We generally like to keep a lighthearted point of view here at The Occult Section, but sometimes we come across people who are just begging to have their ass handed to them.
Case in point: Trent Carson, a senior from Oklahoma University who pitifully complains about a show that hasn’t even aired a new episode for about 2 years now. I love poking holes in skeptical arguments (my comments in bold), especially when said skeptics are pompous and don’t do a bit of research. To wit:
“I’m in college so I know everything!”
History. This is the name of a television channel, and such a name carries with it an air of authenticity.
In the past, the programming on this channel generally has lived up to the expectations set by being named the History Channel. I used to watch it constantly.
Want to know about the Cloaca Maxima, the main sewer system of Rome? I learned all about it on the History Channel. How about the building of the Hoover Dam? Or the journey of Voyager 1 and 2? All excellent History Channel shows from not so long ago. My favorite were always the Civil War shows that broke down entire battles and campaigns, explaining who was who and what they did.
Imagine my disdain when, after a long hiatus from television due to several overseas deployments in uniform, I returned to find the History Channel’s programming changed for the worse.
“Monster Quest?”
It’s MonsterQuest. One word. I guess “research” is not a word they learn in college anymore. And what about other long-running History Channel shows like History’s Mysteries orHaunted History, running since 1994 and 1998 respectively? The History Channel has always had programming exploring the paranormal, supernatural and unexplained, pretty much since the day the network went on the air.
I was brokenhearted to see a 30-something-year-old man on my former favorite channel looking down at a thermal camera, speculating that a cold pocket of air in the trees around the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg is a ghost. No tongue-in-cheek, no “gotcha” — this guy is deadly serious. And he has a team of people with him, also utterly convinced the data they are seeing — cold air and the like — is proof of the presence of supernatural beings, the ghosts of dead soldiers.
I don’t believe in ghosts, Bigfoot or alien conspiracies. I’m open to the existence of extraterrestrial species, and I love science-fiction, but I don’t for a second believe aliens built the pyramids or the monoliths on Easter Island or influenced the signing of the Magna Carta.
I think that if Bigfoot existed, some fossil evidence would point to that existence. There are no ape fossils in North America except those of humans. Finally, I don’t believe in ghosts because I don’t believe that a person can survive brain death in any fashion. A ghost’s existence implies that a non-physical entity, made out of electricity or some other vapor-like substance without a brain, can think and act.
Again, a little research would show that finding Bigfoot fossils would be extremely difficult at best. They are theorized to live in cool, damp climates with lots of rain and lots of scavengers, regions which would accelerate the decaying process and pretty much destroy any bones long before they could fossilize. Also, the evolutionary theory is still not complete because simply finding human fossils is hard. Maybe humans don’t exist either, Trent?
This is, strictly speaking, impossible. I tell my 6-year-old daughter with absolute confidence that there are no such things as ghosts.
Belief does not equal fact. Simply saying that something is impossible does not make it so. One of the prevailing theories as to what ghosts are is that they may simply recorded energy being played back. Not life after death, just a recording. Again, taking a bit of time to learn about the topic you are writing about can do wonders, Trent.
But isn’t it just harmless fun and entertainment? I’d be open to that hypothesis, except it has proven not to be so. Meet Finders Creepers, an Oklahoma-based “paranormal research team.” Its website claims that the team is dedicated to ruling out explainable phenomena and is only interested in truly verifiable paranormal activity.
But further reading reveals that these “professional paranormal researchers” are no different from the guy on the History Channel. One article on the website insists that dinosaurs were once our natural predators and even “vegetarian dinosaurs” sought to eliminate us from the food chain. Another discusses the spooky effects of using a static-filled AM/FM radio to search for spirits floating around.
Recently, during an investigation in East Norman, the team was unable to determine if the residence was in fact haunted, but they were able to cleanse the residence with “sage and holy water.” Call me cold, call me no fun, but this is just painfully stupid.
Well, Trent does have a point here. A lot of this stuff sounds pretty irresponsible and unscientific. This group’s site is down, so there’s no way for anyone to check them out right now. But it sounds as if he went searching for a paranormal team that was kind of on the fringe, instead of choosing one of the hundreds of teams out there that actually does take things seriously and works in a scientific manner. Way to skew things in your favor, Trent. Journalism at it’s best. Oh wait, I mean worst.
