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LittleAndyP

Junior Acolyte
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
48
With the popularity of paranormal shows like Most Haunted and Taps it's hard for nonprofit or upcoming clubs to find locations that don't charge a Kings ransom.
I had to get really creative to find new venues for my previous club.
Many clubs are willing to hold public ghost hunts for paying punters but for the clubs that don't it can be a real struggle.
 
Also some places get a bit miffed when they realise that you may actually be serious about your undertaking and may kill the money spinning opportunities.
 
I've sometimes mused about a prospective show called 'Least Haunted' -whereby a team of really nervous investigators (not hard to find) try to find locations (in daylight) that absolutely have no history, reputation or prospect of being haunted. May be harder than you'd think. ;)
 
I think a genuine spin on the format could be to put subjects into supposedly haunted locations without their knowing that the locations are supposedly haunted and then clandestinely film the outcome. Ibviously careful subject selection and a cover story would be required. There could even be attempts to generate responses via ultrasound, subliminal messaging and suggestion.

It hits so many bases that I'm surprised it hasn't been tried (has it?).
 
Phil Rickman, who has virtually invented the modern supernatural crime genre, used this scenario in his book Night After Night. The premise basically is to take staunch sceptics and believers and put them into a house that none of them know the history or reputation of, and explores their reactions and motivations. It's Big Brother meets Most Haunted.
 
I think a genuine spin on the format could be to put subjects into supposedly haunted locations without their knowing that the locations are supposedly haunted and then clandestinely film the outcome. Ibviously careful subject selection and a cover story would be required. There could even be attempts to generate responses via ultrasound, subliminal messaging and suggestion.

It hits so many bases that I'm surprised it hasn't been tried (has it?).
It would discover that people who believe in ghosts experience more ghostly phenomena.
 
Precisely why it would be fascinating to see the non-supernatural vs supernatural based explanations and behaviours for induced phenomena.
 
"It hits so many bases that I'm surprised it hasn't been tried (has it?)."

I'm sure it has. I vaguely recall watching some UK TV show around 5 or maybe more years ago in which the contestants, all of whom claimed some interest in the paranormal, were assigned a room each in some semi-derelict location. Might have been an old holliday camp.
One of the rooms was supposed to be genuinely haunted, whereas one of the others had concealed speakers generating infrasound. I think it was the latter which people claimed gave them a spooky feeling.
 
One of the rooms was supposed to be genuinely haunted, whereas one of the others had concealed speakers generating infrasound. I think it was the latter which people claimed gave them a spooky feeling.
Precisely why it would be fascinating to see the non-supernatural vs supernatural based explanations and behaviours for induced phenomena.
Get yourself a copy (it's out there, try google scholar) of
"The “Haunt” Project: An attempt to build a “haunted” room
by manipulating complex electromagnetic fields and infrasound
Christopher C. French, Usman Haque, Rosie Bunton-Stasyshyn & Rob Davis"

Although the paper is little light on the exact nature of the infrasound and electromagnetic fields used (I would say that), their conclusion was "that people who believe in ghosts experience ghostly phenomena and the room made no noticable difference"

It also discusses the problems with experiments of this type. How does one create a control condition for example and ethically it's not always appropriate to completely hoodwink people about the nature of the experiment (thus some priming occurs) and so on.

If you ferret about Prof. French's work, a lot of the stuff that seems to show some physical phenomena responsible for 'haunting' hasn't been verified as the cause, only a coincidental condition. So case where large EMF were detected at the site of haunting hasn't been show to cause an experience, only that it was there at the same time.

Worse, if you do it as a TV show you'll get a higher than average number of folk with narcissistic traits and that'd skew the results again. You'd have to select using (probably several) personality trait questionnaires for a start, and one of the issues is the questionnaire you offer can prime enough people as to the nature of the experiment to skew the results again (in an ideal world you'd counterbalance with some people 'room first' and some 'questionnaires first' but sample sizes are starting to grow...). Simples...
 
