Are Most Haunted Legitimate Paranormal Investigators? Investigating Most Haunted's 2023 Halloween Special
Throughout the start of 2024, I've been taking a close look at the Most Haunted team; specifically into their investigations of the Gisburne Estate and the location they dub as 'The Witches Cottage'. I have reviewed each of these episodes, of which there are six in total, but I want to give my overall thoughts on the Most Haunted team and their investigative practices following what I saw across their five part Halloween special. This five part investigation was of the Gisburne Estate location, of which 'The Witches Cottage' is part of. The only thing I will say on the solo 'Witches Cottage' investigation, which was not in the five part special, is that the team was always together and they experienced lots of tapping phenomena. These details will factor into my overall conclusion.
As for what this post will assess: is the Most Haunted team a legitimate paranormal investigation team? Further down the post I will feature an image of the title screen they include at the start of every single investigation, but it reads as follows:
'The following programme is definitely NOT for entertainment purposes only. We stand by the legitimacy of this investigation.'
I've discussed in my reviews about how this is a really bold statement to make, and that on a platform such as youtube, the Most Haunted can legitimately include this text, regardless of whether or not the statement is true. On TV, investigation teams can't include this and have to include 'for entertainment purposes only' because there is a company which rules it as so. Yvette Fielding, the leader of the Most Haunted team has spoken out about her frustration of Most Haunted being ruled as being for entertainment purposes only, and this could be a factor as to why they're no longer on TV.
The reason why I've said the statement is bold is because it holds the Most Haunted team accountable. Standing by the legitimacy of the investigation says that nothing in there is faked, and saying it's 'definitely NOT for entertainment purposes only' tells us to expect a mostly serious investigation. This statement tells us to expect a legitimate investigation where nothing is faked, and for there to be minimum joking around and minimum dramatisation as these factors are often employed to make something more entertaining.
I have rewatched each of the five Halloween special parts, since reviewing them individually, and have made summarised notes on each part. Below I will include a bullet point summary of the activity captured per investigation, and I will later go into further detail regarding how they responded to the phenomena, along with how they attained what they deem to be 'evidence'.
Part 1: Pre-Investigation Footage
The Old Farm Cottage: Karl
. The cottage door opens untouched
. The front door slams behind Karl upon his entry - not on camera
. The sound of a noise occurs downstairs while Karl is upstairs
. The sound of footsteps occur upstairs while Karl is downstairs
The Witches Cottage: Karl, Glen, Yvette, (Gregg is outside the cottage)
. The sound of footsteps occurs upstairs
. The sound of lots of banging and tapping occurs - even replicates a heartbeat on command
. The sound of footsteps mimick Glen's when he goes upstairs - Glen says he heard nothing up there
The Psychiatric Building: Stuart
. The sound of screws falling occurs
. The sound of a door closing occurs
. The sound of loud heavy footsteps occurs
. The sound of a loud door slam occurs
. The sound of another door slamming occurs
Main Manor House Walkaround: Yvette, Karl, Stuart, Glen, Gregg
. A loud sound occurs akin to something being dropped
. Yvette finds a warm snooker ball on the floor - blames it for the previous sound
. Karl feels a punch occur to his lower back
. A red mark is reported to appear on Karl's back in the spot he was punched - not on camera
. Karl reports seeing a face in a window - not on camera
. Three sounds occur; a jingle, a clunk, a jingle - something hitting a surface, bouncing, landing
. Yvette finds a cold key on the floor - blames it for the previous sound
. The sound of a door slamming occurs
. The sound of another door slamming occurs
. The sound of footsteps occurs
Part 2: Main Investigations
Psychiatric Building: Karl, Yvette
. The sound of a distant clunk occurs - Yvette describes it as a movement
. The sound of a door slamming occurs
. The sound of a male moan occurs
. The sound of tapping occurs
. The sound of more tapping occurs
. The sound of banging occurs - Yvette describes it as footsteps either side of Karl
. The sound of a squeak occurs - Karl refers to it as a scream or whine
. The sound of another male moan occurs
. The sound of two footsteps occurs - unaddressed
. The sound of brief mumbling occurs - unaddressed
Old Cottage: Stuart
. The sound of a clunk occurs downstairs while Stuart is upstairs
. The sound of a plastic rustle occurs
. The sound of banging upstairs occurs
. The sound of more banging occurs - Stuart says it's the front door slamming twice
. The sound of loud and heavy banging occurs upstairs while Stuart is downstairs
. The sound of more banging occurs - Stuart describes it as someone walking down the stairs
. Stuart sees a light anomaly, in the corner - not on camera
. Stuart sees a second light anomaly, by the stairs - not on camera
. The sound of more banging upstairs occurs while Stuart is downstairs
