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Old 24th January 2013, 04:44 AM   #1
Reno
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Randi should be the victim of hauntings

I just had a thought while reading another thread, and although it's probably not even worth a discussion, I don't think I've seen the thought posted here before. So...

Randi has probably made many enemies during his career. Some, I'm sure will have claimed that they can talk to the dead, etc. What I wonder is - why are none of these enemies who have since died, not haunting Randi? Wouldn't that be one helluva way to prove that they were right all the time and to get some payback by tormenting the person who mocked them and told the world that they were charlatans?

Now, they can't be too busy in the afterlife, because they come and stand beside John Edward and tell him that their name has a P or a B in it or that they are a father/brother/son figure, maybe a grandparent or possibly an uncle.

And they can't be beyond the need to wish harm on living beings, because didn't Francine tell Slyvia that Shawn Hornbeck was dead, and that Opal Jennings was sold into sex slavery? That caused a lot of harm to living beings.

I want to know why none of the dead who have been picked on by Randi are not haunting him. If I had been conversing with the dead and Randi had published lies about me, defaming me, I'd haunt the bejeezus out of him every night until he finally admitted to the world that he was wrong. I'd turn his beard and hair white with fear. Wait a minute...
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Old 24th January 2013, 09:01 AM   #2
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Randi has better magic than they do. he is protected by demonic spirits, perhaps by Lucifer himself. Pesky ghosts from mere ordinary people are no threat to him as he carries out Satan's work on Earth.
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Old 24th January 2013, 11:23 AM   #3
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And also the dead are confused by the spelling of his name.

~~ Paul
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Old 24th January 2013, 11:31 AM   #4
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I think they are too busy "appearing" on the Ghost Hunter TV shows to worry about Randi right now. After all, it was the TV and notoriety that drove many, and the chance to show up on TV again is probably even much more desirable than annoying Randi.
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Old 24th January 2013, 11:33 AM   #5
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Have you SEEN the ghost version of Google Maps? It's only slightly better than our version of Apple Maps. How would they find him?!
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Old 24th January 2013, 11:41 AM   #6
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The ghosts don't like to hang around with people who don't believe. They're kind of like fairies in that respect. Actually, all the photos of dust that seem to indicate there are spirits about, maybe is really fairy dust.

it all makes sense now!
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Old 24th January 2013, 11:49 AM   #7
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So ghosts aren't real as evidenced by the fact they aren't adhering to cultural stereotypes about how they behave were they real.

I always thought it amusing how people who don't believe in ghosts or psychics or the supernatural often claim how a paranormal thing should work. No we can't test your psychic abilities by letting you touch and see the person whose mind you will read because you may cheat or be very good at interpreting body language. Yeah well what if that's just how it works? If it requires a human sacrifice and you to say the phrase cocoa puffs and do a handstand while milking a cow then that's what it takes. You can't just go nope doesn't jive with how psychics or ghosts are supposed to work.

That being said I do not believe in ghosts or psychics or anything paranormal. Just saying.

Last edited by The_Animus; 24th January 2013 at 11:51 AM.
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Old 24th January 2013, 12:43 PM   #8
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Never mind the enemies. What about the friends?

Randi has lost so many close friends, Isaac Asimov, Johnny Carson and Carl Sagan to name a few. He has spoken to many people (including me) from the heart about how much he misses them and how he would love to communicate with them. If they could, wouldn't they at least try to say hi?
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Old 24th January 2013, 01:58 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by The_Animus View Post
So ghosts aren't real as evidenced by the fact they aren't adhering to cultural stereotypes about how they behave were they real.

I always thought it amusing how people who don't believe in ghosts or psychics or the supernatural often claim how a paranormal thing should work. No we can't test your psychic abilities by letting you touch and see the person whose mind you will read because you may cheat or be very good at interpreting body language. Yeah well what if that's just how it works? If it requires a human sacrifice and you to say the phrase cocoa puffs and do a handstand while milking a cow then that's what it takes. You can't just go nope doesn't jive with how psychics or ghosts are supposed to work.

That being said I do not believe in ghosts or psychics or anything paranormal. Just saying.
While I understand the sentiment, I think you are off the mark regarding specifics in at least two ways:

1. The OP is rather obviously (at least to me) primarily in jest, yet even so it follows from claims about spirits that were the afterlife real it could be demonstrated in the way suggested. The OP doesn't twist much of anything to make its point.

