Last night as I was warming up dinner I was listening as usual to Coast to Coast AM with its millions of listeners and I was wondering, why does experience of paranormal activity only seem to happen to people with regional accents — primarily Southern but not always? Ghosts, UFOs, demons, remote viewing — these things apparently shy away from people like me whose accent would not link them with any particular part of these United States. It’s not only the callers on Coast to Coast who illustrate this principle but even the guests. Last night the guest I happened to be listening to (subject: demons) spoke about being a resident of the Hudson River valley in New York and he sounded like that was where he’s from.

There is a cynical explanation: that believing in such stuff is a mark of modest education, which in turn can be linked with retaining non-standard pronunciation. Alternatively, it could mean that those of us who like to think of ourselves as educated have been intimidated into thinking that only lower class types have experiences of Bigfoot etc. and so are not open to such experiences precisely because of our own class anxiety with its roots that are totally independent of such matters. Your view?