A haunted house , spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the property. Parapsychologists often attribute haunting to the spirits of the dead who have suffered from violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder , accidental death , or suicide .
89-582: [REDACTED] Look up ghost house or ghosthouse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Ghosthouse or Ghost House may refer to: Film [ edit ] The Ghost House (film) , a 1917 American silent film directed by William C. deMille Ghosthouse (film) ，1988 Italian film Ghost House (2004 film) , South Korean horror-comedy film Ghost House (2017 film) , American film Bhoot Bungla ( lit. ' Ghost House ' ),
178-463: A pseudoscience . Parapsychology has been criticized for continuing investigation despite being unable to provide convincing evidence for the existence of any psychic phenomena after more than a century of research. By the 2000s, the status of paranormal research in the United States had greatly declined from its height in the 1970s, with the majority of work being privately funded and only
267-721: A "single verifiable fact about ghosts having been established." In the first century A.D., the Roman author and statesman Pliny the Younger recorded a ghost story in his letters, which became famous for their vivid account of life during the heyday of the Roman Empire . Pliny reported that the specter of an old man with a long beard, and rattling chains, was haunting his house in Athens . The Greek writer Lucian and Pliny's fellow Roman Plautus also wrote memorable ghost stories. In
356-525: A 1965 Indian horror film Other uses [ edit ] Ghost House (video game) , 1986 video game The Ghost House (audiobook), a 2008 novel by Stephen Cole, also published in The Sarah Jane Adventures Collection Ghost House Pictures , American film production company Ghosthouse , a house often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased, also known as
445-401: A 2005 Gallup poll , 37% of Americans, 28% of Canadians, and 40% of Britons believed that houses could be haunted. In a 2009 Pew Research Center survey, about 29% of Americans believed they had been in touch with someone who had died. According to a Research Co. poll released in 2020, 40% of Canadian women and 25% of Canadian men stated they believed in haunted houses. In Japan, there is
534-526: A causal role in the formation of paranormal belief. Research has shown that people reporting contact with aliens have higher levels of absorption, dissociativity, fantasy proneness and tendency to hallucinate . Findings have shown in specific cases that paranormal belief acts as a psychodynamic coping function and serves as a mechanism for coping with stress . Survivors from childhood sexual abuse , violent and unsettled home environments have reported to have higher levels of paranormal belief. A study of
623-663: A cause of suspected hauntings. According to Owen Davies , a paranormal historian, hauntings in the British Isles were usually attributed to fairies , but today hauntings are usually associated with ghostly or supernatural encounters. In other cultures around the world, various spirits are said to haunt vacant homes and locations. In Middle Eastern countries, for example, jinn are said to haunt such areas. Historically, since most people died in their homes, whether they were mansions or hovels, these homes allegedly became natural places for ghosts to haunt, with bedrooms being
712-471: A fairly common phenomenon that can easily lead to misperceptions." His wife, called Monica (pseudonym), also claimed to feel tapping similar to Tom. According to Radford, "that can be explained by suggestion and what psychologists term Folie à deux , when one person (often a spouse) takes on the symptoms of another." Tom also describes that "it will kick the bed—it will hit the side of the bed. I feel my whole body move… Then if I go back to sleep, I start to get
801-455: A family who claimed hauntings because they suffered headaches, auditory hallucinations, fatigue, melancholy, and other symptoms which are also associated with carbon monoxide poisoning. In a modern example, Carrie Poppy, a writer and co-host of the podcast Oh No, Ross and Carrie! , was convinced she was living in a haunted house. She felt she was being watched by a demon , experienced pressure on her chest and auditory hallucinations. Someone on
890-420: A forum of skeptical paranormal investigators suggested she look into carbon monoxide poisoning. When the gas company arrived, unsafe levels of carbon monoxide were found. Michael Persinger , an American-Canadian professor of psychology, suggested that perceived apparitions, cold spots, and ghostly touches are perceptual anomalies caused by variations in naturally occurring or man-made magnetic fields. However,
979-488: A ghost is a manifestation of the spirit or soul of a person. Alternative theories expand on that idea and include belief in the ghosts of deceased animals. Sometimes the term "ghost" is used synonymously with any spirit or demon ; however, in popular usage the term typically refers to the spirit of a deceased person. The belief in ghosts as souls of the departed is closely tied to the concept of animism , an ancient belief that attributed souls to everything in nature. As
