Contagious Behaviour

Contagious Behaviour

When Karen and I led ghost tours through the North Kapunda Hotel, we set up the tour to be an experience for our guests, not just "another tour".
The idea was to slowly build anticipation for the finale of the tour, The Hallway to Hell. We did this by starting slowly with the history of the town, then some ghost stories, a short video from Haunting Australia, then a walk around the town telling ghost stories.

We were priming our audience intentionally (and sometimes unintentionally), getting them hyped for their experience and for the finale. We wanted everyone to have a good time, get value for money, learn some history about Kapunda and hopefully see a ghost, or at least have some kind of “Personal Experience”.

More often than not, people would come away with at least one personal experience, or an experience they personally attributed to the paranormal.

What we noticed during our two years as tour guides was that the smaller the group, the less likely a “paranormal experience” was to happen. The tour didn’t change, we delivered our information with the same passion and high standards we set for ourselves each week, but for some reason the fewer in the tour group, the less “paranormal activity” felt on the tour.

I now believe what we were experiencing was a form of contagious behaviour. Perhaps this explanation via anomalistic psychology accounts for the higher number of anomalies during tours, or public “ghost hunt” events that are actually personal experiences and NOT genuinely “paranormal” in origin?

What is contagious behaviour?

Contagious behaviour is a type of social influence. The most common form is yawning. See someone else yawn, and more often than not, you will do the same, some of you may even be yawning as you read the word 'yawn' or think about someone else yawning!

Other contagious behaviours can include: smiling, laughing, rudeness, happiness, shivering, fear, anxiety and even risk-taking!

Contagious behaviour is seen within the demographics of protests quite often, when one person begins to punch/kick/ or struggle against authority, their behaviour can lead to others doing the same, and before you know it, you have a riot on your hands!

 In a situation like a ghost tour, it is a little bit different. As the person leading the tour, you are seen as an authority on the subject, so when, as a paranormal investigator,  you tell your own ghost stories, it adds credibility to the experience. When you speak about others experiences and paranormal events that have happened on previous tours, you begin to prime the audience for their own paranormal experience.

 In some guests, you're installing fear, or bringing out subconscious fears. That fear is contagious, and the people around that person will begin to react to it, some will challenge the fear, (the fighters), others will embrace it and become fearful as well (the flee-ers) – their natural “fight or flight” instinct is working away deep in their subconscious. The more people you have on the tour (especially if they are known to each other), the more this fearful energy travels through the group – and as they are there to feel/see/hear a ghost, and are not aware of the many natural explanations (xenonormal) for sounds, smells, etc,  more often than not, they will come away with a ghost story or experience…

…This, of course, lends to the next tour, as they go tell their friends about their ghostly experience, so the friend is pre-primed before they’ve even done the tour!
 It also adds to the mystique of the location, and to the spreading of urban legend…and so, what was once just another pub like any other, becomes a legendary haunted location with portals to the ghost realm!

So, next time you are on a ghost tour, have a look around at the people you are with, and see who is scared the most, then watch to see if those around them begin to get frightened too.

Thanks for reading – want to comment or ask a question, do so in the box below, or visit the Haunts of Adelaide on Facebook and find this post.

Bibliography

Ogunlade, J. O. (1979). Personality characteristics related to susceptibility to behavioural contagion. Social Behavior and Personality: an International Journal, 7(2), 205.

Holt N & Simmonds-Moore C & Luke D & French C, 2012, Anomalistic Psychology (Palgrave Insights in Psychology). Palgrave Macmillan

Nicola Holt, Christine Simmonds-Moore, David Luke, Christopher French. (2012). Anomalistic Psychology (Palgrave Insights in Psychology). Palgrave Macmillan

The Haunting of the Lyndoch Hotel

The Lyndoch Hotel

 For a short while, many years ago, I lived in the town of Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley. I discovered a few local ghost stories by chatting with the locals the most common story amongst the people I spoke to was to do with the “projectionist ghost” of the Lyndoch Hotel.

The Lyndoch Hotel is located on Gilbert Street, at the intersection with Barossa Valley Way and Lyndoch Valley Road.
 The hotel was originally opened in 1869 as the “Farmers Rest Hotel, until it was later known as the “Travelers Rest Hotel” until it was renamed in 1937 with its present moniker.
 The original building was gutted by a fire with the building we see today constructed later that year.

It is believed that the former lessee of the Lyndoch Cinema, Mr J.A. Morcom, who played movies in the local hall for many years, is of the resident spirits of the hotel. Mr Morcom passed away in the hotel. It was a regular occurrence for him to spend the night in the hotel after a movie night.

 EDIT: I was informed during the Barossa History Fair (2019) that this part of the story is actually wrong: 

"On the 14^th of February 1959, Mr Morcom passed away after taking his own life in his regular room, room 8. He had grown very sad and disheartened after the death of his wife, and in the end, his sadness overcame him.
 He left a suicide note and a photo of his wife, his note read “Sorry, there’ll be no movies next Saturday”.

The true story is; 
 Mr Morcom had never married and died from a heart attack.