. Stuart sees a third light anomaly, upstairs - not on camera
. The sound of a plastic sheet occurs downstairs - Stuart refers to it as slamming and like a plastic sound
Upper Living Quarters: Glen
. The smell of tobacco occurs - Glen refers to it as the smell of cigars
. A high pitched hiccup type sound occurs, unknown to Glen - Yvette's narration highlights it as child's laughter
. A tap is discovered to be switched on
Hospital Wing: Gregg
. The sound of faint noises occur in the corridor
. The sound of loud footsteps occur in the corridor
. The sound of more footsteps occur
. The sound of more noises occur in the corridor
Part 3: Main Investigations
The Witches Cottage: Karl, Stuart
. The sound of a clunk occurs as Stuart passes the doorframe - Stuart refers to it as a dragging sound or grinding sound
. The sound of banging occurs upstairs - Stuart speculates it to be windows slamming
. The sound of tapping occurs - Karl says it's coming from infront of Stuart
. The sound of three taps occur while Stuart holds three fingers up behind his back
. The sound of a loud door slam occurs
. The sound of a bang occurs - Karl says it comes from downstairs
. The sound of banging occurs upstairs while Karl and Stuart are downstairs
. Stuart sees a light anomaly - not on camera
. The sound of the ladders falling occurs
. The sound of a bang occurs - Karl says it's a knock on the stairs
Hospital Wing: Glen, Yvette
. Yvette says she heard the sound of a bang - Glen agrees, says it was from upstairs
. The sound of some bangs occur - Yvette says she heard it, Glen doesn't acknowledge it
. The sound of a thud occurs
. The smell of something unpleasant occurs - Yvette describes it as like smoke and unpleasant
. The sound of a door occurs - Glen and Yvette both hear it
Old Cottage: Gregg
. The sound of tapping occurs, downstairs - roughly six taps distinct from dripping
. The sound of more tapping occurs, upstairs
. The sound of even more tapping occurs, downstairs
Part 4: Main Investigations
The Cellars: Yvette, Gregg
. The sound of a rumble occurs - Yvette and Gregg hear it, Gregg describes it as people
. The sound of a door slam occurs
. The sound of voices occurs above - Gregg says it sounds like a crowd of people- Yvette says she definitely hears a female voice
. The sound of a female whisper 'hello' occurs - neither Gregg or Yvette hear it, pointed out through narration
. The sound of a very quiet noise occurs - Gregg refers to it as a thunk
. The sound of tapping occurs above - Yvette mentions it
. The sound of a thunk occurs - Gregg says it sounded like someone falling over
. The sound of chairs moving occurs - Gregg describes it as this
. The sound of a whistle occurs - Yvette describes it as a whine
. The sound of a loud slam occurs above
Hospital Wing: Karl
. The sound of a door slam occurs
. The sound of a huge bang occurs - sounds like something being thrown
. The sound of a door slam occurs - Karl describes it as a door opening
. The sound of banging occurs (sequencial)
. The sound of a female sigh occurs (sequential)
. The sound of a male moan occurs (sequential)
. The sound of a loud bang occurs
. The sound of another loud bang occurs - Karl describes it as footsteps and huge booms
. The sound of a loud slam occurs
Old Cottage: Glen
. The sound of a 'whispering voice' saying hello occurs - Glen doesn't hear it, Yvette's narration acknowledges it
Psychiatric Building: Stuart
. The sound of a door slam occurs
. The sound of movement occurs at the other end of the corridor
. The sound of something being thrown occurs
. The sound of a metallic rattle occurs
. The sound of heavy footsteps occurs
. The sound of a door slam occurs
. Stuart feels something walk through him - describes it as a spiritual awakening
Part 5: Main Investigations
The Witches Cottage: Yvette, Glen
. The sound of two bangs occur - Glen describes it as wind down the chimney or footsteps upstairs
. The sound of more bangs occur - Glen and Yvette both agree it sounded like footsteps
. The sound of a hoot occured - Glen refers to it as a voice
. Yvette becomes overwhelmed with the energy of a room
. The camera cuts out with no known technical fault
Psychiatric Building: Gregg
. Gregg hears noises
. Gregg hears noises at the other end of the corridor
. The sound of a door closing occurs behind Gregg
. The sound of a second door closing occurs - prevents replication of previous point
. The sound of a clunk occurs - Gregg refers to it as a scuff
. The sound of a door closing occurs
. Gregg hears more noises at the other end of the corridor
Upper Living Quarters: Karl, Stuart
. Stuart sees a black shadow walk at the end of a corridor - not on camera
. The sound of a noise occurs - Karl says it was a door slam
. The sound of a door handle rattling occurs
. The sound of a door handle rattling occurs again
. The sound of knocking/footsteps occurs
. The sound of a door handle rattling occurs for a third time
. The sound of a crinkle occurs - Stuart refers to it as a movement, Karl says scraping sound
. The sound of footsteps occurs, base of stairs
. The sound of footsteps occurs - Karl says they went up the stairs
The Scientific Method of Investigation
Before I continue my assessment of Most Haunted's Halloween special, it is important for me to discuss the scientific method of investigation. This method is defined as follows:
'The scientific method is the standardised process by which scientists gather data to test whether their hypothesis aligns with existing scientific knowledge.'
