The latest SKEPTIC has a small item about how researchers in England have noticed a huge reduction in the number of reported ghost sightings since the widespread use of cel phones. They are not sure why this is the case, but speculate that people chatting on their phones are too distracted to notice phenomena that they might once have interpreted as ghostly!

That, or radiation from cel phones disrupts ectoplasm. . . .

For some reason I thought this was gonna be a thread about pornos.



frank :-{>

Hands up everyone who now knows more about Frank than they ever wanted to. . . ?

Or, it could be ghosts are as annoyed by cell phone users as I am?

This theory goes hand in hand with why UFOs never vist big cities, people are too busy with real things to do to notice things that aren't there.

Technology is usually responsible for the shrinking and eventual disappearance of things supernatural -- tho not for the reasons that are probably at work here.

I am currently reading "Elizabeth and Mary" by Jane Dunn. This is the sad tale of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. One of the things Ms. Dunn emphasizes often in the book is the degree to which the supernatural -- God, plus various kinds of devils, imps and demons -- was taken as matter of fact in Elizabethan times. (I was reminded of a comment in a humorous book I read years ago about the plays of Shakespeare: "Have you noticed that whenever someone in a Shakespearean play says he's seen a ghost he usually has? Were people more honest in Shakespeare's day? Were ghosts?")

Every scientific advance of the last couple of hundred years or so has laid to rest one or more supernatural solutions to the same questions. No, it's not invisible imps that cause disease, nor "humors", nor godly displeasure. No, it's not spooks and demons that cause storms and lightning.

The supernatural is a lot of fun in my line of work -- but I think we can best do without it in what passes for the real world.

This theory goes hand in hand with why UFOs never vist big cities, people are too busy with real things to do to notice things that aren't there.

Not saying I believe all (or any) of the "UFO stories," but at the same time, I don't think it's THAT unrealistic to imagine that, if aliens were to come to Earth, they would pick lesser populated areas to fly over and grab specimens to investigate.

Heck, if we ever send out a space mission that discovers sentient life, we'd probably do the same thing.

Along the lines of what Frank said, I thought the subject was alluding to a VERY insensitive man......


vv

Hell, if I had a dime for every time I've had to say that...



frank :-{>

Not saying I believe all (or any) of the "UFO stories," but at the same time, I don't think it's THAT unrealistic to imagine that, if aliens were to come to Earth, they would pick lesser populated areas to fly over and grab specimens to investigate.

Do you make sure ants don't see you?

Then again, can the ants work out that you are there......

I took a course on juvenile delinquency in grad school. The crusty ol' professor was a really hoot. One day he told us how 19th Century physicians just couldn't figure out what made some kids go bad, no matter how well they were raised. They were certain some malady must be there, in the blood. At loss for a better solution, they dubbed the offending agent "degenerate plasm."

Perhaps we can find some of the vile stuff in the veins of some comics folk we know.

Stephen

Just tonight on NBC's "Dateline" program there was a segment about a neuroscientist who claims to have replicated the sensation of "religious experiences" in the lab by exposing the right brain to electomagnetic waves.

Just tonight on NBC's "Dateline" program there was a segment about a neuroscientist who claims to have replicated the sensation of "religious experiences" in the lab by exposing the right brain to electomagnetic waves.
 

******


I've read several articles on this, over the past few years. It's not a "claim", it is a well tested fact. All of the litany of "religious experiences", "out of body experiences", "near death experiences" and even alien abductions (which used to be called Hag attacks before people started mixing science and superstition) have been duplicated by stimulation of various areas of the brain, direct and otherwise.

It has even been found that certain very low frequency sound waves, such as occur in nature, can trigger all the reactions in a human being that we associate with hauntings -- feelings of uneasiness, fear, even chills.

The world becomes less fantastic, and more interesting, every day!