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Twentieth Century Fox
A scene from the 2008 movie "Shutter" shows a ghostly shape in a photo.
Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell has busted a lot of ghostly myths over the past 40 years — but the spookiest part of his job comes when he actually catches a ghost red-handed.
No, we're not talking about spirits of the dead: These "ghosts" are hotel clerks who flick the lights to keep the guests talking about the place's ghost story. Or a mischievous child who plays tricks on his parents. Or maybe a camera crew catching weird-looking "orbs" floating through the frame — orbs they didn't notice until they looked at the pictures later.
"Much of what so-called ghost hunters are detecting is themselves," Nickell, the author of "The Science of Ghosts," told me this week. "If they go through a haunted house and stir up a lot of dust, they shouldn't be surprised if they get a lot of orbs in their photographs."
The orbs are actually out-of-focus reflections from a camera flash, created by dust particles floating in front of the lens. The clumping noises that ghost hunters hear often turn out to be the footsteps of crew members elsewhere in the building, or even someone on a stairway next door. And those weird readings they pick up with thermal imagers? They're typically left behind by the flesh-and-blood visitors.
A tough job
Tracking down the truth behind spooky sightings is a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, Nickell said.
"It takes only a moment for someone to say that they saw something," he said, "but it can take a huge expenditure for someone to fly somewhere, and they might never re-create that one little moment."
Joe Nickell
Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell appears to be surrounded by an aura in a photograph that was created to duplicate a spooky effect.
Nickell, a former professional magician and detective, has been that someone for Skeptical Inquirer magazine and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry since the 1970s. "I've been in more haunted houses than Casper," he joked. And the truth is that there are worse jobs in the world.
"I wouldn't want anyone ever to know this, but it really is a great deal of fun to do what I do," Nickell said.
In "The Science of Ghosts," Nickell spins a series of tales about his worldwide travels. His first haunted-house investigation, in 1972, took place at Toronto's Mackenzie House, where residents reported seeing apparitions hovering over their bed, and hearing footsteps when no one else was in the house. Nickell ascribed the apparitions to "waking dreams," a phenomenon that leads people to see things when they're half-asleep or in an idle reverie. And as for those footsteps: Nickell found out that there was an iron staircase in the building next door. The strange sounds were traced to a late-night cleanup crew tromping up and down those stairs.
Nickell learned a lot from that first case. "You must go on site, and you must investigate just like any other piece of detective work," Nickell said. "You can treat the house as a sort of crime scene."
Other cases involved spirit photographs, such as the ones that show orbs or bright streaks. One family called Nickell in to explain a series of pictures that showed bright, hazy loops of energy in the foreground. Nickell eventually figured out that the loops were created when a flash bounced off a camera strap dangling in front of the lens. "Now we know about the camera-strap effect," Nickell said.
Taking on TV psychics
Nickell also takes on psychic mediums who claim to speak with the dead. In the book, he traces his encounters with TV-show medium John Edward, who uses so-called "cold reading" techniques to draw information out of a crowd. (For example, "I feel like someone with a J- or G-sounding name has recently passed. ...")
"The people who profess to be able to talk to the dead tend to be either fantasy-prone personalities, or charlatans, or possibly a bit of both," Nickell declared. "They would be harmless if they didn't mislead so many people."
Nickell totally understands why a belief in ghosts and the afterlife is so important to people. "If ghosts exist, then we don't really die, and that's huge. ... It appeals to our hearts," he said. "We don't want our loved ones to die. We have this whole culture that we're brought up with, that encourages this belief in ghosts."
Once a ghost story gets attached to a place or a situation, then almost anything that happens can be interpreted as supporting that story, he said. That's one reason why ghostbusting can be a thankless job. Another reason is that it's so hard to wrap your arms around the evidence — or, more appropriately, the lack thereof.
"No one is bringing you a ghost trapped in a bottle," Nickell said. "What they're offering is, 'I don't know.' Over and over, they're saying something like this: 'We don't know what the noise in the old house was, or the white shape in the photo. So it must be a ghost.' These are examples of what's called an argument from ignorance. You can't make an argument from a lack of knowledge. You can't say, 'I don't know, therefore I do know.'... If I could just teach people a little bit about the argument from ignorance, I think we could give the ghosts their long-needed rest."
Do you agree? Or do you have some truly spooky ghost stories to share for the Halloween season? Whether you're a believer or a skeptic, feel free to share your tale as a comment below.
