In Reply to: Re: haunted houses?? posted by Spiritual on December 06, 2005 at 23:03:07:

If you want people to believe that a 'spirit world' exists the Randi prize is the perfect way to gain support. You can give the money to a Third World charity if you would prefer not to use it to support your work.

The problem of course is that it while it is possible to undertake a scientific experiment to test the hypothesis that a house is haunted or that you can speak to the dead or bend spoons using psychic energy - no one has succeeded in providing any hard supporting evidence that meets any of the normal scientific criteria - reproducibility, etc. We know the age of the universe and the width of an atom but we have no measurements in support of say 'haunted' houses that stand up to any kind of rigorous scientific scrutiny - otherwise surely the pages of Nature and Science would be brimming with such experiments.

It's a long time since Mrs Brown dictated Beethoven's posthumous piano sonata - but I don't think it constituted evidence that she was talking to or communing with the long-dead musician in any more significant way than those of us who just listen to his manuscripts autographed while he was still alive?