Paranormal investigators are always looking for that “Holy Grail” of evidence, whether it’s a picture, a video, or an audio recording. The Bigfoot community has the Patterson-Gimlin film, which is either footage of a real, living, breathing Sasquatch, or one of the best, most elaborate hoaxes in human history. But even as good as that film is, there’s still that 50% chance that it’s fake. There is no dead Bigfoot body. There is no crashed extraterrestrial saucer in the Smithsonian. And there is really very little in the way of evidence for the existence of ghosts.
Sure, there is a ton of circumstantial evidence (it’s the main reason why most of us, myself included, are into the paranormal), but nothing concrete. In this day and age, it’s just too easy to hoax things. There are ghost apps and computer effects programs that any 13-year old can use to make a convincing picture or video in a jiffy. And it has happened many times, where so-called experts are fooled, claiming to finally have “proof” of the existence of ghosts, only to have it be proven to be a hoax. And sometimes, a quick search of Google may have spared them some ridicule and loss of respect.
In the case of this photo, from the Good Life music festival in Australia, a few things tip me off to this being a hoax. First of all, any time that you need to zoom in on a photo 100 times before you can even begin to see anything interesting, I think you’re looking a little too hard. Why would anyone looking at the original photo start zooming in on the “girl?” She looks just like part of the background. It doesn’t even remotely stick out or catch one’s attention for being odd. That in itself smells fishy to me. Secondly, the people who manage the festival (and who made this photo go viral and have since gotten a ton of publicity…hmmm), claim that they have verified the photo’s authenticity, but have not named the original photographer.
How did they analyze the photo? How do they know it wasn’t tampered with, or that some app wasn’t used? Plus they claim that they have verified that a girl named Lucy died there…it’s just that people who work at the actual venue say there is no such story. And even if this photo wasn’t altered, zooming in that close on a photo is bound to give the viewer some matrixing effects, and while this does really look like a girl holding a teddy bear, more than likely this is a coincidence of matrixing (IF the photo has not been altered in some way). Take a look for yourself.
An eerie photograph taken at a music festival in Brisbane has revealed the shadowy figure of a young girl holding a teddy bear in the background.
And, to make things even more mysterious, Good Life Festival management have released a statement confirming that the photo is legitimate.
Hysteria began online when promoters shared a photo of the event at the Brisbane Showgrounds.
The original photo shows revellers in the foreground with a lit-up stage behind them and at first glance, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary.
From a distance it could be mistaken as a cloud of smoke, but a closer look of the picture reveals the figure of a young girl with dark hair, wearing a white dress and holding a teddy bear as she stands on the roof of a warehouse in the background.
The spooky image has left many viewers stunned.
“Am I the only one seeing this… Can someone explain wtf [sic] it is,” one user wrote.
“Oh man I’m never gonna be able to sleep again,” another said.
Goodlife Festival management released a statement on their Facebook page on Friday saying they had investigated the incident and the image appears to be unaltered.
“We have checked with the photographer who took the photo and the original image from the memory stick also shows the girl,” the statement reads.
“We have since spoken with the Brisbane Showgrounds who have revealed that ground staff refuse to go near one of the old warehouses after repeated sightings of a young girl. It is rumoured a little girl named Lucy died at the site in the early 1900’s and has haunted it since.”
As the story goes, Lucy Jane McConnell died after falling from the roof of the warehouse trying to get a glimpse of a fireworks display in 1908.
But many aren’t convinced and remain skeptical.
One man, Sam Neil, who works at the Brisbane Showgrounds said the warehouse is in use regularly and no-one has ever heard of ‘Lucy’.
“Those sheds aren’t haunted, we use them as booze storage during festivals and other events, no one is afraid of them. We recently had a ping pong table in them. Of all the ghost stories from work I’ve never heard of this one,” he wrote.
Others think the photo is a ploy from festival organisers to create viral advertising.
“Good life management are aware of the photoshop as we are trying to make this image go viral for marketing purposes [sic],” one man said.
“It’s photoshopped, their intention was for it to go viral and for their name to get attention and boost the likes/shares,” another agreed.
While some chose to debate the authenticity of the photo, others approached the paranormal sighting with humour.
“When your funeral at 7 but Good Life is at 6,” one man wrote.
“When your dead but you wanna get lit at Goodlife,” another joked
“I guess she didn’t have a good life,” a man said.
“Does Lucy have to pay for her ticket?” one asked.
If it is a marketing campaign, it would be a successful one, as the photo has been liked almost 17,000 times.
I’m not saying this definitely isn’t a ghost. Maybe it is? And wouldn’t that be awesome? But for me, it’s just not something I can take too seriously. If something needs to be zoomed in a bunch, and a red circle has to be drawn around it, it’s just not that impressive to me.
