I know I promised to blog about hoaxes but I need to interrupt to talk about my Friday night. I promised Nathan I would. Hi Nathan!
On Friday night I was at Heritage Park Historical Village in Calgary. I was with a group of people who signed up to learn about and hopefully see some of the ghosts that allegedly abound in the area. We also enjoyed a fabulous salmon dinner. Mmmmm salmon. I met the organizer. A man by the name of Brad Dotten. He is the founder and lead investigator of Things That Go Bump In The Night Paranormal Investigations. Brad was a polite, well dressed, likable guy who seems level headed and intelligent. He also wholeheartedly believes that our consciousness continues on even after we are six feet under. This consciousness is capable of wandering around and scaring the bejesus out of people. Brad regaled us with a PowerPoint presentation which explained the different classifications of ghosts. All very imaginative but yet still all simply conjecture and folklore. Unless there are scientists out there that have managed to catch these ghosts, keep them in a jar and poke them with sticks, there is no reason to believe that any of this is fact. But I was thrilled when he said that orbs are merely dust and NOT ghosts. Excellent! A tiny bright spot of reason. I listened quietly to his lesson until he mentioned one of the "most famous" hauntings ever. The events that allegedly took place at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York in 1975 have been proven to be a hoax. I decided to take the position of heckler and point this fact out to Brad. He said that the paranormal investigators on the case, Ed and Lorraine Warren, maintain to this day that everything the Lutzes reported actually happened. Well of course they do. If they were to come clean about this case being a hoax then that would call into question every other case they have ever been involved with. Brad dismissed this with informing me that this didn't matter since it only matters if you believe it happened or if you believe that it was a hoax. What?! Sorry honey, just because you believe something, doesn't make it true. I can believe all I want that Nathan Fillion is madly in love with me but that won't make it real. Belief does not equal fact.
So after our presentation we went for a little walk around the park and heard some of the stories of unexplained and eerie events. We also got free reign of the Prince house which is said to be one of the most haunted buildings in the park. We heard about the mysterious lights that were seen on the third floor although there are no fixtures up there. A lady in white is seen in one of the bedrooms cooing an imaginary baby and dogs have gotten all weirded out while in or around the house. Alas, even after poking around in the dark and taking several pictures, no ghosts were kind enough to make even a cursory appearance. Rather rude of them. Although one member of our group had an EMF meter app for his iPhone (seriously?) and I made the shocking discover that my camera appears to be haunted. I knew I shouldn't have trusted that salesman. On a high note, there was a fellow skeptic in the group. She even knew what the JREF was. Sweet. I also meet a very nice man who is sitting on the fence. He was kind enough to listen to my skeptical rantings without getting a restraining order. I can get a little carried away sometimes.
So what do we make of the thousands of experiences that we hear about? Tons of books have been written relating anecdotes from people who truly believe that they have had a paranormal or ghostly experience. Do we just dismiss these out of hand? I'm afraid we must. It's well known amongst skeptics that anecdotal evidence is not evidence and I'll tell you why. When someone relates a story we have to rule out many things before accepting the reliability. Things such as confirmation bias, misremembering, misinterpretation, imagination, dreaming, embellishment and collusion have to be accounted for. Also, many of the stories are second or third hand or even repeated so many times that the original event is convoluted beyond anything resembling the truth. This also may be a good time to quote Dr. Gregory House. "Everybody lies."
Brad also showed us famous ghost pictures. Many of which have been examined and dismissed. Such as the Brown Lady. Joe Nickell examined this photo and determined that it is merely two images composited together. Brad also showed some videos that if real, would be very compelling. Note the "if real" part of that statement. There is no way to tell if amateur videos of things moving on their own accord has been faked. We just can't accept those at face value. More examination and reproducible results would be necessary.
The mystery mongers may think they have lots of evidence in their corner but is it enough? No. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and so far the evidence proffered has been mediocre at best. Please dazzle me with extraordinary and I will sit up and take notice.
8 comments:
Yay a shoutout ;) sounds like you had a credulous night, I'd almost wonder if Peter Winston Ray and Egon showed up there would've been something exciting (after all its Bill freaking Murray though Dan Akroyd will have his own woo to schill). Thanks for the play by play you rock :)
No amount of debunking will sway a believer, and no amount of proof will sway a non-believer.
