I do understand, and I feel for you right now, I really do. But maybe someone was right upthread when they said that maybe you are getting ready to face the reality of Marcus, whatever that reality might be. Do you think the “real-life” best friend you mentioned could help you?
I get it. Thanks. Way back when when I was playing we didn’t have d10s with 10, 20, 30, etc. We just used two similar d10 and had to call which was “high”. Some confusion (cheating?) did ensue.
PC
It’s pretty obvious to me that she’s simply making it all up.
She might be. She also might not know that she is yet.
Based on what she’s written - and I’ve read all her posts about her “ghost friend” - I think she’s pretending to be delusional. She’s trying to convince us that she is delusional, when in fact she’s mentally stable and is simply making it all up. In a sense, then, there are two lies: 1) She has a ghost friend (obvious lie), and 2) She is medically delusional (not true, IMO).
The basic reason for being a skeptic is that we’ve somehow gotten the idea that the truth is, pretty much objectively, good. That it’s better to be operating off of true information than false. Perhaps it’s because we’re paranoid; I myself firmly believe that operating off of the truth is safer than operating odd of false information. However I also recognize that operating off of false information seems to make some people happy.
When it comes down to it I believe it’s better to be a little safer than a little happier (if you have to pick), so I believe that it’s worth a little pain, or even a lot of pain to cut past the misinformation. Regarding the Marcus issue, the problem to me is that you don’t know the cause of him. Had he been a real ghost, that would have been fine, but as it seems he’s not, that means that there’s probably something strange happening in you that’s causing him. And strange things happening in people can occasionally be bad for them, or be signs of other bad things happening in them, that could worsen and become real problems. I wouldn’t want you to succumb to something bad due to mistaking it for something else, so I feel it’s best to do everything necessary to determing what’s causing him; it’s that simple.
Am I glad he’s been shown not to be a ghost? Not really. Unlike some people here apparently do I don’t have a vested personal interest in maintaining the science status quo. In fact I think it would be really cool if ghosts were real. (Though if I had to pick one, I’d prefer ESP be real. I want telekinesis!) But if ghosts aren’t real then they simply aren’t real, and so in cases we need to make sure that nothing dangerous is happening. If ensuring that robs you of some comfort and makes you unhappy…I’m sorry. Truly. But I feel it’s better -safer- to know the truth about things.
I suppose, in deference to those with even higher skepticism than me who think you’re a damned liar, I should add that if you are lying, that I commend you on your relative verisimilitude. The only implausible thing I’ve noted so far (assuming you’re hallucinating him) is that you’re apparently an amazing dice guesser. I can’t calculate the odds because I’m not certain which numbers came up on which dice, but even though you didn’t report perfection, doing as good as you reported by sheer guesswork seems remarkable.
Luxury… when I needed a d10 result, I had to throw a knife in the air and spread my hands out on the table with my fingers numbered 0 to 9.
In the aftermath of it, I was really surprised too. For a guess, it was a really awesome guess. But it was only two trials. Even in random chance, there was spikes but it all evens out eventually.
I understand what you’re saying in your post. I did the test for the people like you in the thread, not for Dio and his pack of jerks. I would prefer – much prefer – that Marcus was real. But if he isn’t, I would vastly prefer being called crazy or sick over being called a liar. You’ve been very nice to me in these threads and I appreciate it.
ROFLMAO
(but then I am well into my second margarita so everything is getting pretty funny right now. cheers)
Ditto.
For the record, I never asked you to take a test. All I’ve asked you to do is go to a neurologist.
Yeah, but that’s because you were assuming she was nuts (or a liar). And I think you know my opinion of that by now.
For the record I now agree with you on this; she probably outta go to a neurologist, or a psychologist, or a psychiatrist, or something. Better safe than sorry.
Let me get this straight-if we don’t take your word(and your word only, without benefit of evidence that would reasonably be expected of such an incredible claim) that you are visited regularly by a ghost, we are suddenly catapulted to the rank of “Super Skeptic!”, like that is some sort of insult. Well, my first reaction when someone slings bullshit at me is to jump to one side and yell “Bullshit!” for the benefit of others nearby, even if the slingee is claiming that what is flying is pistachio ice cream.
Looooooong time lurker here, and this is the thread to get me to finally join.
I’ve long held this board in high regard for it’s commitment to taking a logical and reasoned approach to such a wide variety of subjects, especially on the internet where such an approach is practically unheard of. Though my personal worldview clashes with such blindly materialist and dogmatically skeptical views as Diogenes the Cynic (whom I take to be the most vocal proponent of strong skepticism on this board), I find myself finally joining here to support his position in this case.
This whole thing is just silly to me. It is clearly obvious to me that she is making it all up as she goes along. We have a self-described story teller giving a somewhat interesting response to a post about ghosts. I don’t think meenie7 really expected anyone to take the story as anything other than a mildly interesting anecdote in a sort of off-the-wall quirky type thread. Yet as people began to respond she keeps having to make up more details. I don’t believe for a second that she is either crazy or experiencing the supernatural. Nor do I believe she is trying to maliciously deceive anyone. It is just a silly story that she keeps feeding because people are asking her to keep going.
The weird thing about the story is that so many other posters are taking it all seriously; that it actually got to the point of discussing ways to objectively prove the existence of the ghost. I get the picture of a dad telling a campfire ghost story and insisting it is true because in the campfire-ghost-story milieu one always claims the story’s real-life origins. Yet some kid at the campout won’t drop it until the adult finally has to admit it was all made up of course. Meenie7’s latest admission of how her ghost got the dice test right and then wrong is the worst sort of plot cop-out, essentially giving her an excuse to keep the story alive without having to explain it’s true nature one way or the other. She can pretend in its reality, or pretend that she may be delusional now, according to which situation suits her story at the present.
The worst thing about this thing is that the story isn’t even original or compelling. I mean the ghost likes to make chit-chat and go watch cartoons on the big screen. Why not spend its decades in a library learning Arabic, then it can go spy on the Saudi royal family and tell us all when the next terrorist attack will be. Or he could go spy on Brangelina and tell us what really happens in the bedroom of the world’s most beautiful couple. There are unlimited possibilities as to what a 150 year old ghost could go about doing, but somehow he lives like a pre-teen suburbanite on summer vacation – and this is what gets people talking. Very strange indeed.
No. That’s not what Dio did. He didn’t just say “I don’t believe you,” he started a pit thread about how it’s antithetical to the spirit of the board for anyone to not treat me with contempt or like a mental patient. begbert2 doesn’t believe it on my word, either, but he’s managed to be nice all the while.
I shouldn’t have included that sentence in that post. It was posted rashly and I apologize. I don’t think being a skeptic is a bad thing. I’m just really bummed out at the moment and posted while upset, which is a bad idea.
Interesting analysis, Hamfisted. Welcome.
Well, if I was a invisible noncorporeal ghost I would totally spend my time sneaking in to see movies without paying. I would definitely not waste my time doing unpaid government espionage, especially if nobody in the government could even talk to me. I mean, why waste my time? So that part of the scenario didn’t bother me a bit.
With me it was more the “ghosts are real” part.
Even though I never asked for any tests to be done (I did propose one though, purely out of an intellectual interest), thanks meenie for the results.
For obvious reasons, no one can accept the results as evidence or anything else but merely another guess as to what’s really going on here. I have my own theories, but like Lobohan, this has ceased to be fun, and crossed over into something kind of disconcerting.
I’m out… good luck to you meenie.
Some of my best friends are schizophrenics.
Movies? Strip bars. 