Ghosts may be more fungi than phantom
Think your house is haunted? You may just have a mould problem.
That’s what one group of researchers believe could be the cause of many spectral sightings.
Shane Rogers, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., is a big fan of ghost stories, and wanted to apply some of his research to the field.
“Hauntings are very widely reported phenomena that are not well-researched,” he said. “They are often reported in older-built structures that may also suffer poor air quality.”
The idea is that certain toxic moulds or fungi, like the rye ergot fungus, are able to cause severe psychosis in people who breathe in the hard-to-detect fumes they project. When the air is contaminated, the brain can play subtle tricks on you — a sudden chill, a movement in the corner of your eye, or potentially other ghastly and hallucinatory illusions.
“Similarly, some people have reported depression, anxiety and other effects from exposure to biological pollutants in indoor air,” Rogers said.
Rogers, along with Thomas O’Rourke and Daniel Schwab, two undergraduates, will be testing the air quality in several notoriously haunted locations in the North Country region of New York State.
One particular location they have their eyes on is the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg. The museum is believed to be haunted by one Madame America Vespucci, a woman who lived with one of the early founders of Ogdensburg. The story goes that she was scorned by other ladies of the town but sought after by local gentlemen. She later died in Paris but her ghost provides a chilling atmosphere for those who visit.
Remington museum curator Laura A. Foster spoke with the Watertown Daily Times, a local paper, and said she welcomes the researchers with open arms. She also said she was reassured that the air-quality reports for all the locations they visit would remain anonymous.
“Unfortunately, there were no flashing lights or whirring mechanisms to signal an exciting collection,” she said. By comparing samples to “non-haunted” locations, Rogers hopes to find what sets these locations apart and find similarities in the mould microbiome between the haunted locations that could point to a less supernatural culprit.
“What I do hope is that we can provide some real clues as to what may lead to some of these phenomena and possibly help people in the process,” he said.