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#17327766775361068-469: A ghost, he reports that only 1% report seeing a full-fledged ghost while the rest report strange sensory stimuli, such as seeing fleeting shadows or wisps of smoke, or the sensation of hearing footsteps or feeling a presence. Wiseman makes the claim that, rather than experiencing paranormal activity, it is activity within our own brains that creates these strange sensations. Michael Persinger proposed that ghostly experiences could be explained by stimulating
1157-464: A haunted house See also [ edit ] [REDACTED] Search for "ghosthouse" or "ghost house" on Misplaced Pages. All pages with titles beginning with Ghost House All pages with titles containing Ghost House All pages with titles containing ghosthouse Haunted house (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
1246-499: A history dating back to the reign of King Rama VI (early 20th century). They were all buildings given by the king to his two favorite pages who were brothers. During World War II, they became government property along with being occupied by the Japanese army . There are rumors that they are haunted, especially Phitsanulok Mansion which is known as "Thailand's White House". Halloween themed "haunted houses" began appearing around
1335-587: A large role in perceived hauntings. He states that as a house, inn, or other place becomes thought of as haunted, more and more ghostly encounters are reported and that when people expect paranormal events, they tend to notice conditions that would confirm their expectations. Many places deemed to be haunted are purposefully left in a decrepit condition, with wall paper peeling off, old carpeting, and antique decor. Toxicologist Albert Donnay believes that chronic exposure to substances such as carbon monoxide , pesticide , and formaldehyde can lead to hallucinations of
1424-501: A lot of people believe in it because they "want it to be so". A 2013 study that utilized a biological motion perception task discovered a "relation between illusory pattern perception and supernatural and paranormal beliefs and suggest that paranormal beliefs are strongly related to agency detection biases". A 2014 study discovered that schizophrenic patients have more belief in psi than healthy adults. Some scientists have investigated possible neurocognitive processes underlying
1513-700: A random sample of 502 adults revealed paranormal experiences were common in the population which were linked to a history of childhood trauma and dissociative symptoms. Research has also suggested that people who perceive themselves as having little control over their lives may develop paranormal beliefs to help provide an enhanced sense of control. The similarities between paranormal events and descriptions of trauma have also been noted. Gender differences in surveys on paranormal belief have reported women scoring higher than men overall and men having greater belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials. Surveys have also investigated
1602-419: A room, is known to happen when people experience monotony, darkness, cold, hunger, fatigue, fear, and sleep deprivation. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell writes that in most cases he investigated, he found plausible explanations for haunting phenomena, such as physical illusions , waking dreams , and the effects of memory . According to Nickell, the power of suggestion along with confirmation bias plays
1691-454: A small amount of research being carried out in university laboratories. In 2007, Britain had a number of privately funded laboratories in university psychology departments. Publication remained limited to a small number of niche journals, and to date there have been no experimental results that have gained wide acceptance in the scientific community as valid evidence of the paranormal. While parapsychologists look for quantitative evidence of
1780-465: A sound sleep, that's when it kicks again." Radford suggests his was likely due to restless leg syndrome in which a leg jerk in the middle of the night caused the bed to shake. Radford suggests that the owner's diagnosis of " sleep apnea is even further evidence for this explanation; restless legs (Restless Leg Syndrome) is actually one of the most common symptoms of apnea." Tom and Monica also heard ghostly music and voices, noises that they recorded from
1869-533: A study by psychologist Chris French that attempted to replicate Persinger's findings found no link. Investigations of supposed hauntings often result in simple explanations. For example, in an apparent haunted house in Somerset , England , in the eighteenth century, a boy would make the house shake by jumping on a beam in an adjoining property that ran through both houses. In 1857, a twelve-year-old girl confessed to tying her long hair around objects to give them
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#17327766775361958-501: A subset of pseudoscience . What sets the paranormal apart from other pseudosciences is a reliance on explanations for alleged phenomena that are well outside the bounds of established science. Thus, paranormal phenomena include extrasensory perception (ESP), telekinesis, ghosts, poltergeists, life after death, reincarnation, faith healing, human auras, and so forth. The explanations for these allied phenomena are phrased in vague terms of "psychic forces", "human energy fields", and so on. This