The process the above statement discusses is comprised of the following steps:
1. Observe
2. Question
3. Conduct background research
4. Create a hypothesis
5. Experiment/gather data
6. Analyse data
7. Draw conclusions
I've written it out as seven steps, but online sources do condense these steps to five. The above steps should be carried out by every scientific investigator, and by default every paranormal investigator too. How this would work in context of investigating the paranormal is as follows:
1. Observe - You see a door slam
2. Question - 'is my house haunted?'
3. Conduct background research - You discover others have experienced this without rational explanations too
4. Create a hypothesis - if I say 'hello spirits', my door will slam again because there are ghosts here capable of such communication
5. Experiment - you say 'hello spirits'
6. Analyse data - nothing happened
7. Draw conclusions - The original incident with the door closing must have been a breeze
Obviously what I've written above is a very brief layout of how the scientific method can be applied to paranormal investigating, but I'm sure it portrays the point I intend on making. Plus, believers in the paranormal will always suggest alternative explanations as to why an investigation may not have gained the hoped for results. Personally, I believe the data collected should be from more tangible methods such as the use of devices like the Spirit Talker app. That app records both the word the app produces and the time it was produced, meaning lists can easily be cross analysed.
The whole point of the scientific method revolves around the hypothesis being supported. The more an experiment is repeated, and the more the hypothesis is supported through experimentation, the more reliable the hypothesis becomes. Now, bringing it back to Most Haunted, let's see how they fulfil the scientific method.
Are Most Haunted Scientific In Their Investigation?
The above question can be easily answered by going through the tick list of criteria needed to meet the scientific method. In the interest of fairness to each investigator present in the team, I will judge each investigator separately before making a judgement on the team as a whole.
Yvette:
First, let's start with the leader of the Most Haunted team. In theory, she should be setting the practices for the others to follow. Firstly, does she observe what is happening around her? Yes. During a number of times through her segments, she mentions various sounds, and even smells, that occur. Does she question? I would argue not always. There is a moment when Glen says that what they experience may not be down to dead people, and Yvette adamantly argues otherwise. Also, when Karl is injured, Yvette reminds Glen that he nearly had chairs thrown at him when it came to him saying he needed Karl's injury to happen to him. These moments tell us that Yvette is very fixed in her belief in the paranormal, and is unlikely to question events as being anything other than this.
On the other side, there were moments where Yvette tried replicating phenomena she experienced while with Gregg and while with Glen. The moments that spring to mind are when she sees a face in the fireplace with Glen, and when she hears the whistle with Gregg. She experiences these things, and then tries recreating her movements before immediately saying it was something paranormal. This is good and does show sh sometimes questions things, but not always.
When it comes to background research, you would expect for the team to know about the location they're about to investigate, or to know about the paranormal in general. This, however, was not displayed to be the case as Yvette displays no knowledge of the fact the Gisburne Estate website lists the psychiatric building as also being a prison. Due to displaying some knowledge regarding Winston Churchill and Oliver Cromwell having a connection to the estate, this does suggest she has conducted minimal research on the property.
Now, has Yvette created a hypothesis? No. She has set out to see if she can gather evidence of the paranormal existing, but no hypothesis has been set. 'Does the paranormal exist?' is not a hypothesis, it is just a question which cannot be accurately tested with minimal acts of bias. It could be argued the acts of attempting replication of sounds is the result of the hypothesis 'if i repeat my actions, the noise will occur again', and I will concede to that point. However, these acts of replication do not occur often, and do not prove anything other than the noise wasn't caused by the movement being replicated.
In terms of experimentation, no experimentation occurs beyond the minimal replication attempts. With no hypothesis set, no accurate experimentation can occur as you haven't set out any expectations to eliminate confirmation bias. It can be argued that calling out to spirits is experimentation, but if that is the arguement then they've shown time and time again that calling out leads to no response, just as time and time again calling out has led to tapping. The lack of reliability with calling out only shows that there must be a seperate variable at play, but they can't determinewhat that variable is with no hypothesis to adjust.
It could be argued that Yvette's voice over narration highlighting certain sounds are forms of data analysis and drawing conclusions. She's seen the footage captured, which can be deemed as viewing data, she's heard an unexplainable sound in that footage, and she's attempted to explain it. It isn't very tangible data as it's down to an individuals interpretation, but it is an attempt at data analysis and drawing conclusions. As for determining details about any potential spirits, none of this is done.
I would say the only point there is no arguement for Yvette doing is creating a hypothesis. She without a doubt observes, but the other points are not the strongest to argue her doing, especially when it comes to experimenting. I will, for fairness, say Yvette just about achieves 6/7 points of the scientific method due to the voiceover narration work she does, along with the few times she does question and attempt to replicate sounds she has heard.
Karl
Next up, the producer of Most Haunted. Like I would expect from Yvette, I would expect Karl to be a leader in the scientific method to pave the way for the team. So, does he observe? Definitely. Through these five parts, Karl becomes increasingly jumpy to every sound he hears. A good example of this is when he investigates the upper living quarters alone. He hears a loud sound from a room beside him, and he nearly falls over. This shows he definitely observes.
Does Karl question? I would say yes. There are a number of incidents which occur where he says 'what was that?' after hearing a sound, and then he even goes towards the sound to show no one was there to cause it. Examples of this are the farmers cottage door opening while he gets general shots, him filming behind doors after hearing a sound, and him entering the room in the upper living quarters where he heard the loud bang. These instances aren't necessarily him questioning if the paranormal exists, but is him questioning if a living person has created the sound, and this is very good of Karl.
