Tuesday, August 14, 2012

ghost prank... gone wild


About a month ago, a ghost photo of a young Asian woman was shown to me  from a mobile by my husband's office colleague. It was taken from the institution where they are working. (The above photo has similar image of ghost that was mentioned). She said that it was also just shared to her by a friend who took the picture and she was told a certain story of that ghost. According to the story,  that woman has similar features of the Japanese girl who died a couple of months ago due to drowning from one of the diving sites in the island. At that instance, I really believed her. After all, I trusted her but my husband just laughed at us upon seeing the said image and conveyed that the ghost is just looked like from that of a "Hollywood"  horror film. Even so, I ignored my husband's statement and still really got goosebumps from the picture. In fact, that night I prayed for the soul of that woman whoever she is.

The following day, my husband insisted that that picture is nothing but a fraud. He explained to me that there are certain mobile applications to be downloaded for free which can produce the same ghostly effect on any picture you want to be taken. So, I started to doubt about the claim regarding the picture and so I began to browse any possible  applications and ghost pictures used to created an effect like that because I wanted to be objective as much as possible. Nobody would want to be deceived and so do I.
With perseverance and aim to seek the truth, I found the picture used in the application from a website. It was exactly the same woman from the picture that was shown to me including the pose, stare, hair and dress. I immediately informed my husband on  my discovery. So, his assumptions were true. The picture was indeed nothing but a hoax.
Unfortunately, I heard that the picture has been spread in the entire community. I also saw that it was posted on a social networking site and shared by a number of people to their respective profiles. Those who posted the pictures also believed that such phenomenon was genuine, telling the people the same story I heard about it.  It created a mass hysteria according to a friend psychiatrist whom I talked to.  But the original creator of that hoax really claimed that he never used any applications or software to produce such effect. And the sad part is that his co-workers are supporting his lies. They disregarded some negative remarks about the authenticity of the picture.
If only I could confront him and tell him right into his face that what he did was a public disturbance.  If I am his boss, I could have fired him right in that very instance when I found out the truth. It was so damaging especially to the young children who happened to see the image and heard the falsified ghost story. 
After about a couple of weeks later, he finally admitted that the whole thing was a lie. That it was just supposed to be a ghost prank. He said that he was only pressured by his father since the latter had spread it quickly first before he could actually told him the truth. Then, it had gone out of control. However, instead of being hateful about what he did some people had pity on him just like a child who just dropped a glass of water. Seriously?

I was relieved but at the same time still furious about what happened. I couldn't believed that I was fooled by a person who is known to be trustworthy. I thought people like him at his age should already know the difference between integrity and parental pressure.

Above all, I just don't understand some people who think that they could always fool others and really believed that they can get away with it leaving no traces at all. I also don't understand on why they are willing to trade their integrity for such a non-sense act of deceit. Ultimately, I don't understand on why there are still people who believed on them after the incident. And I think, it is the most disturbing thing that I've ever encountered.