2047-439: A term coined by the subculture. Approaching the paranormal from a research perspective is often difficult because of the lack of acceptable physical evidence from most of the purported phenomena. By definition, the paranormal (or supernatural) does not conform to conventional expectations of nature . Therefore, a phenomenon cannot be confirmed as paranormal using the scientific method because, if it could be, it would no longer fit
2136-500: A tradition, linked to Buddhism , of creating obakeyashiki ( Japanese : お化け屋敷 ) (ghost houses) in August, when it is believed that ancestral spirits may visit. People go to ghost houses to listen to frightening stories or seek elaborate decorations and costumes to experience shivers as a way to feel cooler in the hot summer temperatures. The Shanghai Disneyland Park planners decided against building The Haunted Mansion because of
2225-514: A way to cope in the face of psychological uncertainties and physical stressors. The deficiency hypothesis asserts that such beliefs arise because people are mentally defective in some way, ranging from low intelligence or poor critical thinking ability to a full-blown psychosis' (Radin). The deficiency hypothesis gets some support from the fact that the belief in the paranormal is an aspect of a schizotypical personality (Pizzagalli, Lehman and Brugger, 2001). A psychological study involving 174 members of
2314-531: Is a factor underlying paranormal belief. Many studies have found a link between personality and psychopathology variables correlating with paranormal belief. Some studies have also shown that fantasy proneness correlates positively with paranormal belief. Bainbridge (1978) and Wuthnow (1976) found that the most susceptible people to paranormal belief are those who are poorly educated, unemployed or have roles that rank low among social values. The alienation of these people due to their status in society
2403-412: Is considered by many as the father of modern paranormalism, which is the study of the paranormal. The magazine Fortean Times continues Charles Fort's approach, regularly reporting anecdotal accounts of the paranormal. Such anecdotal collections, lacking the reproducibility of empirical evidence , are not amenable to scientific investigation . The anecdotal approach is not a scientific approach to
2492-793: Is considered one of the most haunted houses in America, although there are no primary sources for the many ghost stories about it. They were most likely inspired by Sarah Winchester , who had her strange, complex, often illogical designs incorporated into the house for almost four decades. Wukang Mansion , a historical house in Shanghai , has a reputation for being haunted because of the large number of suicides of celebrities, intellectuals, and state-persecuted people there. Government House and Phitsanulok Mansion in Bangkok . Two nearby government buildings, these two Neo-Gothic style buildings have
2581-519: Is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception (for example, telepathy ), spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting , cryptozoology , and ufology . Proposals regarding the paranormal are different from scientific hypotheses or speculations extrapolated from scientific evidence because scientific ideas are grounded in empirical observations and experimental data gained through
2670-438: Is in contrast to many pseudoscientific explanations for other nonparanormal phenomena, which, although very bad science, are still couched in acceptable scientific terms. Ghost hunting is the investigation of locations that are reportedly haunted by ghosts . Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity. In traditional ghostlore , and fiction featuring ghosts,
2759-448: Is independent of extraversion and psychoticism ". A correlation has been found between paranormal belief and irrational thinking . In an experiment Wierzbicki (1985) reported a significant correlation between paranormal belief and the number of errors made on a syllogistic reasoning task, suggesting that believers in the paranormal have lower cognitive ability . A relationship between narcissistic personality and paranormal belief
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2848-436: Is natural for our brains to work too hard at it, thereby detecting human or ghost-like behavior in everyday meaningless stimuli. James Randi , an investigator with a background in illusion , felt that the simplest explanation for those claiming paranormal abilities is often trickery, illustrated by demonstrating that the spoon bending abilities of psychic Uri Geller can easily be duplicated by trained stage magicians. He
2937-423: Is said to encourage them to appeal to paranormal or magical beliefs. Research has associated paranormal belief with low cognitive ability , low IQ and a lack of science education . Intelligent and highly educated participants involved in surveys have proven to have less paranormal belief. Tobacyk (1984) and Messer and Griggs (1989) discovered that college students with better grades have less belief in
