Page 59 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Febrary/March 2020 Edition

Why Do People Believe in Ghosts? 59

Why Do People Believe in

Ghosts?

Across the world, ideas of the

paranormal persist.

by Tiffanie Wen

Sheila Sillery-Walsh, a British tourist visiting
the historic island-prison of Alcatraz in San
Francisco, claimed that she captured an image of
a ghost in a picture she snapped on her iPhone.
In the frame of what was otherwise supposed to
be a picture of an empty prison cell was a blurry
black and white image of a woman. The story,
which was printed in the British tabloid the
Daily Mail, featured on the Bay Area's local ghosts, mental imprint manifestations, death- Why Some People See
KRON4 TV station and mocked by SFist, isn't survival ghosts, apparitions, time slips, ghosts of
the first time the Daily Mail has claimed that the living, and haunted inanimate objects. Ghosts and Other
strange images have come up on smart devices. It seems that belief in ghosts is even
Normally, a paranormal story wouldn’t more widespread in much of Asia, where ghosts Apparitions
catch my attention, but a few months before the are characterized as neutral and can be appeased
story came out, a Spanish friend of mine named through rituals or angered if provoked (as Continued from Page 59
Laura showed me a weird image she found on opposed to our scarier depictions of ghosts in the
her phone while I was traveling in Madrid. The West), according to Justin McDaniel, a professor
photo, taken on her iPhone while on a trip to of religious studies and director of the Penn
Ethiopia, shows a boy looking down at leaves he Ghost Project at the University of Pennsylvania. Rites of Passage
is holding in his hands. Seemingly “[Ghosts in Asia] can be asked for help in
superimposed onto the boy is another image of healing humans, winning the lottery and Many societies feature a period of isolation and
the boy, hands in a different position and eyes protecting one while traveling or while unusual environmental stimulation as a rite of
looking straight at the camera. pregnant,” he said. “Like American ghosts, they passage from adolescence to adulthood. The
Laura was convinced she captured an have an attachment to the human realm which transcendental altering of consciousness may be
image of a ghost. keeps them haunting and helping humans.” an important part of such experiences, as well as
Then a few weeks later I discovered an In China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, physical hardship or even torture. In such rituals,
image of a man in the background of a photo I and Thailand, the seventh month of the lunar sometimes referred to as vision quests or spirit
took with my own iPhone. The picture was taken calendar (which falls in August this year) ushers quests, seekers hope to encounter a spirit or
in my apartment and the man, whom I can’t in the Hungry Ghost Festival, when it is being that will provide them with guidance and
identify, was not actually in the apartment at the believed that ghosts of the deceased are advice. In some Native American tribes, a young
time. I’ve been using the photo to scare my temporarily released from the lower realm to man would receive his adult name from such a
friends, and myself, ever since. visit the living. In Taiwan, some people believe being during his vision quest. These spirit quests
Recent surveys have shown that a that the presence of wandering ghosts during involve solitude in harsh environments or
significant portion of the population believes in Ghost Month can cause accidents to the living. intense sensory bombardment—drumming,
ghosts, leading some scholars to conclude that At least one study has shown that people avoid sweating, chanting, or dancing—in a confined
we are witnessing a revival of paranormal risky behaviors during this time, including those area. Both approaches to the quest have included
beliefs in Western society. A Harris poll from in bodies of water, reducing the number of starvation, thirst, and sleeplessness as means of
last year found that 42 percent of Americans say deaths by drowning. further altering arousal levels and conjuring an
they believe in ghosts. The percentage is similar “Like in the West,” McDaniel says, encounter with a spirit.
in the U.K., where 52 percent of respondents “people in Asia have kept their belief in ghosts The sensed presence is a very real,
indicated that they believed in ghosts in a recent despite the rise of science, skepticism, perceptual experience for those individuals who
poll. Though it’s tough to estimate how large the secularism, and public education. In places like have experienced it, and it can be very hard to
paranormal tourism industry is—tours of sites Japan where secularism is very strong, the belief convince them that it was anything other than
that are supposedly haunted (rather than staged in ghosts is still high. Even hyper-modern and what they believe it to be. When evaluating self-
haunted houses)—there are 10,000 haunted liberal Scandinavia has a high percentage of reports from individuals who have had an
locations in the U.K. according to the country’s people believing in ghosts.” extraordinary experience, ranging from an alien
tourist board, and sites like It turns out that a significant amount of abduction to a visit from a supernatural being, it
HauntedRooms.co.uk list dozens of allegedly people report having personally experienced may be difficult to know how to proceed.
haunted hotels where curious visitors can stay. paranormal activity. In a study published in
In the U.S., residents of places like Ellicott City 2011, 28.5 percent of undergraduate students There are really only three possibilities:
in Howard County, Maryland, pride themselves surveyed at a southern university reported
on their haunted heritage. having had a paranormal experience. In a 2006 • The event really happened, just as the person
While the terms "spirit" and "ghost"are Reader's Digest poll, 20 percent of respondents has reported.
related and even interchangeable in some (21 percent of women and 16 percent of men) • The person truly believes that the event has
languages, the word "ghost" in English tends to reported that they had seen a ghost at some time happened, but it has not.
refer to the soul or spirit of a deceased person in their lives. • The person is fabricating a story for some
that can appear to the living. In A Natural But it’s also true that if you already reason.
History of Ghosts, Roger Clarke discusses nine believe in ghosts, or are told a place is haunted,
varieties of ghosts identified by Peter you are more likely to interpret events as The best we can do under the circumstances is to
Underwood, who has studied ghost stories for paranormal. evaluate the relative probability of each of these
decades. Underwood’s classification of ghosts options and choose the one that appears most
includes elementals, poltergeists, historical (Continued on Page 60) likely. []