Posts Tagged "skeptic"
Is there anybody there?
In January I spoke for the Centre For Inquiry about ghosts, ghost hunting and ghost hunters. The CFI have since made the video of the talk available and I have embedded it below.
This was a brand new talk I hadn’t delivered before, there was also an issue with the sound and I was also suffering from a throat infection. Apart from that though I don’t think it is too bad at all. (Even if I may say so myself…)
Following the talk I made several posts. I clarified my points about the SPR and Ethics here and here. Also, the EVP recordings didn’t play well during the talk so I made them available on my website here.
As a side note, I recently interviewed Dave Wood, the chairman of ASSAP, and CJ Romer, an investigator I have a lot of respect for, about the ethics of ghost hunting for the Righteous Indignation Podcast. You can listen online here. It ties in with the points I made within my talk quite nicely.
Once again, Thank you to the CFI and the BHA for inviting me to talk, and for being such friendly, gracious hosts.
Intimidation as a distraction
You may remember that a while ago I blogged about a man called Don Philip who in involved with a paranormal group called GSI UK. After I was critical of the methods they used on investigations I was subjected to abuse from Don. You can read about it here and here, but to summarise the experience, rather than answer the criticisms as I had offered him the chance to, he ranted and raved online about how GSI were being attacked because of how good they were.
I’m not at all surprised to discover that Don Philip has been doing the same recently, in response to a media student who dared to email Don to get his side of a story.
The media student, Chris, had been approached by some people who had allegedly worked with Don and other members of GSI UK in the past who made allegations about Don and his team mates. Chris emailed Don to get his side of events regarding the allegations.
Rather than respond to the criticisms Don has ranted and raved on his Facebook pages and groups for days and days. He has openly attempted to intimidate the media student involved.
Image of comments left on the GSI Facebook page reads:
“Nick Stoppani-Presenter: Can’t see a link there myself mate, I wonder what the college would say I’d [sic] they learned what one of their students was up to? Also could you let me know what Ctoff has said please.
GSI Paranormal U.U & GSI Paranormal X events: Not so hasty Nick, I’ve just got to finish printing these posts off for someone who has requested them
Nick Stopanni-Presenter: OK don’t forget to inbox be [sic] what he has posted so I can show the officer later.”
Image of status from the GSI Facebook Group admin reads:
“Police just been, it would appear our freelance reporter is actually a media student. Interestingly he went to the police the day after I posted that I had reported my [sic] this myself, but he went claiming he was being harassed by ME ! ummm…”
Image of Facebook quote from GSI Paranormal reads:
“Update: In light of the idiotic accusations from x3 known individuals, x1 of which should really no [sic] better ! & all in an attempt to thwart the progress of (G.S.I) I thought the seriousness of money extortions etc best be looked at by the police. Now I have suggested the idiots making these claims take their so called evidence to the police themselves ? there seems to be some reluctance to do so on their part! So……… I thought I [sic] help you out ad [sic] a the same time show how pathetic your claims are: I spent a whole a the police station on your behalf last night, gave the all your emails / accusations / including the email where you claim to have recorded evidence!!! CRIME REF NO: LEP12 02 12 – 0701. They have promised to come see me today. KEEP YOUR EVIDENCE SAFE THEY MAY WANT TO SEE IT!! Now post this in your story oon the 17th ! (& do one) as I’m wasting no more time with wanna be (freelance reporters) (Rival ghost team members & their stories) or indeer amateur film makers who also tell porkys!”
Instead of intimidating a student by making public posts that Don knows Chris will read, about reporting him to the police, publically sharing his email address and making abusive posts about him, Don could have (and should have) just responded to the private email from Chris in response to the allegations that had been made to Chris by other people.
If those other people had lied then that isn’t Chris’ fault – at least he had the decency to follow the allegations up with the other party involved. More than the mainstream did with me recently, I can assure you.
