Sunday 29 March 2009

Ghostly photo makes the news

A ghostly image photographed at a remote Scottish castle has made the news this week.

A story entitled Spooky! Haunting Photo Baffles Ghost Busters was posted on uk.news.yahoo.com. It showed a picture taken in May 2008 at Tantallon Castle, Scotland, in which a figure dressed in old-fashioned clothes appears in an upstairs window. Some believe it is a ghost. Apparently, experts have said the image has not been digitally altered and no one wearing a fancy dress costume was thought to be in the area at the time.

Ghost sceptic Professor Richard Wiseman, who has studied the picture, said: "It is certainly very curious. We ran it by three photographic experts and they said it hadn't been Photoshopped at all. The figure appears to be in period costume, but we know 100% that Tantallon Castle is not the sort of place that has dummies or costumed guides."

The picture was sent to http://www.scienceofhauntings.com/, which invited members of the public to enter their photos of ghosts for analysis. The Tantallon Castle picture - entitled The Ghost in the Castle - was voted most convincing by the public.

This and other photos will be on show at a one-day conference and exhibition called Hauntings: The Science of Ghosts on April 4 at University of Edinburgh. The event starts at 10am and tickets cost £30. For more details, visit: http://www.richardwiseman.com/hauntings2/talks

What do you think the Ghost in the Castle picture shows? Have you seen or photographed a ghost? If so, email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com or leave a comment below?

Links:
http://www.richardwiseman.com/hauntings2/talks
http://www.scienceofhauntings.com/
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090327/tuk-spooky-haunting-photo-baffles-ghost-45dbed5.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/09/ghosts-and-how-to-see-them.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/bad-witchs-guide-to-londons-ghosts.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/09/ghost-not-to-be-sniffed-at.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/ghostly-photograph.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/06/medium-skeptics.html

1 comment:

chilledchimp said...

This sounds brilliant. If it wasn't in Edinburgh and I hadn't heard two of the talks already at UnCon and the Society for Psychical Research I'd be right there. I've just done a course through distant learning with one of the organisers, Caroline Watt, which was excellent. Caroline, pack all this up and do it again in England please!