Scary Science...Things that frightened us silly as kids!

So I’ve been reminiscing lately…on the good ol’ days when I was a kid, when I got together with my friends, ate junkfood – no holds barred (if you see my pictures from school, you’ll see) – prank calling the cute boys we were crushing on and the losers but definitely, some of my fondest memories are when we were trying to scare the shit out of each other at a rite of passage, the slumber party. We would huddle together in the dark with a flashlight telling ghost stories and daring one another to do stupid things.

Yup, that's what we looked like. HAHA. You wish.

That's more like it :)

Scariest of all were the games that everyone seemed to know (even without Google or Youtube, it’s shocking to any New Millenium baby), the tricks that seemed to unlock paranormal powers or spiteful spirits. According to my research, the reason these things have been going on for generations is because, on a certain level, they work. No, not the demonology part, but who would’ve thunk it, it’s science.

Scary Things Explained by Science

Bloody Mary

I have to admit I did this and scared myself so much so that I will probably never try it again to this day (even after knowing what I’m going divulge now). The game is relatively simple, you stand in front of a mirror in the dark and say ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary’ (sometimes while spinning in a circle or some other variation). And then a woman is supposed to appear and she’s going to scratch off your face and lead you to a very bloody death.

See...I actually scared myself searching for this picture. I'm a scaredy-cat. 

But as far as we know, no one has summoned any psychotic serial killer but still, at this very moment, somewhere, a pre-teen is standing in the mirror whispering ‘Bloody Mary’ loud enough for his/her friends to hear.

And she IS going to see something in the mirror.

Science

Giovanni Caputa, a psychologist did an experiment where he asked 50 people to look at a dimly lit mirror for 10 minutes. The participants were then asked to write down what they saw. Bear in mind that this was not a sleepover and no one was told they’d see anything scary.

Results were that 66% of participants reported massive deformations of their own face. 18% saw one of their parents with a few traits altered (among which 10% parents were dead). 28% saw a stranger’s face, like a child or an old woman. Most strikingly, almost half of the participants saw ‘fantastical and monstrous creatures’.

The reason is that if you stare at something long enough and I mean, really stare, not being looking while doing something else, like shaving – your vision starts to distort it due to something called the Troxler effect.

Stare at this for about 20 seconds

If you did it right, the dots would start to disappear after awhile. Apparently, to maintain our sanity, our brain is wired to prevent it from taking in the same thing over and over again. (in terms of sensory perception). Imagine the alternative of being aware of every limb, every breath and every blink! Life would suck because at our current brain activity levels, that would take up all our day’s activity. So a cool little trick is Selective Peripheral Fading where the neurons cancel out constant information.

I hope to God that's a doll with parts of its face missing. On the plus side, Halloween costume idea for next year!

So how does this apply to Bloody Mary? Since our faces don’t have a central point (I always considered the the tip of the nose to be one but I guess it’s hard to just focus on that?) , like that target above, the whole face starts to become distorted as the brain cancels parts of it out. The result is some kind of horrific monster face. And of course, ‘Bloody Mary’ can’t attack her victim because they are usually terrified and run out of the bathroom screaming. Add that to a child’s overactive imagination and voila – I summoned a scary bloody psychotic woman in my mirror!

Ouija Board

Oldest trick in the book. You know the funny thing is, I still know adults who believe in this and they have told me not to do this (Just IN CASE)! So your friends get together in a dark room and contact spirits with the board; everyone places their hand on a planchette, that moves around a board and points to letters to spell our words or phrases in response to your question.

Science

So the thing is, the real reason the Ouija board works is almost as freaky as communicating with floating spirits in the Earth world, we are actually communicating with the subconscious part of our brain.

This involuntary movement in your hand muscles are called the ideomotor effect. Your body can and does move your muscles without your express permission because your body operates on autopilot most of the time anyway. Think about it, the next time the light stops working in a room, you will unconsciously keep flipping the switch everytime you walk in anyway.

So similarly with the Ouija board, your brain thinks of a response to the question and subtly moves the planchette where it wants it (but subconsciously). This does not work if you were creepy enough to try the board alone but with a few people together and all subconsciously pulling, it creates a distinct sensation that the planchette is moving on its own accord.

Get some milk from the market.... -- My subconscious is really boring.

For further proof, check out the video below, where magicians Penn & Teller blindfolded some random people, flipped the Ouija board 180 degrees and had them try to contact the spirit of the guy who played Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. The results are less than startling. 

In theory, ghosts should be able to direct their hands no matter the orientation of the board, right? Turns out, without being able to see the board, they just kinda move their hands to where they think the letters are.

The Orange Kangaroo Game

If you didn't do this at parties, or weren't invited to any parties, then you've probably seen this one in an email (with huge gaps in between steps to allow you to do the math or consult your handy-dandy notebook!)

I really need a better spam filter.

Pick a number between one and 10. Multiply it by nine. Add the two digits of the resulting number together. Now subtract five from that. Take your number and match it up with a letter of the alphabet (so 1 would be A, 2 would be B, etc.). Pick a country that begins with that letter. Pick an animal whose name begins with the last letter of the country name. Pick a fruit that begins with the last letter of the animal's name.

You got Denmark, kangaroo and orange, right?

MAGIC!

How did I guess?

Science

No matter what number you pick, they will always be four. So FOUR gives you D.

Apparently, with only four countries in the world that start with D (Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic)

Most people go with Denmark. Last letter is K and there are also very few animals that start with K and most tend to choose kangaroo - For a full list ofanimals that start with K

With an O, most people tend to go with orange - Another list from Wikianswers

So essentially, you’re pretty much forced into those answers. Sorry, no magic, we are all still just muggles. Unfortunately. Really really unfortunately.

On a side note, how sad were you when you didn’t get your letter from Prof Dumbledore on your 11^th birthday?  (In fact, I gave my sister a letter for her 17^th birthday, just because…I’m cool like that.)

So...those are some myths busted. I want to be a mythbuster cuz how cool would that job be? Blow stuff up on television...I'm up for that. Where do I interview?

Ok, random introspective notes but no real conclusion...oh well. Who really wants to read that?