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Think your house is haunted? You may just have a mould problem.

That’s what one group of researchers believe could be the cause of many spectral sightings.

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Shane Rogers, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., is a big fan of ghost stories, and wanted to apply some of his research to the field.

“Hauntings are very widely reported phenomena that are not well-researched,” he said. “They are often reported in older-built structures that may also suffer poor air quality.”

Hauntings are very widely reported phenomena that are not well-researched

The idea is that certain toxic moulds or fungi, like the rye ergot fungus, are able to cause severe psychosis in people who breathe in the hard-to-detect fumes they project. When the air is contaminated, the brain can play subtle tricks on you — a sudden chill, a movement in the corner of your eye, or potentially other ghastly and hallucinatory illusions.

“Similarly, some people have reported depression, anxiety and other effects from exposure to biological pollutants in indoor air,” Rogers said.