Ghost App Scares woman to hospital

[Brian Topp]

Are you up on what the hundreds of millions of Chinese netizens are talking about? Take a moment and get the rundown of what's hot, what's trending, and what's drawing the most buzz on the Chinese blogosphere.

Ghost app leaves woman scared sick

A 23-year-old woman from Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, recently sought psychiatric help after a smart phone app called the "ghost detector" gave her a very real scare over Tomb-Sweeping day.

The woman, surnamed Wu, claimed to have detected three spirits, an experience that has left her haunted by hallucinations and bouts of insomnia.

Read: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/853045.shtml#.U181X1ewXBM

[Davros of Skaro]

Ha!

Many American parents tell their children resurrected zombie stories and you do not see any damage from that.

*.*

[Midyin]

It's just a toy... lol

Stupid woman..

[Mantis914]

It's just a toy... lol

Stupid woman..

Damn, it may just be a toy but the fear for her is real. Its no different than if someone rents a video and cries over the storyline. Some people shouldn't be allowed to comment if they are going to just be rude!

[SaginMerusan]

Damn, it may just be a toy but the fear for her is real. Its no different than if someone rents a video and cries over the storyline. Some people shouldn't be allowed to comment if they are going to just be rude!

I beg to differ.

Someone's stupidity should not be an excuse, and really, someone uses a smartphone, a late 20th century invention, but yet is fearful of a medieval belief founded on no factual evidence.

The woman was taught to behave via fear-mongering stories as a child. So shall I still expect to be rewarded if I leave a tooth under my pillow? No, because I know full well that the tooth fairy or ghosts aren't factual. So, too, should the woman not claim to be moved emotionally by ghosts stories, culture be damned.

Edited April 30, 2014 by SaginMerusan

[Duck33]

Well it just goes to show that belief in anything paranormal is not a position arrived at through sound reason and critical thinking.

[Brian Topp]

Seriously? You're defending her for letting a toy cause her a psychotic break?...

I don't give a damn if she's suffering. You want to know why? Because she's ****ing stupid, and the Darwinist in me hates her for being a weak idiot.. lol

Some people shouldn't be aloud to comment if they're just going to be stupid..

I am sorry but I agree with SaginMerusan. In USA ghosts are viewed more as entertainment, not real and harmless. In China and other Asian cultures, It is built into their culture ,their version of ghosts are violent, dangerous, rapists, and murderers.

The best example is the bible, There is a lot of people who believe in hell and after life and Jesus and if some one made fun or criticize those beliefs, the Christians (or what ever religion) would get offended heavily .

Yes it is silly, The woman worked her self up but reading from the article, she is suffering from mental issues.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Brian Topp

[jamesjr191]

I grew up on "shock theater" Saturdays and read Horror Tales magazine as a kid. no harm here, well maybe just a bit.

[Mantis914]

I beg to differ.

Someone's stupidity should not be an excuse, and really, someone uses a smartphone, a late 20th century invention, but yet is fearful of a medieval belief founded on no factual evidence.

The woman was taught to behave via fear-mongering stories as a child. So shall I still expect to be rewarded if I leave a tooth under my pillow? No, because I know full well that the tooth fairy or ghosts aren't factual. So, too, should the woman not claim to be moved emotionally by ghosts stories, culture be damned.

Culture be damn, huh? Tell that to those on Facebook who fly into rages and attack people both online and physically for a mere posting. Would you consider that stupidity also? Facebook has become part of our culture, like it or not and to some people, it apparently is their life and the ages of users are getting younger by the year...

[ChrLzs]

Call me stupid too...

Cultures are different. And within a culture, people come in a range of gullibility - just look around these forums - you'll see some genuine enquiries about whether that detector app actually does anything... For some, be it due to 'mental issues' or just plain naivety, it may not be clear that an app is a joke, or that it does not / cannot do what it says it does...

Personally I think it's simple - apps, be they deliberate jokes or not, should not use misleading descriptions. Some of the ghost apps do exactly that - they are pretty thin on admitting they are jokes, or offering proper disclaimers about the claims they make.

