The Scole Experiment

[FuzzyQuark]

What are peoples' opinions on the "Scole Experiment"? I read the book & it seemed quite impressive - if there was trickery going on nobody seemed to spot it.

For those who don't know what this is - it was a number of "mediums" supposedly communicating with spirit beings who manifested solid objects and produced orbs of light, amongst other things. It was investigated by numerous scientists who found no evidence of fraud, although they couldn't say for definite that it was scientific proof of anything.

There's a book you can buy about it, and the basic summary can be found on the web - search for "Scole Report".

Opinions welcomed.

 

[CFLarsen]

Try searching for "Scole" on this forum.

 

[T'ai Chi]

What are peoples' opinions on the "Scole Experiment"? I read the book & it seemed quite impressive - if there was trickery going on nobody seemed to spot it.

For those who don't know what this is - it was a number of "mediums" supposedly communicating with spirit beings who manifested solid objects and produced orbs of light, amongst other things. It was investigated by numerous scientists who found no evidence of fraud, although they couldn't say for definite that it was scientific proof of anything.

There's a book you can buy about it, and the basic summary can be found on the web - search for "Scole Report".

Opinions welcomed.

Found any videos of such events?..

 

[dharlow]

What are peoples' opinions on the "Scole Experiment"? I read the book & it seemed quite impressive - if there was trickery going on nobody seemed to spot it.

That's not surprising. None of the three investigators had any knowledge of conjuring and the sittings took place in total darkness with absolutely no controls except those implemented by the mediums themselves.

 

[Hellbound]

dharlow makes a good point here.

Just because you can't prove fraud does not mean an experiment is reliable. What has to be shownis that all steps were taken to prevent any possible fraud. An experiment run with inadequate controls means that, most likely, one cannot prove fraud...not because it wasn't there, but because not enough information was gathered to determine one way or the other.

That's the concept of controls in a nutshell, basically. One has to think Murphy's Law, and apply it to experiment design. That's why legitimate scientific papers always include a section that carefully describes what they controlled for, why, and how. No one can exclude all possibilities in an experiment, but careful description of controls in place means that others can review the experiment and determine whether it is valid as is, or additional controls need to be used and the experiment re-run.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Okay, we're going to do a bunch of fancy stuff in the dark here.

Can we have a light on?

No.

Can we use an infra-red camera?

No.

Why can't we see what's going on?

The spirits don't like that.

~~ Paul

 

[Psiload]

What are peoples' opinions on the "Scole Experiment"? I read the book & it seemed quite impressive - if there was trickery going on nobody seemed to spot it.

For those who don't know what this is - it was a number of "mediums" supposedly communicating with spirit beings who manifested solid objects and produced orbs of light, amongst other things. It was investigated by numerous scientists who found no evidence of fraud, although they couldn't say for definite that it was scientific proof of anything.

There's a book you can buy about it, and the basic summary can be found on the web - search for "Scole Report".

Opinions welcomed.

I've read the reports, and it seemed to me to be much more an observation than an investigation. The rats were definately designing the mazes in that little set of "experiments".

 

[chrisberez]

Re: Re: The Scole Experiment

That's not surprising. None of the three investigators had any knowledge of conjuring and the sittings took place in total darkness with absolutely no controls except those implemented by the mediums themselves.

Right on. You have to remember that scientists are people too, and people can be fooled. It doesn't matter how intelligent you are, you can be fooled. But I would also like to know who the scientists were, what their areas of expertise were, and the conditions in which their investigations were carried out.

 

[TheBoyPaj]

Oh, and if you want a real laugh, read the closing sections of the Scole Experiment, where they give excus.. ah, reasons why the experiments had to end. You see, all this dickering about, creating links between our universe and the spirit world, has caused some sort of damage. If anyone was to try and replicate the experiments, it could kill us all!

(I can't recall the exact reasons, but I know they sounded like the sort of rubbish Geordi LaForge used to spout in the Next Generation when they had run out of ideas)

Scole is tosh. The only amazing thing is that people are still holding it up as a great example of evidence.