The Singapore theory

What are ghosts? How are ghosts? What are ghosts? These are all common questions in Astonishing Legends’ line of work. And there are a fair amount of theories out there. You may have heard of Stone Tape Theory or Swamp Gas. But what about the Singapore Theory? 

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The Singapore Theory is more than an experiment than a straight theory. But, it stems from the idea that ghosts, or what we believe to be ghosts, are likely to respond to remnants or patterns of familiarity in the places they haunt. One of the ways to trigger activity, or even a positive response, is to place familiar sounds, objects or smells in the space the spirit is said to inhabit. The idea is to make the environment as close to the era that the ghost inhabited when living to trigger some sort of interaction.

You may think this sounds a bit familiar--and it should. In fact, in our Sallie House series, we unknowingly try to interest it. You see, the Sallie House keeps toys in the room where they believe the childlike spirit of Sallie inhabits. Keeping toys in a room believed to hold a childlike spirit would be an example of Singapore Theory in action. 

But, what does this have to do with Singapore? Not much. I actually couldn’t quite track down how it got its name. But, it seemed to gain popularity in 2010 thanks to a Ghost Hunters International Episode. 

There is some argument about whether these stimuli make an impact or not. Some theories say yes, some say no, and some say they only attract remnant hauntings and not intelligent ones.

Some folks who use it say this is why ghosts are often seen during Civil War Renactments--because the sameness and familiarity push them, momentarily, back to our reality. 

Whatever you believe, the idea of having to do deeper personal research on the ghosts you’re trying to make contact with seems like a good idea to me. Why? Because it makes us remember, if you believe any of this at all, that these beings were once people.

Thanks to Bloor for the blogstonishing suggestion!

The blog feature image has nothing to directly with the content. This is a picture of a recreation of the interior of Schonburnn Palace. Salon of Franz Karl was last occupied by the Archduke Franz, the father of Emperor Franz Joseph. After the death of the archduke in 1878 the room was refurbished and the decoration and furniture have remained largely unchanged to this day. The paintings that hang in the former study bring us back to the time of Maria Theresa. Taken by Austria-00242 - Salon of Franz Karl. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.