Looking for Skeptics

[Jack by the hedge]

we didn't have do anything other than press play to work out what it says. we didn't actually guess. I couldn't get the end word because it trails off.

This makes no sense. You say you "didn't have to guess" but so far nobody has heard the same words you think you did.

In case anyone just can't bear not knowing, scrappy's original file name was

Hmm. Are you sure? I beg you to listen to the original file before you click on this.
Go here: https://app.box.com/alderbank
And download "scrappy's file renamed.wmv"

"You think your breath is complicated"

.

Now even with that prompting, I only hear a couple of those words in the recording.

So far, Alice Shortcakes guess is dramatically different from scrappy's, the guess that abbadon PM's me only agrees on a couple of minor words, and calebprime concluded that a useful interpretation is simply not achievable from the material presented.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

"He's talking of breasts and carpentry" followed by "that's Persians for you". Was flaccon's father a racist perv?

 

[scrappy]

scrappy, please look at this photo:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...9AC5E8FB1F493379B1ED00E1DB8E&selectedIndex=84

Many people, including me, see an image of Jesus in this photo.

1. Are we delusional?

2. Are we lying?

3. Are we mistaken?

4. Is there really an image of Jesus there?

1. no
2. no
3. I've never seen Jesus before but there is a face.
4. Jesus or angel.

From what I make of this it looks manipulated possibly using a dye and a cotton wool bud. Looks like it could be animal abuse. If it is manipulated its a very disrespectful thing to do, and if it isn't, its still a dogs ar*e, and you think flaccon needs therapy?

 

[Pixel42]

1. no
2. no
3. I've never seen Jesus before but there is a face.
4. Jesus or angel.

From what I make of this it looks manipulated possibly using a dye and a cotton wool bud. Looks like it could be animal abuse. If it is manipulated its a very disrespectful thing to do, and if it isn't, its still a dogs ar*e, and you think flaccon needs therapy?

The point, which clearly went right over your head, is that you don't need to be delusional, lying or even mistaken to see patterns which you think are meaningful but which are actually just the result of chance.

Our pattern-seeking brains will always try to find a signal in the noise, and will sometimes think they've found a signal where there is really only noise.

And for the record I don't think flaccon needs therapy. I think she needs to understand and acknowledge that not all the signals she thinks she sees or hears are really there, and stop letting her imagination run riot.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

when you say "experts" on the supernatural, do you mean there are people here who have encountered/dealt with the supernatural?

There are certainly people who have investigated plenty of cases which were claimed to be supernatural and cases which, without proper investigation of the kind flaccon is refusing, could be taken to be supernatural.

I'd say flaccon has a lot of knowledge on the supernatural, considering its been ongoing in her life for 20 years.

There is, as yet, no objective evidence of anything supernatural. Or, if there is, neither you nor flaccon have provided it.

Theres nothing incompetent about him.

I didn't say there was. I said that, by his own words, he is not experienced in assessing these kinds of claims, whereas people on this board are. The replies in this thread are of more value than anything the GP says about the veracity or otherwise of these phenomena, because we know what we're talking about and he, by his own admission, doesn't.

Think of it like this - you've got something wrong with your car. Do you trust the assessment of a bunch of mechanics, or do you trust the assessment of a doctor? The answer is that you look to the mechanics, because assessing problems with cars is their area of expertise. It doesn't matter how good a doctor the doctor is, if he doesn't know anything about cars he's not going to be much help if you need your car fixed.

That's similar to the situation we have here. The GP has said that he doesn't know anything about the supernatural. We do. We are better qualified to assess what's going on than he is, because we have experience and knowledge that he doesn't, individually and especially as a group.

It seems to me that whoever tries to help flaccon, is either deluded themselves, or incompetent.

Please quote where I have said either of those things. If you cannot, then please take time to consider that you may be mistaken about what I've said.

From what I've personally witnessed, it needs a serious investigation.

Serious investigation is what's being attempted here, but flaccon is particularly uncooperative.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Here's one - is this really a picture of Jesus? http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/17/jesus...-after-man-spills-fabric-conditioner-3620378/

I'll tell you why I ask after I get a reply.

 

[Mojo]

Mojo I travelled over in hope to meet alderbank, at a pub somewhere. I was supposed to go third party on that night, but it was cancelled, and I had to leave the next day. The next day being when flaccon played an afternoon of chess with her son. No ones lying here, this is how it was.

The post you were replying to was to do with a meeting on 11th June arranged between Alderbank and flaccon, with flaccon stating that she only had "an hours notice", and that she "received a phone call from Alderbank at 5.15pm suggesting a meet for 7pm".

She also claims that she "did not manage to get online the next day to accept a reschedule" because she was busy. In fact, Alderbank posted the suggestion that he could visit her on the forum at 12:06pm that day, with a more specific request for a meet posted at 12:25pm. Flaccon was clearly not too busy to get online, because she posted on the forum five times within the next two hours, with the first reply being only five posts after Alderbank's request, and the second of her posts quoting one of the four intervening posts. This is all preserved on the forum in this post and the 20 or so posts following it, so anyone who cares to follow the link can see how it was.

I'm unclear why you were replying to this, because as far as I was aware you weren't involved in the rescheduled meet on the 11th.

 

[Alice Shortcake]

Here's one - is this really a picture of Jesus? http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/17/jesus...-after-man-spills-fabric-conditioner-3620378/

I'll tell you why I ask after I get a reply.

