Late Late Show - ghosts and excorcisms

ISAW

Here is a thread from the paranorml forum.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50696314&postcount=1

I note the Late Late is repeated so any comments?

I also note a claim is made about a Priest saying that only the church should be involved in ghost hunting and excorcisms and that a priest was asking about the method used to "clear" a house of ghosts but no supporting evidence was made for any on these claims.

hawkmoon269

Well my main comments would be, firstly, that I suspect Pat Kenny really does not believe in any of this stuff (given that he has an engineering degree), but he realises there's a viewing audience for this stuff, so plays along, and secondly, in my view that there is no such thing as the 'supernatural'.

I saw a good programme a while ago examining the reasons behind how the vampire myth arose. It seems that one night somewhere in Romania sometime in the Middle Ages a few local youngsters thought it might be a good prank to lift up the lids of a few coffins. Lo and behold the shocked elders discover the opened coffins the next morning. Now when a corpse is decomposing after a while a substance that looks like blood (but actually isn't) can seep out of facial orifices, including the mouth.

Over time the story grew wings and it gave rise to the vampire myth seemingly. It was assumed the corpses had risen from the dead during the night and drank some blood before returning to their coffins.

And in a similar fashion I think each and every phenomenon attributed by some to the 'supernatural' is explainable by entirely natural cases (and in most cases without too much difficulty.)

Obni

How can RTE justify this drivel?
Two clerics spouting dangerous medieval hogwash. Suggesting that childhood trauma or abuse can leave people open to the influence of evil spirits. Nice thought to plant in the already tortured mind of some vulnerable adolescent.
I actually had to turn off after the pyschiatrist/psychologist (didn't quite catch which he was) told the tale about the bereaved parents attending counselling with their ghostly son in tow.

Myksyk

The anti-psychiatry psychiatrist was Dr. Michael Corry with whom the Irish Skeptics have had numerous engagements. It is the author of the book "going MAD: Understanding Mental Illness" which in my opinion has to be one of the worst books aimed at informing a lay audience about mental health problems. In it he suggests just about every whacky approach to mental health from CAM to chakra balancing to exploring past lives etc (for example, in the book i=he suggests in one of his cases that the reason the woman he is discussing is presenting with depression is because she had a bereavement in a previous life!!!!). He also is a great believer in the South American healer 'John of God' and has given him plugs in books too. He has worringly started up high profile depression support groups which, when publicised in the Irish Times and other papers, seemed reasonable and practical, but mentioned nothing about the kind of drivel he was likely to recommend when you got to one of these groups.