3026-548: The English language since at least 1920. The word consists of two parts: para and normal . The definition implies that the scientific explanation of the world around us is normal and anything that is above, beyond, or contrary to that is para . On the classification of paranormal subjects, psychologist Terence Hines said in his book Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (2003): The paranormal can best be thought of as
3115-613: The National Book Award in 1959. Other notable works of fiction featuring haunted houses include The Turn of the Screw (1897) by Henry James , Hell House (1971) by Richard Matheson , The Shining (1977) by Stephen King , and The House Next Door (1978) by Anne Rivers Siddons . Paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture , folk , and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts
3204-548: The Society for Psychical Research completed a delusional ideation questionnaire and a deductive reasoning task. As predicted, the study showed that "individuals who reported a strong belief in the paranormal made more errors and displayed more delusional ideation than skeptical individuals". There was also a reasoning bias which was limited to people who reported a belief in, rather than experience of, paranormal phenomena. The results suggested that reasoning abnormalities may have
3293-436: The scientific method . In contrast, those who argue for the existence of the paranormal explicitly do not base their arguments on empirical evidence but rather on anecdote, testimony and suspicion. The standard scientific models give the explanation that what appears to be paranormal phenomena is usually a misinterpretation, misunderstanding or anomalous variation of natural phenomena . The term paranormal has existed in
3382-605: The 1977 book The Amityville Horror was fictional. Borley Rectory , in England , was considered the most haunted house in the world, but its notoriety was deemed to have been created (or at least exaggerated) by Harry Price , an expert magician and proven hoaxer . Corvin Castle in Romania is considered one of the world's top five haunted places. According to locals, it has been haunted by its former occupant, Vlad
3471-419: The 19th-century anthropologist George Frazer explained in his classic work, The Golden Bough (1890), souls were seen as the 'creature within' which animated the body. Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it was widely held that the soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to the clothing worn by
3560-476: The Chinese students showing greater skepticism. According to American surveys analysed by Bader et al . (2011) African Americans have the highest belief in the paranormal and while the findings are not uniform the "general trend is for whites to show lesser belief in most paranormal subjects". Polls show that about fifty percent of the United States population believe in the paranormal. Robert L. Park says
3649-675: The Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931) and Wild Talents (1932); one book was written between New Lands and Lo! , but it was abandoned and absorbed into Lo! Reported events that he collected include teleportation (a term Fort is generally credited with coining); poltergeist events; falls of frogs, fishes, and inorganic materials of an amazing range; crop circles ; unaccountable noises and explosions; spontaneous fires ; levitation ; ball lightning (a term explicitly used by Fort); unidentified flying objects ; mysterious appearances and disappearances; giant wheels of light in
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3738-573: The Impaler , ever since he was killed in an ambush. It is also said to be haunted by the spirits of people killed within its walls. Casa Loma in Toronto, Canada , was completed in 1914. There have been rumors of ghosts there for many years. It is now a historic house museum and landmark that is decorated as a haunted house at Halloween . The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California
3827-714: The Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is an organization that aims to publicize the scientific, skeptical approach. It carries out investigations aimed at understanding paranormal reports in terms of scientific understanding, and publishes its results in the Skeptical Inquirer magazine. CSI's Richard Wiseman draws attention to possible alternative explanations for perceived paranormal activity in his article, The Haunted Brain . While he recognizes that approximately 15% of people believe they have experienced an encounter with
3916-542: The United States in cities like Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati , Ohio. These houses are stereotypically Gilded Age homes because changing tastes of the nouveau riche left these homes abandoned or poorly maintained. Hollywood slasher films such as Halloween , A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th had a large influence on commercial haunted houses in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of these houses included characters such as Freddy Krueger and Jason . A less popular film titled Monster House suggests
