WEBVTT 00:00:00.764 --> 00:00:05.293 Eight years ago, I was haunted by an evil spirit. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:08.286 --> 00:00:10.486 I was 25 at the time, 00:00:10.510 --> 00:00:14.948 and I was living in a tiny house behind someone else's house 00:00:14.972 --> 00:00:16.267 in Los Angeles. 00:00:16.291 --> 00:00:19.943 It was this guest house, it had kind of been dilapidated, 00:00:19.967 --> 00:00:22.646 not taken care of for a long time. 00:00:22.670 --> 00:00:26.121 And one night, I was sitting there 00:00:26.145 --> 00:00:30.647 and I got this really spooky feeling, 00:00:30.671 --> 00:00:33.689 kind of the feeling like you're being watched. 00:00:33.713 --> 00:00:36.732 But no one was there except my two dogs, 00:00:36.756 --> 00:00:38.634 and they were just chewing their feet. 00:00:39.308 --> 00:00:43.141 And I looked around. No one was there. 00:00:43.165 --> 00:00:47.386 And I thought, OK, it's just my imagination. 00:00:47.410 --> 00:00:50.021 But the feeling just kept getting worse, 00:00:50.045 --> 00:00:55.337 and I started to feel this pressure in my chest, 00:00:55.361 --> 00:00:58.453 sort of like the feeling when you get bad news. 00:00:58.477 --> 00:01:01.788 But it started to sink lower and lower 00:01:01.812 --> 00:01:03.205 and almost hurt. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:04.050 --> 00:01:07.784 And over the course of that week, this feeling got worse and worse, 00:01:07.808 --> 00:01:13.304 and I started to become convinced that something was there 00:01:13.328 --> 00:01:16.492 in my little guest house, haunting me. 00:01:18.023 --> 00:01:21.138 And I started to hear these sounds, 00:01:21.162 --> 00:01:27.100 this "whoosh," kind of whisper, like something passing through me. 00:01:28.485 --> 00:01:32.761 I called my best friend, Claire, and said, 00:01:33.578 --> 00:01:36.737 "I know this is going to sound crazy, 00:01:36.761 --> 00:01:38.825 but, um ... 00:01:38.849 --> 00:01:43.828 I think there's a ghost in my house and I need to get rid of it." 00:01:43.852 --> 00:01:48.200 And she said -- she's very open-minded -- and she said, 00:01:48.224 --> 00:01:49.729 "I don't think you're crazy. 00:01:49.753 --> 00:01:53.627 I think you just need to do a cleansing ritual." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:53.651 --> 00:01:55.432 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:55.456 --> 00:02:00.881 "So get some sage and burn it, 00:02:00.905 --> 00:02:03.403 and tell it to go away." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:03.427 --> 00:02:07.089 So I said, "OK," and I went and I bought sage. 00:02:07.113 --> 00:02:11.174 I had never done this before, so I set the sage on fire, 00:02:11.198 --> 00:02:17.898 waved it about, and said, "Go away! "This is my house! I live here. 00:02:17.922 --> 00:02:19.556 You don't live here!" 00:02:20.593 --> 00:02:23.874 But the feeling stayed. Nothing got better. 00:02:23.898 --> 00:02:26.094 And then I started to think, 00:02:26.118 --> 00:02:28.890 OK, well now this thing is probably just laughing at me, 00:02:28.914 --> 00:02:31.342 because it hasn't left, 00:02:31.366 --> 00:02:34.591 and I probably just look like this impotent, powerless thing 00:02:34.615 --> 00:02:36.850 that couldn't get it to go away. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:36.874 --> 00:02:40.799 So every day I'd come home 00:02:40.823 --> 00:02:46.339 and you guys, this feeling got so bad that -- I mean, I'm laughing at it now -- 00:02:46.363 --> 00:02:50.440 but I would sit there in bed and cry every night. 00:02:51.040 --> 00:02:56.339 And the feeling on my chest got worse and worse. 00:02:56.363 --> 00:02:59.355 It was physically painful. 