Finders Creepers was founded in 2009, about a year after the pilot episode of “Monster Quest” aired on the History Channel. In the show, a team often searches for ghosts in a house or building with working lights that are turned off. Using nighttime filters on their cameras and thermal- and electromagnetic-field-reading handheld devices, they search for ghosts.
Ok, two things here. MonsterQuest premiered in 2007. So 2009 would be about 2 years after the premier, Trent. Also, MonsterQuest does not “often” search for ghosts. There were a total 68 episodes of MonsterQuest that were aired. One of them focused on ghosts. One. Again, I found this by quickly going to Wikipedia. Is Google.com blocked by Oklahoma University’s computers?
In any other context, the footage they air on the show would be considered nighttime security camera footage. Nothing happens. The researchers jump and squeal at every creak and bump, then describe it to the camera as if it didn’t have a microphone mounted on it. They make it all seem so very exciting!
But, though many people featured on the show insist the evidence they have collected is conclusive, it predictably isn’t. No ghosts, just “unexplainable cold spots” behind the armoire. Unexplainable, that is, unless you ask someone who installs insulation or a plumber. “Yep, there’s the water-in line to your washing machine.” How the mystery melts away.
The bottom line is that shows like this convince people that believing in superstition is a sign of being “open-minded,” when in reality, it’s a sign of gullibility.
Like it or not, Trent, Bigfoot, UFOs, ghosts, and the like are all a part of our history. Bigfoot sightings have been recorded in the Americas for hundreds of years, and Native American legends go back thousands of years. Ghosts have been with us since recorded history and even into prehistory. UFOs have a long history in our culture and many others, going back to Biblical times. Do you see how they might be related to HISTORY, Trent?
Being open to advancements in our understanding of things we label phenomena is one thing, but that isn’t what “Monster Quest” does. Rather than search for a rational or science-based explanation, scientific instruments are used to try to prove the existence of supernatural beings with no scientific explanation.
The History Channel really needs to do a show on the human visual cortex and how unreliable it can be. When you see a ghost, don’t call Finders Creepers — call a psychology professor.
I don’t see how a show about science fits on the History Channel. Perhaps that would be a better show for the Science Channel. Huh Trent?
I get what Trent is trying to say, I really do. I mean South Park did an episode last season criticizing the History Channel for this exact thing, and in a much more entertaining way. Believing in such phenomena or not, they are all part of our history. And I have my own criticisms of the show, but for the most part, MosnterQuest did a much better job of presenting an accurate look at the field than most of the paranormal “reality” shows that are out there right now. Next time you want to attack ghost hunting shows, Trent, maybe pick on a show that actually focuses on, you know, ghost hunting. There’s plenty of them out there, and I’d be much more likely to agree with you.
I can tell anyone with absolute certainty that Bigfoot does not exist, but my statement could be false. Just saying it doesn’t make it true. This attitude reminds me of Charles Holland Duell, who was the commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1899, and was later a United States federal judge.
In 1898, he was appointed as the United States Commissioner of Patents, and held that post until 1901. In that role, he is famous for purportedly saying “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” However, this has been debunked as apocryphal by librarian Samuel Sass. In fact, Duell said in 1902:
“In my opinion, all previous advances in the various lines of invention will appear totally insignificant when compared with those which the present century will witness. I almost wish that I might live my life over again to see the wonders which are at the threshold”.
Another possible origin of this famous statement may actually be found in an earlier Patent Office Commissioner, Henry Ellsworth’s 1843 report to Congress. In it Ellsworth states, “The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end.” This quote was apparently then misrepresented and attributed to Duell, who held the same office in 1899.
You get the idea, but I would also ask how many species of large mammal do we discover every year? In one report it is claimed that 15,000 new species are discovered every year. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/science/30species.html), others say about 6,000. I would guess it what you are calling a species. Insects number around the 300K mark, but unicellular organisms out number about everything.