4005-515: The batteries using a meter and discovered that there was no battery drainage in either location. Radford claims that simple, controlled experiments like this are important and should be conducted by ghost hunters to clearly demonstrate if there is a difference between a supposed haunted location and one that is not haunted. A house in Amityville , on Long Island , New York , became the subject of books and films after apparent hauntings following
4094-442: The belief in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and the phenomena said to be associated with them. Early in the history of UFO culture, believers divided themselves into two camps. The first held a rather conservative view of the phenomena, interpreting them as unexplained occurrences that merited serious study. They began calling themselves " ufologists " in the 1950s and felt that logical analysis of sighting reports would validate
4183-549: The brain with weak magnetic fields. Swedish psychologist Pehr Granqvist and his team, attempting to replicate Persinger's research, determined that the paranormal sensations experienced by Persinger's subjects were merely the result of suggestion, and that brain stimulation with magnetic fields did not result in ghostly experiences. Oxford University Justin Barrett has theorized that "agency"—being able to figure out why people do what they do—is so important in everyday life, that it
4272-504: The case Stambovsky v. Ackley , the Supreme Court of New York , Appellate Division , ruled in 1991 that a seller must disclose that a house has a reputation for being haunted because such a reputation may impair the value of the house: In the case at bar, defendant seller deliberately fostered the public belief that her home was possessed. Having undertaken to inform the public at large, to whom she has no legal relationship, about
4361-553: The ceiling to touch people's faces, hanging fur on the walls of darkened hallways, and having to crawl through long dark tunnels. In 1972 Jerry Falwell and Liberty University introduced one of the first " hell houses " as an anti-Halloween attraction. Some Christian churches run these, which while being haunted houses, also promote their interpretation of the Christian gospel message . According to USA Today , in hell houses, "participants walk through several 'scenes' depicting
4450-539: The consequences of things like abortion , homosexuality and drunkenness ." The concept of the haunted house was capitalized on as early as 1915 with the Orton and Spooner Haunted House in the Hollycombe Steam Collection ( England ). The haunted house became a cultural icon when Disneyland 's Haunted Mansion was opened in 1969. By the 1970s, commercial haunted houses had sprung up all over
4539-814: The creation (in 1976) of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now called the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) and its periodical, the Skeptical Inquirer . Eventually, more mainstream scientists became critical of parapsychology as an endeavor, and statements by the National Academies of Science and the National Science Foundation cast a pall on the claims of evidence for parapsychology. Today, many cite parapsychology as an example of
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#17327766775364628-407: The definition. (However, confirmation would result in the phenomenon being reclassified as part of science.) Despite this problem, studies on the paranormal are periodically conducted by researchers from various disciplines. Some researchers simply study the beliefs in the paranormal regardless of whether the phenomena are considered to objectively exist. This section deals with various approaches to
4717-484: The first night and beckoned to him. The apparition vanished once it reached the courtyard, and Athenodorus carefully marked the spot. The following morning he requested the magistrate to have the spot dug up, where the skeleton of an old man bound with chains was discovered. The ghost never appeared again after the skeleton was given a proper burial. Stories of haunted houses appear in the Arabian Nights , as in
4806-490: The formation of independent ghost hunting groups that advocate immersive research at alleged paranormal locations. One popular website for ghost hunting enthusiasts lists over 300 of these organizations throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Scientific skeptics advocate critical investigation of claims of paranormal phenomena: applying the scientific method to reach a rational, scientific explanation of
4895-518: The ghostly appearance of moving on their own. Tina Resch , a girl from Columbus, Ohio , who claimed that ghostly and paranormal activity occurred in her home, was photographed throwing a telephone while acting surprised at the sudden poltergeist activity. Ben Radford , of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal , performed an investigation in 2003 on an allegedly haunted house in Buffalo, New York . The owner of
4984-420: The help of accomplices or a variety of ploys. According to science writer Terence Hines , cold spots , creaking sounds, and odd noises are typically present in any home, especially older ones, and "such noises can easily be mistaken for the sound of footsteps by those inclined to imagine the presence of a deceased tenant in their home." A sensed-presence effect, the feeling that there is someone else present in
