0:00:00.931,0:00:05.889
Eight years ago, I was haunted[br]by an evil spirit.

0:00:05.889,0:00:10.510
I was 25 at the time,

0:00:10.510,0:00:13.794
and I was living in a tiny house[br]behind someone else's house

0:00:13.794,0:00:16.676
in Los Angeles.

0:00:16.676,0:00:19.967
It was this guest house.[br]It had kind of been dilapidated,

0:00:19.967,0:00:22.539
not taken care of for a long time,

0:00:22.539,0:00:25.924
and one night, I was sitting there

0:00:25.924,0:00:30.839
and I got this really spooky feeling,

0:00:30.839,0:00:33.880
kind of a feeling[br]like you're being watched,

0:00:33.880,0:00:36.417
but no one was there except my two dogs,

0:00:36.417,0:00:39.308
and they were just chewing their feet.

0:00:39.308,0:00:42.825
And I looked around.[br]No one was there.

0:00:42.825,0:00:47.571
And I thought, okay,[br]it's just my imagination.

0:00:47.571,0:00:50.205
But the feeling just kept getting worse,

0:00:50.205,0:00:55.520
and I started to feel[br]this pressure in my chest,

0:00:55.520,0:00:58.477
sort of like the feeling[br]when you get bad news,

0:00:58.477,0:01:01.812
but it started to sink lower and lower

0:01:01.812,0:01:04.321
and almost hurt.

0:01:04.321,0:01:06.271
And over the course of that week,

0:01:06.271,0:01:08.105
this feeling got worse and worse,

0:01:08.105,0:01:10.478
and I started to become convinced

0:01:10.478,0:01:12.742
that something was there

0:01:12.742,0:01:17.197
in my little guest house, haunting me.

0:01:17.197,0:01:21.342
And I started to hear these sounds,

0:01:21.342,0:01:23.618
this "whooosh,"

0:01:23.618,0:01:25.105
kind of whisper,

0:01:25.105,0:01:28.604
like something passing through me.

0:01:28.604,0:01:31.731
And I called my best friend Claire,

0:01:31.731,0:01:34.015
and I said,

0:01:34.015,0:01:36.761
"I know this is gonna sound crazy,

0:01:36.761,0:01:39.170
but, um...

0:01:39.170,0:01:41.898
I think there's a ghost in my house.

0:01:41.898,0:01:44.129
I need to get rid of it."

0:01:44.129,0:01:45.908
And she said --

0:01:45.908,0:01:48.413
she's very open-minded, and she said,

0:01:48.413,0:01:49.941
"I don't think you're crazy.

0:01:49.941,0:01:53.771
I think you just need[br]to do a cleansing ritual."

0:01:53.771,0:01:55.529
(Laughter)

0:01:55.529,0:01:57.967
"So get some sage and burn it,

0:01:57.967,0:02:03.538
and tell it to go away."

0:02:03.538,0:02:04.951
So I said, "Okay,"

0:02:04.951,0:02:07.227
and I went and I bought sage,

0:02:07.227,0:02:08.962
and I had never done this before,

0:02:08.962,0:02:11.198
so I set the sage on fire,

0:02:11.198,0:02:15.443
waved it about, and said, "Go away!

0:02:15.443,0:02:18.065
"This is my house! I live here.

0:02:18.065,0:02:20.808
You don't live here!"

0:02:20.808,0:02:24.065
But the feeling stayed.[br]Nothing got better.

0:02:24.065,0:02:27.412
And then I started to think,[br]okay, well now this thing's

0:02:27.412,0:02:29.179
probably just laughing at me,

0:02:29.179,0:02:31.630
because it hasn't left,

0:02:31.630,0:02:34.615
and I probably just look like[br]this impotent, powerless thing

0:02:34.615,0:02:36.874
that couldn't get it to go away.

0:02:36.874,0:02:40.823
And so every day I'd come home

0:02:40.823,0:02:44.725
and you guys, this feeling got so bad

0:02:44.725,0:02:48.032
that -- I mean, I'm laughing at it now --[br]but I would sit there in bed

0:02:48.032,0:02:51.239
and I would cry every night.