Estimations goes between 6000 and 19000. This makes sense, as we are only starting to explore parts of the biosphere (e.g. plankton). By the way, eukaryotes can be unicellular organisms (and getting back to plankton, a lot of them are). Prokaryotes are organisms with no nucleus. (From: http://www.quora.com/How-many-new-species-are-discovered-every-year )
Now with all these facts can I say for certainty that Bigfoot does not exist? No, I can’t.
A list of new species of primates discovered since 1990 can be found here: http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/aboutp/taxonomy/newspecies.html
Facts say that we have discovered 68 new species of primates since 1990. 68, wow, what else is hiding in the jungles?
I remember when I was in college and how I knew everything too. The longer I lived, the less I was sure about how much I knew. Now, I consider it a bad day if I do not learn something.
I hope Trent open his eyes, and realizes he cannot be “absolutely sure” about anything. In aerospace, we were told about the bumblebee. Aerodynamically, it can NOT fly. The funny thing is no one told the bee this, and it does fly quite well. (It’s actually a myth that they can’t fly aerodynamically, they fly more like a helicopter, beating their wings at 10 to 20 times faster than the nerves fire, or about 200 times a second.)
In today’s age, all you have to do is Google something, and choose what information you wish. When I was in college, we spent many sleepless nights at the library or in the dorms pouring over book after book until you found the information you needed. It is much easier today, so sloppy journalism is a much bigger “shame on you” then it was back then.
It has always been my opinion that if you didn’t like a show, song on the radio, you just reached up and turned the dial to something else. Why make such a big deal out of it, when you really don’t do your homework, and leave yourself wide open for a good critic, (not me) to cut you in small pieces?
At least put some thought in your articles. Some research would be nice too, but I’m sure you know more than me.
Bill
@BillK Excellent points, Bill. I have no problem with people who don’t believe in these phenomena. But to say that they know something is “impossible” is completely pompous. How do any of us know anything is impossible? A hundred years ago, faster than sound travel was impossible. Just because we don’t currently understand something doesn’t mean it can’t exist. But many skeptics feel like if they take this stance, they seem smarter. It’s pure ego.
And I wouldn’t even mind his criticisms of “MonsterQuest,” if he didn’t get pretty much every fact about it completely wrong.
Hey guys, I am the founder of the FindersCreepers team mentioned in the article. I would like to invite all of you to visit our website and make up your own mind about us rather then relying on what this college kid wrote. He completely misquoted my comments in an article I wrote on Pareidolia (I never once said that dinosaurs were our natural predators). As far as his comments on our East Norman investigation goes, I would say this: it takes a lot for us to call a place haunted. At that investigation, we experienced some stuff we found interesting, but nothing that made us feel the location was indeed haunted. However, our client asked us to perform a sage cleansing and so we obliged. For her, whether is was a placebo affect, her own belief in the cleansing, or some other psychological reason, it made her feel better. That is what we do… we help our clients. Please, read some of our investigation results, read my article on pareidolia, and decide for yourself. We do try very hard to do good research, and I am damn proud of the growth our team has experienced over the last few years. That being said, we are all continuing to grow in this field and we are always open to any suggestions or criticisms. This kid never spoke to me… he took a few things from our website, worded them in a way that would make us look stupid and went on with his life. I guess that just goes with the territory.
@Tim Doyon Thanks for the comment. I did try to visit your website when the article was posted, but your website was down at the time, or the author provided an incorrect link. I did just visit your website, and in your article you do say “Even vegetarian dinosaurs wanted to get rid of us to eliminate the competition. Dinosaurs weren’t our only threat… humans formed alliances, and if you weren’t part of the pack, you were fair game.” Your examples of Pareidolia are very good, but humans did not compete against dinosaurs at all. Perhaps you meant prehistoric animals, such as mammoths and sabretooth tigers. But humans and dinosaurs are separated by about 65 million years of evolution.
As for your East Norman investigation, you in fact say there is not enough evidence to call it a haunting, which is admirable, and a complete misrepresentation on the part of Trent Carson.
Again, the author of this article doesn’t know anything about journalism, research, or defending his arguments. I have no problem with debate of any kind, as long as the person can back up their views.
