Anyone have any "untrue" paranormal stories? Stories exposed as frauds or hoaxes?

Question

Anyone have any "untrue" paranormal stories? Stories exposed as frauds or hoaxes?

Answer 1

Are not all 'paranormal' stories untrue? - at least to the extent that they are misinterpretations of reality!

Answer 2

There was this one time when we were kids where we haunted the attic to play a joke on our maid who was really jumpy, and we used a dry cleaner bag to make a ghost and made it pop out of an old trunk, and then we used some of our mom's sheets but got in trouble... oh wait....

Sorry, that was a Brady Bunch episode. I get confused sometimes.

Answer 3

I won't comment. This is the skeptics territory..obviously. Have fun!! lol OUCH ! OUCH ! OUCH!!!!!!!

Edit..HAY ..I'VE GOT ONE!! A psychic told me years ago that I'd be rich and famous.

Answer 4

When I first decided I wanted to investigate claims of the paranormal, I associated myself with a group.  The main reason was simply that there is safety in numbers.  I went with the group to a private residence.  I saw absolutely nothing in the home (with my gift or with equipment) that was paranormal in nature.  Outside was a different story.  I told only one person who was the leader of the group what I saw and knew.  I left really disappointed.  When they made the "mockumentary"  They totally misrepresented evidence, spliced 2 seperate visits together to make one film, and the worst thing of all....everything I told the group leader in regard to the outside property was repeated almost word for word by a 2nd sensitive who was not present when I was there at all.

After that I no longer associated myself with that group and I pity the person in need of genuine help if they contact them.

Answer 5

Yes, there is an Urban Legend financial scam going around that some magician with no training or education in any field of science will give you a million dollars if you can provide "proof" to his satisfaction of paranormal activity.

However, he never actually approves any conditions for testing beyond the preliminary stages.

Fortunately, believers and scientist have both proclaimed this test as worthless publicity.

The Randi Challenge - A Untrue Paranormal Story.

Psi

Answer 6

yes - lots. When you try to take metaphysics seriously at all you hit a tidal wave of bullshit so huge that most people drown in it. I'd say 96% (perhaps more) of the things I see or am called in on are either paranoia, drug use gone bad, people desprate to believe anything, crazy people, or just outright lies and exagerations.

Of the remaining 4%, around 3 of those percentage points are mysterious yet benign and could be explained by a VERY odd set of coincidences (well, there was a blimp that hit the stratosphere during a lightning storm that caused a flash of light to reflect off the edge of a weather baloon through swamp gas while a fox was murdering a duck whose vocal chords just happened to be strained in such a way as to make the swamp-gas-induced apparation sound like it was saying the name of the person who just happened to be standing their and sound like their dead lover...).

Then there is the 1%...

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Note to clausiusminkowski:

In that line of thought, reality itself is just an interpretation of stimulous in the brain. What you call blue may be what I call blue, but if I saw your version of blue it may look red to me.

Who is to say that the crazies who see ghosts aren't right and we who see simple explinations aren't wrong? Perspective is a tricky thing (that said, usually the crazies are just crazy).

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note to wushuboy001:

There are two sides to it - the mind will attempt to translate an experience in the way that makes sense to it. You had never heard of sleep parallisis, so the logical explination was that some outside force was responsible. Demons are an easy jump.

All that to say, remember that science and medicine can only diagnose the symptoms and make conjecture to the cause. This has two implications. Have you ever been misdiagnosed? I have. When you ask them why, they say the symptoms fit. Ever watch House M.D.? They never know what is causing it until they cure it... they only know the effect it is having on you. Now, that isn't to say the doctor wasn't right or wasn't 100% dead on! I, as a rule, don't disagree with doctors. The more mundane the explination, the more likely it is correct in my opinion. But, just to play devil's advocate (no pun intended toward your situation) there is nothing to say that something malicious wasn't causing the paralisis or the stress that caused the parallisis. Granted, I doubt it and I would tend to agree with the doctor on this one, but for the sake of others who may not be so lucky in their sources of problems.

The second point is that many times bad things cause bad things. Demonic possession is rare. Demonic affliction is even rarer. Something making sure that that potentially fatal germ ends up in just the right place at just the right time - let's just say it makes more sense. Why show your hand when you don't have to. That said, wheather some evil force of forceful evil dragged a motaba strain from deepest jungles to the club playing jungle music to infect you and give you the sri-lanken blow-s***s or if you are just the unlucky b*****d that hooked up with a burner because you weren't careful - I can't say and I don't think it really matters. Medicine is medicine and it works better than most things - but don't let medicine blind you into thinking that it knows everything or is the only answer or reason. Remember, there was a time when gunpowder was magic - now it's science. Perhaps one day ghosts will be NLEs (Non-Living Entities) and we'll learn about them in high school applied metaphysics courses.

Answer 7

How about the race of one-legged people in Tierra del Fuego who had to hop to get around? Europeans really believed that was true, like, 200 years ago, but it turned out to be a hoax.

Answer 8

A local TV channel showed people taking a photograph of a "dead relative" to different "psychics", from the famous ones to the neighbourhood lady who reads palms and throws the cards. Each person had a different story: the "dead" person had died before a dispute could be reconciled, or the will was missing and they couldn't find it, or whatever. NOT ONE of the "psychics" picked up on the fact that a) the "client" was wearing a wire and hidden camera and was filming the whole thing OR b) the fact that the "dead" man in the photo is actually alive and well--it was just a photo of the doorman of the TV studio!!

Answer 9

Throughout my life I thought I was being attacked by demons periodically in my sleep. In college I was attacked by a succubus and for haha's I decided to see a doctor. Thats when I found out I was prone to sleep paralysis during times of stress (like when a big test was coming up.)

It changed my whole outlook on paranormal.

Answer 10

Can't forget one of the biggest ghost hoaxes of all, The Amityville Horror!