Personally, I'd love to see that lady get a good lawyer and take them on (even if she's faking it all - after all, jokes are ok, right?).. Maybe if they have to defend some court cases, these 'developers' might think twice about creating such drivel in the first place, or if they do, making it very clear that the app is bullmanure.

[Patient Zero]

*Sigh*

[rashore]

I'm not sure it's too fair to pick on the woman for her response to the ghost app. It does seem rather silly and all I know, but sometimes we get freaked out. After all, we have horror movies that can trigger nightmares or make us decide things like never staying in a hostel. Haunted houses that have triggered panic attacks, heart attacks, asthma attacks and probably gave a lot of people heebie-jeebies for a while afterwards. Some folks get themselves freaked out on a regular basis ghost hunting too.

We can give ourselves some pretty good scares when we are expecting the scare. When we aren't expecting the scare it can really be extra unnerving, no matter how silly it seems.

Personally, I think the woman was silly for being freaked like she was... But I'm not going to pick on her or her culture because of it.

[Mantis914]

Call me stupid too...

Cultures are different. And within a culture, people come in a range of gullibility - just look around these forums - you'll see some genuine enquiries about whether that detector app actually does anything... For some, be it due to 'mental issues' or just plain naivety, it may not be clear that an app is a joke, or that it does not / cannot do what it says it does...

Personally I think it's simple - apps, be they deliberate jokes or not, should not use misleading descriptions. Some of the ghost apps do exactly that - they are pretty thin on admitting they are jokes, or offering proper disclaimers about the claims they make.

Personally, I'd love to see that lady get a good lawyer and take them on (even if she's faking it all - after all, jokes are ok, right?).. Maybe if they have to defend some court cases, these 'developers' might think twice about creating such drivel in the first place, or if they do, making it very clear that the app is bullmanure.

And not that I was defending the woman because I think its silly also but ChrLzs put it very elegantly that they didn't make it clear whether this technology was on the level or not. Look at warning labels on products. You see them and think "duh" but still you get people poisoned or hurt from products warning people not to use them in the very way they ended up in the hospital...

[Crabby Kitten]

She suffered a fear of ghosts ever since childhood. Maybe she's been scared when she was little of some supernatural event or even by cruel stories. I don't know what made her want to get an app with ghosts for, but whatever the reason, I don't think she intended to be severely scared out of her wits.

[McFakename]

Ha!

Many American parents tell their children resurrected zombie stories and you do not see any damage from that.

*.*

Wait...what? We don't really do that. It's just a popular movie/tv genre that I do enjoy watching but do not let my children see.

[SaginMerusan]

Culture be damn, huh? Tell that to those on Facebook who fly into rages and attack people both online and physically for a mere posting. Would you consider that stupidity also? Facebook has become part of our culture, like it or not and to some people, it apparently is their life and the ages of users are getting younger by the year...

Quite right: it is *SNIP* stupid. Facebook is a haven for idiots who have nothing better to do than to brag (look at my house, my car, look at where I ate, what I ate, look at where I vacationed, etc). It is the forum for kitty pictures, deity based fear mongering, and inane *SNIP* that has no real substance or meaning. Where the "social" in social networking is anything but. It has cheapened the concept of "friend" into something meaningless.

Where you, a Facebook user, has allowed yourself to be one statistic in many for data mining for marketers, who you, as a user, did freely gave permission to be a target for such marketing. Without compensation, I might add (no, I do not consider the use of Facebook as having value).

I quit using Facebook. Haven't looked back since.

On another note: the concept of internet rage is old. I remember online born rage back in the days of the BBS (pre-internet ). Yes, that rage is stupid as well.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Lilly
language

[SaginMerusan]

Wait...what? We don't really do that. It's just a popular movie/tv genre that I do enjoy watching but do not let my children see.

Errr... Yes, we do in North America. That was a reference to the Christian notion that Jesus rose from the dead.

