Has anyone here tried skeptical investigation of claims, or ghost hunting?
I had the pleasure about a year ago to hang out after hours in a local pub in a building that dates back to the mid-1800's. The downstairs is now a pub, and the upstairs was converted to apartments years ago. The owner was allowing a paranormal group to come in and "document" what people had been reporting for years. We hung out for a few hours watching this side show of idiots convincing themselves that every bump, creak and groan of the building was "something significant." They were a joke.
I've had a half-formed plan for a few years now to put together a group of people (I have a few friends who hold doctorates, which would give us a sheen of respectability) and build some totally useless "ghost detecting equipment" - basically, boxes with LEDs and LCD screens that flash and display random data), then see if we can get on one of those ghost-hunting TV programmes and find out how long we can blatantly take the piss before someone notices.
I've had a half-formed plan for a few years now to put together a group of people (I have a few friends who hold doctorates, which would give us a sheen of respectability) and build some totally useless "ghost detecting equipment" - basically, boxes with LEDs and LCD screens that flash and display random data), then see if we can get on one of those ghost-hunting TV programmes and find out how long we can blatantly take the piss before someone notices.
I've seen a few things that I can't readily explain, one was corroborated independently by another person the following day as neither of us wanted to admit to the other what we had just seen at the time because we didn't want to look like an idiot but it came out the following day. I wonder if there isn't a scientific explanation for these phenomena that we haven't uncovered yet, naturally the whole topic is shrouded in superstition which makes it difficult to get scientists to look at it objectively. Basically you wind up with two sides, believers and debunkers, personally I just want to have to deal with anything like that again.
Back in my days of knowing all about the supernatural, friends and I went ghost hunting. For some reason the hunt was at a cemetery way out in the boonies. The 5 of us got out of the car and started looking around the tombstones. Suddenly someone shouted "OMG, look at that" and they all ran for the car so frightened that the driver flooded the car trying to start it. This was the only thing that saved me as I ran right behind them.
Later someone said that I saw it too because I was running. No. Whatever "it" was nobody could identify and I saw nothing. I ran simply because I didn't want to be left out in the boonies in the middle of the night.
What did they see? Well, I don't know but it would likely be more of a critter than a ghost.
UFO claims, Roswell Incident, Rendlesham Forest and others. Found no concrete proof of alien visits, all can be explained, so I gave up.