00:02:59.379 --> 00:03:02.801 And I even went to a psychiatrist 00:03:02.825 --> 00:03:06.253 and tried to get her to prescribe me medicine, 00:03:06.277 --> 00:03:10.379 and she wouldn't just because I don't have schizophrenia, OK. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:10.403 --> 00:03:12.180 (Laughter) 00:03:13.937 --> 00:03:20.737 So finally I got on the internet, and I Googled "hauntings." 00:03:20.761 --> 00:03:23.847 And I came upon this forum of ghost hunters. 00:03:23.871 --> 00:03:26.203 But these were a special kind of ghost hunters -- 00:03:26.227 --> 00:03:27.771 they were skeptics. 00:03:27.795 --> 00:03:33.365 They believed that every case of ghosts that they had investigated so far 00:03:33.389 --> 00:03:35.564 had been explained away by science. 00:03:35.588 --> 00:03:39.532 And I was like, "OK, smart guys, this is what's happening to me, 00:03:39.556 --> 00:03:43.631 and if you have an explanation for me, I would love to hear it." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:43.655 --> 00:03:46.865 And one of them said, "OK. 00:03:46.889 --> 00:03:50.975 Um, have you heard of carbon monoxide poisoning?" NOTE Paragraph 00:03:52.877 --> 00:03:57.339 And I said, "Yeah. 00:03:57.363 --> 00:04:00.710 Like, gas poisoning?" NOTE Paragraph 00:04:00.734 --> 00:04:03.713 Carbon monoxide poisoning is when you have a gas leak 00:04:03.737 --> 00:04:05.180 leaking into your home. 00:04:05.204 --> 00:04:11.032 I looked it up, and the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning 00:04:11.056 --> 00:04:14.186 include a pressure on your chest, 00:04:14.210 --> 00:04:18.608 auditory hallucinations -- whoosh -- 00:04:18.632 --> 00:04:22.410 and an unexplained feeling of dread. 00:04:23.831 --> 00:04:26.233 So that night, I called the gas company. 00:04:26.257 --> 00:04:30.062 I said, "I have an emergency. I need you to come out. 00:04:30.086 --> 00:04:33.356 I don't want to get into the story now, but I need you to come out." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:33.380 --> 00:04:34.573 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:34.597 --> 00:04:37.384 They came out. I said, "I suspect a gas leak." 00:04:37.408 --> 00:04:39.924 They brought their carbon monoxide detector, 00:04:39.948 --> 00:04:41.990 and the man said, 00:04:42.014 --> 00:04:45.477 "It's a really good thing that you called us tonight, 00:04:45.501 --> 00:04:47.914 because you could have been dead very soon." NOTE Paragraph 00:04:49.667 --> 00:04:55.034 Thirty-seven percent of Americans believe in haunted houses, 00:04:55.058 --> 00:04:59.648 and I wonder how many of them have been in one 00:04:59.672 --> 00:05:02.664 and how many of them have been in danger. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:04.783 --> 00:05:09.516 So that haunting story has led me to my job. 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:12.438 I'm an investigator, and I'm an investigator in two senses: 00:05:12.462 --> 00:05:14.030 I'm an investigative journalist, 00:05:14.054 --> 00:05:17.240 and I'm also an investigator of the claims of the paranormal 00:05:17.264 --> 00:05:19.260 and claims of the spiritual. 00:05:19.284 --> 00:05:20.792 And that means a few things. 00:05:20.816 --> 00:05:24.767 Sometimes that means that I'm pretending to need an exorcism 00:05:24.791 --> 00:05:29.356 so I can get -- yes, that's right! -- so I can go to an exorcist 00:05:29.380 --> 00:05:32.986 and see if he's using gimmicks or psychological tricks 00:05:33.010 --> 00:05:35.898 to try to convince someone that they're possessed. 00:05:35.922 --> 00:05:39.244 Sometimes that means I'm going undercover in a fringe group 00:05:39.268 --> 00:05:42.641 which I report on for a podcast that I co-host. 00:05:42.665 --> 00:05:47.699 And I've done over 70 investigations like this with my co-host, Ross. 00:05:47.723 --> 00:05:52.719 I would love to tell you that nine times out of 10, science wins, 00:05:52.743 --> 00:05:55.239 saves the day, it's all explained. 