|
|
CarriePoppy_2016X-_用科学方法来解释超自然现象_
|
| Eight years ago, I was haunted by an evil spirit. |
八年前,我曾被恶灵纠缠。 |
|
evil:adj.邪恶的;不幸的;有害的;讨厌的;n.罪恶,邪恶;不幸;
|
| I was 25 at the time, and I was living in a tiny house behind someone else's house in Los Angeles. |
当时我 25 岁, 住在别人房子后面的一个小房子里, 在洛杉矶。 |
| It was this guest house , it had kind of been dilapidated , not taken care of for a long time. |
就是这一间残破不堪的客房, 已经很长时间不曾被打理。 |
|
guest house:n.小旅馆;(大房子旁供客人居住的)客房; dilapidated:adj.荒废的,要塌似的;破坏的;v.变得荒废(dilapidate的过去分词);
|
| And one night, I was sitting there and I got this really spooky feeling, kind of the feeling like you're being watched. |
一天晚上,我坐在那里, 突然有一股毛骨悚然的感觉。 就好比有人在某处观察你。 |
|
spooky:adj.幽灵般的;有鬼般的;令人毛骨悚然的;
|
| But no one was there except my two dogs, and they were just chewing their feet. |
但是除了我的两只狗以外, 没有人在周围, 而且牠们当时在舔舐自己的脚。 |
| And I looked around. No one was there. |
我四处张望了一下,没有任何人。 |
| And I thought, OK, it's just my imagination . |
于是我想,好吧,这只是我的幻想。 |
|
imagination:n.想象;想象力;创造力;想象的事物;
|
| But the feeling just kept getting worse, and I started to feel this pressure in my chest, sort of like the feeling when you get bad news. |
但是那种感觉越来越强烈, 我开始感觉到胸部的压迫感, 就像是你听到坏消息的感觉。 |
| But it started to sink lower and lower and almost hurt. |
那种压迫感渐渐遍布全身, 几乎有种受伤的感觉, |
| And over the course of that week, this feeling got worse and worse, and I started to become convinced that something was there in my little guest house, haunting me. |
在那一周里,这种感觉不断恶化, 于是我开始确信有「东西」在那里, 在我的小客房里面,缠着我。 |
|
convinced:adj.坚信; v.使确信; (convince的过去分词和过去式)
|
| And I started to hear these sounds, this " whoosh ," kind of whisper , like something passing through me. |
我开始听到一些声音, 像是某种东西穿过我,嘶嘶低语。 |
|
whoosh:vi.飞快地移动; n.嘶嘶声; whisper:v.耳语;低语;私语;小声说;n.耳语(声);低语(声);私语(声);轻柔的声音;
|
| I called my best friend, Claire, and said, "I know this is going to sound crazy, but, um ... |
我打电话给最要好的朋友克莱尔,说: 「我知道这听起来很不可思议。 但是,嗯...... |
| I think there's a ghost in my house, and I need to get rid of it." |
我觉得我家闹鬼了,需要处理掉它。」 |
| And she said -- she's very open-minded -- and she said, "I don't think you're crazy. |
她的思想开明,回答说: 「我不觉得你疯了。 |
|
open-minded:adj.虚心的;思想开明的;无偏见的;
|
| I think you just need to do a cleansing ritual ." |
我觉得你只需要个驱邪的仪式。」 |
|
cleansing:n.净化; adj.清洁用的; v.清洁(皮肤); (cleanse的现在分词) ritual:n.仪式;惯例;礼制;adj.仪式的;例行的;礼节性的;
|
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| '"So get some sage and burn it, and tell it to go away." |
「去买一些鼠尾草来烧, 叫它滚开。」 |
|
sage:n.圣人;贤人;哲人;adj.明智的;贤明的;审慎的;
|
| So I said, "OK," and I went and I bought sage. |
于是我说:「好的。」 然后我去买了一些鼠尾草。 |
| I had never done this before, so I set the sage on fire, waved it about, and said, "Go away! This is my house! I live here. |
我未曾这样做过,点燃了鼠尾草, 并四处挥舞着说:「快滚开！ |
| You don't live here!" |
这是我的家！我住在这里。 你不住这里！」 |
| But the feeling stayed. Nothing got better. |
但是那种诡异的感觉仍在, 事情并没好转。 |
| And then I started to think, |
于是我开始思考, |
| OK, well now this thing is probably just laughing at me, because it hasn't left, and I probably just look like this impotent , powerless thing that couldn't get it to go away. |
好吧,也许这东西现在正在嘲笑我, 因为它并没有离去, 而且我无能为力、失去力气, 无法叫它离开。 |
|
impotent:adj.无力的;无效的;虚弱的;阳萎的;
|
| So every day I'd come home and you guys, this feeling got so bad that -- I mean, I'm laughing at it now -- but I would sit there in bed and cry every night. |
所以每天我回到家, 你们知道吗？这感觉真的很糟── 但我当时却是每晚都坐在床上哭。 |