Next point, does Karl conduct background research? As he is the producer, I would like to think he does, however he shows a few times that he does not. Like Yvette, Karl also seems to be shocked at the presence of cells in the psychiatric building, and at one point he zooms on a fly which is on the ceiling, and calls it quite negative while also saying he doesn't know why that is. Flies do have a connection with the demonic and anything negative spiritually given their presence around corpses, and I would expect for Karl to know this given he has been a paranormal investigator for over twenty years. As for the cells, I would expect it to be he who has booked the location, so I don't know why he doesn't know about the presence of cells given it says 'prison' on the booking website.
Does Karl create a hypothesis? Again, this falls in the same kind of debate as Yvette. Karl does try stomping his foot next to the farmers cottage door to see if him walking past it could cause it to close. It can be argued that his hypothesis was by stomping his foot, it would close the door. He doesn't state this ay any point though, and it's very reactionary. None of what Karl does in an investigation is preplanned with an expected outcome, which is what a hypothesis is. So, like Yvette, I will say Karl does not have a hypothesis.
Karl, as discussed with the foot stomping, does experiment. He doesn't do it often, but he can be seen during the five parts trying to cause natural ways for an event, such as the farmers cottage door slamming, to replicate. I believe he does it less than Yvette, but it would be unfair of me to say he doesn't do it at all. Finally, does Karl analyse results and draw conclusions? No, he doesn't based on the data he has experienced. Like Yvette, it could be argued he does this in the editing process as he is the one who amplifies the sounds, but I don't know for sure if it is always Karl who does this in editing, whereas I do know it's always Yvette who narrates. For this reason, I have to judge this based on what I see in the episode, and Karl does not analyse data or draw conclusions based on his experiences in an episode. He does say that he thinks the spirit is negative while with Stuart in the upper living quarters, and he does say it wants to scare him while he is alone in the upper living quarters, but this isn't analysing or concluding, it's making assumptions based on emotions felt in the moment, and not the data.
For all the reasons listed above, Karl fulfills 3/7 points for appropriately conducting the scientific method through his investigations. The three points he fulfills are observation, questioning, and experimenting. He does not research, create a hypothesis, analyse the data, or draw conclusions from the data.
Stuart
Next up for discussion is Stuart, a long running cameraman for the Most Hunted team. Like Karl and Yvette, he has been working as part of the team for at least twenty years, so due to his experience I would expect for him to fulfill most of the points.
Does Stuart observe? Yes he does. There are multiple times across the episodes where Stuart either pauses to let the camera pick up the sounds he is hearing, or when he tells us directly that he has heard footsteps or banging. These are prime examples of observation, and I would argue Stuart is the one who observes the most out of all team members.
Does Stuart question? I will say Stuart does question. We see him in the psychiatric building replicating the sound of the screws, and of the doors slamming, and we see him look in the pantry in the old farm cottage to see what moved, along with slamming the front door of that cottage to see if that was the noise he heard. He does get progressively worse at questioning as the investigations progress, often abandoning the replication process part way through, but the fact he tries to do it is enough for me to say he does.
Next is background research. I can't think of any examples where Stuart shows he has knowledge of either the location, or of anything to do with the paranormal regarding theories. He does actually show to have no knowledge of the location due to asking Karl what the team knows regarding the 'Witches Cottage' history, and he asks Karl what the upper living quarters would have been used for. These questions show no research has been conducted by Stuart prior to the investigations.
Does Stuart create a hypothesis prior to investigating? No. There is no evidence at attempting to change variables, or even acknowledgement of variables during Stuart's investigations. There is no clear aim set out aside capturing 'unexplainable' sounds, and this isn't a hypothesis at all.
Does Stuart experiment? I would say so due to his willingness to replicate the sounds he has heard through natural means. If he hears a door slam, he immediately wants to find out which door it was and so will systematically slam each door to find out which has made the sound. We see evidence of this behaviour during all of Stuart's investigations.
Finally does Stuart analyse his results and draw conclusions from them? Surprisingly, yes. There is one valid moment where he does recognise what he is experiencing and makes a conclusion based on that. The example I am referring to is the moment where he is with Karl in the upper living quarters and he asks Karl if he thinks the spirit is a child due to the fact it seemed to be playing with them regarding the noises they were hearing, and where they were hearing them from.
The above points all meant that Stuart achieves 5/7 points of the scientific method, although this is generous given he only conducts analysis and draws conclusions one time during the five hours worth of footage across the Halloween investigation.
Glen
Glen is the skeptic of the Most Haunted team, so I would expect for him to display a more scientific approach to paranormal investigating. In terms of observation, he does try his best to observe occurances in his surroundings. There are things which happen that he doesn't seem to notice, which I will discuss in more detail later, but there are things which happen that he does take note of. Such events include the tap turning on during his investigation of the psychiatric building, and him noticing the tapping in the old farm cottage which he puts down to rain likely getting in.
