Evidentiary Ectoplasmic Encounters Explained
There are three kinds of experiences with ghosts. Some claim to actually see or hear the spirit. For others, it is more of an internal experience in which there is simply a sensation of presence. The third type involves a real, physical manifestation that is ascribed to a ghost. The first type is easily explained as a hallucination, lie or case of mistaken identity. The second is a feeling. It involves no observation of any kind, and can therefore simply be dismissed. I can feel like I have twenty million dollars, but if I write you a check for a million bucks, it will still bounce. These first two types of encounters have one important thing in common. The person reporting the encounter, once convinced of the supernatural nature thereof, cannot be talked out of it. They can only come around on their own.
“I saw a ghost.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.”
See? That argument is over.
I’m interested in the third type. It is this third kind of encounter that is sought by ghost hunters and spiritualists to convince the rest of us that there are spirits among us. I also think this evidentiary type of encounter, whether experienced firsthand or reported by a third party, is the kind most likely to make a person start believing.
48% of Americans believe in ghosts. In the UK, it’s 68%, which dwarfs the percentage of Brits who believe in god. In large parts of Africa and South America, the number is probably pretty close to 100%, as ghosts are simply accepted as a part of daily life by many indigenous cultures. With these numbers behind it, this is clearly a topic worthy of serious consideration.
Everything I will present from this point on is pure speculation and opinion. I have done no research and conducted no experiments. Until this topic came up for GOD or NOT, I never really spent any time thinking about ghosts, but they are an important component of many of the world’s religions, so it’s about time I did so. In talking about ghosts here, I mean specifically the spirits of the dead. I will also use the word ‘haunting’ in a specialized way. For my purposes, haunting is to ghosts as UFO is to alien spacecraft. There are certainly unidentified flying objects. It is all but certain that they are not flying saucers from Mars. (As I do believe that there are other intelligent species in the universe, I have to throw in that caveat.) Similarly, ‘hauntings’ occur. They are not caused by ghosts.
So, how do we explain a haunting of the third type? I will base my hypothesis on a few basic tenets of the human mind. First, when we see an effect, we search for a cause. Most people do not believe that things “just happen.” In fact, it is this search for an ultimate cause that is partially responsible for god. I have discussed that previously. Second, humans have intuitive physics. This is also sometimes called naive physics. You know that if you drop a ball, it will fall. A two-year-old child knows that without any understanding of gravity. You know that if you run into a wall, you will not pass through it. You do not need to understand the nature of matter to come to that conclusion. The problem with intuitive physics is that it’s flawed. For example, imagine a situation in which you are on an airplane and there is a target on the ground. If I ask at what point you should drop an object so that it hits the target, most people will say to drop it when the plane is directly over the target. In their experience, things fall straight down. Intuitive physics doesn’t adjust for the forward motion of the aircraft. Third, and finally, humans project. In other words, they assign some of their own qualities, thoughts and emotions to other people, animals, and sometimes even inanimate objects.
When you put these three items together, you have a haunting that seemingly qualifies as an evidentiary encounter with a ghost. Something physically happens in my presence. I look around for a cause, because there must be one. My weak intuitive sense of physics doesn’t allow me to discover the cause for some reason or other. If something happens and there was no reason for it to happen by itself, it must have been caused by the physical expression of will. Voila! I have a ghost.
This physical manifestation reported in a haunting can be a book falling off a shelf. It could be a cold spot in a room. It might be EVP on a tape, “spirit orbs” in a picture or the flashing of an electromagnetic meter. Whatever it may be, the observer can’t find a cause. There is a draft from a window, a vibration from a passing train, dust in the air, faulty wiring, etc., but he doesn’t pick up on any of that. Therefore, if the book fell off the shelf, someone pushed it. Since there is no one else obviously present, that someone must be invisible. Who is invisible? Ghosts. The logic behind it is really pretty good. The only place it falls down is the lack of a rigorous search for a physical cause, but that is a scientific problem, not a logical one.
I don’t mean to suggest that this is the only explanation. Certainly, there are other effects that play a role. People are more likely to feel they have encountered a ghost with a prior suggestion that a location is haunted. Some people are simply more prone to belief in ghosts. For example, women are far more likely to believe than are men. However, I think I have a good basic framework for one of the ways in which a mundane, unexplained event turns into a ghost.
