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Help debunking friend's ghost story

stanfr

Illuminator
stanfr
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
3,894
I have an online friend who claims to have been an atheist/skeptic, but 'saw the light' and now is born again after having moved into a house he claims was haunted by spirits/ghosts. His story is pretty lengthy and i don't have permission (yet) to post it verbatim, but most of it is your standard poltergeist experiences (seeing things move, doors locking, loud unexplained noises etc). One of his anecdotes was a bit different, and since my knowledge of things electrical is pretty limited, was hoping someone here might have some thoughts on possible explanations (other than, 'he's lying' )

Basically, this incident was he was returning home in the family car when they noticed the tv was on in the house. The house was locked and fully protected by an advanced alarm system, making it impossible for anyone to enter or leave without their knowledge. He claims they would *always* turn off the tv before leaving the house, but not the cable box. As he approached the front door to investigate, the tv abruptly turned off. When he came in to investigate, it was still quite warm and the cable box had been turned off as well. He claims there had been no history before or after of this tv spontaneously turning on or off.

Any thoughts? Can televisions turn themselves on and off? Thx. :)
 
Ask a guy at the local Fire Department about the number of people who "never leave a pot on a lit stove when we go out" or who "never smoke in that room". They've heard it thousands of times. We've all also heard about the accidents of friends who "never back out of the driveway without checking" or "never cross the street in the middle of the block".

"Never" has multiple meanings, apparently. It means "most often" when people are relating ghost stories.

If it's electrical, it's got circuits and switches and wires and connections. It can happen that one or the other has a loose connection/contact and things go on and off at random times. Many people here can tell you that they've had similar things happen in their own homes.

Mostly, though, these sorts of stories are unprovable. I can tell you right now about the ghost my mom saw in the kitchen when I was a pre-teen. I can then tell you how well-balanced and logical she was and that this is just one anomalous circumstance that can't be explained. And if you're a proper critical-thinking skeptic, all you can do is agree that I've chosen not to accept any of the possible explanations. You can't actually prove that my mom didn't see a ghost, other than by extrapolation. More important, though, is that you can't even know that I just made that up out of whole cloth,... unless I tell you so.

That's sort of why people ask for evidence and not anecdotes. I'm a perfectly likable fella. Why would anyone want to say, "Well, I think Foolmewunz is just making it up"? It makes for unfriendly conversations, so people go along with it and assume you have no ulterior motives. But... I did just make it up! Anyone can do that. And you always have to bear that in mind. Those are the two extremes: A) There's a spirit in there and Z) He's lying. In between there are all sorts of explanations with varying degrees of woo and varying degrees of critical thinking.
 
Foolmewunz said:
Ask a guy at the local Fire Department about the number of people who "never leave a pot on a lit stove when we go out" or who "never smoke in that room". They've heard it thousands of times. We've all also heard about the accidents of friends who "never back out of the driveway without checking" or "never cross the street in the middle of the block".

"Never" has multiple meanings, apparently. It means "most often" when people are relating ghost stories.

If it's electrical, it's got circuits and switches and wires and connections. It can happen that one or the other has a loose connection/contact and things go on and off at random times. Many people here can tell you that they've had similar things happen in their own homes.

Mostly, though, these sorts of stories are unprovable. I can tell you right now about the ghost my mom saw in the kitchen when I was a pre-teen. I can then tell you how well-balanced and logical she was and that this is just one anomalous circumstance that can't be explained. And if you're a proper critical-thinking skeptic, all you can do is agree that I've chosen not to accept any of the possible explanations. You can't actually prove that my mom didn't see a ghost, other than by extrapolation. More important, though, is that you can't even know that I just made that up out of whole cloth,... unless I tell you so.

That's sort of why people ask for evidence and not anecdotes. I'm a perfectly likable fella. Why would anyone want to say, "Well, I think Foolmewunz is just making it up"? It makes for unfriendly conversations, so people go along with it and assume you have no ulterior motives. But... I did just make it up! Anyone can do that. And you always have to bear that in mind. Those are the two extremes: A) There's a spirit in there and Z) He's lying. In between there are all sorts of explanations with varying degrees of woo and varying degrees of critical thinking.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, yes I totally agree that anecdotes are not very helpful, but there's no denying that personal experience can be a powerful influence on one's belief, as it apparently was for this person (and has been for me in other situations!) Of course there's the slight chance he is lying, although from what I know of the person and his motivations it seems pretty unlikely, a long with the fact that he involved his other family members in the proposed lie (since they all witnessed the same event)--then it becomes a conspiracy, and you probably know about those ;)

I quickly discounted his statement of 'never' leaving the tv on, although it really is pretty irrelevant if the rest of this story is valid (that it turned off by itself). My main interest is whether electronics like that can do that spontaneously--something i dont have experience with.