Glen questions the events he hears too. He questions if the tap could be heard in earlier footage and why he didn't hear it if it was running earlier, plus he questions if a noise he heard was wind down the chimney or footsteps while he investigated the Witches Cottage with Yvette. As for research, I will say he shows evidence of conducting background research regarding not only the location, but theories on the paranormal too. He mentions Oliver Cromwell's involvement with the manor house, even leading Yvette to the room he stayed in while he investigated the upper living quarters with her. He also refers to the camera as a 'light box' while investigating the Witches Cottage with Yvette, explaining that this is due to spirits likely never having seen a device such as a camera. Also, while he investigates the old farm cottage, Glen questions if the spirits see the location as they did when they were alive and if they view him as an intruder to their space. True, that last point is more of a question, but it is a question building on a paranormal theory he may very well have conducted background research on.
Now, at any point could it be argued that Glen has a hypothesis? He doesn't state that he has one at any point, but he does do one thing which no one else does, and it's something which unfortunately is only ever referenced by him: he has a laptop set up to record evps. This laptop is something that will have been set up before the investigation, and there is potential for a hypothesis to be connected to it. As example of the hypothesis would be: 'If I set up my laptop to record audio in room X of the upper living quarters, it will capture the audio of a voice that doesn't match the voice of a team member or that of anyone else who it could record'. That is a working hypothesis with three variables at play, one variable being which room the laptop is located in, one being the type of device, and the other being the location of the upper living quarters.
I would say Glen's laptop ticks the requirement for the hypothesis. Now, Yvette does have an emf meter at a couple of points, so would this mean she has a hypothesis? No. The presence of a device doesn't mean a hypothesis is at play. The reason why I believe a hypothesis may have been behind the laptop is because the laptop is in a fixed location throughout the investigation as so to gather a good quantity of data. An emf meter being waved around in a room for a couple of minutes is not at all the same thing, plus there is no way of accurately quantifying the data produced by an emf meter unless the detection holds constant and is reliably filmed on camera. Glen does try to film the emf meter when Yvette things it has detected something, but it isn't a good shot, and Yvette quickly realises it was detecting her torch. So for these reasons the presence of the emf meter is not evidence of a hypothesis.
Next, does Glen experiment? Yes he does. Not only is the laptop a way of him experimenting with a device to gather data, but he goes upstairs in the Witches Cottage while he, Karl, and Yvette heard footsteps up there. He does this not only to check no one else was up there, but also to see if Karl and Yvette can hear his footsteps too. Glen is also the one who suggests the team try replicating the incident where they find the key from. This is suggested to determine if any of the team members could have thrown the key into the corner they found it in from where they were all stood at the time they heard it land.
Does Glen analyse the data and draw conclusions? Again, I would argue he does. Not only would he likely have been the one to listen to the audio captured on his laptop, but he comments on how quiet locations are; a conclusion drawn from acknowledging a lack of data to analyse. He also, while investigating the old farm cottage by himself, says that he can feel a breeze on his face but says that it's likely due to the hole in the ceiling. Here he takes the data, the feeling on his face, plus the hole in the ceiling, and draws a conclusion based on these facts. As a result, Glen conducts 7/7 of the scientific method's steps at varying points through the duration of the Halloween special.
Gregg
Finally, the cameraman Gregg. While watching the investigations, I found myself being really impressed with Gregg due to certain filming techniques he uses, but let's see if he is scientific in his approach to investigation. First up, observation. Does Gregg observe during his investigations? He absolutely does. Examples of his observation include him saying to hear footsteps and tapping noises in the hospital wing, plus when he hears tapping noises in the old farm cottage and the psychiatric building. He also looks inside of most rooms while investigating a location in order to get a sense of the layout. It's through this that he found the activity room in the psychiatric building, and he even showed the caged off area outside the psychiatric building to the camera. This is all a mixture of Gregg observing his surroundings along with the occurances around him.
Does Gregg question? Yes he does. We see him go to replicate a door slam in the psychiatric building before he is pulled away by another door slam, and there is a moment where he hears a sound in the same building, stops, refers to it as a scuff, asks the spirit if it was them to do it again, and then when nothing happens he moves on to a different area. This is a prime example of him questioning if a noise he heard was a spirit, in which case they may be able to replicate it if he asks them to, or if it was nothing. He also asks if there is any activity in the activity room of the psychiatric building, and upon noticing kids drawings he asks if there are children present. In the old farm cottage, he also questions if a tapping sound he hears is somehow rain getting in and stomps his foot to see if the floor is damp where he hears the taps.
Does Gregg conduct any background research? I'm going to give a generous yes, but it isn't overly convincing. He's aware of the caged off area outside of the psychiatric building, and he's also aware of the hole on the stairs of the old farmer cottage. You could argue he's just seen the caged off area while on site, and that Karl told him about the step, which are both reasons why the yes is generous. It could also be argued that he is extremely familiar with the layout of the hospital wing as he does take time to explain where the corridors lead, so this could be attributed as background research on the location.
