Dear Mr. Cowell,
I recently learned that you believe your home contains negative energy, and that you invited a "house healer" to banish the foul feelings from your Los Angeles residence. Our organization, the James Randi Educational Foundation, is not only your neighbor down the road in Hollywood, but also the nation's leading organization advancing critical thinking about the supernatural and the paranormal. We are familiar with many cases of house "hauntings," "possession," and "negative energy," although in our experience, every one of these cases turns out to have a natural -- rather than a supernatural -- explanation. In fact, we have for the past sixteen years offered a One Million Dollar Prize to anyone who can scientifically demonstrate any paranormal phenomenon or ability, such as communication with ghosts or spirits. Proving that your house has any supernatural "energy," positive or negative, could certainly qualify, since houses are generally thought to be inanimate.
Many people seek the help of feng shui practitioners, house healers, Spiritualists, psychics, mediums, and others, because they have experienced a sense of foreboding or just plain creepiness in their houses. We understand that no one would want to feel this way in their own home. Yet, scientific and skeptical analysis always yields the same results: ghostly noises coming from things like old pipes, "footsteps" caused by creaky floorboards and foundations settling, and in some cases, even feelings of dread produced by carbon monoxide leaks. Unfortunately, false fixes like house healers often only prolong the problem by keeping the resident from seeking a real solution.
If you or your house healer can demonstrate, under mutually agreed upon scientific conditions, that your home has negative energy which can be supernaturally healed, the James Randi Educational Foundation will happily award you our One Million Dollar Prize. Or, we could send your winnings directly to the charity of your choice. Perhaps Children's Hospices UK, or one of the animal rescue charities of which you are fond?
Surely you can give us a few hours to investigate your creepy crib, for a chance at a spare million. You wouldn't want that missed opportunity to haunt you, would you? I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
D.J. Grothe
President, James Randi Educational Foundation
Follow D.J. Grothe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/djgrothe
Guess Simon wont have any chance though :]
http://www.cracked.com/article_18828_the-creepy-scientific-explanation-behind-ghost-sightings.html
I enjoy "Ghost Hunters", too, but one must remember that they are using instruments to test for ghosts without a scientific, testable definition of what ghosts actually are.
Just because you have a fancy gadget doesn't mean that it's reacting to "spirits", or extraterrestrials, or whatever you think it's supposed to react to.
The bottom line is, there's a reason why "the supernatural" has never been proven to exist besides a few crappy photos or dark, nonsensical videos, or strange noises in the dark. There's a reason it has never been scientifically proven, or why ghosts aren't in science textbooks.
Please do some research about the scientific method, and how dangerous your line of logic can be.
Also, the placebo effect can be only temporary, and it does not always work, it completely depends on the personality and willingness of the people.
And if there is a physical cause to the noises, and things that people see as "bad energy", the placebo effect will never work, because the problem is not (completely) in their minds.
Also, I don't see what good there is on a 300 dollars placebo.
However, millions go to snake oil, false hopes, and non-scientific treatment that ultimately never works every year... often taken from gullible people that can't afford it.
While the placebo effect can be measurable, it is random, doesn't occur in every patient, and is considered "invasive" to those practicing actual medicine. Don't purport to know about science unless you're really schooled in it.
PS: I know your busy, but I miss "For Good Reason". Is it dead?