Where have all the Ghosts Gone?

     Few surveys or censuses are completed these days about the nature of 'ghosts' and 'hauntings'. The major censuses--Phantoms of the living and a Census of Hallucinations--of the Victorian period concentrated on the prevalent haunting feature of the time: apparitions. In the 1970's Green and McCreery concluded that the vast majority of haunting cases involved apparitions. In her book Parapsychology in 2005, Jane Henry stated that the other studies have drawn similar conclusions. Certainly the traditional ghost account or story almost always involved an apparition of a dead (or living) person (animal or object). So why is the experience of so many modern day paranormal investigators so different?

     Various paranormal investigators and researchers have, anecdotally, commented that haunting cases of the last decade seem to involve fewer apparitions than those of the past. A haunting case today seems more likely to report cold spots, light anomalies, strange noises and feelings rather than a full-on sighting of a ghost

     The Haunted Swindon Census in England found that over 50 years more than 80% of haunting cases involved at least one apparition. But comparing this to haunting cases over the last 10 years this number dropped, staggeringly, to around 30% involving an apparition seen. The figures may well be unrepresentative, but the findings seem to ring true with the experience of so many researchers today. But why?

     It is almost impossible to conclusively say. Perceptions of hauntings involve so may factors, and very few of these are really understood.

     One theory that has been advanced is that of the role of the media.

     Some rational theorists have concluded that our interpretation of ambiguous events as hauntings is driven by our perception of what a haunting 'should be' -- after all, no-one is born with the knowledge of what a haunting is: we learn it from our environment-- often the media.

     For more than a century, until recent times, most paranormal media -- from T.V. programs to stories, and films -- seemed to involve a ghost apparition. The last 10 years has seen a renaissance in the paranormal media, coinciding with the rise of  'reality television'.

     Immediately popular ghost-related reality T.V. shows show viewers very few apparitions -- one could only guess why that would be! Indeed in the latest PSI Journal found that, in one paranormal  TV show, only 5% of experiences related to some form of apparition. To take the place of the traditional 'ghost', these shows have showed the public that haunting symptoms include light anomalies, strange noises, feelings and the like.

     Is the decrease in apparitions simply down to the sharp change how T.V. shows tell people that a 'haunting' is present? We might never know, but it's food for thought.