She suffered a fear of ghosts ever since childhood. Maybe she's been scared when she was little of some supernatural event or even by cruel stories. I don't know what made her want to get an app with ghosts for, but whatever the reason, I don't think she intended to be severely scared out of her wits.

I am sure in most cultures, especially ones as old as Asian ones, the concept of "not playing with fire" should have arisen in her mind. Ergo, do not use the app if she is so prone to breaks from reality. 'Nuff said.

[SaginMerusan]

Mantis, I would just like to point out that being rude doesn't automatically make someone wrong. Our modern culture encourages everyone to feel good and get along and is anti-bully (and all that, etc) that we know perceive anyone who s "rude", "aggressive", or.... (the current bad word) "bossy" as somehow being wrong. This is at the expense of truth - just because it is "bad" to make someone feel bad or point out a fault or wrong thing.

Sorry, that just won't fly with me. Wrong is wrong. If I said that something someone did or said was wrong, and I was rude in my delivery, it still remains wrong. People can go lick their wounds somewhere else.

Edited May 3, 2014 by SaginMerusan

[Lilly]

How about this: Those who desire to be rude and uncivil can go and post someplace else. Also, please watch your language, there are posters here on UM that are as young as 13 and as old as your grandmother.

[Rlyeh]

"Some people really believe in [ghosts] and the app developer could get in trouble if something serious occurs"

Maybe in China but has Hasbro ever got in trouble for their Ouija board games?

[regeneratia]

I think it is better not to make judgements on the woman. It is what it is. She is who she is. To make judgements on someone you never met is rather immature. You cannot abstract from the totality of this woman to one life incident which hit the greedy, skewing syndicated news and expect it to summarize the complete person involved, then call her stupid. Abstraction leads to mistakes.

The culture thing is a pretty good excuse for this woman. 5000 years of Chinese myth, myths perhaps based on real evidence or to explain a common mystery, is sometimes more accurate than a mere 200 years of true science. Again, science today is still as yet immature. However myths may well explain much. We double our medical and technical science every three to five years (as measured around 1995!). It is safe to say that scientifically there is more we don't know than what we do know. Maybe this woman is right.

And in the meantime, I would be making sure she gets her Vitamin Bs, because they help the brain track better. Who knows what kind of nutritional deficits she might have. Or parasites or hormonal issues (the entire endocrine system).

Edited May 3, 2014 by regeneratia

[regeneratia]

She suffered a fear of ghosts ever since childhood. Maybe she's been scared when she was little of some supernatural event or even by cruel stories. I don't know what made her want to get an app with ghosts for, but whatever the reason, I don't think she intended to be severely scared out of her wits.

It is my understanding that those apps do not work. I have some. One day one of them really spiked, up to near the max, in the middle of the night. I was confused about it too, until I realized that the devise may not have all the sensors needed to detect this stuff. Good thing it was a free app. They tell me I do live on native american sacred ground. Not sure that is true but a neighbor once had a pow-wow, with drums and all, in the middle of the night one time, while my spouse and I laid there listening to the drums and singing, were happy to have that experience. But I care for this ground and nurture it. I am in my near nature most of the time now that it warmed up.

Edited May 3, 2014 by regeneratia

[JesseCuster]

It is my understanding that those apps do not work. I have some. One day one of them really spiked, up to near the max, in the middle of the night. I was confused about it too, until I realized that the devise may not have all the sensors needed to detect this stuff. Good thing it was a free app.

There was a thread here on UM some time ago where one of the ghost apps (Ghost Radar I think) was shown to have been reverse engineered and the code is basically designed to spout random words from a pre-programmed set of words and to light up the radar at random intervals with random blips.

The one I tried came with a whole spiel of pseudo-scientific explanations for how it manipulates or reads "quantum fluctuations" (never knew my iPad had the ability to do that!) which is clearly not the kind of thing modern smartphones and tablets can actually do. When the app is running, the screen has various numbers that makes it look like some sort of science device, but when you read the small print of what they mean, they basically admit the numbers don't mean anything at all. Sometimes the blips and words come faster than other times to make it look like there's activity going on, but it's all nonsense.

