In practically every city in the world there is a house pointed out by locals as “haunted.” Reports of furniture moving on its own, ghostly apparitions, strange noises and even voices from the afterlife abound. Yet despite the supposed evidence offered by many pseudoexperts, the vast majority of these cases turn out to be false.
It is undeniable that news of strange situations in abandoned houses, generally related to the paranormal, attract the attention of the media and the public. Among these, perhaps the most common is the claim that a house is “haunted.” For this to happen, it is enough to have one or more witnesses who claim to have seen something strange inside or near the property. But the issue is far more complicated...
The Haunted Houses
A very common manifestation in supposedly haunted houses is the appearance of a face or human figure “printed” on wallpaper or directly on walls. They can often also be seen (very clearly) in damp stains on ceilings or floors. While defenders of the paranormal might claim these are the faces of ancient inhabitants who died under confusing or unjust circumstances, or even saints or virgins, the explanation is actually much simpler.
The human brain is very (really, very) efficient at recognizing faces. Seeing someone once is enough to recognize them years later. We can even identify a face in poor lighting or at unusual angles. This ability, part of human nature and the mechanism that lets us identify our fellow humans, is called pareidolia. This same ability makes us see faces where there are none — in stains, clouds, and other random patterns.
Regarding the strange sounds heard in most investigated houses, especially the oldest ones, which are often attributed to dragging feet, clinking chains, or who knows what terrifying beyond-the-grave situation, they are usually nothing more than the sounds produced by the house's own structure.
These houses are often decades old, and many are built of wood. The effects of time, humidity, and temperature changes cause small relative movements between the boards or panels that form their walls or floors, generating creaks and groans. If you are expecting an agonizing scream or a whispering voice, it is easy to mistake the creak of a nail in a plank or the rubbing of two pieces for something from “the other side.” The wind often plays a role in these unsettling noises as well.
https://old.neoteo.com/el-sindrome-del-verdadero-creyente/The Case of the Catfish
A particularly famous case occurred in an apartment block in the Chinese province of GuangXi. For ten years, strange noises drove all tenants to flee, convinced the building was haunted. However, as later discovered, the sounds came from “catfish” living in the sewers beneath the building.
Whenever one of these stories appears in a newspaper or on television, some “expert” steps forward to certify the authenticity of the apparitions. These professionals often present themselves surrounded by a (large) collection of titles issued by institutes or academies with grand names, creating an aura of competence. Yet no official or legal university worldwide offers a degree called “Bachelor's degree in clairvoyance” or “Master's degree in telekinesis,” so these titles are generally apocryphal or worth no more than the paper they are printed on.
The Amityville House
Another extremely famous case, even brought to the movies, is that of Amityville. The story begins on November 13, 1974, when the Suffolk County police received a call that would give rise to a series of rumors and urban legends. Basically, it involved the murder of members of a family, but the addition of fraudulent information turned the story into an urban legend. Not all frauds came from parapsychological investigation; there were also invented forensic data, and it's easily demonstrable.
One of the most famous frauds of the case is that of “the seventh body.” Ric Osuna, author of the book La noche en que murieron los DeFeo, included in his work a photo of the crime scene in which the youngest daughter of the family appears with a black eye and bleeding from the nose. However, the girl suffered none of those injuries.
Witnesses who report such events can be divided into two large groups: those who honestly believe what they say but have mistaken a perfectly explainable event for something paranormal; and those who lie outright to gain media attention, peer recognition, or economic benefit.
More Refuted Haunted House Cases
In general, the evidence provided by witnesses does not hold up to even the slightest analysis. Take, for example, a famous haunted house in the town of General Madariaga, Argentina, which was exhaustively investigated by Ladislao Enrique Márquez, then director of the CAIRP (Centro Argentino para la Investigación y Refutación de la Pseudociencia – Argentine Center for the Investigation and Refutation of Pseudoscience).
One of the main witnesses was Susy López, a professional in “divinatory arts,” who had provided four pieces of evidence of the house's “haunting”: a candle that went out, some dirt falling from the ceiling, a flying floor mop, and a fallen nightstand. Given the house's precarious structure, the first two facts were practically irrelevant, so Márquez focused on the last two.
As for the “flight of a floor mop,” the witness never saw where it came from and therefore could not affirm or deny whether someone threw it. Notably, this “observation” coincided with the days of greatest public commotion in the house.
The most interesting part was the nightstand. The witness said she had taken control measures to prevent anyone from intentionally tipping the nightstand (which was between two beds). She tied a thread to the edges of both beds, and although no one touched the thread, the table still fell.
And now comes the best part: when Márquez asked López what happened after she tied the thread, she replied, “I went home and when I came back the next day, the table had fallen and the thread was the same.” The researcher asked, “So you didn't see when the little table fell?” López answered, “No.” Márquez insisted, “What position was the little table left in?” López: “Well, actually, I didn't see it because when I arrived they had already put it back in place.”
This example suffices. It is not an isolated case of an unhelpful witness; rather, most witnesses report events that were seen by others, or that they assume or have heard about, but in almost no case is there concrete evidence of what happened.
The existence of a legion of believers is not enough to make something real. In the case of haunted houses, despite hundreds of cases, nothing has ever been found to prove the veracity of the phenomenon. However, there have been countless instances where the events were proven to be due to far more earthly causes, or to be outright fraud.
