Hi Steemians,
Let's talk about ghosts. That's right I'm talking about whatever things which keep you awake at night that aren't from this world. Call it whatever you want; apparition, phantom, shade, spirit or the devil, generally when either one of the words is being used, it described pretty much the same entity. There are a lot of folklore or stories which have been told by our ancestors to describe a being which lives in this world but on another dimension. Sounds familiar?
The descriptions differ between culture and religion and sometimes, we do think this particular entity has some sort of racial status. The ghost which is being described by an Asian might not be the same as the ghost described by a European. It all comes down to a belief that a ghost, is a soul or spirit of a dead individual which appear to be living. If an Asian died, the soul would still be an Asian hence the ghost would be an Asian. That seems like a plausible explanation regarding the race of a particular ghost, yes? I know, I chuckled too.
There are a lot of people who believe in ghost. The majority of cultures around the globe believe that whoever died in this world, their spirit or soul would still survive and live in another dimension of the same world. There are a lot of people who claim or at least try to communicate with this entity. Some of them claimed to be successful with no clear evidence that they were and some just end up in failure.
A survey which was conducted in the United Kingdom in the year of 2014 has found that approximately 52% out of 2000 participants believed in the existence of supernatural entities which are much higher than the outcomes yield back in 2005 and 2009 which found that only roughly 40% of the same number of total participants do. While in the United States, around 43% of Americans believe in the supernatural occurrences based on the survey result conducted by Harris Poll back in 2013. That was quite a lot, isn't it?
Necromancy or the art of communicating with the dead people has been demonstrated on multiple occasions which rely on the cues of the surrounding which might indicate some sort of supernatural attempt to communicate with the living. In some universities like Oxford and Cambridge, if some of your friends were interested to learn and maybe try to communicate with a ghost, you can gather a few other students to join your ghost club with the purpose of searching any evidence that might suggest their existence. A few Ghostbusters have become popular for the past couple of decades and there are some who have been arrested for committing fraud. This signal how the concept of supernatural entity affects the culture of a community.
When I was a little boy, people are always mad at me when I used the word ghost, they seem to believe if we mentioned them frequently, they might haunt us. Nowadays, every single individual is looking for any sign of supernatural presence. "Ghost Hunters" which is a popular Syfy TV series, dedicate themselves to find some pieces of evidence and possibly scientific explanation for most of the supernatural occurrences ever recorded. Hey, that's cool but if you see some sort of flickering light in a dark room or noise which appear out of nowhere, and you claim that to be a sign of a ghost, I will become sceptical. I believe that if something happens, there must a be a reason behind it. A mechanism or anything that happens which could explain the said, phenomenon. Let's take a look at some of the scientific explanation regarding supernatural occurrences which has been documented in the past.
Unusual Electromagnetic Field
Have you ever heard about a particular helmet called the God helmet? This apparatus was developed by a neuroscientist named Michael Persinger to study the effect of stimulation in the temporal lobes of the brain. Some of the studies which have been conducted with this particular apparatus was involving creativity, religious experience and sure, the explanation for ghost sighting. This helmet would emit a weak field of magnetic force which would be experienced by the wearer. The outcome? Well, for most people who have been experimented with the God helmet experienced some sort of presence in the room they were sitting in which is speculated were caused by the disturbances of a normal temporal lobes brain activity. It was concluded that, if we exposed an individual to a weak magnetic field for approximately 30 minutes, they will start to experience a mild visual hallucination.
Of course, people started to question the outcome of his research. A group of scientist wrote a paper, denying the outcome of Persinger's conclusion. They argued that, in the experiment which is conducted by Persinger, the weak electromagnetic field doesn't contribute to the outcome experienced by participants (which is the visual hallucination). They hypothesised that the ability of an individual to sense supernatural presence will depend on suggestibility. There is no concrete evidence that would suggest otherwise.
In response to that, Persingers wrote a response letter to explain regarding the protocol which is being used to conduct the experiment regarding the application of God helmet in causing visual hallucination. It was clear that the protocol was completely different compared to the other experiments conducted by Persingers to investigate a different kind of variables.
In 2002, a paper entitled "An investigation into the alleged haunting of Hampton Court Palace: Psychological variables and magnetic fields" has been published which confirmed the hypothesis made by Persinger. 678 people were divided into two groups and were asked to walk a certain area in the Hampton Court Palace. One group were told that the area was associated with supernatural phenomenon while the other group were convinced that the area has nothing to do with anything. After carrying out the study, the majority of the participants reported a feeling of ghostly presence in a specific area which is later found to have an abnormal wave of electromagnetic activities.