They tell me I do live on native american sacred ground.

I'm always amazed about the amount of places in the USA that are on sacred Indian burial grounds.

[regeneratia]

There was a thread here on UM some time ago where one of the ghost apps (Ghost Radar I think) was shown to have been reverse engineered and the code is basically designed to spout random words from a pre-programmed set of words and to light up the radar at random intervals with random blips.

The one I tried came with a whole spiel of pseudo-scientific explanations for how it manipulates or reads "quantum fluctuations" (never knew my iPad had the ability to do that!) which is clearly not the kind of thing modern smartphones and tablets can actually do. When the app is running, the screen has various numbers that makes it look like some sort of science device, but when you read the small print of what they mean, they basically admit the numbers don't mean anything at all. Sometimes the blips and words come faster than other times to make it look like there's activity going on, but it's all nonsense.

I'm always amazed about the amount of places in the USA that are on sacred Indian burial grounds.

It amazes me too. If you will note, I did not say that I beleived it. It is what it is.

What also amazes me is that people are so ready to jump to conclusions about other people just due to an story severely abstracted from the subjects' lives, and freeze that now-unchanging impression of people accessed from that severe abstraction. Poor woman. I have had my fifteen minutes of national fame and it was not pleasant.

Thanks for the info on the apps.

Edited May 3, 2014 by regeneratia

[SaginMerusan]

5000 years of Chinese myth, myths perhaps based on real evidence or to explain a common mystery, is sometimes more accurate than a mere 200 years of true science. Again, science today is still as yet immature.

That is just so wrong. In many ways. To even suggest that a long mythical history has precedence over science is wrong almost to the point of self-evidence. Did the supernatural invent the computer or mobile device you use today? Did it invent the medicines you take to combat diseases or side-effects? Did it invent the storehouse of knowledge we have today? Here is a hint: the answer is all "NO".

Just because something has been around longer, and had once been perceived as valuable before science arose, doesn't make it accurate. Science is self-correcting as new facts are found, tested, and tested again independently. The paranormal/supernatural has no clear method of self-correction, nor does it have any method to derive any theories or truths. It is all faith-based. Faith based, as in no evidence.

Here is a link to the Scientific Method:

http://en.wikipedia....ientific_method

However myths may well explain much. We double our medical and technical science every three to five years (as measured around 1995!). It is safe to say that scientifically there is more we don't know than what we do know. Maybe this woman is right.

So because we don't know something, therefore ghosts. Or God. Or the boogeyman. this is wrong.

It is a false assumption that because we do not "know" this woman, therefore, we cannot question her belief system as it holds up to science. Wrong. Science has no boundaries, and it doesn't respect culture. You are jumping to a conclusion without evidence or merit, and this is why you are wrong.

This is what ghosts and the rest of the paranormal world is up against:

1. No one has found any evidence of ghosts or the paranormal that can be tested in any scientific lab anywhere in the world. The Spiritualist Movement gained much popularity in the 1920s in North America. From 1920 until 2014 is a difference of 94 years. In all that time, you would think that someone, somewhere, would have found verifiable evidence? But no, no one has. Compare and contrast to science, from 1920 up until today, and you have a lot of people stumbling into scientific facts, people both professional and amateur. Why has no one stumbled into evidence of the paranormal in that timespan? Statistics should bear out that the chances of having done so should have already happened if there was any factual basis for the paranormal.
   
2. Ninety Four years have passed by without evidence for the paranormal. So therefore, one can safely assume that either:
   - ghosts and/or the paranormal does not exist, or,
   - all paranormal investigators, either alive or dead within our 94 years, are just incompetent at detecting the paranormal - despite all manner of devices and attempts at detecting them (all of which have no verifiable, nor repeatable evidence that they can detect the paranormal). What we are talking about here is many, many people within those 94 years, not just a handful.
   

Edited May 4, 2014 by SaginMerusan