It has been my expirience that there are two types of people in this world. Those who have expirenced the phenomenon and those who have not.
If you remember the story I told about Amityville, I showed a picture of the "Ghost" in the house and how much it looked like the Lutz's son.
Skeptisism is good and nessesary in what I do. Most people in my field over spiritualism everything ("OMG, the curtain moved.....it must be a ghost....."), that is not good either.
To be scientific about anything, you must have an open mind to all outcomes of the hypothesis. Not just what you believe (and that includes believing and not believing).
Hey Brad! Thanks for the comments. I disagree with your assessment however that no amount of proof will sway a disbeliever. Myself and most skeptics I know are very open minded and will change their views in a heartbeat if reliable evidence were proffered. There just hasn't been any yet. Personal experiences don't count as those are highly subjective. They could very well have experienced something paranormal but there is no way to know that for sure. I hope I didn't offend you in any way with my post and would very much enjoy joining you on an investigation. Dazzle me with science.
Tamara
Unfortunately, due to the "ethereal" nature of the case subject and the lack of knowledge of that "nature", we do not have any equipment to measure or quantify at all the millions of experiences all over the world. At this time, nothing we (paranormal investigators) do will be enough for the scientific community. At best we are considered a "Pseudo-science".
However, that does not sway us from attempting to reach for the brass ring. No one believed in "germs" either until bacteria was observed by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1676 using a single-lens microscope that he made himself.
I am not offended. I have said before that it is only in the face of debate and scrutiny that we find ways to get better at what we do (what ever that is...). I believe in this phenomenon because I have experienced it first hand (and not the curtain moving story I told before), but when I go in to a case, I use my training as an interrogator (day job) to tell if the person is being sincere with me. I am a sceptic too when I go in to a case. Sometimes I find nothing and become a little more jaded, other times I find a great deal and am furthered in my knowledge (not belief).
I will contact you when I am able to have a case where I know there will be activity. Maybe you can experience these things too.
I know that there are psychological reasons that you would feel a hand push into your back only to turn and find nothing there (which is common for sceptics to say after having an experience like that, regardless of what they felt at the time). However, when I ask a question and get a direct response that is captured on a recording device multiple times in the same location with all investigators accounted for... that is pretty good to me. But you are right, without being there to experience that for yourself, you have to take it on faith that I did not fake it. (which I would never do as my integrity means more to me than anything)
Thank you for this,
Brad Dotten
Things that go bump in the night
Paranormal Investigations
Tamara is absolutely right there Brad. I myself was a believer in all manner of things and evidence and reasonable explanations are what convinced me otherwise. Show me the science and I'll be convinced, however if a more reasonable answer exists for a phenomena then that is likely the explanation that we would accept.
I think you missed my point. I am not able to convince you with science that does not exist. There is no meter that tells me there is a ghost around. There are theories and conjecture as to how to quantify the paranormal, and currently, that is it.
Also, I am not trying to convince you of anything. It really doesn't matter to me weather you think I am crazy or not. The funny thing is, everyone that I talk to (in any facet of my life) has had some personal experience or knows someone who has.
I believe one thing and you believe another. Science is the new religion. We believe the scientists because they tell us that they did research and that this is what they found. But we have not done this, we take their word as fact. We take it on faith. Faith that they are right in their findings. Don't forget, it was scientific fact that the world was flat not that long ago. Our brains are wired to believe. In what is due to your experiences in life and influences. There are many people who don't believe in anything because if they believed in ghosts (for example) then they would have to believe in life after death. If they beleived in life after death they would have to believe in some form of order, and the belief in order leads to a belief in some form of God. And that is too much for many people to handle.
Just because we do not have proof of a thing does not mean that thing is not real. We all accept that there are Black Holes in the universe (at least most of us do). With that said, we have no quantifiable evidence to state without a doubt that black holes are real. We have deep space photos with a lack of light, and desity readings to suggest there is something there, but it is not conclusive. It is a theory.
I had a client once who was having trouble at night, she would heard people in her room, have objects moved, etc. The classic haunting. She even bought an audio recording device to try to capture some of this. She was able to capture some interesting voices and sounds. Now, she was devoutly athiest. She did not beleive in anything spiritual. She is a business professional, has a degree, is very calm and level headed, however, because of her belief, she concluded that she was being visited by Aliens or some other form of dimensional being. She could not explain away what was happening in her home, but she also could not accept the concept of ghosts. So she came up with another explaination. The phenomenon is real, but as to what is causeing it, I don't have that answer yet. Maybe someday, when science catches up we will have that answer. Until then, I will keep looking.