Does Gregg have a hypothesis? I'm going to argue yes. At first I wasn't too sure, but, he does something which no one else aside Glen really tries to attempt; this being standing in the spot Karl got injured in and calling out for the same to happen to him. I've not discussed Glen doing this as it isn't as good of an attempt, and Yvette quickly leads him away from the area, but while Gregg is alone in the hospital wing he persists with trying to 'get damaged like Karl did'. As quoted, he says this is his aim, so I would determine this classes as having a hypothesis. The hypothesis would be along the lines of 'if I stand in the same place Karl did when he was injured and call out for spirits to injure me in the same way, I will be injured in the same way'. The variables here would be the location and calling out to the spirits, and so I absolutely think this classes as a hypothesis as it is a statement that can be tested, and the test resulted in the hypothesis being deemed as false.
Does Gregg experiment? Absolutely. As explained in the previous paragraph, he stood in the same spot Karl was injured in and called out for spirits to injure him in the same way. Nothing happened, but that's the result of the experiment. Also, while investigating the old farm cottage, Gregg determines the tapping to be seperate from any dripping by noticing the tap only occured while his torch wasn't on. He experimented with this by switching his torch on and off randomly a few times. He also, when in the psychiatric building, determined that the tapping only occured in the main corridor by exploring other corridors and noting that he heard nothing in those other areas, only in the main corridor.
Gregg also analyses and draws conclusions. The best example of this is with the tapping he hears in the psychiatric building. Towards the end of this investigation he acknowledges the nature of the tapping seems to be the spirit playing with him, and so asks if the spirits are children. Granted, this is more of a question than a conclusion, but he has concluded that due to the nature of the data, it seems he is interacting with something of a childish nature. It's why he also asks if they're slightly more sinister given entities of a more sinister nature are believed to behave in the same kind of way. All the points I've discussed about Gregg mean he, like Glen, fulfills 7/7 points of the scientific method.
So, are Most Haunted scientific?
Based on the analysis above, the whole team observes, questions, and experiments, but only a few team members research, create a hypothesis, analyse data, and draw conclusions. The only team members who do everything are Glen and Gregg. Yvette fails to create a hypothesis. Karl fails to research, create a hypothesis, analyse the data, or draw conclusions. Stuart fails to research or create a hypothesis. The 'scores' are as follows:
Glen: 7/7
Gregg: 7/7
Yvette: 6/7
Stuart: 5/7
Karl: 3/7
The above figures put the average requirements fulfilled for the scientific method at 5.6/7, so in the interest of fairness, I will round this number up to 6/7 points are on average fulfilled. This is not perfect, but that final point could be something as simple as the conclusions are drawn up by the team off camera, or the hypothesis is created off camera etc, so 6/7 is a very respectable score. We can however see that there is quite the difference between the individual team members scores, which then begs the question of why the big difference? I believe to answer that, we are going to have to look at the numbers regarding how much activity each individual team member experiences, and how much activity occurs in a location per investigation.
The Activity Count
Before I continue, I just wanted to warn you that I will be discussing some averages and some more statistics in this segment. It's also important to acknowledge these numbers are not completely accurate. I may have accidentally missed something you may deem as activity, or I may have included something you may not count as activity. These numbers are from all the bullet points of activity I listed earlier on in the post.
Now, onto the activity count. I've done a couple of things here. I've noted how much activity each individual investigator encounters during each of the five parts to the investigation. I've then tallied these numbers to create both a sum of activity and an average number for activity experienced per investigator. This is to determine who is more prone to experiences, and who is less prone to experiences. Then I've looked at the individual locations and tallied what happens in each location across the five episodes to determine the most and least active locations. I've also created a list going from most experiences to least experiences per location for each investigator. These numbers read as follows:
Pieces of activity experienced across the 5 videos
Yvette: 43
Yvette's average: 7 (7.2)
Karl: 55
Karl's average: 8 (7.9)
Stuart: 52
Stuart's average: 9 (8.7)
Glen: 27
Glen's average: 5 (4.5)
Gregg: 37
Gregg's average: 6 (6.2)
Pieces of activity experienced across the 5 videos - Most to least
Karl: 55
Stuart: 52
Yvette: 43
Gregg: 37
Glen: 27
Average pieces of activity, per investigation, experienced across the 5 videos - Most to least
Stuart: 9 (8.7)
Karl: 8 (7.9)
Yvette: 7 (7.2)
Gregg: 6 (6.2)
Glen: 5 (4.5)
Pieces of activity experienced per location across the 5 videos
Old Farm cottage: 19
Old farm cottage average: 5 (4.75)
Witches cottage: 18
Witches cottage average: 6
Psychiatric building: 29
Psychiatric building average: 7 (7.25)
Upper living quarters: 12
Upper living quarters average: 6
Hospital wing: 18
Hospital wing average: 6
Pieces of activity experienced per location across the 5 videos - most to least
Psychiatric building: 29
Old farm cottage: 19
Witches cottage: 18
Hospital wing: 18
Upper living quarters: 12
Average pieces of activity experienced per location across the 5 videos - most to least
Psychiatric building: 7 (7.25)
Witches cottage: 6
Hospital wing: 6
Upper living quarters: 6
Old farm cottage: 5 (4.75)
Old farm cottage investigators activity - most to least (avg: 4.75)
Stuart: 11
Karl: 4
Gregg: 3
Glen: 1
Witches cottage investigators activity - most to least (avg: 6)
Karl and Stuart: 10
Yvette and Glen: 5
Karl, Yvette, Glen, Gregg: 3
Psychiatric building investigators activity - most to least (avg: 7.25)
Stuart: 12 (7+5)
Karl and Yvette: 10
Gregg: 7
Upper living quarters investigators activity - most to least (avg: 6)
Karl and Stuart: 9
Glen: 3
Hospital wing investigators activity - most to least (avg: 6)
Karl: 9
Glen and Yvette: 5
Gregg: 4
As you can see from the statistics above, Karl and Stuart frequently appear at the tops of the lists regarding investigators who gain the most activity per investigation. Yvette seems to remain in the middle of these lists, with Glen mostly appearing with the least amount of activity, occasionally being beaten in this spot by Gregg. Now, you may be wondering why I'm looking so closely at who is getting activity and where. We've established Most Haunted to be a mostly scientific investigation team with the amazing 6/7 score, but we haven't yet established if they are a legitimate paranormal investigation team as their opening screen tells us they are. So, to determine of they are legitimate, it all comes down to the following question:
Are the Most Haunted team faking the results of their investigations?