| And the feeling on my chest got worse and worse. |
我胸口感觉越来越糟。 |
| It was physically painful . |
这是一种身体上的痛苦。 |
|
painful:adj.痛苦的;疼痛的;令人不快的;
|
| And I even went to a psychiatrist and tried to get her to prescribe me medicine, and she wouldn't just because I don't have schizophrenia , OK. |
我甚至去看了心理医生, 试着说服她开药给我, 她当然不会开药给我, 因为我没精神病。 |
|
psychiatrist:n.精神病学家,精神病医生; prescribe:v.给…开(药);让…采用(疗法);开(处方);命令; schizophrenia:n.[内科]精神分裂症;
|
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| So finally I got on the internet, and I Googled " hauntings ." |
最后,我上网搜寻「闹鬼」。 |
|
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地; Googled:vt.在谷歌上搜索;(google的过去式和过去分词) hauntings:adj.不易忘怀的,萦绕于心头的; v.常去;
|
| And I came upon this forum of ghost hunters. |
然后我找到了一个集结了驱魔师的论坛。 |
|
forum:n.论坛,讨论会;法庭;公开讨论的广场;
|
| But these were a special kind of ghost hunters -- they were skeptics . |
但是有这么一类特别的驱魔师── 他们是怀疑论者。 |
|
skeptics:n.疑论者,怀疑主义者(skeptic的复数形式);
|
| They believed that every case of ghosts that they had investigated so far had been explained away by science. |
他们相信目前为止他们所 调查的所有与鬼相关的案件中, 都可以被科学解释。 |
|
ghosts:n.鬼魂;幽灵;一点点;v.无声地行进(ghost的第三人称单数和复数) investigated:v.侦查;调查;研究;(investigate的过去分词和过去式)
|
| And I was like, "OK, smart guys, this is what's happening to me, and if you have an explanation for me, I would love to hear it." |
我说:「好吧,聪明的人们, 这是发生在我身上的事情。 如果你们能解释,我会很乐意聆听。」 |
| And one of them said, "OK. |
他们其中一人说: |
| Um, have you heard of carbon monoxide poisoning?" |
「好。你听过一氧化碳中毒吗？」 |
|
carbon monoxide:n.一氧化碳;
|
| And I said, "Yeah. |
我说:「嗯,有啊。」 |
| Like, gas poisoning?" |
「像是瓦斯中毒？」 |
| Carbon monoxide poisoning is when you have a gas leak leaking into your home. |
一氧化碳中毒是瓦斯外泄到你的家中, |
|
leaking:v.渗漏;泄露(秘密信息);走漏;(leak的现在分词)
|
| I looked it up, and the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include a pressure on your chest, auditory hallucinations -- whoosh -- and an unexplained feeling of dread . |
我查阅一氧化碳中毒的症状,包括: 胸口感受到压力, 耳朵幻听嘶嘶的声音, 还有无法解释的恐惧感。 |
|
symptoms:n.症状;征候;征兆;(symptom的复数) auditory:n.听众;礼堂;adj.听觉的;耳朵的; hallucinations:n.幻视,幻听;幻觉;幻象;(hallucination的复数) unexplained:adj.未经解释的;未经说明的;不清楚的; dread:n.恐惧;可怕的人(或物);vi.惧怕;担心;vt.惧怕;担心;adj.可怕的;
|
| So that night, I called the gas company. |
所以那个晚上我打电话给瓦斯公司。 |
| I said, "I have an emergency . I need you to come out. |
我说:「事态紧急, 我需要你们马上出现！」 |
|
emergency:n.紧急情况;突发事件;非常时刻;adj.紧急的;备用的;
|
| I don't want to get into the story now, but I need you to come out." |
「我现在不想解释什麽, 但我需要你们马上出现。」 |
| (Laughter) |
(笑声) |
| They came out. I said, "I suspect a gas leak." |
他们出现后,我说: 「我怀疑我家瓦斯外泄。」 |
|
suspect:n.犯罪嫌疑人;v.怀疑;不信任;adj.可疑的;
|
| They brought their carbon monoxide detector , and the man said, "It's a really good thing that you called us tonight, because you could have been dead very soon." |
他们拿出一氧化碳侦测器,然后说: 「你今晚打电话给我们真是做对了, 要不然你很快就会死了。」 |
|
detector:n.探测器;检测器;发现者;侦察器;
|
| Thirty-seven percent of Americans believe in haunted houses, and I wonder how many of them have been in one and how many of them have been in danger. |
37% 的美国人相信凶宅, 而我怀疑他们之中 有多少人真的住过凶宅, 又有多少人真的遭遇过危险。 |
| So that haunting story has led me to my job. |
这个关于恶灵的故事 让我从事了我的工作。 |
| I'm an investigator , and I'm an investigator in two senses: |
我是个调查员, 调查的内容涉及两块: |
|
investigator:n.研究者;调查者;侦查员;
|
| I'm an investigative journalist , and I'm also an investigator of the claims of the paranormal and claims of the spiritual . |