5073-413: The home, called Tom in the article ( pseudonym ), alleged that he felt tapping on his foot at night. As described by Tom, "I get a tapping on my feet, not a repetitive tap, a trying-to-wake-you-up tap… After the tapping, if I don't pay attention to it, then I feel a kick." Radford suggests the tapping was likely a case of " hypnagogic hallucination (a sensory illusion that occurs in the transition to sleep),
5162-625: The hopes of finding evidence of extrasensory perception . However, it was revealed that Rhine's experiments contained methodological flaws and procedural errors. In 1957, the Parapsychological Association was formed as the preeminent society for parapsychologists. In 1969, they became affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science . Criticisms of the field were focused in
5251-549: The idea of a spirit actually taking control of a house and transforming it into an almost human body. By 2005, an estimated 3,500 to 5,000 professional haunted attractions operated in the United States. Japanese commercial haunted houses, or obakeyashiki, are considered to be some of the best in the world. Experiences include being chased by gore-covered zombies , specially themed attractions, such as schools or hospital wards, and houses from which one must escape within 60 minutes or be found by "slaughtering criminals". Claiming to be
5340-525: The impression of paranormal activity to some people, in fact, where there have been none. The psychologist David Marks wrote that paranormal phenomena can be explained by magical thinking , mental imagery , subjective validation , coincidence , hidden causes, and fraud. According to studies some people tend to hold paranormal beliefs because they possess psychological traits that make them more likely to misattribute paranormal causation to normal experiences. Research has also discovered that cognitive bias
5429-478: The literature. The earliest surviving report of a haunted house comes from a letter written by Pliny the Younger (61 – c. 112 CE) to his patron Lucias Sura, in which he describes a haunted villa in Athens . Nobody would live in the house until the philosopher Athenodorus (c. 74 BCE – 7 CE) arrived in the city. He was tempted by the low rent and undeterred by the house's reputation so he moved in. The ghost, an old man bound with chains, appeared to Athenodorus during
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#17327766775365518-399: The local cultural beliefs about ghosts and hauntings. Building the house would have been considered a mockery of their fear. In Wuhan , China, the police have built a haunted house to train their police force by testing their nerves. They filled a dilapidated house with faked severed limbs, bones, skulls and a frightening atmosphere that includes lightning and rain. The house is also open to
5607-609: The most common rooms to be haunted. Many houses gained a reputation for being haunted after they were empty or derelict. Davies explains that "if people were to fail to occupy a human space, then external forces would move in." Haunting is one of the most common paranormal beliefs around the world, according to Benjamin Radford in his book Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits . He says that almost every town and city has at least one "haunted" place; and that, despite over 100 years of investigation, there has not been
5696-469: The most devout believers in ghosts over the centuries recognized that many hauntings were frauds." In an interview with USA Today , Davies states that "[f]or skeptics in the past and present, the house was obviously the center of hauntings because it was where people slept and dreamed of the dead, or where people lay drunk, drugged or hallucinating in their sickbeds." Such basic poltergeist phenomena as rapping or knocking were very easy to orchestrate with
5785-551: The murder of the DeFeo family. The Lutz family purchased the home for a greatly reduced price but shortly after moving in claimed that doors were ripped open, damaging hinges and bending locks, windows were suddenly opened, green slime oozed from the ceiling and cloven-hooved footprints were left in the snow. The Lutzes remained in the home for only 28 days. In a court case where the Lutzes were sued, they admitted that almost everything in
5874-731: The notion of extraterrestrial visitation. The second camp held a view that coupled ideas of extraterrestrial visitation with beliefs from existing quasi-religious movements. Typically, these individuals were enthusiasts of occultism and the paranormal. Many had backgrounds as active Theosophists or spiritualists , or were followers of other esoteric doctrines. In contemporary times, many of these beliefs have coalesced into New Age spiritual movements. Both secular and spiritual believers describe UFOs as having abilities beyond what are considered possible according to known aerodynamic constraints and physical laws . The transitory events surrounding many UFO sightings preclude any opportunity for
