Writing Psi Haunting

Haunting is real Many sceptics maintain that ghostly encounters are strongly influenced by a person's knowledge of the place and its history (prior knowledge hypothesis). But a recent scientific study by Dr Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire has refuted that explanation. Volunteers were let loose in Hampton Court and the Edinburgh Vaults to record any unusual experiences. In a `normal' site you would expect haunting to be evenly spaced but the volunteers, many with no prior knowledge of the sites, had experiences clustered around the traditionally haunted areas. Dr Wiseman concluded that: "Haunting exist in the sense that places exist where people reliably have unusual experiences...people do have consistent experiences in consistent places." But as ground-braking as these findings are, we must go further. There many instances of dogs refusing point blank to go into certain rooms and areas that are supposedly haunted. We need to discover whether dogs react to similar locals as humans. If they do it will show that it is not human imagination that creates ghosts out of temperature changes and subtle environmental cues (why should dogs be `afraid' of such subtle environmental changes? Do they have vivid imaginations too?) We also need to discover whether this correlation between haunting experiences and local environment causes similar types of visual or emotional experiences with people of no prior knowledge of the site's history. For example, if several people see a blond female and it turns out there is history of such a woman supposedly haunting the place then the concept of ghosts as definite energies or intelligences may have to be entertained.

Copyright © 2000 by Michael Davies