我是一个调查记者, 同时我也研究那些 「超自然现象」和「灵魂」的宣称。 |
|
investigative:adj.研究的;调查的;好调查的; journalist:n.新闻工作者;报人;记日志者; claims:v.宣称; n.声明; (claim的第三人称单数和复数) paranormal:adj.超常的;超过正常范围的; spiritual:n.圣歌(尤指美国南部黑人的);adj.精神的,心灵的;
|
| And that means a few things. |
这代表了一些事情, |
| Sometimes that means that I'm pretending to need an exorcism so I can get -- yes, that's right! -- so I can go to an exorcist and see if he's using gimmicks or psychological tricks to try to convince someone that they're possessed . |
有时候这代表 我必须假装有驱魔的需求, 然后我可以找个……对,就是这样, 我可以去找一个驱魔师, 然后观察他是不是 在耍花招或玩心理游戏, 来使别人相信他们真的中邪了。 |
|
exorcism:n.驱魔;驱邪;用魔法召鬼魂; exorcist:n.驱魔的人;召魂者; gimmicks:n.花招,把戏,噱头;(gimmick的复数) psychological:adj.心理的;心理学的;精神上的; possessed:adj.着了魔;v.有;拥有;具有(特质);控制;(possess的过去分词和过去式)
|
| Sometimes that means I'm going undercover in a fringe group which I report on for a podcast that I co-host . |
这也代表着身为和别人合作的播客, 有时候我得偷偷混进 我做报告的边缘团体。 |
|
undercover:adj.秘密工作的;暗中做的;私下进行的; fringe:n.边缘;穗;刘海;adj.边缘的;附加的;vt.加穗于; podcast:n.播客; co-host:n.搭档主持;联合主办;vt.共同主持;
|
| And I've done over 70 investigations like this with my co-host, Ross. |
我和我的伙伴萝丝也已经 做了超过 70 次像这样的调查。 |
|
investigations:n.调查(investigation的复数);
|
| I would love to tell you that nine times out of 10, science wins, saves the day, it's all explained. |
我很想告诉你 十次有九次是科学胜出, 科学救了大家,解释了这一切。 |
| That's not true. |
但情况不是这样。 |
| The truth is, 10 times out of 10, science wins, it saves the day. |
事实上十次中有十次 科学赢了,救了大家。 |
| (Applause) |
(掌声) |
| And that doesn't mean there's no such thing as a mystery. |
但这并不代表谜团不存在。 |
| Of course there are mysteries, but a mystery is a mystery. |
当然还是有谜团, |
| It is not a ghost. |
并不是鬼。 |
| Now, I believe there are two kinds of truth, and it's taken me a while to get to this place, but I think this is right, so hear me out. |
我认为有两种真相, 花了一些时间我才想通, 所以请耐心听我说。 |
| I think there is outer truth and there's inner truth. |
我认为有「外在真相」和「内在真相」。 |
|
outer:adj.外面的,外部的;远离中心的;n.环外命中; inner:n.内部;射中接近靶心部分的一发;adj.里面的;向内的;内部的;接近中心的;
|
| So if you say to me, "There was a man named Jesus and he once existed," |
如果你告诉我: 「曾经有个名叫耶稣的人。」 |
|
Jesus:int.上帝啊:天哪:n.耶稣:耶稣基督:
|
| that's outer truth, right? |
这是外在真相,对吧？ |
| And we can go and look at the historical record. |
我们查看历史纪录 |
|
historical:adj.历史的;史学的;基于史实的;
|
| We can determine whether that seems to be true. |
就可判断是否属实。 |
|
determine:v.决定;确定;测定;查明;形成;影响;裁决;安排;
|
| And I would argue, it does seem to be true. |
而我会说,的确看似是个事实。 |
| If you say, "Jesus rose from the dead," -- ooh, trickier . |
如果你说:「耶稣从死里复生。」 |
|
trickier:adj.狡猾的;机警的(tricky的变形);
|
| (Laughter) |
(笑声) |
| I would say that's an outer-truth claim, because he physically rose or he didn't. |
我会说那是个外在真相的主张, 要不祂复活了,要不祂没复活。 |
| I'm not going to get into whether he rose or he didn't, but I would say that's an outer-truth claim. |
我并不是要探讨祂到底复活了没有。 而是说:这是个外在真相的主张, |
| It happened or it didn't happen. |
不论祂到底复活了没有。 |
| But if you say, "I don't care whether he rose from the dead. |
但是,如果你说的是: 「我不管祂是不是从死里复活, |
| It's symbolically important to me, and that metaphor is so meaningful , so purposeful to me, and I'm not going to try to persuade you of it," |
这象征对我很重要, 这隐喻非常有意义、意味很深远, 而我也没想要说服你。」 |
|
symbolically:adv.象征性地;象征意义地; metaphor:n.暗喻,隐喻;比喻说法; meaningful:adj.严肃的;重要的;重大的;意味深长的; purposeful:adj.有目的的;有决心的; persuade:v.说服;劝说;使信服;使相信;
