Brisbane Ghosts Busted?

(Read below this blog for an update)

Last October I posted a blog questioning claims that Brisbane is the second most haunted city in the world - 'as voted by National Geographic'. Six months later the question of whether or not this rather interesting claim is true can probably be answered.  

I first decided to check out the validity of the methodology and results, but the problem was that the poll in question could not be found anywhere online. Eventually an email was sent to National Geographic asking for further information, but their response was:

"There are no references in our files indicating that National Geographic magazine has said Brisbane is the second most haunted city in the world. We are asked from time to time whether the National Geographic Society has ever rated lakes and sunsets as to beauty or towns as to climate. It has not generally been our policy to do so, since personal opinion plays so large a part in determining such things."

So National Geographic were basically saying that not only could they not find the poll, but they don't do polls as a rule anyway. At this point it was probably quite fair to start doubting the veracity of the '2nd most haunted' claim, but the search continued for the elusive poll. After all, nobody could get away with telling such a whopper, so it must be somewhere, right?

Months passed, and although dozens of paranormal-themed websites with their own 'most haunted' polls gave widely varying results, there was no mention of Brisbane anywhere. Edinburgh, London, Paris, Rome, York, Gettysburg and plenty of other historic places figured prominently, but not Brissie. Another query to National Geographic produced a similar reply to the first one. They were "unable to find any information on a National Geographic poll of haunted cities."

And then, late last year, there it was. Sort of. I found a kind of 'poll' conducted in 2004 not by National Geographic but by the grandly-titled US-based 'Ghost Research Foundation International', which was in reality a backyard operation that folded soon afterwards and the leader went on to work as a host on a cable TV shopping channel show. The deeply-flawed methodology was to simply ask 'ghost organisations and authorities in the field' how many ghosts they knew of in their town, and then just accept the answers they received as being somehow reliable. There is no way such a method can produce anything like credible results, but for the record the top three here were 1:York, 2:Brisbane, 3:Chicago. Brisbane, it seems, had FOUR TIMES as many ghosts as either Paris or Edinburgh, and London did not even register in the top ten. All listed cities were western, with no mention of major Asian or third world cities at all.   

So that was it. The only-ever mention of Brisbane in any 'most haunted' poll results, and it sweeps to number two. Which begs the question - who the hell did they ask?  
 

Although the inherent dodginess of these results is clear, what is much more important (but much less clear) is how this came to be presented as a National Geographic poll. Well, that's a question for the person still making the claims to answer. As it stands, there are no links to the alleged National Geographic poll and any evidence it even exists. Current evidence actually suggests that Brisbane was NOT voted the 2nd most haunted city in the world by National Geographic, but as always I am prepared to stand corrected if any evidence to the contrary is presented. Until then, if you want something like an honest assessment of these claims, well, who ya gonna call? 

(This subject and more is discussed in my new book The Haunting Question: Boggo Road Ghosts)

UPDATE 11 October 2011

A big thanks to the members of the public who have recently contacted me with updates on this story.

In the time since this blog was published a number of people posted on the Brisbane 'Ghost Tours' page asking about where they could find the alleged poll (as it was Brisbane Ghost Tours who made the original claim). None of the commentors could find the poll anywhere. On 30 May Ghost Tours posted:

Hi everyone - I will be posting a scan of the NG article shortly. They took their source from a Paranormal society who they interviewed for an article on The Most Haunted City - which was quoted as York. Brisbane was mentioned along with Chicago.

Well, that fair enough, and... hey, wait minute there! The story just changed! We had originally been told that Brisbane was the second-most haunted city in the world AS VOTED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Suddenly that's changed to "They took their source from a Paranormal society who they interviewed for an article". From reading that, it looks like it wasn't a poll at all. And those York-Brisbane-Chicago results are from the worthless 2004 poll I mentioned above. 

Okay then, let's wait for the promised scan. Weeks passed, and in July a commentor claimed that he had "Just got a reply from NG - they did no such article". Months pass, and still no scan. Then, on 12 September, Brisbane Ghost Tours posted: 

Dear Karen, Matt and others who have expressed concern about the NG article, The article does exist. It is not a lie. The article was researched by the National Geographic Society about haunted places all over the world. We happily supplied information to NG. We are the first to admit, in comparison to other older places, Brisbane is an unlikely candidate. The fact is, that NG published this material and we have reflected it in our marketing. Accusing us of lying is unacceptable on this webpage. We'll find a copy of the article and post a scan of it to this Facebook page.

The story unravels that little bit more. Remember how Ghost tours claimed that "a Paranormal society" provided the info to National Geographic? Now it emerges that it was Brisbane Ghost Tours themselves who told the National Geographic researcher about Brisbane's alleged 'most haunted' status. 

The scenario now looks like this: 

• Someone is researching an article for a National Geographic travel website (NOT the magazine) about York's 'most haunted city' status. 
• Brisbane Ghost Tours provides them with info that Brisbane is the second most haunted city (repeating results from a discredited 2004 poll).
• Brisbane is 'mentioned' in the subsequent article. 
• This is somehow transformed into a Brisbane Ghost Tours marketing claim that National Geographic voted Brisbane the 2nd most haunted city in the world.  

After months of promises an article might be produced but it will not back up the original marketing claim, which Ghost Tours seem to be backtracking furiously away from. Sure, any article might mention Brisbane, but it will not answer the important question of where the claim that National Geographic magazine voted Brisbane the 2nd most haunted city in the world really came from. 

Ghost Tours, you can fool some of the people all the time, etc, but we're not bloody stupid. I guess I can now remove the question mark from the end of this blog's title.

UPDATE 23 November 2011

Unsurprisingly, there is still no sign of the alleged article. Not even any indication as to where it is (name of publication, date, etc.) so others can go and find it themselves. It is now painfully obvious the article or poll as first described does not exist, yet Jack Sim of Ghost Tours continues to peddle the same discredited advertising line, which only serves to further discredit his own reputation. Brisbane deserves better than this.


UPDATE 12 December 2011

Still nothing. More and more questions are being asked of 'Jack' Sim, and he ain't answerin'. I heard on the grapevine that new evidence exposing Second-most-hauntedGate is on its way.