Post by Magician's ApprenticeThe Paranormal Research Forum of Denver, CO, will be meeting Wednesday
Nov. 17 at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. There is usually 200
attending the forum. The topic will be Ghosts and Paranormal activity.
Here is information about the location and speaker, Christopher Moon,
president and founder of Haunted Times magazine.
Is this him?
All I see (and hear) is a group of people trying to find words in
static, with Chris Moon either pretending or believing he is holding a
conversation. I guess that makes me a nonbeliever.
For all I know, Chris might genuine believe he's having a conversation
with some sort of entity. He may have a brain that is predisposed to
interpreting words out of noise.
This effect is amplified when you're intentionally trying to find words
in noise, and even more so when you're told what words to look out for.
Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven played backwards is a good example:
Can I interpret "my sweet
Satan" and the rest into those sounds? Sure. Does that mean there is
some dark and sinister force at work. No.
It's much like how some schizophrenics see faces all over the place. In
some extreme cases, they might believe they're being watched and laughed
at. Of course, there aren't really faces in tree leaves or on the
ceiling, but that doesn't stop some people's brains interpreting faces
from those things.
It's an error in the mind's process of making sense of what its
perceiving. For most people, our minds recognises real patterns the vast
majority of the time. However, some find patterns more easily, leading
them to think they've found patterns where there are none. I would say
the Chris Moon video above is a classic example of this.
Diane Deutsch's phantom words demonstrate this nicely.
http://philomel.com/phantom_words/example_phantom_words.php
"Here is Phantom Word #1. Below are just a few of the words and phrases
that people have heard when listening to this example in a good
listening space:
window, welcome, love me, run away, no brain, rainbow, raincoat, bueno,
nombre, when oh when, mango, window pane, Broadway, Reno, melting, Rogaine"
Here is Phantom Word #1:
http://philomel.com/mp3/phantom_words/ex/phantom_words_ex1.mp3