|
| now you've moved it from outer truth to inner truth, from science to art. |
你就已经转外在真相为内在真相, 转科学为艺术。 |
| And I think we have a tendency to not be clear about this, to try to move our inner truths to outer truths, or to not be fair about it to each other, and when people are telling us their inner truths, to try to make them defend them by outer-truth standards . |
我认为我们倾向于模糊两者间的界线, 倾向于把内在真相变成外在真相, 或者,倾向于不平等地看待两者, 以致当人们告诉我们他们的内在真相时, 我们会试着叫他们用外在真相的准则 来为自己的内在真相辩护。 |
|
tendency:n.倾向,趋势;癖好; standards:n.标准,水平,规格(standard的复数)
|
| So I'm talking here about outer truth, about objective things. |
我在此讨论的是外在真相, 是客观的事物。 |
|
objective:n.目标; adj.客观的;
|
| And there was an objective reality in my haunted house, right? |
我的鬼屋有客观的现实,对吧？ |
| Now that I've told you about the gas leak, |
我已经说过是瓦斯外泄了, |
| I doubt a single person here would be like, "I still think there was a ghost, too" -- |
在座应该不会有人说: 「我仍然认为那里头有鬼。」 |
| (Laughter) |
(笑声) |
| because as soon as we have these scientific explanations, we know to give up the ghost . |
因为一旦我们有了科学的解释, 就知道该放弃这些「鬼话」了。 |
|
as soon as:一…就; scientific:adj.科学的,系统的; give up the ghost:死,断气;
|
| We use these things as stopgaps for things that we can't explain. |
我们用这些想法来暂时解决 我们所无法解释的事情, |
| We don't believe them because of evidence; we believe them because of a lack of evidence . |
有了事实证据,我们不再相信「鬼话」; 只因为缺少证据才相信它。 |
|
evidence:n.证据,证明;迹象;明显;v.证明;
|
| So there is a group in Los Angeles called the Independent Investigations Group, or the IIG, and they do great work. |
在洛杉矶有个团体, 叫做独立调查组织,英文简称 IIG, 他们做了很棒的工作。 |
|
Independent:adj.独立的; n.无党派议员(或候选人等);
|
| They'll give a $10,000 prize to anyone who can show, under scientific conditions, that they have a paranormal ability. |
他们提供一万元美金的奖赏, 给任何可以在科学佐证下, 展现他们超自然能力的人。 |
| No one's done it yet, but they've had a couple people who claim that they were clairaudients, which means that they can hear voices either from the great beyond or they can read minds. |
目前为止还没有人获得奬金, 但他们遇到过几个 声称自己有顺风耳的人, 也就是说,他们能听到 来自极远之处的声音, 或是能读心。 |
| And they had one person who was very sincere , who believed that he could read minds. |
他们有个很诚实、 相信自己能读心的人。 |
|
sincere:adj.真诚的;诚挚的;真实的;
|
| And a lot of these people -- |
他们安排测试他, |
| (Laughter) |
|
| That wasn't a laugh line, but OK. |
|
| A lot of these people really are sincere, and I believe this guy was. |
|
| He really thought he had this power. |
|
| So they set up a test with him, and this is the way it always works. |
|
| The group says, "OK, we have a protocol , we have a way to scientifically test this. |
|
|
protocol:n.协议;草案;礼仪;vt.拟定;vi.拟定; scientifically:adv.系统地;合乎科学地;学问上;
|
| Do you agree with it?" |
|
| The person says yes. Then they test it. |
|
| It's very important that both sides agree. |
|
| They did that, they tested him. |
|
| They said, "OK, you know what? |
|
| You weren't able to predict what Lisa was thinking. |
|
|
predict:v.预报;预言;预告;
|
| It matched up about the same as chance. |
|
| Looks like you don't have the power." |
|
| And that gave them the opportunity to compassionately sit down with him and have a very difficult discussion, which basically amounted to, "Hey, we know you're sincere, and what that means is, you do hear something in your head." |
|
|
compassionately:adv.同情地;慈悲地;富有同情心地; basically:adv.主要地,基本上; amounted:v.合计,共计;等同,接近;(amount的过去分词和过去式)
|