Thanks Jason… you made me double check everything and I did indeed find the errorright there on the home page. When I was writing the article, I questioned whether or not humans populated the planet at the same time as dinosaurs, and could find no consistant answer. It seems science even debates this topic. To be on the safe side, I changed my wording to: “Animals of all types wanted to make us their next meal, and to make matters worse; we were also competing against them for food. Even the vegetarian variety wanted to get rid of us to eliminate the competition. These creatures weren’t our only threat… humans formed alliances, and if you weren’t part of the pack, you were fair game. It was a dangerous world and all of us were engaged in a war of survival. Only the strongest, fastest and smartest would live to see the next day. Think about the importance of being able to scan your surroundings for people hiding in the bushes and once recognized, be able to quickly identify them as friend or foe…”, however, I see I neglated to change the wording on the teaser on the home page. What a dumb error on my part. If you were to follow the link, you would have seen the new wording. Oh well, I am fixing that now.
Anyways, I assure you that we do everything in our power to maintain professional standards and even employ a scientist on the team to help make sure that we do conduct our investigations in a way that will stand up to scrutiny.
Thank you very much for your comments. they are very much appreciated. Have a great night!
Just another thought I want to relate on this old subject, (Gezzz, does this guy ever shut up?).
I am ¼ Lakota, and my ancestors purified all types of things with sage ceremonies. How does some college kid come up with people must be stupid if they use a sage ceremony?
I can tell anyone with absolute certainty that Bigfoot does not exist, but my statement could be false. Just saying it doesn’t make it true. This attitude reminds me of Charles Holland Duell, who was the commissioner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1899, and was later a United States federal judge.
In 1898, he was appointed as the United States Commissioner of Patents, and held that post until 1901. In that role, he is famous for purportedly saying “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” However, this has been debunked as apocryphal by librarian Samuel Sass. In fact, Duell said in 1902:
“In my opinion, all previous advances in the various lines of invention will appear totally insignificant when compared with those which the present century will witness. I almost wish that I might live my life over again to see the wonders which are at the threshold”.
Another possible origin of this famous statement may actually be found in an earlier Patent Office Commissioner, Henry Ellsworth’s 1843 report to Congress. In it Ellsworth states, “The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end.” This quote was apparently then misrepresented and attributed to Duell, who held the same office in 1899.
You get the idea, but I would also ask how many species of large mammal do we discover every year? In one report it is claimed that 15,000 new species are discovered every year. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/science/30species.html), others say about 6,000. I would guess it what you are calling a species. Insects number around the 300K mark, but unicellular organisms out number about everything.
Estimations goes between 6000 and 19000. This makes sense, as we are only starting to explore parts of the biosphere (e.g. plankton). By the way, eukaryotes can be unicellular organisms (and getting back to plankton, a lot of them are). Prokaryotes are organisms with no nucleus. (From: http://www.quora.com/How-many-new-species-are-discovered-every-year )
Now with all these facts can I say for certainty that Bigfoot does not exist? No, I can’t.
A list of new species of primates discovered since 1990 can be found here: http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/aboutp/taxonomy/newspecies.html
Facts say that we have discovered 68 new species of primates since 1990. 68, wow, what else is hiding in the jungles?
I remember when I was in college and how I knew everything too. The longer I lived, the less I was sure about how much I knew. Now, I consider it a bad day if I do not learn something.
I hope Trent open his eyes, and realizes he cannot be “absolutely sure” about anything. In aerospace, we were told about the bumblebee. Aerodynamically, it can NOT fly. The funny thing is no one told the bee this, and it does fly quite well. (It’s actually a myth that they can’t fly aerodynamically, they fly more like a helicopter, beating their wings at 10 to 20 times faster than the nerves fire, or about 200 times a second.)
In today’s age, all you have to do is Google something, and choose what information you wish. When I was in college, we spent many sleepless nights at the library or in the dorms pouring over book after book until you found the information you needed. It is much easier today, so sloppy journalism is a much bigger “shame on you” then it was back then.
