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House isn't haunted-- it's just moldy?

#1
Magical Realist Online
"Put away the Ouija board and take out the Pledge.

Ghostbusters at Clarkson University in New York are investigating the link between indoor air quality and ghostly sightings, according to Medical Daily. They say toxic mold can trigger psychosis and that might cause you to see and hear things that go bump in the night.

The more sensitive you are to mold, the more likely you may think you're up against a poltergeist, the website reports.

“Hauntings are very widely reported phenomena that are not well-researched,” says Clarkson engineering professor Shane Rogers, according to the university's website.

"[The ghost sightings] are often reported in older-built structures that may also suffer poor air quality," Rogers says.

"Similarly, some people have reported depression, anxiety and other effects from exposure to biological pollutants in indoor air. We are trying to determine whether some reported hauntings may be linked to specific pollutants found in indoor air."

Rogers describes himself as a "longtime fan of ghost stories," and that he doesn't see himself as a paranormal debunker.

"What I do hope is that we can provide some real clues as to what may lead to some of these phenomena and possibly help people in the process."

Rogers' team of undergraduate students plan to measure air quality in several haunted locations in upstate New York, including the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, N.Y. The museum is the former home of Madame Vespucci, and, according to Haunted Places, her voice can be heard echoing from the museum's upper level at night.

If they come back alive, they plan to publish the results of their finding."==http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/05...ref=ghosts
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#2
stryder Offline
It kind of reminds me of the 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning (wikipedia.org).

Although it's slightly off topic, I don't think in the Pont-Saint-Esprit instance that it was either Ergot (or other molds) or the CIA.  It was likely the farm/grain silo had either had a rat problem (suggesting the poisoning was caused by poisons meant for pest control) or it's possible that the storage location had during the first or second world war been used for the storage of a nerve toxin.  (I'm not sure what flavour of toxin the Nazi's used to exterminate Jews however it's possibly what it was intended for)

As for hallucinations in general.  Most of the time they are caused by hyperactivity of the brain caused by either the induction of excess chemicals (drugs, mold etc) or through the body/brain dealing with various types of trauma like atrophy (insomnia etc), disease, stress (loss of a loved one etc)  In some respects you could suggest dreams are induced in the same way. (that's something for a sleep lab to prove/disprove)


Throughout life you can suggest we all therefore hallucinate from time to time... whether we talk about it with others or allow it to play a major role on our lives is an entirely different matter.
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#3
Yazata Online
I'm skeptical about the mold theory. Would breathing mold-smell, even if there were mold spores present in the air, deliver a sufficiently high dose of whatever psychoactive chemicals are supposedly responsible? And would those chemicals create complete hallucinations without any other subjective effects of having ingested psychedelics?

My extensive experience has been that drug induced visual hallucinations typically seem to involve a progression: brightened colors, then psychedelia's characteristic 'patterns', and only then full hallucinations of complete objects. The latter often aren't visions in the conventional sense, they are more along the lines of perceptual confusion, misinterpreting things perceived as opposed to creating spurious perceptions out of nothing. And these kind of hallucinations only happen when one's cognitive faculties are so disordered that it's impossible to ignore. Walking is difficult and opening and closing doors becomes a huge challenge.

If an inhabitant of a moldy house was experiencing that, he or she would certainly know it. It's not like a ghost-hunter could enter a house and experience drug-induced visions, while remaining otherwise coherent, alert and unimpared.

So I'm skeptical.

My guess is that ghosts are largely a product of mood and suggestion. There used to be a dark and gothic house in my town when I was a child that we all believed was hideously haunted. We were scared to even walk by it. It seemed to be staring at us. The whole idea of walking up to its front door was too scary for words. We could just feel the house's malevolence.

I think, looking back, that some seniors probably lived in it. (Probably sweet people too.) We never saw them.

Then the house acquired a new owner and the new owner commenced on a wholesale renovation job.

Now I go by that house all the time and don't feel anything. The remodel job changed everything. It just isn't dark and looming and unconnected with the modern world the way it used to be.

It seems to me that if the house was really a dark looming malevolent presence, a simple aesthetic remodel wouldn't suffice to exorcise the evil spirit that animated it. The fact that it seemingly did, tells me that my reaction to the house (shared by all of the other kids too) was probably psychological.
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