To answer this, first I need to address a method recently discussed by the debunker 'Beardo' on his youtube channel 'Beardo Gets Scared'. During one of his videos, Beardo discussed a method of faking tapping phenomena; this method being called the 'hammer-toe'. This method is easiest carried out by wearing large shoes akin to steel toe caps boots, and then scrunching your toes in a way which causes the middle joint to slam down against the base of the shoe. This causes a tap sound and, dependant on the shoe, the sound can be loud enough to make it sound like tapping is coming from an unknown source within a location.
As you can tell from the activity I've listed, quite a portion of what the Most Haunted team experiences is tapping phenomena, along with off camera sounds. Does this mean the person on camera, or even the person holding the camera, is creating these sounds? No. It can be quite difficult to spot the hammer-toe technique being used due to the use of large boots and subtle movements, and it can be hard to know for sure if a sound is something such as an audio overlay. This is why I've made notes on who experiences how much and where. We may not be able to spot someone faking the activity, but we can determine who is experiencing the activity which is potentially faked.
Remember, we also discussed who investigates in a scientific manner and to what extent. As a reminder of those scores, they are as follows in order of most scientific to least scientific:
Glen: 7/7
Gregg: 7/7
Yvette: 6/7
Stuart: 5/7
Karl: 3/7
So, looking at those figures above we know Karl and Stuart are the least scientific, and Glen and Gregg are the most scientific. Oddly enough, the order of investigators in that scores list almost perfectly reflect the order of investigators for the average pieces of activity experienced across the 5 videos when going from least to most as follows:
Glen: 5 (4.5)
Gregg: 6 (6.2)
Yvette: 7 (7.2)
Karl: 8 (7.9)
Stuart: 9 (8.7)
As you can see, the only deviation in those lists is Karl and Stuart swapping who out of those two are fourth and fifth. So, not only are Glen and Gregg the most scientific, but they also experience the least amount of activity on average across the five videos. Also, not only are Karl and Stuart the least scientific, but they also experience the most activity on average across the five videos.
Now, let's go back to the question of 'are members of the Most Haunted team faking things?' I would say so. I don't think it's a coincidence that Glen, the skeptic, experiences the least amount of activity and experiments in the most scientific way. I think when you look at the fact he doesn't investigate at all with Karl and Stuart, and neither does Gregg who shares similar statistics to Glen, then you have to question why the activity seems to revolve around Karl and Stuart. As you can see Yvette is in the middle of both lists, and I think this could be down to her not only investigating with Karl, like what Stuart does, but also investigating with Glen and Gregg. I think this balances out her statistics.
So, I strongly suspect this implies Karl and Stuart fake things and Glen and Gregg do not. Even if we look at Karl and Stuarts statistics for how much activity they experienced in a location and compare it to the average activity experienced in that location, their statistics are all above average with all other team members achieving below average. The only exception to this is Karl in the old farm cottage when he experienced four things in comparison to the average of 4.75. To compare for this location, Stuart had eleven experiences. Oddly enough, if you combine both times Stuart was in the psychiatric building to give him a total of twelve experiences there. Stuart is the top of each list in the locations he investigated, with Karl being joint top for those he was there with Stuart, or second place.
To me, this heavily implies Karl is the one faking things with Stuart going along with it. You may wonder why given Karl isn't always present with Stuart while he gets so much activity. I would argue that's exactly why it's Karl. Either it's Karl, or Stuart can do the hammer-toe technique himself. Most Haunted edit down their footage and never release the full unedited investigations. This makes it near impossible to know exactly where everyone is at any given time when they split up. I think this means Karl is likely always with Stuart, but off camera.
As I mentioned earlier, Karl and Stuart are the least scientific when it comes to investigation. When assessing how scientific they were, I discussed replication of seemingly paranormal events, such as slamming doors. They don't always check behind those doors though, and they don't always check all the rooms to make sure someone else isn't there. This makes me think Karl is always with Stuart, and their high statistics for mostly experiencing a fair bit above average per location are a clearly an indication that the results are either being manipulated, or that Karl and Stuart are clearly magnets for paranormal activity and need to be studied by scientists as to why.
