According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 37 percent ofAmericans
believe in haunted houses, and according to a 2013 HuffPost/YouGov poll,
45 percent believe in ghosts.
These are surprising numbers, but the next time you hear a spooky
sound, don’t call the Ghostbusters—get a scientist instead. Behind every
shadow, poltergeist, and disembodied voice, there’s a perfectly
rational explanation.
10. Electric Stimulation Of The Brain
Frightened witnesses all over the world have seen the shadow people.
These dark beings are glimpsed out of the corner of the eye only to
vanish when confronted.
Many believe them to be demons, some think they’re astral bodies, and
some say they’re time travelers, here for a second and gone. However,
some researchers have a more shocking theory.
When Swiss scientists electrically stimulated an epileptic patient’s brain,
things got really spooky.
The patient reported a shadow person sitting behind her, copying her
every move. When she sat up, it also sat up. When she bent forward and
grabbed her knees, it reached around her body and held her. The
doctors then told her to read a card, but the shadow person tried to
take it out of her hand.
What happened was the scientists had stimulated the left
temporoparietal junction, the part of the brain that defines the idea of
self. By interfering with the area that helps us tell the difference
between ourselves and others, the doctors screwed up the brain’s ability
to understand its own body, thus leading to the creation of a copycat
shadow person. Researchers are hoping this is the key to understanding
why so many people, both schizophrenic and healthy, encounter shadow
beings and other creatures like aliens.
9. Ideomotor Effect
The Spiritualist movement was
pretty big in the 1840s and 1850s.
It provided a way for people to talk to their dead loved ones. One
method of communication was the Ouija board. Still popular today, the
board was covered in letters, numbers, and simple words (like “yes” or
“no”). People would then place their hands on a wooden piece called a
planchette and ask the spirits a question. A ghost would respond by
moving the planchette from letter to letter, spelling out a response (or
unleashing Captain Howdy).
Another creepy method for interacting with spirits was
table tilting.
During a séance, people would gather round a table and place their
hands on the tabletop. To everyone’s surprise, the table would start
moving by itself. It might tilt up on one leg,
levitate off the ground or scoot around the room.
Con men were definitely involved in some of these incidents, but were
all these encounters frauds? Renowned physicist Michael Faraday wanted
to find out. Through clever experimentation, Faraday discovered that
the tables were often moving thanks to the ideomotor effect.
This is
when the power of suggestion causes our muscles to move unconsciously.
People expected a table to move so they unintentionally moved it. A
similar event took place in 1853 when four doctors held an experimental
séance. When they secretly told half the participants the table would
move to the right and half it would move left, the table didn’t budge.
But when they told everyone it would move in one direction, the
ideomotor effect struck again! This same principle applies to the Ouija
board. It’s our own muscles that are doing the spelling, not the
spirits.
8. Infrasound
After seeing a gray ghost near his desk, researcher Vic Tandy was worried his laboratory
might be haunted.
But the next day, Tandy made an interesting discovery. While
preparing for a fencing match, Tandy placed his sword in a vise. He
then noticed the blade was vibrating on its own. All of a sudden,
everything clicked. He realized the force causing his sword to shake
was the same force haunting his lab. Vic Tandy was dealing with
infrasound.
Humans can hear sounds up to 20,000 Hertz, but we’re unable to detect anything
lower than 20 Hz.
These “silent” noises are called infrasound, and while we can’t hear
them, we can feel them in the form of vibrations. Dr. Richard Wiseman
says we can feel these waves, especially in our stomachs, and this can
create either a positive feeling (such as awe) or a negative feeling
(such as unease). In the right surroundings (see “creepy house”), this
might create a sense of panic.
Infrasound can be produced by
storms, wind, weather patterns,
and even everyday appliances. Returning to Vic Tandy, after witnessing
his wobbling sword, he learned that a new fan had been installed in his
laboratory, and sure enough, it was issuing vibrations of about 19 Hz.
Since our eyeballs have a resonant frequency around 20 Hz, the
infrasound was vibrating Tandy’s eyeballs and creating images that
weren’t really there.
When Tandy turned off the fan, presto: no more
ghost.
Similarly, Dr. Wiseman believes these vibrations are responsible for paranormal activity in
“haunted” locations.