5963-406: The observed behavior). Specific data-gathering methods, such as recording EMF ( electromagnetic field ) readings at haunted locations, have their own criticisms beyond those attributed to the participant-observer approach itself. Participant observation, as an approach to the paranormal, has gained increased visibility and popularity through reality television programs like Ghost Hunters , and
6052-404: The oceans; and animals found outside their normal ranges (see phantom cat ). He offered many reports of OOPArts , the abbreviation for "out of place" artifacts: strange items found in unlikely locations. He is perhaps the first person to explain strange human appearances and disappearances by the hypothesis of alien abduction and was an early proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis . Fort
6141-403: The paranormal because it leaves verification dependent on the credibility of the party presenting the evidence. Nevertheless, it is a common approach to investigating paranormal phenomena. Experimental investigation of the paranormal has been conducted by parapsychologists . J. B. Rhine popularized the now famous methodology of using card-guessing and dice-rolling experiments in a laboratory in
6230-458: The paranormal in laboratories, a great number of people immerse themselves in qualitative research through participant-observer approaches to the paranormal. Participant-observer methodologies have overlaps with other essentially qualitative approaches, including phenomenological research that seeks largely to describe subjects as they are experienced , rather than to explain them. Participant observation suggests that by immersing oneself in
6319-475: The paranormal. In a case study (Gow, 2004) involving 167 participants the findings revealed that psychological absorption and dissociation were higher for believers in the paranormal. Another study involving 100 students had revealed a positive correlation between paranormal belief and proneness to dissociation. A study (Williams et al . 2007) discovered that " neuroticism is fundamental to individual differences in paranormal belief, while paranormal belief
6408-500: The paranormal. Another test done by Ben Radford in 2009 was to investigate the claim that batteries are drained by ghosts in haunted locations. He purchased four sets of identical batteries, sealed them in signed, Ziploc bags and wrapped them securely in strong tape to prevent tampering. He placed half of them in the reputed haunted Wolfe Manor , in Clovis, California , and half in a different location. Twenty four hours later he tested
6497-795: The paranormal: anecdotal , experimental , and participant-observer approaches and the skeptical investigation approach. An anecdotal approach to the paranormal involves the collection of stories told about the paranormal. Charles Fort (1874–1932) is perhaps the best-known collector of paranormal anecdotes. Fort is said to have compiled as many as 40,000 notes on unexplained paranormal experiences , though there were no doubt many more. These notes came from what he called "the orthodox conventionality of Science", which were odd events originally reported in magazines and newspapers such as The Times and scientific journals such as Scientific American , Nature and Science . From this research Fort wrote seven books, though only four survive: The Book of
6586-458: The person. This is depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead ( c. 1550 BCE ), which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before death, including the style of dress. The possibility of extraterrestrial life is not, in itself, a paranormal subject. Many scientists are actively engaged in
6675-405: The phenomena to account for the paranormal claims, taking into account that alleged paranormal abilities and occurrences are sometimes hoaxes or misinterpretations of natural phenomena. A way of summarizing this method is by the application of Occam's razor , which suggests that the simpler solution is usually the correct one. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly the Committee for
6764-516: The public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, Indonesian lawmakers of the Sragen region on the island of Java decided to lock people who did not follow quarantine guidelines in abandoned and supposedly haunted houses. It was an attempt to motivate a superstitious population when science failed to do so. According to Owen Davies's book, The Haunted: a Social History of Ghosts , "[e]ven
6853-487: The relationship between ethnicity and paranormal belief. In a sample of American university students (Tobacyk et al . 1988) it was found that people of African descent have a higher level of belief in superstitions and witchcraft while belief in extraterrestrial life forms was stronger among people of European descent . Otis and Kuo (1984) surveyed Singapore university students and found Chinese , Indian and Malay students to differ in their paranormal beliefs, with
6942-432: The repeat testing required by the scientific method . Acceptance of UFO theories by the larger scientific community is further hindered by the many possible hoaxes associated with UFO culture. Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that aims to prove the existence of entities from the folklore record, such as Bigfoot , chupacabras , or Mokele-mbembe . Cryptozoologists refer to these entities as cryptids ,
