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Blind Belief Through Poor Evidence

ouijaouija555

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Oct 17, 2005
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11
I think the majority of evidence people use to discover ghosts

1) Photos
2) Orbs
3) EVP audio
4) videos

All this evidence is vey weak, and from my countless hours of reading paranormal forums, it appears that people interpret any kind of anomoly as paranormal in origin without actually thinking about the normal causes.

1+2)e.g. won't an orb be much more likely to be due to the lens etc? The fact that orbs appear allthe time in non ghostly pictures suggests so. I have a few family pictures with orbs, but I think nothing of them. But take a picture of a graveyard with an orb in it, and many pople will interpret it as a spirit.

3) EVP, random sounds. Humans interpret random sounds, pictures into meanings. Its human nature to find patterns, images etc in things.

I am very critical of this, and in a sense limits the credibility of proving ghosylt phenomena.
 
Your right,
unfortunatly in such a media dependent world people rely on Pictures, Videos and Sounds in everyway. Forgive me but its one of the reasons Most Haunted is so popular people often watch it trying to confirm their beliefs and using media to do so rather than actually going to a haunted place to see for themselves...Its Catch 22 Media will never prove to everyone that ghosts exsist and without media nobody will be able to show whatever proof they find without it being debunked...
 
I think you'll find if you actually look that this board is rather level-headed and unbiased about such things and I don't think 'blind belief' applies to very many posters here. All of the phenomena that you listed are discussed in great depth on various threads. Enjoy.
 
Sometimes it seems that some people want to believe something before they start to question it (if they question it at all). Others question something before they believe (if they believe it at all). There seems to be to be a distinct lack of incredulity out there on the net - IMHO it seems to be a hive of wishful thinking ;)

Orbs thread:

forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1674
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-big-orb-thread.1674/


EVP thread:

forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1138
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/electronic-voice-phenomena-evp.1138/
 
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but its not so unusual to have a theory about a subject when you start it. Thats not a bad thing. its only bad if you don't learn anything whilst claiming to have studied it. I find it more stimulating to discuss something with someone who isn't sitting on the fence.
 
"
ouijaouija555 said:
I think the majority of evidence people use to discover ghosts

1) Photos
2) Orbs
3) EVP audio
4) videos"

My own strong belief in the existence of ghosts and in the survival of the human soul doesn't depend on ANY of the above - but rather upon the personal testimonies of people I trust, both orally and in print.

That being said, EVP recordings made under strict laboratory conditions seem worthy of further research.

And there were several photographic experiments carried out between the 1890s and the 1930s which apparently recorded the departure of a mist-like essense from both human and animal bodies at the point of death and which CRY OUT to be repeated today.

"Orbs" are dust motes photographed in the atmosphere. Besides, who wants to go through eternity as a little round bouncing ball?
 
OldTimeRadio said:
And there were several photographic experiments carried out between the 1890s and the 1930s which apparently recorded the departure of a mist-like essense from both human and animal bodies at the point of death and which CRY OUT to be repeated today.
Absolutely!

Besides, they inspired the little-mentioned but very nifty 1973 movie The Asphyx (the premise being the mist-like essence is the Asphyx, a spirit which removes the soul at the point of death rendering the body lifeless. If, the main protagonist reasons, the Asphyx could be captured, would the dying be snatched from death and rendered immortal? Bloody good film, and I've started a thread in Fortean Culture about it now :).
 
The Asphyx

Yes, I too know THE ASPHYX and it is indeed an excellent film. It was in fact part of the original assortment of video cassettes I collected when I obtained my original VCR some 15 years ago.
 
Dancing Dead Woman

Does anyone here remember the video clip which got considerable television airplay several years back, which featured the apparent ghost of a woman who was seen "dancing" from automible wreck to automobile wreck in a midwestern US automotive graveyard?

The specter had been caught on the lot's security camera. It seemed to be a woman attired in blue jeans.

Moreover, the video image was apparently reckonized and identified by the dead woman's own family. She had been killed in a auto smash-up a week or so before the specter was videotaped.

Several ghost hunter types speculated that since many wrecked cars still contain their storage batteries the specter's car-to-car movements may have been its attempt to materialize by drawing electrical energy from those cars' electrical systems.

Me, I just found the tape interesting, without any immediately obvious mundane explanation. The tape doesn't appear to have been a deliberate fake.
 
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Thanks!

Thankee! Thread's already downtloaded to both by "Ghosts" and "
"Survival" files.
 
ouijaouija555 said:
I think the majority of evidence people use to discover ghosts

1) Photos
2) Orbs
3) EVP audio
4) videos

All this evidence is vey weak, and from my countless hours of reading paranormal forums, it appears that people interpret any kind of anomoly as paranormal in origin without actually thinking about the normal causes.

1+2)e.g. won't an orb be much more likely to be due to the lens etc? The fact that orbs appear allthe time in non ghostly pictures suggests so. I have a few family pictures with orbs, but I think nothing of them. But take a picture of a graveyard with an orb in it, and many pople will interpret it as a spirit.

3) EVP, random sounds. Humans interpret random sounds, pictures into meanings. Its human nature to find patterns, images etc in things.

I am very critical of this, and in a sense limits the credibility of proving ghosylt phenomena.

What do you suggest we use for evidence then except orbs, which can be a few things like dust?

Photos can be fake but theres way of proving that.

Evp are worthy which I agree on what Oldtimeradio said about it.

Videos can be proven to be fake too, but with some digital help can be ok.
 
I do agree Orbs are very very often Dust or Cobwebs, However I am interested in knowing what people think of "String Orbs" I have seen in a few videos odd long "string like" orbs that like to move sideways across the camera...a few times it has been said to like a partialy visible arm or leg in mid stride...Any ideas folks?

And those giant orbs that occasionally show up...far top big to be dust or the like...This one can be large enough to be mistaken as UFO's if seen in the right place

(I beleive that examples of both of these are on that ol' "Worlds Scariest Ghosts on Film" show...but I could be wrong)
 
So what can we do about it? Try to get real scientists, psychologists and psychiatrists to visit haunted locations and let them try to find anything?
 
So what can we do about it? Try to get real scientists, psychologists and psychiatrists to visit haunted locations and let them try to find anything?
Already done for centuries. No luck.
 
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