Question: is there such thing as paranormal happenings or are they made up

Dean Whittaker answered on 21 Jun 2010:

Did you see Darren Brown investigates? It’s on 4OD at the moment – very informative. He visited people who claim to have paranormal abilities and tried to scientifically test them. Each time he concluded that either they were dilusional or they were lying. We are programmed by evolution to see faces, to be wary of noises etc. This can mean we misinterpret some random smoke as a smoky figure (a face in the smoke) or a noise as a ghost moving around in our house.

I do it all the time – the other night I had to switch my light on to work out what the wierd shape in the corner of my room was (it was my washing stacked up on a dryer in a funny way that looked a bit like a person). But the so-called paranormal stuff (mind reading etc.) has never stood up to scientific tests. People are easy to convince if they want to believe in something. They forget the misses (when a spirit talker doesn’t get it right) and remember the hits (when they do).

I am still amazed when I see cold readers (people who claim to talk to dead family members) though. For instance, everything Darren Brown does is a trick – he admits it, but it’s still amazing how it works.