HaUnTeD HouSEs

It is not clear why Satan or ghosts would confine themselves to quarters, since with all their alleged powers, they could be anywhere or everywhere at any time. If they really wanted to terrorize the neighborhood, they could take turns haunting different houses. In the case of Amityville, the real devils were George and Kathy Lutz who concocted a preposterous story made into a book and a movie, apparently to help them out of a mortgage they couldn't afford and a marriage on the rocks. [Schick & Vaughn, p. 269-270]

Besides the fraudulent cases, there are those cases where otherwise normal people hear strange noises or have visions of dead people or of objects moving with no visible means of locomotion. Hearing strange noises in the night and letting the imagination run wild are quite natural human traits and not very indicative of diabolical or paranormal activity. Likewise for having visions and hallucinations. These are quite natural, even if unusual and infrequent, in people with normal as well as with very active imaginations. [Sagan]

There are "ghostbuster" types who go to allegedly haunted houses for television programs such as Sightings. They walk around with some electronic device that picks up electromagnetic fields, and if the needle jumps around they claim they have evidence of poltergeist activity. Why electromagnetism should be identified with ghosts or devils, I have no idea. Just about everything gives off some level of electromagnetic radiation. Some animals even have the ability to sense electric fields.

There are also a number of cases of reported haunted houses which turn out upon thorough investigation to have been instigated by disturbed teenagers trying to get attention by scaring the devil out of their parents and siblings. [Randi, 1985, 1995]

Haunted houses are great fun at Halloween, though certain devout Christians find them, along with witches and goblins, to be diabolical. No one really thinks these Halloween houses are haunted. People go to them because we like to be scared out of our wits. Why? I have no idea. Maybe we think of being scared to death as a way to get close to death without really endangering ourselves. But whatever the reason is, I suspect it is behind the popularity of ghost stories and tales of haunted houses.

See related entries on ghosts, exorcisms, and A Skeptic's Halloween Page
 

further reading

• "The Haunted Tape Recorder" by Joe Nickell
• "Caveat Specter" by Tim Madigan
• The Ghost Research Society - especially for the gullible

Frazier, Kendrick. "Amityville Hokum: the Hoax and the Hype," Skeptical Inquirer, 4, no. 2 (1979-80): 2-4.

Randi James. "The Columbus Poltergeist Case: Part I," Skeptical Inquirer (Spring 1985). This article may be found in Science Confronts the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier. (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1986). $19.16

Randi, James. An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, 1995). $11.96

Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark, ch. 6 "Hallucinations," (New York: Random House, 1995). $11.20

Schick, Theodore, and Lewis Vaughn. How to Think About Weird Things (Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1995). $15.96