It has always been my opinion that if you didn’t like a show, song on the radio, you just reached up and turned the dial to something else. Why make such a big deal out of it, when you really don’t do your homework, and leave yourself wide open for a good critic, (not me) to cut you in small pieces?
At least put some thought in your articles. Some research would be nice too, but I’m sure you know more than me.
Bill
@BillK Excellent points, Bill. I have no problem with people who don’t believe in these phenomena. But to say that they know something is “impossible” is completely pompous. How do any of us know anything is impossible? A hundred years ago, faster than sound travel was impossible. Just because we don’t currently understand something doesn’t mean it can’t exist. But many skeptics feel like if they take this stance, they seem smarter. It’s pure ego.
And I wouldn’t even mind his criticisms of “MonsterQuest,” if he didn’t get pretty much every fact about it completely wrong.
Hey guys, I am the founder of the FindersCreepers team mentioned in the article. I would like to invite all of you to visit our website and make up your own mind about us rather then relying on what this college kid wrote. He completely misquoted my comments in an article I wrote on Pareidolia (I never once said that dinosaurs were our natural predators). As far as his comments on our East Norman investigation goes, I would say this: it takes a lot for us to call a place haunted. At that investigation, we experienced some stuff we found interesting, but nothing that made us feel the location was indeed haunted. However, our client asked us to perform a sage cleansing and so we obliged. For her, whether is was a placebo affect, her own belief in the cleansing, or some other psychological reason, it made her feel better. That is what we do… we help our clients. Please, read some of our investigation results, read my article on pareidolia, and decide for yourself. We do try very hard to do good research, and I am damn proud of the growth our team has experienced over the last few years. That being said, we are all continuing to grow in this field and we are always open to any suggestions or criticisms. This kid never spoke to me… he took a few things from our website, worded them in a way that would make us look stupid and went on with his life. I guess that just goes with the territory.
@Tim Doyon Thanks for the comment. I did try to visit your website when the article was posted, but your website was down at the time, or the author provided an incorrect link. I did just visit your website, and in your article you do say “Even vegetarian dinosaurs wanted to get rid of us to eliminate the competition. Dinosaurs weren’t our only threat… humans formed alliances, and if you weren’t part of the pack, you were fair game.” Your examples of Pareidolia are very good, but humans did not compete against dinosaurs at all. Perhaps you meant prehistoric animals, such as mammoths and sabretooth tigers. But humans and dinosaurs are separated by about 65 million years of evolution.
As for your East Norman investigation, you in fact say there is not enough evidence to call it a haunting, which is admirable, and a complete misrepresentation on the part of Trent Carson.
Again, the author of this article doesn’t know anything about journalism, research, or defending his arguments. I have no problem with debate of any kind, as long as the person can back up their views.
Thanks Jason… you made me double check everything and I did indeed find the errorright there on the home page. When I was writing the article, I questioned whether or not humans populated the planet at the same time as dinosaurs, and could find no consistant answer. It seems science even debates this topic. To be on the safe side, I changed my wording to: “Animals of all types wanted to make us their next meal, and to make matters worse; we were also competing against them for food. Even the vegetarian variety wanted to get rid of us to eliminate the competition. These creatures weren’t our only threat… humans formed alliances, and if you weren’t part of the pack, you were fair game. It was a dangerous world and all of us were engaged in a war of survival. Only the strongest, fastest and smartest would live to see the next day. Think about the importance of being able to scan your surroundings for people hiding in the bushes and once recognized, be able to quickly identify them as friend or foe…”, however, I see I neglated to change the wording on the teaser on the home page. What a dumb error on my part. If you were to follow the link, you would have seen the new wording. Oh well, I am fixing that now.
Anyways, I assure you that we do everything in our power to maintain professional standards and even employ a scientist on the team to help make sure that we do conduct our investigations in a way that will stand up to scrutiny.
Thank you very much for your comments. they are very much appreciated. Have a great night!
Just another thought I want to relate on this old subject, (Gezzz, does this guy ever shut up?).
I am ¼ Lakota, and my ancestors purified all types of things with sage ceremonies. How does some college kid come up with people must be stupid if they use a sage ceremony?