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I really enjoyed this. Amazing how easy it is to dupe people with a haunted tale and a ghostly mirror image. That exposes THIS ‘ghost’ but there a lot more out there that aren’t so easily explained or revealed!
Fascinating viewing nontheless.
LC x
We’ve all heard the term “smoke and mirrors.” But we seldom see a thorough demonstration. That is, of course, until now. The lay-out of the house and step-by-step explanation of the scam was fantastic. Like detectives recreating the scene of the crime, you thoroughly debunk any validity to the notion of ghostly apparitions. This scam is over 100 years old and is still being used to day. More people need to know about this site.
That was pretty awesome, I need some glass…. Then it’ll be time to do what I do best…. FREAKING PEOPLE OUT(!!)
I never believed it when i saw it … even though i do believe in ghosts
That is very clever
Yet another scam I can pull off with my friends :L
Cool! Very interesting
Ha ha love it! I’m gonna try and do this for Halloween!
@JohnK – I disagree. I don’t think this one piece of evidence makes every single ghost apparition someone sees a fake. My brother-in-law lived in a haunted house that was built on what was once a school. He SAW a ghost and I’m pretty sure he didn’t have any fake mirrors or anything anywhere.
This video exposes some scam ghost stories around, sure it does, but not all. There is a still a hell of a lot of unexplained phenomena out there and I’m an open-minded skeptic.
LC x
Awsome demo, surprised they didnt try to wool eye us like this on the Most Haunted shows. This clip was very good, not scary enough for me though, have actually seen much worse ………… Or perhaps i only thought i saw…..
Woah, that’s amazing stuff, scared the bejeezus out of me! x
mmmmmmmm, agree with lady Claire, the outcome of this was controlled and had a predicted outcome to create evidence however not all experiences can be explained. I know a good friend who is a decent and honest person who see’s spirits, she doesn’t exploit it infact she hardly speaks of it because of the stigma!
freaked the hell out of me when i first saw the girl, partially because my computer decided to speed up a little so she moved super quick, very clever though, wouldnt have thought of using glass and lights to do something like that.
Nicely explained! I was completely absorbed and though not easily spooked usually but I nearly hit the ceiling when my beautiful cat George put one heavy paw on my leg. Impressive work as always. Thank you!
That explains a lot of the common ghost videos on youtube! its actually quite simple but very effective..
haha yes very good, i was thinking it was camera trick like most, silly me i need to do more research on illusions.
Not scary but a nice attemp though Derren, obviously contrived before it was even revealed as the scam one. Stop making me think of Most Farted I cant stop giggling now!!!!!!! I think I will go and watch it for a good laugh xx
Even though I knew it was a hoax, I completely freaked out! Ended up stopping the video, & walking away from the computer
Having said that, I really enjoyed that one – great explanation
I really hate that they chose to expose Peppers Ghost. I don’t see how this qualifies in any way as a scam. Although it is a well-known principle, I think this is somewhat like the Masked Magician exposing magic secrets. These effects are more fun when they remain somewhat mysterious.
I do hope future episodes focus on “real world” scams.
Very disappointing.
Great video! There was a famous circus stage trick which used the same principle, in that case a beautiful woman would become a monster in 2 seconds.
Halloween is coming and, as a magician, I’m learning a lot of geek magic. The card magician is to the card table as the mentalist is to the séance.
Brilliant scam and very convincing. I have a friend who has just moved house and one of her daughters friends won’t come to the house because she said is ‘psychic’ and that she ‘saw’ a figure hanging from a light in one of the bedrooms. It’s easy to immediately say this girl is imagining things or that she is crazy but it’s the effect it has on people living in the house that I find so disturbing. Even if you don’t believe in that kind of thing it can still do so much damage….
Fantastic to finally see the science behind it indeed, always believed they were scams, but was very frustrating to not be able to clearly show my friends the evidence(trying not to look fantastically smug thanks to this new series, but not working!!)
Where do you get off revealing peppers ghost illusion?????? DId you invent it???? NO
But… what if some brave soul decided to explore said haunted room… wouldn’t the game be up?
presmabley ben you missed when they told you about that in school when you were about 12yo
Cool (the technique they used) !
