A Brief of History of Ghost Hunting Part I

The first Ghost Hunters

Ghosts and Apparitions have haunted man since the very beginning of recorded time. There are many references to ghosts in Mesopotamian religions
- the religions of Sumer, Babylon, Assyria and other early states in Mesopotamia. Ghosts were thought to be created at the time of death, taking on the memory and personality of the dead person. There was also widespread belief in ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture in the sense of the continued existence of the soul and spirit after death, with the ability to assist or harm the living, and the possibility of a second death.

The Greeks and the Romans had specific words to describe ghosts. In ancient Roman religion “Manes” (pronounced 'Man-Ess') were spirits of the deceased who continued to wander the earth and could in many circumstances harm or at least disrupt normal life. Accordingly, they needed to be placated and honoured by feast and sacrifice to prevent them from returning to haunt the living. The dead were buried outside the town and city limits, usually at the junction of several roads to both confuse any ghost set upon returning to his former home and also to protect the township from unwelcome visitors – both the living and the dead!

Ghosts reported in medieval Europe tended to fall into two categories: the souls of the dead, or demons. The souls of the dead returned for a specific purpose. Demonic ghosts were those which existed only to torment or tempt the living. The living could tell them apart by demanding their purpose in the name of Jesus Christ. The soul of a dead person would divulge their mission, while a demonic ghost could be banished at the sound of the Holy Name.

From the earliest days there were men of learning who set themselves the challenge of seeking to understand these ghostly visitors. Pliny the Younger wrote an account of a haunted house in Athens in 50AD haunted by a chain rattling ghost. The ghost was so troublesome that no-one would occupy the property. Pliny described how Athenodorous the philosopher took over the abandoned property and in time communicated with the ghost, subsequently discovering the ghost's shackled skeleton buried within the garden. Upon the remains being given a proper burial the haunting ceased.
In the same era, Plutarch describes what might be considered to be the first test of the veracity of spirit communications; The Governor of Cilicia who was sceptical and critical of the supernatural resolved to test a soothsayer. He wrote his question on a wax tablet, sealing it and handing it to a trusted servant to take to the soothsayer without revealing the question or the identity of the Governor. Plutarch does go on to say that a correct answer to the question was received.

Enlightened Investigators
In the 12th Century Geraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) wrote of several ghosts and noise-some spirits in his Itinerarium Cambriae (1191) including the haunting of the castle and home of Sir Elidur de Stackpole by a particularly troublesome spirit , an account that bears a close resemblance to what today we might describe as a Poltergeist. Other related phenomena also get a mention by Gerald including the Corpse Candle or small glowing balls of light often associated in Welsh culture with the spirits of the deceased.
Not merely content with writing second-hand accounts of these supernatural occurrences Gerald frequently took pains to visit the location and speak to those affected in order to obtain accurate information for himself and his readers.

Much of the investigation of ghostly activity tended to be the domain of the church or men of religion, most often with a desire to remove or exorcise the offending ghost. In the Middle Ages being seen to be too interested in such phenomena was likely to encourage charges of witchcraft or necromancy. Such was the case of Dr John Dee, a noted mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. In 1582, Dee and his companion Edward Kelley were accused of raising a spirit or ghost in order to learn it's secrets.
However, following the restoration of Charles II in 1660, a more enlightened approach toward the paranormal began to take hold. Men of science and learning once more turned their attention to the question of ghosts and apparitions and attempted to discover by more methodical means what they could be and what they meant. Religious beliefs still weighed heavily on their thoughts and many came out critically against ghosts and apparitions as being the agents of either God or the Devil.
A small number of educated men opted for a more measured approach and thought the subject should be studied in order to gain a better understanding of what they might represent.
One of these was Joseph Glanvill an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman, well known for his work Sadducismus Triumphatus (1681), which decried scepticism about the existence and supernatural power mainly relating to witchcraft but which also dealt with a collection of seventeenth-century ghost lore. Glanvill argued that the evidence for the existence or otherwise of ghosts should be judged without bias, being guided only by the evidence:-

“Matters of fact well proved ought not to be denied, because we cannot conceive how they can be performed. Nor is it a reasonable method of inference, first to presume the thing impossible, and thence to conclude that the fact cannot be proved. On the contrary, we should judge of the action by the evidence and not the evidence by the measures if our fancies about the action...
Frequency of deceit and fallacy will warrant a greater care and caution in examining; and scrupulously and shyness of assent to things wherein fraud hath been practised, or may in the least degree be suspected: but to conclude, because that an old woman’s fancy abused her, or some knavish fellow put tricks upon the ignorant and timorous; that therefore whole assizes have been a thousand times deceived in judgements upon matters of fact, and numbers of sober persons have been forsworn in things wherein perjury could not advantage them. I say such inferences are as void of reason as they are of charity and good manners”.