 This incorrect part of the story came from the book "True Barossa Ghosts" and is repeated verbatim on the Lyndoch Hotel website. My apologies to Mr Morcom's family and friends for publishing information that has proven to be incorrect. Perhaps, with the truth now exposed, Mr Morcom's spirit might find some peace.

Mr Morcom's alleged ghost: 

A man staying in room 8 witnessed Mr Morcom in his room, and ever since patrons and publicans have encountered his spirit in the hotel, with visual sightings of him a regular occasion.

 He is described as looking like a “middle-aged man, rather thin, and dressed in a grey shirt and slacks”.
 Bedroom 8 was removed in a renovation of the hotel, but Mr Morcom is still seen where he once stayed every Saturday. Where once he was seen in room 8, he is now seen standing behind a bar.

Mr Morcom’s story was not the only one I heard about the hotel in my time in the town. 

Another ghost is thought to be a local who spent many years drinking at the bar. Like most barfly’s, he had a seat that was his favourite. After his death, I am told it was a regular occurrence for his barstool to move of its own accord, and a few seconds later for the male toilet door to open of its own accord as if someone was entering the loo!

 Was this ghost drinking, and following his old toilet ritual as he did when he was alive, is it just pure coincidence, or is there a natural explanation?

 Have you experienced the “Projectionist Ghost” at the Lyndoch Hotel? I would love to hear your story!

 Email Allen Tiller at eidolon@live.com.au

Written and Researched by Allen Tiller.

www.allentiller.com.au

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

Bibliography

 “A Brief History of the Hotels of Lyndoch 1847 – 1937” by Anne Hausler, 1991,  is kindly authorised by The Lyndoch & District Historical Society.

Laughton, VJ, 1991. True Barossa Ghosts. 2nd ed. South Australia: Bull Creek Books Tanunda.

Lyndoch Hotel. 2016. Lyndoch Hotel Ghost. [ONLINE] Available at: http://lyndochhotel.com.au/lyndoch-hotel-ghost/#!prettyPhoto. [Accessed 11 September 2016].

Engelbrecht Caves: Ghost of the South Coast part VIII

Engelbrecht Caves

One of Mount Gambier's biggest tourist draw cards is the Engelbrecht Caves. The cave system was explored in 1864 by John Stratford, Charlie Brad, Albert Grosser and 10-year-old Charlie Grosser, in a canoe built by pioneer settler Dr Edward Wehl.
The adventurers explored but soon found themselves caught in strong currents in the underground cave system and were pulled through the network. They had a hard time making it back to where they started but made note of the enormous size and beauty of the caves during their trip, which was eventually written about much later in 1933.

The caves are formed of Gambier Limestone, and by a process of chemical dissolution have formed over thousands of years, the limestone being originally formed some 35 to 45 million years ago!
The cave gained its name after Mr Carl Engelbrecht arrived from Germany, and bought a nearby flour mill, turning it into a whiskey distillery. He used the caves to dump all of the waste and by-products, evidence of bottles can still be found today!



After a group of divers explored the caves by the request of the local council, it was decided they wouldn't be suitable for a tourist development due to the large piles of rubbish inside and the possibility of people being hurt in small lakes and waters inside.
Almost 15 years later, The local Lions Club took over the site and set about cleaning it up, after 3 years and $10,000 they handed the caves back to the council, and from there it became the tourist attraction we know today.

In late 2008 a tourist was enjoying the caves when she took a random photograph, as tourists do, she got a shock when looking at the picture when she found the face of a small boy looking out at her from behind a rock. The boy seemed to have an unearthly blue glow to him.
She was stunned and sent the photo to be viewed by the tour group. Someone in the tour group leaked the photo online, and soon it was in all the local papers and a media frenzy grew around it. The photo was also available online.
This led to a large number of new tourists becoming interested in the caves and the story, all looking for the little lost ghost boy in the caves.

The media attention also caused a large backlash by non-ghost believers, these people began to attack the authenticity of the ghost photos and even made personal attacks toward to photographer, which in turn led to the photo being removed from all media and internet sites as per her request.

I am lucky enough to have a copy of the photo, but as per the copyright holder's request, cannot display it here.
Interestingly a local paranormal investigation team named Abandoned Australia investigated the caves back in May 2009, but found nothing at the time they thought was paranormal, but also stated that this did not mean the location was not haunted – for more about their investigation please follow this link:
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/05/18/2573494.htm


Mount Gambier also offers Ghost Tours, you can find them here via this link: http://mountgambier.localitylist.com.au/yellowresult.php/goal/Detail/ckey/2043


So are the caves haunted by a little boy? If they are, who is he, and why is there, in a cold wet cave?
These are the questions no one has an answer to right now...
More investigation is needed to verify the existence of the 'ghost boy' and the authenticity of the photos,; but this is highly unlikely on both accounts, so the ghost boy, for now, will remain another of the mysteries of the area...

That concludes our look into Ghosts of the South Coast, for now, we will return to the area at a later date as we have uncovered several other local stories as well, but we feel it is important to not dwell on one area for too long. So we will move on for now, and come back down south at a later date.

© 2013 Allen Tiller