When I saw the drama on the GSI Facebook page I wasn’t at all surprised but I was annoyed. Don Philip appears to be a very closed minded individual who cannot handle any criticism leveled his way whatsoever. It’s a shame, because when you stick your head above the parapet you will become a target for criticsm. Whether that criticism is justified or not doesn’t matter. It’s something you have to expect to deal with – especially when you make the sort of claims Don does.
Being abusive and rude wont distract people from the original criticisms being leveled in your direction – it just strengthens the criticisms against you. To simply abuse everyone who dares to criticise you, to claim they’re only doing it to ‘ruin’ your reputation and the ‘good’ work that you do is at best naive, and at worst, arrogant.
Grow up, Mr Philip!
I really don’t want to write much more about Don Philip and the GSI UK team because I have much more important stuff to be concentrating on, but Don just doesn’t seem to understand my points and I want to round things off with a final post here.
Trystan Swale has written about Don and GSI here and here, and in the comments of the first article Don has responded in the same way he did on my blog – by missing the point and attacking the critic rather than answering their criticisms.
To make matters worse Don is now using the video of the ‘Ghost Investigations Today’ panel from the QED conference in 2011 as proof that I am not open minded and not to be taken seriously. He is doing this on Facebook pages where I cannot comment or reply. When I did initially reply to the post on the GSI Paranormal UK Facebook page I was deleted from the page and my comment removed.
I believe Don and the GSI team have too much invested in what they do to even consider that they might be incorrect. Not allowing me to respond to his criticism of me is poor form. This is how open to criticism Don is.
Don, if you’re reading this you should understand that there is a difference between bitching about somebody and offering constructive criticism. When you allow the person you are writing about to openly respond to what has been written that is fair, which is how I have acted in my criticism of you and GSI. However, when you write about someone and don’t let them respond like you have with me, you’re just being bitchy. Grow up.
A face at the window?
Quite a lot of people have been in touch with me about a recent ghost photo that has been doing the rounds. At first I wasn’t going to write about it at all as I’ve seen it covered elsewhere. However given the amount of people getting in touch via my site I’ll share my thoughts here.
The BBC recently ran a piece on a photograph thought to show the apparition of a ghost with a feature on their site titled ‘Raised spirits on demolition site in Cumbria’. A photo was taken of a building about to be demolished by those who were conducting the work, and when the demolition worker returned home and uploaded the photos his wife spotted the apparition that many believe to be the spirit of a deceased woman who used to live on the site.
You can see what is thought to be a white face with some sort of white collar near the neck, and darkened shoulders too. I am more convinced though that this is more likely to be an illusion than anything significant.
However, because the building has been demolished we will never be able to conduct any further study of this, so speculation is all we really have.
It’s clear to see the windows have a fair amount of condensation on them meaning that the inside of the building is quite distorted. Through the window to the right and behind the apparition you can see the darkened outlines of a doorframes – and to the very left there looks to be a window further back in the building that is letting light in. Or perhaps a door with panes of glass in it. Apart from that there isn’t much interior detail at all.
The first thing that came to my mind was how tiny the ‘person’ was. If you compare their height to the doorways behind them ‘they’ reach about half way up. I would expect an adult to be at least a foot or two higher. Not only that but the hair starts about half way back on the crown of their head and they have a flat face.
We don’t have any interior photos of the building to hand to make comparisons with and so are unable to try and rule possible causes for this out.
Dave Armstrong, of Kendal contractors Cox and Allen, told The Telegraph:
“There was only a black wall behind the window, we had taken everything out – there were no visible features or anything with a skin colour.”
If we are to go on his word it would suggest that there was nothing in the room to cause what appears in the photograph. However we know that memory can be flawed and that things can be misremembered and without any other photos or footage to make comparisons with it’s just impossible to be 100% sure. It could be furnishings they don’t remember being in there, it could be a person, it could be something on the window itself… without anything other than testimony we simply cannot be sure either way.
I do not want to be quick to just dismiss something as an illusion, but I also don’t want to be quick to claim something must be paranormal, when in fact there’s no justification in reaching such a conclusion.
At first glance this looks human, but when you zoom in there are things that just don’t look at all human to me… It’s never simple, is it?
