Free High Intensity by Dara Joy

least one incident authenticated!"
    Calendula straightened the back of her hair, her only outward gesture of irritation. "The reason no one will come forward, as you say, Hubble, is that your group sets out to make a mockery of believers. Proof can be subject to interpretation. What's more, there is always a way to disprove something, if one is so inclined. And your group does this with a glee bordering on the maniacal."
    "How so, Calendula?" Zanita took out her pad and pen and began jotting down notes.
    "Let's say someone comes to his group, the psi-cogs, and says they have experienced genuine poltergeist activity—dishes flying about, doors slamming on their own, that sort of thing. The next thing you know, the psi-cogs are out there showing scientifically that the house was built in such a way that when a truck—which is over a certain weight limit—passes by the road when the temperature is eighty-six degrees, it will cause a vibration to occur in the wood struts that support the foundation of this so-called haunted house, which in turn will cause the door to slam and make the dishes leap off the shelves."
    Tyber stretched out his legs and crossed his arms behind his head. "So what's wrong with that?" he said. "It's real. It's a fact. It's proven. And it certainly seems more logical an explanation than spirits doing the rumba in your living room."
    "It's one explanation, but it might not be the right explanation. Those types of solutions can always be found if one wants to search hard enough for them… and stretch credulity far enough."
    "Whoa!" Tyber sat up. "You're saying that believing in poltergeist activity is not stretching credulity?"
    "I'm saying that mysteries can be explained away by any number of remedies in this life, Dr. Evans. That doesn't mean they have been truly solved."
    Tyber thought about it, choosing not to respond. Calendula had a point. He always kept an open mind. Governed by reason.
    "We also know what some of us have seen with our own eyes," Calendula added softly. "For some, that is all the proof we need."
    "The eye is easy to fool. Seeing is often not believing, as has been shown countless times."
    "Perhaps. But the eye of the heart is not easily fooled. And that is why when someone has what I believe to be a genuine experience, it is undeniable. The truth is seen with the heart." She turned and stared straight at Zanita.
    Zanita looked at her, lips parting slightly. Does the woman know of my experience? Zanita wondered. Calendula was a famous medium. What talents did she truly possess?
    Hubble's guffaws of ridicule drew her attention away from that line of thought. "So we will let our hearts govern our reason? Ms. Brite, what can you be thinking?" He snickered. "Are you telling us that what you personally have witnessed has led you to believe in ghosts?" His wily question was designed to discredit her before Tyber.
    Calendula did not even flinch. "Unequivocally. Of course, what a 'ghost' is, is a matter of speculation as well."
    "What do you mean?" Puzzled, Zanita stopped jotting notes.
    "Some say they are living entities from another dimension. Others believe them to be spirits bound to the earth after death for various reasons, or they may be an echo of a strong event, emotion, or memory that occurred in the past— like an imprint—that only certain people can see. Still others subscribe to the theory that ghosts actually are manifestations from the living."
    "From the living?" Zanita tapped her pencil against her lips.
    "Yes. Especially in the case of poltergeist activity. Such manifestations could be occurrences of psi-activity from an adept living in the house. Studies have shown that there are often children present in the home that experiences poltergeist activity."
    "That kind of narrows your experimental field, doesn't it?" Tyber joked.
    "Well, experiments in the paranormal are, by their very nature, difficult. How do we know what tools to use to 'observe' an unknown entity? And