By now, I’m sure most of you have seen some of the coverage (largest picture I could find) of the ‘ghost sighting’ at the Hampton court palace in England that was captured on tape. The tape has been released only yesterday, but was filmed in October, according to this report.
Any explanations?
Starting points are the delay of the release from the actual sighting date as well as the lack of the purported video (I can’t find it online).
Simplest explanation is usually the correct one. It’s a guy in a robe with a white mask. 25.95 from your local costume hire.
Probably. It’s frightening just how many media outlets are running this story (and as almost factual), but I’m not surprised by that.
Just because you can’t find the video online doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist; they showed it on the news here last night.
It looked very weird. The “robed figure” seemed to fade in and out, so that in some frames you could see it and some frames not. Having said that, it was a very jerky image as CCTV tends to be, and was completely inconclusive.
I can’t see anything wrong with running the story as factual, though. It is factual. It’s just that nobody knows, or is prepared to admit, what the tape shows.
Are you saying that the door closer being a ghost is a fact? I’ve read 10-12 newspaper articles online and while some of them interview ‘paranormal’ experts who say the event substantiates their work, no newspaper cites any skeptics.
Huh. I’ve noticed that if you accidentally double expose some film, you get the same kind of figure. I have a double exposure function on my camera. I wonder if the same sort of thing could happen with video.
Of course not, I’m saying the tape is real and that it shows what it shows. I’m sure we can all guess the most likely explanation, and I wouldn’t put any money on the views of ‘paranormal’ experts. The statements made by staff at the palace are pretty much what you’d expect, but beyond that I don’t read anything swivelled eyed in the reports you’ve cited.
Which of the articles you’ve read online are from sources you’d normally trust? I had a look through the Google list and several did quote Dr Richard Wiseman, describing him as a sceptic who doesn’t believe in ghosts, but said that as hoaxes go it’s a good one.
Most ghost “sightings” talk about ghosts walking through walls and interacting with furniture etc long since gone. Yet here we have a ‘ghost’ playing with fire doors. :dubious: Hardly historic.
Hampton Court Palace have two tourist attractions to promote this Christmas.
:dubious:
My money is on a staff member fooling around, then this being picked up and promoted by the publicity officer. Then all it takes is a slow day in the News dept…
Even if you accept the possible existance of ghosts, you have to accept they are somewhat rare.
So what happens more often in the world, living humans walking through doorways, or ghosts?
Has anyone found a copy of the picture that hasn’t been Jpegged to death? The large image linked to by Gyan9, develops a rectangular grid of noise after only a couple applications of Photoshop’s Sharpen filter. I was hoping for a satanic message, or hidden alien moonbase, but the photo just turns into noise.
My question is why would a ghost have to use the doorknob anyway (as he appears to be reaching for it or pushing the door open).
If it is a ghost…well then give him some privacy. He merely wanted some fresh air. And after a moldy old castle…well I’d say he deserves it 
Why would a ghost have to open the door at all? Couldn’t he just walk through it?
And the video was taken during October you say? Could it have possible been, you know, toward the end of October? When it would be perfectly reasonable for someone to dress up in a period costume?
The doors don’t have knobs, they’re a set of those fire doors with horizontal bars that you push down to open. In the full clip they showed on the news he pushed and pulled the doors open and closed a few times (except that in some frames the doorway was empty, so presumably the hoaxer was dodging back and forth in and out of view).
FWIW, Hallowe’en isn’t that big a deal over here, at least not in the way the whole country dresses up in costumes. I’d expect a person dressed as Skeletor would probably get noticed.
Funny, he doesn’t look like a Moononite.
Whether or not a ghost uses a doorknob, though, depends on what you believe ghosts are. Are they psychic recordings of the deceased as they go through the tortured rituals of their former lives? Definitely doorknobs. Are they the disembodied spirits of the former occupants, tied to the house in a dismal afterlife, compelled to haunt their domicile? Probably not doorknobs. Are they hallucinations of the disordered mind? Could be doorknobs, could be not. Is it a guy in a cheap mack and some clown paint sneaking a smoke out the back door? Definitely doorknobs.
FISH
I’d like to see the video before making any calls, but a guy in costume in a doorway does not sound the least bit impressive. The photo is vaguly creepy but that doesn’t mean it’s supernatural.
And of course the qoute about the face being “not quite human” could easily be applied to Micheal Jackson, and he’s very much alive…at least I think he is. How does one test for zombification?
Seen the video on TV. It looks like your typical crappy CCTV footage of some guy in a mask and sheet opening and then closing a fire door.
Mys-TEEEE-rious! <waggles fingers>
I have no trouble believing it could be real.
Ghosts have been sighted for thousands of years, and recently hundreds of them have been captured on film. True, there are fakes, but most are just unexplainable. To dismiss the possibility of Ghosts is irrational in view of the evidence available.
When I was in the Navy we visited an Island on which an old fortress was built. It was rumored that the prison cell had a Ghost living in it. A prisoner that had died there.
Although I didn’t see any Ghost when I entered the old cell, I felt a large drop in the temperature. It was over a 100 outside and so cold inside I wished for a sweater.
Love
. . . and Madonna’s not a natural blonde. Next stunner, please?
Well, I have lived in haunted houses. I know ghosts are real. Some people just are not able to see them for various reasons. I don’t want to get into a discussion of astral planes and so on, I just believe that beings other than humans exist. Some people are not receptive to this idea and I think that skepticism prevents them from seeing ghosts.
I have also visited Hampton Court Palace. Interesting place, but not a “hot spot” for tourists, unless you are into that kind of thing. So I DO NOT buy the idea that this ghost is a ploy to attract more tourists. There are enough other places in England to visit that are haunted, if that is all the tourist is looking for. I just don’t think that someone who would normally NOT go to Hampton Court Palace would decide to do so just because of a ghost. Too farfetched.
When I saw the video, my first thought was “That’s Michael Jackson!”
Did anyone else note a resemblance?
PS: The video was shown tonight [sub][sub]on the Fox news channel[/sub][/sub] *Damn, caught watching Fox.
