Is it true that Edinburgh Castle is haunted

asks mayastar:
A. Looks like it. There has just been a ten-day investigation into the vaults and tunnels around Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile.

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Q. Why
A. The vaults, which were only discovered in the 1980s, have been open to the public for the last six years. During that time, visitors have reported many strange experiences - more than 300, in fact. As a result, five vaults have been identified as the most haunted.

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Q. What did the investigation find
A. The research team, led by Dr Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, asked 250 members of the public to stand in any one of the ten vaults for about 10 minutes in semi-darkness to see if they noticed anything unusual.

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Q. And did they
A. Oh yes, 44% reported some type of unusual experience.

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Q. Well, they would, wouldn't they
A. Well, yes, you might assume that anyone asked to report a strange experience would come up with something. But there was an issue with the results which made the researchers - even Dr Wiseman, who is sceptical about ghosts - quite excited.

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Q. Oh yes
A. The majority of experiences were reported in the five vaults which already had a reputation for being haunted. Dr Wiseman said: 'What was interesting for us was whether or not those experiences would stack up in the vaults with the reputation for being haunted and the answer is that that definitely does happen.'

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Q. All right, I believe you. What sort of experiences
A. Oh, things like temperature changes, burning, touching and pulling sensations, the sound of breathing and a sighting - one woman reported seeing a male figure in a leather apron walking across the doorway.

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Q. Spooky! What does it all mean
A. Well, if nothing else, it could give us a better understanding of why people are 'spooked' in some places rather than others. Dr Wiseman believes that the background light from beyond the vaults' archways and the size of the vaults appeared to be a factor: 'When it was darker outside in the corridor then people reported far more experiences inside the vaults. So there's obviously a sense of not knowing what's going on outside the corridor and that's leading to people perhaps being more anxious.' Also the haunted vaults had twice as much floor space and they were about one third higher.

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Q. Which means
A. Which means that either ghosts like large spaces or these physical dimensions have an impact on people's perceptions.

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By Sheena Miller

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