Viva Don Quijote!

In response to a number of your confused messages regarding my last blog entry, I must clarify that my reference to Don Quixote as being in the running for “most logical character in literary history” was my attempt at a joke.  Don Quixote was anything but logical.  He challenged windmills to duels.

I was also attempting some irony, something that’s lost on a lot of my students, at least with respect to my personal use of it, as many in the field of science (and those outside of the field) consider my forays into paranormal studies, essentially, a quixotic enterprise.  Many believe attempting to procure evidence of the paranormal is about as constructive as tilting at windmills. 

To all those challenging my enterprise, I challenge them to a duel.  After I’m finished slaying these particular windmills.

Viva Don Quijote!!

Correction...

CORRECTION: 

Sherlock Holmes may not be the most logical character in literary history; that is simply my opinion.  Though I think that Don Quixote may be a close second...

What Are Ghosts? Part 2

In general, evidence of ghosts has been inconclusive. 

There has been a long history of attempts at photographing this type of paranormal phenomenon, and the success of these attempts differs by whom you talk to about it.  The photograph is by nature subjective – it is not reality, but rather a form of art.  The moment a lens is pointed at something, a subjective choice has been made, and when the shutter is depressed, that choice is cemented.

Apparitions caught on film date back to the invention of the camera.  Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the most logical character in the history of literature, Sherlock Holmes, believed in the infamous fake photos dubbed “The Cottingley Fairies” that came to light in 1917 and caused a fervor. 

What is so obviously detected as fraud in the present was believed as magical when eyes first viewed them in the early 1900’s.  Doyle embraced this photograph as definitive proof of the spiritual world.

It’s my opinion that the brain, even those brains existing in humans of high intellect, when presented with visual information it has never seen before it may not immediately know how to comprehend it, and therefore grossly misjudge it.  As viewers, we’ve become more savvy to trickery, as we are aware of what a program like Photoshop can conjure without any paranormal assistance.  It’s getting harder to fool us.  But the technology grows, as evidenced by the gadgets of increasing complexity used by “ghost hunters” on various cable network television shows.

For examples of these shows, follow these links:

http://www.syfy.com/ghosthunters/

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ghost-adventures

And for all you ghost-hunting aficionados who can’t get enough of these shows, you can get more information on this site that “strives to bring you the most up to date paranormal television shows from around the world”:

http://www.extremeghosthunters.com/

The more savvy we get, the more complex the techniques of presenting paranormal evidence become.  This is either an attempt to fool us once again, as Arthur Conan Doyle was once fooled, or a sincere attempt at detection.  I cannot be clear as to which motivation is more widely held.

However, I can tell you of my personal photography experience and opinions dealing with the nuances of camera work. This will appear in a later blog post I will title Photography: Film vs. Digital