Psychic Samurai applies for MDC...apparently...

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I'm am usually booked as a mentalist but often go beyond that label and make Paranormal Predictions and other Paranormal Activities that evolve around the Devil's Chair.
I often speak of the Paranormal Events that happen there while on these programs.​
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Could you cite proof of these "paranormal" predictions.
For reference here is a link to Devil's Chair in Florida
http://www.weirdus.com/stories/FL01.asp
 
Hello TP,

Great to see that you have applied in a meaningful manner, and that you are aware of what is needed for the challenge. However, you seem not to have considered that one of the demands for the MDC is that your paranormal ability can be established as immediately apparent without judging. You mention all sorts of equipment that can be used for recording the event, but you do not mention just how you would go about proving it is a paranormal event using criteria that can only be true or false and not anything in between.

Even if your spirits can tell what is inside closed envelopes, there still has to be no ambiguity, and no room for interpretation, so you would need to clearly establish that the spirits are right in a binary way.

How exactly do you propose to prove that the event is paranormal?
 
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steenkh said:
Hello TP,

Great to see that you have applied in a meaningful manner, and that you are aware of what is needed for the challenge. However, you seem not to have considered that one of the demands for the MDC is that your paranormal ability can be established as immediately apparent without judging. You mention all sorts of equipment that can be used for recording the event, but you do not mention just how you would go about proving it is a paranormal event using criteria that can only be true or false and not anything in between.

Even if your spirits can tell what is inside closed envelopes, there still ha to be no ambiguity, and no room for interpretation, so you would need to clearly establish that the spirits are right in a binary way.

How exactly do you propose to prove that the event is paranormal?
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I second steenkh's post and would like to add:

The Professor, how do you propose to prove that the entity is what you claim it is and not something entirely different?

Worded in a more technical manner: How would one be able to falsify your claim?
 
Maybe I missed it, but where does anything say the "entity" is only around once a year? The web site says after midnightm period.
 
The Professor said:
I called the JREF to request their definition of academic (Note it is punctuated incorrectly on the application, strange) and I was told something like ..."Well, No P.E. teachers" or something like that. Funny if you know the origin of the word. The conversation was pleasant and I was able to wish Randi happy birthday a bit later.

Barnes and Noble best selling author, Charlie Carlson has mailed his affidavit to the JREF.
Historian and long time researcher, Charlie was recommended to me as THE EXPERT in the field.
He's written "Weird Florida" and articles in "Weird US" for Barnes and Noble.

Charlie Carl Carlson, Jr. (born in Sanford, Florida), is a prolific American and Florida author, novelist, actor, and film producer. Known as "Florida's Man in Black" or "Master of the Weird", Mr. Carlson specializes in paranormal, strange events and places, and many historical books. Mr. Carlson has also produced and acted in radio shows and movie productions related to his genre. Charlie Carlson joined the US Army and spent two tours in Vietnam with the famed 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Blackhorse) and after 25 years retired as a Command Sergeant Major. Charlie Carlson went on to become a showman of outdoor attractions and began his writing career as author of several Florida history books and the Civil War. In 1997 he began writing about Florida folklore and published the successful book, "Strange Florida" and portrayed Professor Charles Morehouse on the SciFi Channel's "Curse of the Blair Witch." He has produced and appeared in other movies and television documentaries. He is a frequent guest on Florida talk radio and is the author of the best selling book, "Weird Florida" [Barnes & Noble, 2005] and his first fiction novel, "Ashley's Shadow" [Luthers Publishing, 2006]. Mr. Carlson currently lives on the east coast of Florida. Charlie Carlson is one of the founding members of America's Grand Order of Weird Writers at http://www.weirdwriters.com. Mr. Carlson currently produces independent films of which the latest was "Henry Blackheart Is Dead" with Blue Heron Films.
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I doubt that he would come within any generally accepted definition of "an academic", even if he isn't a PE teacher. I don't think playing one on TV counts.
 