00:05:55.263 --> 00:05:56.432 That's not true. 00:05:56.456 --> 00:06:02.672 The truth is, 10 times out of 10, science wins, it saves the day. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:02.696 --> 00:06:06.464 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:15.027 --> 00:06:17.708 And that doesn't mean there's no such thing as a mystery. 00:06:17.732 --> 00:06:21.658 Of course there are mysteries, but a mystery is a mystery. 00:06:21.682 --> 00:06:23.371 It is not a ghost. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:24.466 --> 00:06:28.087 Now, I believe there are two kinds of truth, 00:06:28.111 --> 00:06:32.462 and it's taken me a while to get to this place, but I think this is right, 00:06:32.486 --> 00:06:33.750 so here me out. 00:06:33.774 --> 00:06:36.929 I think there is outer truth and there's inner truth. 00:06:36.953 --> 00:06:40.168 So if you say to me, 00:06:40.192 --> 00:06:42.865 "There was a man named Jesus and he once existed," 00:06:42.889 --> 00:06:44.586 that's outer truth, right? 00:06:44.610 --> 00:06:46.960 And we can go and look at the historical record. 00:06:46.984 --> 00:06:49.395 We can determine whether that seems to be true. 00:06:49.419 --> 00:06:51.958 And I would argue, it does seem to be true. 00:06:51.982 --> 00:06:57.653 If you say, "Jesus rose from the dead" -- ooh, trickier. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:57.677 --> 00:06:59.904 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:00.441 --> 00:07:07.380 I would say that's an outer-truth claim, 00:07:07.404 --> 00:07:09.442 because he physically rose or he didn't. 00:07:09.466 --> 00:07:12.192 I'm not going to get into whether he rose or he didn't, 00:07:12.216 --> 00:07:14.294 but I would say that's an outer-truth claim. 00:07:14.318 --> 00:07:16.012 It happened or it didn't happen. 00:07:16.036 --> 00:07:19.738 But if you say, "I don't care whether he rose from the dead. 00:07:19.762 --> 00:07:22.106 It's symbolically important to me, 00:07:22.130 --> 00:07:25.624 and that metaphor is so meaningful, so purposeful to me, 00:07:25.648 --> 00:07:27.951 and I'm not going to try to persuade you of it," 00:07:27.975 --> 00:07:30.530 now you've moved it from outer truth to inner truth, 00:07:30.554 --> 00:07:32.076 from science to art. 00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:35.264 And I think we have a tendency to not be clear about this, 00:07:35.288 --> 00:07:38.700 to try to move our inner truths to outer truths, 00:07:38.724 --> 00:07:41.627 or to not be fair about it to each other, 00:07:41.651 --> 00:07:44.015 and when people are telling us their inner truths, 00:07:44.039 --> 00:07:47.650 to try to make them defend them by outer-truth standards. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:47.674 --> 00:07:51.190 So I'm talking here about outer truth, about objective things. 00:07:51.214 --> 00:07:56.900 And there was an objective reality in my haunted house, right? 00:07:56.924 --> 00:07:58.973 Now that I've told you about the gas leak, 00:07:58.997 --> 00:08:01.017 I doubt a single person here would be like, 00:08:01.041 --> 00:08:03.015 "I still think there was a ghost, too" -- NOTE Paragraph 00:08:03.039 --> 00:08:04.079 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:04.103 --> 00:08:06.850 because as soon as we have these scientific explanations, 00:08:06.874 --> 00:08:08.536 we know to give up the ghost. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:12.570 We use these things as stopgaps for things that we can't explain. 