I at times still get puzzled by some reflections .. sun in a piece of glass or a window, weird angles .. Or weird objects in the dark outside … I normally dont think of ghosts but people snooping around or such .. and that’s why I start to analyze what it is what I see there .. normally not people .. Strange cats in you bedroom in the middle of the night (when you dont have a cat yourself) can be kinda creepy too (unless you have rats and mouse in the attick .. then you start to the cat at first as an enormous rat …. (oh well .. rat …And then: In my bedroom?! The cat and me both couldn’t get ourselfes back inside the first couple of moments .. we kept staring at eachother .. I wonn .. it finally jumped out of the window ).
I’ve seen and held a baby guinea pig … which wasn’t there …. and I was not dreaming. I see and hear things more often but that one was the most weird thing ever. I really had it in my hands, even chased it for a while to get it back to mums .. And all the time with a normal I inside … The brain can fool you for sure. I used to imagine that people with very realistic psychoses did have a hard time (mine were more easy to tell apart from reality, different ..). The one with the guinea pig was not scary but you can imagine that life can become kinda difficult if you can not tell the difference anymore between reality and those things. So the brain does have techniques as well to make you hear and see e.g. ghosts which will not be seen/heard by others. What is reality huh? Usefull?
kudos!
this is great!! many of us know how this has been done,,, yet we can still be tricked…nice one.
This technique is also used to great effect in Disney’s Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor attractions, where an entire room of dancing figures appears and disappears before your eyes. A very nice technique however!
Replicating an effect doesn’t serve as a blanket explanation for the entire phenomena.
Whilst the aim of the site is admirable, it’s wise to tread carefully when presenting ‘solutions’ to the questions posed by a topic such as ‘ghosts’.
Still, I do like the Peppers Ghost trick, and it’s nice to see it performed in this manner.
I can’t help think the Science of Scams site might have bitten off more than it can chew.I hope it won’t fall prey to the sort of blanket statements so often offered for phenomena, such as the way every reported strange light in the sky has become a Chinese lantern in recent years. It’s lazy.
That was really interesting to watch. To see how people can trick you with something so simple is really cool – i might even try it myself! Although, i am a believer in ghosts, and i dont believe that all sightings are scams. I believe that there are genuine happenings that just get “caught up” in all the scams (sorry if that doesnt make sense, i couldnt think of how to word it). I’ve also had experiences myself. I always think of logical answers to them first though, but i’m not entirely sure whats logical about seeing a man walking across an empty playground in daylight and dissapearing half way across lol. Still, I’m going to check out the other episodes as i did find it interesting.
So Cool.
I think its funny that people believe in ghosts based on what a friends, daughters, friend thinks she saw!
My position on ghosts is this.
If they existed, someone, somewhere, somehow, would have evidence, until that turns up I’ll remain in the ‘no such thing as ghosts’ camp.
Just wanted to add my ‘two cents’ ghost story…I used to do voluntary work at my local museum, which is said to be really haunted. There’s a picture of a gypsy girl called Flora hanging up in the entrance hall, and her spirit is supposed to haunt the building. A white cat roams the corridors, and people occasionally hear running footsteps up the staircases, and see mysterious orbs floating past the security cameras. Back then I believed it all (I’ve wizened up a bit now,) but this particular story was my favourite;
One of the guys who worked at the front desk (who I actually spoke to,) was working late. The museum had just closed, and he was walking round, locking all the doors, when he heard loud footsteps. He went out in to the corridor, and saw a dark haired woman in a red… >
…Victorian style dress walk in to one of the rooms. He thought she was just someone who’d stayed behind (she didn’t look like a ghost, she wasn’t transparent,) so he called out to her that the museum was closed. She didn’t pay any attention to him, and disappeared in to one of the rooms. He followed her in, but she wasn’t there, and when he went around asking some the other staff if they’d seen her, they didn’t know what he was talking about.
Brilliant ! I thought they were all in on it to begin with, because the friends reactions didn’t seem genuine. Finding out that none of them knew made me laugh lol.