Extra credit: Even as Nickell and I were having our conversation this week, word was getting out about the death of skeptical thinker Paul Kurtz at the age of 86. Kurtz was the founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, the Center for Inquiry, Prometheus Books and Skeptical Inquirer. He was also Nickell's mentor.
"Paul really gave me an office to work out of, and he just let me work," Nickell said. "I think of him as the father of the worldwide skeptic movement."
Nickell noted that some skeptics think there's no need to respond to claims they consider silly. But Kurtz took a different view. "He realized early on that there really needed to be a voice to respond," Nickell said. And that's what made Nickell what he is today: the world's longest-running full-time professional paranormal investigator.
More Halloween tales:
- 2002: Ghostly mysteries solved
- 2003: Why we seek out an eek
- 2004: Sharing your scares
- 2005: Ghosts on the rise
- 2006: Bring me your ghost stories!
- 2007: The science of spooks
- 2008: Chasing phantoms on film
- 2008: The science of bloodsuckers
- 2009: Seven ghoulish discoveries
- 2010: Spooky stuff from NASA
- 2010: How your brain handles terror scares
- 2011: Why the 'paranormal' is just normal
- 2012: Why werewolves give us the willies
Stay tuned for more Halloween angles in the days ahead, including reality checks on werewolves (Team Jacob!) and vampires (Team Edward!).
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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I don't know, but the best ghost stories I ever read were those in THE GHOSTS OF BROOKLYN by L. Salazar
I have been on the planet for quite awhile, and have been in many places around the world, and have NEVER seen ANY evidence of ghosts, demons, Sasquatch, the Loch Ness monster, UFOs, or any other form of similar nonsense. Especially in this day and age, when everyone has a camera or camera phone, and information from around the world is readily available to anyone, WHY IS THERE NOT ONE CRYSTAL-CLEAR, IRREFUTABLE, UNDOCTORED PHOTOGRAPH OF ANY OF THESE SO-CALLED "PHENOMENON"? I'll tell you why. It's because they DON"T EXIST. We have enough real things to fear, which are mostly the nutjob people we share the planet with, and we should not fear imaginary things.
maybe,just maybe you haven't been everywhere and seen everything. Don't be so quick to call people liars. I grew up in a haunted house. Guess I was lucky to have such a enlightening experience. At least I have an open mind.
There are the pictures I took in January 1983 to consider! Sincerely, Brian Osburn
blogcritics.org whack culture whack article whack can-the-existence-of-ghosts-be
The professional skeptic that this article is written about is PAID to be a skeptic. I would rather have someone who has an OPEN mind who experiences something and tries THEN to debunk it. Yes, some paranormal experiences can be explained, but some can't. ANYBODY who says before they go in to a place that is supposed to be haunted that it either IS or ISN'T doesn't have an open mind and therefore is suspect.
For example, my father moved into the house that he and my mom were building for their retirement after Mom died. He had a circuit breaker that kept tripping - only one. He had the electrical system checked and re-checked and RE-RE-checked and no electrician could ever come up with a reason for why it was happening. When he re-married, the frequency with which the circuit breaker was tripping decreased (but it still happens). We can't explain what is causing it. We have our own personal theories, but in light of the people who are making fun of others on this forum, I won't posit what we think.
All I can say; is We know what we know, and we don't know what we don't know. Without a doubt, there is a great deal we have yet to learn. I have had experiences that I am a loss to explain, despite being an ardent believer in the notion that everything has an explanation. While somewhat skeptical about an "afterlife", I'll also be the last person to deny its existence simply because it hasn't been definatively proven to exist..............
boy,you are knowledgeable
That is pretty knowledgeable to realize that we don't know all that we don't know. Think of a cavelady in her cave coming out to heat food on a simple fire. Would she believe me if I told her all I can do in my kitchen? She would think I was crazy or a liar. And what would her mate say if I described how men could sit in a plane and fly to other places? We really don't know what we don't know. Heck, when I was 16 I thought I knew all that I had to learn and that I had so much figured out. I was so clueless...even at 25 or 30, and each day I look back and marvel at what I thought I knew yesterday, and how it was such a tiny part of such a big picture. I'll shake my head tomorrow over what I learn and how I didn't know it today, too. Learn...grow...keep an open mind.
