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Ghost

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Paigntonian | 16:34 Wed 16th Dec 2020 | ChatterBank
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I had a ghost for several years. Asked around the village and she was the previous tenant. I know because I found some of her pills behind a radiator and got her name. I'm a cynical old journalist but it was real. My wife saw her regularly as did our two kids. After a week or so she really didn't trouble us much though it was a little disconcerting when she suddenly rushed down the corridor with her Westie. I am a Catholic and maybe shoundn't beleive in such things but couldn't possibly say she wasn't there.
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jim; We don't know if the multiverse exists & don't know what dark matter is, we don't know what a black hole is or what is beyond it, we also don't know what consciousness is or from whence it comes. That's a lot of stuff to be uncertain of jim, would you not agree?
12:50 Thu 17th Dec 2020
I've just read through my own link on Randi & it's very good, perhaps this is suitable for a another thread, but this one has zig-zagged so much already, here goes;

Clarifying his view of atheism, Randi wrote "I've said it before: there are two sorts of atheists. One sort claims that there is no deity, the other claims that there is no evidence that proves the existence of a deity; I belong to the latter group, because if I were to claim that no god exists, I would have to produce evidence to establish that claim, and I cannot. Religious persons have by far the easier position; they say they believe in a deity because that's their preference, and they've read it in a book. That's their right."
Damn good summation, Khandro.

Every thread in R&S should start with that.
In my first year of university in a shared house we all felt there was a ghost. Things being moved around, light bulbs exploding, weird noises in the night, alarms going off. None of us would be in the house alone.

The next year we happened to meet the group of lads who had moved into our house. They also all said they felt a ghost.

As a non-believer, I can see rational explanations for everything. It didn’t stop me being spooked at the time.
Wow, agreement with Zacs!
Is the scientific method appropriate for investigating ghostly activity?

Introduction to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method ...
The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century. It involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation. It involves formulating hypotheses, via induction, based on such observations; experimental and measurement-based testing of deductions drawn from the hypotheses; and refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on the experimental findings. These are principles of the scientific method, as distinguished from a definitive series of steps applicable to all scientific enterprises.

Though diverse models for the scientific method are available, there is in general a continuous process that includes observations about the natural world. People are naturally inquisitive, so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear, and they often develop ideas or hypotheses about why things are the way they are. The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways. The most conclusive testing of hypotheses comes from reasoning based on carefully controlled experimental data. Depending on how well additional tests match the predictions, the original hypothesis may require refinement, alteration, expansion or even rejection. If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported, a general theory may be developed.

Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, they are frequently the same from one to another. The process of the scientific method involves making conjectures (hypotheses), deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments or empirical observations based on those predictions. A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while seeking answers to the question. The hypothesis might be very specific, or it might be broad. Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments or studies. A scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment or observation that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis; otherwise, the hypothesis cannot be meaningfully tested.

The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis. Experiments can take place anywhere from a garage to CERN's Large Hadron Collider. There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method, however. Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps, it represents rather a set of general principles. Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry (nor to the same degree), and they are not always in the same order.
So, in short... yes? :)
The post on the scientific method is great, regarding the physical, but cannot address the metaphysical.

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