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Skepticality

The Official Podcast of Skeptic Magazine

On the last episode of Skepticality, the "Skeptical Inquirer's" own Benjamin Radford discussed new Nessie sightings and other lake monsters from his comprehensive book on the subject. This week, Ben is back to tackle a brand new paranormal mystery from his own back yard. Almost over night, a video of a glowing, orb-like apparition at the courthouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico has soared into the media spotlight, with widespread news coverage and nearly 100,000 views on YouTube. Was it the spirit of an infamous murderer, the ghost of a construction worker who met his demise, or a disturbed Indian burial ground? Derek and Swoopy discuss paranormal investigation in the age of viral video with author Benjamin Radford, who examined the video tape and went to the site to investigate the mysterious Santa Fe Courthouse Ghost.
Show Notes
 

Date – June 26th, 2007 – read by Swoopy

Skepticality is in it's 3rd year of podcasting.
We still have plenty of topics to cover, including some of our favorite paranormal myths.
We spoke to Benjamin Radford last week about his book Lake Monster Mysteries.
A recent sighting of the Loch Ness monster prompted us to contact Ben.
This week Ben contacted us with the Mystery of the Santa Fe Courthouse Ghost.
A surveillance camera at the Santa Fe Courthouse captured footage strange blob.
The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reported the story and asked Ben for comment.
New Mexico's state nickname is "The Land of Enchantment".
There is a high percentage of New Age practitioners in New Mexico.
We're glad Ben is there to provide a balance.
The video of the Santa Fe Courthouse ghost made the associated press, CBS and Fox news.
The cumulative hits on versions of the footage on YouTube total over 100 thousand views.
By comparison to other footage of similar phenomenon, it really doesn't look like much.
Media outlets latched onto the viral video, calling it "unexplanable".
Various theories came to light about where the ghost came from including Ball lightning. 
Jails and courthouses are popular sites for hauntings.
Ben went to the source, and spoke to the guard who witnessed the phenomenon.
He also got to watch the original footage and verify the Timecode.
After watching the footage, Ben began testing different theories to reproduce the event.
This led to the purchase of 10000 lady bugs.
At nearly the same time as the original incident, the bugs recreated the ghost image.
The guards at the courthouse agreed that Ben recreated the same thing they saw.
Ben's findings were published by the Santa Fe New Mexican and LiveScience.com.
We hope that the news of Ben's recreating the event gets as much press as the ghost did.
They would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling skeptics. 
Ben reviews films for The Corrales Comment newspaper and on Radfordreviews.com. 
Promo – Skeptic Magazine.
You can find out more about Benjamin Radford and his work at Radfordbooks.com.
We'll be seeing Ben at Dragon*Con 2007 in Atlanta, GA.
Skepticality outro.



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