Real-Life X-Files (22 page)

Figures 18.1 and 18.2.“Ghostly” forms in photos like these made by a New York state couple are becoming common.

Figure 18.3.Experimental photograph by the author reproduces similar ghostly effects.

Yet again, the mysterious, fluid form appears in a British photo in Jane Goldman’s embarrassingly credulous
The X-Files Book of the Unex-plained
(1995, reviewed in
Skeptical Inquirer
, May/June 1996). Goldman’s caption suggests the white shape is a ghost; “Or is it fogged film?” Goldman asks in a rare moment of doubt. Actually it is neither. I learned the source of the ghostly phenomenon when the first young couple visited my office and, at my request, brought their camera and film for me to keep for a few days. Examination of the negatives revealed nothing remarkable, but by the next day I had the answer: the strand or looplike form was caused by the new subcompact camera s hand strap getting in front of the lens. Since the viewfinder on this type of camera does not see what the camera sees (as it does in a single-lens reflex type camera), the ob-truded view goes unnoticed. Although such camera straps are typically black and photograph black (or dark) in normal light, their sheen en-ables them to reflect brightly the flash from the camera’s self-contained flash unit.

Figure 18.4.Another experimental photo is typical of many “ghost” snapshots.

Some of my experimental snapshots are shown in
figures 18.3
and
18.4.
The braiding of the strap can even be seen in some pictures. When the cord is quite close to the lens, the result is softer, more mistlike. It follows that analogous effects could occur if other articles were placed before the lens—either deliberately or inadvertently. For example, flash- reflected hair, jewelry, articles of clothing, a fingertip, or the like could produce distinctive effects that might not be easily recognized.

It is instructive to note that in each of the cases I have related, including the six examples in
Fate magazine
, no one saw anything out of the ordinary but simply discovered the anomolous shapes when the photos came back from the film processors. As I point out in
Camera Clues
, that situation is a good indication that the paranormal phenomenon in question—ghost, UFO, or other entity—is really only some sort of pho-tographic glitch caused by camera, film, processing, or other element. In this case, a new type of camera was the culprit in a rash of allegedly supernatural pictures.

References

The
Fate
ghost contest. 1995.
Fate
, Oct., 42-45.

Goldman, Jane. 1995.
The X-Files Book of the Unexplained
. London: Simon & Schuster, 25.

Nickell, Joe. 1994.
Camera Clues
: A Handbook for
Photographic Investigation
. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky.

Chapter 19

“Maritimers better lock up their ghosts,” the Canadian Press writer advised residents of the Atlantic provinces. “Professional skeptic Joe Nickell is touring the region,” announced the tongue-in-cheek warning in Canadian newspapers, “and not a lake monster, a beloved spectre or even the Oak Island treasure is safe from the penetrating glare of his cold, hard logic” (Morris 1999). The mock advisory was prompted by my June July 1999 visit to “the Maritimes,” initially by invitation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Fredericton, New Brunswick. There I addressed forensic experts at the annual conference of the Canadian Identification Society and (incidentally) promoted my new book
Crime Science
(1999).

Rather than fly to Fredericton just for the event, however, I decided to drive and thus be able to investigate a number of regional enigmas. Naturally I prepared extensively, studying such works as
Mysterious Canada by my friend
John Robert Colombo (1988), formulating hypotheses and investigative strategies, contacting museum curators and others, and packing a large investigative kit customized for the trip, with camera equipment, tape recorder and notebooks, stereomicroscope (for examining a mystery inscription), among other items.

I passed through Maine (spending my first evening at the “haunted” Kennebunk Inn [see “Haunted Inns” chapter in this book]), then continued on to Canada, where I promptly conducted my first investigations. According to Micmac Indian legend, century-old tales, and modern eyewitness reports, Lake Utopia, in southern New Brunswick, is reportedly home to a fearsome monster. As with other lake leviathans, it is varyingly described, although only rarely glimpsed and more often perceived by a churning of the water and debris sent up from the depths. There are no known photographs of the alleged creature, but in the early settlement period were reported tracks, or rather a “slimy trail”—with claw marks—leading into the water (Martinez 1988; Colombo 1988). Today, it appears that most local people are skeptical of the monster’s existence, although a few have reported seeing an unexplained wake (Murray 1999), or what they believed was a large animal (Gaudet 1999), or perhaps they know someone who has had such a sighting (K. Wilson 1999; T.Wilson 1999).

Figure 19.1. Guide Tony Wilson sets out with author on a jet-ski exploration of New Brunswick, Canada’s, Lake Utopia in search of the fabled monster.

Figure 19.2. Although armed with a camera to shoot over his guide’s shoulder, the author reported the monster a no-show.

On June 27,1 visited nearby St. George, N.B., where I collected local accounts of the fabled monster and hired a guide, Tony Wilson of All Wet Aquatics, to take me on a jetski trip (via the Magaguadavic River and a natural canal) into and around the 3,409-acre lake. Despite my efforts, however, the imagined creature did not have the courtesy to show itself, let alone pose for my camera. (See
figures 19.1
-
19.2.
)

As with similar claims, a major problem with the possibility of such a monster is the difficulty of a lake providing sufficient food—not merely for one leviathan, but for a breeding herd that would be necessary for the continuation of a species. Also, many mundane phenomena can simulate a monster. Local candidates include floating logs; wind slicks; salmon, sturgeon (Gaudet 1999), and schools of smaller fish; and Silver Eels (once so plentiful that they clogged the pulp mill’s water wheels [“Brief History” n.d.]). Other potential culprits include such swimming wildlife as deer, muskrats, beavers, and otters (“St. George” 1999)—especially otters, who could have produced many of the effects reported (Nickell 1995, 1999).

In the preface to his
Mysterious Canada
, John Robert Colombo (1988, v) insisted quite properly that “We should know more about the mysteries that surround us.” And he predicted: “Anyone who looks long and hard enough will no doubt find rational explanations for the mysteries in this book. There is no need to resort to a supernatural explanation to account for any one of them.” And that is just what my series of investigations has shown, I think, that if we steer between the extremes of gullibility and dismissiveness—in other words, if our minds are neither too open nor too closed—we may learn more about our world and ourselves. We may even have some fun doing it.

References

Brief History of the Magaguadavic
. n.d. [St. George, N.B. ]: Magaguadavic Water-shed Management Association, 13.

Colombo, John Robert. 1988.
Mysterious Canada: Strange Sights, Extraordinary Events, and Peculiar Places
. Toronto: Doubleday Canada.

Gaudet, Sam. 1999. Interview by Joe Nickell, June 27.

Martinez, Lionel. 1998.
Great Unsolved Mysteries of North America
. Secaucus, N.J.: Chartwell, 6-7,12.

Morris, Chris. 1999. Skeptic shoots holes in Maritimes tales.
Globe and Mail
(Toronto), June 30.

Nickell, Joe. 1995.
Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons, and Other Alien Beings
. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 241-43.

———. 1999. The Silver Lake serpent.
Skeptical Inquirer
23.2 (March/April): 18-21.

“St. George, New Brunswick, the Granite Town.” [1999]. Brochure published by Town of St. George.

Chapter 20