Consider, for example, the text's assertion that the various explorations of the house should be viewed less as collective experiences than as a conjunction of a host of singular ones: “As with previous explorations, Zampanò informs us in Chapter IX,
Exploration #4 can also be considered a personal journey. While some portions of the house, like the Great Hall for instance, seem to offer a communal experience, many inter-communicating passageways encountered by individual members, even with only a glance, will never be re-encountered by anyone else again. Therefore, in spite of, as well as in light of, future investigations, Holloway's descent remains singular. (188)
This insight on Zampanò's part mirrors the conclusion of contemporary scientific researchers who, we are told, "believe the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it." Thus, "Dr. Haugeland asserts that the extraordinary absence of sensory information forces the individual to manufacture his or her own data" and "Ruby Dahl calls the house on Ash Tree Lane a solipsistic heightener, arguing that the house, the halls, and the rooms all become the self—collapsing, expanding, tilting, closing, but always in perfect relation to the mental state of the individual" (165).xix All of this leads Zampanò to conclude that in the case of Navidson's house:
Subjectivity seems more a matter of degree. The Infinite Corridor, the Anteroom, the Great Hall, and the Spiral Staircase exist for all, though their respective size and even layout sometimes changes. Other areas of that place, however, never seem to replicate the same pattern twice, or so the film repeatedly demonstrates. (178)
Further evidence for this claim can be found, for example, in the chaotic and complexly mediated scene during which Tom, Navidson's brother, disappears for good as Navidson helplessly looks on. Here the correlation between singularity and spatial mutation creates a situation in which Tom's actions generate “spatial affects" that are subsequently countered by the variant spatial affects generated by Navidson's actions. Having retrieved Navidson's daughter, Daisy, from the house, Tom has we are informed, "found his limit"; out of breath, he stops, kneels, and heaves for air, at which point:
[The] floor carries him backwards ten or fifteen feet more and then for no apparent reason stops. Only the walls and ceiling continue their drunken dance around him, stretching, bending, even tilting.
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