| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 544.1 | | FSLENG::JOLLIMORE | For the greatest good... | Fri Oct 30 1987 10:01 | 18 |
| I got an explanation.
Ole Charles, because of his illness, knew he wouldn't make it to the
session. He knew alos, that they were taking a picture that day. He was
so upset at missing being in the picture, he was beside himself. So, he
left himself there, and went and stood in the picture. After the picture
he went back and joined himself. Meanwhile, the doctor thought he had
revived him, but Charlie knew he got into the pitcure without ever having
to leave his bed.
>this thing about the number 13) the number 1865 seems always to be popping
>up for me. Hmmmmmm...
Triskadecaphobia(sp?), eh. And are you telling us you might have been ole
Charlie? Maybe that's why your a skeptic now, feeling guilt for having
played such a trick in another life ;')
Jay
|
| 544.2 | A good halloween story, but that's all. | PBSVAX::COOPER | Topher Cooper | Fri Oct 30 1987 10:56 | 42 |
| This *may* be the most "uncanny 'proofs'" but it certainly it isn't
the best, not even close (uncannienes is a purely subjective property
and refers to peoples *reaction* -- so if people believe that it
is uncanny then we are arguing with reality to deny it).
Parapsychologists call these "crises apparitions" and while they are
frequently associated with death, or near death (temporary clinical
death) they are not invariably so. Crises apparitions, even when
reported as clearly visible to multiple witnesses, do not generally
photograph. Parapsychologists generally feel that apparitions, even
if they *are* paranormal, are hallucinations (I'm using that in a
technical sense here, not a derogatory one -- it just means that they
are being seen, for whatever reason, in the "mind's eye" rather than
with the physical one).
A bit of perspective is needed here. Photography in 1865 was new,
seemingly miraculous, and associated in peoples minds with perfect
(if blury) images of reality. People were unfamiliar with camera
tricks and false images. People today, being familiar with it
consider it obvious and so assume that if any such explanation were
possible that the people there would not have gotten so "he't up"
about the event. "Besides wouldn't they have been able to distinguish
their own physically present associate from the absent one?" No.
They "knew" that the image could not be the one physically present
since they could see him right there on the photograph. So who
could it be? Obviously the person that they expected, at one level,
to be with them, and who they were thinking sad thoughts about.
We see by subconsciously comparing what we physically see with what
we expect to see and noting anything which is different enough to
"surprise us". If we don't see enough evidence to convince us that
our expectations are wrong, the differences are subtracted out and
we only see the expectations. That's simply the way the human mind
works -- it allows us to pay attention to what is important most of
the time, at the cost of occasional errors such as this seems to be.
Its worth pointing out that although I've seen this case described
in the "Fortean Science" literature (collections of apparent strange
unexplained phenomena, generally without much effort at ruling out
error, fraud or the more subtle known phenomena) I don't remember
seeing it in the serious psychical research or parapsychological
literature (but then, its not my area of study).
Topher
|
| 544.3 | And.... | NEXUS::MORGAN | Welcome to the Age of Flowers | Mon Nov 02 1987 14:54 | 5 |
| Reply to .0;
And the critical number is.......
23! Oh, that's strange...
|
| 544.4 | Seeing double | DECWET::MITCHELL | Choose short personal names because | Tue Nov 03 1987 16:20 | 8 |
| RE: .2
I agree with your explanation, Topher. What galls me is that this
photo is STILL being touted as proof of the paranormal. At least in
1865 they had an excuse for believing it was.
John M.
|
| 544.5 | looking beneath the spooks' sheets | ERASER::KALLIS | Make Hallowe'en a National holiday. | Tue Nov 03 1987 16:56 | 21 |
| Re .4:
There are _many_ photos, some mistakes, a few obvious fakes (like
the "fairy photos" that beguiled sir Arthur Conan Doyle [researchers
even found other copies of the pictures that were cut out to form
the fairy images]), and some indeterminate, that are hailed as "proof"
of paranormal happenings.
The late Harry Houdini had an interesting way of discovering fake
"spirit photos." These usually were supposed to be a photo, done
on a plate camera, with the subject in a chair; when developed,
a second, transparent image [in Houdini's time, often Abraham Lincoln,
who supposedly showed an inclination for spiritism] would be seen.
Houdini suspected that the plate was previously (under) exposed
for the second image. So, just before he would "sit" for as portrait,
he'd flip the plate over.
The "spirit photo" would invariably be upside down from the Houdini
portrait.
Steve Kallis, Jr.
|