Drooper
4th November 2003, 03:34 AM
The hardest battle of the sceptic has to be the battle against anecdote.
"I know a friend who was cured by homeopathy."
"I once staid in a house and heard someone in my room".
etc.
Maybe one way to combat that is with counter-anecdote. Like the one I heard on the TV last night.
There was this bloke (some British blue blood) relating how his family seat (mansion for you yanks) had a notorious history and was rumoured to be haunted. In one room was a bed that had, supposedly at one time, been the bed of a child strangling ancestor.
One night a guest was staying in the room, in the very same bed. He was awoken by the distinct sound of heavy breating in the bed next to him. He turned on a bed-side lamp, at which the beathing stopped and he found nothing in his bed.
It is at this point that most paranormal anecdotes finish. Unexplained heavy breathing, nobody there, must be a ghost.
However, this bloke was a true skeptic. He thought nothing of it, turned off the light and went back to sleep.
However, the breating sound returned, so he turned on the lamp again with the same result - noise stopped. This made him curious, so he got out of bed, went to the main switch and turned it on. After an investiagtion of the room, he oped the window and looked outside, where he found an owl perched under the eaves just outside. At that point he immediately recognised the supposed breathing as the noise of the owl, that was silenced every time the light came on.
Never be satisfied by a cursory exposition of "facts".
"I know a friend who was cured by homeopathy."
"I once staid in a house and heard someone in my room".
etc.
Maybe one way to combat that is with counter-anecdote. Like the one I heard on the TV last night.
There was this bloke (some British blue blood) relating how his family seat (mansion for you yanks) had a notorious history and was rumoured to be haunted. In one room was a bed that had, supposedly at one time, been the bed of a child strangling ancestor.
One night a guest was staying in the room, in the very same bed. He was awoken by the distinct sound of heavy breating in the bed next to him. He turned on a bed-side lamp, at which the beathing stopped and he found nothing in his bed.
It is at this point that most paranormal anecdotes finish. Unexplained heavy breathing, nobody there, must be a ghost.
However, this bloke was a true skeptic. He thought nothing of it, turned off the light and went back to sleep.
However, the breating sound returned, so he turned on the lamp again with the same result - noise stopped. This made him curious, so he got out of bed, went to the main switch and turned it on. After an investiagtion of the room, he oped the window and looked outside, where he found an owl perched under the eaves just outside. At that point he immediately recognised the supposed breathing as the noise of the owl, that was silenced every time the light came on.
Never be satisfied by a cursory exposition of "facts".