00:08:12.594 --> 00:08:14.595 We don't believe them because of evidence; 00:08:14.619 --> 00:08:17.381 we believe them because of a lack of evidence. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:18.382 --> 00:08:20.746 So there was a group in Los Angeles 00:08:20.770 --> 00:08:24.478 called the Independent Investigations Group, or the IIG, 00:08:24.502 --> 00:08:26.482 and they do great work. 00:08:26.506 --> 00:08:29.209 They'll give a $10,000 prize 00:08:29.233 --> 00:08:33.760 to anyone who can show, under scientific conditions, 00:08:33.784 --> 00:08:36.139 that they have a paranormal ability. 00:08:36.163 --> 00:08:37.869 No one's done it yet, 00:08:37.893 --> 00:08:42.951 but they've had a couple people who claim that they were clairaudients, 00:08:42.975 --> 00:08:47.031 which means that they can hear voices either from the great beyond 00:08:47.055 --> 00:08:48.953 or they can read minds. 00:08:48.977 --> 00:08:51.737 And they had one person who was very sincere, 00:08:51.761 --> 00:08:54.652 who believed that he could read minds. 00:08:54.676 --> 00:08:57.425 And a lot of these people -- NOTE Paragraph 00:08:57.449 --> 00:09:00.289 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:00.313 --> 00:09:03.326 That wasn't a laugh line, but OK. 00:09:03.350 --> 00:09:08.062 A lot of these people really are sincere, 00:09:08.086 --> 00:09:10.137 and I believe this guy was. 00:09:10.161 --> 00:09:12.208 He really thought he had this power. 00:09:12.232 --> 00:09:18.219 So they set up a test with him, and this is the way it always works. 00:09:18.243 --> 00:09:20.489 The group says, "OK, we have a protocol, 00:09:20.513 --> 00:09:22.528 we have a way to scientifically test this. 00:09:22.552 --> 00:09:23.705 Do you agree with it?" 00:09:23.729 --> 00:09:25.625 The person says yes. Then they test it. 00:09:25.649 --> 00:09:27.654 It's very important that both sides agree. 00:09:27.678 --> 00:09:30.093 They did that, they tested him. 00:09:30.117 --> 00:09:32.671 They said, "OK, you know what? 00:09:32.695 --> 00:09:36.537 You weren't able to predict what Lisa was thinking. 00:09:36.561 --> 00:09:38.590 It matched up about the same as chance. 00:09:38.614 --> 00:09:40.456 Looks like you don't have the power." NOTE Paragraph 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:42.330 And that gave them the opportunity 00:09:42.354 --> 00:09:47.623 to compassionately sit down with him and have a very difficult discussion, 00:09:47.647 --> 00:09:49.616 which basically amounted to, 00:09:49.640 --> 00:09:54.203 "Hey, we know you're sincere, and what that means is, 00:09:54.227 --> 00:09:56.506 you do hear something in your head." 00:09:56.530 --> 00:09:59.269 And that's a tough thing to face. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:59.293 --> 00:10:04.134 (Laughter) (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:04.158 --> 00:10:10.975 But that day, that guy got to make the very difficult decision, 00:10:10.999 --> 00:10:17.077 but really the life-changing decision about whether to go get help. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:17.101 --> 00:10:19.101 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:19.935 --> 00:10:24.100 But that really could be the first day of the rest of your life, 00:10:24.124 --> 00:10:28.231 because when we challenge these beliefs, 00:10:28.255 --> 00:10:33.298 we're actually helping people to make these connections 00:10:33.322 --> 00:10:38.632 that maybe before seemed like otherworldly explanations, 00:10:38.656 --> 00:10:43.716 help draw us into reality and maybe change our lives for the better. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:45.353 --> 00:10:51.145 Now, on the other hand, maybe one time it'll turn out to be true. 00:10:51.768 --> 00:10:53.791 Maybe we'll find out there are ghosts, 00:10:53.815 --> 00:10:55.988 and holy shit, it will be the best thing! 