Many people here can tell you that they've had similar things happen in their own homes.
That's an anecdote, a second hand one at that. ;)
 
I have never owned a television that could not turn itself on and off.

The one I am watching now has 3 different timers, not including the sleep timer.

Cable box as well can be set up with timers.
 
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Are TVs warm when they have just been turned off? Check his TV. Is it warm while it is off? If not turn it on for a few minutes and see if it heats up.

Maybe it was not his TV that was on. It may have been someone else's TV he heard.
 
One night I had something happen that absolutely scared the Bejeezus out of me.

I woke up in the middle of the night and the TV was on in the lounge and going at full volume. I KNOW I turned it off before I went to bed. I looked around for the remote, and initially couldn't see it, but I eventually found it..... under the cat!
 
rjh01 said:
Are TVs warm when they have just been turned off? Check his TV. Is it warm while it is off? If not turn it on for a few minutes and see if it heats up.

Maybe it was not his TV that was on. It may have been someone else's TV he heard.
Click to expand...

A reasonable question, but it was pretty clear (at least from his description) that it was their tv--they saw it through the window, and saw what was playing (a soccer match)
 
smartcooky said:
One night I had something happen that absolutely scared the Bejeezus out of me.

I woke up in the middle of the night and the TV was on in the lounge and going at full volume. I KNOW I turned it off before I went to bed. I looked around for the remote, and initially couldn't see it, but I eventually found it..... under the cat!
Click to expand...

Hmmm...another pet story, I sense a pattern here... Maybe, but it doesn't explain the cable box turned off, although he would be more likely to be mistaken about something like that.
 
Look, if the tv was playing a soccer match there's a lot more going on here. Did it play goal, defence or forward? Was the couch involved? Who won?
 
Another one here who's had to go into the living room to turn the TV off in the middle of the night because my cat stood on the remote control.
 
Hey, even ghosts like to kick back and watch the match. They don't drink beer while they watch though. They prefer spirits.
 
Some Samsung TVs have a habit of switching themselves on randomly, I know this because I own such a tv. I was woken up in the middle of the night a couple of years ago by this particular tv switching itself on from standby mode. The cure for this was to turn it off completely from the mains, and now I use a wireless switch from dedicated remote control to do this. Since taking this action, it has never happened again.
 
I once lived in a nice apartment complex that had a large room with a large TV in the building that housed the racquetball courts/weight lifting room/hot tub and pool. There was one creepy guy who lived with his brother who wouldn't let him enter the apartment until after 1:00AM so every night he would be in the room with the public TV and have his bathing suit with him if anyone used the hot tub at night he would join them. Super creepy. He creeped all the ladies out. When I played racquetball (which was often) I brought my TV remote control which was a universal remote control. Someone had stolen the big TV's remote control so you had to get off your butt to change the channel/volume. I used to hide in the hallway and use my remote control to shoot through the glass french doors and change the channel on him while he was watching the TV. He'd get up and I would change it back just as he reached the TV. I would change the channel again once he got back to his seat. In short I tortured the guy (he deserved worse, believe me) using a TV remote.

My point -- never underestimate the possibility someone is just screwing with you.
 
stanfr said:
I have an online friend who claims to have been an atheist/skeptic, but 'saw the light' and now is born again after having moved into a house he claims was haunted by spirits/ghosts. His story is pretty lengthy and i don't have permission (yet) to post it verbatim, but most of it is your standard poltergeist experiences (seeing things move, doors locking, loud unexplained noises etc). One of his anecdotes was a bit different, and since my knowledge of things electrical is pretty limited, was hoping someone here might have some thoughts on possible explanations (other than, 'he's lying' )

Basically, this incident was he was returning home in the family car when they noticed the tv was on in the house. The house was locked and fully protected by an advanced alarm system, making it impossible for anyone to enter or leave without their knowledge. He claims they would *always* turn off the tv before leaving the house, but not the cable box. As he approached the front door to investigate, the tv abruptly turned off. When he came in to investigate, it was still quite warm and the cable box had been turned off as well. He claims there had been no history before or after of this tv spontaneously turning on or off.

Any thoughts? Can televisions turn themselves on and off? Thx. :)
Click to expand...

I had that happen, look up How TV remotes work you can have a remote controlled TV accidentally come on by stimulus other than the remote.
 
In a previous job, I had a computer which would turn itself on if the phone on my desk rang with an outside line. It took ages for us to work out why my computer was almost always switched on in the mornings when I knew I had turned it off the previous day on leaving work.

Never underestimate the ability of electrical stuff to mess with your mind.
 
My Samsung TV turns itself off if its been on a few hours. A window comes up on it to say..... The tv will turn itself off in 56 seconds...... etc. its a safety device. I then click on 'ok' on the remote and the window goes off and the tv stays on.
 
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