Brad Dotten
Things that go bump in the night
Paranormal Investigations
Brad first I just want to clarify I don't think you are crazy, mistaken yes but not crazy. Many intelligent people believe things with a lack of actual evidence because they are unable to move on from the myths of their ancestors. That being said much of the assertions you have made are incorrect.
Science is not a religion, the difference is that science is only based upon observed facts. These facts are the basis of scientific theories which despite the colloquial use of the term is as close to a law as you can get. Scientists don't tell people what to believe, they perform experiments record results then make predictions based on those results. Often their predictions fail and they have to revise their predictions, religions don't do this science does.
Science has shown that the Earth is round in fact the Greeks and Egyptians were able to calculate the circumference of the world to a surprisingly accurate degree with some sticks and measuring their shadows. It was the religious texts that said otherwise, then science proved them wrong.
Black holes were predicted by General Relativity, to say that there is no evidence they exist is categorically false. While we cannot "see" them in visible light they are visible in x-rays and by their gravitational effects on nearby stars like the way that Sagittarius A*(pronounced Eh-Star) whips stars through the galactic core.
As for choosing not to believe because we don't want to face the order (and thus consequences) of there being a god and the afterlife you couldn't be further from the truth with that one. I told you that I was a believer, I accepted as fact the existence of god and the hearafter but as I matured I found (as many do) that the evidence just did not support the claims. I did not "choose" not to believe but rather I followed the evidence. If the claims could be backed up then I'd still be a believer today.
Now regarding your client with the audio-tape doesn't matter if she was an atheist/hindu/muslim/pastafarian there is a simple reasonable explanation for what you describe. EVP is a form of audio pareidolia. Our minds are evolved for pattern recognition and when there is a desire to find one white noise can be strung together however the listener desires, this is usually sub-conscious so they are not aware they are doing it. This is a perfectly logical explanation without other evidence there is no reason to jump to a paranormal cause.
I'm not saying that the paranormal definitely does not exist, but rather that the evidence does not support it. If it did it would no longer be "para" but rather "normal". Besides I personally find the natural world far to fascinating to go the extra step to fill it with myths and fairy tales.
Which brings us back to what I started with. There is no amount of evidence that will sway a non believer. Again, this is because we do not have the tool to quantify the experiences that people are having (that I have had). Matrixing will not launch a woman's purse at you from across the room.
Science in it's pure form is not a religion. That is true. It is society that has turned it into that. On the black holes, there is the math that says they are there. There is mass gravity in certain areas of space. That points to evidence that something is there. Does that mean that we are not wrong about it being a black hole. No, as you said, we have been wrong before. That is the flaw in science. If you go to the Gallop Poll website you can find statistics on pretty much anything, many of which contradict statistics on their own website. This is because the tester can manipulate the sample group to fit what they want it to fit. The same is true for the scientific method. The hypothesis is good until it comes to predicting an outcome. Scientists live off of grant money from major companies and the government (depending on the branch of science). They make their money based on how smart they are. So when they make a prediction they have to damn sure make sure that it is correct. Only in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary, do they change their opinion. All you have to do to prove that point is look at the food and drug association. every five years the last thing they tell you to do, has now become bad for you and you now have to do or take this to fix that. I do agree with you that there are a lot of fakes out there. Fortunately, most of them are easy to pic out if you know what to look for. I have had this happen to myself a few times. I too have started to doubt in the things that I look for when I go and find nothing, but then something big always happens to make sure that I do not forget. During the day, I investigate people. In that field, a lack of evidence just means that I have to look harder. Just because I can't prove right now that you stole that thing, does not mean that you didn't. I just need to look harder to prove it. I understand the need for supporting evidence, but that comes in many forms and I need to know what will stand up in court. That evidence does not always stand up and slap you in the face. So you keep looking.
I have seen too many things to be able to just pass them off as matrixing (even though that does happen) or myths and fairy tales (despite that happening as well). If 98% of all the claims out there were false, shouldn't we be concerned about the remaining 2%?
Brad Dotten
Things that go bump in the night
Paranormal Investigations
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