Image by Legendary Classic via Flickr"You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
--Attributed to Abraham Lincoln
And yet, people keep trying. Recently, I read a review of the new gadget sweeping the amateur ghost hunting world, the Ovilus. I've mentioned it briefly in the past but did not delve into the inner workings of this new device. Honestly, I thought that the little device would never catch on. Sure, it made an appearance on Paranormal State but that in itself should have been enough to make it verboten among many groups in the field based upon viewing habits.
Today, I read a review of the device by Gregory Myers of the Paranormal Task Force stating "the Ovilus is a “must have” device of value to any paranormal investigator desiring to gain an edge in researching the paranormal..."
Reading the entire review I was struck by the number of assumptions and overall poor utilization of the most basic scientific principles.
First, let's look at how the Ovilus works. The device relies upon a computer generated voice that translates electromagnetic or what the creator terms "environmental" fields into speech, phonetics and "yes/no" responses. Of course, it also features pretty blinking lights as well. The "voice" is actually a dictionary of some 512 words with another 70+ "phonetic" sounds that can sound out words or phrases. Already we can see the flaws if we look at this strictly with reason and intelligence.
Now, the group doing the "experiments" with the device took it with them to a site and began recording away. The "voice" spoke to them throughout the investigation and they were suitably impressed to call the experiment an unqualified success.
Yet, no controls were run to see if the device inherently gave responses in "non-haunted" locations. The words available certainly seem to be general enough that they could be interpreted as "accurate" in almost any situation. Likewise, reviewing the "phonetic" phrases I found them to be very open to interpretation. Much like poor quality EVP, you can hear what you want to hear and in one clip an investigator is quick to "interpret" the phrase for others, thus insuring that they will also "hear" that phrase upon review.
However, my purpose in this post was not to take apart the Ovilus per se, but rather to point out a psychological phenomenon in paranormal investigation - the need for results.
The more people I meet in the field, the more I am convinced there exists a deep seated need to provide some sort of validation for the hours of mind numbing boredom involved in investigation. This weekend, as I sat with two other investigators in an historic hotel waiting for hours for something, anything, to happen, I became aware once again how easily one can easily begin to interpret almost anything as paranormal. After several hours of absolutely no activity it was quite easy to begin to jump to conclusions and set aside logic. Of course, I'm pleased to say that no one in my presence did that, yet the psychological pull was there to justify the time and expense by coming up with something of interest.
In my case, I am always just as happy to be able to explain something as natural or man-made as to use it to prove a "haunting." However, for many who are more invested in the spiritual aspects of ghosts and hauntings the drive to produce is much stronger.
Over time I have met clients who want very badly to have a haunting. That includes those who superficially profess fear or aversion to sharing their space with "ghosts." Even for those people, hearing that a ghost is the cause of their problems is much more interesting than hearing they have loose pipes or that their windows face a street and the car headlights produce the "shadow people" they see in their living room.
Recently, it was reported that people in Great Britain have a stronger belief in ghosts than they do God. With the dismantling of traditional religious institutions in our daily lives, people turn increasingly to paranormal phenomena as their natural outlet for explanations of what happens to us after death and moreover, how to explain our relationships with those who have died. Into this new paradigm steps the paranormal investigator who is often seen as the High Priest or Priestess.
Certainly, there are times when I speak to clients who share far more personal details of their lives than they would most strangers. Indeed at times, I doubt many would share those thoughts and histories even with a therapist without months of developing a trust relationship. Yet, invariably they confess to me during interviews as they would a priest or minister. There are times when I realize that they are looking for absolution and closure from a rocky relationship that was never resolved in life.
Often these same clients express an interest in becoming "investigators" themselves and going on to help others. Into this mix steps people like Bill Chappell and his Ovilus device which provides a quick and easy way to "communicate" with the dearly departed. Now, rather than hours spent with no results, the investigator can whip out this piece of electronic equipment and provide quick and easy reinforcement for not only his or her beliefs but those of the client as well. Of course, in reality, it matters to neither if the feedback is accurate or real. The point is that suddenly rather than coming away empty handed the investigator now has "EVP" to share with the client. Even if the phrases seem nonsensical clients will be sure to find some validation as will the investigator.
