London, a city steeped in history, is a treasure trove for ghost hunters. From plague-ridden mass graves to the pubs frequented by Jack the Ripper, the city is full of sites that could send a shiver down anyone’s spine. Yet, one of the most reliably eerie spots in the early 2000s wasn’t a centuries-old crypt or a notorious crime scene—it was the front room of a ground-floor flat in North London. Here, people reported feeling an otherworldly presence, experiencing dizziness, and even being gripped by terror. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the site of any grisly event but a setting for a scientific experiment designed to uncover the physical causes behind ghostly encounters.
The Science Behind the Supernatural
For years, skeptics have tried to unravel the mystery of hauntings, seeking scientific explanations for what many believe to be supernatural phenomena. One of the earliest documented connections between physical conditions and ghostly experiences came in 1921. The American Journal of Ophthalmology reported on two cases of carbon monoxide poisoning where victims experienced delusions and hallucinations, sparking speculation that some hauntings might be the result of environmental factors. This theory gained further credibility when writer Carrie Poppy’s haunting turned out to be the result of a near-fatal carbon monoxide leak.
But carbon monoxide isn’t the only potential culprit. In the 1980s, engineer and computer scientist Vic Tandy began to experience unexplainable dread and saw shadowy figures in his laboratory. Being a fencer, Tandy brought his foil into the lab one day and noticed it vibrating. The cause? A new ventilation fan had been installed, producing low-frequency sound waves known as infrasound, which, when turned off, made the spooky experiences vanish. Tandy hypothesized that infrasound, below the threshold of human hearing, could cause people to feel and see ghostly presences. His work paved the way for further exploration into the connection between environmental factors and ghostly experiences.
Creating a Haunted Room
In the early 2000s, Chris French, a psychology professor at Goldsmiths University, and Usman Haque, an artist and architect, embarked on an intriguing experiment. They hypothesized that hauntings might be caused by infrasound and fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field, which could affect the brain’s electromagnetic activity. This led to the creation of an artificial haunted room in Haque’s mother’s North London home, where they could test these theories.
The room, a specially constructed circular chamber, was empty and white, with hidden devices designed to produce electromagnetic fields and infrasound. Seventy-nine volunteers were invited to spend time in the room to see if they would experience anything unusual. To ensure ethical standards, participants were informed that they might be exposed to unusual patterns of electromagnetic activity, infrasound, both, or neither, and that these could trigger “anomalous experiences.”
The Results: Mind Over Matter?
As expected, many participants did report strange sensations. Over 20% felt a presence, and a significant number experienced dizziness. However, about 8% reported feelings of terror, an unexpected reaction. Initially, these results seemed to support the idea that electromagnetic fields and infrasound could induce ghostly experiences. But a closer look at the data revealed something even more intriguing.
It turned out that the participants’ experiences were less about the electromagnetic fields or infrasound and more about their own suggestibility. Those who were told they might experience something unusual were more likely to report strange sensations, regardless of whether the environmental factors were present. This finding suggests that the power of suggestion may play a more significant role in ghostly encounters than previously thought.
The Ongoing Quest for Answers
While the “haunted chamber” experiment cast doubt on the role of infrasound and electromagnetic fluctuations in ghost sightings, the search for environmental explanations for paranormal experiences continues. Shane Rogers, an environmental engineering professor at Clarkson University, was inspired to investigate haunted places after noticing that his children became irrationally angry or fearful when exposed to allergens, including mold.
Rogers and his team examined around two dozen haunted sites in the 2010s, using ghost hunting TV shows as a guide. They sampled the air in these locations, comparing them to non-haunted sites, and found that haunted places had significantly more mold spores. While Rogers’s study is yet to undergo peer review, the initial results are intriguing, suggesting a potential link between mold exposure and paranormal experiences.
A Humbling Conclusion
Despite the promising findings from these experiments, French remains cautious. He believes that environmental factors like toxic mold, infrasound, and carbon monoxide might explain a small number of cases, but that psychological explanations such as sleep paralysis, false memories, and hallucinations are more likely culprits for most hauntings.
Ultimately, while some ghostly experiences can be attributed to environmental factors, others remain unexplained. As French puts it, “We’ve got to just be humble enough to admit that we can’t explain every single case.” Whether it’s due to quirks of the human mind or the environments we inhabit, the mystery of ghostly encounters continues to captivate and elude us.