Here's what I see:

A bearded man doing a fire-juggling act.

Spilled fabric conditioner, eh? That solves the mystery of the pink patches on my black pillowcase!

 

[Alice Shortcake]

Another thing. Why do we see familiar faces - family members, friends, famous people - in random patterns? Because they're familiar. The same is true of aural pareidolia, which is why flaccon hears her own voice and those of her family members.

Scrappy, if your name for the file mentioned above is an accurate reflection of what you think is being said don't you think it's odd that it doesn't make grammatical sense? Time and again I've noticed that the stuff spouted by spirits consists of inane ideas expressed in poorly constructed sentences. Does death have a deleterious effect on the intellect?

 

[bluesjnr]

Does death have a deleterious effect on the intellect?

Most assuredly, my friend, most assuredly. I'm surprised you weren't aware of this.

 

[Daylightstar]

Thanks Alderbank. I just uploaded scrappy's file.

https://app.box.com/alderbank ...

Attached audio (noice reduction, tempo change and amplification.) of the voice in scrappy's file and a graphic representation with words underlined in red.

What I make of it is:

you take your breath in time.

Words in bold are reported by me with higher confidence.

 

[Alice Shortcake]

I'm always reminded of what Thomas Huxley had to say on the matter:

"The only good that I can see in the demonstration of the truth of "Spiritualism" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide. Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a "medium" hired at a guinea a séance."

As for that photo of Jesus manifesting himself as a dog's posterior, I find it strangely apt for a thread in which we've been told that cancer-causing cats should have their orifices burned.

 

[dafydd]

Does death have a deleterious effect on the intellect?

A drastic effect. Living sometimes has a deleterious effect too.

 

[trustbutverify]

But as the evidence mounts, piecing it together shouldn't be too difficult.

Evidence mounts? I haven't seen one example of evidence. The nonsense has been mounting, and I can piece that together.
But no evidence.

Where is the complete test proposal flaccon submitted to ASKE?

 

[scrappy]

"He's talking of breasts and carpentry" followed by "that's Persians for you". Was flaccon's father a racist perv?

breasts / breath, similar sound I suppose. When you say "he's talking of.." then you obviously agree that there is a voice present saying something.

Where is this this voice is coming from, and who is it? I record in total silence.

As for your nasty insensitive question above, its obvious you're not "helping" anyone. I doubt others will laugh at this, and those who do are as equally pathetic as you.

I hope the mods remove it before flaccon see's it.

 

[Spektator]

Thanks Alderbank. I just uploaded scrappy's file.

(snip)[/I]

I can't hear any human voice at all, just some blips and blups. Nearest equivalent I can think of: woo woopa wah wah.

 

[Alderbank]

Where is the complete test proposal flaccon submitted to ASKE?

scrappy, I can see you are online now.

Several posters have asked this and waited patiently for a reply. Please post the complete test proposal flaccon submitted to ASKE

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

breasts / breath, similar sound I suppose.

Not the clear, unmistakable words that this thread promises, though.

When you say "he's talking of.." then you obviously agree that there is a voice present saying something.

No, those words are in quotation marks. This means that they're part of what I hear. That's how quotation marks work, and you can't change how quotation marks work simply because you think that that strengthens your position.

Where is this this voice is coming from, and who is it?

I don't know, I wasn't there when it was recorded. The jury's still out on whether it's a real voice or not.

I record in total silence.

We have only your word for that, and you could be mistaken. Or lying. That's why objective evidence is needed.

As for your nasty insensitive question above, its obvious you're not "helping" anyone. I doubt others will laugh at this, and those who do are as equally pathetic as you.

I hope the mods remove it before flaccon see's it.

Insensitive? I'm not the person claiming that it's flaccon's father's voice. I'm the person saying that it's noise which is subject to pareidolia. If flaccon is liable to be distressed by the things that people hear in pareidolia that she believes to be her father's voice, then you are being irresponsible by posting them for all to hear. I heard what I heard. That you don't like what I heard is not my problem. That you allowed a situation which could be potentially distressing to your friend by sharing something which you believe is sensitive for her is your problem.

Now, that picture of Jesus I posted a link to - what do you make of it?

 

[scrappy]

scrappy, I can see you are online now.

Several posters have asked this and waited patiently for a reply. Please post the complete test proposal flaccon submitted to ASKE

You would need to ask her about that alderbank, I don't have anything to post. I'm aware she was originally going to calibrate a new computer, also alter any pre recorded "silences"

 

[Daylightstar]

...
In case anyone just can't bear not knowing, scrappy's original file name was

Hmm. Are you sure? I beg you to listen to the original file before you click on this.
Go here: https://app.box.com/alderbank
And download "scrappy's file renamed.wmv"

"You think your breath is complicated"

.
Now even with that prompting, I only hear a couple of those words in the recording. ...

Now, about over two hours not having listened to the file, having had some food and done different things, I can make "You think your breath is complicated" from the file.

Although the sound certainly appears to be a voice, I however can not confirm it actually speaks the suggested words.

Especially the suggestion of "complicated" (where I first heard it as "time") is strong, listening this time around.
The file is exactly the same though.

It might be an interesting experiment to listen to similar files several times with good time in between and see if people's perception of those sounds change as time passes.

Does anyone else experience perception changes with the file?