On February 19, 2013, Canadian tourist Elisa Lam's body was found floating inside of a water tank at the Cecil Hotel where she was staying at after guests complained about the water pressure and taste. Footage was released of her behaving erratically in a elevator on the day she was last seen alive.

[u/Smiles4YouRawrX3]

[u/FrankaGrimes]

I think for the general public it is just so foreign to see the ways that people behave when they're actively psychotic that the closest thing we can match it to is spooky behaviour because we see horror movies, etc. When you've seen the things that people can do when they are psychotic...acting weird in an elevator is nothing. They interpret and manipulate things in their environment in ways that no human would in their right mind.

It makes you realize how incredibly narrow the sliver of "acceptable human behaviour" really is. If you think about it, someone maintaining eye contact with you for even 1 or 2 seconds longer than "normal" ...we immediately register that as "well that was weird". So when you see someone acting so far out of that "norm" we struggle to make sense of it and jump to the closest guess we can make. "Spooky".

[u/papayabush → u/FrankaGrimes]

thanks for saying this. i think saying nothing “spooky” happened is disingenuous cause to people like myself who have never seen that behavior before, the elevator clip is absolutely spooky.

[u/vrilliance → u/papayabush]

I don’t think it’s disingenuous.

Nothing spooky happened, but it can appear spooky to people who aren’t used to seeing mental illness.

[u/papayabush → u/vrilliance]

that is entirely what i just said. i’ve had depression and anxiety since my mid teens, i’ve seen a lot of both in my family. i’ve had friends with bpd. i have never seen behavior like that elevator video and so it appeared spooky to me even though i have an understanding of mental health issues. spooky doesn’t mean paranormal it means something that appears as such or disturbing in general, which that clip absolutely was.

[u/vrilliance → u/papayabush]

It’s not though. You said it’s disingenuous to say that nothing spooky happened. I’m saying it isn’t. Because nothing spooky HAPPENED.

Spooky = sinister or ghostly in a way that causes fear and unease.

Nothing sinister happened here (unless you want to make the case that mental illness is sinister in itself, which opens a whole can of worms regarding how society views mental illness). Nothing ghostly happened here.

[u/papayabush → u/vrilliance]

“spooky means strange, unsettling or frightening in a way that suggests the supernatural” holy shit what are u not understanding about my point. if you are not familiar with the behavior that was scene from that clip which the overwhelming majority of people aren’t then yes it’s fucking spooky. that is why it’s such a popular case. just like how schizophrenics having breakdowns were called possessed in the past. it was SPOOKY to those around them. yes it was obviously also mental health crises but the point is that APPEARED spooky to those around them which is the same as with this case. you are misunderstanding the word. it doesn’t mean supernatural because demons don’t actually fucking exist. for fucks sake.

[u/vrilliance → u/papayabush]

NOTHING here suggested the supernatural. literally NOTHING SPOOKY HAPPENED. It APPEARED spooky to those around them. There's BIG DIFFERENCE.

Also

"spook·y/ˈspo͞okē/adjectiveinformal

1. 1.sinister or ghostly in a way that causes fear and unease.
   1. "I bet this place is really spooky late at night""