A recent Gallup Poll found that more than 38 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. This is up quite a bit from ten years ago, when only one in four people said they believed.
And this belief helps ghosts. Why?
It's pretty simple, according to people who call themselves ghost hunters: You have to believe in ghosts to see them.
The more familiar truism, of course, is "seeing is believing." But ghost hunters have turned it around on purpose. In their ongoing debate with skeptics, they've upended the cliché and used it as a weapon to bolster their case for the existence of spooks.
Sylvia Browne has participated in several chats on MSN. Read the most recent transcript.
It depends on which side of the haunted fence you're on. If you believe in ghosts, there's nothing wrong with it. But if you're a skeptic, it's a huge problem.
"If you go in to a place that's supposed to be haunted, you're tuned up [to believe] already," explains world-famous skeptic James Randi, who has promised to pay $1 million to anyone who can show evidence of a paranormal, supernatural, or occult event under controlled circumstances.
So far, no one has won the money, although Sylvia Browne, who claims she is a psychic, agreed in September 2001 to put her powers to the test.
You could have a chance to win that money, too--if only you could find a ghost. So how do you go about doing that?
I've read this before. Frankly, I don't know if I believe in ghosts or not, but there is one big hangup in the agreement on the website. You have to willfully be able to make the ghost appear. The "preliminary test" is set up at a mutually agreed upon date and time, but what are you going to do, send an invitation to the ghost? "Hello, Casper? Hi, it's Molly. Hey, can you come make creaking sounds and walk down the stairs at midnight on the 5th? Oh, the 5th won't work for you? How about the 6th then. Agreed. We'll see you then."
We have a ghost here--at least for now--WEB!!! I see him floating on the threads. where is the million dollars? Give it to JR so we can have a FF party in Milwaukee.