Tag Archives: ghosts

The Presence and the Press: Once Again Science Journalists Tell Us Ghosts Explained Away!

Posted on November 8, 2014 by

OK, I blog very rarely nowadays, but I thought I had best respond to all the press excitement caused by an article from Current Biology, which pretty much everyone (including the authors) seem to think explains away “ghosts”.  You should … Continue reading →

Posted in Paranormal, Reviews and Past Events, Science, Social commentary desecrated | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Day I Met Myself: or how I survived my death-omen doppleganger.

Posted on October 12, 2013 by

It was an overcast day, and I was walking through Bury St Edmunds with my best friend, Hugh. After lunch sometime, killing time before our scheduled afternoon classes. I don’t know the date or even the year — and Hugh … Continue reading →

Posted in Debunking myths, Paranormal, Science, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A Suffolk Tragedy –The Red Barn Murder; Polstead, Suffolk, 1828

Posted on January 3, 2013 by

I don’t have time to give a full account of the case, so I will quickly summarize it here. On Saturday 18th May 1827 William Corder, a son of a prosperous Suffolk family apparently set out to elope with Maria Marten, a village beauty of humble origin. The two walked separately through the night to a barn, the now infamous ‘Red Barn’ on Corder’s property, Maria dressed in men’s clothing to avoid local notice. In the barn Maria change in to her women’s attire, and while changing met her death, and was buried by Corder within the barn. Continue reading →

Posted in Debunking myths, History, Paranormal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Why Everything We Think We Know About Ghosts Is (Probably!) Wrong

Posted on December 12, 2011 by

If you are interested in ghosts you may want to take a look. By kind permission of the editor, Dave Wood, my paper, with only the graph missing, follows. Continue reading →

Posted in Debunking myths, Paranormal, Reviews and Past Events, Science, Uninteresting to others whitterings about my life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Why Do Ghosts Go “Woo”? Part One.

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

OK, a light-hearted one this lunchtime. “why do ghosts go woo?” is an excellent question that was asked on Twitter by Ian Rennie to Hayley Stevens, and she, Kimberley Kendall and I discussed it for a while.  I always joke … Continue reading →

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Five things I learned from #ghostnobbergate

Posted on July 13, 2011 by

You can say what you like about Professor Brian Cox, the guy has style. The discussion of the Infinite Monkey Cage episode on spooks et al. led to his Twitter postings that apparently caused outrage, and the amusing little spat … Continue reading →

Posted in Debunking myths, Paranormal, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Cox and Nobbers

Posted on July 10, 2011 by

Anyhow enough! I have a sense of humour. Some nonsense is inevitable in any pop-science treatment, but I’m not going to sit here and rip in to the remaining two thirds. I can cope with nonsense being spouted even on a show that claims to be a “bastion of rationality” — some people have lives and have not dedicated themselves to decades on these subjects – well Wiseman has both, for which I am frankly envious. You should by now gather that a) I’m astonishingly critical, and sceptical of almost any claim I hear from an “expert” and b) this was a light hearted treatment with a condescending and at time close on sneering tone, but genuinely funny and entertaining — just don’t take it too seriously. Continue reading →

Posted in Debunking myths, History, Paranormal, Reviews and Past Events, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments