The Science of Ghosts

by Joe Nickell

  Among Americans who really did go on-site to “investigate” reputedly haunted places was Hans Holzer (1920–2009). One of his 138 books on the occult and supernatural billed him as “the world's leading expert on haunted houses” (1991). However, despite labeling himself in the title of another book as Ghost Hunter (1963), which thus links his pursuits to those of Harry Price, he largely avoided gadgetry and instead favored a “psychic” approach. That is, he visited spooky places with an alleged clairvoyant or medium, like the self-styled “witch” Sybil Leek (1922–1982). (See Holzer 1991, 192; Nickell 2001b, 298–99.)

  Such reputed sensitives have claimed to shed light on historical matters of all kinds, including solving old crimes, revealing hidden treasures (or at least their supposed existence), locating archaeological sites, authenticating artifacts, and explaining historical enigmas—although the offered “information” is notoriously undependable (Holzer 1991, 40, 68, 94, 112; Nickell 2007, 48–58; Christopher 1970, 127–29; Archer 1969, 11–23).

  Holzer's work was once examined in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (December 1970). He had taken two mediums to a reputedly haunted house, and they had made certain pronouncements:

  They identified the ghost as Nell Gwyn and gave the cause of the haunting as the murder of one of her lovers on orders from Charles II who had given the house to her. She was supposed to have acted at the adjacent Royalty Theatre. It was also stated that the house had formerly housed the Royal Stables.

  Unfortunately, however,

  The JSPR article reveals that just about everything the mediums said was incorrect, the house not having been built until after Nell Gwyn's death, the theatre not having been built until about 150 years later, and the Royal Stables never having been located anywhere near the site. “Whatever may be the truth about the ESP investigations carried out by Mr. Holzer, his treatment of his historical sources is so unsatisfactory, on the evidence of this case, as to cast considerable doubt on the objectivity and reliability of his work as a whole.” (quoted in Berger and Berger 1991, 183)

  In 1950, Holzer even conceived of “a television series based on actual hauntings.” However, it is unclear from his statement whether he had “started to work” on such a series, whether it materialized or not (Holzer 1963, 15). He was involved in other television ghost documentaries, including having “made a television film” about Governor Clinton's haunted carriage house in New York City (Holzer 1991, 63), and he participated in the Search for Haunted Hollywood, a 1989 “tour of Tinseltown's most terrifying sites” (“Search for Haunted Hollywood” 2007).

  A markedly different approach to Holzer's was that of Ed and Lorraine Warren, who also styled themselves, in a book title, as Ghost Hunters (1989). Actually the Warrens’ approach was to arrive at a “haunted” house, transform it into a case of alleged demonic attack, then produce a sensationalized book—usually written with a professional writer. They were called various things, from “passionate and religious people” to “scaremongers” and “charlatans.” Reportedly, some of their coauthors have since admitted that the Warrens encouraged them to make up scary incidents and details (Nickell 2006b). (See chapter 36.)

  Ghost-hunting organizations originated in England in the wake of spiritualism, first the Cambridge Ghost Club and then in 1862 the Ghost Club in London. In 1993 Peter Underwood left the latest embodiment of the latter club to form his own Ghost Club Society, of which he became president for life. Members have included science-fiction writer Colin Wilson, medium Rosemary Brown, and horror actor Peter Cushing (Guiley 2000, 153). By 1995, English writer Ian Wilson (1995, 205) was observing, in his In Search of Ghosts, that “several more localised ghost-hunting groups have mushroomed in recent years, among these the Grimsby-based Ghostbusters UK, who wear ‘Ghostbuster’ T-shirts, and travel to reputedly haunted sites in their ‘Ghostmobile,’ crammed with ghost-detecting equipment.”

  In the United States, usually only one or two ghost seekers visited a site, and their equipment could be quite limited. For instance, in 1959, according to his Occult America, paranormal writer John Godwin (1972, 184) went on his first haunting vigil with a photographer: “Our equipment consisted of a camera, two flashlights, a tape recorder and one (unlicensed) .32-caliber pistol.” Fortunately no one was killed.

  As ghosts rode the crest of a boom in paranormal interest in the 1970s, a few skeptics began to investigate alleged hauntings from a rational, scientific, and evidential perspective. They included noted magician Milbourne Christopher (1970), who followed in the Houdini tradition, and psychologist Robert A. Baker, who went to haunted houses to study puzzling phenomena. Baker explained ghostly activity in physical or psychological terms, and he was fond of saying that there were no haunted houses, “only haunted people” (see Baker and Nickell 1992, 124).

  However, like their British counterparts, most American ghost hunters disagreed. Writing in his The Haunted House Handbook, D. Scott Rogo suggested:

  An ideal ghost-hunter should be equipped with all sorts of fancy gadgets as he makes his investigation. If you happen to be rich, that's no problem. You could bring cameras to continually film the house in hopes of photographing either the ghost or perhaps some object floating about. You could even set up T.V. monitors all through the building. Then you could sit in one room, and still watch what is going on every place else. You could also bring in delicate thermometers to check if any odd temperature changes are taking place. Unfortunately, few ghost-hunters are so nicely equipped. However, even an amateur can conduct a few simple experiments in a haunted house or at least carry out a thorough investigation.

  Rogo (1978, 156) went on to state, “The simplest method of actively investigating a haunted house is to just sit and wait there until something happens!”

  Ghost-hunting clubs gained in popularity in the United States in the late 1970s. At that time the Chicago-area Ghost Trackers Club was founded. In 1981, it became the Ghost Research Society (GRS), headed the following year by Dale Kaczmarek (a former army chaplain's assistant turned grocery distribution employee). He advocated ghost hunting that involved a team effort (Miller 1990, 62). According to The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, “his investigations, using increasingly sophisticated technology, have yielded promising, but still inconclusive, evidence” (Guiley 2000, 206).

  Loyd Auerbach's 1986 ESP, Hauntings, and Poltergeists: A Parapsychologist's Handbook suggested that equipment “that might be used in an investigation” for ghosts might include photoelectric cells (“to see if a ghost walks through the beam”), microwave and ultrasonic detectors (“like those used in security work”), and strain-gauge plates (“to detect minute stresses and vibrations, such as footsteps as the apparition walks down a hallway”). Yet Auerbach (370) conceded that the American Society for Psychical Research's sophisticated equipment reportedly “has yet to yield up as much information as a human detector.”

  Parapsychologist Charles Tart was among those recommending that sensitive electronic devices for ghost detecting—for example, heat sensors, infrared imaging devices, biosensors, magnetic and radiation sensors (such as Geiger counters)—be connected to a computer in order for changes in the local environment to be displayed and correlated (Cochran 1988). However, Robert A. Baker noted that it hardly represented “anything new.” He questioned the supposition “that the ghost is some sort of energy form that is part of the electromagnetic spectrum and is thus detectable” (Baker and Nickell 1992, 123). He quoted skeptical parapsychologist Susan Blackmore, who stated, “Much of the research is based on pseudophysical theories. The problem with this field is that we keep coming up with mad ideas that lead nowhere” (Cochran 1988).

  Nevertheless, the notion that there was equipment to detect ghosts continued to spread. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits notes, “Since the mid-1990s, sophisticated high-technology equipment has dramatically changed the nature of ghost investigation, especially in the United States. Most contemporary researchers prefer to use the terms �
�ghost investigation’ or ‘ghost research’ instead of ‘ghost hunting,’ which has become associated with sensationalism” (Guiley 2000, 153). Some ghost hunters call themselves “parapsychologists,” a term that best applies to those within the field of psychology who use scientific methodology in the laboratory to conduct tests for ESP and other “psychical” phenomena (Berger and Berger 1991, 312). However, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences concluded in 1987 that “the Committee finds no scientific justification from research over the last 130 years for the existence of parapsychological phenomena” (quoted in Berger and Berger 1991, 312).

