Posts Tagged "local"
What can grassroots skeptics do about ghost hunting?
I’ve often been asked how grassroots skeptics and grassroots skeptic organisations (such as ‘skeptics in the pub’ groups) can deal with pseudo-scientific ghost hunting teams on a local level. This was also a point raised by the lovely Andy Wilson who hosted the ‘Ghost Investigations Today’ panel at QEDcon in February 2011.
There certainly is potential for such groups to get involved on a local level but the key is taking the right approach, and knowing what to look for. That’s why I’m writing this post in the hope that it can help those wanting to approach ghost teams, or deal with the nonsense and associated fear they often spread.
This blogger is missing
My name is ‘Torn’* and I am Hayley’s imaginary friend. I have been forced to surface and make myself useful for once as Hayley has gone missing. It all started when a mysterious trunk arrived in the hallway, Hayley had purchased it a few days before in a shop the next town over where people drop off old furniture they no longer want or need, so that others can buy it with the profits going to a charity. Cut price furniture raising much needed cash. It was right up her street.
She’s always been a fan of Charity shops and happened to just be wandering around this one when she bumped into the chest – well, she described it more as ‘it seemed as though it jumped out and banged into my legs with such a force that I nearly toppled over. When I looked down, there it was, sitting in the centre of the aisle that I had thought to be clear of obstruction just seconds before.”
Hayley bought it because she has been getting fed up with the clutter in her room, and she also claimed that it reminded her slightly of one of her favourite characters from the Discworld novels written by her favourite Author, Sir Terry Pratchett – The Luggage.
That reason sealed the deal for her and she happily handed over the £20 asking price before leaving the store – not before giving the trunk a gentle tap on the head on the way out. She said she could have sworn it trembled beneath her hand as she did so, but then theorised that it was more reasonable that there had been a very precise, short earthquake instead. “Trunks don’t tremble” she told us, “However, earthquakes can be rude bastards, so that’s probably what it was. Blood earthquakes”.
Anyway, to cut a long story short – the trunk arrived, Hayley got all happy and excited and declared “I’m going to check it for teeth”. She left the living room where the rest of us were sitting to check the trunk for teeth, and she hasn’t returned since.
So if you see her can you let us know? It might be worth checking at your local charity shop – do good, feel good, get goods. Only… not goods that might eat you…
*Torn is an inside joke… some of you will know, some wont. Teehee…
Check it out…