It would discover that people who believe in ghosts experience more ghostly phenomena.

Not necessarily, they might think they do, but I think the experiences are evenly spread across the spectrum of belief. Just as a woo-woo might put every bump in the night down to the spirit world but never actually experience anything authentic, the skeptic might see a ghost and come up with a plausible explanation for it that satisfies them, if not their adherence to hard science.
 
Not necessarily, they might think they do, but I think the experiences are evenly spread across the spectrum of belief. Just as a woo-woo might put every bump in the night down to the spirit world but never actually experience anything authentic, the skeptic might see a ghost and come up with a plausible explanation for it that satisfies them, if not their adherence to hard science.
OK you do the experiment to show that and I'll look forward to the results :)
 
"It hits so many bases that I'm surprised it hasn't been tried (has it?)."

I'm sure it has. I vaguely recall watching some UK TV show around 5 or maybe more years ago in which the contestants, all of whom claimed some interest in the paranormal, were assigned a room each in some semi-derelict location. Might have been an old holliday camp.
One of the rooms was supposed to be genuinely haunted, whereas one of the others had concealed speakers generating infrasound. I think it was the latter which people claimed gave them a spooky feeling.

That was an episode of Mythbusters. They used an old Holiday camp and rigged one of the huts with a low frequency sound which allegedly makes you feel creeped out. The test was a bust.
 
That was an episode of Mythbusters. They used an old Holiday camp and rigged one of the huts with a low frequency sound which allegedly makes you feel creeped out. The test was a bust.
Can you recall the frequencies and power used?
 
OK you do the experiment to show that and I'll look forward to the results :)

No need for an experiment, it's simply based on reading a plethora of accounts over the years. You get some saying they're psychic, and others saying they never believed in the paranormal before, and all those in between.
 
No need for an experiment, it's simply based on reading a plethora of accounts over the years. You get some saying they're psychic, and others saying they never believed in the paranormal before, and all those in between.
Hearsay!:)
 
Do tell us more.
The sight is built on an old school, people have seen a male/female red scarf, poltergeist issues, strange noises late at night and sensor lights in the office switching on when nobody is near them.

Ghost children playing ring a ring of rose in the various car parks have been reported
 
Something occurred to me. Is it a red scarf or could it be blood from a slit throat?
 
Funny thing about all this is that although it is treated , even here, with a certain amount of frivolity, the underlying question really is deadly serious.

Either spirits, ghosts etc exist, or they don't. It is a simple binary question.

yet if they do the consequences are very far reaching indeed.

In light of this one would wonder why the field isn't hit with some really heavy technology to try to get to the bottom of it.

Does anyone here believe that any the things that happen in Most Haunted actually do happen ?

INT21
 
Does anyone here believe that any the things that happen in Most Haunted actually do happen ?

INT21
Or, as has been asked a few times - even if they did, would anyone believe it?

There was a jolly good Forum piece in the FT (342 as I recall) about the credibility of Fortean-themed telly. *cough*.
 
Does anyone here believe that any the things that happen in Most Haunted actually do happen ?
I think it's most likely that they're a bunch of fakers.
I wish something really would happen to them, so the fear will be real. :evil:
 
I used to know (through work) Yvette's lifelong best friend and she swears Yvette has seen and heard terrifying things that didn't get recorded.
 
Perhaps our new friends from alien Hub might like to chime in on this one.

It actually really is a serious point.

Let's take part of one recently shown episode where a collection of balls were placed on a floor and kept under the watchful gaze of a 'locked off' camera. It shows some of the balls moving away from their original position.

So, was this done by an air jet or some other mechanical means. or did the balls really move themselves ?

A simple question but it encapsulates the whole ghosty/paranormal issue.

Because if no one caused it, how did they move ?

Maybe some of our new bloods would like to venture an opinion.

INT21
 
Locked off cameras that are tightly focused without a second camera filming the whole room tell their own story.
 
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