'Places Aren't Haunted, it's People Who are Haunted'

A letter printed in a recent edition of Fortean Times written by a doctor of chemistry gives much-needed serious thought to ghost phenomena and clarifies what we refer to by a 'localised haunting'.

Daniel Lutz and the Amityville House, a famous haunted location (examiner.com)

The letter, by Dr Ian I'Anson, MRSC, was published in FT315:73, June 2014's issue and under the heading 'localised hauntings' described Dr I'Anson's views on the commonly held thought that ghosts are often attached to a particular location, instead of - or more often than - 'haunting' human beings.

Dr I'Anson goes on to point out that Einstein's Theory of General Relativity would have it that 'there is no such thing as a stationary point; rather, stationary points are defined only with respect to other points'. In other words, that if a ghost was truly 'bound' to a certain location then that fixed point in space would remain the same regardless of Earth's rotation and orbit, and to us the phenomena as it occurred would seem to steadily move across the Earth's surface.

Therefore the origin of a ghost manifestation must be attributed to physical entities carried along with the Earth, or rather, physical materials such as geology or even furniture, as described in the Stone Tape theory. Dr I'Anson goes on to say that this may be why some hauntings are triggered by - or cease after - activities such as archaeological work or building modification. In the Amityville case (above), the horrors were said to be triggered by the redevelopment of land originally used by Native Americans to abandon sick or insane Native Americans, however this idea is widely disputed.

"Many serious paranormal researchers accept that some ghosts behave like recordings...They show no knowledge of their surroundings and repeat the same actions whenever seen. They even sometimes appear to follow different room layouts from the existing ones." - Maurice Townsend, ASSAP

In the controversial Enfield Poltergeist case, an adolescent girl was 'possessed' by a previous owner of the house who was able to still point out the chair he had died in. If the girl's mother had thrown the chair out, would the poltergeist have remained? In the San Pedro poltergeist case, Jackie Hernandez was tormented by inexplicable events which persisted, unaffected, despite her moving house - if Dr I'Anson's theory is correct, must the ghost have been 'attached' to one of her belongings? Or, could there be something within the human body itself capable of acting as a Stone Tape? Could this explain why some people appear to be 'possessed' or 'followed' by intelligent entities, while other hauntings attached instead to locations can only 'play back' events?

The cases mentioned above can by no means be treated as evidence - they were, and still are, highly controversial, and contemporary reports may have been skewed over time. However, considering the patterns in haunting cases it can be said with surety that 'ghosts' is an umbrella term used to cover an array of phenomena, almost none of which we understand.

Note: the author attempted to contact Dr I'Anson for more information, but he could not be located.