Can Science Explain ‘Ghosts’?

in #science7 years ago

0.jpg

Matters beyond the physical realm have always been so alluring to mankind, which is evident in the popularity of our literature and media that cater to the idea of the metaphysical.

Things like psychic abilities, magic, ghosts, spirits and mysticism, though lacking any scientific base, attract the curiosity of many. Maybe it’s because of humanity’s ever persistent need to be something more, hence looking for venues to achieve that or at least confirm such a possibility.

Although we are absolutely sure about the impossibility of most of the things I mentioned above, ghosts and spirits remain the topics of hot debate among people.

A poll in 2013 concluded that 43 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. That number rises to 52% when we take the world into consideration. With so many reports of hauntings and sightings of the supernatural, and there still being no hard evidence, can science explain what people experience?

Can Science Explain Ghosts?

1.jpg

We’ve all read accounts of these allegedly haunted places in the world which have come to be accepted as the real deal. Countless supernatural phenomena experienced by totally unrelated people throughout the world suggest that maybe it’s all real after all.

But we should look at everything objectively and apply logic and reasoning to at least reduce the number of paranormal activities that can be explained away by laws of physics, or even just common sense.

So, let’s see. I’m sure that a lot of the paranormal experiences reported by some people are plain lies concocted to serve some agenda or to even just to make a camp night more interesting.

Then there are the more serious ones where people swear about having witnessed apparitions, moving shadows, doors getting closed by themselves, strange noises, or even just an eerie feeling of some ‘presence’. So, can there be an explanation for these that don’t require the presence of ghosts?

2.jpg

The first explanation that is usually given is that of the presence of electromagnetic fields. There have been many researches that study the impacts of electromagnetic fields on people’s perceptions and they state that such magnetic fields can make people feel uneasy and make them feel as if there is a presence of some kind. This has to do with how the fields affect our brains.

If you have seen paranormal investigators on the Discovery Channel, you will know that they often use devices that detect such electromagnetic fields (EMPs) and they are almost always present where paranormal activities are reported. So, maybe it’s not ghosts but some sort of magnetic fields.

Another explanation could be that of infrasound. These are the sound waves that we humans cannot hear but they can still cause some physiological discomfort to us. There are many sources of infrasound like severe weather, earthquakes, wind turbines, diesel engines, traffic, etc which are common all around us.

When subject to such infrasound, it is common to feel panicky, disoriented and even hallucinations. Certain frequencies in the infrasound range can also cause sensations like getting chills down the spine which is always subjected to witnessing paranormal events.

Scientists have also suggested many other explanations that include carbon monoxide poisoning, toxic mould, hysteria, psychological effects, or even just because we want to believe in such a thing.

What If They Do Exist?

3.jpg

Let’s steer away from science for a moment and consider the possibility of the existence of ghosts and spirits. Many religious texts point towards their existence and it might be that we just don’t have the technology to detect them yet.

So, what if they actually exist? I think if somehow their existence is proven someday, it could have one of two impacts. Either we become less fearful of them because we fear what we don’t understand and we don’t that we do, or we could become more paranoid because then we would always suspect their presence everywhere knowing that they do exist.

I sometimes think that if they exist, maybe it’s in some dimension of reality that we cannot perceive. Many theories in physics allow for the existence of multiple dimensions. So, what if there is a dimension where ghosts and spirits and other non-physical entities exist? Is that even possible?

For now, we will just have to make do with not knowing for sure. Maybe time will tell.

Sort:  

@sauravrungta good post. For me I will say science does not go with anything spiritual because is not there line.

For you to see a scientist that believe in spirituality then the person is either a religious individual. As for me spirit and magic exist based on believe. What you don't believe don't work for you, it is the believe couple with action that produce the result. Just my thinking anyway.

Awesome post buddy

Science right now, in my opinion, has been the study of the physical world. There have been a lot of references to a dimension of the non-physical in the world in religion and spirituality, that might be totally unexplored. Maybe one day we will know for sure.

@sauravrungta - An interesting debate! It is true that electromagnetic fields and infrasound could be responsible for a lot of abnormal experiences, which are termed paranormal by people in general because there is no parallel normal experience for them to compare to. Electromagnetic fields are known to cause even disappearances of objects - the Philadelphia experiment by US Navy is the greatest example. So, Yes - perhaps science can explain the paranormal. We do not know all the aspect of the physics concerned yet probably.

