Sue St.Clair and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

A few new updates, and articles have been added to the Toronto Ghosts website. We have a bunch more to upload as this has been a busier than normal winter season for us. I'll try to get these online as quickly as possible, but in the meantime please enjoy!

And don't forget that tomorrow March 27th 2010 at 8:30pm is Earth Hour. This will be the largest environmental movement in our collective history, and one fun way that you can participate is to turn off the lights, light the candles, and tell some spooky stories. Please do visit the Toronto Ghosts & Hauntings Research website, and the Ontario Ghosts & Hauntings Research website and pick out some of your fave ghost stories from around the province to use as part of your own Earth Hour festivities!

Ajax Phantom Jogger - Updated

Pembroke - Private Residence - New

Private Residence - Keele and Gunns Road - New

George Brown House - New

Enjoy!

No one can come to any other conclusions. Instead of disputing the facts, we must try to explain them.

The above quote is from Prof. Henry Habberley Price (1899 - 1984), respected Oxford don and former president of the Society for Psychical Research when asked about whether he believed in the existence of ghosts.

Ready for a weird statement...

Science does not NOT believe in ghosts.

Trouble is, science also does not believe in ghosts.

Science is not an entity or "group" with an idea or thought anyway, so the whole statement's kind of odd... Science is a method of asking a question, figuring out a way to verify an answer, then attempting to verifying that answer through repeated processes and either the end result is the guess (hypothesis) is shown correct or incorrect.

Therefore, "science" does not care about ghosts... until someone says, "I Think Ghosts Are..."

...then it's a hypothesis... and science can start to work if possible.

This still doesn't answer a question many people still ask... Do Ghosts Exist?

The answer, like it or not, is "Yes".

Ghosts exist.

I just felt the collective shriek followed by the spittle-flecked anger of the so-called sceptical folks who abhor even the entertainment of such a thought as it goes against their own cherished non-faith... but they should indulge me here because I'm making a pretty valid point regardless of your views.

How can I make such a bold statement when normally I'm all about the "empirical" (absolute hard evidence) before making proclamations?

Simple.

Define "existence"... and define "ghost" while we're there.

Existence is simply the state of "being". To exist means it's "there".

"Ghost", by general description, is something that does "ghostly" things... or rather, something that is perceived to be "ghostly"... such as odd voices when none should be heard, items moving about on their own volition, strange figures being seen... that sort of thing. That, in popular lexicon, is a "ghost".

If you don't believe in ghosts, I only have one question... Do you believe people have not experienced these things? Ergo: These people experienced a "ghost".

As you can now see, as we've always said, it's not the phenomena that's in question, but the causation thereof.

What causes "ghosts" is a way better question... and definitely open to interpretation... and that's where "non-believers" and "believers" should part company... well, until there is empirical data to show one way or another in whatever case is being examined.

Of course, if I really wanted to make a point, I could rightly point out that "ghosts" exist in fiction and folklore... and perhaps that existence isn't perfect, but it's existence none-the-less... well, in a quasi-existential way...

Therefore, yes, allow me to proclaim... Ghosts do exist.

...and like the professor said above, we need to figure out what they are and why they are... not if they are.

"St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time -- a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic."

~~By Adrienne Cook.~~

Are some types of places considered to be more haunted than others? There are places that have more reports than others... more witnesses... perhaps less chance of "corrupt" witnesses (less chance of people going to a specific location to look for ghosts that they'd heard were supposedly there and Ergo: Experience what they expect to experience... which leads to wonder about possible corruption of that witness in terms of being "led" to a finding...) but until someone proves the existence of ghosts as popularly defined or can properly quantify a level of haunting with some form of empirical measurement (beyond simply number of witness reports) then no, you can't really say one place is more "haunted" than another.

You may be disappointed to learn we do not go out with the latest discombobulated boobeloober that will make ghosts instantly appear, and can be purchased for a ridiculous amount of money at an online ghost hunter store.

We are researchers, and documentarians, and realistically, the only absolutes as far as equipment go for us is our ears, eyes, common sense, pen/pencil, and paper...

The main thing for us is to get the reports and stories (including the oral history, "mythology", and witness reports of events) and then look at the data to see if there's anything above simply collecting data, that we might wish to do.

Since the attempt to collect evidence of (and explain incidents if possible of) "paranormal" activity is something we do, we listen to the reports and see if, from them, we can determine if we wish to proceed with any equipment for regular recording of events or environment... If the reported experiences are happening with fairly regular frequency (experiences more than once every two weeks,) and the events are "seen", then we may bring cameras... if it's "heard", we'll bring audio recorders... if it's "environmental" (strange breezes, temperature changes, etc.) we'll bring weather monitoring equipment.

Again, these instruments would be tailored to the reports and with any times involved with the activity.

Either way, the most important things for any investigator to have in their "tool kit" are pen/pencil and paper... and common sense or critical thinking.

