My name is Michael Arangua.
I have been a believer. I have been a skeptic. My personal journey in life of long-winding and twisting roads, has shown me that ultimate truth lies somewhere in between popular opinion and urban legend. Too often in life, we take for granted that what people say is true without actually researching the facts for ourselves. Maybe that's because sometimes peering into the unknown is scary--there is an abyss of unknown knowledge and a cavern of unanswered questions for every "fact" we establish. It's much easier to believe official reports and conspiracy theories propagated by others rather than to piece together bits of the puzzle by using our own logical minds. Growing up, I studied religion, law, psychology and creative writing--diverse subjects that helped me to see the bigger picture when it came to absolute truth.
In my OOPARTS (out of place artifacts) book, for example, I didn't want to dogmatically tell readers what is what, or how to feel about the facts and fictions behind OOPARTS. I simply wanted to show you two sides of the story--conflicting lines of evidence that will make believers scoff and give skeptics a brain-teaser of possibility. Remember that truth is multi-dimensional. Oftentimes what is "true" is not scientifically or historically provable but relative to our own prejudices, self-reassurances and stubborn adherence to our own system of logic.
I first became interested in ooparts and anomalies of science and history about the same time as I began researching the supernatural. Stories of the fantastic, strange and otherworldly have existed at every point in human history. We have never disproved the supernatural, nor have we ever fully investigated these mysterious sciences in order to uncover more startling revelations. What has always intrigued me is that for every established fact we read, there are numerous alternative explanations out there being handed derisive labels such as "revisionist history", "pseudo-science" or "conspiracy theory." The only thing these labels mean to me (I generally being a skeptic who doesn't believe anything anyone tells me) is "the unknown element." Entertaining all possibilities doesn't make me a believer in tall takes. I simply accept that there will always be an unknown element in every narrative. If investigating new claims and questions makes us uncomfortable, and makes us desperate to discredit anyone who speaks against the established story, then that is contrary to the true nature of science and learning. Close-mindedness is the end of learning.
It is my aim in everything I write to help teach others to question mainstream opinion and to grow in knowledge because of the journey. In the end, learning new perspectives, facts and theories will only strengthen your core beliefs, or perhaps will help you find new angles to expand your thinking in ways you've never thought about. You have nothing to lose by learning, and there is no reason for fear. There are worlds of knowledge currently unknown to us and the only way we can discover them is to take a journey and begin exploring.
