simple. We would invite groups of people to attend a theatrical reconstruction of a Victorian séance, and use various techniques, including suggestion, to fake spirit activity. We would then ask them to tell us what they had experienced so that we could assess whether they had been fooled by our attempts at deception. But first we needed a spooky-looking venue. We came across the House of Detention—a dark, dank, disused, underground Victorian prison in the heart of London. It was perfect. The owners kindly allowed us to rent this uninviting venue for a week, and we staged two fake shows per evening, with twenty-five people attending each séance.
When people arrived they were asked to complete a short questionnaire asking them whether they believed in the existence of genuine paranormal phenomena. I then led the group through the maze of underground prison corridors, briefly relating the history of the Victorian séance. Eventually they were taken along a narrow ventilation shaft into a large room at the heart of the prison. Here Andy introduced himself to the group and explained that he would be playing the part of the medium for the evening. With the room lit by a single candle, he asked everyone to join him around a large table in the center of the room.
For the next twenty minutes, Andy told the group a fictitious ghost story about the murder of a nonexistent Victorian music-hall singer named Marie Ambrose. According to Andy’s carefully crafted script, Marie had lived close to the prison, and her ghost had often been seen in the building. Andy then passed around various objects that were allegedly associated with her life, including a maraca, a hand bell, and a wicker ball. In reality, I had bought the objects from a local junk shop a few days before the shows. All the objects, and the table around which everyone was seated, had small spots of luminous paint on them so that the group would be able to see them in the dark. Andy placed the objects on the table, asked everyone to join hands, and extinguished the candle. The room was plunged into darkness, but the objects on the table had a slightly luminous glow. Andy slowly started to summon the nonexistent spirit of Marie Ambrose.
The group was first asked to concentrate on the wicker ball. After a few minutes, it rose a few feet into the air, moved around the séance room, and gently returned to the table. Next, they turned their attention to the maraca, which, on a good night, slowly rolled across the table. These apparently ghostly phenomena were the result of the types of simple trickery that had been used by fake mediums at the turn of the century. It soon became obvious to us that they were still capable of having an impact on a modern-day audience. We filmed many of the séances with an infrared camera, and the tapes showed that some people around the table gasped, some screamed, and many sat shaking in stony silence.
Then came the most important part of the evening: the suggestion. Andy asked Marie to make her presence known by moving the heavy table. The table remained stationary, but Andy suggested that it was levitating, using comments such as: “That’s good, Marie,” “Lift the table higher,” and “The table is moving now.” Andy then released the nonexistent spirit of Marie back into the ether, the lights were turned on, and everyone was thanked for coming to the show.
Two weeks later, our guinea pigs were sent a questionnaire about their experiences during the show. We first asked people whether they thought that any of the events they had witnessed were paranormal. Forty percent of people who had expressed a prior belief in the paranormal thought that the phenomena were the result of genuine ghostly activity, compared with only about 3 percent of disbelievers. We then examined whether the suggestion had been effective. The results were startling. More than a third described how they had seen the table levitate. Again,
When people arrived they were asked to complete a short questionnaire asking them whether they believed in the existence of genuine paranormal phenomena. I then led the group through the maze of underground prison corridors, briefly relating the history of the Victorian séance. Eventually they were taken along a narrow ventilation shaft into a large room at the heart of the prison. Here Andy introduced himself to the group and explained that he would be playing the part of the medium for the evening. With the room lit by a single candle, he asked everyone to join him around a large table in the center of the room.
For the next twenty minutes, Andy told the group a fictitious ghost story about the murder of a nonexistent Victorian music-hall singer named Marie Ambrose. According to Andy’s carefully crafted script, Marie had lived close to the prison, and her ghost had often been seen in the building. Andy then passed around various objects that were allegedly associated with her life, including a maraca, a hand bell, and a wicker ball. In reality, I had bought the objects from a local junk shop a few days before the shows. All the objects, and the table around which everyone was seated, had small spots of luminous paint on them so that the group would be able to see them in the dark. Andy placed the objects on the table, asked everyone to join hands, and extinguished the candle. The room was plunged into darkness, but the objects on the table had a slightly luminous glow. Andy slowly started to summon the nonexistent spirit of Marie Ambrose.
The group was first asked to concentrate on the wicker ball. After a few minutes, it rose a few feet into the air, moved around the séance room, and gently returned to the table. Next, they turned their attention to the maraca, which, on a good night, slowly rolled across the table. These apparently ghostly phenomena were the result of the types of simple trickery that had been used by fake mediums at the turn of the century. It soon became obvious to us that they were still capable of having an impact on a modern-day audience. We filmed many of the séances with an infrared camera, and the tapes showed that some people around the table gasped, some screamed, and many sat shaking in stony silence.
Then came the most important part of the evening: the suggestion. Andy asked Marie to make her presence known by moving the heavy table. The table remained stationary, but Andy suggested that it was levitating, using comments such as: “That’s good, Marie,” “Lift the table higher,” and “The table is moving now.” Andy then released the nonexistent spirit of Marie back into the ether, the lights were turned on, and everyone was thanked for coming to the show.
Two weeks later, our guinea pigs were sent a questionnaire about their experiences during the show. We first asked people whether they thought that any of the events they had witnessed were paranormal. Forty percent of people who had expressed a prior belief in the paranormal thought that the phenomena were the result of genuine ghostly activity, compared with only about 3 percent of disbelievers. We then examined whether the suggestion had been effective. The results were startling. More than a third described how they had seen the table levitate. Again,
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