I used to live in an apartment. Funny things would happen from time to time. I am one of those people who don't remove my keys from my pants when I come home. I also don't remove my wallet from my pants. I also have a habit of always feeling my pants pockets each morning as I'm leaving my house for both those items. Every once in a while one of them would be missing from my pocket. I would literally have to tear the place apart to find them. I always found them in the most unusual locations. I've found my keys in cupboards I've hadn't opened for weeks, in the drawers of my night stand I hadn't opened for ages or in clothes hanging in my closet I hadn't worn since the chance in seasons. I've found my wallet in the oven I hadn't used in days or maybe the refrigerator.Things like that. I finally just decided some mischievous spirit lived in the place with me. I moved from that apartment into a home 3 years ago. It's never happened since.
On another note when I was younger, (Child through my 20's.) I could tell when we drove past a graveyard. We could be driving through a city I had never been in but I could always tell. I've been where if felt like there was a graveyard but I saw no sign of one only to find out later it had been moved. I hated the things. I always felt like someone was standing near me. It always seemed like I could feel the bodies buried there. It's been about 20 years now since I could do that. It was a talent I am happy to do without.
Our Ghost,when I was growing up, she would move things, our keys, hairbrush, turn on the radio,tv,lights. Guess you would have to be there to believe it, but it's true......
One time I was attending my friend's mother's wake. I was sitting on the end of the row next to my then-boyfriend-now-husband on my left side - No one sitting behind me. I kept hearing during the time I was there some heavy breathing to my right. I kept looking over my shoulder to see if anyone was there, but no one ever was.
My friend's mother was a heavy smoker, but died of blood poisoning. I can only image she decided to come over and see me and the new boyfriend since I missed seeing her before she died.
I also heard my grandmother say my name; she had died in the morning, and in the afternoon I heard my name being called by my grandmother, and as I turned I realized that she was not there since she had already died. I guess that she decided to visit us before moving on to wherever she was going.
I lived in a haunted house from the age of 14 till the age of 20. I faced the paranormal everyday. I believe in Ghosts just like I believe in Almighty God.Anyone with a brain,should be able to plainly see what God has made,great ocean's tree's,flower's,bird's,your beating heart.Your love for another person.I am not talking about organized religion,I do not participate.Your soul is immortal,once you leave this life you pass to a different dimension.I know it, I feel it.
So sorry about your apparent head injury at 14.
What a buzz-kill story, just in time for Halloween.
Wow, a lot of people need to seriously grow up and stop being so gullible. Just because you want to live in some magic fairytale world doesn't make this guy a bad person which I've seen some of you state. I'm sure you have experiences and so forth, it's interesting though that these experiences are never obvious and they are always hidden in some way, it's never something like a ghost walks into a grocery store or something obvious like that which would of course be proof. To me, thinking that oh they are just mysterious and don't want to be seen and just want to fool people....give me a break.
Is that seriously what you think/want? That when you die you just float around and scare the sh*t out of people? It truly is the argument from ignorance like stated in the article, "I don't know, therefor I know".
hahaha can't imagine just floatin around might be boring
So you can see the air above the water in that half-full glass? Nope. Is it there? Yep. If you claim you don't see any energy around that isn't explainable how can you prove it isn't there? So you don't see things...do you truly believe that if there were spirits they would feel the need to poof into being in a crowded grocery store for entertainment effect or just to show you they are there? Really...some people don't taste some chemicals, but others do strongly. Does that mean the chemicals don't have a bitter flavor because some people can't taste it?
If you want some really good evidence go to Hulu.com and watch a few episodes of "Paranormal Witness". They show lots of actual footage and images of what was seen. I especially enjoyed the story about the haunted office building. The first company had to move out because of the ghosts. The second tenant was a laser researcher. When told about the ghosts, he set up cameras to capture the phenomena and they show the actual footage.
Ram, you are jumping in and out of physics, in one sense you say some people taste chemicals and others don't. That has nothing to do with seeing apparitions. There is a physiological reason why we do or don't taste certain things, the claim you are defending is not physiological it is supernatural, I don't buy into that.
I don't think that any less ridiculous than any other supernatural appearance. And how would you know? What it comes down to is you are trying to justify supernatural occurrences with physics when they simply can't. We know what air is made of and where it exists.
It's one thing to keep and open mind, it's another thing to be gullible and want something to be true so bad that you will believe/justify pretty much anything to support it.
Are there things that happen that are not readily explainable? Of course, but why is it that every unknown seems to be, oh well it must be supernatural then because we don't know what it is.
Don't feel it's a buzz kill at all, gives a little hope,if your hangin....
