DO YOU FANCY owning a 鈥渉aunted鈥� house where you could scare your guests witless at the flick of a switch, just like the baddies in Scooby Doo? Press one button and there鈥檚 a distinct chill in the bedroom. Press another and weird vibrations set hairs on end in the study. And over by the fireplace in the dimly lit living room, amid the flickering shadows, you catch fleeting images out of the corner of your eye. Was it a child, an old hag, or鈥ust the light playing tricks?
We鈥檙e not talking cheap, fairground japes here 鈥� naff plastic skeletons and headless ghouls popping out as you pass in the ghost train. We鈥檙e talking raw fear, about making people feel uneasy to the point of terror. But all in the name of science, promises Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, the psychologist who wants to build the world鈥檚 first 鈥渉aunted鈥� house.
Wiseman dreams of being able to terrify visitors with spooky goings-on that he鈥檚 designed himself. By controlling where and when these effects appear, he hopes to find out much more about how and why we have creepy experiences. 鈥淲e want to build our own haunted house, so we鈥檙e totally in control,鈥� says Wiseman. 鈥淚t would give really important scientific results, produce a huge amount of publicity, and go down in history.鈥�
Advertisement
For the record, Wiseman doesn鈥檛 believe in ghosts. But he is sure that the sensations felt by people who have ghostly encounters 鈥� fear, oppression and even nausea 鈥� result from a heady blend of psychology, hard-wired fear of dangerous situations and weird environmental effects such as subtle air movements. Combine these with preconceptions about ghosts soaked up from all those Hollywood horrors, and beliefs about the supernatural, and you have a potent mix that can unleash the weirdest feelings.
Earlier this year, Wiseman and his team produced peer-reviewed scientific evidence to back their hunch, published in the British Journal of Psychology (vol 94, p 195). They recorded the experiences of hundreds of volunteers visiting two of the UK鈥檚 most 鈥渉aunted鈥� spots. One was Hampton Court, the palace near London reputedly haunted by the screaming ghost of Catherine Howard, Henry VIII鈥檚 fifth wife. The other was the South Bridge Vaults, a labyrinth of claustrophobic chambers and creepy corridors beneath a Victorian bridge in Edinburgh.
Beforehand, Wiseman鈥檚 team surveyed the two sites, recording environmental phenomena such as air temperatures and currents, magnetic fields and lighting levels. Then they asked visitors to report exactly where they felt or saw anything strange. To their astonishment, they found that people鈥檚 most spooky experiences were often in the precise spots reputed to be haunted. And these same spots were often those with subtle but unusual draughts, air currents, temperature variations or even small fluctuations in the background electromagnetic fields. This provided Wiseman with a more earthly explanation for what some folk feel. 鈥淲e showed people had odd experiences in the same places, and now we know they鈥檙e based on environmental factors,鈥� says Wiseman. He also found that it didn鈥檛 matter whether volunteers knew beforehand where the most haunted spots were located, disproving the idea that the experiences relied solely on prior knowledge.
Wiseman now thinks he can find out more through experiments in which he dictates where and when people are exposed to subtle environmental effects, and in which he has the power to prime people psychologically before they visit a site. 鈥淭he only way you know if something is causal is if you control the signal,鈥� he says. 鈥淗ence the idea of creating some sort of haunted house.鈥�
In the perfect haunted house he would have control over lighting effects, the shapes and sizes of rooms and the features within rooms. And as spookmaster general, he could play with more subtle effects at will, introducing slight changes in temperature, alterations in local electromagnetic fields, perhaps wisps of a draught here and there, plus the bizarre effects of 鈥渋nfrasound鈥� 鈥� low-frequency rumblings just below the limit of human hearing (New 杏吧原创, 21 December 2002, p 50). And he鈥檇 also be able to tell volunteers beforehand whatever he wants: which spots may be haunted, the nature of any ghosts, and so on. In other words, total control.