0:02:51.239,0:02:56.561
And the feeling on my chest[br]got worse and worse.

0:02:56.561,0:02:59.576
It was physically painful.

0:02:59.576,0:03:02.389
And I even went to a psychiatrist

0:03:02.389,0:03:05.840
and tried to get her[br]to prescribe me medicine,

0:03:05.840,0:03:10.902
and she wouldn't just because[br]I don't have schizophrenia, okay.

0:03:10.902,0:03:12.609
(Laughter)

0:03:12.609,0:03:18.086
So finally I got on the Internet,

0:03:18.086,0:03:20.902
and I googled hauntings.

0:03:20.902,0:03:23.871
And I came upon this forum[br]of ghost-hunters,

0:03:23.871,0:03:26.227
but these were a special[br]kind of ghost hunters.

0:03:26.227,0:03:27.952
They were skeptics.

0:03:27.952,0:03:30.521
And so they believed that every case

0:03:30.521,0:03:33.389
of ghosts that they[br]had investigated so far

0:03:33.389,0:03:35.588
had been explained away by science.

0:03:35.588,0:03:37.715
And I was like, "Okay, smart guys,

0:03:37.715,0:03:39.642
this is what's happening to me,

0:03:39.642,0:03:43.538
and if you have an explanation for me,[br]I would love to hear it."

0:03:43.538,0:03:46.084
And one of them said,

0:03:46.084,0:03:47.526
"Okay.

0:03:47.526,0:03:51.636
Um, have you heard of[br]carbon monoxide poisoning?"

0:03:51.636,0:03:57.516
And I said, "Yeah.

0:03:57.516,0:04:00.734
Like, gas poisoning?"

0:04:00.734,0:04:03.737
So carbon monoxide poisoning[br]is when you have a gas leak

0:04:03.737,0:04:05.318
leaking into your home,

0:04:05.318,0:04:06.826
and I looked it up,

0:04:06.826,0:04:10.793
and the symptoms[br]of carbon monoxide poisoning

0:04:10.793,0:04:14.210
include a pressure on your chest,

0:04:14.210,0:04:17.203
auditory hallucinations --

0:04:17.203,0:04:18.797
whoosh --

0:04:18.797,0:04:23.678
and an unexplained feeling of dread.

0:04:23.678,0:04:26.257
So that night, I called the gas company.

0:04:26.257,0:04:28.098
I said, "I have an emergency.

0:04:28.098,0:04:30.165
I need you to come out.

0:04:30.165,0:04:32.850
I don't want to get into the story now,[br]but I need you to come out."

0:04:32.850,0:04:34.597
(Laughter)

0:04:34.597,0:04:37.408
They came out. I said,[br]"I suspect a gas leak."

0:04:37.408,0:04:39.738
They brought their[br]carbon monoxide detector,

0:04:39.738,0:04:41.803
and the man said,

0:04:41.803,0:04:44.911
"It's a really good thing[br]that you called us tonight,

0:04:44.911,0:04:49.842
because you could[br]have been dead very soon."

0:04:49.842,0:04:54.647
Thirty-seven percent of Americans[br]believe in haunted houses,

0:04:54.647,0:04:59.194
and I wonder how many of them[br]have been in one

0:04:59.194,0:05:03.599
and how many of them[br]have been in danger.

0:05:03.599,0:05:07.083
So that haunting story

0:05:07.083,0:05:09.540
has led me to my job.

0:05:09.540,0:05:12.462
I'm an investigator, and I'm[br]an investigator in two senses.

0:05:12.462,0:05:15.458
I'm an investigative journalist,[br]and I'm also an investigator

0:05:15.458,0:05:19.389
of the claims of the paranormal[br]and claims of the spiritual.

0:05:19.389,0:05:20.920
And that means a few things.

0:05:20.920,0:05:24.791
Sometimes that means that I'm[br]pretending to need an exorcism

0:05:24.791,0:05:28.892
so I can get -- yes, that's right! --[br]so I can go to an exorcist

0:05:28.892,0:05:33.010
and see if he's using gimmicks[br]or psychological tricks

0:05:33.010,0:05:36.004
to try to convince someone[br]that they're possessed.