I should point out that the concepts and indeed words, "common sense" and "critical thinking", have been hijacked by the so-called sceptics (as much as they hijacked the term "sceptic" which used to mean "doubt", but now is used as "disbelief/non-belief",) to mean cynicism when looking into these events...

For us, "critical thinking" and "common sense" means that you should "question" and look for better evidence without falling into faith/belief or non-faith/non-belief... and that you should be safe.

As an example of "common sense", many people look for ghosts in cemeteries... but if you look through any four "true ghost story" book, and count the number of places with reported stories, cemeteries and ossuaries are not at all well represented... Ghosts are experienced where the people they are thought to represent lived, played, worked, or died... not where they are buried... so "common sense" says that cemeteries, despite the hoo-haw surrounding them, are not bastions of ghostly activity.

Another example is people considering going into an "old, abandoned house to look for the ghosts". Again, are there historical ghost stories from the house? Is it legal to be in the house? Is it safe to be in that house? If the answer is "no" to any of those questions, not going to the house is a good show of common sense.

As for critical thinking... everyone should have an ounce of doubt. I had a woman say that she had one nasty "cold spot" (localised area of noticeably lower temperatures than the rest of the nearby environment,) in her new kitchen. She bought the house in Spring time, and even when she contacted us, (early Fall of a year with a very warm (hot) Summer,) if she put margarine or butter on the counter in that area, it would stay "hard" and almost refrigerated regardless of the rest of the rooms temperature.

She looked into the history of her home, and although her house was "new" (new build in a development,) she found the original land was home to a pig farm and had wondered if the abattoir or shambles were near where that bit of her kitchen was located.

With a quick look around, I noted an above HVAC vent nearby and with a little bit of "feeling", was able to determine that the breeze from the vent hit the exact spot where butter would stay hard when the air conditioning was on. A test with a lab thermometer (and the turning on and off of the central air conditioner,) confirmed this was the case.

This was not to "shame" the person, or to debunk anything maliciously, but simply look for the most correct answer as to what's been experienced, and this is the least we owe to people who trust us to investigate their experiences.

Critical thinking, for us, simply means not being too credulous (although there's most often no reason to doubt a witness,) but not completely accepting a hypothesis of causation without empirical evidence.

Granted, we also believe in saying words many seem too scared to utter.. "We don't know". If something remains unexplained, that is the only correct answer, regardless... unless, of course, you can absolutely and empirically prove the existence of ghosts as popularly defined.

Recently on our Facebook group the topic of cash prizes for spending the night at a haunted location came up. Our Facebook group member had heard that the story went something along the lines of "if you could stay the entire night in a reportedly haunted house you would win some cash prize," but just couldn't place where this location was or how much the cash being offered might be.

My first thought is that this sounds very much like the plot of the movie House On Haunted Hill with Vincent Price. In the original if you stayed the night you'd get $10,000 dollars and in the remake in 1999 if you managed to survive the night in the haunted house you would get a one million dollar prize.

Matthew added the following.........

The 1959 classic was best! Actually, one could also claim the 1964 classic "A Haunted House is Not a Home", where Uncle Giggles "passes" away and challenges "Fat Freddy" to spend the night in his old mansion in order to get his inheritance, also fits this story.

The "spend a night and get dough" is a plot-device/fictional construct and most probably pre-dates 1959. It probably stems from bets and dares to spend nights in cemeteries and whatnot (Georgian and Victorian gents were big on this sort of wager) not to mention that one COULD argue that Washington Irving's original "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" - which is actually a modified version of a Dutch/German tale which is much older - is also based on the same premise.

I've heard "tales" where the idea of surviving a night in some place would gain you cash and prestige coming from many castles and manor homes in Europe (none true, I'm afraid,) most notably Glamis (not true and the castle is still inhabited,) and "The Bloody Tower" at the Tower of London (which, if you consider "nasty history", the Beauchamp (pronounced oddly enough, "Beecham",) would be a better option... but, this too is not true and the tower is occupied 24x7 by the Yeoman Warders. Then there's 50 Berkley Square in London which got this reputation after it's famed "ghost story" became popular about the sailors leaping to their deaths (or a variation therein,) but this is utter bunk and has no basis in history or reality... it just made for a good story.

The most famous North American mythical "spend a night and WIN!" place is probably a legend that grew from Sarah Winchester's mansion in California... because Winchester was more than a little weird AND continuously built on to the home until the day she died AND the whole reason for the higgledy-piggedly design is to keep spirits "lost" in the home AND she was VERY wealthy thanks to the Winchester firearms inheritance, there were "rumours" about being able to spend a night in the house after her passing... but again, these were rumours only.

So, as far as we know, there is no "legit" place that offers this... but many rumoured and fictional sites to be certain! JREF's million dollar prize to anyone who can prove the paranormal may also add to the general story in some fashion.