Skeptic Family

A few months ago, I wrote one of those smart ass posts that I knew would bite me in the butt later.  The post in question was when I “debunked” an image that was being labeled as a ghost.  It just so happened that the ghost in question was supposedly residing (and being photographed) at my place of employment, and the witnesses to the events that night just so happened to be my boss and her husband.

I was expecting the situation to explode much earlier, but it seems like google has only just now caught up with me.  Some of the paranormal investigators have been defending their work in the comments section of the aforementioned post, and I must say that they’ve been good sports about being teased in my article.  In fact, they even invited me to join them in a future investigation.  Nice to see that they don’t shy from critics and skeptics who disagree with them, and I’m certainly game to take them up on the request.

They also corrected some information that I had wrong, which reminds me that I’m still in the learning stages of being a skeptic.  My only excuse is that I’m a full-time dad, and a part-time skeptic, so I should get a pass for my occasional mistake.

First, I should have asked them for their side of the story, but I didn’t.  I also should have been more careful collecting information from my sources, but it seems I missed a few facts when interpreting the story as I understood it.

Also, and perhaps most importantly, I should have attempted to recreate the shadow (ghost) that I was explaining.  Though, I’m not sure how I would have done that, given that I did not have access to the equipment, the angles of the light, or the circumstances.  It turns out, however, that Paravisionz claims that they did attempt to recreate the shadow and could not do so.  I don’t agree with the conclusion that the best explanation is that it’s a ghost, but I do admire the fact that they did not immediately jump to conclusions, as I had claimed.

Part of my beef with the program Ghost Hunters, which I’ve only seen a few times since I don’t have cable, is that it seemed like every espisode involved one of these “skeptical” investigators freaking out about the slightest sound or movement.  It just seemed like they were manufacturing drama, which I suppose I mapped onto my expectations of Paravisionz.  I should be more careful not to prejudge people who certainly have the best of intentions.

As I said before, I do not think that most ghost hunters are purposefully trying to hoax the public.  I do believe that they are genuinely friendly people, who are just having fun and are probably fantasy-prone.  Some of them are believers, some are skeptics, some are indifferent, but they are all individuals.  They don’t deserve to be painted with a wide brush, nor does anyone, and I’m sorry that I wasn’t more careful with my words.

You may want to check out the ongoing discussion here for some more context to understand this post.