Don鈥檛 expect blood-curdling Hollywood effects. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the subtle things that count,鈥� says Wiseman. 鈥淟ess is more.鈥� When he staged fake seances, for example, he discovered that people found things less believable as the effects became more obvious. What counts most, he says, is context. We experience all kinds of subtle changes to our environment in everyday life. But our sensitivity to them increases in surroundings where we feel on edge, and where our preconceptions about ghostly goings-on can heighten our sense of unease. 鈥淐ontext and priming accentuate these effects,鈥� he says.
Such feelings could even be hard-wired, primordial responses to natural hazards. Predators and venomous insects can lurk in cramped, shadowy corners, for example. And that鈥檚 why Wiseman considers control over lighting and room size to be crucial. 鈥淚 think many experiences are visually driven,鈥� he says. In the Edinburgh vaults, for example, people often reported the strangest feelings when entering the darkest, tiniest chambers. Objects such as old furniture are also important for reinforcing preconceptions of where ghosts lurk, and he expects his house to have an 鈥淥lde Worlde鈥� feel.
What about more subtle effects? It鈥檚 easy to control temperature with air-conditioning units hidden behind walls. 鈥淲e鈥檙e very sensitive, so the temperature wouldn鈥檛 have to drop much,鈥� says Wiseman. 鈥淵ou can detect a quarter-of-a-degree change.鈥� Equally practical would be concealed metal coils attached to a power supply that can create blips in the ambient electric and magnetic fields, much like those reported by ghost hunters in the US during hauntings. Wiseman has already demonstrated the technology by fitting an electrical coil onto the back of a painting.
In fact, subtle electromagnetic fields are considered capable of inducing hallucinations, as demonstrated by experiments in the early 1990s by Michael Persinger of the Laurentian University of Sudbury in Ontario, Canada. By subjecting volunteers to electromagnetic fields, Persinger induced all sorts of hallucinations, from hauntings to out-of-body experiences. (New 杏吧原创, 19 November 1994, p29)
Unearthly vibrations created by infrasound are also reckoned to be capable of inducing hallucinations or feelings of unease. Wiseman is keen to have it in his arsenal of tricks. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a subtle form of vibration, and can make candles flicker, for example,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd believe me, it does feel odd.鈥�
So much for the theory. Is it likely to happen? Wiseman is optimistic because his house could be economically self-sustaining, a crowd-puller in its own right, especially if associated with historic venues already drenched in ghostly folklore. Might there be disused houses in the grounds of stately homes which could be converted for the purpose, perhaps a derelict cottage, or an old hunting lodge? That way, the 鈥渉istory鈥� would come ready-packaged. Wiseman is contacting organisations such as English Heritage that manage historic properties to see if they鈥檙e interested, reminding them that his experiments at Hampton Court attracted record numbers of curious visitors.
His experimental haunted house could prove a bargain. In all, he reckons Spook Central would cost around 拢50,000. And even if the team has to buy the house, the cost could be recouped by selling it after the experiments are complete. 鈥淲e could even leave the equipment there, so the owners could have the scariest house in the world,鈥� he says.
However, surely there鈥檚 a fatal flaw in his plan: if you know it鈥檚 all fake at the outset, won鈥檛 you simply scoff at any strange effects you experience? There are ways round that, Wiseman believes. One trick might be to invite clairvoyants to the venue鈥檚 opening night to summon up spirits. That way, 鈥済hosts鈥� could still be to blame when visitors get spooked. For ethical reasons, Wiseman would tell people they are part of an experiment, but he says it might be possible to prime people with stories of unusual effects experienced by previous visitors, without telling them where they occurred. 鈥淲e鈥檇 keep the whole thing ambiguous,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd if we get genuine weird effects, it would add to the mystery.鈥�
Hang on, though. Suppose the medium succeeds and real ghosts take up residence鈥� Wiseman鈥檚 plan could end up seriously compromised. Then, perhaps, it would be time to borrow a trick or two from the Scooby gang 鈥� after all, no self-respecting spook would be seen dead anywhere near those pesky kids.
