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| Agent Scully would agree with me. |
It looks like we have finally seen the back of 'ghost hunts' at Boggo Road. And good riddance to them. The old prison has now joined Brisbane municipal cemeteries as a place where ghost hunts are officially banned, and listening to the complaints coming from ghost-hunt quarters, it's all my fault. I sincerely hope it is.
I would actually go further and suggest that ghost hunting should be banned outright. Not all forms of 'paranormal investigation', but more specifically commercial ghost-hunting with fake ghost-o-meters. The kind where customers are charged money (usually quite a lot) for a self-proclaimed 'paranormal investigator' to take them around an allegedly 'haunted' place with electronic gadgets that are claimed to help them detect ghosts.
If you are part of a group that enjoys paranormal investigations out of personal interest and don't charge people to join you, that's a different thing. If you are using ghostometers I would dispute the science behind your methods, but it's your time and your money.
Also, if your investigations focus more on the 'psychic' approach instead of using gadgets, that's something else again. The mediumship field is clearly open to all manner of fakes and charlatans, but my concern here is with selling the use of gadgets.
I should also make it clear that this is not about the existence or otherwise of ghosts. I am a sceptic, which means I have an open mind and draw my conclusions based on the best evidence, according to how I understand it. I don't know the meaning of life nor the nature of the universe. As Hamlet says, 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' I don't believe in ghosts at all, but I majored in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Queensland and understand that many small-scale cultures have a supernatural element that is treated within those cultures with genuine respect. On the other hand, the current 'Kentucky Fried Ghosts' fad in western culture is a complete and superficial sham.I have had my own evolving relationship with this kind of ghost hunting. Several years ago I 'tolerated' it and - as a committee member on historical societies - tentatively supported specific proposals for 'paranormal investigations' as heritage fundraisers. However, my doubts emerged during planning, initially regarding the 'respect for the dead' issue and then later with the scientific integrity of the whole enterprise.
I came, I saw, I changed my mind. And if that's good enough for primeministers of this country, then it's good enough for me.
Anyway, here is the first of two basic reasons I would like to see commercial ghost-hunting banned.
GHOSTOMETERS ARE FAKE & YOU SHOULD NOT PAY TO USE THEM
Thanks to the advent of ghost-chasing Reality TV shows, the electromagnetic field (EMF) detector has become the gadget of choice for many new ghost-hunting enthusiasts.EMF detectors do actually have a place in an actualscientific examination of the natural background environment of a place where paranormal-style activity has been alleged to occur. As academic researchers Tony Lawrence and Vic Tandy explained in this excellent paper:Unfortunately, instead of taking an academic or scientific approach, it now seems to be common practice for ghost hunters to attribute unusual spikes in EMF readingsto a supernatural presence. Commercial ghost hunts - which sell a 2-4hour thrill-seeking experience as opposed to serious investigations - also seem to use EMF detectors as ghostometers. One Brisbane business advertised their guides as using 'scientific paranormal investigative techniques to detect activity' (my emphasis). A guide on this hunt was filmed in a marketing video passing an EMF detector over a cemetery headstone and announcing he had probably just detected a ghost.'The ways in which normal earthly events might conspire to convey an impression that a house is haunted... are numerous. Thus, all of the following may well be the more mundane cause of an ostensible haunt; water hammer in pipes and radiators (noises), electrical faults (fires, phone calls, video problems), structural faults (draughts, cold spots, damp spots, noises), seismic activity (object movement/destruction, noises), electromagnetic anomalies (hallucinations), and exotic organic phenomena (rats scratching, beetles ticking). The exclusion of these counter-explanations, when potentially relevant, must be the first priority of the spontaneous cases investigator.' ('The Ghost in the Machine',Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol.62, No. 851, April 1998)
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| The K-II Meter. Pretty lights = dead people. |
These gadgets are real enough, but the use of them is completely misplaced and based on an assumption that ghosts emit an 'energy' that can be detected and measured (to be fair, not all ghost hunters believe this). This implies a scientific understanding of what a 'ghost' is comprised of. Of course the mere existence of ghosts has not been proven in any way, so it follows that any theory as to what they are 'made of' is as scientifically baseless as saying 'Venusians have yellow blood'.
In fact, with statements like 'ghosts emit an energy', you could replace the word 'ghost'with 'invisible time-traveller from the future', or 'leprechaun', and they would be just as scientifically valid.Yet this is the stuff that current ghost-hunting is built upon. I recently wrote about the'Haunting Australia' TV show, in which one ghost hunter claimed that ghosts 'have an amount of mass' that might be detected if they walked through his contraption, which looked something like a disco-light ball with a smoke machine. As you might expect, nothing was detected.
Other common gadgets include audio recorders for capturing 'electronic voice phenomena' (EVP). Ghost hunters have played these recordings for me in person (and there are plenty of examples on YouTube and TV), but in almost every case it is either explained to me first what the indistinct noise is about to say, or there are subtitles on related videos. The 'seed' is planted in your mind, distorting the listening experience. In reality they are usually undecipherable noise - just try listening to one without someone else telling you what it says first.
The article'Electronic Voice Phenomena: Voices of the Dead?' goes into better detail. EVP are also very easy to fake, and there seems to be industrial amounts of fraud going on judging by what is available online.
The big question is, it is ethical to to advertise these useless gadgets as being capable of 'detecting ghosts' and then charging customers money (sometimes well over $100 per head) to use them? Especially without a disclaimer explaining that these things don't actually work for the advertised purpose? In my opinion, it is hugely unethical.
Think of it this way. If I told you that my microwave oven was a leprechaun trap and I offered to let you stand under a tree with it for three hours in the dark, and that the tree was a known haunt of leprechauns, would you pay me $130 for the privilege? Because when the ghost-hunt marketing is stripped back, that is effectively what you are paying for.
The issue becomes more serious if the commercial ghost-hunt operator knows the gadgets do not do what they are advertised to, it looks like outright fraud. Of course, it is difficult for an outsider to know what the operators might really think about their products.
So, on the basis of selling the use of fake products alone, I think ghost hunting should be banned, especially in any government-owned site. There is, however, another valid reason to restrict them, and that is covered right here in Part 2 of 'Why Ghost-Hunting Should be Banned'.
Is there a better way?
Yes there is, and it already exists. It involves exploring potential 'natural' causes for alleged paranormal anomalies, and I will cover that soon in another article here.READ PART 2 OF 'WHY GHOST HUNTING SHOULD BE BANNED'