So, we've established Karl and Stuart more than likely faking things due to their oddly high statistics and low scientific approach, but what about the other three? After all, Glen and Gregg with both present and acknowledged the banging in the witches cottage, and Yvette is always hearing tapping, as was Gregg. This is where I point to the fact Karl was present in the witches cottage, with Stuart being unaccounted for, and when Yvette hears tapping she is either with Karl or Gregg. She even at one point says the tapping is coming from either side of Karl, and when Karl was with Stuart, Stuart said the tapping sounded like it was coming from near Karl's feet.
When Yvette is with Gregg, I don't think it is Gregg who does the tapping. I could be wrong, but his statistics are too good to point towards him faking things. I suspect, because Gregg when alone heard tapping and other noises at distance, that Karl and Stuart are present but he doesn't know. I also suspect this to be the case when Yvette and Gregg were in the cellar, however Karl was accounted for, so I suspect that was all down to either natural noises or Stuart.
The big question would be are Glen, Gregg, and Yvette aware of Karl and Stuart more than likely faking things? I would say Glen seems to be, and I think Gregg is too, but Yvette might not be. It depends on how the ladder fell when Karl and Stuart were in the witches cottage. That requires a third person, so I would suspect Yvette, however we do know a woman and her boyfriend were looking after the property at the time of investigation, so I would suspect shenanigans from them. We'll never know for sure on that event though.
As for the three team members mentioned, I think Yvette might not know because she mostly experiences tapping. As discussed earlier, the hammer-toe is a very subtle but effective technique, and during Beardo's video discussing it, he played a different video where an investigator was investigating a location with his kids, and one of the kids started doing the technique without the investigator knowing. The investigator couldn't figure out what the sound was, and said it sounded like the tapping was coming from everywhere. It was only when the kid revealed it was them causing the sound that the investigator knew what it was. This to me implies Karl could be doing the hammer-toe technique and Yvette may be none the wiser.
As for Glen and Gregg, I suspect they know about Karl's potential shenanigans because Glen mentions that Karl likes cigars when he smells cigars while investigating gather upper living quarters, and Gregg asks the spirit if they're waiting for Karl to return and if there's something about Karl they don't like when he's investigating the hospital wing. Both Glen and Gregg are the only investigators to go straight to where Karl claimed to become injured by a spirit to investigate it. Karl avoided that area, Stuart never went to that area, and Yvette led Glen away from that area. Glen even said, while Karl was injured, that he needs something like that to happen to him, plus he often made a big deal out of how quiet it was in the locations for him. Plus, if you look at the way Gregg investigated in the hospital wing, it looked very much so like he was trying to catch someone out with the way he silently picks up his camera and runs to the sound he is hearing.
Conclusion
So, keeping in mind all of what I've discussed, are Most Haunted a legitimate paranormal investigation team? I would say not, but they have potential to be due to the high average score for the scientific method being 6/7 points met. The thing that drags them down for me is the clearly skewed results for how much activity Karl and Stuart seem to consistently experience in each location. This fact implies that these two team members are faking things, especially given how subtle and effective the hammer-toe technique can be. It would also explain why Glen heard no tapping or banging upstairs in the witches cottage while everyone, including Karl, heard it downstairs.
It's important to say I could be wrong regarding Karl and Stuart being the ones to fake things, but you can't deny their statistics for how much they experience raises questions. It could be the fact Glen is maybe hidden during their investigations and faking things, but that doesn't make sense with how scientific Glen is when investigating, and it doesn't contribute at all to any arguement suggesting certain members of the Most Haunted team aren't faking things as it would require Glen to fake things. This is why I've used statistical analysis to determine if there is potential fakery, rather than talk about how many experiences are caught on camera. I believe technology is reaching a point where this kind of analysis is needed because the technology to fake things, and methods used to fake things, can be undetectable at times.
So, I would say that, based on the numbers, Gregg and Glen are great investigators who are a credit to the paranormal community. Karl, Yvette, and Stuart all have question marks above them; especially Karl and Stuart. Due to me being able to say only 2/5 investigators of the Most Haunted team are legitimate, I have to say that Most Haunted as a team are not a legitimate paranormal investigation team as their opening title card implies.
Thank you for reading to the end of this post! It's taken me way longer than I thought given it started off as an overall thoughts post, but then evolved into a full statistical analysis. If you want to learn more about Beardo, I will be releasing a post about him next week as I do think he's an important part of the paranormal debate. A special thank you to Damain and Nicolette for supporting The True Paranormal. If you want to follow The True Paranormal for notifications on when there is a new post, you can do so on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, and Tumblr. You can also subscribe for free to The True Paranormal through the menu on the left of this page to recieve email notifications, and if you want to watch videos of me discussing some of these posts, you can subscribe to The True Paranormal on YouTube. If you have anything you want to discuss with me, or have something you'd like for me to make a post about, you can email thetrueparanormal1@gmail.com
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