Help debunking friend's ghost story

[George 152]

I use my cell phone as a remote for the TV.
The neighbours know when I do this because they have the same brand TV

 

[smartcooky]

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.

Yes, and I don;t think its beyond reason that a cat could turn on the TV by lying on the remote after the family have left to go out, and then later when they return, the cat is disturbed by them and moves, turning off the TV as it does so.

 

[Scordatura]

I use my cell phone as a remote for the TV.
The neighbours know when I do this because they have the same brand TV

Two thoughts that came to me were interference from a neighbor's remote or a brownout/blackout.

I've seen garage doors open and close when two clickers were on the same frequency so I imagine similar could happen with a TV remote. As for brownouts, I have a tiny TV on my bed stand that I sometimes watch using earbuds. With my old remote when we had a brownout or blackout the TV would revert to speaker input. It's quite jarring to have the sound come on in the middle of the night. My new remote solved the problem.

It's sad that the friend apparently bypassed the obvious and went straight to "ghosts did it."

 

[sadhatter]

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.

Old home laser tag kits used to do this, i forget but if memory serves some used to turn it on and off, and others would turn it to channel 4.

 

[Tiktaalik]

He's lucky. His poltergeist turns the TV off and on. Mine opens the garage door when I'm not home and leaves it open to the weather

 

[Axxman300]

TV's can also be turned on by the neighbor's remote control. It has happened.

New house = now sounds to get used to. Also, does the home have a C02 detector with the smoke detector? Whenever someone claims their home is suddenly haunted the problem is the heater needs to be re-set.

 

[stanfr]

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.

Interesting--thanks, that's the kind of info i'm interested in.

 

[stanfr]

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.

I wonder if it would be possible to use a remote from outside the house some distance away--that would be the key question. Thanks for the response.

 

[stanfr]

Two thoughts that came to me were interference from a neighbor's remote or a brownout/blackout.

I've seen garage doors open and close when two clickers were on the same frequency so I imagine similar could happen with a TV remote. As for brownouts, I have a tiny TV on my bed stand that I sometimes watch using earbuds. With my old remote when we had a brownout or blackout the TV would revert to speaker input. It's quite jarring to have the sound come on in the middle of the night. My new remote solved the problem.

It's sad that the friend apparently bypassed the obvious and went straight to "ghosts did it."

Thanks, yes Ive had a garage door open itself before due to interference. I think the fact that it also turned off as he approached the front door makes the disturbed pet hypothesis maybe a stronger one.
Yes, I agree it's disappointing about his leap to "ghosts'--but as I said this was one in numerous incidents that occurred, it wasn't an isolated incident so he was already primed to be more believing of a paranormal incident.

 

[Resume]

Yes, I agree it's disappointing about his leap to "ghosts'--but as I said this was one in numerous incidents that occurred, it wasn't an isolated incident so he was already primed to be more believing of a paranormal incident.

Yes, yes, of course. Now, among these numerous incidents, does this former skeptic/atheist have a more compelling unverifiable, subjective, unfalsifiable anecdote?

 

[Ray Brady]

So has your friend concluded that the ghosts are turning on the TV to pass the time while the family is out, then hurriedly turning it back off again when they get home? Is this a plausible explanation for him?

I could see a bored ghost turning on a TV, but why would he turn it off again? Is he worried about getting caught?

It's a silly speculation, of course, but it underscores the basic question: why is a ghost a satisfying resolution to this particular mystery?

 

[12AX7]

Never underestimate the ability of electrical stuff to mess with your mind.

This. ^^^^

I have an old Fender tube amp that used to faintly pick up a nearby primitive Baptist radio broadcast on Sunday mornings. It was cool to play some blues over a preacher blasting fire and brimstone.

 

[Resume]

I have an old Fender tube amp that used to faintly pick up a nearby primitive Baptist radio broadcast on Sunday mornings. It was cool to play some blues over a preacher blasting fire and brimstone.

I have a solid state Marshall that picks up a news radio station; so I guess in this case I prefer circuit boards over vacuum tubes.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Oh, and by the way,....

