Do Ghosts Really Exist or Are They Just a Trick of the Mind?

[WiFO215]

I saw this on cracked, so take it with a pinch of salt.

http://www.cracked.com/article_1882...ic-explanation-behind-ghost-sightings_p1.html

What do you think?

 

[FlexGunship]

I saw this on cracked, so take it with a pinch of salt.

http://www.cracked.com/article_1882...ic-explanation-behind-ghost-sightings_p1.html

What do you think?

Ghosts are an experiential phenomenon, not a physical one. "Ghosts" happen when we experience a perceptual aberration. Usually the brain takes over and compares the input (i.e. audio, visual, or touch) and interprets it as the closest similar event that we are comfortable with. Most often this comes are "intentional human contact." This often becomes reinforced by our desire to believe that we survive death.

That being said, the concept of infrasound has been around for a while. Naval servicemen experienced the same thing on submarines where very low frequencies can be carried through the hull of the submersible.

Last I heard, it turned out it was not because of the perception of sound, but because the skull surrounding the occipital lobe would vibrate at frequencies between 16Hz and 20Hz. The same effect can be induced by attaching low voltage electrodes to the back of the head and applying a very small AC current around the frequency. (Can't find link, so you might have to take this last paragraph with the same grain of salt as the previous article.)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Ghosts are an experiential phenomenon, not a physical one.

I believe this is true for some, but perhaps not all ghost reports.

You are excluding the idea of genuine unexplained phenomenon and positing an unprovable theory as fact. Why?

You are stating a default assumption as fact. We don't know that for a fact. Stating what we expect, as fact, is intellectually dishonest.