I am reminded of my years learning to read Tarot. My first teacher was a staunch believer in the spiritual aspects of Tarot. Over time, I began to realize that the true value of the cards had nothing to do with spiritual pursuits but rather with the interpretation by the reader and client of the pictures themselves.
Using the cards in this manner I have often helped people open up their own subconscious and consider patterns of behavior that have been destructive for them. This is not paranormal or occult but much the same as a Rorschach test helping to understand underlying attitudes and behaviors.
In this way the Ovilus allows the investigator and client to "interpret" disjointed words and sounds in a way that allows them express subconscious thoughts and emotions. The sounds themselves have no meaning but the interpretation of those sounds and words holds the key to the core conflicts the client or investigator may be repressing in their lives.
Much like Tarot with its "supernatural" connotations, the Ovilus may be more acceptable to some than traditional psychotherapy. A person might refuse to see a therapist or psychologist but seek out a Tarot reader or now a paranormal investigator. The caveat here is that normally a tarot reader nor a paranormal investigator are qualified to deliver psychotherapy. Therein lies the danger.
The Ovilus sells for $199 at Digitaldowsing.com. The concept of the device logically would require a spirit that has an engineering background and can get into the device and divine its purpose and inner workings and manipulate those components to produce recognizable and directed speech. My math isn't up to calculating those odds, but I would guess they are infinitesimal.
The need to produce results on the part of an investigator and the need to get results on the part of clients create a perfect storm of expectation into which gadget makers step. There is nothing in this device that remotely indicates a paranormal use, yet I am sure that I will see it more and more in the field as quick and easy "evidence" can be produced regardless of the validity of those results as actual proof of paranormal activity.
Today, I read a review of the device by Gregory Myers of the Paranormal Task Force stating "the Ovilus is a “must have” device of value to any paranormal investigator desiring to gain an edge in researching the paranormal..."
Reading the entire review I was struck by the number of assumptions and overall poor utilization of the most basic scientific principles.
First, let's look at how the Ovilus works. The device relies upon a computer generated voice that translates electromagnetic or what the creator terms "environmental" fields into speech, phonetics and "yes/no" responses. Of course, it also features pretty blinking lights as well. The "voice" is actually a dictionary of some 512 words with another 70+ "phonetic" sounds that can sound out words or phrases. Already we can see the flaws if we look at this strictly with reason and intelligence.
Now, the group doing the "experiments" with the device took it with them to a site and began recording away. The "voice" spoke to them throughout the investigation and they were suitably impressed to call the experiment an unqualified success.
Yet, no controls were run to see if the device inherently gave responses in "non-haunted" locations. The words available certainly seem to be general enough that they could be interpreted as "accurate" in almost any situation. Likewise, reviewing the "phonetic" phrases I found them to be very open to interpretation. Much like poor quality EVP, you can hear what you want to hear and in one clip an investigator is quick to "interpret" the phrase for others, thus insuring that they will also "hear" that phrase upon review.
However, my purpose in this post was not to take apart the Ovilus per se, but rather to point out a psychological phenomenon in paranormal investigation - the need for results.
The more people I meet in the field, the more I am convinced there exists a deep seated need to provide some sort of validation for the hours of mind numbing boredom involved in investigation. This weekend, as I sat with two other investigators in an historic hotel waiting for hours for something, anything, to happen, I became aware once again how easily one can easily begin to interpret almost anything as paranormal. After several hours of absolutely no activity it was quite easy to begin to jump to conclusions and set aside logic. Of course, I'm pleased to say that no one in my presence did that, yet the psychological pull was there to justify the time and expense by coming up with something of interest.
In my case, I am always just as happy to be able to explain something as natural or man-made as to use it to prove a "haunting." However, for many who are more invested in the spiritual aspects of ghosts and hauntings the drive to produce is much stronger.
Over time I have met clients who want very badly to have a haunting. That includes those who superficially profess fear or aversion to sharing their space with "ghosts." Even for those people, hearing that a ghost is the cause of their problems is much more interesting than hearing they have loose pipes or that their windows face a street and the car headlights produce the "shadow people" they see in their living room.
Recently, it was reported that people in Great Britain have a stronger belief in ghosts than they do God. With the dismantling of traditional religious institutions in our daily lives, people turn increasingly to paranormal phenomena as their natural outlet for explanations of what happens to us after death and moreover, how to explain our relationships with those who have died. Into this new paradigm steps the paranormal investigator who is often seen as the High Priest or Priestess.
