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SKEPTOID BLOG:

A Ghost Upon the Stair...

by Mike Weaver

July 31, 2014

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Donate It seems that a paranormal research group, Sefton Paranormal Investigations, claim to have recorded a video of a ghost upon a staircase at Stanley Palace in Chester, Cheshire, England. Have they finally, at long last, captured the elusive proof of ghosts I have longed for? Let’s take a look.

This report came to me via both the Mirror and the Chester Chronicle. They both share the video via their own sites, but you can also view it here on Youtube.



Take a look at the video.

Here are some screenshots I took off of the YouTube video:



This shot shows the scene prior to the apparition.



This is the apparition in question. I like the helpful “Look here” marker, by the way. I added the red circle. This is the best view of the apparition I could find in the segment.

I’m not convinced that the image is that of a specter. A few things come to mind as I viewed the video.

First, this video is running at ¼ speed. The image is on screen for maybe a second, in real time. Second, the camera is either in an infrared (IR) mode or a very-low-light mode. I’m leaning towards IR. Note the dust motes around the camera, and how bright they are when they angle just right to reflect back the light source. Third, the image is very indistinct, even at full screen sizes.



This is the biggest I could get it.

Alas, I don’t think we’ve found our proof. There’s just not enough to go on here, the only honest answer is that I don’t know what’s in the video. I can, however, speculate.

With the slowed down playback, the dust and lighting conditions, and the blurry, blobby image, this is set up to be ripe for pareidolia. There’s no good way to tell how close or far the image is. It could be very close to the lens or behind the stair rail. While there are some superficial similarities to a human-like form, it is important to note that this form, faces in particular, are the single most easily recognized, and misidentified, pattern our brains can handle. We can see faces in random noise or anything else, or nearly so.

It can be a bit creepy, though, that blown up image"like glowing eyes joined together, staring out of the screen. Best I wrap this up and clear the images from my monitors. What do you think this is? I would love to hear y’all’s thoughts.

Be well.

by Mike Weaver

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