Carl Sagan on the Need for Added Skepticism

I uh I lost both my parents about uh 12 or 15 years ago and u I had a great relationship with them. I really miss them. I would love to believe that their spirits were around somewhere and I'd give almost anything to uh spend 5 minutes a year with them. — Do you hear their voice? — Uh sometimes about uh six or eight times since their death I've heard Carl. Carl, just in the voice of my father or my mother. Now, I don't think that means that they're in the next room. I think it means that I've had an auditory hallucination. I was with them so long. I heard their voices so often. Why shouldn't I be able to make a vivid recollection? Here's what's interesting about this for me. You convinced me a long time ago that it was arrogant for me or for anyone else to believe that there wasn't some life outside of our — to exclude the possibility. to exclude the possibility and if you take that why can't you say there's a lot we don't know of power where we know you know — it's what I believe about — but that doesn't mean that every fraudulent claim has to be accepted we demand the most rigorous standards of evidence especially on what's important to us so if some guy comes up to me in a channeler or a medium and say I can put you in touch with your parents. Well, because I want so terribly to believe that, — yeah, — I know I have to reach in for added reserves of skepticism because I'm likely to be fooled and uh much more minor to have my money taken.