Just wondering if Mr Nickell ever investagated anything that "Ghost Hunters" has uncovered. I stand in the middle with these things but I watch Ghost Hunters with Jason Hawes and sometimes ..... just sometimes I do believe. It would be interesting in what Mr Nickell has to say about TAPS and Mr. Hawes team. Just a thought.
I have seen stuff move. I've seen and heard a bunch of other stuff...knocks on the door, thing falling off walls) that I am sure were ghost related but I can't prove. But seeing something move--3 times now--you will never convince me that ghosts aren't real.
We are right now living through the ghost of democracy.
Many of the world's most brilliant scientific minds, especially in physics, are now saying that they cannot solve the mystery of creation and that they seem to be knocking on the doors of the divine as they proceed with such discoveries as parallel worlds (announced in 2010 by the British Broadcasting Corporation and other media). Like dinosaurs could be walking past you in your living room without you knowing it, etc. I come from a family where predictions of the future are rife dating from ancestors in the ancient spiritual milieus of Britanny/Normandy, France, and South India where our forbears were Brahmin priests with powerful powers to see the future in dreams and visions. Family members still experience this with incredibly detailed predictions which are only unreliable not regarding their accuracy, but insofar as WHEN they would happen. So, you cannot depend on them as they may occur within hours or a day, if not within days, months or years; still, the accuracy of minute details is astounding. My research into a scientific explanation leads me to believe like many scientists, that time exists nowhere outside the human mind, whereas at the level of the universe or the 'multiverse' (parallel universes), there is a timeless spatial dimension where there is no past, present or future. Can the human mind, which communicates by unseen means with animals and other human minds, be attracted by some physical event into a timeless dimension that gives glimpses of the future in premonitory/predictive dreams and visions? Anyway, scientists say that there are parallel universes ad infinitum where there are an infinite number of replicas of ourselves in worlds replicated infinitely. Whatever these prove on the scientific level, gives weight to the probability that there is 'something or someone out there' that is 'creating' worlds just as we create bubles of soap. It could well be a divine dimension that eludes our most brilliant scientific minds, including, among them, fervent believers in God, among which I count myself.
Please tell us who these brilliant scientific minds are.
Just a note that having experience with spirits or whatever you want to call them, or having any unexplainable experience, doesn't automatically mean you think God did it or mean you must be religious. You can believe that spiritual or paranormal things happen/exist and not be religious or attribute them to God. To each her/his own views, and there is no reason to make fun of people for choosing to not want to allow the possibility of things outside the supposed norm or people who do. It would be rather silly in my view to experience something that really can't be explained no matter how hard you try, but to still insist it simply can't be anything paranormal because there is no such thing possible...lol. Think, research, experience, and then choose whatever path works for you, but also allow others to do that without being rude or dismissive.
I have seen ghost first time in my life back in 2008 with my friend ! I still remember how it looked like! but it never tried to make contact with us.
OK all you skeptics may think you're so right & smug. But when I was a little girl I was watching the TV and this ghost literally reached out & pulled me into the TV! I was trapped! My folks had to do all kinds of stuff to get me back out. In the end our house just kind of imploded into the ground. Turns out they built our house on top of an old burial ground & there were evil spirits & stuff. Another time I was walking through an old hotel and all this blood just started gushing down the hallway out of nowhere. REALLY scary. The most recent incident happened when I discovered this evil spirit trapped in an old well under a shack out in the country. Tried to kill me. I had to pretend to be its mother. So you can be a skeptic all you want but I know what I know.
just cause you see something and you cant explain it..doesnt mean its a dead person floating around. if you take any house and say its haunted there is a great possibility that other people will say its also haunted just cause they go in thinking it is. the human mind is easy to mislead.
no offense but the person above said your dog wouldnt cross the room and the temperature went down and that means there was a dead person there? thats a big leap just cause your dog wouldnt cross the room and when people get scared they get the chills. its how the human body responds. has nothing to do with a ghost. and yes if someone passes away the childern and spouse will be thinking about that person all the time. that is normal and when you talk to the other person your stories start to match up. of course your going to have the same type of thoughts. again that has nothing to do with a ghost unless you want it to.
But to be fair here, where is your proof that nothing really is anything paranormal or energetic that you just don't happen to have seen or felt? Maybe it didn't mean a dead person was there or maybe it did, but you can't really prove it didn't in the absence of any physical reasons for a cold spot. If you have absolutely no other explanation for the dog's behavior maybe it wasn't a spirit and maybe it was, but since you can't prove it wasn't you still insist it can't be. How is that any different from someone saying of course it is? Your position is as wishful as the person who sees the door really does come open on its own and isn't a spirit, but still insists it must be one.
