Vsauce, I’m R.L. Stine and I see you’ve let yourself into my home...and found my latest
work. I’d appreciate it if you’d put that back. You have no idea how dangerous this
book is. Inside it, the things that are written, are real. What have you done? Oh no, it’s
already too late. You’re on your own.
Vsauce! I’m Jake and I don’t really know why I was in that room, everything is a bit
hazy, but what I do know is that something paranormal is going on. Have you noticed)
What...what is that?! Is that a midcentury basket weave chair? Oh, it’s beautiful.
Now...where were we? Ah yes, the paranormal! Now before we begin our investigation lets
clarify the difference between Supernatural and Paranormal. Supernatural is a phenomenon
that is beyond our ability to understand and doesn’t fit within natural law. Paranormal
on the other hand is a phenomenon that goes beyond what we consider normal and hasn’t
been scientifically understood...yet. An example, germ theory, that is how germs cause disease,
was thought to be paranormal in the 1700s because scientists didn’t understand how
it worked. Now, according to my notes, what we supposedly have here is a cursed ventriloquist’s
dummy named Slappy that is somewhere in this house. Let me guess: it’s Slappy that is
making that noise? Let’s apply Occam’s Razor for a second. It’s a philosophical
principal, that states that the simplest, the least extraordinary, of two ideas is usually
the one that is correct. If you hear hooves behind you, think horses, not zebras. So is
it an evil dummy that has come to life and is making that ruckus? Or is the noise being
made by an old falling apart house? Or is it even more straightforward than that? For
example, do you know about Mr. Splitfoot? No? Well, let me tell you the story of the
Fox Sisters. In 1848, in Hydesville a small hamlet in New York, there was the Fox family
with their 3 daughters: Maggie, Kate and Leah. For months there had been strange knocking
in the house and beds shaking. On the night of March 31st, the day before April Fools,
Kate decided to communicate with the spirit she called Mr. Splitfoot. She did this by
clapping three times. And a few seconds later, 3 knocks were heard coming from the walls.
3 knocks are heard down the hall, I’m sure that was uh...just a coincidence. Which the
Foxs also checked for. They asked Mr. Splitfoot the ages of the sisters. And he correctly
knocked out their ages. After more questioning it was discovered that Splitfoot was actually
the spirit of a man who had been murdered in that very house. Success was quick for
the Fox Sisters. They helped kickstart the spiritualism movement and traveled around
the world communicating with spirits in seances. Then in 1888, not being able to bear the weight
of guilt, Maggie admitted that it had all been a lie. What started as the girls banging
on the floor with an apple tied to string, evolved into them cracking their toe joints
to simulate knocking. In the end it wasn’t a spirit or something equally paranormal,
it was just normal. Just like the knocking we were hearing before was an old house making
noise. See, there’s nothing here. Alright, I get it. Very funny. Open the door now. Come
on, open the door. Hello? Is there anyone in here? Sl...Slappy? JSlappy...if you’re
really here...make a sign.
Peek-a-boo!
Um...Hi. I...don’t really know what just happened in here but I think I have a theory
or, well, really it’s more of a suggestion. In 1977, scientist Michael O’Mahoney and
the BBC conducted an experiment. They told viewers that they had created a way to transmit
smells through sound. They were going to transmit a country smell and after playing a tone for
10 seconds the experiment was over and viewers were told to call in and describe their experience.
Over 170 people said they could smell hay, grass, fruit, and flowers. But of course,
you can’t send smells through a television. What the study showed was that the power of
expectation, of suggestion, was powerful. And this too plays into the paranormal. If
we expect something, even if we aren’t consciously thinking it, we can create that reality. Like
being trapped in a room with the idea of a sentient ventriloquist's dummy. Let’s try
something. Here take a photo of me. How convenient you just happened to have a polaroid camera.
