A Scientific Ghost Hunt

Despite Edinburgh's long-standing reputation as a ghost filled haunted city, there have been few proper investigations into the stories. One such investigation took place in April 2001 as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

The experiment was carried out by Doctor Richard Wiseman of Hertfordshire University in conjunction with Mercat Tours who run popular ghost tours. Wiseman - an award-winning magician - has received much publicity from various other popular wyrd projects. One of his most recent is his ongoing research project on the psychology of luck, some results of which were published in 2004 as The Luck Factor.

The main part of the 2001 experiment was a ten day study of the Edinburgh Castle vaults involving some 240 members of the public. Wiseman's team also had an array of scientific equipment measuring temperature, magnetic field strength, changes in light level etc.

The results were impressive: nearly half of the people involved experienced some form of experience, albeit in many cases little more than a spooky feeling, shivers or the sensation of being watched. A few people actually felt something touch them and one saw an image of a man in a leather apron that fitted in with old legends. Two of the participants refused even to enter the vaults!

Wiseman himself said afterwards: "The events that have been taking place in the vaults over the last 10 days are much more extreme than we expected"

In true scientific style, the tests were distributed between vaults with a reputation for being haunted and those with no such background. Although the subjects - and even Wiseman himself - were unaware which was which, they reported anomolous experiences far more frequently in the "haunted" chambers.

Wiseman remains a skeptic about the existence of ghosts, but the results still impressed him:

"Had the public experiences been randomly distributed between the vaults then you really couldn't conclude anything, what you can conclude is that there is something going on in some sense, that these vaults are in some senses producing an experience.
"That's why I think scientists can be quite excited about this, because suddenly there's an effect to work with, something to untangle that is a little bit of a mystery."

So science hasn't proved the existence of ghosts and it hasn't told us exactly what happens in the ancient depths of Edinburgh Castle. But it has shown us that something strange really is happening.

External Links:

Dr. Richard Wiseman - Biography

Mercat Tours Ghost Project Report