Haunted Theme Parks - True or False?
April 2nd, 2008 by JonA permanent fixture at all theme and amusement parks is the haunted house. From the largest of multi zone theme parks to the smallest of travelling fairs each is bound to have a haunted house, or some kind of paranormal theme ride. There seems to be something about the extraordinary and unexplained that is intrinsically scary, and its only when we can see that light at the end of the tunnel that that terror becomes an afterthought. Ghosts and the paranormal seem to have a particular influence over people in the UK and the USA. A quick look at Google trends shows the UK leading the way in search volume for the term ‘ghosts’.
Theme parks cashing in on this obsession is quite obvious in the UK, I don’t think you’ll need much of a helping hand to think of any. Vampire at Chessington, X at Thorpe, and the regular Halloween events at Alton Towers are all good examples. While the reason that these rides are popular as ’scare’ rides is obvious what intrigues me is the people that seem to start to really believe in the paranormal and claim to have had strange experiences while at theme parks. I dug around in Google and YouTube for a bit and found some fairly interesting material. Soldier on if you dare…
So while looking through YouTube I stumbled across a TV program filmed at Alton Towers a while back, ‘Most Haunted - Alton Towers’. The program is part of a series that travels to supposedly haunted locations around the UK and attempts to prove or disprove the claims. The focus of this program is on the Towers themselves at Alton Towers. There have been several claims of ghost sightings and photographs at the Towers over the years and the aim of the program was to try and find out if there was anything behind these rumours. They set about the task in typical fashion, playing up rumours and trying to build the suspense. The program ends with the team spending the night in the Towers. Of course, the footage is all blurred and filmed in near pitch black with night vision. With night vision on everyone just looks wide eyed and terrified the whole time. Personally I didn’t see anything paranormal at all in the program. One of the presenters was allegedly injured during filming but as you couldn’t see anything happen at all I remain extremely skeptical. The program is well put together but really is just the equivalent of a film for providing proof of paranormal activity. What interests me really are the people that really believe this stuff. And of course the best place to find them is online.
A quick Google search found me this gem - Alton Towers Ghost
This photo interests me as the guy claims;
“I noticed something near the steps, so I zoomed in and immediately saw what appears to be a little boy and i was completely taken aback. Then after looking at the picture more closely, I noticed a very tall man standing next to the little boy.”
I don’t know if its just me but I really can’t see anything in that photo that even closely resembles a person. Just seem to be a rather blotchy photo to me. In typical ghost photo fashion he later says in his blurb;
“Granted, the quality of the picture is very poor as it was taken on my camera phone, and the lighting inside the castle is very poor…”
This almost seems to disqualify the photo before you’ve even seen it, as if to say ‘if you can’t see it it’s just because the quality was bad on the day. It’s there, honest, just a bad photo!” This kind of disclaimer statement seems almost unanimously apparent on all ghost photos that I found. To me it seems that any sighting of a ghost is more in the beholder’s mind that anything. It’s like the people that claim to see the face of Christ in a piece of toast. They want to see it so badly that they make it appear to themselves, despite the lack of real evidence.
Another article I read was about an abandoned theme park at Lake Shawnee in Topeka, Kansas in the USA. The page begins with ridiculous and irrelevant claims of strange things happening, such as;
“Carrillion bells playing, an owl standing in the roadway in broad daylight which took off over my head, the smell of smoke with no fires around, rustlings in the brush behind me as I walked along and a feeling of being watched.”
Quite how any of these things is evidence of the paranormal is beyond me. The rest of the thread seems to be populated by people either making claims to have seen ghosts, or local people rubbishing the idea. You can read it for yourself here.
Apologies for this week’s post turning into a bit of a rant, but I think I have a fairly interesting topic for discussion. I have admittedly gone into looking for paranormal evidence with a distinctly skeptical viewpoint but really what other viewpoint is there to have? Unless these people come back with some real evidence I for one will continue to disbelieve all of it. Perhaps some of you have had a paranormal experience and want to share it? We’re always open for debate here at Play and Stay so let us know!
Technorati Tags: alton towers, alton towers ghost, ghosts, haunted theme park, lake shawnee, most haunted