  Modern ghost-hunting manuals tout phenomena that supposedly indicate ghosts but typically have mundane causes (as explained in the following chapters). (See Hope and Townsend 1999, 22–32; Keene, Bradley-Stevenson, and Saunders 2006, 23–27; Nickell 2006a; Southall 2003, 41–82; Underwood 1998, 109–15.) Richard Southall's How to Be a Ghost Hunter (2003) recommends “scientific” equipment to detect ghosts. However, he is like most other ghost hunters who are nonscientists using equipment that was never designed to detect ghosts and has never been scientifically demonstrated to have detected a single ghost. Southall even shows his ignorance of science when he speaks of “electromagnetic energy as opposed to microwave radiation” (2003, 75): in fact, microwaves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

  Paul Roland (2007), author of The Complete Book of Ghosts, is another who champions the pseudoscientific approach. He insists that among the “items of equipment which no self-respecting ghost hunter can afford to be without” is “the most essential item,” namely “an EMF meter which measures fluctuations in the electromagnetic field.” He adds, “Orthodox science considers these to be a natural phenomenon, but paranormal researchers believe these disturbances to be proof of the presence of ghosts” (Roland 2007, 188)—as if belief were more dependable than evidence.

  Joshua Warren's How to Hunt Ghosts (2003) suggests the use of some quite-contrasting materials and methods. He offers, on the one hand, age old superstitious practices of using dowsing rods and pendulums, Ouija boards, and the pronouncements of psychics and mediums, and, on the other, such modern gadgetry as the electromagnetic field meter, electrostatic generator, strobe light, and audio enhancer. Warren (2003, 183) looks forward to being able to combine various technologies into a single “ghost meter” designed specifically for spectral detection. Actually, as early as 1988 Tony Cornell (2002, 87) was reportedly using for that purpose a multi-instrument package he had developed called Spontaneous Psychophysical Incident Data Electronic Recorder (SPIDER). However, he concludes, “Considering the number of cases and the time involved, one must recognize that the use of such equipment has not produced any great weight of evidence to confirm the paranormal nature of those events it has been designed to record” (Cornell 2002, 381).

  Yet Warren (2003, 116) is among those already looking to the future—as a means of looking to the past. “Imagine a day,” he says, “when you can take a special pair of goggles and headphones to any location and, by turning through various ‘frequencies,’ watch any moment in that location's past.” (Imagine is, of course, the operative word.)

  Others, however, believe they can accomplish the same by mental means and hark back to Hans Holzer's mediums and the biblical Witch of Endor. One is a woman known as Michelle Whitedove, who as a child had invisible friends and now styles herself—in the title of a book—Ghost Stalker (2003). She clearly exhibits many of the traits associated with a fantasy-prone personality (see appendix).

  Paralleling books on ghosts and ghost hunting are television shows on these topics. In addition to those already mentioned, there have been numerous documentaries—often with a “reality TV” style (involving real people “in unusual circumstances”). The documentaries include the series In Search Of…, which aired weekly from 1976 to 1982 and included episodes on “Ghosts,” “Haunted Castles,” “Ghostly Stakeout,” “The Amityville Horror,” and “Ghosts in Photography” (“In Search Of…” 2007). Another series, Sightings, also focused on the paranormal, with segments like “Ghost of Brookdale Lodge” in 1994, featuring “psychic” Sylvia Browne (Lancaster 2007). Others include Hauntings across America (the Learning Channel, October 25, 1998) and America's Haunted Houses (Discovery Channel, May 24, 1998). A video documentary also appeared, titled Seeing Ghosts: A How-To Video for the Amateur Ghost Hunter (Peter Kuehn Productions, 1996) (Edwards 2001). The Ghost Hunters “reality TV” show, which debuted October 6, 2004, on the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy), features a team headed by a pair of Roto-Rooter plumbers who investigate supposedly haunted places, Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes (see chapter 34) (“Ghost Hunters” 2007).

  Ever looking for ways to capitalize on the interest in spirits, ghost hunters have enlisted celebrities—the dead as well as the living—in their productions. Holzer's book Star Ghosts (1979), for instance, presents encounters with the alleged spirits of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and other film greats. And living celebrities have hosted TV ghost shows, for instance Linda Blair, The Scariest Place on Earth (2006); Leonard Nimoy and Stacy Keach, Haunted Lives (1995–1998); and William Shatner, Hollywood Ghost Stories (1998) (“The Scariest Places” 2007; “Haunted Lives” 2007; Edwards 2001).