And no, your description of people's behavior after a loved one dies doesn't explain the many, many experiences people have. It isn't just thinking about someone, but seeing the person sometimes. I don't have a need to believe or not believe. Many things people claim are hoaxes, simple misinterpretation of the situation, or wishful thinking, and then some things really can't be explained away with the usual procedures. I just happen to not think that I know every single way the universe works or that I have all the answers. If you never had an experience that profoundly changed your life and you couldn't explain away it is understandable you wouldn't feel that it is possible. If you had you would have a different viewpoint, so we can respect each other's point of view and life experiences and acknowledge that none of us are always right or have all the answers and think as we wish.
I am totally confident that there is more to us than biology. Do a search on Michael Newton and watch him on youtube. His work explains life, the universe, and everything, and it makes more sense than anything else does, including the notion that we are simply biological entities. Theology, science, morality, and philosophical elements all fall into place beautifully. The paranormal, the placebo effect, and so much more are all explained. "I think, therefore I am" would not apply if we are simply robotic bio-units. To the contrary, we are quite literally not limited to this universe, and likewise, what we truly are was not created by our conceptions or births.
My best friend had the fortunate ability to see and hear all kinds of paranormal happenings in her life. I always envied her for being able to have these things happen, because I do believe that we don't honestly know everything out there.Yeah, maybe a lot of what things people see are just tricks of the mind, mistaken observances, etc. But, there is still a great many stories that my best friend had happen to her that would make your hair stand on end. She passed away this past June, and I was sure she would come back into this reality to let me know there's something else out there, and, although I am still without a sign, I think that sometime soon, I will get a signal. I sure think she's just tripping around out there, still, and plans to make it back here to let me see, finally. But my love for her and the dreams I have of her make me confident it will happen, someday.
I'm sorry for your loss, and I would suggest that sometimes the sign might not be an obvious one that we might expect. She sounds like a special friend and how lovely you got to know her so well:)
It seems to me that there are a lot of wishful thinkers on this thread. And more than a few are deficient in their understanding of science. The fact of the matter is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. It really is that simple.
Well, ordinary proof converts an extraordinary claim into an ordinary claim. When thousands of people of various religions, philosophies, ethnicities and so on all give reasonably compatible information about past lives and live between lives while under hypnosis, that should be a significant consideration. Search youtube for Michael Newton.
Not proof, but it is evidence that warrants consideration.
And perhaps science is a bit deficient in explaining every single thing in the universe. Science is a human concept and the universe doesn't have to only allow events that current science can measure. Just because we don't understand a particular process or thing doesn't mean it can't or doesn't exist. Just read the drug pamphlets and you will see medical science has no or little clue how half the medicines out today work...lol.
If you think the universe is simple you must live under a rock and never look out. Not many things are "just that simple", and the more knowledge and experience humans get the more changes to what we perceive as "normal" and "real" occur. Hopefully you don't really believe that we know all we will ever know about the universe at this moment in time? It would be an extraordinary claim to state that there is nothing we can't understand fully right this moment, and if you can prove that...well, you can't...lol.
There really is a quantum mechanical aspect to life which is capable of independent persistence long after the death of the physical body. This quantum mechanical aspect of life is the so called "spiritual" aspect of life, and it is the means for the preservation of the "soul", as well as the preservation of our long term memories. The physical body is really gestational to this quantum mechanical body, and the quantum mechanical body derives its unique organization from it. (Our "soul" is basically the start up ROM or BIOS of the human brain.) The only way that our small brains can hold a lifetime of long term multimedia memories is if they are stored in a compressed quantum mechanical level or way. These memories actually get compressed in a long term (quantum mechanical) way during REM sleep, and because of this these memories are able to carry over into the so called afterlife. - Rick Carter
Quantum mechanics is good for describing sub atomic particles, but when you apply it to organisms, it's more of a pseudoscience than anything even resembling basic scientific facts. it's strangeness lends itself well to people who are so interested in supernatural subjects that they just want to find something, anything, that will validate their beliefs, without actually trying to understand the field enough to be in agreement to those who are actually in the field.