2. The safeguards insisted upon for testing are not to defeat any supposed mechanism of the paranormal but to allow differentiation of the claim's existence from its non-existence. If psychic reading only works in circumstances when it isn't needed to gain the divulged information then it is no different from it not existing.
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Old 26th January 2013, 12:08 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Garrette View Post
If psychic reading only works in circumstances when it isn't needed to gain the divulged information then it is no different from it not existing.
I disagree. I'd say that IF psychic reading works as described above*, then we haven't come up with a way to test it. Perhaps a screen could be used that allows the psychic to see the person, but with his face blurred. The person could be told to sit in a particular stance and not move, etc. But if that's the case, then why aren't psychics trying to come up with and fund such testing methods?

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Old 26th January 2013, 01:30 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by FluffyPersian View Post
I disagree. I'd say that IF psychic reading works as described above*, then we haven't come up with a way to test it. Perhaps a screen could be used that allows the psychic to see the person, but with his face blurred. The person could be told to sit in a particular stance and not move, etc. But if that's the case, then why aren't psychics trying to come up with and fund such testing methods?
When JREF tested psychic Patricia Putt she wanted to be able to both see the subjects and hear their voices. Both these requests were accomodated.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com...d.php?t=118952
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Old 26th January 2013, 03:46 AM   #12
Tristan Chi
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How do you know that Randi isn't being haunted?

It's possible that he would hesitate to tell anybody about it.
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Old 27th January 2013, 12:32 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by Tristan Chi View Post
How do you know that Randi isn't being haunted?

It's possible that he would hesitate to tell anybody about it.
Heh, that reminds me of this: http://xkcd.com/666/
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Old 28th January 2013, 12:45 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by The_Animus View Post
So ghosts aren't real as evidenced by the fact they aren't adhering to cultural stereotypes about how they behave were they real.

I always thought it amusing how people who don't believe in ghosts or psychics or the supernatural often claim how a paranormal thing should work. No we can't test your psychic abilities by letting you touch and see the person whose mind you will read because you may cheat or be very good at interpreting body language. Yeah well what if that's just how it works? If it requires a human sacrifice and you to say the phrase cocoa puffs and do a handstand while milking a cow then that's what it takes. You can't just go nope doesn't jive with how psychics or ghosts are supposed to work.

That being said I do not believe in ghosts or psychics or anything paranormal. Just saying.
Usually it is deduced from all the claims that are made by proponents about how it should work. If a ghost can show up and haunt, why doesn't it? Why are ghosts so darn camera-shy, microphone-shy, detector-shy, and investigator-shy, and yet not shy of some random Joe Schmoe's eyes?

OK, so you don't believe in ghosts. But the above seems a very reasonable question to ask of the proposed "ghost phenomenon".

There are tons of surveillance cams out there. Why hasn't one captured a bona fide ghost? We don't need to assume anything other than that it can appear, and simple statistics, to ask such a question.
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Old 28th January 2013, 11:11 AM   #15
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The most annoying thing (for me) is that with all the believers, professional investigators, amateur investigators and so on spending vast amounts of time and money on 'research' into ghosts, there is still nothing - NOTHING - to show for it. If any one of them were to provide ONE scrap of good, solid evidence for the existence of ghosts, then the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine or Physics would be guaranteed. More importantly (given the way woosters think), the whole world would be forced to agree that the woosters were right.

So where are all the dead woosters?
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Old 30th January 2013, 03:45 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by azzthom View Post
/snip...
So where are all the dead woosters?
Not haunting Randi, that's for sure.
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Old 30th January 2013, 06:45 AM   #17
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Originally Posted by Reno View Post
Not haunting Randi, that's for sure.
They're busy following the TRUETM path to the after-afterlife.
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Old 30th January 2013, 07:45 AM   #18
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Originally Posted by Magic 9-Ball View Post
I think they are too busy "appearing" on the Ghost Hunter TV shows to worry about Randi right now. After all, it was the TV and notoriety that drove many, and the chance to show up on TV again is probably even much more desirable than annoying Randi.
A good theory... if it weren't for the fact they never do show up. I would expect them to be all about ectoplasm time.
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