Monday, September 5, 2011

Top Skeptic Goes Ghost busting

 "Every generation of humans believed it had all the answers it needed, except for a few mysteries they assumed would be solved at any moment. And they all believed their ancestors were simplistic and deluded. What are the odds that you are the first generation of humans who will understand reality ?"    — Scott Adams.

Michael Shermer is the editor of “Skeptic Magazine” and the new version of Phil Klass. His smug, one dimensional answers to complex phenomena seems to satisfy the dead scientists, those who’s imaginations and insights have all but  been lost. So it was with some amazement  that while watching a new program on Travel Channel, “Paranormal Challenge”  whose face pops up as a judge?…you guessed it- good old Dr.  Shermer.

The show is hosted by Zak from the “Ghost Adventure” Series. This seems to be a spin off show for the summer. They take two actual paranormal investigative groups and put them inside a famous hunt and judge them on history, teamwork, equipment and of course evidence.
They usually have three judges from well known and respected fields in the paranormal community who decide along with Zak which side wins.
So what was the good doctor doing there? Did he come with an open mind to be an objective judge?….NAH! He came to set the competing groups up with a lie.  See the idea here… according to Garp …OH, I mean Dr. Shermer, is that you tell the groups different false tales filled with scary details  about a certain rooms in the haunt. Then you can watch and see how these investigators will be influenced by the false flags. Anyway, to give you a taste,  here is a video of the part in the show that deals with Michael Shermer. After the video I have some comments including a “hats off” to Dr. Shermer.





It is easy to spout all types of easy answers and throw a great deal of data at something and announce a mystery is solved. It is quite another to put your ideas in motion out of your head and in the real world to test them. Here Dr. Shermer failed because any good paranormal investigative group worth it’s salt should be aware of power of suggestion.
I give credit to Mr. Shermer for being honest and saying he found them objective and that he gave an EVP a 4 or 5. That was fair. But unless Dr. Michael Shermer is willing to go the whole nine yards and spend an overnight in the most haunted places in America (take your pick) then it will still be subjective opinion. Because, just  like  in the UFOs experience, getting up close and personal with a ghost is a life changing experience.

Joe Capp
UFO Media Matters
Non-Commercial Blog

10 comments:

  1. Hi again. I just read you battled health problems. I hope your health is improving. Keep up the fight.

    The skeptics are a very interesting bunch of people indeed. They try to portray themselves as some sort of spokesmen for the scientific community when in fact many scientists (probably more than we think) are not in agreement with them at all. (perfectly normal for scientific discourse contrary to what the skeptics like you to believe)

    The skeptics seen on TV or as read in Skeptics Magazine are not that many either but can fool anyone to believe so because of their notorious ways. As the lobbyists they are, they always try to appear on the forefront in the media. Sadly the usually succeed at that too...

    Too bad media sees these people as impartial and scientific when they aren't. I can only mention their critique against Christianity and the bible as valid skepticism and good political discourse. The problem is - picking apart the bible and Christianity in general is not very hard and more on a novice level. Dealing with UFOs is upping the ante several times. It is like jumping to advanced level right away. Now you're dealing with a scientific cross section - touching on almost every scientific discipline there is. That is a WHOLE lot more than what they (obviously) believed they had bargained for. Foolishly these lobbyists continue making the mistake of thinking UFOs will be as easy picking.

    I have written many comments on the subject of skeptics before and the foul tactics they use. History have not been kind to these people and their claims. They have been proven wrong over and over again and will be in the future as well - just as your well spoken quote explains.

    Thanks and all the best,
    Daniel Bergh, Sweden.

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  2. Joseph, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Ghost Adventures advertise that Shermer was to be on Paranormal Challenge! So of course I had to watch. As I posted on my blog SkeptiWatch I hated to admit it, but Shermer was actually low key and even admitted he couldn't explain away an incident. Of course, as you wrote, he had to go and do his skeptic thing by giving the teams false stories, which, makes some kind of sense. On the other hand what if the spirits heard all that then presented themselves as such? Speaking of challenges, if Paranormal Challenge has skeptics, then why doesn't Randi have "believers" on his challenge team?

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  3. how I agree with you. the truth is in our very DNA (even the DNA of certain animals)... click on http://bit.ly/gw7fAE read to the end of that post, where you will see a secret link to another post...hit it and learn.

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  4. Joe there's no sound to this. Still not a fan of Shermer, his past logic is one where the obvious is the answer, and current knowledge is all that can be applied to answer his questions. He's just too limited for me, he has his place challenging wild theories, but then he just goes too far with his conclusions and ignores the leaking anomaly coming out of his bucket of logic. And don't even get me started on his UFO debates where he didn't even know the facts of a story. Sometimes I feel like he's the Richard Hoagland of skeptics, where he makes his money off of people's desires, except in this case it's not conspiracies, but the need for solidity in life.

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