Looking for Skeptics

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Okay Flaccon, I’m going to come right out and ask. Please understand that I mean nothing disrespectful by this.

Have you been diagnosed with any sort of mental illness, or do you have a history of such challenge?

You appear intelligent to me, but there is a reason I ask. As it has been pointed out earlier, this is a factor in the skeptics’ evaluation of your claim. Please answer if you are comfortable with doing so.

From the FAQ:

The JREF has spent valuable time and resources investigating claims that were submitted by people who were obviously suffering from a mental ailment. These people need medical help, not encouragement.
 
Okay Flaccon, I’m going to come right out and ask. Please understand that I mean nothing disrespectful by this.

Have you been diagnosed with any sort of mental illness, or do you have a history of such challenge?

You appear intelligent to me, but there is a reason I ask. As it has been pointed out earlier, this is a factor in the skeptics’ evaluation of your claim. Please answer if you are comfortable with doing so.

From the FAQ:

The JREF has spent valuable time and resources investigating claims that were submitted by people who were obviously suffering from a mental ailment. These people need medical help, not encouragement.

It's a necessary question. Please understand that any comments made by persons on this thread, that appear to contain either sarcasm, ridicule, etc, I do not take offense to. I've cringed at a few but it's expected, because I know how surreal this sounds, and I know how important this is. I am 100% certain that I am in contact with the spirit of my Father amongst other spirits. He constantly requested a Bishop. I emailed the Bishop. He advised I see my GP.

I have been with this GP for over 10 years. I suffered to the state of bed-ridden, including a very severe pulse intolerance. The last time I saw the GP, before this communication began, he was explaining to me how to use the walking stick in left hand, for right hip problems. Also my back was terrible for 7 years plus. The important point is this, they healed me of every problem and pain I had, overnight. If they can do this for me, it is likely that they can do this for others too.

The GP is well aware of my supernatural problems, and offered to hear out some recordings. He wrote a very good letter, kept within his parameter, explaining my massive improvement of health. He stated twice that he is no expert on the supernatural. The doctor advised that I keep the ball rolling. This appointment was witnessed by a third party. The Bishop still refused to help.

Any type of haunting without evidence, is not worth mentioning, and I was never able to gather evidence from the past. The reason for the website, is to get the word out, it's a difficult task I know, but the importance of their news and ability to heal, I cannot ignore.

I don't take tablets, I don't take drugs, I don't drink. (apart from a dessert spoon of mulled red wine each morning as requested by a certain spirit) I raised 3 children, 1 of whom was targeted by dark forces. I left my partner due to actual evil possession, possessed twice within 2 years. In those days, we received help from the Catholic church, Father Kenneth of Skelmersdale, and Bishop Vincent, and would you believe, divine protection. This divine protection is the only thing between me and a shed load of demons.

Questioning my sanity is not at all disrespectful, I completely understand that. There is no history of mental illness.
 
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If I've understood you correctly, flaccon, you are using the internal microphone of the laptop, a program such as Windows media player to start or stop the recording, and then a pair of external speakers to listen to the sounds, is that right?

Equipment being manipulated is a Samsung laptop. A set of external Bose C2 speakers, good but requires more volume. They say there are certain electric wires/cables that enables them to channel into. They say they do not require a laptop, just certain wires/cables from the laptop. This isn't the only laptop they have channelled into, they channelled into a previous laptop.

I may have these two quotes out of order, but no matter.

Flaccon, if you download the free Audacity audio editor (from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) and use it to make your recordings, the result will be a file that shows the waveform of the sound and that can be played through the laptop speakers.

Although it's not easy to "read" the visual representation of the audio waveform, studying the waveform might help determine if what you are hearing is really "there," or if it is an artifact or pareidolia.

You should be able to attach the resulting sound file to a post here or to upload it to your website. Perhaps someone with expertise in audio and/or speech acoustics could analyze or interpret it for you.

This is a much less expensive method than buying really good speakers -- speakers that still won't let you analyze what you are hearing because the sound will be going to human original-issue ears and language processing facility in the brain.* Audacity does not "know" what it is hearing, and doesn't recognize speech.

Furthermore if your spirits don't need the laptop to produce sound, perhaps Audacity won't show anything on its representation. In that case, adding another microphone and recorder to your setup would demonstrate that the spirits really are directly affecting the wires and speakers.

Surely this would provide some information for you, and for us, to ponder.


*Excuse the attempt at humor.
 
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I may have these two quotes out of order, but no matter.

Flaccon, if you download the free Audacity audio editor (from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) and use it to make your recordings, the result will be a file that shows the waveform of the sound and that can be played through the laptop speakers.

Although it's not easy to "read" the visual representation of theaudio waveform, studying the waveform might help determine if what you are hearing is really "there," or if it is an artifact or pareidolia.

You should be able to attach the resulting sound file to a post here or to upload it to your website. Perhaps someone with expertise in audio and/or speech acoustics could analyze or interpret it for you.

This is a much less expensive method than buying really good speakers -- speakers that still won't let you analyze what you are hearing because the sound will be going to human original-issue ears and language processing facility in the brain.* Audacity does not "know" what it is hearing, and doesn't recognize speech.

Furthermore if your spirits don't need the laptop to produce sound, perhaps Audacity won't show anything on its representation. In that case, adding another microphone and recorder to your setup would demonstrate that the spirits really are directly affecting the wires and speakers.

Surely this would provide some information for you, and for us, to ponder.


*Excuse the attempt at humor.

