Ghosts and Idiots ruining serious paranormal research.

As if the search for life after death is not wide open to fraud by people with knowledge of picture editing and competent in it, there are now Apps appearing on mobile phones which make it simple. Normally some knowledge of Photoshop or similar is necessary to make a good fake Ghost and it at least required some effort. Even so these pictures are usually easy to spot. Unless you have a very steady hand, cutting out the Ghost which is to be superimposed is not easy. The edges are noticeable and a human figure normally has bits missing. No picture of a human contains all the body and often fingers or toes, even the occasional leg or arm go missing.

As well as all this people always get the balance of believability versus detail wrong. Any serious student of the subject would tell you that full body apparitions are rare and that the reality of Ghosts is likely to be misshapen blobs of energy or E.V.P. (Electronic Voice Phenomenon.) So any clearly recognisable human apparition always awakens my scepticism. I do not believe in Ghosts but I would like to be proved wrong. I do know how to Photoshop though and I know the signs of a fake.

Now we have these Phone apps. There is an example of the above (Clearly not to be taken as real and an example of what can be achieved.) and a screenshot of one such app. These Apps quite openly state that they are designed to fool on social media, one even admits that they won't fool for long.

Now I hate users of social media whose aim is to get Likes, Shares or favourites by any means possible. Some claim that you are an idiot if you cannot do an ambiguous maths problem, some claim you are heartless because you do not share an emotive picture (Again often faked or with a story which cannot be proved. That child molester that hangs around schools is probably just a picture lifted from the net or someone who the poster has a grudge against.), and some just threaten ridiculous events befalling you if you do not send the post to all your Friends. All are designed to make idiots feel superior and generate attention.

Now these idiots can, with five minutes work, create a reasonably credible Ghost image and put it on a ghost picture group. The sceptical will feel obliged to point out that it is fake, the credible will instantly assume that the Ghost is real and is haunting any place you can take a picture of. Those who are not sure will say that it could be pareidolia but it is compelling.

Either way the attention whores on Social media sit back and have a chuckle at the way they have  made idiots of their so called friends. Bear in mind my previous comments about believability though, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.