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Ghost and Spirit Debunking Help Wanted!

Pinkymcfatfat

ban-hammered
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Joined
Dec 6, 2009
Messages
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Dear JREF's,

I need a bit of assistance, and knowing the intellectual prowess many of you posess, I think I can get it.

I work in a medium sized hospital. The staff is almost all female (as am I) and quite 'religious' (as I am not). 'Religious' meaning very hard line Fundamentalist and Mennonite.

For the past several months ghosts, hauntings and things that go bump in the night have by far been the HOT topic of conversation (I find this very odd to begin with, since several of them actually protested Harry Potter being in a local school library).

On numerous occasions I have tried to reason how various paranormal activity can be explained away using scientific method. I've also cited various disease processes we would all know of at work that make seeing 'ghosts' possible (ex. Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Schizophrenia). I've also pointed them to this site and a few others...

I've been told now that I am not 'intellectual' enough to understand ghosts and such (I guess I flushed all my degrees down a tiolet).

Now, I need help from a few INTELLECTUALS! Help me out guys and gals! Give me what you think is the best come back for all the ghost woo I am forced to listen to!

Thanks,
Pinky
 
Not that I'm claiming Intellectual status, and it's hard to be too specific without more details. But one general line of response would be to ask them what is it about what they 'heard, saw, felt' made them conclude it was a ghost, and not something else? What was it about that 'thump' that made it a paranormal 'thump', and not a more mundane 'thump', like the building creaking, or the heating system clicking on, or staff bumping into something, or whatever other normal thumps hospitals make? And see where the conversation goes from there.
 
Pinkymcfatfat said:
Dear JREF's,

I need a bit of assistance, and knowing the intellectual prowess many of you posess, I think I can get it.

I work in a medium sized hospital. The staff is almost all female (as am I) and quite 'religious' (as I am not). 'Religious' meaning very hard line Fundamentalist and Mennonite.

For the past several months ghosts, hauntings and things that go bump in the night have by far been the HOT topic of conversation (I find this very odd to begin with, since several of them actually protested Harry Potter being in a local school library).

On numerous occasions I have tried to reason how various paranormal activity can be explained away using scientific method. I've also cited various disease processes we would all know of at work that make seeing 'ghosts' possible (ex. Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Schizophrenia). I've also pointed them to this site and a few others...

I've been told now that I am not 'intellectual' enough to understand ghosts and such (I guess I flushed all my degrees down a tiolet).

Now, I need help from a few INTELLECTUALS! Help me out guys and gals! Give me what you think is the best come back for all the ghost woo I am forced to listen to!

Thanks,
Pinky
Click to expand...


You could always just make fun of them.

Ask them why so many ghostly apparitions are clothed and tell them you were unaware that God gave a soul to denim.

Ask them what ghosts use to see, since a person who loses his eyes is blind.

Ask them how dead a person needs to be before their spirit becomes able to manipulate the world around them, since amputees can't yet use their ghost arm to lift objects.

Ask them how intellectual you need to be to believe in the boogie-man.


And just keep reiterating that all ghost phenomena to date can be explained away naturally through hoaxes, hallucinations, mental illness, sleep paralysis, imaginative minds, etc.

If they bring up ouija boards, tell them to research the ideomotor effect.


Or better yet, make up a ghost story and try to get them to use a ouija board (without you taking part). When they make contact with the spirit, you can let them know you made it up.
 
Dear Denver,

None of the 'haunting' activity has anything to do with the hospital...

Mainly it's second hand stories of their dead relatives appearing with an occasional first hand sighting. I've also heard a lot about animals reacting to ghosts, children sighting them, etc.

The shows 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Psychic Kids' are also often quoted and compared to my co-workers real life experiences.
 
Ghost are not real. Simple as that. If they were then everyone would see them all the time.
Belief would play no part in it.
People can choose not to believe in trees but if they drive their car into one they will eat the dash nonetheless.
 
Ask them to prove these ghosts exist.

After they have recovered from spiting their dummies out, slamming a few books in anger and going an unhealthy shade of purple, ask them again.

When they finally admit that they can't show you proof, and that it's nothing more than a ridiculous belief, tell them you believe there is a pink elephant dancing on the far side of the moon.

When they ask you to prove it, tell them you can't - it's just a belief.

Suddenly, a pink elephant dancing on the far side of the moon holds the same credibility of ghosts existing.

