ABSTRACT

This chapter scrutinises the relationship between experience, wider beliefs and different forms of evidence. A spectrum of beliefs, religious, folkloric, cultural interconnect and are brought to bear on participants' interpretations, reflecting the ways experience is mediated. Some of the popular media representations of ghosts are based on reformulations of experience, fictional representations from the past, supernatural theories which have gained popular expression. There are also stories from neighbours or the local community which influence or inform interpretations of uncanny events. Conversely, sometimes a sceptical witness finds a natural explanation and sticks with it, ignoring aspects of the experience which might call this into doubt. The figure of the knowledgeable neighbour also becomes an important verifier of experience on a number of other occasions. Established systems of belief and wider cultural influences work side-by-side more informal or local influences to construct narratives explaining uncanny experience.