Gem x
It’s times like these that I want a sheet of glass. =]
I was skeptical about ghosts, but this video I found is just amazing! I strongly recommend you watch it, you’ll see what I mean!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR22Ef5-84w&feature=related
I love how ghosts are always victorian, I guess there is a cut off limit from how old a ghost can be right? I feel quite sorry for people that base a whole belief system off something their friend supposedly saw ect, how can you be content with that? To people saying that this technique does not explain every supposed ghost video/picture….of course it doesnt, but you should be able to work out how this extremely SIMPLE technique could develop on a grand scale to produce more astonishing and better quality results. And when a ghost sighting starts with ANYTHING like this ‘I was at this haunted house right’ question it immediately please, people who walk into a house expecting to see a ghost are more likely to come out with terrifying stories and visions of spirits.
Not enough space!
With lack of a better place to post this, I love the science of scams website but the “are you a believer-test” has a horrible scale. More often than not the extreme “skeptic answer” means you are just as gullible as the extreme “believer answer”, only in one case you believe the charlatans and the other case you blatantly believe the skeptics.
I can imagine how people could be scammed by ghostly apparitions or whatever when they’re actively searching for them or have a someone who’s dearly departed and they just need it to happen.
In the beautiful, old house I used to live in, I often caught sight of a flat-capped middle-aged man at the end of the path through the back garden. He would just stand there looking at me, with a kind of half-smile of approval.
My mum’s father who died while I was a toddler used to live about 10 houses or so away in the house that was also my mum’s childhood home. I see no connection and am not really sure at all that this man is my granddad. Whenever I was struggling getting my arm through the sleeve of a coat I could feel a cold hand holding the sleeve by my shoulder to help me get the coat on.
Helen i learnt pepper ghost in my study to become a professional magician and its pretty obvious if you read these comments that the exposure was news to alot of people. Exposure in magic is unethical, especially if by another magician.
@ben really? it was in a book about victorian theater, our school chaplin was in the magic circle you would have thought he would have noticed and taken it away.
actually our rev being a magician was quite fun but his mate (also a rev) was a clown who walked the slack rope in big clown shoes. he was weird.
There is nothing wrong with knowledge being in books for the ppl to seek out, this is how me, Derren and other magicians have always learned. There is nothing wrong with your Rev sharing this with you in a theatre class or similar for ppl who are studying that for a reason.There is something wrong with exposure on TV to a mass unsolicited audience. There is a reason why the Masked Magician wore a mask.Derren is way too clever and brilliant to have to resort to exposing magic for TV filler. He has made it huge and has obviously decided he will not to use peppers ghost in any of his stage shows. But what about the up and coming who would want to share the wonder of such a powerfui illusion w a new generation. Now all they get is pple whispering reminding them of DB show
@ ben
You have to remember that Derren’s not just a magician. What he’s trying to do here is educate people and open their eyes to potential scams (I for one am very grateful to him. I used to be very taken in by psychics and mediums, and if I hadn’t seen a lot of Derren’s shows, I probably would have thrown a lot of money away on psychics who were obviously fake.) Something like Pepper’s Ghost could be used by on-stage mediums to fool their audiences, and that could perhaps lead those people to make important decisions based on what they saw. Exposing tricks like this is just Derren trying to help people spot the scammers.
Pepper’s Ghost isn’t arcane knowledge, I found out about it when the band Gorillaz used the method to have the animated characters from the band perform ‘live’ on stage – it was a fantastic effect! It was widely known they’d used pepper’s ghost and I googled it and the information was abundant. And incredibly interesting.
The one thing with the girls in that video that got to me was her reaction! I’d love to know what she thought ‘ghosts’ were, had she seen a film where they take over your mind if you look at them or something? It seemed such an unnatural reaction, I’d have thought you’d stare at it and point it out and try to see if other people could see it. But maybe she just wanted to be freaked out and believe in it.
Hi Derren,
This is genius and so incredible how this effect was done,
Really fell for it at first,
Brilliant!
Much Love
Simone from Cornwall
If you would like another piece of science based evidence, this might interest some of you. Are you fully awake?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427291.000-are-you-asleep-exploring-the-minds-twilight-zone.html
perfect for halloween night coming up! I thought it was just the camera-girl at first
Peppers ghost isnt arcane knowlege?…thats hilarious. Based on what? that a band used it. Lots of musical acts from Alice Cooper to Britney Spears have used illusions in their shows, without rendering the illusions that they used public domain. Because you googled it and found a ton of stuff? Youd be suprised how many things used in DB and other guys shows can be found by googling their technical title but it still doesnt warrant mass television exposure. And seriously, how many accounts of mediums swindling the public with peppers ghost in modern history do you think there are, if any?
