At that point my nose bleeds and I bang my head against the table. You see, no one thinks like me. Every individual thinks differently. When you state "we all think along the same lines" you mean your group is full of sheep.
"Skeptical but open minded" means that you have already decided "It cannot be but let's prove it isn't anyway" (Type 1) And guess what? If Type 1 finds a case that is baffling they will meet up with the "It cannot be therefore YOU missed something" (Type 2). Of course, Type 1 is offended by Type 2 and its comments and there may be a "give us all the witness details and we will conduct an investigation" moment.
In Ufology I have seen this situation many times and in different parts of the UK (I am not even going to touch on the United States!). Good, nice people with a serious interest in UFOs investigate a case. Other Good, nice people interested in UFOs decide they are going to investigate a case. Join forces, increase manpower to make a more thorough investigation? Like hell.
Llanerchymedd, Wales, 1978, was a case in point. There were two rival (!) UFO groups and a duo of UFO investigators who looked into this "UFO landing" and all three groups were speaking to me by phone or up~dating me by mail. At the time I could not (because of where the information came from) say outright but I very strongly suggested to each team that they were "very probably" dealing with military activity and nothing UFO linked. It became a mess as they explained how their information was far more solid but that I needed to watch out as "so~and~so is adding details" or"We think they are accepting anything as UFO".....by 1981 the arguing over the incident was still going on. Whether they resolved things I do not know but it was military.
The same goes for so called paranormal activity. One group will claim something happened and another group will claim that it did not because, although they were not there at the time, they had never heard of such a happening at the location before.
You know, if you are in an old, derelict building or structure and hear something hit the floor or wall the best you can do is remember you are in an old, derelict building or structure! Plaster and stone work fall ~that is gravity not a poltergeist.
I have seen a group of "like minded" individuals in a group argue to the point of hitting each other over a piece of plaster or stone falling in the dark. "It was thrown!" "It just fell!" and the fake psychics will add "It was the dark presence. It threw the stone and wants you all to argue".
I don't have time for "psychics" but I will still investigate their claims and test them. My prejudice has no place in the work I do.
Cryptozoology. I am not even going to go into the number of conmen and outright liars involved in this subject. That is not to say that there are no serious, honest investigators/researchers.
All of these fields of investigation and research will have people or groups claiming to be "skeptical but open minded" or "Skeptical" and the arguing and name calling and dirty tricks are things the public do not really get to see. The ringmasters of the con circus make sure it all stays buried: there is money involved.
You are either on one side or the other. You cannot speak to A if B is not their friend or has some grudge against them. We see claims of individual groups (actually a person) receiving 100/150 or even 200 'new' abduction reports each month.
After over 40 years I have been there, seen it, been a target and left.
I get asked how I can listen and investigate something that sounds odd or very strange and yet not look at it as a skeptic nor as a believer? I must surely fall into one of those groups? No. Someone tells me of a sighting of ~whatever~ I will ask questions. I will look at local events, any previous similar reports and only when I have all the facts that I can muster will I decide ~to my own satisfaction~ if it is a genuine case, misidentification or something else. In some cases you can only go by known facts because I/you were not there. That is the end of it.
Unless you can prove a case, with certain animals say via trail cams where you might photograph the animal in question, or by observations made at the site in question, it is down to what you believe but even then that is not the public opinion you give. You may well say "The witness(es) appear to be sincere and honest, however, the case cannot be proven" which means it is "Open". that is how it has to be and even science adopts that stance.
For this reason, I never ever accept invitations from "skeptical open minded" groups nor from "open group of believers".
No comments:
Post a Comment