The power of suggestion is even more persuasive when we add a visual element to it. It could
be as simple as sneakily pressing your thumb over the subject in a photo while the photo
is still developing. The heat of your finger creates a kind of halo effect around the person’s
head. But what if you could actually capture spirits on camera? Well, that’s where William
H. Mumler comes in. William Mumler was a well known spirit photographer during the 1860s
and 70s. His most famous photo being of Mrs. Lincoln with the ghost of her husband President
Lincoln. His photos were proven to be fake when it was noticed that some of the spirits
in his images were found to be still alive. Now, it might seem pretty obvious to us now
how easy it would be to create a photo like this, but at the time photography had only
been around for about 30 years, since 1839. Folks were easily fooled with thinking the
spirit in the photo with them was a loved one because they only had their memory to
go by. People generally didn’t have personal photos at this point in time. But let’s
move to something more recent...something that wasn’t a hoax. On June 15th, 2007 a
deputy at a courthouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico saw a ghost on the surveillance video. You
can actually see it right here. It’s the glowing object moving across the screen. Paranormal
Investigator Benjamin Radford went to try and solve just what exactly it was. J After
exploring a few different theories the ghost turned out to be...a bug. Radford was able
to recreate the sighting by having a ladybug run across the camera lens. Again, Occam’s
Razor. Why do our minds jump to the paranormal instead of just normal? In psychologist Richard
Wiseman’s book Paranormality: Why we see what isn’t there he gives an example. Look
at this symbol. What is it of? If we place an A and C on either side it becomes a B but
if we put 12 and 14 around it becomes 13. Or it could just be a random symbol. We tend
to infer meaning when maybe there really isn’t any. As Wiseman states, “Given the right
context, people are skilled at instantly and unconsciously seeing meaning in a meaningless
shape.” Ah, yes our photo! Let’s see if we captured anything “paranormal” in it.
Ok, seriously, what is happening?! There’s a dummy in that photo. Look at it! What? What
do you mean he’s not in it? Ok...am I crazy? I mean, I’m seeing a living dummy, I can’t
remember much from before you showed up and...I feel like there is a giant weight on my chest...like
I can’t breathe. Wait! I know exactly what is happening! The Nightmare. This 1781 painting
by Henry Fuseli depicts exactly what it’s titled, a nightmare. We have an incubus, a
demon, also the counterpart to the Succubus, sitting on a woman’s chest and a horse looking
on. This painting also depicts something else. Something can happen when falling asleep or
when waking up. You actually might have experienced this yourself. You realize you can’t move
or talk. You’re trapped in your own body and you might feel a weight on your chest
and start to see things that aren’t there. Sleep paralysis was considered to be the work
of demons which explains Fuseli’s painting. However, what was actually happening was this:
there are four stages to sleep. In stage 1, when you first fall asleep, you generally
have two types of hallucinations at this point: hypnagogic imagery, which happens when you’re
going to sleep, and hypnopompic, which happens when you’re waking up. After going through
all the stages you enter REM sleep and begin to dream. At this point to keep you from acting
out the dream and flapping about your limbs, your brainstem blocks your body from moving...making
you temporarily paralyzed. Your brain can sometimes get confused, causing you to experience
hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations while also experiencing the paralyses of REM
sleep. So that must be what’s happening, this is all just me hallucinating things while
having sleep paralysis. Slappy is my incubus, and you’re the horse - just watching in
the shadows. This also explains why I don’t remember anything before you showing up. So
that should be it, right? 3 Paranormal phenomena. What? What do you mean there are 4? We covered
the Fox Sisters, Paranormal photography and sleep paralysis. Then what’s the fourth?...wait...let
me see the book. This can’t be happening. No no no no no. Because if it is, then that
means “that this whole thing has just been the fourth story, Jake says as he realizes
that he was part of the book the entire time. What he didn’t realize was Slappy creeping
up behind him.” Run! Doorsl locked! Windows...how do these open?!
Your friend over there is a real...dummy. You should probably run now. Boo!
Now, now, it’s OK. It is just a story. But I really wish you had listened to me. Once
you open the book and let the story out, it changes. You become part of the story. Jake
found the book first and now you’ve been written in as well. It’s time to go into
the book. And, as always, thanks for reading.