Conference hydra::dejavu

759.0. "HI-Tech Paranormal Events" by MARKER::KALLIS (Don't confuse `want' and `need.') Thu Jun 09 1988 09:21

6/8/88 VNS>-  
                              -<6/8/88 VNS>-  
                              
    
    The following was extracted from VNS:
    
    	    Psychic experts probe strange case of spooky Amstrad	
       ----------------------------------------------------	   
    	                                                           
                         GHOST IN THE MACHINE	
       	                 --------------------	   
    Phantoms seem to be keeping abreast of computing developments in
    the	UK by haunting them.  In the latest of a series
    of ghostly visitations, an Amstrad 1512, lying quietly in
    a Stockport architect's office, suddenly burst into
    supernatural activity, leaving a cleaner suffering from the	   
    shivers on two nights.  Ken Hughes, editor of
    Macclesfield-based micro magazine PCA, says	the architect bowed
    to pressure from frightened staff and got rid of the spooky
    computer, giving it to Hughes.  "It started in January after
    the architect had had the computer for two weeks", says
    Hughes. "The cleaner went to turn the monitor off and found
    that it already was. It was also turned off at the socket".	   
    "Four days later she noticed it glowing again, only this time there
    was a feint yellow line around the screen. When she went
    to switch it off she found the plug was out".
    
    The computer, which is now being investigated by experts
    in psychic phenomena, has since added to its repertoire of eerie stunts
    by giving off sounds like human groans, emitting an unearthly
    incandescent glow, projecting images without using software,
    and displaying garbled messages.
    
    	    Hughes has stripped the computer down in an effort to find
    the errant spirit, and has also found further evidence of the
    machine's ghostly afterlife.
    
    "I took it away from the offices which are close to Manchester
    airport so I could be sure it wasn't picking up any inductive power 
    from the airport's radar and radio installations".
    "Then I set it up in a spare photo laboratory with a video camera
    trained on it and left the camera running". "At the beginning of
    march it went through its startup routine when it was disconnected
    and the mains unplugged", says Hughes.
    
    	    Hughes had also taken the added precaution of removing the
    time clock  batteries from the machine.  On May 10, the PC's disk 
    drive lights flashed on and off,even though there were no disks 
    in the machine, and a string of characters flashed across the screen.
    
    	    Maurice Gross, chairman of the Society for Psychic Research,
    claims that the Stockport phenomenon is not the first case of a
    computer  passing over to the Other Side.  He says the society is 
    investigating a computer belonging to an economics tutor called 
    Ken Webster, which is said to have produced messages from a 16th 
    century chaplain who lived at an Oxford college. "The chaplain's name was Harden, who had once existed but
    has been dead for 400 years", says Gross. "Messages would appear
    on the screen relating to contemporary moral issues that also contained
    historically accurate information about himself and his times".
    The first example ofspiritual interest in high tech occurred
    in 1978 when Rank Xerox called in ghost-busters to clear up
    the mystery of an unhappy 'poltergeist' at its Uxbridge headquarters.
    
    	    Gross thinks poltergeist activity is one of several possible
    explanations for the Amstrad's behaviour.  "Poltergeist phenomena 
    do affect computers. There's a lot more going on in the universe 
    than we understand", he says.
    
                                        #####
    
    

    Despite Gross' statement, the computer's antics do not fit the
    definition of a poltergeist -- specifically it has "acted up"
    for two different owners, and apparently (if I read that right)
    on its own with no-one around but captured on video tape.
    
    If Hughes was nearby during the videotaped events then we might
    guess that the original occurances in the architects office were
    due to natural phenomena (e.g., the effects of a misaligned microwave
    phone link in the area), while the later occurances were poltergeist
    activity.  There are theories about psychic phenomena which propose
    that they are more likely to take place if the experient can
    "displace responsibility" (blame something/one else) for it, i.e.,
    the ghost in the computer.
    
    Otherwise this would have to be classed as a haunting.
    
    (I am assuming, for sake of argument, that this report is an accurate
    account of Hughes's experience and that no facts of great significance
    have been left out).
    
    					Topher

    RE: .0
    
    I suspect a hidden power supply, a la the old perpetual motion machine
    schtick.
    
    
    John M.

RE: .2 (John M.)
    
    Given only the available information, I would suspect the accuracy
    of the report (all of which comes from Hughes) way before I would
    suspect clever chicanery -- its much easier to lie about something
    than to fake it.
    
    					Topher

    Re above:
    
    As I see it, there are five possibilities:
    
    1) The reports are accurate and the reason's paranormal.
    
    2) The reports are accurate and the reason's normal, but not understood
       (e.g., radar interference).
    
    3) The reports are accurate, but the witness is being hoaxed (e.g.,
       student pranks or equivalent).
    
    4) The reports are inaccurate, but unintentionally so (e.g. witness
       sees one thing and thinks something else is going on).
    
    5) The reports are inaccurate, intentionally.           
    
    A hidden power supply, as per John, would imply alternatives 3 or
    5.  
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    RE: .4 (Steve)
    
    > A hidden power supply, as per John, would imply alternatives 3 or 5.
    <
    
    
    Sir, I do NOT have a hidden power supply!
    
    
    John M.

    Re .5 (John):
    
    Oh, sorry, O Anchovy.  I thought I'd heard you bought a crystal.
    ;-)
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    
    The words 'crystal balls' are coming to mind right now.
    
    Oh.....never mind.
    
    Cindy

    
    RE: .7
    
    Why not?  That way, people could see me coming.
    
    
    John M.

Re: .8


	But you wouldn't be riding a horse!


Bob