Electricity and ghosts??

[DangerousBeliefs]

Watching Proof Positive before my new favorite show "Ghost Plumbers" comes on....

Why do paranormal investigators use electro-magnetic devices to detect ghosts?

Why not diving rods or geiger counters or some other nonsensical device?

 

[Chemical_Penguin]

Because everyone knows that when you encounter a ghost in a haunted location your hair stands up on the back of your neck, not because you're creeped out, but because the ghost creates an electric field, much like the one when you are about to get struck by lightning. DUH!

 

[Operaider]

Is proof positive any good? I never seem to be able to catch that show. The commercials I've seen make it look like a neutral investigation. But it wouldn't be the first woowoo show to make that claim. I just happened to catch ghost buster/roto rooter show. That's my new favorite reality show. It beats Anna Nicole and the Osbornes as having the most delusional cast. I love watching the head of Taps act serious. It's almost as though he don't realize what a joke they really are.

 

[andycal]

Watching Proof Positive before my new favorite show "Ghost Plumbers" comes on....

Why do paranormal investigators use electro-magnetic devices to detect ghosts?

Why not diving rods or geiger counters or some other nonsensical device?

I think you'll find that most ghost hunters use a thermometer as their first tool. If it's cold, then there are ghosts about.

That's why you don't see ghost hunters in Antartica, it's full of spooks so there's no need.

Bring on global warming, I say. Clear 'em all out.

 

[Jyera]

... snip... Why do paranormal investigators use electro-magnetic devices to detect ghosts?...snipe...

Here's my layman opinion.
1. Ghost, Electricity and magnetism have some similarities.
They are all "invisible", although their effect are visible.
So there is natural, intuitive association.

2. When electric and magnetism become measurable, it is natural to attempt to find out if ghost can be detected by magnetic or electrical means.
The realisation that magnetism produce electricity, and that electricity can produce magnetism should have created lots of hope that ghost is firmly based on scientific phenomenon.

3. The scientific notion of an equipment to measure, gave a sense of "professionalism", of "seriousness", of "high-tech". Both scientific minded researcher as well as self-deluded person will agree to that regardless of whether it works or not.

4. Unfortunately, it is impossible to arrange a double blind test since no one is able to get the ghost to collaborate.

5. It can never be verified that ghost DO NOT exhibit electrical or magnetic properties. Thus the continued hope that it does.

6. Young "scientists" continues to be enlightened by their "ingenuity" that there could be a link between mag/elect and ghost. So there is constant revival of the concept to associate ghost and electricity or magentism.
This forms a trend

Why not diving rods or geiger counters or some other nonsensical device? [/B]

7. Magnetism is "safe". Electricity is part and parcel of human body.
8. Radioactivity is dangerous. The Danger of a Radioactive site easily overshadow the danger of a ghost.

In short,
The scientific spirit of investigation probably started, and sustained all these.
These "scientific" approach is convienently adopted or exploited by people intended to perpetuate the lie that there is real ghost.

 

[steenkh]

I would like to add that deepest down, most people do not understand what electricity or magnetism is. As Jyera says, they are both invisible, and yet they have an undeniable impact on the real world. Especially magnetism is poorly understood, and that is probably why so many scams and well-intended paranormal "explanations" build on this concept. When invoking magnetism for some phenomenon, you are postulating that you have some scientific foundation for your claim, and at the same time, hardly anybody will understand what you are saying, at least not among the believer crowds.

 

[rppa]

How about this? Try to imagine a non-corporeal being, a la Star Trek. If a being doesn't have a solid body, what does it have? An organized electromagnetic field. Voila!

It's basically the sci-fi thing of trying to think what something is made of, if not matter.

You could pile on a layer of pseudoscience by talking about how the mind is an electromagnetic field in the brain, and so after the brain and body go away, the thoughts are left, which are obviously electromagnetic.

 

[DangerousBeliefs]

Is proof positive any good? I never seem to be able to catch that show. The commercials I've seen make it look like a neutral investigation. But it wouldn't be the first woowoo show to make that claim. I just happened to catch ghost buster/roto rooter show. That's my new favorite reality show. It beats Anna Nicole and the Osbornes as having the most delusional cast. I love watching the head of Taps act serious. It's almost as though he don't realize what a joke they really are.

Proof Negative is funny as hell!

I really loved the cold reading couple.

He kept asking everyone "I'm sensing someone who's name starts with a "B". Do you know someone?"

And the drawings? a 2 in 5 vague matchup of anybody they know who has died?

Why, that's.....

PROOF POSITIVE!