the psychology aspect

I was watchin a haunting history type show. A paranormal investigator, who seemed very down to earth and knows his stuff said something that intrigued me.


He said that people bring their own aspect to an experience. They come with their own ideas, thoughts and emotions, and the situation is perceived or determined out of that.

Now, this is very true. But I could perceive this statement several ways.

Maybe that is why the field has such a stigma. You are dealing with something that is experienced strictly through the eyes of an impressionable witness. If you hear that it is a scarey ghost, you may perceive it as scarey, with piercing eyes or floating towards you menacingly. But that may not have been the case. It could of simply not seen you, trying to send you a message, or just saying hi.

Maybe it is just the mind playing tricks on you.

But the other way I can perceive this is that it can only develope because of that persons energy. You are expecting it, so it can only appear using your energy and thoughts. That is why there is such a variability among sitings, even in the same place of haunting. It has to appear as you expect it too.

Kind of like the boggart from Harry Potter, it can only appear as your worst fear, as you expect it too.


It would be interesting to see if a professional can test this theory. That you can will it to appear a certain way.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

[edit on 22-8-2009 by nixie_nox]

reply to post by nixie_nox
I've had dozens of experiences that a lot of people would class as ghosts or paranormal. I don't...I classify them as weird, unwanted and WTF!? .

Your point that the witness can bring their own fears to an event and therefore dictate the 'feel' of it is probably true. I read a long while back of a parapsychology experiment that involved subjects being told that there either was or wasn't a ghost in a certain room. IIRC they split the subjects into groups of believers, non-believers and neutrals. I'll try and find a link later. The study had the predictable result that the believers registered a presence more than the non-believers. I think it also had an unforeseen aspect that there was somehow a correlation in the descriptions of the fictional ghost. People described the similar features.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Thank you for the info and response. I would love to see that study.


I have been in "frenzies' where on person senses "evil" and all of a sudden everyone chimes in. Me being the only real sensitive person in the room, and always being objective, felt nothing. It was quite embarrassing to be around groups when they did this. Or maybe it wasn't my night, I dunno.

So not only can a person bring their own notions,they can pass them to others.

reply to post by nixie_nox
Hiya, I can't find that experiment. The keywords aren't specific enough (students lab experiment ghost). What I did find you might find interesting is the Phillip Experiment.

The members of the experiment proposed an idea... by using extreme and prolonged concentration, they could create their ghost through a collective thought form: Non-physical entities which exist in either the mental or astral plane. In order to create this ghost and make it as 'real' as possible, it needed a life story; a background in which the ghost could 'relate' to. They named the ghost they were attempting to bring into focus "Philip Aylesford" and created a tragic story, explaining to the fullest and in great detail, his life, and the few actions that lead to his tragic death. Step two was contacting Philip. In September 1972, the group began their "sittings" and after some initial problems the group attempted to duplicate the atmosphere of a classic spiritualist séance. They dimmed the room's lights, sat around a table and surrounded themselves with pictures of the type of castle they imagined Philip would have lived in, as well as objects from that time period.

The results of the experiment were tested for confirmation again in 2003/4 under test conditions. Liverpool John Moores University sort of moderated it...Humphrey Experiment

MARA have attempted to reproduce an experiment known as the Phillip Experiment which was performed by a Canadian group in the 1970’s. We made up an artificial character who died during the second world war and attempted to contact the character via psychic means. We hoped to replicate the effects of the Philip group who were very successful at producing psychokinetic effects such as knocks and raps on the table when they questioned their artificial character "Phillip". If we could replicate the Phillip results, it would add weight to the hypothesis that poltergeist activity is a result of the human mind rather than anything externally spiritual. However, our results have shown that all of the minor anomalies which occurred throughout the Humphrey Experiment can be accounted for without any psychic or paranormal activity.

reply to post by nixie_nox



Our experiment for Cultural Anthro. class undergrad.

It started mainly as an excuse to party. Improv Voodoo ritual with Rum, cigars, drumming, chanting and dancing around a glyph drawn on the floor.
Two couples, myself and another guy drumming on congas, the girls dancing and chanting what they thought would be voodoo phrases.
About 5+ min. into the "ritual" one of the girls went into a trance, fell on the floor, started speaking in a very guttural voice, a language we couldn't understand and apparently having a type of seizure.

Scared the bejebus out of us. Destroyed the glyph, comforted the girl and soon she "came to" with no recollection of what had happened to her.

Power of suggestion, perhaps. Spiritual possession, perhaps!

Dangerous stuff to be messin with!



[edit on 23-8-2009 by whaaa]