This is going to be the first of a number of posts on famous cases of paranormal phenomenon. Looking at the posts on this subreddit makes it easy to forget some of the real mysteries that have been documented over the decades. We’re going to start with one of my favorites, the Scole Experiment.

The Scole Experiment, conducted from 1993 to 1998 in the village of Scole, Norfolk, England, and is one of the most well-documented and controversial series of séances in the history of paranormal research. Named after its location, the experiment aimed to provide substantial evidence of life after death through physical mediumship (mediumship producing physical phenomenon).

The Scole Experiment was distinctive in its approach, combining traditional séance methods with modern (at the time) recording equipment. The sessions were typically held in a darkened cellar beneath the Foys' house, with participants sitting around a table. The primary goal was to establish communication with spirits and capture physical phenomena that could be rigorously tested and verified.

One of the first types of phenomena reported during the Scole Experiment was the appearance of lights. These lights, described as bright, darting, and often colorful, would move around the room, sometimes responding to requests from participants. The lights were said to exhibit intelligent behavior, changing direction, and interacting with objects and people in the room.

In addition to lights, the experiment also produced numerous instances of “apports,” which are objects that supposedly materialize from thin air. These objects included old coins, gemstones, and even a small crystal. One particularly remarkable instance involved the appearance of a newspaper from 1944, which was said to be in pristine condition despite its age:

Accordingly MK took the paper to the Print Industries Research Association, a world authority on paper and printing, who informed him in due course that their detailed examination of the typeface demonstrated that it had been printed by letterpress, a long-since obsolete technique. Furthermore, their chemical analysis of the paper on which the apport was printed revealed it to be Second World War newsprint, long since unavailable. In his further investigations MK ascertained that the apported version differed from the copy of the Daily Mail for April 1st 1944 kept in the British Library only in that it was an earlier edition of that day's print run.

The apports often seemed to have specific significance or connections to the participants or the spirits they were purportedly in contact with.

Audio phenomena were also a crucial part of the Scole Experiment. Voices were frequently heard, sometimes through direct voice communication where the sounds seemed to emanate from the air rather than from the mediums. These voices would converse with the participants, providing information and answering questions. Additionally, anomalous sounds such as music and unexplained knocking were often reported.

Photographic evidence also played a significant role in the Scole Experiment. The group used both traditional film cameras and infrared video cameras to capture images during the séances. Numerous photographs were developed that appeared to show faces, scenes, and symbolic images. Some of these images were obtained under conditions designed to eliminate the possibility of fraud, such as sealed film canisters that were only opened and developed in the presence of independent witnesses.

One of the most striking aspects of the Scole Experiment was the variety of spirit communication methods employed. These included automatic writing, where spirits were said to control the hand of a medium to produce written messages, and direct writing, where messages appeared on pieces of paper without any apparent physical cause. The group also reported instances of materialized hands that would touch and interact with the participants.

Throughout the duration of the experiment, the Scole Group maintained a detailed log of the sessions, meticulously documenting the phenomena and the conditions under which they occurred. Independent investigators from the SPR, including respected researchers Montague Keen, David Fontana, and Arthur Ellison, attended many of the sessions. These investigators reported witnessing the phenomena firsthand and concluded that the events could not be easily dismissed or explained by conventional means.

One particularly controversial piece of evidence involved the locking of sealed rolls of film in a box which were later developed and shown to contain images exposed across multiple frames, which would only be possible by removing the film from the roll entirely:

Walter describes how he bought a roll of film, put the unopened film in the locked security box, and held the box in his hands throughout the session, neither putting it on the table nor allowing anyone else to touch it. He then supervised the development procedure. Despite the film he purchased being unopened and in a locked box in Walter's hand for the whole session, there was writing along the length of the film in the form a German poem.

Modern-day researcher Brian Dunning asserts that the box was vulnerable to tampering:

One of the investigators, Alan Gauld, wrote critically of how he discovered this locked box could be quickly and easily opened in the dark, which allowed for easy substitution of film rolls. This box was provided by the mediums. Whenever any other sealed container was used, no images ever appeared on the film. Yet even while acknowledging these facts, the authors of the Scole Report still maintain that the film images are most likely evidence of the supernatural.

Source: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4179

However, Dunning leaves out additional information which complicates matters:

Just over three years later he came from Germany to the Scole Study Day to give an eloquent and concise (under-five-minute) account of the exact design of the box (he is a leading engineer) and the exact way in which he had held it during the experiment: three fingers pressed against one side; his thumb against another; his index finger on the top face; his palm covering the lock; the base resting firmly on the table. Only the side facing away from him (the base excepted) was uncovered by any part of his hand, and this side was slotted into the box from above and could not be removed without first dismantling the box from the top.

Source: https://www.thescoleexperiment.com/rosalind-oliver-the-scole-experiments-an-overview.html

Despite the extensive documentation and the involvement of reputable researchers, the Scole Experiment has faced significant criticism and skepticism. Critics argue that the conditions of the séances, particularly the dark environment, were conducive to trickery and sleight of hand. They suggest that the phenomena could have been produced by the participants themselves, either intentionally or unconsciously, through techniques commonly used by stage magicians—although throughout the thorough investigations no one was ever able to prove any such trickery actually occurred.

This case can’t be summed up in a single documentary or debunking. I encourage anyone who is interested to read the full report and consider the great lengths that investigators went to in order to try and determine the true cause. Uptimately, the ambiguous nature of parapsychological phenomenon means that what one ultimately chooses to believe about the case is going to come down to a matter of faith, not facts.

https://www.thescoleexperiment.com

https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/scole-circle

A full-length documentary: https://vimeo.com/573225843

Book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1189806.The_Scole_Experiment

A lot of us familiar with High Strangeness stuff and all things paranormal have heard of and/or read about the Scole experiment, an experiment that took place in a village in England a few decades ago. Supposedly ghosts and other supernatural critters manifested and were able to imprint images on a film that was securely locked by investigators (meaning the film was not manipulated by the mediums being investigated). Not only that, but there were also videos of creepy light beings resembling ghostly grey aliens and all sorts of Fortean hijinks produced during the experiment. Frankly, although I think it's pretty cool and creepy, especially some of the bizarre sygils supposedly imprinted on the film, I remain skeptical. There's some old interviews with some of the participants on YouTube, one even claims to have seen the ghost of a deceased person disappear through the floor in one seance (not sure if he was referring to a seance during Scole or not). Has there ever been an analysis of the Scole experiment that isn't a boring as hell blog post that doesn't really answer a whole lot? I wish something like the Why Files, Joe Scott or whatever would discuss it some day, even if in the end they just point out the whole thing was bullshit (which is a conclusion I lean towards to, although, again, I think the idea of it being true is pretty interesting).