Telephoning the Dead

Michael Shermer has a nice article here about pattern seeking. In this case a (new to me) method of 'contacting the dead', using ... a, erm, telephone...

[it] “consists of a random voltage generator, which is used to tune an AM receiver module rapidly. The audio from the tuner (“raw audio”) is amplified and fed to an echo chamber, where the spirits manipulate it to form their voices.” Apparently doing so is difficult for the spirits, so Moon employs the help of “Tyler,” a spirit “technician,” whom he calls on to corral wayward spirits to within earshot of the receiver. What it sounded like was the rapid twirling of a radio dial so that only noises and word fragment s were audible.

of course it works but the ability of people to spot patterns where there are none, such as.