Certainly, there are times when I speak to clients who share far more personal details of their lives than they would most strangers. Indeed at times, I doubt many would share those thoughts and histories even with a therapist without months of developing a trust relationship. Yet, invariably they confess to me during interviews as they would a priest or minister. There are times when I realize that they are looking for absolution and closure from a rocky relationship that was never resolved in life.
Often these same clients express an interest in becoming "investigators" themselves and going on to help others. Into this mix steps people like Bill Chappell and his Ovilus device which provides a quick and easy way to "communicate" with the dearly departed. Now, rather than hours spent with no results, the investigator can whip out this piece of electronic equipment and provide quick and easy reinforcement for not only his or her beliefs but those of the client as well. Of course, in reality, it matters to neither if the feedback is accurate or real. The point is that suddenly rather than coming away empty handed the investigator now has "EVP" to share with the client. Even if the phrases seem nonsensical clients will be sure to find some validation as will the investigator.
I am reminded of my years learning to read Tarot. My first teacher was a staunch believer in the spiritual aspects of Tarot. Over time, I began to realize that the true value of the cards had nothing to do with spiritual pursuits but rather with the interpretation by the reader and client of the pictures themselves.
Using the cards in this manner I have often helped people open up their own subconscious and consider patterns of behavior that have been destructive for them. This is not paranormal or occult but much the same as a Rorschach test helping to understand underlying attitudes and behaviors.
In this way the Ovilus allows the investigator and client to "interpret" disjointed words and sounds in a way that allows them express subconscious thoughts and emotions. The sounds themselves have no meaning but the interpretation of those sounds and words holds the key to the core conflicts the client or investigator may be repressing in their lives.
Much like Tarot with its "supernatural" connotations, the Ovilus may be more acceptable to some than traditional psychotherapy. A person might refuse to see a therapist or psychologist but seek out a Tarot reader or now a paranormal investigator. The caveat here is that normally a tarot reader nor a paranormal investigator are qualified to deliver psychotherapy. Therein lies the danger.
The Ovilus sells for $199 at Digitaldowsing.com. The concept of the device logically would require a spirit that has an engineering background and can get into the device and divine its purpose and inner workings and manipulate those components to produce recognizable and directed speech. My math isn't up to calculating those odds, but I would guess they are infinitesimal.
The need to produce results on the part of an investigator and the need to get results on the part of clients create a perfect storm of expectation into which gadget makers step. There is nothing in this device that remotely indicates a paranormal use, yet I am sure that I will see it more and more in the field as quick and easy "evidence" can be produced regardless of the validity of those results as actual proof of paranormal activity.
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6 comments:
Your first mistake was reading an article on Paranormal Task Force. I swear, some of the things I've read on there (such as obvious homophobia and absurd demon talk) make me want to scream or punch someone.
Great. Another pointless gadget to create instant experts! Woohoo! LOL
You're right. So many people seek validation. It's easier to swallow a paranormal explanation than a personal or costly one most of the time. The range of absurdity out there is amazing. True, some supernatural things are easily explained by psychological understandings (like tarot) and there is almost a cult mentality.
Yet belief and logic have a long history of being at odds with each other. And with this, devices such as Ovilus thrive. Rationality? Who needs it? Reality? Well, that's relative. Maybe that's why I've stuck with simple storytelling lately. Less arguing and depression!
I'd never read anything on that site before and only knew of the "review" thanks to someone posting a link on the SPI forums.
To say the least, despite whatever other idiocy they get into, the haphazard "experiment" with this piece of techno-garbage does not make me wish to explore their thoughts further. :)
So, you are NOT interested in downloading my plans for the Whirlygig 5000 Spirit Trap for the measley sum of $19.95?
Well that depends, Cullan. Does it have flashing lights? :)
It blinks WHILE is spins; and in true multitasking modern gadget fashion, it also sends text messages, digital images, connects to Google, plays music, massages your pet, and serves as a shoe in emergency situations.
I think its obvious that we share at least a similar distaste for this particular 'toy'. The company that produce it state that its "For Entertainment Purposes Only" and even the inventor of the Ovilus has told me that he dosnt understand it.
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