Virus
12/31/2007 9:26pm,
What are ghosts? well, a ghost is a thing that sort of goes "woo-woo" which is supposed to be the spirit of a dead person. Ghosts have captured the public imagination for a long time, and still today we are fascinated by movies depicting the supernatural troublemakers.
So what is the evidence for the existence of ghosts? Well strictly speaking, there is none but the question should be phrased, "what is the supposed evidence for the existence of ghosts?"
As in most claims of the paranormal, the evidence takes the form of personal anecdote. Most of us have probably heard a story or two about a supposed sighting. Most of these anecdotes begin with the person lying in bed. There is a phenomena known as sleep paralysis in which the brain is awake, but the body is still paralyzed due to chemical movement inhibitors released during sleep. Of course, every person that tells one of these stories believes they are not delusional, and has in fact seen "t3h r34l" ghost.
Not all ghost sightings happen during sleep, but the phenomena can still be attributed to hallucination. Occam's Razor would support this view. What is more likely? That there is a whole new field of physics and biology that we need to take on board (What are ghosts made of and how can there be a "spirit" that lives in the body and survives death?) or that the person saying the story is deluded?
Do a google search for ghost photos. The results are either obvious fakes, or lame. Just look at these silly photos for an example of how people force themselves to see something that isn't there:
http://www.mysticalblaze.com/Plate3.jpg
I have just been browsing the internet to try and find somewhere I could post some pictures that were taken on Saturday 02 Sep 2006. Please let me explain, my wife and I got a Chinese take away on Saturday afternoon to have later in the evening. We put part of the meal onto an oven tray that has been covered in tin foil. Once we had finished the meal I took off the foil to wash the dish and found the following image on the dish. We have not got any idea who the image is, or how and why it appeared on our dish. Please let us know if anybody has any ideas. www.mysticalblaze.com/GhostPics.htm
Personally, I'm pretty clueless as to how brown blob of congealed food could appear on a plate of Chinese takeaway.
Now there are ones like this:
http://www.mysticalblaze.com/LadyGhost.jpg
You can see a human looking figure in the background, but you have to remember that we only see it that way because we are hard wired to see patterns. What you are looking at is really just an artifact of the photographic process that looks a bit like a human face.
OK, this one I really don't have an explanation for:
http://www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/ghost-towel-1.jpg
It's disappointing, but pop culture prefers bunk to skepticism. There's a whole bunch of silly shows where people stay in "haunted" houses and bring EMF detectors and other instruments that were never invented to detect ghosts. These shows do society a disservice by keeping the delusion going, which is just a small part of keeping irrational thinking going. As a kid, I also saw that movie with Patrick Swayzee when I was on a plane and thought it was bloody terrible.
So what is the evidence for the existence of ghosts? Well strictly speaking, there is none but the question should be phrased, "what is the supposed evidence for the existence of ghosts?"
As in most claims of the paranormal, the evidence takes the form of personal anecdote. Most of us have probably heard a story or two about a supposed sighting. Most of these anecdotes begin with the person lying in bed. There is a phenomena known as sleep paralysis in which the brain is awake, but the body is still paralyzed due to chemical movement inhibitors released during sleep. Of course, every person that tells one of these stories believes they are not delusional, and has in fact seen "t3h r34l" ghost.
Not all ghost sightings happen during sleep, but the phenomena can still be attributed to hallucination. Occam's Razor would support this view. What is more likely? That there is a whole new field of physics and biology that we need to take on board (What are ghosts made of and how can there be a "spirit" that lives in the body and survives death?) or that the person saying the story is deluded?
Do a google search for ghost photos. The results are either obvious fakes, or lame. Just look at these silly photos for an example of how people force themselves to see something that isn't there:
http://www.mysticalblaze.com/Plate3.jpg
I have just been browsing the internet to try and find somewhere I could post some pictures that were taken on Saturday 02 Sep 2006. Please let me explain, my wife and I got a Chinese take away on Saturday afternoon to have later in the evening. We put part of the meal onto an oven tray that has been covered in tin foil. Once we had finished the meal I took off the foil to wash the dish and found the following image on the dish. We have not got any idea who the image is, or how and why it appeared on our dish. Please let us know if anybody has any ideas. www.mysticalblaze.com/GhostPics.htm
Personally, I'm pretty clueless as to how brown blob of congealed food could appear on a plate of Chinese takeaway.
Now there are ones like this:
http://www.mysticalblaze.com/LadyGhost.jpg
You can see a human looking figure in the background, but you have to remember that we only see it that way because we are hard wired to see patterns. What you are looking at is really just an artifact of the photographic process that looks a bit like a human face.
OK, this one I really don't have an explanation for:
http://www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/ghost-towel-1.jpg
It's disappointing, but pop culture prefers bunk to skepticism. There's a whole bunch of silly shows where people stay in "haunted" houses and bring EMF detectors and other instruments that were never invented to detect ghosts. These shows do society a disservice by keeping the delusion going, which is just a small part of keeping irrational thinking going. As a kid, I also saw that movie with Patrick Swayzee when I was on a plane and thought it was bloody terrible.