Hayley is a ghost
When I became tangled up in the web that is ‘paranormal research’ at the age of Eighteen, I did so because I was looking for information and answers. In all the subsequent years I have found information, I have found answers and I have discovered more questions.
The more I have learnt, the more I have discovered I do not know.
I am open minded and curious, more than most people involved in paranormal research can truthfully say. Most people have their minds made up one way or another, but I don’t. Some people involved in ‘the field’ have an agenda or are aiming to gain something from it, but I’ve never really aimed for that. Even though some people think I have.
It’s concerning that so many people are content to say something is a ghost and be so sure of it when there is no rational way such an explanation is reasonably sound. The main problem with paranormal research is the amount of people who are so sure of their own ability (and not just ghost believers, either).
A lot of people involved in paranormal research need to just chill the eff out.
Since the age of Eighteen I have just been exploring the world we live in through curious eyes, and that has led me to be the skeptical individual I am today. I used to believe a lot of naive things and I learnt better. I still believe a lot of naive things, and over time I will learn better. Being critical of ourselves is the best way in which we can develop our understanding of the very nature of our existence.
I became involved in paranormal research to discover things I didn’t know about, and I continue to do that to this very day. Everything else has just been opportunities people have passed my way that I’ve taken them up on. All the talks, all the writing, all the interviews…
They’ve all been great fun, and they’ve enabled me to discuss my ever changing story with other people who’ve never held the curiosity in the paranormal that I have. It’s helped me make other people think about things, and it’s helped me meet like minded people and be challenged by the questions I’ve been asked.
Over the years I have come to believe that the answers to why people experience strange things lies within psychology and neurology. We (as the human race) are starting to deconstruct myths that have for a long time baffled many, and scientists and researchers are offering up explanations about things masses of people experience.
There is a lot still to be learnt, and a lot of what is being discovered is exciting and confusing, but progress is being made.
It’s why last year I decided to change the way in which I approach my exploration of the subject. I’ve started to study psychology with The Open University in the hope that when I’m much older I’ll be a bit more satisfied with how I understand the world.
The way in which people believe, perceive and think has always fascinated me, and I hope to be able to dig deeper and learn much more over the coming decade as a student.
This does mean I’m not going to have as much time to dedicate to as many projects as I did before, but I don’t see that being an overly negative thing.
I recently revamped the ‘Ghost Field Guide’ podcast and renamed it as ‘Talk About Strange’, I don’t think it will be a regular show but I will update it as and when I can with interesting pieces and interviews (of which I already have some to edit down). The Righteous Indignation Podcast was recently put on hold, but that doesn’t mean it has totally vanished. We’re not sure what will happen in the future with it, and sometimes it’s good for things to not have a long term plan. Life is a spontaneous thing, and I think it should be lived that way too. There are over 104 episodes of RI (if you could the Unlucky Dips) and I am really proud of the show and all it has achieved, and will continue to achieve. I will always be an indignate 
Project Barnum is my baby and there are some absolutely fun things coming up for it. On January 5th Project Barnum launched the Monthly Actions for people to participate in with ‘The Horoscope Challenge’ and I’ve seen some really interesting feedback already. I do believe that when I launched Project Barnum I didn’t do so in the most organised of manners, and I let other peoples ideas influence the direction it launched in too heavily. However, this year things should be interesting on the PB front.
There are some really decent people supporting it, and so many people have reported back to me that the site and the resources have genuinely helped them that I think I’ve done something right there (and I’m not just doing a Colin Fry and allegedly blowing my own trumpet…)
I will continue to blog as I always have. Both here and over on The Vigilantes Blog too. I don’t see there ever being a time where I wont share my thoughts with those who follow me on this site. Blogging has been the foundation of everything I have done since the age of Eighteen, and it will continue to be so for as long as I shall live.
I have so many books to catch up on, so many research reports to read, and so much ahead of me to learn. It’s going to be exciting. 2012 is going to be the year in which I step up the quest that the Eighteen year old me started. Things have only just begun.
Check it out…