Infrasound
In 1998, an engineer named Vic Tandy was hired by a medical equipment manufacturer as an engineering designer working with the other three peoples in a laboratory. He has heard some stories about the place that he will be working with but he paid a little attention as he doesn't really believe that the place was haunted. One day, when he arrived, he noticed a cleaning lady was hastily leaving the laboratory with a distress and scared facial expression as if she saw something that she was not supposed to see.
He just assumes something has happened other from supernatural occurrences and just proceed to work. As the time goes on, he noticed a few events which can be considered as unusual occurred to him at that particular laboratory. He felt depressed, anxious, sometimes cold and on one occasion, his friend thought he was sitting by their side when actually he was at the end of the room. As they were busy, they paid a little attention to details.
One night, when Vic was working alone, he felt colder than usual although he was sweating profusely. He became restless, extremely depressed and uncomfortable and at one point he thought he is being watched by a grey apparition, standing beside him. He saw the apparition vividly by using his peripheral vision and when he turned his head, there was no one. He started to think he was too tired to keep on working and went home after that. The next day, he and his colleagues realised that they were exposed to a standing wave emitted by an inaudible vibrating fan which potentially caused all of the experienced symptoms.
In a paper which has been published by the Institute of Environmental Medicine in 1995 has found that any form of apparatus or machine which can emit a low frequency of vibrations can cause a few psychological and physiological consequences that might be easily mistaken as being visited by a supernatural being. The symptoms include panic attack, disorientation, tachycardia, increase blood pressure, cold shiver etc. It is some of the consequences of exposure to a low-frequency noise and should be investigated further before jumping into the supernatural bandwagon. It is difficult to detect a low-frequency noise without using a proper equipment.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
So, you just moved to a new house that you bought cheaply from the previous owner. Despite the stories that you've heard from the neighbours and all, you still think it is a good deal since it was so difficult to look for a big house with a cheap price nowadays. The first day was a breeze, nothing weird happened and you were happy about the decision that you have made but come the second day, you started to feel some kind of supernatural presence in the house.
Sometimes you can hear your furniture moving around by itself while you were reading the newspapers. During the night, you heard some voices and you felt like you are being watched by a set of eyes that you can't even see. You felt lethargic and weak when you woke up every single morning and sometimes, you felt like being held down against your will by something that you cannot see. Well, that was creepy, isn't it? If it occurred to you, you might want to move out as quickly as you could or perform some sort of ritual to get rid of any mystical being that has been living with you.
Well, this case has been recorded in the American Journal of Ophthalmology by a doctor named W.H. Wilmer. This particular story belongs to a family which resides in a house which they thought was haunted but actually is not. All of the symptoms described were caused by a faulty furnace which caused the house to be filled with carbon monoxide which explained all of the hallucination symptoms experienced by the entire family. Well, how do we know it was carbon monoxide which has been causing symptoms? After the furnace has been fixed, the family lives in the house happily without any paranormal occurrences.
This might be one of the oddest stories being published in the medical journal.
Author Remarks
It is difficult to determine whether ghosts are real or not. Some cultures believe in the existence of supernatural entities but that doesn't really explain much. Just because a something exists doesn't mean it would affect humans in some ways. I have given 3 examples of odd occurrences which are thought to be supernatural but turns out, can be explained by science. The majority of people who believes in ghost doesn't experience any sort of supernatural occurrences themselves. They just heard stories from someone who assert confidently that they saw something which can't be seen normally.
Confirmation bias influences greatly the opinion of an individual. There are theoretically two possible explanations why we haven't seen ghosts or any of the ghost hunters haven't found a clear evidence to suggest ghost existed just yet:
Ghost doesn't exist. It just a manifestation of psychological problems or hallucinations which is being held with conviction.
Ghost do exist but people who are looking for them were incompetent and sloppy. Afterall, all of the TV series wasn't really intended for a serious ghost catching purposes, but rather for entertainment.
If a ghost does exist, it will be discovered with science. Everyone loves a ghost story. I know I do.
References and further reading materials
- Wiseman, R., Watt, C., Greening, E., Stevens, P., & O'Kefffe, C. (2002). An investigation into the alleged haunting of Hampton Court Palace: Psychological variables and magnetic fields. Journal of Parapsychology, 66(4), 387-408.
- Effects of carbon monoxide upon the eye Wilmer, W.H. American Journal of Ophthalmology, Volume 4, Issue 2, 73 - 90.
