Surely though, once a phenomenon is shown to be dependent on the expectations of the observer, it raises severe doubts as to whether the entire thing isn't simply a trick of the mind altogether.

One thing that I've always found interesting is the suggestion that our brains are constantly making educated guesses about what reality is, based on the fact that our senses are too slow for us to actually be observing it in the present. Basically, we should have a lag between what is actually happening in reality and our brain's ability to take in and process that information. Our reflexes should be crappier than they are... but then, if that remained the case, then we'd likely be killed by predators and/or really suck at sports.

We're only talking about fractions of a second here, but still it would mean that what we see as the present is really an illusion created by our brains based on the last information it had... It's a guess. Optical illusions are accomplished when you are able to make the brain guess wrong. It's possible that stop-motion animation as well as "uncanny valley" creations look "creepy" because they aren't following the nuances that the brain anticipates based on real life... they're constantly slightly at odds with our perception of what reality should be.

Add to this the brains ability to do something as common as working real world stimuli, such as an alarm clock or ringing phone, into the narrative structure of a sleeping person's dreams, and you begin to realize how hard the brain is constantly striving to create a reality around us based on our preset expectations. When the brain becomes a bit less rational, it can create totally believable hallucinations in people (if you've ever visited a patient on morphine or other strong drug you've probably heard bizarre tales from them. My father was totally convinced that the nursing staff was rehearsing a big broadway show at nights in the hallway outside his room.)

So really, at that point, one has to wonder if all of this stuff isn't completely in the mind... or at the very least, isn't just some set of environmental conditions that are triggering some mental reactions in people.

By the way, here's an article on the whole "seeing a fraction of a second into the future" theory:
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/080602-foresee-future.html




I just read the account of the Cock Lane stuff on wikipedia. It is kind of amazing that something so simple as supposed "mysterious scratching" would be blown up to such a great degree. I don't think it's a coincidence that it was tied to public disapproval of a man having a relationship with his dead wife's sister, however. Never hurts to take something that's just this side of scandalous and add that missing piece that makes it clearly over the line... even if the evidence of that missing piece is as flimsy as "ghostly testimony".

Kind of the way immigrants used to be rumored to be vampires or ghouls or spread plague... it's a good excuse to lash out at a group the public wanted to lash out at anyway, but needed a "reason", no matter how unreasonable.




Yes. I probably should have moved the above topic down here instead, but this whole "quote" response thing is still tricky for me.