The Science of Weird Shit | Chris French

This presentation will provide an overview of anomalistic psychology, focussing particularly on the work of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit. If the wider scientific community is right to be skeptical regarding paranormal claims, why do so many people believe in the paranormal, including a sizeable minority that claim to have had direct personal experience of paranormal phenomena? Anomalistic psychology attempts to address this issue by proposing alternative non-paranormal explanations for ostensibly paranormal experiences. Factors such as the unreliability of memory, hallucinatory experiences, and a range of cognitive biases are discussed.

[@OldBenOne]

When I was a kid, we sighted a UAP coming toward us. We debated fighting, hiding or going home to be with our families when vanquished 'War of the Worlds' style. The reasons we survived to tell the tale and that no one else died are - It turned another direction and it said "Goodyear" in the side.

[@j.r.scaryy]

A wonderful execution and spread of CRITICAL THINKING awareness. I remember Chris from Haunted Homes. While everyone sat in the van outside of the supposed haunted locations, supposedly drained of energy and visually afraid, Chris himself would go into the building, alone, and sit in one or more rooms, alone, in the dark. He would get bored and walk back out to the van. I was surprised they didn't edit those parts out. Most honest and true.

[@Everyman777]

Wonderful presentation of fascinating material. You are a great communicator. In my teenage years I once went 48 hours without sleep and walking through a cemetary I hallucinated a ghost. The ghost may not have been real, but I can tell you - the fear was! Thanks again, I'll have to buy your book.

[@andystewart9701]

I love this video and the new book. Very important research.

[@inkoftheworld]

Fascinating but scary. I can't help but think about how humans are this susceptible to suggestion, and that's why social media has been so damaging to society with how it polarizes people. How they internalize what they read and then feel like it's real, and mistake their gut reaction to things as truth.

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

My friend has sleep paralysis and thinks he is being attacked by ghosts and demons. I saw him once having sleep paralysis. He was trying to talk. He gets annoyed if I don't take his experiences at face value. I've had some hallucinations and weird experiences too, but I don't trust my perceptions.

[@TheMaui2020]

Great stuff. Keep up the good work.

[@viveakin]

Love and some Skeptical Vibes from India! Great Going!

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

Stairway to Heaven sounds incomprehensible either way round even after I read the words. The only word I hear is 'Satan' once.

[@jamesmcpherson1590]

I found the Roman numerals on clocks bit interesting, so I checked internet photos of Big Ben; pretty much the uniform icon of a famous public clock with Roman numerals. I can say after checking that, at least in that case, it adheres to standard Roman numerals (IV instead of IIII). Since I have always hated dial watches, and Big Ben is the rare case of a dial clock that I have spent some time looking at, That alone makes me feel justified in perceiving that most dial clocks/watches use standard Roman numerals.

[@sachamm]

"Wow, you must have a whole lot of time on your hands." -- "Weird" Al (backwards)

[@ScottishAtheist]

Doing an image search for clock faces with roman numerals showed more 4s represented as IV than IIII. Rubbish example. Maybe something more common with older clocks.

[@CesarClouds]

The title, lol.