Thanks for this thought provoking blog my friend. Have a great weekend. Cheers. Upvoted full.

I cant wait to join you group, followed you

Yeah, those are two of the biggest explanations of the different paranormal activities that people have reported.

Sure it can.

Our brain is a a hyper-active prediction machine. We are wired to see faces in things (Pareidolia). We try to rationalize, explain, and bucket stimuli together.

Hence, people retreat to these fantasies to help them explain those sensations.

And until there is actually hard evidence, the default stance would be one of non-belief.

Yeah, thanks to our pattern recognition abilities, we tend to look for patterns in everything and as you say, we are wired to see faces and this might explain a lot of apparitions that people have experienced.

Have a nice day
You wrote so beautifully, that started to follow you.
Thank you. For your great writing and for sharing

Thank you so much :)

How can I ever forget the day my uncle died. In short I would say that when the doctors were making their final attempt by giving him the injection stabs, I was sitting just outside the room on a bench and right in front of me was another bench at the other side of the corridor and underneath it lay a pup. I suddenly saw that pup crawl backward in fear and made weird sounds as if it was too afraid by seeing something up above floating. I could not see anything but the scene was a bit strange to me. As soon as it went some distance away (20 meters) the pup was joined with other pup and their mother (as it seemed), they all began to howl and bark. They appeared in fear too. All this is unexplained and it happened right in front of me in front of my eyes wide open.

There are indeed some things that are unexplained. That much is sure.

Science is do morally and intellectually bankrupt it hardly explains anything , instead science tries to bully you with conclusions and concensus , it;s mostly bollocks ,science ...rubbish to fool the zombie masses

Science is a method to discover facts through systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.

Conclusions are built from data and evidence which you are welcome to explore. Consensus is built up from that evidence as well.

There is no bullying going on. The truth is the truth and science is an amazing tool to uncover it.

Exactly!!!!

Science is not bankrupt. It's the language of reality. It merely explains the truth.

I believe that the majority of paranormal activity is bogus and can be explained with science like you've said but their are rare exceptions which seem to defy even science.

I had a great-great aunt who saw a spirit rise out of a building during the bombing of London. She knew immediately that her brother had died. She had not known that her brother was inside the building but yet at the exact moment he died, she knew. Maybe it was just pure coincidence. Maybe she saw a weird puff off smoke rising from the building and simultaneously had a dreadful thought about her brother. But it's still something I think about often that send a bit of a chill down my spine.

As I said, mostly it's people "thinking" that they saw something as their brain goes into super fast thinking mode trying to explain the huge amount of information that it receives in such an event.

Let’s steer away from science for a moment and consider the possibility of the existence of ghosts and spirits. Many religious texts point towards their existence and it might be that we just don’t have the technology to detect them yet.

Thanks @sauravrungta, i am from Aceh

But if we don't have the technology to detect them, how did the less technologically advanced ancestors that wrote those religious texts detect them? Why are those texts trustworthy sources at all?

Why not just trust 'Scooby Doo' instead?

Haha, I have had these exact thoughts so many times since childhood :D

Thanks for reading!

Interesting thoughts in this post. The thing about ghosts that always made me skeptical, even when I was a kid, is that all the matter in the universe is actually moving rapidly through space. And, ghosts seem to not be subject to the laws of physics. So, the entire planet earth should be constantly moving right through them unless the ghosts are constantly accelerating forward at incredible speeds every second that they exist. Just seems dumb.

That is a really interesting point you make. I hadn't even thought of that :D

Of course they exist!!! Boo! 😁

haha a teddy bear commenting boo on my post? Nothing more scary than that :P :P

Reminds me of reading dan browns book and the also searching for the fact which was true - that a body lost few grams after death (body was kept in a vacum) which was thought to account for the weight of the soul.

Yeah, I have read about it too and found it really interesting. Maybe it could have been the different gas that escape the body after it dies?

yes. but the environment is airtight and anything that is released by the body- organic.stays in the container- let it be solid liquid or gas. what do you think?

Balanced post
Since the possibility of ghost being real or unreal had not been established

Thank you :)

You are welcome

I think science is explaining it. Ghosts are no more spooky than quantum erasure, quantum tunneling, or quantum entanglement.

When taken into the context of a data stream of information, it's all very "Natural." The larger consciousness system still has your dead uncle Joe on it's hard drive.