I appreciate everyones help!!!!
Thanks.
Recording a voice of an entity that is NOT THERE, NOT VISIBLE (Unless someone or video takes a cool photo) Not present in this reality as we know it. Why wouldn't that be Paranormal?
JG
The voice will not be coming from me .. at least not from my voice box. Not physically.
I will try to fine tune the event description but I'm up against a Hard Break, my marriage.
Charlie Carlson is an Expert in the field. He is also on the Board of Directors for a Museum. He lectures extensively and is a consultant on more than one upcoming TV show soon to be on the History Channel I believe. (I might be wrong about the station)
I did not get to post his most recent accomplishments. We'd be here all day!

One thing I do find trying is that many skeptics try to tell ME what spirits, entities, or whatever paranormal forms, are capable of doing. Some say they are omnipotent, but I don't see it like that. Perhaps you've discussed their "Powers" before.
I don't understand the envelope question. Can spirits see through paper?

Anyway, The Inlaws just got here ... Gotta run
THANKS EVERYONE!!!!!!
 
I can think of only one way that this kind of claim can be tested while ruling out trickery. The paranormal entity must unambiguously answer a question that neither you, nor anyone else present can answer. Can your paranormal entity do this? If not, you are in for a disappointment.

IXP

p.s. I sure hope the Great Pumpkin shows up, his record is, well, not all that impressive!
 
The Professor said:
Recording a voice of an entity that is NOT THERE, NOT VISIBLE (Unless someone or video takes a cool photo) Not present in this reality as we know it. Why wouldn't that be Paranormal?
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If recording a voice that does not come from a visible person is all that is needed to win the MDC I would be a rich man by now. If I were allowed to pick the time and place of the demonstration it would make it considerably easier. Have fun trying to get this one past Randi.

IXP
 
The Professor said:
Recording a voice of an entity that is NOT THERE, NOT VISIBLE (Unless someone or video takes a cool photo) Not present in this reality as we know it. Why wouldn't that be Paranormal?
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Of course not. I've recorded the voice of an entity that is not here many times- recording from a TV, radio or telephone are 3 simple ways to do just that. I could claim that it's an entity not present in this reality but that wouldn't make it true.

If you want to prove it's paranormal you have to have controls that prevent things like radio, hidden speakers, ventriloquism or other mundane methods. And if you want to claim that it's a ghost or some other paranormal entity then you have to do more than show that it's unknown. That seems to be a problem for many people claiming something is paranormal.

If you see something flying in the air and don't know what it is, that means it's unidentified. The mere fact that it's unidentified does not prove that it's a flying saucer.

If you hear a voice and don't know whose (or what's) voice it is- that merely shows that you don't know. That does not mean it must be "it's an entity not in this reality", or a ghost.

Claiming that "well, it could be" isn't enough. There "could be" a pig somewhere that can fly, but that won't stop me from eating bacon.
 
The Professor said:
Recording a voice of an entity that is NOT THERE, NOT VISIBLE (Unless someone or video takes a cool photo) Not present in this reality as we know it. Why wouldn't that be Paranormal?
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In much the same way that the announcement about the next train leaving the station wouldn't be paranormal. It is a voice, it comes from an entity that is not there, not visible!

If we strip away the spooky location it seems that you are saying that you will sit of a chair and people will hear a voice coming from you even though you are not speaking. There are lots of ways that this effect could be produced normally and those are the ways that you will have to rule out in your protocol.

People are suggesting asking the "spirit" an unambiguous question about the contents of a sealed box or a specific future event whose answer can be confirmed, not because they think that they know more about spirits than you do but because such a test would be easier to judge. With such a test the existence of the spirit would be moot. Knowledge of the contents of the sealed box would be paranormal enough.
 
The Professor said:
The voice will not be coming from me .. at least not from my voice box. Not physically.
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Again, this is not "The Professor Show", and we are not your audience. If you could dispense with the "teases" and vague promises of future revelations it would be appreciated.
As it now stands, what we seem to have is yet another Halloween seance with "mysterious" sound effects and recorded noises. If you make a claim that some noise is coming from a supernatural entity, "What else could it possibly be??" is definitely not a suitable response.
 
This I think is important due to The Professor's claims of said place being "a portal".

