For some time, now we’ve heard the term debunking tossed around; so I thought that maybe we could take a bit closer look at what it means. The basic premise that we’ve been treated to is that if an event can be replicated, it has been debunked as not being paranormal activity or in some cases “faked”.

I will propose four possible permutations of this activity for discussion.

1. Event is fact (or paranormal), activity can be replicated
2. Event is faked, activity can be replicated
3. Event is fact (or paranormal), activity cannot be replicated
4. Event is faked, activity cannot be replicated

Or, looking at this another way, if an action can be duplicated, does it mean no haunting or that the event was faked (I use the “event was faked” to refer to wondrous videos out there so that we can bring the most recent show, “Fact or Faked”, into the discussion)?

The converse applies, as well, if an action cannot be replicated, does it mean that it was automatically paranormal or that the event is as told or shown?

Let’s take one example from GH where the owner claimed that the bar stool, after it fell, landed upright. Now, let’s imagine a person trying to replicate that and drops the chair 50 times and not once does it end up on its legs. By this experiment, has the original claim been proven?

One thing to be cautious of is the other term…paranormal. I suppose in the chair example, if you take the definition literally, then it IS paranormal. 50 times in a row without landing on its legs would mean that the “normal” is to land on its side, thus landing on its legs WOULD be “not normal”. Using the term paranormal vs haunted does leave a lot of wiggle room, probably why it’s used.

As another example, let’s look at the movie Capricorn One. In this movie, there is a problem with a flight to Mars and the astronauts are taken off the rocket at the last minute, just before it launches. They proceed to dupe the general populace by going through acting out the mission, including the landing on Mars. In case anyone is still interested in seeing it and hasn’t, I won’t give away any more information. The example here is to ponder the question that just because something CAN be faked, does it necessarily mean that it didn’t or can’t happen? Ie, if Hollywood can deliver a hoaxed landing on another body, then what about the Moon Landing…..? (Disclaimer, no, I don’t believe that was faked!)

Some questions to ponder:

1. How accurately must the event be replicated?
2. How elaborate (or expensive) a setup can be used to replicate the event?
3. Must it be replicated in situ?

Discuss, insert your own examples, etc. If this goes well perhaps the start of a debunking "whitepaper" can be made.