| And that's a tough thing to face. |
|
| (Laughter) (Applause) |
|
| But that day, that guy got to make the very difficult decision, but really the life-changing decision about whether to go get help. |
|
|
life-changing:改变人生的;
|
| (Laughter) |
|
| But that really could be the first day of the rest of your life, because when we challenge these beliefs, we're actually helping people to make these connections |
(笑声) |
| that maybe before seemed like otherworldly explanations, help draw us into reality and maybe change our lives for the better . |
|
|
otherworldly:adj.来世的;超脱尘俗的; for the better:好转,向好的方向发展;
|
| Now, on the other hand , maybe one time it'll turn out to be true. |
|
|
on the other hand:另一方面;
|
| Maybe we'll find out there are ghosts, and holy shit, it will be the best thing! |
|
| And every time I do one of these investigations, |
|
| I still get so excited, and I'm like 75 into them, and still I swear on number 76, I'm going to be like, "This is the one!" |
|
| (Laughter) |
|
| Maybe I'm just eternally optimistic , but I hope I never lose this hope, and I invite you to take this same attitude when people share their outer beliefs with you. |
|
|
eternally:adv.永恒地;不朽地; optimistic:adj.乐观的;乐观主义的; attitude:n.态度;看法;意见;姿势;
|
| When talking about testable claims, respect them enough to ask these good questions. |
|
|
testable:adj.可试验的;有资格立遗嘱的;可根据遗嘱处理的;有资格作证人的;
|
| Challenge and see how you can examine them together, because there's this idea that you can't respect a belief and still challenge it, but that's not true. |
|
| When we jiggle the lock, when we test the claim, we're saying, OK, I respect you, I'm listening to what you're saying, |
|
|
jiggle:n.轻摇;微动;vt.轻摇;
|
| I'm going to test it out with you. |
|
| We've all had that experience where you're telling someone something, and they're like, "Oh, that's really interesting, yeah," |
|
| you know you're being had. |
|
| But when someone says, "Really? Huh. |
|
| Sounds a little sketchy to me, but I'm listening," |
|
|
sketchy:adj.写生风格的;写生的;概略的;
|
| you at least know you're being engaged and respected. |
|
|
engaged:adj.已订婚的; v.吸引住; (engage的过去分词和过去式)
|
| And that's the kind of attitude we should have with these claims. |
|
| That's showing someone that you care what they're saying. |
|
| That's respect. |
|
| Now, yes, most of these searches will come up empty, but that's how all of science works. |
|
| Every cure for cancer so far has not panned out, but we don't stop looking, for two reasons. |
|
|
cancer:n.癌症;恶性肿瘤;
|
| Because number one, the answer matters. |
|
| Whether it's looking at the afterlife or the paranormal or the cure for cancer, it all amounts to the same question: |
|
|
afterlife:n.来世;死后的生活;
|
| How long will we be here? |
（笑声） |
| And two, because looking for the truth, being open-minded, and being willing to be wrong and to change your whole worldview is awe-inspiring . |
|
|
worldview:n.世界观; awe-inspiring:adj.使人敬畏的;令人惊叹的;
|
| I still get excited at ghost stories every single time. |
|
| I still consider that every group I join might be right, and I hope I never lose that hope. |
|
| Let's all never lose that hope, because searching for what's out there helps us understand what's in here. |
|
| And also, please have a carbon monoxide detector in your home. |
|
| Thank you. |
|
| (Applause) |
|