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62 Are Ghosts Real?

Are Ghosts Real? —

Evidence Has Not

Materialized

By Benjamin Radford

If you believe in ghosts, you're not alone.
Cultures all around the world believe in spirits
that survive death to live in another realm. In
fact, ghosts are among the most widely believed
of paranormal phenomenon: Millions of people
are interested in ghosts, and a 2013 Harris Poll
found that 43% of Americans believe in ghosts.
The idea that the dead remain with us in
spirit is an ancient one, appearing in countless
stories, from the Bible to "Macbeth." It even
spawned a folklore genre: ghost stories. Belief
in ghosts is part of a larger web of related
paranormal beliefs, including near-death
experience, life after death, and spirit
communication. The belief offers many people
comfort — who doesn't want to believe that our
beloved but deceased family members aren't
looking out for us, or with us in our times of
need?
People have tried to (or claimed to)
communicate with spirits for ages; in Victorian
England, for example, it was fashionable for they had encountered a ghost and remained murders, since ghosts are said to communicate
upper-crust ladies to hold séances in their uncertain that such phenomena were even with psychic mediums, and should be able to
parlors after tea and crumpets with friends. possible, simply because they did not see identify their killers for the police. And so on —
Ghost clubs dedicated to searching for ghostly something that approximated the conventional just about any claim about ghosts raises logical
evidence formed at prestigious universities, image of a 'ghost.' Instead, many of our reasons to doubt it.
including Cambridge and Oxford, and in 1882 respondents were simply convinced that they Ghost hunters use many creative (and
the most prominent organization, the Society for had experienced something uncanny — dubious) methods to detect the spirits' presences,
Psychical Research, was established. A woman something inexplicable, extraordinary, often including psychics. Virtually all ghost
named Eleanor Sidgwick was an investigator mysterious, or eerie." Thus, many people who hunters claim to be scientific, and most give that
(and later president) of that group, and could be go on record as claiming to have had a ghostly appearance because they use high-tech scientific
considered the original female ghostbuster. In experience didn't necessarily see anything that equipment such as Geiger counters,
America during the late 1800s, many psychic most people would recognize as a classic Electromagnetic Field (EMF) detectors, ion
mediums claimed to speak to the dead — but "ghost," and in fact they may have had detectors, infrared cameras and sensitive
were later exposed as frauds by skeptical completely different experiences whose only microphones. Yet none of this equipment has
investigators such as Harry Houdini. common factor is that it could not be readily ever been shown to actually detect ghosts. For
It wasn't until recently that ghost hunting explained. centuries, people believed that flames turned
became a widespread interest around the world. Personal experience is one thing, but blue in the presence of ghosts. Today, few
Much of this is due to the hit Syfy cable TV scientific evidence is another matter. Part of the people accept that bit of lore, but it's likely that
series "Ghost Hunters," now in its second difficulty in investigating ghosts is that there is many of the signs taken as evidence by today's
decade of not finding good evidence for ghosts. not one universally agreed-upon definition of ghost hunters will be seen as just as wrong and
The show spawned dozens of spinoffs and what a ghost is. Some believe that they are antiquated centuries from now.
imitators, and it's not hard to see why the show spirits of the dead who for whatever reason get Other researchers claim that the reason
is so popular: the premise is that anyone can "lost" on their way to The Other Side; others ghosts haven't been proven to exist is that we
look for ghosts. The two original stars were claim that ghosts are instead telepathic entities simply don't have the right technology to find or
ordinary guys (plumbers, in fact) who decided to projected into the world from our minds. detect the spirit world. But this, too, can't be
look for evidence of spirits. Their message: You Still others create their own special correct: Either ghosts exist and appear in our
don't need to be an egghead scientist, or even categories for different types of ghosts, such as ordinary physical world (and can therefore be
have any training in science or investigation. All poltergeists, residual hauntings, intelligent detected and recorded in photographs, film,
you need is some free time, a dark place, and spirits and shadow people. Of course, it's all video and audio recordings), or they don't. If
maybe a few gadgets from an electronics store. made up, like speculating on the different races ghosts exist and can be scientifically detected or
If you look long enough any unexplained light of fairies or dragons: there are as many types of recorded, then we should find hard evidence of
or noise might be evidence of ghosts. ghosts as you want there to be. that — yet we don't. If ghosts exist but cannot be
There are many contradictions inherent scientifically detected or recorded, then all the
in ideas about ghosts. For example, are ghosts photos, videos, audio and other recordings
The science and logic of ghosts
material or not? Either they can move through claimed to be evidence of ghosts cannot be
solid objects without disturbing them, or they ghosts. With so many basic contradictory
One difficulty in scientifically evaluating ghosts
can slam doors shut and throw objects across the theories — and so little science brought to bear
is that a surprisingly wide variety of phenomena
room. According to logic and the laws of on the topic — it's not surprising that despite the
are attributed to ghosts, from a door closing on
physics, it's one or the other. If ghosts are human efforts of thousands of ghost hunters on
its own, to missing keys, to a cold area in a
souls, why do they appear clothed and with television and elsewhere for decades, not a
hallway, to a vision of a dead relative. When
(presumably soulless) inanimate objects like single piece of hard evidence of ghosts has been
sociologists Dennis and Michele Waskul
hats, canes, and dresses — not to mention the found.
interviewed ghost experiencers for their 2016
many reports of ghost trains, cars and carriages?
book "Ghostly Encounters: The Hauntings of
If ghosts are the spirits of those whose
Everyday Life" (Temple University Press) they
deaths were unavenged, why are there unsolved (Continued on Page 64)
found that "many participants were not sure that