@Ben, as far as I know The Science of Scams is a web-only thing, and isn’t going to be shown on television at all. So it’s not mass television exposure at all, people will have to seek the above video out. It’s only got 22,000 views at the moment as well, which isn’t much at all. I don’t think this will be a threat to up and coming magicians, not enough people are going to see it for it to become household knowledge.
@ ben
‘And seriously, how many accounts of mediums swindling the public with peppers ghost in modern history do you think there are, if any?’
So, you think people wouldn’t use Pepper’s Ghost to swindle the public in to believing in real ghosts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrrML9LKH8A
Its very interesting reading the blog reactions to peppers ghost. we actually made our own pepper’s boxes at school, so its a reasonably well known effect. You can easily come up with several hi-tech refinements to make it all the more ghostly.
What we see in the video is a pretty much perfect theatrical set up, so you see a well defined ghost. What if you are in your own house and see a similar apparition ?
Well 1st thing all that is really required for the illusion is a well lit source (the ghost) and a partially reflective surface at a favourable angle between the source & the viewer. No huge sheets of plate glass, no actors in white illuminated by arc-lights. What you get is a much fainter, blurrier, distorted image. All of a sudden most buildings are filled with low quality ghosts
Im going to do this on my head teacher and hopefully get him off the scene with a heart attack.
@ben
You better hurry, and go and delete the Wikipedia article about the illusion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppers_Ghost
Or which one you think has more people reading it, Wikipedia or the Science of Scams website?
Reading these comments I’m amazed that people still believe in the ghost crap. I suppose it partly explains why the scam of religion is so hard to eradicate. The James Randi foundation paranormal challenge has $1 million up for grabs to anyone who can demonstrate any paranormal activity under proper scientific conditions, and as yet, after decades not a single challenger has succeeded, And for those of you who think so called psychics are harmless, check out Randi’s exposure of Sylvia Browne on his website. http://www.randi.org/site/ .
Lol thats amazing. I think if I was that women I would of screamed and legged it out of that house immeaditly
Yeah that illusion is taught in schools – our science teacher used it to make an object appear as if it were on fire when it wasn’t. I don’t think Derren has done anything wrong by using it here. Anyway people find out how tricks and things work all the time, it forces the performers to push the boundaries and that’s what makes magic so amazing – there is always something new to keep you guessing.
Im really enjoying watching these clips – Derren is as entertaining as ever – Thank you!
Maybe Ben should complain to hollywood, anyone who’s seen ‘the illusionist’ will know the trick (it’s an excellent film btw, well worth watching) It doesn’t explain what I saw though. I was watching TV with a couple of friends when i saw a shadow through the latticework of the living room door (it had had glass panels, but the beading fell out, so no reflective surface). As i turned and stared at it it ducked back, It looked like my friend Martyn, so i called out to him “he’s at work” I was told, so i jumped up walked to the door yanked it open, no one there, so I phoned his work, and he was there, 3 miles away, I don’t believe in ghosts with conscious action, there are unexplainable things in this universe, for example Black holes can’t exist, but the universe in it’s current form cannot exist without them, much is beyond our knowledge.
I have seen two ghosts now which were shadowy figures without clear form. Both events were inexplicable but were in places that had in the past had ghostly activity. I have seen UFOs and also on one occasion seen strange figures dancing that grew smaller and when I ran towards their position they dissapeared. Being someone who makes crop circles during the summer months I know exactly how people can get carried away by things after seeing how people over react in the circles we create. However I believe my experiences were real and I know people do see things they cant explain.
Nice to see the “Pepper’s ghost” illusion re done for modern audiences- I’m sure all the atmosphere build up really helped the poor girl go into mild shock! Hope she was told how the ghost was made afterwards!
Never mind the science – I spotted the hoax due to the terrible acting!!
I wouldn’t have believed it if I saw this video as the acting was terrible! Derren is awesome though and I’m really not sure whether I believe in ghosts or not