I <3 Brian Dunning.

inFact: Ghost Hunting

Listen to this awesome podcast (embedded at the end of this post) from the guys at HowStuffWorks discussing ghost hunter equipment in a real life, I-actually-understand-electronics-and-science way. Oooooh, this made me sooooo freakin’ happy.

Here is a text article to go along with it:  Ghost Detecting Equipment

I found this goodness via Ryan Johnson’s article on Skepticblog. Let me quote from him quoting them:

I found some really great videos by YouTuber HauntedHoax. He is all about the ghost busting, debunking and hoaxing for educational purposes.

The nice thing is that his videos are also entertaining. A lot of skeptic videos that try to be funny usually fail. I don’t know why, but the humor is just lame. This guy does it right.

Check out his channel here for all his videos:  http://www.youtube.com/user/HauntedHoax

I’ll embed two of my favorites below:

First a funny one:

And a serious debunk:

This is a really great video explaining skeptical thinking. It’s kinda dry, but the info is spot on:

I was listening to The Conspiracy Skeptic Podcast today. The host was talking about Moon Landing deniers and made the point that they are so blinded by their own misconceptions that they refuse to accept any evidence that doesn’t fit their own narrow world view. The basic question is “What would convince you to change your mind?”.  The host then went on to list a few things that he would consider evidence enough for him to believe that the moon landing was a hoax.  You can listen to the episode mp3 here in which he picks apart some claims made in the Phil Plait/Joe Rogan debate on the moon landing.

This is a good post by Bryan Farha on the Smoke and Mirrors blog about ghosts and ghost phenomenon that I wanted to pass along.  I’ll excerpt a few good parts below:

Why some murder victims would stick around for eternity to haunt a place while others seem to evaporate is one of the great mysteries of the spirit world.

Scientists who have investigated haunted places account for both the temperature changes and the sounds by finding physical sources of the drafts, such as empty spaces behind walls or currents set in motion by low frequency sound waves produced by such mundane objects as extraction fans.

The excellent group The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has just released this survey on American religious, spiritual and supernatural beliefs.

There’s a great amount of information in the survey about America’s changing beliefs and practices. The sheer amount of data leaves open a broad range of speculation and interpretation. For today though, I’m going to focus on the section that considers belief in ghosts and discuss a few excerpts.

Roughly three-in-ten Americans (29%) say they have felt in touch with someone who has died. Nearly one-in-five say they have been in the presence of a ghost (18%), while 15% say they have consulted a fortuneteller or a psychic.

This is another excellent podcast from Brian Dunning on Skeptoid.com on the tools used and misused by ghost hunters. I recommend you go listen to it! Here is my favorite paragraph from the transcription of the podcast:

“If ghosts did exist and were detectable, you can bet that there would be huge industries behind it. I can’t think of anything that would attract more venture capital dollars from Silicon Valley. However, no rigorous research has ever shown that ghosts can be reliably detected with hardware. It’s easy to disbelieve me, but it’s much harder to disbelieve the lack of interest from greedy corporate America.”

Here is an excellent article by Dr. Steven Novella on the Skepticblog about the effects of fear on the brain.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

Have you ever had the chills? You know, the frights, spooks, willies, nerves, jitters, heebie-jeebies? Do you get these feelings when you have to enter a dark room alone, or if you find yourself on a lonely street at night?

The interesting natural phenomenon of sleep paralysis has, in contemporary times, been the cause of many stories of alien visitation. Back before we concocted the modern myth of aliens, people thought the sleep paralysis was caused by demons or ghosts.

It is notable that when the New England Skeptical Society visited the famous anomaly hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, the Warrens indicated they had never heard of sleep paralysis. The fact that they had no knowledge of this incredibly common condition indicates their utter lack of interest in educating themselves on any explanation for supernatural phenomena beyond what they have already decided is real.