Page 6 - 200903 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2009

6 A A Spirited Experiment 6 Spirited Experiment A Spirited Experiment: photographers coming online to tell us what is a predator, then you want to get out of there A Spirited Experiment: The Science of Ghosts they think. Part of the explanation will be straps quite quickly, so believing that there's a The Science of Ghosts presence there even when there's not may well in front of the cameras, long exposures, dodgy film, people seeing faces in ambiguous shapes be hard-wired into the brain." By Claire Black and so on. I suspect there's not going to be one Evolution it may be, but location is explanation which emerges but several." certainly important. Edinburgh is a city with a SPOTTED and yellowed with age, the Wiseman has been interested in the surfeit of ghosts – the eerie closes; the haar that photograph is a standard shot taken every year psychology of the paranormal for 25 years. He rolls from the Forth to muffle sound and hide by tourists clambering over the ramparts of happily admits that he's sceptical, but he's no things from view; the cobbled streets beneath Edinburgh Castle. Sitting astride the black bulk "armchair sceptic". which lie vaults and passageways, cellars and of a cannon, a mother and daughter smile for the "There's a case for engaging with the crypts. Wiseman reckons that Edinburgh has a shot, squinting to keep the sun out of their eyes. evidence and that's what we're going to be doing decent claim to be one of the haunted places in It's a familiar image, a version of which through the website and on the day as well," he Europe. must be tucked into thousands of photograph says. "But I don't pretend that there's some part "I think it's partly because Edinburgh albums, sealed in under cellophane next to shots of me that believes in the afterlife because I has quite a bloody history, but it's more about of Princes Street Gardens and Greyfriars Bobby. don't." the architecture. Edinburgh matches the places But there's one striking feature thatmarks out Wiseman's last major paranormal we see in scary films." this holiday snap as something different and experiment was in the Edinburgh Vaults back in And that's another essential part of the altogether more interesting: a headless figure 2001. In that experiment, Wiseman and his team ghost experience: stories. From spooky stories inwhat appears to be a long military coat, faint took people who had no knowledge of the told around the campfire, to the myriad books, but distinct, captured in the right-hand side of vaults' reputation as haunted into the space to plays and films that use spooks and spectres to the shot. monitor their reactions. The results, he says, frighten and intrigue us, narrative is key to the In another photograph, a group of girls surprised him. way we understand ghosts. Wiseman says that are lined up to be snapped – one with her eyes "We had certain places that had a already comments on the website suggest that shut, as is ever the way. Standing in a living reputation for being haunted and when we took the figure in the Edinburgh Castle picture is the room, they look like they might be about to head people into those places even when they didn't headless drummer boy who supposedly walks out on the town. A toddler is crying in the know the history they had weird experiences. around the historic sight. People have suggested foreground. But much more eerie is the other That suggests there is something about that that perhaps he's not happy about people small child peeping from behind the legs of two location which is creating those ghostly climbing on the cannon. of the girls; the face pale, the eyes dark. But experiences, whether it's the size, or the look, or "Instantly there's a narrative," Wiseman there was no child there in the room when the the lighting levels. There's something there to says. "We can't just look at the photograph and picture was taken. be explained. think, 'Oh, it may be a double image'. We ask These are just two images from a new "That surprised me because I thought it why would a ghost appear and come up with an website, Hauntings: The Science of Ghosts, set was all in the mind, in that you just get some answer. There's a real sense of drama. There are up by Professor Richard Wiseman, a people who are easily scared, who believe in the very few explanations that suggest it's a really psychologist based at the University of paranormal and when you take them into a place dull ghost, not linked to anything and nothing Hertfordshire. At the moment there is no that's allegedly haunted they scare themselves happens." definitive explanation as to how these ghostly into having an experience. What we showed in So who does Wiseman hope will come figures have appeared, but that's something that the Vaults investigation is actually that location along in April? "I hope we get a real mixed Wiseman and his team of experts hope to matters. There were some places that made audience with spiritualists, the people who've explore. people a lot more scared and more likely to have experienced ghosts but don't know what to "Ghosts have been around for many these experiences than others. That was a nice make of it and the sceptics too, so that it hundreds if not thousands of years," Wiseman surprise because it means there's more science becomes a very healthy debate. says. "They've been with us for a long time and to be done." "What I hope we do is look at this understanding why that's the case – whether it's In the UK, roughly a third of people say complicated topic from lots of different because there's evidence (for their existence] or that they believe in ghosts and as many as 10 perspectives. We've got the historians, the because we have a need to believe in ghosts, and per cent say that they've seen one. But in 100 photographer, the people who make ghosts on obviously I tend towards the latter explanation – years of parapsychology, no credible scientific film for a living as well as the psychologists. it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. evidence exists to support the existence of The science message there is that that's what "It's a topic that most scientists steer ghosts. However, that doesn't mean there's a science does, it looks at these things from lots clear of but actually I think there's some shortage of explanations for things that go bump of different perspectives." interesting science to be done there." in the night. Some researchers believe that Wiseman, who has a reputation for disturbances in the electro-magnetic field of the investigating fascinatingly oddball subjects – Earth creates the conditions in which we think luck, superstition, the psychology of humour – we see or feel ghostly presences; some think is calling for people to submit photographs and that underground tremors or streams are to take part in an online survey to share spooky responsible for the spooky goings on in haunted experiences, as a preamble to an event he will houses. There's even a suggestion that carbon be hosting during this year's Edinburgh monoxide poisoning in small spaces has caused International Science Festival in April. As one the sensation of a ghostly presence. of a panel of seven experts – it also includes For Wiseman, the psychological model, Paul Kieve, an illusionist and magical which has evolutionary roots, is of interest. consultant on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and "You become afraid, you become hypervigilant, two of the Harry Potter films and Dr Caroline you detect something and then you become Watt from the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at even more afraid," he says. "When we're afraid Edinburgh University – Wiseman hopes to we suddenly become very good at monitoring explore all aspects of ghosts from the science of our environment and our own physiology. That haunted locations to the history of spirit creaking door suddenly becomes important photography to how the brain can be fooled into when normally you wouldn't notice it. And once seeing apparitions. that's happened it becomes a positive feedback So what kind of photographs does he loop; you become even more scared, so then expect to receive? "I hope we're going to even more hypervigilant. uncover some we've never seen before," he "It could be that ghosts are a good idea says. "We're going to get some expert because if you're in an environment where there