7031-550: The same time as " trick or treat ", during the Great Depression , as a way to distract young people whose Halloween pranks had escalated to vandalism and harassment of passersby. These first exhibits were low quality, being put together by groups of families in their basements. People would travel from home to home to experience a variety of frightening situations, such as hearing weird moans and howls, cardboard cutouts of black cats, damp sponges and hair nets hanging from
7120-628: The search for unicellular life within the Solar System , carrying out studies on the surface of Mars and examining meteors that have fallen to Earth . Projects such as SETI are conducting an astronomical search for radio activity that would show evidence of intelligent life outside the Solar System. Scientific theories of how life developed on Earth allow for the possibility that life also developed on other planets . The paranormal aspect of extraterrestrial life centers largely around
7209-448: The subject that is being studied, a researcher is presumed to gain understanding of the subject. Criticisms of participant observation as a data-gathering technique are similar to criticisms of other approaches to the paranormal, but also include an increased threat to the scientific objectivity of the researcher, unsystematic gathering of data, reliance on subjective measurement, and possible observer effects (i.e. observation may distort
7298-402: The supernatural occurrences on her property, she may be said to owe no less a duty to her contract vendee. In Hong Kong , where superstition is prevalent, people do not want to buy houses where anything unfortunate, especially a death, has occurred. For homes that are thought to be haunted, the prices are usually 15–20% below market value. Legends about haunted houses have long appeared in
7387-581: The tale of " Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad ". The first gothic novel , The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole , is set in a haunted castle, as is " The Canterville Ghost ", a humorous short story from 1887 by Oscar Wilde . One of the most prominent twentieth-century books of the genre is the classic The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson , a finalist for
7476-833: The title Ghost House . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ghost_House&oldid=1225797286 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages ghost house Upon scientific investigation, alternative causes to supernatural phenomenon are found, such as hoaxes , environmental effects, hallucinations or confirmation biases . Common symptoms of hauntings, like cold spots and creaking or knocking sounds, can be found in most homes regardless of suspected paranormal presences. Carbon monoxide poisoning has also been cited as
7565-444: The top of the stairs, causing them to leave their home in fright. Radford conducted an experiment where he set the recording device in the same spot, turned it on, then walked outside with Tom, talking constantly. They returned to the house and listened to the tape. Their conversations could be clearly heard, though muffled. The couple then agreed that what they were hearing in their house previously were outside noises and not noises from
7654-480: The type associated with haunted houses. Donnay speculates on the connection between the prevalence of gas lamps , during the Victorian era and start of the twentieth century, as well as stories of ghost sightings and hauntings, describing it as the "Haunted House Syndrome". Donnay says that carbon monoxide poisoning has been linked to haunted houses since at least the 1920s. He cites a 1921 journal article about
7743-657: The world's largest and most frightening haunted house, the Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear at Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park, in Yamanashi Fujiyoshida-shi Shinnishihara, depicts horrific visual scenes, shrill cries, moans, and smells. It has been visited by over four million people. Haunted Attractions come in several different types from hayrides , indoor haunted houses to outdoor screamparks. Many amusement parks now host large Halloween events featuring haunted houses. In
7832-624: Was also the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation and its million dollar challenge that offered a prize of US$ 1,000,000 to anyone who could demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. Despite many declarations of supernatural ability, the prize was never claimed. In "anomalistic psychology", paranormal phenomena have naturalistic explanations resulting from psychological and physical factors which have sometimes given
7921-567: Was discovered in a study involving the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale . De Boer and Bierman wrote: In his article 'Creative or Defective' Radin (2005) asserts that many academics explain the belief in the paranormal by using one of the three following hypotheses: Ignorance, deprivation or deficiency. 'The ignorance hypothesis asserts that people believe in the paranormal because they're uneducated or stupid. The deprivation hypothesis proposes that these beliefs exist to provide
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