Men of Science & Learning
The calls for a qualitative approach to the study of ghosts and apparitions increased throughout the 18th and 19th centuries; In 1727, Daniel Defoe, writing as Andrew Moreton wrote The Secrets of the Invisible World Disclosed or An Universal History of Apparitions. Defoe cautioned his readers not to blindly accept that all apparitions represent the work of supernatural forces but may have more mundane causes and it is only by a process of investigation that they may be distinguished. In the preface to his book he writes:-

“That we may be perfectly easy about this undetermined thing called apparition, I have endeavoured here to bring the thing into a narrow compass and to set it in a true light. I have given you several specimens of real apparitions well attested, and the truth of them so affirmed, that they may be depended upon: If in any of these I am not so well assured of the fact, though they may as certain, yet as I have frankly told you so and adhered to the moral only. But all together may convince the reader of the reason and reality of the thing itself.
On the other hand, I have given you specimens of those amusements and delusions which have been put upon the world of apparitions; and you may see the difference is so notorious, (whether the cheat be political or whimsical, magical or imaginary) that no man can be really deceived that will but make use of the eyes of his understanding, as well as those of his head.”

The 19th century brought about renewed calls for science to take an interest in ghosts and apparitions; in 1819, Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace remembered as one of the greatest scientists of all time wrote his Analytic Theory of Probabilities (Théorie analytique des probabilités) in which he discussed apparitions and the need for careful investigation to be conducted:-

“That 'any case, however apparently incredible, if it be a recurrent case, is as much entitled under the laws of induction, to be a fair valuation'. Determined sceptics may indeed deny that there exists any well authenticated instance of an apparition. But that, at present, can only be a mere matter of opinion, since many persons as competent to judge as themselves maintain the contrary; and in the meantime I will arraign their right to make this objection till they themselves have qualified themselves to do so by a long course of patient and honest inquiry; always remembering that every instance of of error or imposition discovered and adduced, has no positive value whatever in the argument, but as regards that single instance; though it may enforce upon us the necessity of strong evidence and careful investigation...”.

A few scientists were intrigued enough to study some of the phenomena being exhibited at this time. In 1846, the Paris Academy of Sciences examined Angelique Cottin, who had demonstrated the extraordinary ability to cause heavy tables and chairs to move or even overturn in her presence.
Known throughout France as the 'Electric Girl' the scientists were at a loss to explain her abilities but decided that she was charged with an excess of 'electric fluid'. It was some time before the truth was finally revealed that she was in fact moving the table by using her leg muscles. In America, a number of committees were established at different times to study the claims of the Fox Sisters, who for some time had been using a series of raps and other phenomena to contact the ghost of a murdered pedlar at their home in Hydesville, New York State.

In 1848, Catherine Crowe, an English author once more challenged science to conduct proper studies of psychical phenomena in her book The Night Side of Nature. As she saw it, the reason why ignorance about ghosts and other psychic experiences existed was due to the intransigence and arrogance of contemporary science:-

“To minds which can admit nothing but what can be explained and demonstrated, an investigation of this sort must appear perfectly idle, for while on the one hand, the most acute intellect or the most powerful logic can throw little light on the subject, it is at the same time – though I have a confident hope that this will not always be the case – equally irreducible within the present bounds of science. Meanwhile, experience and observation must be our principal if not our only guides...
The Pharisaical scepticism which denies without investigation is quite perilous and much more contemptuous than the blind credulity which accepts all that is taught without enquiry. It is indeed but another form of ignorance assuming to be knowledge. And by investigation I do not mean the hasty, captious, angry notice of an unwelcome fact that too frequently claims the right of pronouncing on a question; but the slow, modest, painstaking examination that is content to wait upon Nature and humbly follow out her disclosures however opposed to preconceived theories or mortifying to human pride. If scientific men could but comprehend how they discredit the science they really profess by their despotic arrogance and exclusive scepticism they would surely, for the sake of that very science they love affect some liberality and candour...
No one who lives can assert the reappearance of the dead is impossible; all he has a right to say is, that he does not believe it and the interrogation that should immediately follow this declaration is “Have you devoted your life to sifting all the evidence that has been adduced on the other side, from the earliest periods of history and tradition?”...
The observation of any phenomena therefore, which enabled us to master the idea, must necessarily be extremely beneficial and it must be remembered that one single thoroughly well established instance of the reappearance of a deceased person would not only have this effect, but it would afford a demonstrative proof..”.

Part 2 Next month - Physical Science Begins Hunting for Ghosts !

© Steve Parsons 2011
www.parascience.org.uk