Page 8 - 200903 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2009

8 Who You Gonna Call ? ? ? ? ? ? 8 Who You Gonna Call ? ? ? ? ? ? Something stranger If anything, the KPU goes too far in its Ghosts said to haunt Something stranger Ghosts said to haunt than Ghostbusters in efforts to be seen as credible. They have a Pennsylvania college Pennsylvania college than Ghostbusters in policy, for instance, of not testing the psychic our neighbourhood abilities of anyone who rings up claiming to be our neighbourhood psychic. Watt would rather test for such abilities As paranormal investigator John Lewis within a large group of people who make no stood behind an auditorium stage on the by Peter Ross special claims. "People who want to be proven Slippery Rock University campus three weeks by Peter Ross to be psychic have a vested interest, and that from leaves you open to potential cheating. They may ago, he recalls, he felt someone hit the back of from his knee. Scotland on Sunday find a way around your experimental He and three people there with him Scotland on Sunday protocols." reportedly heard a little girl's laughter, then CONTRARY to what many people That makes sense, certainly, but if I footsteps, as if someone was running away. But think, Dr Caroline Watt is no Ghostbuster. She wanted to find a dog with fleas I'd start with the there was no little girl. will not come round to your haunted single-end mutt that was scratching. Mwaaahahahaha! (That's a fright-filled, and sook up a spook in a trap. She is a cool- Parapsychologists must be careful, maniacal laugh.) headed academic, a senior lecturer at Edinburgh though, not to leave an open goal for those who It's official, folks. Miller Auditorium is University. The confusion comes because she is would portray them as cranks. Critics within the haunted. But the good news is, they're friendly based in the Koestler Parapsychology Unit, psychological mainstream question ghosts. "Almost everyone on our team had which since 1985 has been the leading place in parapsychology's legitimacy, much as doctors personal experience," Lewis, owner of Britain for academic study of the paranormal. do with alternative medicine. In European Titusville, Pa.-based Baelfire Paranormal The KPU is part of the psychology universities, however, the subject has an Investigation, said Thursday at a news department, a warren of wood-panelled increasing profile, and KPU staff are bullish in conference in the theater lobby. "I pretty much corridors. Watt, a slender, short-haired 46-year- their defence of their field. feel this place is haunted." old, has worked here since 1986 and has an "Why should it be dismissed as pseudo- On Feb. 28, he and his 11-member crew office – "an eyrie" – on the top floor. science?" asks Dr Peter Lamont, a former spent the night in the auditorium looking for Her own views on what experts in the magician, now a KPU lecturer whose shelves evidence of paranormal activity. Free of charge, field call psi, a term encompassing psychic are filled with binders marked "Tarot", they set up infrared video cameras and had abilities such as mind-reading and causing "Mesmerism" and "Victorian Spiritualism". He digital and 35mm still cameras and digital, objects to levitate, are open-minded but also has a black labrador lying under his desk. analog and micro-cassette audio recorders. sceptical. She doesn't disbelieve in these things, "It's experimental, it's quantitative, it tests Eleven hours of audio and video and 758 but has seen no evidence to convince her they hypotheses. In what sense is that not scientific?" photographs later, they believe to be true what exist. Her interest lies more in exploring the He pauses. "Sorry," he says. "I think my professors and students at the college in psychology of the paranormal – what makes dog has farted." Slippery Rock, Pa., have suspected for years. In people think they are seeing spirits – and this is As the unit that takes his name increases addition to personal experiences, investigators the subject of her forthcoming talk at the in respectability, the late writer Arthur captured inexplicable digital images of a thick, Edinburgh Science Festival, part of a day-long Koestler's own reputation has become tarnished neon green mist in that same backstage area -- event on April 4 called Hauntings: The Science – it is claimed that he raped and beat women. In the scene shop -- and heard voices. Of Ghosts. response, and in light of the fact that women's "I wish I could say we caught an Later this year the KPU will begin a groups threatened to deface it, his bronze bust apparition," said Lewis, who hasn't yet analyzed study concerning poltergeist activity. It is very has been removed from public display and is the video recorded that night. But they can't. common for people to contact Watt, sometimes now in the library. Just four distinct voices -- two males, a in a state of some distress, to ask for help or I ask Watt whether she feels little girl and an older woman. explanations of what they perceive as uncomfortable with it. "No," she replies. "I can "We heard what we feel is an adult paranormal experiences. "It happens all the separate his biography from the female voice saying, 'Enough!' " he said, time. I can show you a letter I got this morning." parapsychology. And he's paying my salary. playing the audio file of a woman's voice clearly She opens a filing cabinet and pulls out some Whether or not you like some of his views, we saying the word. "We do believe that could be typed sheets of paper. "This is someone who are benefiting academically from his bequest." Emma Guffey Miller." wrote and sent me drawings reconstructing an Koestler committed suicide in 1983, Many believe Miller, a university trustee experience they had when they saw this together with his third wife Cynthia, and they who died in 1970, has haunted the auditorium hovering orb outside their kitchen window." bequeathed their entire estate for the named after her for years. Investigators plan to People are often looking for validation, establishment of a chair in parapsychology at a forward the voice audio file to Miller's someone who will believe and encourage them British university. Apparently, his interest in the granddaughter for possible identification. "If in their beliefs. However, because of Watt's subject began when, circa 1915, a can of beans she can recognize the voice, that would give us respect for rigorous experimental conditions, exploded inexplicably and knocked him some hard scientific evidence that it's her," she is less credulous than most of the British senseless. Lewis said. public, 30% of whom claim to have actually Very few establishments bid for his They haven't identified the little girl, but seen an apparition. "But I try to be responsible money. The potential damage to their credibility think one of the men could be a former student in how I respond to people," she says. "In some was too great a risk. But Edinburgh University who died tragically. cases you can tell they need clinical help. If was keen, so in 1985 the Koestler chair was "We expected to come in here and someone says 'I'm hearing voices and I'm being filled by Professor Robert Morris, who held the maybe get lucky and find Emma," Lewis said. persecuted' or 'The newsreader is controlling position until his death in 2004. Since then, the "To come up with four entities, that was a lot, my thoughts' then that sounds like paranoia, a KPU has shrunk in size and doesn't have the more than we expected." form of psychosis. We have a clinical funding to take on the many students who want For years, students and staff have psychologist on the team and I refer cases like to do a PhD there. There is massive public claimed to experience odd goings on in the that on to him. But you never know what's interest in the subject area, fuelled in part by the theater, including vanishing ghostly figures, going to come next when the phone rings." popularity of Most Haunted and other television disappearing and reappearing costumes and Not long after this, the phone rings. A shows which purport to investigate the falling objects, especially in "Emma's Closet," a high-pitched voice on the other end says: "I've paranormal. cramped back room holding clothes Miller had a really weird experience!" "Oh, I can't bear watching those," Watt donated to the school. "It's fantastic," said This is Professor Richard Wiseman, shudders. "I got a phone call asking would I Slippery Rock theater professor David Skeele, calling as a wind-up. A KPU alumnus and take part in this programme called I'm Famous who says that in the past he has heard footsteps organiser of the forthcoming science festival And I'm Frightened. But I've only got so many on the stage behind him only to turn around and event, he's a media star, and even more sceptical hours in the day, and I'm not going to spend find no one there. "I didn't expect them to get so than his partner Watt. them sitting in a dark room waiting for ghosts." much."[]