For example, when investigating two underground sites, he discovered
evidence of infrasound coming from the traffic overhead. Wiseman thinks
this explains the ghostly figures and creepy footsteps in these areas,
proving there’s nothing good about these vibrations.
7. Automatism
What do witch doctors and Shirley MacLaine have in common? They’re
all big into channeling! Channeling is one of mankind’s oldest attempts
to reach the spirit world. The idea is to clear the mind, connect with
some sort of cosmic consciousness and let
a centuries-old spirit possess your body,
which doesn’t sound creepy at all. The shamans of ancient religions
were believed to channel the dead, TV psychic John Edward says he can
speak to
those who’ve crossed over,
and medium J.Z. Knight claims she channels a spirit named Ramtha, a
35,000-year-old spirit from Atlantis. Obviously, there are quite a few
frauds in the channeling community, but what about the people who
sincerely believe in what they’re doing?
The answer is automatism, an “altered state of consciousness” where
people say things and think things they’re not aware of. So when a
psychic clears his mind, he starts searching for a friendly spirit
guide. The spirit guide is supposed to enter his body and then provide
secret knowledge about the universe. When the psychic clears his mind,
random ideas and images start popping up in his head, and the medium
assumes these thoughts are coming from another entity. However, these
ideas are just coming from his mind.
Our brains are capable of coming
up with all kinds of crazy stuff without any conscious effort on our
part. How many times has something inspired you out of the blue? How
many times have you had totally bizarre nightmares or daydreams? That’s
not the work of an otherworldly guide. That’s your brain, working
overtime
all the time.
6. Drafts
You’re exploring a creepy, run-down mansion in the middle of the
night when suddenly the air grows cold. However, if you take a few
steps to the left or right, the temperature returns to normal. This is
what parapsychologists call a cold spot. According to ghost hunters, a
cold spot is
a sign of paranormal activity.
When a ghost has nothing better to do than appear out of thin air and
scare people to death, it needs energy. So the ghost draws heat from
its surroundings (including people) in order to manifest.
However, scientists have a much simpler (and much more boring)
explanation. When skeptics investigate “haunted” houses, they usually
find cool air entering the house
through a chimney or window.
But even if the room is sealed off, there’s still a perfectly rational
explanation. Every object has its own temperature, and some surfaces
are hotter than others. In an attempt to equalize the room temperature,
the objects try to lose heat in a process
called convection.
This is where hot air rises, and cool air drops. Similarly, when dry
air enters a humid room, the dry air sinks to the floor and the humid
air rises to the ceiling. This swirling air will feel cool against a
person’s skin, giving the impression of a cold spot. Next time you feel
a ghostly presence, turn on the heater
5Camera Issues
5. Camera Issues
In 1921, ophthalmologist William Wilmer published a bizarre paper in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. It told the story of the “H” family and their haunted house.
Their hell home was plagued with the sounds of slamming doors, moving
furniture and footsteps in empty rooms. One of the children felt
something sitting on him while the other was attacked by a mysterious
stranger. During the night, the woman of the house awoke to see a man
and a woman standing at the foot of her bed, only to watch them vanish
moments later. As the hauntings continued, the family grew tired and
depressed, and then their plants started to die. It was then they
discovered the faulty furnace. The furnace was supposed to send its
fumes up the chimney, but instead the gas was pouring into the house.
It turns out the family was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas, which makes it
really hard to detect.
It’s dangerous because our red blood cells absorb CO much easier than
they do oxygen, and this oxygen deprivation leads to symptoms such as
weakness, nausea, confusion, and eventually death. But before you kick
the bucket, you might
experience hallucinations,
just like the “H” family. For example, in 2005, a woman called the
authorities after seeing a spirit in her bathroom. It turned out the
paranormal activity was due to her leaky water heater which was filling
the house with CO. Bottom line: Stay away from carbon monoxide, folks,
because one way or another, it’ll have you seeing ghosts.
4. Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
In 1921, ophthalmologist William Wilmer published a bizarre paper in the
American Journal of Ophthalmology. It told the story of the “H” family and
their haunted house.
Their hell home was plagued with the sounds of slamming doors, moving
furniture and footsteps in empty rooms. One of the children felt
something sitting on him while the other was attacked by a mysterious
stranger. During the night, the woman of the house awoke to see a man
and a woman standing at the foot of her bed, only to watch them vanish
moments later. As the hauntings continued, the family grew tired and
depressed, and then their plants started to die. It was then they
discovered the faulty furnace. The furnace was supposed to send its
fumes up the chimney, but instead the gas was pouring into the house.
