Thanks, MysticalKnight!, for the warm welcome!

There has been a lot of uproar over the past 18 months or so concerning the use of these devices……Is it merely pareidolia, wishful thinking, and "evidence" gathered to support pre-existing beliefs, or do people on this forum consider the use of these devices to be scientifically sound?

While we're at it, I am also interested in opinions concerning the paranormal puck and Ovilus, whether you have used them or not.

GhostDiva TonyaK

Welcome GhostDivaTonyak. This is a good point that you make, and one that I have addressed before regarding equipment and paranormal investigations.

I know you guys are probably sick of hearing this, but if I've said it once I've said it a million times: Until we can reasonably quantify paranormal activity and have an understanding as to what it is, no amount of equipment in the world will be able to measure it. While equipment used by todays paranormal investigators may be useful as the readings they give MAY help us get closer to these answers, they are not being used properly to achieve this goal. Please see my blog in the science blog section of this website that addresses this issue.

Once again a testable definition is required here. Should one choose to proceed. Pardon the buzz-kill.

Dawkins,

Thanks for your reply. To let you know a bit about myself, I am a practicing professional archaeologist and have been a scientist for over 30 years. I am acutely aware of what is needed when conducting a scientific investigation and a testable research question is, of course, required to conduct a proper investigation.

To date, my comments regarding the establishment of a proper scientific methodology within paranormal investigations have been broad in order to convey the idea to those who are interested and not familiar with the process that a proper methodology must be used in order to uncover scientific fact. If an interest is expressed in conducting an investigation under these guidelines, I would be more than happy to explain the full process and help with any questions that someone would have regarding this issue, and see their project through to fruition.

My intent has always been to promote the use of proper scientific methods in paranormal investigations, an integral component to any scientific inquiry that is obviously lacking in the field and needs to be addressed. Thanks, and I look forward to future discussions.

My question still stands. What is a ghost, and what are it's properties, and what are the mechanics behind these properities? How can they be tested, and with what degree of replication? What methodology is used, and what protocols and controls have been established? Is this indeed science, or metaphysics?

If offered for publication and peer review, who are the peers? A theory in science is the highest form a hypothesis can obtain. as I'm sure you know. I just want to understand what is being discussed.

Dawkins, we are obviously on the same page regarding this subject. What you have so eloquently stated is what I have been re-iterating for the last several years. How can we measure anything that has not been quantified? The answers to the questions that you pose are non-existent to date yet, many paranormal investigators still insist on carrying as much equipment as they can afford to an investigation with the sole purpose of “measuring” the amount of “paranormal activity” that exists at the location they are investigating. Until the questions that you pose are investigated properly using a sound scientific methodology, no amount of equipment in the world can confirm or deny the existence of the paranormal. This is why I also find arguments over which types of equipment is best used in a paranormal investigation to be moot points. Paranormal investigating to date is considered a pseudo-science at best, and the main reason being that solid scientific research practices have not been applied properly if at all. In any scientific endeavor, one cannot approach the research with a biased point of view. Unfortunately, this is not the case in most instances of paranormal investigating. Either a true believer will investigate and claim that everything they encounter is a result of paranormal activity, or a true skeptic will investigate and claim that everything encountered can be debunked and attributed to common causes. I cannot recall in any instance where someone has approached this type of investigation with a non-biased viewpoint, formed research questions to study, gathered data and analyzed it, established possible correlations within their research, and tested their hypothesis using a solid methodology. My goal is to establish a research project to investigate the questions that you mentioned above using the proper scientific techniques, and to help those groups and individuals who are interested in conducting a proper scientific study to do the same. I strongly feel that only through the use of proper scientific methods can we come closer to answering the questions posed above.