Ghosts, spirits, apparitions, phantoms, specters, ghosts. . . whatever you call them, ghosts have provided us with fascinating study material and talking points for centuries. However, they have also given people the opportunity to engage in angry debates about the reality of the existence of spirits. Interestingly, the two sides are evenly split, with almost half of the people surveyed saying they do believe in ghosts, and the other half saying that strange occurrences can always be explained with the help of science. Whether you are a believer or not, the debate and the topics themselves are certainly intriguing. Let’s take a closer look at ghosts and the ways in which they are explained or, in some cases, rationalized.
What are ghosts? To those who believe in them, ghosts are often thought of as the spirits of deceased people who, for whatever reason, have been unable to “move on” or leave this world. One of the most popular explanations for why a person’s spirit lingers is that she has unfinished business that he feels needs to be resolved before he can move on. For example, if a person was murdered and the murderer was never discovered, the spirit of the murdered person may feel that he needs to stay to make sure justice is served. Other entities that are also considered ghosts include demons or other spirits, including those of animals. Ghost sightings, spirit communication, and other supernatural activities have been reported and recorded for centuries. Apparitions often occur in places where people have died or where their bodies rest or in places that were significant to a spirit during its lifetime.
How do people find or study ghosts? People don’t normally “find” ghosts; believers in the supernatural claim that most spirits are intelligent beings that act on their own. If a ghost wants to be seen, heard, felt, or otherwise studied, it will make itself known; however, if a spirit has no interest in interacting with living people, they simply won’t. With that in mind, advances have been made in technology for the study of supernatural activity as long as a spirit chooses to interact.
Equipment such as infrared sensors, thermal cameras, Geiger counters, digital voice recorders, and more have given ghost hunters the means to collect hard evidence that can help determine if paranormal activity is actually occurring in a specific location. The data these tools provide can be very useful to those who study supernatural events, and also provide a measure of evidence that can be used to determine the validity of the events. In addition to electronic equipment, there’s also something to be said for spirit mediums, or people who apparently have the ability to communicate with ghosts and other spiritual entities. Mediums need not rely on tools like the ones mentioned above; rather, they use their own innate ability, a sixth sense, to interpret paranormal activity. Although there is no scientific proof to support what a medium feels, they can still provide a great service in the study of the supernatural.
Although there have been several famous mediums in the last two centuries, three of the most notorious are the Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York. Beginning in 1848, the girls began to experience what they and many others believed to be messages from a murdered man who had been buried in the basement of his home. The spirit used a series of thumps and thumps to communicate. Word of the ghost spread quickly, attracting visitors from all over the United States. It didn’t take long for the sisters to become famous, known to both devout believers and doubting skeptics. Although the girls were later exposed as frauds through their own confession, they brought much notoriety to the work of spirit mediums.
What are some of the other explanations for supernatural events? Opposed to believers, of course, are non-believers in supernatural events. Non-believers often deny the occurrence of paranormal events and believe that there is always another explanation for strange occurrences. For them, strange noises always have a physical source, apparitions are a trick of the mind, and cold spots are just what the name suggests, just a cold area. The story of the Fox sisters provides a great example of how non-believers explain supposed supernatural events. From the beginning, skeptics loudly proclaimed that the “spirit” tapping sounds were actually coming from some other source. The most popular explanation among critics was that the sounds came from the girls cracking their knuckles, toes, ankles, or knees. In fact, this is precisely what one of the girls confessed to in later years, admitting that the crunching of her toes was the source of the mysterious sound that had convinced thousands of the presence of a spirit.
So can ghosts be real? This is a question that may never be answered. Even after hundreds of years of interest and study, there is still not enough concrete evidence to convince everyone that the haunting and other paranormal events are the work of ghosts and other spiritual entities. For every flawless story that seems to provide absolute evidence of a ghost, there’s a story like that of the Fox sisters that casts doubt on the possibility of supernatural events. The truth about ghosts may never be determined, and the answer to the question really lies in a personal belief in the existence of paranormal activity.