Stanfr, you state in the OP that the friend is "born again". Did you mean that as a euphemism for having turned from the dark side of skepticism to the light of woo, or did you mean a "born again Christian"? I assumed the former in my first reading.

(Not that it matters.... just want to know if we're dealing with Spiritualism Woo or Big Book Woo.)

And as I mentioned in my previous post, using my A to Z list as an arbitrary reference, members are now providing B, C, D, E, etc.... I suspect we could fill out the alphabet before we get to Y "It's a Miracle" or Z "Ghosts done it". The point is not so much that any of them is the best possible answer to what happened, but more a "why do you automatically transit from strange happening briefly viewed to Magical Spirits?"

 

[GrouchoMarxist]

Where's the fire?

 

[turingtest]

So has your friend concluded that the ghosts are turning on the TV to pass the time while the family is out, then hurriedly turning it back off again when they get home? Is this a plausible explanation for him?

I could see a bored ghost turning on a TV, but why would he turn it off again? Is he worried about getting caught?

It's a silly speculation, of course, but it underscores the basic question: why is a ghost a satisfying resolution to this particular mystery?

I'd suggest that it's because it's not really a resolution at all- it leaves intact a desired and more central mystery that rational explanation would only dispel.

 

[stanfr]

So has your friend concluded that the ghosts are turning on the TV to pass the time while the family is out, then hurriedly turning it back off again when they get home? Is this a plausible explanation for him?

I could see a bored ghost turning on a TV, but why would he turn it off again? Is he worried about getting caught?

It's a silly speculation, of course, but it underscores the basic question: why is a ghost a satisfying resolution to this particular mystery?

Yeah, I agree, that's the same reaction I had to the story. But it is consistent with your typical poltergeist, they supposedly like to do those sort of things (who knows why). His argument is that he never would have accepted this except after the cumulative affect of all of the incidents. I tried to explain to him that many explanations (old house, possible trickery, psychological) actually make it MORE likely for there to be numerous incidents, but I don't know how receptive he is to skepticism at this point...

 

[stanfr]

This. ^^^^

I have an old Fender tube amp that used to faintly pick up a nearby primitive Baptist radio broadcast on Sunday mornings. It was cool to play some blues over a preacher blasting fire and brimstone.

Ha! I used to have a Fender champ...wish I had kept it

 

[stanfr]

Oh, and by the way,....

Stanfr, you state in the OP that the friend is "born again". Did you mean that as a euphemism for having turned from the dark side of skepticism to the light of woo, or did you mean a "born again Christian"? I assumed the former in my first reading.

(Not that it matters.... just want to know if we're dealing with Spiritualism Woo or Big Book Woo.)

And as I mentioned in my previous post, using my A to Z list as an arbitrary reference, members are now providing B, C, D, E, etc.... I suspect we could fill out the alphabet before we get to Y "It's a Miracle" or Z "Ghosts done it". The point is not so much that any of them is the best possible answer to what happened, but more a "why do you automatically transit from strange happening briefly viewed to Magical Spirits?"

Well, I used 'born again' more in the sense of the former, but I believe he now calls himself a Christian--in fact his claim is that once he 'accepted Jesus' all the bad things stopped happening (again, could be coincidence, perception, psychological...etc) His claim, of course, which we have all heard before, is that he "never" would have accepted these things and spent much time trying to reason them away and discount them, until the constant experiences convinced him otherwise. Now, I could speculate that in his situation, I would rig my house from floor to ceiling with all sorts of sensors and devices to try to catch whatever was doing these 'things'--but honestly since ive never had the experience that he describes I really don't know what I would do. I do know I wouldn't go running for exorcists or mediums...at least not based on the sort of things he described.

 

[stanfr]

Here's something else: from his latest response, it seems this incident made a strong impression on him. He was reading a book along with his young daughter (2 copies, big and small versions, side by side) when his daughter's book vanished into thin air. They searched the room and could not find it. I'm trying to pin him down on whether he actually witnessed it disappear--or it just vanished when he turned away for a second--obviously a big distinction. I would also like to know what his daughter's reaction was to this alleged disappearance.