To quote a physicist after receiving an explanation from Deepak Chopra (another person who uses QM in an attempt to validate their beliefs) that involved quantum mechanics "... i know what all those words mean... but i still have no idea what you're talking about"
Now when it comes to the idea of souls there's no real observable evidence to suggest that there is something 'in us' that doesn't rely on the structure or function of our body. memories can easily be erased through damage to the brain, personalities can be altered through damage or chemical changes(ie drugs), this points to the fact that your identity, the thing commonly thought of as a soul, is a product of, and dependent on, the structure and function of the brain, when that goes, so to does your soul.
Instead of attempting to use QM to simply validate your beliefs, you should first wonder if your beliefs can even be observed reliably in the first place. because if they can't QM is meaningless to them.
I agree with your analysis for the most part. My problem with your view is the same as my problem with almost every other "scientific" view. You are not respecting the illusion.
Look at this sentence " Now when it comes to the idea of souls there's no real observable evidence to suggest that there is something 'in us' that doesn't rely on the structure or function of our body."
If nature gave humans the ability to perceive everything it would interfere with our function. You only need to perceive the presence of that which directly impacts your survival. This creates an illusion do to the missing material. You behave as though there is no missing material in your perception.
Just because someone cannot sense the 'paranormal' doesn't mean that nobody else can.
That is the whole point of the article ..... there has been no evidence, not one, of any individual who claims some ability/experience that has shown to be what that individual wishes it to be. All it would take is one, just one, time to suggest there is some form of existence after death to lend credibility to that belief. The belief in ghosts etc is just like religion, the burden of proof is on the one making the claim. There is no need to disprove something that has no basis in reality, all this person does is explain what is really happening.
Your statement isn't true, actually. There have been many time when someone has given a message to someone from a deceased loved one that was specific, private between them, and that there was no way the person who have known the message without getting it from the deceased person.
Yep, it is easy to dismiss those things when so many are great at guessing games that give the person clues and when they use vague comments, but sometimes there isn't another explanation. Your belief that there isn't anything else than living people since you haven't experienced anything different if just that. It's your belief. People who insist there never been one shred of proof of anything paranormal or from beyond death haven't spoken to the right people or happened to have that happen to them. Sure, lots of fraud and wishful thinking are all around, but you are wrong in your statement there is is no evidence at all.
"The people who profess to be able to talk to the dead tend to be either fantasy-prone personalities, or charlatans, or possibly a bit of both," Nickell declared. "They would be harmless if they didn't mislead so many people."
Substitute the word "God" instead of "the dead" and it is just as true.
There's a lot of charlatans and gullible people out there. Let's face it, most people are not all that inquisitive and are quick to follow or be mislead... Just look at the state of the political world for the last 50 years! OK... The last 150 years!
However, I have seen and heard things where there were no 'hotel clerks'... Like in my home shortly after my father died in said home... I have seen a shadow in the form of a human move through a corridor of another home... There are powers at work in the universe we do not fully understand or perhaps even know of.
I think the fact this man Kurtz and his successor, Nickell consider them self's humanists tells me all I need to know about their agenda. I believe that agenda is just as slighted as those of the charlatans
If Hitler believed that 1+1=2 should we rewrite our entire understanding of math simply because we don't like the fact that this fact is accepted by such an unacceptable person? or can facts be independent of the person presenting them?
I don't care that you towed the line of skepticism in your first paragraph for example, I'm still skeptical of the second. Your father had recently died, and you saw a shadow, now whats the control? what's the difference between this shadow being one of the many examples of shadows that simply looks spooky, and one that has some sort of connection with your father?
Just because something is hard to explain doesn't mean it's more plausible to be explainable by something 'out of this world'.
Just as people carve faces in pumpkins to make jack o lanterns, the tendency to animate the inanimate with our own imagined likeness is as old as the evolution of human intelligence.
There is simply nothing more to say about ghosts and the 'spirit world.'
I've seen things that nobody else could see, too. Of course, that was back in college, and there may have been some other "influences" on my perception at the time. :P All kidding aside, as has been said many times before, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Personally, I'd settle for just about any proof that did not rely on someone telling me what they've seen or heard. Unfortunately, there has never been any solid, testable evidence of ghosts or spirits of any kind. Until then, it will have to remain in the fringes of science at best, or otherwise in the realm of things that need faith to be accepted.
Timothy, no worries. If someone hasn't seen what you mean by "shadows" they don't know that you don't mean the same thing as a regular shadow on the wall. Perhaps one day they will run into one and it will be a bit harder to dismiss:)
And sometimes people do know things they would have no other way of knowing than to get it from the dead person. But to each his own, and ethics are key whatever you believe or not.
When someone asks "are you a god?" you say YES!