It turns out the family was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an odorless, colorless gas, which makes it
really hard to detect.
It’s dangerous because our red blood cells absorb CO much easier than
they do oxygen, and this oxygen deprivation leads to symptoms such as
weakness, nausea, confusion, and eventually death. But before you kick
the bucket, you might
experience hallucinations,
just like the “H” family. For example, in 2005, a woman called the
authorities after seeing a spirit in her bathroom. It turned out the
paranormal activity was due to her leaky water heater which was filling
the house with CO. Bottom line: Stay away from carbon monoxide, folks,
because one way or another, it’ll have you seeing ghosts.
3. Mass Hysteria
In June 2013, over 3,000 workers went on strike at
a garment factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh.
They weren’t protesting against long working hours, and they weren’t
demanding better wages. They wanted someone to do something about the
ghost in the restroom. An angry spirit had attacked a worker in the
lady’s room, causing everyone to panic. A riot ensued, and the police
had to restore order. A similar event took place at a school in Patong,
Phuket when 22 students were hospitalized after
seeing the ghost of an old woman. But while the Bangladeshi factory owner ordered an exorcism, perhaps he should have called a counselor instead.
Both the workers and the students experienced a psychological
phenomenon known as mass hysteria. These collective delusions occur
when people are really stressed out, usually thanks to their oppressive
environments (like a strict school or busy workplace). This pent-up
stress then turns into physical symptoms like headaches, nausea, or
violent spasms. Throw in religious and cultural beliefs, a relatively
isolated environment and the always-busy rumor mill, and you’ve got a
recipe for disaster. Other people will “catch” the same strange
symptoms, they’ll spread like a disease, and panic ensues.
It’s interesting to note that very few of the 3,000 factory workers
actually encountered the ghost. Even the woman who sparked the frenzy
didn’t actually see anything. She got sick and just assumed it was the
work of an evil spirit, but the suggestion was so powerful and the
circumstances were so perfect that everyone freaked out. Fortunately,
it didn’t end with human sacrifices or dogs and cats living together.
2. Ions
Unfortunately, real ghost hunters don’t carry proton packs. However,
they do use tools such as the ion counter. The ion counter, well,
counts ions. An ion is an atom with an uneven amount of
protons and electrons. If an atom gains an electron, it becomes a negative ion, and if it loses an electron, it becomes positive.
Ghost hunters go crazy over ions because they supposedly
show a paranormal presence.
Some say a spirit’s presence interferes with the normal ion count in
the atmosphere while others say ghosts draw upon ionic energy when they
want to appear and scare people to death. However, ion counters are
really pretty lousy when it comes to detecting ghosts. Ions are caused
by all kinds of natural phenomena like weather,
solar radiation, and radon gas.
So it basically comes down to how someone interprets the evidence.
Scientists see ions and think, “Natural.” Ghost hunters see ions and
think, “Paranormal!”
Interestingly, both positive and negative ions can affect our moods.
Negative ions can make us feel calm and relaxed while positive ions can
give us headaches and
make us feel lousy. This might explain why people who live in “haunted” houses describe feeling tired and tense,
as well as having headaches.
1. Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the study of the smallest types of matter, and it has led to some
pretty awesome inventions.
However, it can get pretty weird when physicists start talking about
souls and ghosts. Take, for example, Dr. Stuart Hameroff and
his physicist friend Roger Penrose.
Hameroff and Penrose theorize that human consciousness comes from
microtubules inside our brain cells, and these tubules are responsible
for quantum processing (our souls basically). Hameroff and Penrose
believe when people have a near-death experience, all that quantum
information leaves the brain, yet continues to exist, which is why some
people report out-of-body experiences and lights at the end of tunnels.
As you might expect, a lot of scientists have problems with Hameroff
and Penrose’s theory. But Dr. Henry Stapp isn’t one of them. As a
respected quantum physicist who worked with
the famous Heisenberg, Stapp believes that a person’s personality might be able to
survive death
and exist as a “mental entity.” Stapp theorizes if these entities could
return to the physical world, then concepts like possession and
channeling could really be possible. Are men like Stapp, Hameroff, and
Penrose just wishful thinkers? Or are they modern day Galileos?
