to my years as a paranormal investigator and questions about some of my wildest experiences. And now, I receive more questions than ever because on my birthday a couple weeks ago, I announced to my family and friends that I'm working toward becoming Emotion Code certified and I am going to start offering Tarot readings and intuitive conversations. Plus, just last week – and after 22 years had passed since my Reiki I class, I took Reiki II and I'll soon be taking the advanced Reiki and master class. My life outside of work is changing – no progressing quickly – all because I finally accepted the side of myself that I've struggled with for decades.

And some of my more skeptical friends are scratching their heads.

But that's okay. Truly.

For the longest time, I've let what they think affect how I deal with the duality of my personality. I've used my empathic and intuitive abilities for paranormal investigation, but then questioned and second-guessed myself at every turn. Why? Because if I didn't, they might think I wasn't a logical, rational, science-minded person. But the truth is, I am. I'm all those things and I'm psychic. (And as an aside, I do realize I should change the name of my book about my experiences at this point.)

I've always called myself a hybrid, but never fully embraced both sides until recently. This is who the Creator made me to be, and it was time to stop resisting. The thing is that once I stopped resisting, my spiritual path opened up in front of me and everything started happening at lightning speed. It's truly amazing.

So, getting back to the idea of the skeptical scale, as I'm calling it, where do you think I would put myself on it – even just a year ago versus now?

On a scale of 0 to 10 with zero being a total cynic – nothing anyone says will convince the cynic that paranormal experiences could possibly be real. And with 10 being a total believer with no questions asked, I'm still on the believer side of the middle of the scale. I'd say I'm a seven.

You might ask how someone who just came out of the proverbial psychic closet would call herself a seven, and that's fair. My answer is that I still want to know HOW all of this works.

In the early episodes of this podcast, I spoke with my friend John Kruth, Executive Director of the Rhine Research Center, about how they study telekinesis, biophotons, and other parapsychological topics in a scientific setting. I also covered the early years of parapsychology. The theme that runs through those conversations isn't whether these things can happen, because decades of documentation that they do happen exists. The question now is HOW.

How does telekinesis work? How does remote viewing work? How does energy healing work? How do negative emotions affect the physical body in a real way? How does premonition work? How does spontaneous medium communication happen? How can we explain near-death experiences?

These things all happen. Whether you want to admit their reality or not. So, as a scientific-minded, logical human being, even as I advance my skills that fall under several of these topics, I want to understand what makes them work.

Consciousness studies are still relatively young in the science world. Just like hundreds of years ago, we didn't understand lightning, but as technology has developed, we've figured out how to test our hypotheses about it. Research organizations like The Rhine Research Center, The Institute of Noetic Sciences, and universities including the University of Virginia and Yale are working to understand how different aspects of these experiences may function. How they may be tested in the future, and whether new concepts in physics and psychology can provide explanations, or at the very least conceive of ways to find connections to known scientific theories in the future.

But just because we don't yet have the answers, we shouldn't scrap the documented evidence for these subjects. In fact, not knowing the answers, screams for more investigation, documentation, and better questions. That's how science really works.

On the scale of zero to ten, where do you fall? And are you flexible about your position? If scientists have breakthroughs – say to prove how telekinesis works – would you be able to handle the paradigm shift that follows? Or would you still say you need more proof?

In my humble opinion, there are only two places on that scale that truly have faulty thinking behind them. The total cynic and the total believer because both tend to be too closed-minded to learn anything new. Their worlds would fall apart if their views were proven wrong, and so, they can't possibly look at evidence contrary to their own opinions.

But the rest of us understand that the world isn't black and white – there's a gray scale, and there's room for people all along that scale. In fact, we need people on every point in that scale so we can balance each other out, toss ideas off each other, and open-mindedly share and thoughtfully question experiences without judgment. So, whether you're a skeptic interested in the possibility of learning something new about our perceived reality or the believer who is open to discussing potential mundane explanations for personal experiences, you're all welcome here.

You're among friends, and we're happy to have you! Thanks for joining us and thanks for listening.

You can keep up with the show on its Facebook page: facebook.com/P.E.E.P.Podcast. We have a group linked from that page in case you’re interested in joining the conversation. One thing to note about that group is that I only approve group members who answer the questions, and unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t keep a list of people who’d be interested in being on the show, so if you said, “yes” to that question, please get in touch through the website.

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Thanks again for listening! Stay safe and be well!