  Belief that spirits of the dead exist and can appear to the living is both ancient and widespread, yet the actual study of ghostly phenomena has largely been lacking. So-called investigation has ranged from mere collecting of ghost tales to the use of “psychic” impressions to a pseudoscientific reliance on technology applied in a questionable fashion. Real science has largely been ignored.

  COLLECTING TALES

  Even in a given era, ghosts seem to behave according to individual expectations, being as likely to walk through a wall as to knock on a door before entering (Finucane 1984, 223).

  While collecting ghost stories can be helpful in showing just such trends, much that is claimed as the “investigation” of hauntings never rises above mere mystery mongering. Necessarily there is a reliance on anecdotal, eyewitness testimony. Moreover, accounts may be exaggerated and are frequently offered with the implication that the “unexplainable” phenomena are proof of the reality of spirits. Actually, such a view is an example of a logical fallacy called arguing from ignorance (“we don't know what caused the door to slam, therefore it was a ghost”). One cannot draw a conclusion from a lack of knowledge. Besides, an event may simply be unexplained rather than unexplainable. That is, the riddle of the mysterious phenomenon may later be solved (e.g., a slamming door might have been caused by a draft or an event may have been the result of a prank).

  Uncritical collections of ghost tales—rife with weaselly phrases like “is said to be” and “some believe that” (e.g., Hauck 1996, 1, 12)—are ubiquitous. They include Dennis William Hauck's Haunted Places: The National Directory (1996) and The International Directory of Haunted Places (2000), as well as a hundred or so books by “ghost hunter” Hans Holzer alone.

  THE “PSYCHIC” METHOD

  Hans Holzer was a leading figure in the use of “psychics” in ghost hunting, for which—as we discussed in the previous chapter—he was taken to task by serious psychical researchers as well as skeptics. I happened to be able to follow up on one of Holzer's “investigations” with my own on-site investigation. This was at Ringwood Manor in northern New Jersey.

  Holzer arrived at Ringwood with “psychic” Ethel Meyers in tow, a dubious choice given her involvement in the “Amityville Horror” case, wherein she failed to realize it was a hoax. She supposedly made contact with former servants at Ringwood, saying that one, “Jeremiah,” had “complained bitterly about his mistress,” a Mrs. Erskine. However, the curator of Ringwood told me he doubted the house was haunted, and he disparaged the notion that Mrs. Erskine mistreated any servant—whether “Jeremiah” or not. He observed that the present house was never seen by her and “isn't even near the location of the original house!” (Prol 1993). Thus when Holzer wr
ites, “The center of the hauntings seems to be what was once the area of Mrs. Erskine's bedroom” (Holzer 1991, 125), he betrays an utter lack of historical credibility.

  As such evidence demonstrates—whether alleged psychics claim to enter a “trance” state, like Holzer's favorite mediums, Ethel Meyers and Sybil Leek (Holzer 1991, 24, 36), or whether they rely on “channeling tools” such as a Ouija board, dowsing rod, or psychic pendulum, as others prefer (Belanger 2005, 17)—psychics have a poor track record. They typically offer unsubstantiated, even unverifiable claims, or information that can be gleaned from research sources or from knowledgeable persons by “cold reading” (an artful method of fishing for information). Alternatively, the psychic may simply make a number of pronouncements, trusting that the credulous will count the apparent hits and ignore, or interpret appropriately, the misses.

  Still, not all such offerings are insincere. As we have seen, those who fancy themselves psychics may exhibit traits associated with a “fantasy-prone” personality—a designation for an otherwise normal person's heightened propensity to fantasize. Some field research I have done shows a correlation between the number and intensity of ghostly experiences on the one hand and the number of exhibited traits associated with fantasy proneness on the other (Nickell 2000).

  GHOSTBUSTERS

  With the resurgence of spiritualism in the mid-nineteenth century, mediums sought to prove the existence of spirits through certain physical phenomena. In dark-room séances, spirits allegedly materialized, spoke, wrote messages on slates, posed for photographs, and produced apports (teleported objects)—or so it appeared. Magician Harry Houdini (1874–1926) spent his last years crusading against such phony spirit tricks (Nickell 1995, 17–38).