In case you’re wondering what happened to the thread entitled “Boise, Idaho”, the entire discussion was pulled, because it was a hoax.
Thanks to the diligent research of a Forum member from the UK, it became apparent that “the mother” from Florida who posted the story of her four-year-old who was having memories of being a religious zealot in Boise, Idaho, was faked. The mother and the zealot appear to be the same person in real life—the same man who is pictured in the photos of the man with the bicycle and sign, for those who saw the photo before we pulled it. So, in reality, the person who perpetrated this hoax is a religious zealot from Tennessee, who formerly lived in Boise, Idaho, not a mother from Florida.
Thank you so much for alerting us to this hoax.
Usually, if a case develops to this point in which the former identity can be established, I ask to speak to the person who posted it directly. I then get their contact information and have at least a phone conversation with them to feel them out. There are several reasons for this: I want to protect the privacy of the families involved; I want to make sure it’s a legitimate case by establishing personal contact with the family; and, first and foremost, I want to help the parents and child. That’s exactly where we were with this case. I was waiting for a private email or call from the mother. In the meantime, we received substantial evidence that this was not a legitimate case, so we pulled the discussion immediately.
I have to admit that the perpetrator of this hoax really did his homework. It was a very well conceived case. Everything he posted about this child’s “memory”—the statements and behaviors—could have been true, as seen in hundreds of other cases that have been brought to our attention since 1997, when the Forum first went online. Anyone who read through the Forum could have used the elements of these cases to create a bogus one. Over the past 13 years, there have been some postings we felt were completely off base, or some blatantly questionable cases that were pulled for further scrutiny by our team. That’s our prerogative, as stated in the Forum guidelines.
As you can imagine, we deal in a topic that attracts some people who would rather see us disappear or prove us wrong. We’re not sure what the perpetrator’s motives were, but we could tell from some of his other postings on other sites that he was something of a religious fanatic. I imagine his purpose was to prove us wrong or simply to see if he could fool us.
If anything, we’re disappointed that we wasted time, energy, and our good intentions on this hoax. All of the moderators on this Forum are volunteers, some of whom have been donating their time and effort for years. They have helped many people who had nowhere else to turn for validation or advice about their children’s unusual experiences. We are delighted with the quality of questions, comments, and cases that people share with us.
We do our best to filter through the junk postings to maintain a high quality Forum for those who are sincerely in need of help. That is our intention, and I feel that we’ve been fulfilling a need, and will continue to do so with even more scrutiny.
Thanks to the diligent research of a Forum member from the UK, it became apparent that “the mother” from Florida who posted the story of her four-year-old who was having memories of being a religious zealot in Boise, Idaho, was faked. The mother and the zealot appear to be the same person in real life—the same man who is pictured in the photos of the man with the bicycle and sign, for those who saw the photo before we pulled it. So, in reality, the person who perpetrated this hoax is a religious zealot from Tennessee, who formerly lived in Boise, Idaho, not a mother from Florida.
Thank you so much for alerting us to this hoax.
Usually, if a case develops to this point in which the former identity can be established, I ask to speak to the person who posted it directly. I then get their contact information and have at least a phone conversation with them to feel them out. There are several reasons for this: I want to protect the privacy of the families involved; I want to make sure it’s a legitimate case by establishing personal contact with the family; and, first and foremost, I want to help the parents and child. That’s exactly where we were with this case. I was waiting for a private email or call from the mother. In the meantime, we received substantial evidence that this was not a legitimate case, so we pulled the discussion immediately.
I have to admit that the perpetrator of this hoax really did his homework. It was a very well conceived case. Everything he posted about this child’s “memory”—the statements and behaviors—could have been true, as seen in hundreds of other cases that have been brought to our attention since 1997, when the Forum first went online. Anyone who read through the Forum could have used the elements of these cases to create a bogus one. Over the past 13 years, there have been some postings we felt were completely off base, or some blatantly questionable cases that were pulled for further scrutiny by our team. That’s our prerogative, as stated in the Forum guidelines.
As you can imagine, we deal in a topic that attracts some people who would rather see us disappear or prove us wrong. We’re not sure what the perpetrator’s motives were, but we could tell from some of his other postings on other sites that he was something of a religious fanatic. I imagine his purpose was to prove us wrong or simply to see if he could fool us.
If anything, we’re disappointed that we wasted time, energy, and our good intentions on this hoax. All of the moderators on this Forum are volunteers, some of whom have been donating their time and effort for years. They have helped many people who had nowhere else to turn for validation or advice about their children’s unusual experiences. We are delighted with the quality of questions, comments, and cases that people share with us.
We do our best to filter through the junk postings to maintain a high quality Forum for those who are sincerely in need of help. That is our intention, and I feel that we’ve been fulfilling a need, and will continue to do so with even more scrutiny.