- Benjamin Radford. Smithsonian. Are Ghosts Real? — Evidence Has Not Materialized. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://www.livescience.com/26697-are-ghosts-real.html
- Jasper Copping. The Telegraph. Who you're gonna call? Belief in ghosts is rising. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10310018/Who-you-gonna-call-Belief-in-ghosts-is-rising.html
- Shaunacy Ferro. Mental Floss. 6 Scientific Explanations for Ghosts. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from http://mentalfloss.com/article/70293/6-scientific-explanations-ghosts
- Wikipedia. Ghost. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost
- Wikipedia. God helmet. Retrieved April 9, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helmet
Ghosts exist. I used them in the past... in quantum chromodynamics :)
Well, I'm not familiar with quantum chromodynamics but is it really exist?
This is the theory of the strong interactions. The LHC uses it at every single second ;)
good post well written
Thank you @mbadayee
Funny and refreshing post in the science section :)
Thank you @alexs1320.
Great article as always buddy @chloroform. As for me, I do believe that there are things in this world that we couldn't explain. Well given that we could explain it through psychological aspects like it might be a product of our imaginations,hallucinations or delusions. Who knows? But I have experienced paranormal things a lot and I might say some things are just so weird .
Yeah, I don't deny the probability regarding the existence of supernatural beings but I do think if we want to explore a whole new dimension, science would be the best answer. We are generally afraid of something we don't quite understand and ghosts fall into that category.
True human as we are,we are afraid of things that we dont know. Rising above and focusing on science is the best option to explain these occurences.
I enjoyed reading this. In most of the times it is our own consciousness that act as ghost as the occurrence of the events you have mentioned here is very rare. I want to know that is there any research on why do ghosts prefer Midnight time to act?
That's an interesting question. Generally, the answer could be one of the following:
All of this combined with our heightened state of fear, our inability to accurately perceive stimuli at night, our assumption that evil things should prefer the dark, and our comparative lack of experience with the night makes us see "ghosts" that aren't there.
This opinion is not based on research. As this topic is not fully understood, the majority of answers to your question is hypothetical.
The first image, it's just adorable! :)
Did they actually find the source of the electromagnetic field in the Hampton Court Palace?
These are some parts taken from the original paper. They did find a few spots which have a low electromagnetic field which correlate with the hypothesis made by Persinger.
Wow i love this
This is informative, educative and most importantly BALANCED
I am part of the people who believe in ghost becuase of stories shared by people, but somehow their explanation seems to be true to me. However this your explanation seems to be very valid, but not enough which explains why i fully accept your response to why their has been no evidence to support the existence of ghost.
Let's hope in years to come, their will be a standard evidence to support the existence or disapprove the existence of ghost.
Lovely post
Keep steeming
It will be difficult to conduct studies in this "grey" area but someday, we would have an answer to the "Are ghost real?" question.
I also believe that most reports of supernatural activity can be explained by science. There are some mysteries that I kinda wish were real, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. With ghosts, I am happy to believe that they aren’t.
Yeah, I'm also would be thrilled if Loch Ness monster was actually real.
Such a crazy concept here
How could science create such feel? Aren't we gonna create our own world soon with the continuous discoveries we keep unearthing?
This is an awesome research you did here.....I can't forget how this concept of "Ghost" stopped me from partaking in night play in the neighborhood due to the belief. We actually consider it being real here and many times are warned to not go to some few places that they may be.
Well, now though, I believe it's down to the state of mind
Yeah, it's crazy. According to the paper that I read entailing the details of the Hampton Palace experiment, they conclude every people have different temporal lobe activities when being exposed to a low electromagnetic field. Some people might be sensitive than the others.
I commend your effort for this great work.
I am still scared of ghosts tho🙈
You're not alone dude.
Lol, that makes two of us.
Good story and of course if there is the other dimension where these entities are. It is an issue that mixes folklore, religions, beliefs and of course experiences of each, which allows you to know a little more of these things, that for many incredulous think they are lies until they are surprised by any of these events Paranormal. It is an interesting world but I must confess that frightening in most cases. Greetings and you have my vote
Paranormal is indeed interesting and the reason why we are afraid is that we don't really understand them. We do not know if they really have the capabilities to cause us harm or anything, it's like we're living in the shadow of their own world.
I had heard of electronic ghost detector is available in market, never took it seriously and believed. After reading this interesting article I will have to rethink now. Great post.
Thank you. I'm glad you like it.
So if I surround myself with vibrating fans and electromagnetic fields in a room filled with carbon monoxide, I'm sure to see a ghost. Thanks for the tip!
Do you really want to try all three?
If you ask me, I believe in the supernatural world , stories above were just some human occurrence which some had no explanation to hence termed ghostly but later disproved but there are still yet many to be explained though.
I like your balance in the article, good read and well written piece.
Thank you @logic42. I'm glad you like it.