0:05:36.004,0:05:38.869
Sometimes that means[br]I'm going undercover in a fringe group

0:05:38.869,0:05:43.039
which I report on[br]for a podcast that I co-host.

0:05:43.039,0:05:47.565
And I've done over 70 investigations[br]like this with my co-host, Ross,

0:05:47.565,0:05:49.804
and I would love to tell you

0:05:49.804,0:05:52.743
that nine times out of 10, science wins,

0:05:52.743,0:05:55.477
saves the day, it's all explained.

0:05:55.477,0:05:58.232
That's not true. The truth is,

0:05:58.232,0:06:02.696
10 times out of 10, science wins,[br]it saves the day.

0:06:02.696,0:06:06.464
(Applause)

0:06:08.027,0:06:17.732
And that doesn't mean there's[br]no such thing as a mystery.

0:06:17.732,0:06:19.367
Of course there are mysteries,

0:06:19.367,0:06:21.815
but a mystery is a mystery.

0:06:21.815,0:06:23.865
It is not a ghost.

0:06:23.865,0:06:28.247
Now, I believe there are[br]two kinds of truth,

0:06:28.247,0:06:32.543
and it's taken me a while to get[br]to this place, but I think this is right,

0:06:32.543,0:06:33.650
so here me out.

0:06:33.650,0:06:36.953
I think there is outer truth[br]and there's inner truth.

0:06:36.953,0:06:39.782
So if you say to me,

0:06:39.782,0:06:42.889
"There was a man named Jesus[br]and he once existed,"

0:06:42.889,0:06:44.388
that's outer truth. Right?

0:06:44.388,0:06:46.802
And we can go and we can look[br]at the historical record.

0:06:46.802,0:06:49.419
We can determine whether[br]that seems to be true.

0:06:49.419,0:06:51.982
And I would argue,[br]it does seem to be true.

0:06:51.982,0:06:56.247
If you say, "Jesus rose from the dead,"

0:06:56.247,0:06:57.817
ooh, trickier.

0:06:57.817,0:07:00.135
(Laughter)

0:07:00.135,0:07:07.377
I would say that's an outer truth claim,

0:07:07.377,0:07:09.466
because he physically rose or he didn't.

0:07:09.466,0:07:12.216
I'm not going to get into[br]whether he rose or he didn't,

0:07:12.216,0:07:14.318
but I would say that's[br]an outer truth claim.

0:07:14.318,0:07:16.162
It happened or it didn't happen.

0:07:16.162,0:07:17.690
But if you say,

0:07:17.690,0:07:19.718
"I don't care whether[br]he rose from the dead.

0:07:19.718,0:07:24.603
It's symbolically important to me,[br]and that metaphor is so meaningful,

0:07:24.603,0:07:28.060
so purposeful to me, and I'm[br]not going to try to persuade you of it,"

0:07:28.060,0:07:30.593
now you've moved it from[br]outer truth to inner truth,

0:07:30.593,0:07:32.310
from science to art.

0:07:32.310,0:07:35.288
And I think we have a tendency[br]to not be clear about this,

0:07:35.288,0:07:38.643
to try to move our inner truths[br]to outer truths,

0:07:38.643,0:07:41.651
or to not be fair about it to each other,

0:07:41.651,0:07:44.014
and when people are telling us[br]their inner truths,

0:07:44.014,0:07:45.750
to try to make them defend them

0:07:45.750,0:07:47.861
by outer truth standards.

0:07:47.861,0:07:49.906
So I'm talking here about outer truth,

0:07:49.906,0:07:51.457
about objective things,

0:07:51.457,0:07:55.459
and there was an objective reality

0:07:55.459,0:07:56.924
in my haunted house. Right?

0:07:56.924,0:07:58.998
Now that I've told you about the gas leak,

0:07:58.998,0:08:00.917
I doubt a single person here[br]would be like,

0:08:00.917,0:08:02.979
"I still think there was a ghost too,"

0:08:02.979,0:08:06.400
because as soon as we have[br]these scientific explanations,

0:08:06.400,0:08:08.672
we know to give up the ghost.