00:10:56.012 --> 00:10:58.736 And every time I do one of these investigations, 00:10:58.760 --> 00:11:00.566 I still get so excited, 00:11:00.590 --> 00:11:02.653 and I'm like 75 into them, 00:11:02.677 --> 00:11:06.754 and still I swear on number 76, I'm going to be like, "This is the one!" NOTE Paragraph 00:11:06.778 --> 00:11:07.983 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:11:08.007 --> 00:11:12.863 Maybe I'm just eternally optimistic, but I hope I never lose this hope, 00:11:12.887 --> 00:11:16.662 and I invite you to take this same attitude 00:11:16.686 --> 00:11:19.129 when people share their outer beliefs with you. 00:11:19.153 --> 00:11:21.620 When talking about testable claims, 00:11:21.644 --> 00:11:25.323 respect them enough to ask these good questions. 00:11:25.347 --> 00:11:28.209 Challenge and see how you can examine them together, 00:11:28.233 --> 00:11:32.402 because there's this idea that you can't respect a belief 00:11:32.426 --> 00:11:34.976 and still challenge it, but that's not true. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:37.747 When we jiggle the lock, when we test the claim, 00:11:37.771 --> 00:11:41.743 we're saying, OK, I respect you, I'm listening to what you're saying, 00:11:41.767 --> 00:11:43.759 I'm going to test it out with you. 00:11:43.783 --> 00:11:47.138 We've all had that experience where you're telling someone something, 00:11:47.162 --> 00:11:49.893 and they're like, "Oh, that's really interesting, yeah," 00:11:49.917 --> 00:11:52.040 you know you're being had. 00:11:52.064 --> 00:11:55.354 But when someone says, "Really? Huh. 00:11:56.473 --> 00:11:58.863 Sounds a little sketchy to me, but I'm listening," 00:11:58.887 --> 00:12:01.544 you at least know you're being engaged and respected. 00:12:01.568 --> 00:12:04.684 And that's the kind of attitude we should have with these claims. 00:12:04.708 --> 00:12:07.415 That's showing someone that you care what they're saying. 00:12:07.439 --> 00:12:10.375 That's respect. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:13.090 --> 00:12:17.789 Now, yes, most of these searches will come up empty, 00:12:17.813 --> 00:12:19.646 but that's how all of science works. 00:12:20.043 --> 00:12:24.144 Every cure for cancer so far has not panned out, 00:12:24.168 --> 00:12:26.500 but we don't stop looking, 00:12:26.524 --> 00:12:28.054 for two reasons. 00:12:28.078 --> 00:12:30.556 Because number one, the answer matters. 00:12:30.580 --> 00:12:34.602 Whether it's looking at the afterlife or the paranormal or the cure for cancer, 00:12:34.626 --> 00:12:36.959 it all amounts to the same question: 00:12:36.983 --> 00:12:39.662 How long will we be here? NOTE Paragraph 00:12:40.845 --> 00:12:44.629 And two, because looking for the truth, 00:12:44.653 --> 00:12:45.962 being open-minded, 00:12:45.986 --> 00:12:50.355 and being willing to be wrong and to change your whole worldview 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:52.427 is awe-inspiring. 00:12:53.198 --> 00:12:57.011 I still get excited at ghost stories every single time. 00:12:57.035 --> 00:13:00.119 I still consider that every group I join might be right, 00:13:00.143 --> 00:13:02.140 and I hope I never lose that hope. 00:13:02.164 --> 00:13:03.968 Let's all never lose that hope, 00:13:03.992 --> 00:13:06.847 because searching for what's out there 00:13:06.871 --> 00:13:08.785 helps us understand what's in here. 00:13:09.517 --> 00:13:15.978 And also, please have a carbon monoxide detector in your home. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:17.042 --> 00:13:18.321 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:18.345 --> 00:13:20.109 (Applause)