Some people visit to investigate the rumors of "witches" and the "devil's chair," an area in the cemetery that is rumored to be haunted. They are disappointed when no one in the town dresses like a witch or practices black magic. The "devil's chair" rumor is put to rest quickly, as the residents of the town only learned of it after visitors came up with the story; there is no cemetery in Cassadaga. Nearby Lake Helen has one, which may be where the rumor stemmed from, but that town is not associated with Spiritualism.
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http://media.www.usforacle.com/medi...Montage/The-Spirit.Of.Cassadaga-1675917.shtml
 
One thing I do find trying is that many skeptics try to tell ME what spirits, entities, or whatever paranormal forms, are capable of doing. Some say they are omnipotent, but I don't see it like that. Perhaps you've discussed their "Powers" before.
I don't understand the envelope question. Can spirits see through paper?
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If spirits are real, the skeptical viewpoint is to identify them and understand them as they really are. Same with atoms and molecules and stuff--these things are not visible to the naked eye, but they really exist and we can learn about what they are. We don't tell anyone what an atom should be, or what we want it to be--science is about learning how things actually are. But science requires evidence. What is the evidence that spirits exist? If you want to take the Challenge, you'll have to show evidence of talking to spirits. Empirical, testable evidence that rules out trickery and stuff. There are many ways of faking ghosts and spirits and talking to the dead--I think we all know many of them. But if you want a crack at the million, it's got to be real evidence so we know you are truly talking to spirits and not faking it.
 
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Howdy!

Really, I'm just going to rehash. Everyone else has already said it:

o Your demonstration is going to have to provide controls so that it is impossible for this effect to occur unless something paranormal is going on.

I don't think anyone here has told you, per se, what the paranormal entity is capable of doing. We've done a lot of speculating, though, because you haven't given us a lot of information.

What we're trying to do is give you examples of what kinds of tests might be possible if the spirit were capable of doing certain things. For example, if it's clairvoyant, it'd be able to tell what was written on a piece of paper in a sealed envelope. If it's psychic, it'd be able to tell what image (say, a grahic from a Zener card, or something like that) someone at a distance was looking at. If it's telekinetic, it'd be able to lift an object, etc etc etc.

We're throwing out these possibilities by ways of saying "these types of claims are testable".

So please, tell us what the entity can do. Can it do anything paranormal? Or is it just going to talk? Will it be visible to the naked eye, or is this purely an auditory effect?

(Edited to add: I see that you've mentioned it's not visible, but then mention photography, etc. So I assume it is in fact a purely auditory effect [at least, on the face of it]).

Since it is not going to be speaking through you, what do you think about my Faraday cage* idea? Remember, we have to demonstrate that it is not a hidden speaker or radio or cellphone or other kind of receiver. A way to test that would be to build Faraday cage big enough to cover both the chair and yourself. You could run some tests beforehand to demonstrate that radio/microwave/etc energy can't get in there and that way, observers could be reasonably certain that some shenanigans with a hidden walkie-talkie aren't going on.

*smarter minds than mine would need to specify how the cage is to be built in order to block signals from walkie-talkies, cellphones, etc.
 
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The sad thing here is The Professor is just out for attention, IF he ever applies for the preliminary test,he will fail.Then he will claim "fix" or "Randi backed down" just like his magic cafe cohort Jim Callahan did.

It's all about publicity with these two,and being on here is The Professor's oxygen,I'm afraid.
 
The Professor said:
Recording a voice of an entity that is NOT THERE, NOT VISIBLE (Unless someone or video takes a cool photo) Not present in this reality as we know it. Why wouldn't that be Paranormal?
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It would require a judgment beyond the act.

Ok, so a voice registers on a recording.

All right.

And....?
 
Something worth pointing out as we look for controls here: if wired correctly, it is entirely possible to make a microphone into a speaker. So if the claimed paranormal entity is heard in the room and recorded, the presence of microphones is something that needs to be accounted for as a possible source of the signal. It would not be too hard to take a prerecorded conversation, play it back through a microphone so it sounds quietly in the room, then go back and verify the presence of the recording. If there was a second mic, one could combine what was said in the room with the sound coming from the other one and get the whole conversation put down on a recording medium.
 
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