Scientists create "haunted room" experiment

I don't know about this. When people are told they're probably going to experience something, some people would anticipate the "experience" and start noticing things they're anticipating for. It's kinda like when someone is reading a news article of sorts that says people with this type of disease is gonna experience this type of symptoms. Reading it, some people are gonna start over thinking about it and believe that they themselves have the disease. I think the experiment would work better if people participating in the experiment didn't know what to expect and would give a more genuine answ... [More]

I don't know about this. When people are told they're probably going to experience something, some people would anticipate the "experience" and start noticing things they're anticipating for. It's kinda like when someone is reading a news article of sorts that says people with this type of disease is gonna experience this type of symptoms. Reading it, some people are gonna start over thinking about it and believe that they themselves have the disease. I think the experiment would work better if people participating in the experiment didn't know what to expect and would give a more genuine answ... [More]

The experiment in question was conducted by the Anomalistic Psychology Unit at Goldsmith's. The professor in charge, Chris French, is a known skeptic in the UK. Although he does say that he hoped he might get something useful, the comments in this thread demonstrate a few of the probable flaws in the experiment. It it also useful to know that French is fond of the notion that paranormal claims can be traced to belief systems, something which his own research has in fact demonstrated. Although he was successful in supporting his notion for the average person, he was a bit surprised to find that... [More]

It's an interesting experiment, but it's not without flaws. You may fool my eyes and all of my senses, but you cannot fool my video camera. All the EMF and ELF in the world cannot explain a full body apparition on my FLIR. A really nice read though, thanks.

You may fool my eyes and all of my senses, but you cannot fool my video camera. All the EMF and ELF in the world cannot explain a full body apparition on my FLIR. Yes, scientists can't explain that... yet!

I don't know about this. When people are told they're probably going to experience something, some people would anticipate the "experience" and start noticing things they're anticipating for. It's kinda like when someone is reading a news article of sorts that says people with this type of disease is gonna experience this type of symptoms. Reading it, some people are gonna start over thinking about it and believe that they themselves have the disease. I think the experiment would work better if people participating in the experiment didn't know what to expect and would give a more genuine answ... [More]

I concur. Looking for the otter on the railroad tracks will eventually allow you to find it, even if it wasn't an otter you were really looking for.

this experiment seems fairly legit, but it would be much more legit if they had not told the participants that they would be experiencing weird feelings. for some reason this fact is annoying me. X( probably because it was such an easily avoidable mistake.

I like the concept of the experiment for sure. Perhaps this will lead to other experiments in which they will have control groups that wouldn't know what was going on. Perhaps disguise it as a sleep experiment often done at universities.

People get what they expect. I'd leave it up to science to really present what is or is not what we considerd "haunted".