Atheists: if someone were to invite you to witness scientific experiments on the pranormal...?

Question

would you be interested in taking them up on the invite?

And what sorts of control factors would you want in place to make sure there are no flukes or frauds?

Okay, Paranoral includes ghosts, psychics, UFO's Bigfoot etc.

An example experiment would be to hook up a psychic to a brain wave monitor to see if the brain waves differ from normal activity

Any skeptics would be allowed to examine every inch of the room and all equipment The point of the experiments would not be to prove one thing or another the point would be to see if anything happens that would be considered out of the ordinary, all possibilities for any activity would be taken into account and thats where the process of elimination would come into play.

Also in the case of photographs, multiple DIFFERENT cameras would be put into place and supervized by a photography expert.

Answer 1

There are far more informed skeptics doing this kind of thing than me. I am still waiting for someone to take James Randi up on his one million dollar offer. Show something, ANYTHING and he will give them $1m. No one in 15 years or so, has ever succeeded.

Answer 2

Absolutely.
For other witnesses, for preference I'd have a top-flight specialist in the most relevant field of engineering/medicine/chemistry etc.
And a top-flight magician.
A statistical expert might be useful too.

But then I don't quite believe in the paranormal: if something actually exists, I just need to expand my definition of "normal" a little.
(currently human voices are coming out the room next door, but no humans are present. Spooky and paranormal? No, radio. But once it was... Messages through the air? The province of magic, surely? Now the province of aerials rather than aerial spirits.)

Answer 3

I would definitely be interested.


I would probably want some more qualified skeptics in on it too. A couple of stage magicians would be a good idea as well, they know a lot of the tricks used.

For control factors:

Continuous recording from multiple camera angles.

I (or my fellow scientists) provide all equipment, as agreed beforehand.

The equipment is not trivial (All cards are the 2 of clubs, etc.)

All third parties must be randomly selected from people neither group knows (student volunteers or such like)

Other requirements would depend on the paranormal claim.

Answer 4

Paranormal.

Sure. I'd go. You don't need too many control in a spook hunt like this, just some decent lighting and a good layout of the building your in. Most people who go looking for this kind of stuff want to find it, so if they hear a rat, a rattley water pipe, a racoon, or if their eyes start seeing weird lights from sensory depravation, or a flash spot on some film from over exposure, that is about all they need to see a ghost.
The mind is pretty easy to trick and will come up with stuff in a dark room if you think there is something there and you want it to get you.

Answer 5

Heck ya...I would be there. The first go through I want to see it as they do. Then for me to believe it I would have to place some controls. What the controls were, depends on the activity.

Although if the paranormal activity was truly real, why would I be invited when the could call James Randi and make a million dollars?

Answer 6

I am not an Atheist, but I am a Deist that likes Science and has no belief in the Paranormal.

I would like to ask them how they would like to record the information. What would there measurement be. Before I could go further than that, I would want to know what the Hypothesis is.

Because Paranormal activity is so loosely defined, I would want to know :
The Hypothesis.
The Variable Factors.
The Key Factors.
And what would qualify as a Success.

I sadly do not think you could keep my interest beyond this point.

Answer 7

Witness? I've performed them before.

Meta-analyses of such studies have turned up an even more interesting result than the experiments themselves -- if a believer and a non-believer in the phenomenon both conduct identical experiments in a double-blind scenario (ie: no risk of subtle cuing or prompting error), the data will often differ to 'prove' the researcher's beliefs... even if all else is controlled and the standards are uniform.

But to answer your immediate question -- Yes, in a heart beat. :)

Answer 8

My brother, Steve Shaw, was part of one of those experiments with James Randi. Him and another guy managed to fool scientists into believing they had paranormal powers. I have seen spoons bent, keys bent, by a leading mentalist for years and know how easily people, including scientists can be fooled. So nope wouldn't want to.

Answer 9

I'm not atheist, but I'd go and watch!

Controls - motion sensors on the outside of the building and all other unpopulated spaces in the building. Visual surveillance via web cam & computer

Answer 10

Sure! I'd love to see something like this. It sounds exciting. Who knows, there's a chance I might be witness to a ground-breaking experiment that changes our whole perception of things. Doubt that would happen, but it still sounds like a fun time.

Of course, if this didn't look like a truly controlled experiment, or one that conveniently skipped some hypotheses, I'd call them on their BS.