Now, the number of people actually having these experiences for themselves is quite small in comparison to the millions who believe. There are many places to place the blame for the dissemination of this kind of tripe, but I point squarely at cable television. Specifically, I blame the History Channel and the entire Discovery Empire (Discovery, TLC, Travel Channel, etc.). These were once reputable sources of information, but they now more frequently serve as clearinghouses for superstitious mumbo-jumbo and biblically-inspired, Christian-biased propaganda programming. The National Geographic Channel seems to be holding onto its integrity for the most part, but the others are lost. So, with the supposedly rational, scientific mass-media outlets succumbing to superstition and presenting this kind of material in ways that are questionable at best, is there any hope? When educational programming more closely resembles children sitting around a campfire than scientists sitting around a lab table, where are we? The answers haunt me.
~I AM~
December 30th, 2005 at at 10:32 pm
In tribal societies, diseases and afflictions involving unseen (microscopic) causes – bacteria, for example – are regarded as the work of ghosts/spirits. Many of the people in these cultures have never seen a microscope, nor taken a class in human anatomy, and so would have no way of knowing what really caused these “unexplainable” events. To them, ghosts sounds like a really good answer, because the evidence fits neatly with the theory. In modern industrialised countries, we receive formal education that allows us to know more of what really goes on. Tribal peoples do not, and so have a valid excuse. That some still believe in ghosts despite the knowledge of the real causes is retarded and inexcusable. We have the knowledge, the means to acquire that knowledge, and the means to verify it. The only reason why we still “believe” in ghosts is that the meme is spread, the “evidence” conforms to the “theory”, and negative proof cannot be found. Oh yeah, and the person has to reject the scientific explanation that involves real evidence. Sounds very familiar…
December 30th, 2005 at at 11:07 pm
“These were once reputable sources of information, but they now more frequently serve as clearinghouses for superstitious mumbo-jumbo and biblically-inspired, Christian-biased propaganda programming.”
Thank uh…goodness somebody else is pointing this out. This irritates me to no end, and I’ve had many discussions about religion and the other person says, “well, I saw on the History Channel…blahblahblah.” Therefore it’s official.
When talking about hauntings, I am quick to offer up a fool-proof solution to those concerned: if you are frightened at the prospect of ghosts, just load the potential source of haunting up with scientific equipment and experts (that could provide detection for evidence of the event). For some strange, unknown reasons ghosts and aparitions seem to have an aversion to such things. Guarantee your haunting will cease.
I think we need to educate people about the exact mechanisms of perception. Once people realize that what you see, hear, feel, etc is all happening IN your brain (whether real or not), it’s much easier to explain hallucinations.
December 30th, 2005 at at 11:51 pm
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!
December 30th, 2005 at at 11:51 pm
The History Channel annoys me sometimes too. Last night or the night before they devoted an entire hour to hidden codes in the Bible. But the worst by far IMO was when they had an hour long show about possible descriptions of alien visitations in the Bible, in Hindu texts and so forth. Gimme a friggin break!
December 31st, 2005 at at 3:45 am
Hmm… makes sense to me. Based on what you said, ghosts are just another form of a “god of the gaps”. With the inclusion of ghosts into that category, I now realize the extent to which that idea reaches over our views on things. Although, as you said, it’s just speculation and all that, but it still appears to make sense. Certainly more sense than the existence of actual ghosts, anyway.
And I agree with the stuff about cable television. I find the Science Channel to be the only channels of that nature to be consistently interesting. All of the home improvement stuff annoys me to no end.
December 31st, 2005 at at 6:24 am
Haunts me, too. TV sucks the life right out of you.
December 31st, 2005 at at 10:59 am
Specifically, I blame the History Channel and the entire Discovery Empire (Discovery, TLC, Travel Channel, etc.). These were once reputable sources of information, but they now more frequently serve as clearinghouses for superstitious mumbo-jumbo and biblically-inspired, Christian-biased propaganda programming.
