Anytime someone says "we kinda take a scientific approach", they have no understanding of what science is. I love these ghost programs, but I have yet to see anyone, on any of them use scientific methods.
There is plenty of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience
i agree
this series is pretty creepy thou
I love these ghost programs, but I have yet to see anyone, on any of them use scientific methods.
I'm watching Terror at Maple Dale now. With all the horse swapping going on among the stalls, why didn't anyone set up a camera in the barn? What do you think you're really going to get simply by recording sounds? This is ridiculous.
-Jane
but I agree. If something strange is going on, here you have an opportunity to videotape something that supposedly regularly happens. The chances of catching something are much greater with this regular occurrence than an investigation crew setting up cameras at someone's house overnight and expecting to catch something that might happen a few times a month or week.
I don't think, therefore I am not.
Right -- just set up cameras, and you may see horses magically getting out of their stalls and being moved by invisible beings into new stalls.
If you have a physical outcome of a possible paranormal event, videotape it! Whether you actually see ghosts/spirits, you will see a living horse get out of its stall and end up in a new stall. Plus, if the culprit happens to be human afterall, you'll catch that too.
-Jane
Exactly. These shows are examples of folkloristics at best. I like them, like this aspect of them, but there is nothing scientific, and at most, science can only be used against the claims made. I don't understand why these shows even mention science in this context. They take an unexplainable event and gather more unexplained evidence to back up their claims that something unexplainable is going on. The closest they ever come to explaining anything is by doing some historical research, but even then, they risk force-fitting past events to specific cases.
I still like this show, but the scientific approach comments from paranormal investigators is and always will be a hangup for me.
I don't think, therefore I am not.
OP, you wouldn't classify utilizing EMF detectors, IR cameras, digital recorders and K2 meters as science?
If that's not taking a scientific approach than what is it?
"That fart was so deadly Jack Bauer should have been called to stop it!" -Me
For it to be "science", it has to be observable and REPEATABLE. To repeat it, that means you have to have a certain control over what you're studying, the environment it's in, or both. There has to be a degree of specific predictability, and objective checks/cross-checks for the results that were predicted.
By nature, if it really IS paranormal, it is more or less an uncontrollable & unpredictable unknown. You simply have science at an extreme disadvantage from the get-go.
That doesn't mean it's impossible at all. I think people are being intellectually lazy and the real scientists are more or less incapable of performing proper study, because to do it right you need to spend time with big-boy toys, and for that you need funding.
So the basic answer to problem is money. Ironic.
However, I did mention that some of it is intellectual laziness. For example, the lazy treatment of EVP studies.
First off, there needs to be a thorough study done to reveal a set of words that are most likely to be an actual voice. Hypothetically, let's say this study reveals that the words are Cellar Door.
Now track down hauntings where the entity is all about "getting you to leave".
Tell it, "If you say Cellar Door, I will leave."
Get it to say the magic words, then leave.
Now find a similar haunting case and REPEAT.
Now you're starting to collect some evidence.
Just because you bring an instrument along with you doesn't automatically make the readings scientifically valid. Sure, they bring voice recorders, but then they do nothing with data except make assumptions about the 'garblings' they hear on there.
Maybe this is just me (and don't get me wrong...this show is my guilty pleasure!), but not once on this show have I ever heard one of their 'recordings' and heard what they are hearing.
I like the IR cameras. Because everyone knows a ghost won't come out if turn on the light switch.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience
BOHICA America!