I’m the kind of paranormal fan that wants to believe, but I also want compelling evidence, something that really kicks me right in the ass and makes me say “holy shit, wow!” I actually enjoy debunking paranormal claims, and the harder time I have debunking a claim, the more excited I get. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good, shitty, no-evidence ghost story or YouTube clip just for grins, but nothing gets my blood pumping quite like someone who took the time and care to try and carefully document what was happening. So, that’s the context in which I say this:
99% of ghost experiences, including my own, are probably bullshit, in that there’s likely some mundane explanation. Probably 100% or very very nearly so of TV ghost shit is not only bullshit but people actively bullshitting you to try and keep their shit from getting cancelled. I do believe that it IS entirely possible that there are non-corporeal entities or some type of non-corporeal phenomena that are unpredictable and thus very difficult to gather evidence on. I like chewing on the question of how a scientist might prove the existence of a non-corporeal phenomena, which is only observable by its acting on the environment in an unpredictable fashion according to its own rules or volition. I don’t think it’s achievable, because at the end of the day, any test I could come up with could plausibly be replicated by a magician or an effects artist. My closest approach, at least imo, is to simply put a marble, any marble, James Randi can choose, into a bowl, any old mundane bowl, and just leave it there and watch it. We know what a marble in a bowl should do: it’s going to remain at the lowest PE location unless it’s acted upon by some outside force. Glass is inert to many concerns, be they chemical, electric, etc. and a glass, wood, or stainless steel bowl would also be likely to be sufficiently inert with regard to the test environment. If the marble suddenly takes off or jumps out of the bowl or something, that should be a pretty good indicator that something worth investigating just happened. Again, though, I’m sure it’s nothing a magician or effects artist couldn’t replicate.
Anyway, why I believe is a mix of being a paranormal enjoyer, being raised by people who believed in it, being a Buddhist (Buddhist cosmology accepts ghosts as something you can be reborn as), and personal experiences that are probably bullshit but certainly felt convincing enough. And as for what other people are experiencing: it seems likely to me that infra sound plays a big part of creating the spooky context in which people interpret mundane phenomenon as scary.
I’m the kind of paranormal fan that wants to believe, but I also want compelling evidence, something that really kicks me right in the ass and makes me say “holy shit, wow!” I actually enjoy debunking paranormal claims, and the harder time I have debunking a claim, the more excited I get. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good, shitty, no-evidence ghost story or YouTube clip just for grins, but nothing gets my blood pumping quite like someone who took the time and care to try and carefully document what was happening. So, that’s the context in which I say this:
99% of ghost experiences, including my own, are probably bullshit, in that there’s likely some mundane explanation. Probably 100% or very very nearly so of TV ghost shit is not only bullshit but people actively bullshitting you to try and keep their shit from getting cancelled. I do believe that it IS entirely possible that there are non-corporeal entities or some type of non-corporeal phenomena that are unpredictable and thus very difficult to gather evidence on. I like chewing on the question of how a scientist might prove the existence of a non-corporeal phenomena, which is only observable by its acting on the environment in an unpredictable fashion according to its own rules or volition. I don’t think it’s achievable, because at the end of the day, any test I could come up with could plausibly be replicated by a magician or an effects artist. My closest approach, at least imo, is to simply put a marble, any marble, James Randi can choose, into a bowl, any old mundane bowl, and just leave it there and watch it. We know what a marble in a bowl should do: it’s going to remain at the lowest PE location unless it’s acted upon by some outside force. Glass is inert to many concerns, be they chemical, electric, etc. and a glass, wood, or stainless steel bowl would also be likely to be sufficiently inert with regard to the test environment. If the marble suddenly takes off or jumps out of the bowl or something, that should be a pretty good indicator that something worth investigating just happened. Again, though, I’m sure it’s nothing a magician or effects artist couldn’t replicate.
Anyway, why I believe is a mix of being a paranormal enjoyer, being raised by people who believed in it, being a Buddhist (Buddhist cosmology accepts ghosts as something you can be reborn as), and personal experiences that are probably bullshit but certainly felt convincing enough. And as for what other people are experiencing: it seems likely to me that infra sound plays a big part of creating the spooky context in which people interpret mundane phenomenon as scary.
This is a really interesting comment thanks