Haunted Object Scanning Caught My Attention
As I sat today, sipping coffee and thumbing through my Facebook feed I stumbled on a small post from the Society for Psychical Research. Actually it was more of a re-post in that it was referring to a post from Week in Weird where the Travelling Museum of the Paranormal & Occult were attempting what they claim to be the worlds first haunted object 3D scanning project. However their attempts began with some odd problems, in that the object in question ‘Billy’ didn’t appear to ‘want’ to be scanned. That was their response to the software having a little trouble to begin scanning and displaying a probable object (unseen by us) in front of the haunted object. This prevented the team from scanning the object in order to print a 3D copy.
The Idol of Nightmares also known as ‘Billy’ was said to be against the scanning and 3D printing process, so the team conducted a little EVP with some dramatic responses before conducting negotiations to explain to the idol that all would be well.
Of course following a long negotiation apartently they managed to successfully scan the idol and print off a smaller 3D version of the idol.
This little story sparked a touch of interest for me, it didn’t just mention haunted objects, but also a probable issue that related to technology affected by the paranormal. Both of these elements of the paranormal always get me thinking, trying to really figure out if objects could become almost imprinted by spiritual energy or even consciousness; or if they had the ability to cause technology to malfunction.
Object Storage or Object Trigger
The interesting thing about haunted objects is that they are supposedly objects that appear to contain some kind of spiritual energy from a previous encounter in their history. This concept is no doubt based on the Stone Tape Theory although most definitely pre-dates it as there are many stories of strange mystical objects related to spirits throughout time.
However I think we need to at least contemplate other options on topics such as these, after all we often forget to factor in the weird and wonderful capabilities of our own minds. This is often forgotten as we prefer to side with classical sciences link to the physical, the measurable. So, we make the assumption that the ‘energy’ from a probable spiritual event or traumatic event some how becomes imprinted on the object holding information there forgotten ever. Information which is then released under the right circumstances. All of which is great until we realise the inconsistencies in this approach especially when the true energy required to imprint information on an object maybe much more than we realise, thus causing issue around this particular approach.
However all that said and done, people still experience things and often those experiences can match others too. So, there must be some kind of information transfer occurring somehow in order for this all to take place. Question is how?
One concept that I have always thought could make sense is that these objects are actually information triggers in that they enable our minds to locate information regarding the object including the probable spiritual activity related to it. This could occur in number of ways; we already knew the information, but didn’t remember it until seeing the object and it triggered it; or seeing the object allows us to connect to a collective unconscious where we can obtain the information from. A bit like googling a picture so to speak. Mind Googling if you will.
Of course the concept of our unconscious minds searching the minds of others for information is a little radical, but there is quite a bit of data to support the possibility of telepathic interaction. Throw in a little of Einstein’s ‘Spooky Action at a Distance’ or Quantum Entanglement and it all becomes a little more possible. It would certainly give us more explanation around this phenomena and how mediums can tap into that information too.
Although it does then stabilise the most likely fact that we seem to be able to achieve much of our access to this information without the existence of spirits, but its mostly possible through the aspects of intention, belief and faith. Without which those that can would not believe in their own abilities to achieve access to the information. This for me is equally as exciting as proving the survival of consciousness as it begins to place our own abilities and the links between us all on a whole new level.
The Technology Bit
Let’s jump back to the original story that I read today, the team were trying to scan a haunted object, the Idol of Nightmares, in order to create a 3D print of it. I know they said it didn’t appear to want to be scanned, but that was them drawing conclusions from limited data. Let’s bear in mind that this was a home scanning kit with most likely reasonable costing hardware and software. These kind of technologies may do a good job, but just because it fails to scan or in this case locates an oddity directly in front of the camera, doesn’t mean its paranormal. Obviously I dont have all the data here regarding what occurred and what was attempted by the team and couldn’t make a possible assessment on that basis. However as the article states these objects threw up a number of issues with the technology they were using. I would be interested in how some of these issues were addressed initially in order to ascertain them as being paranormal in origin.
Is it possible that given the objects they were trying to scan and by knowing their back stories they could have made associated assumptions to the source of the issues, linking them to something a little more spooky?
An obvious test would be to send a number of objects to a neutral person and ask them to scan them without an understanding of the objects back story. Would the same issues occur? If they did, would they be able to come to the same conclusions indicating that the Idol didn’t want to be scanned due to the fact it didn’t understand the process? I think perhaps not, but then I’ve not met ‘Billy’ have I!
This particular story has raised some very interesting points regarding the use of technology within the paranormal field for me. One particular comment made during the video related to this story was something along the lines of; ‘what have we let loose on the internet’. Although this appears particularly drama orientated, there is an interesting spin to it too. If this is all based on information then by scanning the Idol and placing the data on the internet, perhaps they have unleashed something onto the cloud we could all tap into!
Of course in regards to ‘Billy’ the next step I’m guessing would be to see if the 3D printout of the Idol presents paranormal activity too. That at least would suggest that recreating the haunted object in this manner would also recreate the linked energy somehow wouldn’t it? In theory perhaps, but equally as the smaller recreation generates the same probable visual triggers as the original then it could be suggested that this could be the reason paranormal activity is found in the associated object.
Oddly this little project by the team from the Travelling Museum reminds a little of the Philip Experiment, but perhaps a modern day approach using technology. The members of the Philip Experiment imagined a character to communicate with, whilst in this instance the group are creating a replica of a known haunted object. Perhaps the Travelling Museum were not seeking communication from the replica, but I like the idea that this could work in that way.
Future Possibilities
These kind of ideas to utilise new technology in different ways presents some excellent possibilities for the future of paranormal investigation and understanding in my opinion. I am a huge fan of the old school approaches, but equally believe we need to try many new ways too.
It was only this week that Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe was on Marc Richardson’s Paranormal Radio Show and we briefly discussed the use of some very expensive glasses that he can use to track the movement of the eyes to understand what they are doing during a paranormal investigation. These could help identify probable triggers for telepathic interaction moving forwards. There are also so many more options coming into play that can allow us to gather import detailed information on the elements present during an investigaiton. These even include some cheaper versions of devices that can monitor basic brain waves, heart monitors, temperature, light and so much more. As the prices of such devices continue to come down we should be investing and gathering the data for continued analysis.
In my opinion we should continue to use the old methods, but begin to capture better data related to them and then incorporate more modern methods in too.
The future is all about the data and drawing an understanding from it. With the abundance of teams out there and technology available to us all, which also keeps us all in contact through things such as social media, we have the ability to work towards our common goal.
Ashley Knibb 
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