This is a big problem. Archaeology magazine did a big story on the problems of “infotainment”, focusing (as you might expect) on psuedoarchaeology – like the unbelievably popular work done by Erich von Daniken (I just feel nauseated when I type his name and when he’s called an “anthropologist” I just want to scream).
However, many of the programs you mention feature “professionals” of many fields (anthropology just happens to be highly and badly represented) who are spewing forth bullshit as fact or even probable theory, and it just sickens me to watch that crap. Sadly, most of us humans just blindly believe this shit, without giving a second thought. It’s like they think, oh, look – he’s a professor, or she’s a writer… it must be true.
Until people are willing to start using their minds, we can’t stop this sort of thought process. It’s like this argument I had with a friend I’ve known 28 years… she was mad at me for sending her Snopes links in response to false info in forwards. She called it “obnoxious” and said it made me seem like a “show off”… well, I think it’s obnoxious to pass along information when you don’t even care enough to find out if it’s true – but she didn’t. She outright said, they’re just forwards, I don’t care.
If we can’t get people to care on a level that simple, I don’t know how we can get them to question television programing – especially when it’s on channels that have reputations (that they no longer deserve) for being good sources of information.
December 31st, 2005 at at 1:37 pm
The history channel in particular is a constant annoyance to me, and “Modern Marvels” is the only show I feel I can watch without a lot of this mumbo-jumbo, though even they are slipping nowadays. All in all, the history channel is lost. Shame on them.
December 31st, 2005 at at 3:17 pm
When they stick to actual history, the History Channel is still pretty good. But yeah, that bullshit is really starting to annoy me.
December 31st, 2005 at at 3:29 pm
For an interesting theory concerning the origin of spirits, ghosts, and gods I recommend reading Julian James, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Extremely short version: interaction with hallucinations preceeded modern consciousness (and in some cases, still exists javascript:SJB_appendSmiley(‘;)’)
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December 31st, 2005 at at 3:33 pm
Humf. Literary references I’m good at – javascript obviously not.
December 31st, 2005 at at 8:30 pm
jdt:
Actually, I AM did a post on Julian James a little while ago.
A great many (probably all, would be my guess) of these apparitions proceed from natural phenomena.
Great example:
“Nighilik (literally: “the one with the hook”) is one of the hilap inue that are feared. Sometimes it attacks snow huts without letting itself be seen; it never speaks, and one can only hear its creaking in the snow out in the entrance passage. At times it causes the whole passage wall to collapse.”
http://www.usask.ca/education/ideas/tplan/sslp/yukon/inuit.html
Terribly inconvenient of the chap not to be seen, eh?
December 31st, 2005 at at 10:13 pm
jdt:
I read Jaynes because you suggested it way back in May when I first started the site. I posted about it twice.
http://evangelicalatheist.com/2005/06/18/unconscious-greeks/
http://evangelicalatheist.com/2005/11/10/the-origin-of-consciousness/
December 31st, 2005 at at 11:01 pm
I too, have lost all respect for A&E and HIST. One of them did a thing on “the quest for the Holy Grail, er, I mean, the Ark of the Covenant”. It was obvious from the get-go that the “holy men” were demanding payment every step of the way, but this aspect of the adventure was being downplayed. It was like that old Billy Crystal joke about the bad commercial about the bad toupees from the 1970’s: Billy-as-Spokesperson: “I’m not only a hair club customer, I’m also the President of the company” … Billy: “What possible motive would I have for lying to you?”
That program definitely caught my attention, and I started to notice how often these channels were pandering to the mumbo jumbo machine. PBS is no better, airing trashy New Age “medicine shows” from the likes of Wayne Dyer. Watch his act some time, he is a master at mass hypnosis. His gestures as well as his words are geared to convey the message that the path to self-actualization lies through a “power” outside the self. Pfui!
January 1st, 2006 at at 6:27 am
Sorry ’bout that. Time machine malfunction.
January 2nd, 2006 at at 7:06 pm
Back to ghosts for a moment. If xianity is true (I don’t believe it is) how can there be ghosts that haunt? Do departed souls have a third option I missed? I thought heaven or hell was it. How do I get to become a ghost? I want to haunt a sorority house.