If it will wake a person up to a larger reality, perhaps by having uncle Joe tell you that he hid gold coins in the back yard, and you go to the place he specified and find gold coins, well you have some questions that need answers now.

They are only spooky because we do not understand them (assuming they are real). As I said, we fear what we do not understand.

Through my esoteric experiences I've seen some crazy stuff. On a heavy psychadelic trip a person can come across entities that have nothing in common with our plain of existence.

These entities aren't carbon based, this means that they are way beyond the limitations of the physical world.

We look at entities with fear because the unknown is always scary.

If God talked to you in your head would you be happy or would you think you are a crazy?

@sauravrungta please have a look at my writings, you seem like a lovely person open to abstract looking.. And I really need people to give me a helping hand grow. It would mean the world to me.

Much love and All the best brother ❤︎

Namaste

Yeah, we fear what we do not understand. If ghosts are real, and we one day, prove their existence, maybe this fear will be no more. Thanks for reading :) Gave you a couple of upvotes on your posts.

Yup I saw that <3 woke up with a smile ^^ Thank you for the support not many people do that here.

good topic. If you dont know, the psychology science have one term call Anomalistic Psychology, this is some new stuff for study this phenomenons, search for Christopher French and the book Anomalistic Psychology, its a great researcher scientist. Even on youtube have a lot of good stuff about.
Greetings from Brasil.

Ok will look into it!

Bhai do you follow Supernatural series? I wonder if demons are that hot,haha

No, I haven't but I have heard of it. Haha demons are supposed to be hot, they live in Hell no?? :P :P

lol,seriously you meant earth core here?

Science can not explain ghosts

This is because of the definitions of science. Not because ghosts do or do not exist. Physics has been separated from metaphysics, and science just doesn't go there.

The typical scientific response to overwhelming evidence of ghosts is to say its all an illusion. Smoke and mirrors. A parlor trick.

Ghosts, and encounters with other entities has been going on for millennia. Records of sightings, of moving objects, of speech, of information that only the dead person would know... the evidence is mountainous.

But, even in the face of mountainous evidence, science has to deny it.
Further, there is a group that is trying to keep mankind from understanding the world. And this group has taken over "science" and turned into "scientism." Where everything is wrong, but it is "scientifically proven".

- - - - - - -

Now, ghosts and other entities are all around us. All of the time. If we ever really learned about ghosts, what would happen is that we would learn how to deal and react to ghosts. Its no different than any other human interaction.

Ghosts, also are a single word used to describe multiple phenomena.
There are memories of tragic events. These memories are actually stuck in the place where they happened. Such as old battlefields. Sensitive people who go into these areas often feel, or see the memory play out again.

There are people who died but are still hanging around. This is the closest to what we usually describe as ghosts. And many times these entities go on living their lives as if nothing happened. In such places, people often report things getting moved.

There are other entities. Demons and angels for one, that live in the same space, but don't take up any space in our space. Just think, each person has at least three angels that are always with them.

I am pretty sure that mankind will learn to perceive and interact with all of these entities in the future. And then, it will just be common knowledge that they exist.

Supernatural and the natural are two parallels. However, when they eventually meet, a miracle takes place. They meet through divine intervention.

For now, we will just have to make do with not knowing for sure.

It's difficult to conclusively disprove something that doesn't exist. It's much easier to prove something does exist.

Ghosts would be cool if they exist, but I really doubt it.

Lovely post man.

yeah, it's harder to disprove I guess hehe

Thanks for reading man! :)

There are actually a surprising amount of physical as well as psychological factors which can be attributed to alleged paranormal experiences. Three or four months ago I wrote a post about a few of them. Really interesting stuff.

https://steemit.com/psychology/@swism/are-ghosts-the-biggest-trick-we-ve-played-on-ourselves

Thanks, will check it out.

A few months back, I read about an Indian paranormal researcher who explored haunted homes, dying a mysterious death. The police suspected strangulation with the bathroom door bolted from the inside in broad daylight!

I have tried to explore the paranormal but won't do it again. Things went topsy-turvy out of the blue. And it took a while for normalcy to return.

For sure, there's 'positive' energy and 'negative' energy. Better stay away from the bad.

Heavenly created realities. after I thanks therewith. Unquestionably can presumably be very helpful with relevance our forthcoming tasks. ought to see some completely different posts for a passing extravagant topic!