0:08:08.672,0:08:12.696
We use these things as stopgaps[br]for things that we can't explain.

0:08:12.696,0:08:14.676
We don't believe them because of evidence.

0:08:14.676,0:08:17.779
We believe them because[br]of a lack of evidence.

0:08:17.779,0:08:20.166
So there was a group in Los Angeles

0:08:20.166,0:08:23.213
called the Independent[br]Investigations Group,

0:08:23.213,0:08:24.638
or the IIG,

0:08:24.638,0:08:26.641
and they do great work.

0:08:26.641,0:08:29.233
They'll give a 10,000 dollar prize

0:08:29.233,0:08:32.132
to anyone who can show

0:08:32.132,0:08:33.834
under scientific conditions

0:08:33.834,0:08:36.336
that they have a paranormal ability.

0:08:36.336,0:08:38.015
No one's done it yet,

0:08:38.015,0:08:42.975
but they've had a couple people[br]who claim that they were clairaudients,

0:08:42.975,0:08:46.881
which means that they can[br]hear voices either from the great beyond

0:08:46.881,0:08:48.735
or they can read minds,

0:08:48.735,0:08:50.245
and they had one person

0:08:50.245,0:08:51.761
who was very sincere

0:08:51.761,0:08:54.567
who believed that he could read minds.

0:08:54.567,0:08:57.449
And a lot of these people --

0:08:57.449,0:09:00.313
(Laughter) --

0:09:00.313,0:09:03.350
That wasn't a laugh line, but okay.

0:09:03.350,0:09:06.394
A lot of these people

0:09:06.394,0:09:08.197
really are sincere,

0:09:08.197,0:09:10.161
and I believe this guy was.

0:09:10.161,0:09:12.233
He really thought he had this power.

0:09:12.233,0:09:15.745
So they set up a test with him,

0:09:15.745,0:09:18.243
and this is the way it always works.

0:09:18.243,0:09:20.563
The group says, "Okay, we have a protocol,

0:09:20.563,0:09:23.209
we have a way to scientifically test this.[br]Do you agree with it?"

0:09:23.209,0:09:25.649
The person says yes. Then they test it.

0:09:25.649,0:09:27.679
It's very important that both sides agree.

0:09:27.679,0:09:29.132
They did that.

0:09:29.132,0:09:30.278
They tested him.

0:09:30.278,0:09:32.695
They said, "Okay, you know what?

0:09:32.695,0:09:35.902
You weren't able to predict[br]what Lisa was thinking.

0:09:35.902,0:09:38.614
It matched up about[br]the same as chance.

0:09:38.614,0:09:40.564
Looks like you don't have the power."

0:09:40.564,0:09:42.437
And that gave them the opportunity

0:09:42.437,0:09:44.913
to compassionately sit down with him

0:09:44.913,0:09:47.555
and have a very difficult discussion,

0:09:47.555,0:09:49.257
which basically amounted to,

0:09:49.257,0:09:52.750
"Hey, we know you're sincere,

0:09:52.750,0:09:54.430
and what that means is,

0:09:54.430,0:09:56.732
you do hear something in your head."

0:09:56.732,0:09:59.494
And that's a tough thing to face.

0:09:59.494,0:10:03.846
(Laughter) (Applause)

0:10:03.846,0:10:10.904
But that day, that guy got to[br]make the very difficult decision,

0:10:10.904,0:10:14.800
but really the life-changing decision

0:10:14.800,0:10:18.997
about whether to go get help.

0:10:19.657,0:10:23.971
But that really could be[br]the first day of the rest of your life,

0:10:23.971,0:10:28.255
because when we challenge these beliefs,

0:10:28.255,0:10:33.322
we're actually helping people[br]to make these connections

0:10:33.322,0:10:38.322
that maybe before seemed like[br]otherworldly explanations,

0:10:38.322,0:10:40.467
help draw us into reality

0:10:40.467,0:10:44.221
and maybe change our lives for the better.