They'll probably go purple again, throw a few more books and spit their dummies out again, but that's a common side effect of believing in anything 'paranormal'.

Keep quite after this and you'll find they'll do all they can to MAKE you believe in ghosts. A group of believers, or a 'gullible' of believers as they are called, often react off each other to attack the non-believer.
Keep your calm and keep reiterating the pink elephant story - even get a t-shirt made!

No matter how much they try, their belief in ghosts has no more credibility than your pink elephant.

Give the elephant a name for added purple headedness! :D
 
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If it has to do with some of the Ghost hunting shows there is actually a guy on you tube that shows how those shows are staged. You should be able to do a search on you tube for the Haunted Hoax. Point your coworkers to his videos and they will see first hand how ghosties can be explained as not real. :)
 
Pinkymcfatfat said:
Dear JREF's,

I need a bit of assistance, and knowing the intellectual prowess many of you posess, I think I can get it.

I work in a medium sized hospital. The staff is almost all female (as am I) and quite 'religious' (as I am not). 'Religious' meaning very hard line Fundamentalist and Mennonite.

For the past several months ghosts, hauntings and things that go bump in the night have by far been the HOT topic of conversation (I find this very odd to begin with, since several of them actually protested Harry Potter being in a local school library).

On numerous occasions I have tried to reason how various paranormal activity can be explained away using scientific method. I've also cited various disease processes we would all know of at work that make seeing 'ghosts' possible (ex. Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Schizophrenia). I've also pointed them to this site and a few others...

I've been told now that I am not 'intellectual' enough to understand ghosts and such (I guess I flushed all my degrees down a tiolet).

Now, I need help from a few INTELLECTUALS! Help me out guys and gals! Give me what you think is the best come back for all the ghost woo I am forced to listen to!

Thanks,
Pinky
Click to expand...
well thank god you didn't flush your degrees down the toilet
If it's intellectuals you're looking for then maybe you're in the wrong place

Let's stay on topic, please.
Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: LibraryLady
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pinkymcfatfat said:
Dear JREF's,

I need a bit of assistance, and knowing the intellectual prowess many of you posess, I think I can get it.
Click to expand...

Hey, you're a JREFer too!

On numerous occasions I have tried to reason how various paranormal activity can be explained away using scientific method. I've also cited various disease processes we would all know of at work that make seeing 'ghosts' possible (ex. Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Schizophrenia). I've also pointed them to this site and a few others...

I've been told now that I am not 'intellectual' enough to understand ghosts and such (I guess I flushed all my degrees down a tiolet).

Now, I need help from a few INTELLECTUALS! Help me out guys and gals! Give me what you think is the best come back for all the ghost woo I am forced to listen to!

Thanks,
Pinky
Click to expand...

What specifically are you hearing? Can you give us more details on the animals/children stories?
 
Someone here must know the Bible verses that explain that there's no such thing as ghosts. Once we identify those verses, you can use them. Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Ward
 
Ghost Blusters.... The If You Can't Bet 'Em, Have Fun Edition

Pinkymcfatfat said:
Dear Denver,

None of the 'haunting' activity has anything to do with the hospital...

Mainly it's second hand stories of their dead relatives appearing with an occasional first hand sighting. I've also heard a lot about animals reacting to ghosts, children sighting them, etc.

The shows 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Psychic Kids' are also often quoted and compared to my co-workers real life experiences.
Click to expand...

Why couldn't it happen at the hospital? :D I love manipulating the weak minded you need to start "learning" from your "intellectual betters". Learn what they believe in most and use it against them in future pranks. You'll need to start acting like you've seen the light and become a "believer" take your time make your conversion convincing. After they accept you as a believer the mischief can begin the main thing is take your time just don't get too cocky with your pranks. I think your best bet would be to have "strange" things happening to you that they would believe in tailor it to their brand of woo.

Here is an example:

Doctor one or two personal photos with the very very faint hard to make out ghostly imagine of your recently deceased "crazy uncle" menacing nonexistent family members (find the pictures on the internet). Then I would confide in my most gullible co-worker that these family members have had all sorts of problems since he died. Claim that you would have never thought about the wispy image in the picture unless you had "learned the truth" from the girls over the last few months. Tell them you advised the cursed relatives to seek help from the church but the priest involved was arrested on trumped up child molestation charges the day after he was consulted. If you want to be mean your crazy uncle can come and "haunt" you for following any advice from your co-workers. I see a lot of potential here for idle time fun. :p
 
I hate to be the turd in the punchbowl, but trying to debunk stories is next to impossible to do.

