Translate Article. Set Interface Language. Decrease font size. Increase font size. Display options. Default More Most. Back to Default Settings Done. Article Preview :. We meet them at the door-way, on the stair, Along the passages they come and go, Impalpable impressions on the air, A sense of something moving to and fro. Overview I will refer to the business as "Vital Vapors" and its owner as "Ben," both pseudonyms.
The staff allowed me the opportunity to investigate some of the ghostly claims and was very accepting when I found several plausible and natural explanations for the spooky experiences Biddle They invited me back to stay the night with some of my science-minded friends, adding that we could perform any experiments we wanted. In the weeks leading up to my overnight stay, I gathered information from a few dozen ghost hunting teams that visited the mansion and claim to have evidence of paranormal activity.
The most common phenomena reported from the mansion are electronic voice phenomena or EVP. Most of the teams reported the EVPs were not just random responses; they were direct, intelligent responses to specific questions.
I found this interesting and decided to take a closer look. An informal poll on my blog showed 65 percent valued EVPs over photos and video. And alleged intelligent responses offer us a testable claim. I arrived at the mansion with my friend and colleague Tim Vickers, a forensic interviewer from West Virginia.
I handed Loretta a small foam ghost a squishy toy named Spooky and explained that while we waited across the parking lot in the office trailer, she was to hide the toy ghost somewhere inside the mansion. As she walked around deciding where to hide it, she was to speak out loud and inform the spirits if any were around what she was doing, what the object she was hiding was, and that she needed the spirits to tell us where to find it.
The idea was simple: if there were cooperative ghosts here and they could communicate with direct, intelligent responses to our questions, then they should be able to lead us to the hidden toy.
The volume was an account of controlled experiments Raudive conducted while attempting to capture mysterious voices similar to those Jurgenson had found. Unlike Jurgenson, who recorded the open air, Raudive conducted recordings while tuning a radio between stations to create constant, static background noise.
Use this link to get back to this page. Talking to the dead, listening to yourself: an empirical study on the psychological aspects of interpreting electronic voice phenomena. Authors: John E. Buckner V. Date: Winter Document Type: Essay. In fact, this very tendency is one of many well-documented cognitive shortcuts that may have adaptive value.
A voice may indicate the presence of a potential mate or foe, so it may be useful to err on the side of perceiving agency in ambiguous auditory stimuli. A paranormal theory is much more complex. We have to explain how disembodied entities acquire agency. We have to explain why they have the ability to produce sound but only communicate in audio recordings instead of simply speaking aloud. Many forms of popular entertainment require the suspension of disbelief, and viewers of paranormal reality shows are hopefully tuning in for the entertainment rather than scientific value of these programs.
There are many important public issues, however, for which pseudoscientific beliefs have harmed public discourse. Currently, there is only limited, tentative evidence to link exposure to pseudoscience on television to pseudoscientific beliefs.
Still, one study showed that people find paranormal research to be more credible and scientific when it is shown using technological tools such as recording devices. Other evidence has suggested that popular opinion may outweigh scientific credibility when people evaluate pseudoscientific claims.
A good ghost story may hold entertainment and even cultural value, but the popular portrayal of pseudoscientific practices as science may be detracting from efforts to cultivate a scientifically literate public.
Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Did you hear that? Michael Nees , Lafayette College.
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