If you believe in paranormal phenomena, you might have doubts after reading this! Most symptoms of a haunting can be dispelled with scientific proof!
In 2005, approximately 35% of society believed in ghosts. In 2013, those numbers climbed to 47%! Do you believe in ghosts? Well, I suppose I do, at least I did before I conducted research on the viability of haunting. Now, I have doubts of the paranormal, at least in the traditional sense.
Whether it’s concerning apparitions or moving furniture, evidence in the past supported the existence of phantom entities. But scientists didn’t believe and they offered an explanation for just about every “proof” of haunting.
Here are the ways we’ve exercised our ghosts.
The Ouija
I’m going to start off with one of my favorites, the Ouija. I’ve used the spirit board on numerous occasions, talking to dead friends and loved ones – at least, I thought I did. Well, according to science, the Ouija board is just a vehicle for ideomotor effects.
Let me simplify this for you. The planchette, you know, the little hand-held device which selects letters and “yes” or “no” responses, yeah, that device is supposed to move on its own. The fact is, the ideomotor effect in our brain causes us to subconsciously move the planchette according to suggestion.
This is also the case when table lifting is present. Michael Faraday proved this notion by suggesting which direction a table would move beforehand, which it did move in that exact manner. The power of suggestion is, in indeed more powerful than one might think.
Channeling Spirits
So here’s another experience that runs deep in my belief system. I always felt that someone or something, other than myself, could speak through me. I called them spirits, my doctor calls them “bipolar disorder with psychotic tendencies”. Either way, I found them useful for understanding what was going on around me.
Television psychic, John Edward, says he can talk to the dead. J.Z. Knight claims she channels a spirit named, Ramtha, who speaks from the bowels of the lost city of Atlantis. I have no comment, but skeptics and research tell us…we are only hearing our own voices in our heads. Science calls it automatism… how uninspired.
Automatism is simply our brains thinking in overtime. Those random thoughts, those otherworldly ideas, yeah, those are just parts of our imagination – not disembodied voices of the dead or spirits speaking for us. More paranormal phenomena dispelled… sigh.
Cold spots
This won’t take long. Cold spots, you know the area of decreased temperature that’s left after spirits use heat as energy, these are only drafts. It’s called convection, it’s the same process as cold air sinking and hot air rising. It’s also the same at dry air sinking and moist air rising. Basically, air is moving around and causing a slight breeze to form. To us, ghost hunters, ghost seekers and enthusiasts, we feel cold spots.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are not ghosts, you just need to turn up the heat!
Orbs
Most people, even those who believe in ghosts, are still skeptical of orbs. Not all orbs, according to even the most learned ghost hunter, are ghosts at all. Some of these images are pieces of lint, hairs or smudges, which makes a real phantom orb rare. According to science, no orb is otherworldly, and they are all specks of dust. Clean the camera and there’s your proof.
I think I agree with this one. I’ve never been a fan of orb hunting and personally find it boring.
Shadow People
As a child, I had an imaginary friend I liked to call the “Black ghost”. I saw him hide behind me, playing peekaboo and sometimes saw him floating just above me. He seemed to mimic my movements at times and that would make me laugh. As a child, I wasn’t as frightened as I am now. Now, that crap scares me!
Many think shadow people are demons or astral projections. According to Swiss Scientists, shadow people are the product of stimulation in the left temporoparietal area of the brain. Interference in this region of the mind makes it difficult for us to tell the difference between ourselves and other people. This makes it hard to understand our own bodies, thus, we create copies. Hmm, not sure about this, but it’s interesting.
Apparitions
Other apparitions can be caused by residual haunting or poltergeist, sigh, or they can just be a product of infrasound. Yes, you guessed it, science has dispelled yet another one of our creepy notions. Apparently, we are experiencing a form of blurred vision.
Humans can hear sounds up to 20,000 Hz but only as low as 20 Hz, but there will still be vibrations from the sounds. Dr. Richard Wiseman says we can feel these vibrations in our stomachs as either a positive or negative feeling.
So, about the apparition, there are other things that vibrate within our bodies as well. Our eyeballs actually vibrate at 19 Hz, making our vision blurred, thus we may see things… that really are there. They are just distorted and that means they look quite strange.
Full-blown haunting
Okay, so apparitions are startling, strange sounds are frightening and moving furniture, well, that’s something to send you into cardiac arrest. But what about full-blown haunting, can you handle that? No to worry, researchers have discovered scientific proof that none of these things are paranormal.
Carbon monoxide poisoning can sometimes be the blame for hallucinations, both visual and audio.
In 1921, William Wilmer relays the tale of a family who experienced what they thought was a full-blown haunting-moving chair, seeing people at the foot of the bed and even all the plants started dying. It turned out that their furnace was leaking carbon monoxide fumes into the house, thus twisting the minds of the family. These things usually occur right before death from fumes. Yikes!
So, the truth is, I still believe in ghosts, but, I have reason to believe that I will remain a skeptic as well.
Facts don’t lie, and science proves many haunted myths to be false. Until next time, let’s keep in mind, all the little causation that could dispel what we see, feel and hear. Maybe, when all is taken into account, all t’s are crossed and all I’s are dotted, we may then see a real ghost.
Anything’s possible when you believe.
A lot of these are caused by jinn. Also Sherrie you’re really cute!