Thanks very much for that, I'm not technically minded but I got the gist. Saved to faves, will download tomorrow. G'night.
 
flaccon said:
Questioning my sanity is not at all disrespectful, I completely understand that. There is no history of mental illness.
There is, however, a history of looking for and believing supernatural explanations of events for which perfectly adequate non-supernatural explanations are available.
 
I don't take tablets, I don't take drugs, I don't drink. (apart from a dessert spoon of mulled red wine each morning as requested by a certain spirit) I raised 3 children, 1 of whom was targeted by dark forces. I left my partner due to actual evil possession, possessed twice within 2 years. In those days, we received help from the Catholic church, Father Kenneth of Skelmersdale, and Bishop Vincent, and would you believe, divine protection. This divine protection is the only thing between me and a shed load of demons.


I'm sorry, flaccon, but if you truly believe all that, you're clearly living in a fantasy world and should probably seek help elsewhere rather than try to win some skeptical group's prize.

ETA: Wasn't it the bishop who suggested you should see your GP? Or was that a different bishop? And is the bishop your "spirits" are urging you to contact yet another one? Your posts tend to be somewhat confusing, to be honest.
 
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I'm sorry, flaccon, but if you truly believe all that, you're clearly living in a fantasy world and should probably seek help elsewhere rather than try to win some skeptical group's prize.
At least it's clear now why her GP sent her to the church. It's a shame she didn't find a sympathetic priest prepared to offer the spiritual placebo he was obviously hoping for.
 
At least it's clear now why her GP sent her to the church. It's a shame she didn't find a sympathetic priest prepared to offer the spiritual placebo he was obviously hoping for.


Hmm, wait--I thought it was her church that had sent her to see her GP.

I guess it doesn't make much difference anyway, given the apparent (non) results.
 
Hmm, wait--I thought it was her church that had sent her to see her GP.
It's a bit confusing, but as far as I can gather the sequence of events was that the spirits told her to contact a bishop, the bishop referred her to her GP, and then the GP sent a letter to the bishop on her behalf. Reading between the lines the GP knew he couldn't change her mindset and hoped a priest would have more success.
 
Let me just see if I've got this straight:

You record for 12 seconds, then stop. Then you ask a question. Then you playback what you recorded before you asked the question, and you hear an answer?

So you're saying that not only can the dead talk to us via EVP, but they can also see into the future to know what question you're going to ask?

They're not dead, they don't sound dead at all. I doubt they're actually being recorded. I'm almost sure they speak when I press playback.


You've largely avoided the main point of my question, though you do seem to be confirming what I thought, by saying "they speak when I press playback".

Are you saying that the voices are not actually on the recording, but use the playback to speak? If so, why do you need to make new recordings?

Do you hear the same words every time you listen to a particular recording? If so, then what leads you to think that they appear the first time you play it back, as opposed to when it was recorded?
 
Let me just see if I've got this straight:

You record for 12 seconds, then stop. Then you ask a question. Then you playback what you recorded before you asked the question, and you hear an answer?

So you're saying that not only can the dead talk to us via EVP, but they can also see into the future to know what question you're going to ask?

They're not dead, they don't sound dead at all. I doubt they're actually being recorded. I'm almost sure they speak when I press playback.


If you're suggesting the spirits are speaking only when you hit playback and aren't really being recorded, why have you said a number of times in this thread that you want to send a recorded file to other posters for them to listen to the spirits (even though you haven't yet done so, despite all your claims)?
 
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If I were to guess it's may be the distance she has to travel to do the reading, cost of train ticket etc. but what if the client comes to her?
Well, she insists she does not charge. I am sure I am not the only person finding interest in the fact that so far this is the only question to be completely and utterly avoided.
(Others are not being actually answered, but are at least being responded to)
 
Well, she insists she does not charge. I am sure I am not the only person finding interest in the fact that so far this is the only question to be completely and utterly avoided.
(Others are not being actually answered, but are at least being responded to)

You missed it:

flaccon said:
What does "price varies according to postcodes" mean?

travel cost
 
Well, she insists she does not charge. I am sure I am not the only person finding interest in the fact that so far this is the only question to be completely and utterly avoided.
(Others are not being actually answered, but are at least being responded to)


She's answered it now:
travel cost


Mentioning a "price" rather than saying she charges travel expenses could just be sloppy use of language.
 
What did you want the bishop to do?
I think it's more a case of what did the spirits want the bishop to do, as she's saying it was them who wanted her to contact him. Presumably it was supposed to be the first step in their plan to reveal themselves to the world.

I knew a young man who developed ME, was unwell for years, and was then "cured" overnight when he became a Mormon. I suspect flaccon's illness and cure were similarly psychosomatic. Her attribution of the bad things that have happened to her and the people she knows to demonic possession/the forces of darkness etc is symptomatic of a superstitious mindset that can be difficult for someone to get themselves out of once they've invested in it. I'm sadly becoming more and more sure that we're not going to be able to help her, but I'll continue to try.
 
Flaccon, you've been around a couple of days now, you've been given details of a local group who will help test your claim. Have you contacted them? If not, why not?

You have been given guidance in how to complete a self test. Have you conducted this test? If not, why not?

You have offered to send one, some or all of the the recordings to posters on this thread (I'd like to hear them). Have you sent any? If not, why not?

I'm pretty confident that the answer to all the above is "no". If this is the case then it's starting to look like you have absolutely no interest in having your claim tested or your views challenged - I'm driven to saying that despite you being lovely person and a joy to correspond with, you are a complete time waster.
 
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