I was wondering of the people who make a living (or made a living) selling books and lecturing on paranormal subjects, who do you get the impression really believes/believed it.
I guess for the sake of not arguing about that instead, I am assuming it is a given that by and large their claims are not objectively and literally true.
For me the people who struck me as really believing what they say:
Budd Hopkins (I think he had some emotional issues, some bad dreams or experiences or whatever, that some of the "help" he got from UFO fanatics screwed with his memory to a degree)
John Keel (which seems strange given that I am 99% sure that Jim Moseley and Gray Barker didnt believe any of it, and Keel never came across in any way as unintelligent... I think he just really wanted to believe in some hidden dimension of life to such a degree that he saw it in everything. Mothman Prophecies is by far the best book on any supernatural subject I have ever read)
Zecharia Sitchin (I havent actually managed to trawl through much of his stuff... but I think there is quite good evidence of fraud in it, but from what Ive seen of him on TV, I wonder if he was somehow able to make stuff up and believe it at the same time. He just gave off a vibe of really believing it all, and a ridiculous amount of the "ancient alien" stuff seems to come from him originally). While you shouldnt speak ill of the dead I guess, I think he was probably pretty insane.
Colin Wilson (strange, obsessive, intelligent in a kind of insular way...)
Peter Underwood (I met him, so am a bit biased. He never really had any personal experiences (as far as I know in any case) but was just completely immersed in so many stories about ghosts that he kind of took to it like a casual Christian would consider themselves C of E, and would definitely feel comfort from having a really nice church in the village, even if they never went inside).
Harry Price (by all means I wouldnt say he was completely averse to gilding the lily so to speak, but he did expose a lot of fakes and frauds. He was either pretty clever, or he did find some things in Borley he really believed in)
_
Anyone else have any opinions, or anyone they think in this field that is somewhat genuine at least in their intentions?
I tried to stick to people who made a living out of this rather than say some random guy who see's something funny in the woods and thinks he saw a Bigfoot, etc - but by all means include anyone and anything!
I guess for the sake of not arguing about that instead, I am assuming it is a given that by and large their claims are not objectively and literally true.
For me the people who struck me as really believing what they say:
Budd Hopkins (I think he had some emotional issues, some bad dreams or experiences or whatever, that some of the "help" he got from UFO fanatics screwed with his memory to a degree)
John Keel (which seems strange given that I am 99% sure that Jim Moseley and Gray Barker didnt believe any of it, and Keel never came across in any way as unintelligent... I think he just really wanted to believe in some hidden dimension of life to such a degree that he saw it in everything. Mothman Prophecies is by far the best book on any supernatural subject I have ever read)
Zecharia Sitchin (I havent actually managed to trawl through much of his stuff... but I think there is quite good evidence of fraud in it, but from what Ive seen of him on TV, I wonder if he was somehow able to make stuff up and believe it at the same time. He just gave off a vibe of really believing it all, and a ridiculous amount of the "ancient alien" stuff seems to come from him originally). While you shouldnt speak ill of the dead I guess, I think he was probably pretty insane.
Colin Wilson (strange, obsessive, intelligent in a kind of insular way...)
Peter Underwood (I met him, so am a bit biased. He never really had any personal experiences (as far as I know in any case) but was just completely immersed in so many stories about ghosts that he kind of took to it like a casual Christian would consider themselves C of E, and would definitely feel comfort from having a really nice church in the village, even if they never went inside).
Harry Price (by all means I wouldnt say he was completely averse to gilding the lily so to speak, but he did expose a lot of fakes and frauds. He was either pretty clever, or he did find some things in Borley he really believed in)
_
Anyone else have any opinions, or anyone they think in this field that is somewhat genuine at least in their intentions?
I tried to stick to people who made a living out of this rather than say some random guy who see's something funny in the woods and thinks he saw a Bigfoot, etc - but by all means include anyone and anything!
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1xiL13z
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