0:10:45.487,0:10:49.287
Now, on the other hand,

0:10:49.287,0:10:51.896
maybe on time it'll turn out to be true.

0:10:51.896,0:10:53.942
Maybe we'll find out there are ghosts,

0:10:53.942,0:10:56.248
and holy shit, it will be the best thing!

0:10:56.248,0:10:58.888
And every time I do[br]one of these investigations,

0:10:58.888,0:11:00.717
I still get so excited,

0:11:00.717,0:11:02.803
and I'm like 75 into them,

0:11:02.803,0:11:06.903
and still I swear on number 76,[br]I'm going to be like, this is the one.

0:11:06.903,0:11:08.131
(Laughter)

0:11:08.131,0:11:10.526
Maybe I'm just eternally optimistic,

0:11:10.526,0:11:12.603
but I hope I never lose this hope,

0:11:12.603,0:11:16.686
and I invite you to take[br]this same attitude

0:11:16.686,0:11:19.285
when people share[br]their outer beliefs with you.

0:11:19.285,0:11:21.472
When talking about testable claims,

0:11:21.472,0:11:25.347
respect them enough to ask[br]these good questions.

0:11:25.347,0:11:28.340
Challenge and see how you can[br]examine them together,

0:11:28.340,0:11:32.532
because there's this idea[br]that you can't respect a belief

0:11:32.532,0:11:35.157
and still challenge it,[br]but that's not true.

0:11:35.157,0:11:37.927
When we jiggle the lock,[br]when we test the claim,

0:11:37.927,0:11:40.182
we're saying, okay, I respect you,

0:11:40.182,0:11:41.866
I'm listening to what you're saying,

0:11:41.866,0:11:43.839
I'm going to test it out with you.

0:11:43.839,0:11:46.703
Like, we've all had that experience[br]where you're telling someone something,

0:11:46.703,0:11:49.686
and they're like, "Oh,[br]that's really interesting, yeah."

0:11:49.686,0:11:52.213
You know you're being had,

0:11:52.213,0:11:56.163
but when someone says, "Really? Huh.

0:11:56.163,0:11:58.996
Sounds a little sketchy to me,[br]but okay, I'm listening,"

0:11:58.996,0:12:01.674
you at least know you're being[br]engaged, you're being respected.

0:12:01.674,0:12:04.562
And that's the kind of attitude[br]we should have with these claims.

0:12:04.562,0:12:07.436
That's showing someone[br]that you care what they're saying.

0:12:07.436,0:12:11.679
That's respect.

0:12:11.679,0:12:17.644
Now, yes, most of these searches[br]will come up empty,

0:12:17.644,0:12:19.546
but that's how all of science works.

0:12:19.546,0:12:24.260
Every cure for cancer so far[br]has not panned out,

0:12:24.260,0:12:26.311
but we don't stop looking

0:12:26.311,0:12:28.078
for two reasons:

0:12:28.078,0:12:30.580
because number one, the answer matters.

0:12:30.580,0:12:34.277
Whether it's looking at the afterlife[br]or the paranormal or the cure for cancer,

0:12:34.277,0:12:36.783
it all amounts to the same question:

0:12:36.783,0:12:40.180
how long will we be here?

0:12:40.180,0:12:44.429
And two, because looking for the truth,

0:12:44.429,0:12:45.925
being open-minded,

0:12:45.925,0:12:49.990
and being willing to be wrong[br]and to change your whole worldview

0:12:49.990,0:12:53.373
is awe-inspiring.

0:12:53.373,0:12:56.758
I still get excited at ghost stories[br]every single time.

0:12:56.758,0:13:00.143
I still consider that every[br]group I join might be right,

0:13:00.143,0:13:02.326
and I hope I never lose that hope.

0:13:02.326,0:13:04.153
Let's all never lose that hope,

0:13:04.153,0:13:06.554
because searching for what's out there

0:13:06.554,0:13:08.894
helps us understand what's in here.

0:13:09.708,0:13:17.158
And also, please have[br]a carbon monoxide detector in your home.

0:13:17.158,0:13:18.923
Thank you.

0:13:18.923,0:13:24.465
(Applause)