If you have tried you will notice that for everything you mention the story will mutate a bit more. For example. We could tell you of how pictures could be doctored ( assuming a picture is involved. ) but then they can ( and will in my experience) just say there was no possible way it could be. Or you could bring up that it may be a pipe rattling, well then they will say they checked the pipes.

But i don't want to just say its useless. What i suggest is asking the person to recite the story to you once, just once. Leaving in all important details, in writing if it would help them. And once they have, be very clear that they have went through all they remember, and all the important points. Do not begin debunking till then.

Now once you and the talespinner have reached the final cut of the story. Then start in on the debunking. And when they inevitably try to backtrack. explain to them that they had all chance to tell the entire story, and it is rather suspicious that only when you mention ways it could have been fake or a mistake, then they start adding new bits.

This is a bit of a confrontational method, but it avoids people being able to just roll thier eyes and say " well of course i checked the pipes, the fridge, the entire electrical system, my windows, my car, that my cat was in his bed, that my wife was home that we had no friends trying to play a joke, etc etc etc. "

I have seen the ghost mutation many times, my favorite started out with.

" So we were sitting around, and my friends mom put a bowl down upside down and it moved about 10 inches in front of me and three people."

To which i replied that i have seen glasses doing the same thing before when they are placed upside down and wet on a countertop. ( i have no clue of the scientific process behind this, but it does look kinda creepy.) The story then turned into

" well okay, but after that she was driving home and had a creepy feeling."

Fair enough was my reply , if she was under the impression that the bowl moved of a supernatural power, she would probably be feeling a bit spooked out for the rest of the day, especially driving at night.

" But then, she saw a friend of hers that had died in her rearview"

So really the story will just snowball untill you exhaust every possible way of debunking what happened.

So i don't want to discourage you, but if your going to try some on the spot debunking, make sure to have them tell the entire story as they remember it before you start. Or else your going to be fighting a rather nasty hydra.
 
You could always challenge them about their intellectual capacity with regards to their being adults and still having a 'pretend friend' who allows earthquakes to kill and cause suffering to thousands of Haitians.
Sadly if they are anything like that Happy Clappy God Squad idiot on the TV the other day, they will blame the Haitian Voodoo cult for bringing it upon themselves.
At which point, you just point out that Voodoo is based upon Catholicism and was introduced to Haiti by the French.
 
Thanks for all of the advice so far...

The story that sticks in my head the most is one of my co-workers (Bea) spotting their dead gradfather walking around in their yard.

Near dark one evening, Bea saw a man walking around at the edge of her yard for a bit, then he went around a tree and 'disappeared'. Bea went into her home and told her mother and father about the man and her parents asked for a description. Her parents told her it sounded exactly like her dead grandfather...Now Bea insists it was her dead grandfather.

Bea is a Mennonite and lives in a local Mennonite community. If you don't know much about Mennonites, they believe in very simple dress, usually in a very limited range of colors. The 'ghost' Bea saw was a man in black slacks and a long sleeved blue oxford shirt, although she really couldn't make out his face, she could see that he had a beard, another common trait among Mennonites.

I explained to Bea that this easily could have been one of her neighbors. Bea's arguement that it was her grandfather is this: She didn't identify him, her parents did.

Yes, but her parents didn't see him at all. Her entire description was: White man with beard, blue shirt and black slacks.

To me, that well could have been any male within her community out for a stroll in the woods one evening.

As for 'child psychic' stories, the most recent one was about a co-workers young toddler knowing that her grandfather would die soon. This co-worker, Jen, would take her very young child to see Jen's father who had cancer and was on hospice.

A week before the man died, the little girl would not go near him and cried whenever the old man would try to hold her. This was because the girl could 'sense death around him'.

We actually had Jen's father as a patient on our unit several times before he became a hospice patient. He was in horrible shape. The last time I saw him, he actually looked like he was decaying and he smelled like it also. He went home right after that last hospital visit and lived just over a week, dying in his own home.

I tried to explain that the little girl might not have been able to recognize him at all and that the smell might have sent her running...also, the house was filled with crying, upset people. Jen's family is also Mennonite and is extremely large. While I wasn't there, I can bet it was chaotic.
 
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