How do we explain ghosts?

[AmyW]

I am wondering about ghosts and how rational minded people claim to see them. When my mum was a child she claimed to see three shadows, she awoke from a strange noise coming from the window and then three spirits appeared and one pointed at her. How do we explain when people claim to see ghosts?

 

[Greebo]

We are always looking for patterns in things we don't understand on first look.Pareidolia is where you interpret what you see as something else.

For example, a couple of years back driving home in the dark from work, I swerved to avoid at cat that looked like it was going to run into the road. The same thing happened every night for a week.
Driving down the road in daylight I saw a black bin bag caught in the hedge - it didn't stop me from seeing the "cat" for the next couple of weeks in the road though.

 

[arthwollipot]

There's no one reason. Each claim is made for a different reason. All we can do is examine what is being claimed and seek alternative explanations for that particular incident.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

There are countless reasons for people to see ghosts, so it's not just one easy-to-explain answer, IMO.

Some people are brought up to believe in such things, especially older generations, in certain parts of the world. If you've ever been to Romania, they're very superstitious about all kinds of things, and it's the same in a lot of places throughout Europe, Germany has many superstitious people, much like parts of Ireland still do. I mean, we're talking people who still genuinely believe in werewolves, banshees, fairies, etc.

Many people simply want to believe in such things, and thus, they do.

Other people may just be influenced by stories they've heard, or things that frighten them.

People who go into old buildings, and have all of these wild stories floating around in their noggins are obviously going to think that every sound they hear or every shadow they see is likely a spirit.

Places where murders, executions, suffering, etc, have taken place, are all going to be regarded as being places where ghosts may exist.

It's a very interesting subject that I often like a bit of banter about, and like I say, it's not just one simple explanation, it's just a storied and weird world of legend, myth, religion, fear, and all manner of things which contribute to people believing in ghosts, and any number of strange things, tbh.

 

[Bikewer]

I am wondering about ghosts and how rational minded people claim to see them. When my mum was a child she claimed to see three shadows, she awoke from a strange noise coming from the window and then three spirits appeared and one pointed at her. How do we explain when people claim to see ghosts?

This particular incident (if well recalled) sounds like a variation of the “sleep paralysis” phenomena. That “hypnagogic” state between dreaming and wakefulness that sometimes involves bodily paralysis, and sometimes just allows a dream-state to “bleed over” into wakefulness.

Also, there have been a number of researches into the phenomena of people feeling a “presence” nearby. This is apparently due to brief disruptions of the activity in the temporal lobes, and can be duplicated in the laboratory.
The “presence” may be interpreted by the individual as that of a religious figure... Saints, angels, Jesus... Or ghosts, or even aliens.... Depending on mind-set.

 

[Darat]

I'm unusual on this forum in believing that ghosts do truly exist.

I take a slightly different approach.

You see I via my immense skill at critical thinking and from the actual evidence have come to the conclusion that ghosts do exist, and I struggle to even understand people who don't think they exists. And yes I am being serious (well apart from my claims of immense skills).

But because I have followed the evidence what I label as a ghost is not something like "a spiritual entity manifesting" but rather an example of human perceptions and behaviours.

Thread here where I go into more detail:http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2896613#post2896613


In my view the contradiction found in the opening post is because people assume the conclusion of "a spiritual entity manifesting" and then look for the evidence to support this, which they do not in fact find.

Ghosts are a very real phenomenon it is just the fact that some people conclude they are something they are not

 

[Robin]

I am wondering about ghosts and how rational minded people claim to see them. When my mum was a child she claimed to see three shadows, she awoke from a strange noise coming from the window and then three spirits appeared and one pointed at her. How do we explain when people claim to see ghosts?

In this case she was perhaps still dreaming and didn't realise it.

Or hallucinating. Hallucinations are not uncommon in childhood even where there are no mental health issues.

 

[Belz...]

How do we explain ghosts?

Same way we explain UFO sightings or Bigfoot: by looking at individual reports and analysing them. Each may have its own, distinct explanation, whethere it be a hallucination, mistake of fact, optical illusion, deliberate hoax, etc.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

I'm unusual on this forum in believing that ghosts do truly exist.



Ghosts are a very real phenomenon it is just the fact that some people conclude they are something they are not

If a person truly believes something to exist, then to them, it likely does, that's just how I personally see it.

 

[Robin]

I have woken up and seen a woman in white standing at the foot of my bed looking at me.

One morning, on an army exercise, sitting in a foxhole all night, I saw soldiers everywhere, behind bushes, standing in the open, leaning against trees.

There were no soldiers there.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

I have woken up and seen a woman in white standing at the foot of my bed looking at me.

One morning, on an army exercise, sitting in a foxhole all night, I saw soldiers everywhere, behind bushes, standing in the open, leaning against trees.

There were no soldiers there.

People can and do see all kinds of things, the problem is that what we see is generally what our brains interpret our eyes as seeing, which is why our recollection of certain events is never going to be solid.

Ghost sightings, cryptid sightings, etc, they're all subject to our own biases and our own imaginations. People who want to see a ghost may end up doing so, but the chances of it being an actual spirit of a deceased person are, IMO, slim and none, and slim just left the building.

 

[Robin]

People can and do see all kinds of things, the problem is that what we see is generally what our brains interpret our eyes as seeing, which is why our recollection of certain events is never going to be solid.

Ghost sightings, cryptid sightings, etc, they're all subject to our own biases and our own imaginations. People who want to see a ghost may end up doing so, but the chances of it being an actual spirit of a deceased person are, IMO, slim and none, and slim just left the building.

In the foxhole, we spent all night on the lookout for "enemy" soldiers - my exhausted brain obviously supplied them.

The woman was, I assume, a waking dream.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

In the foxhole, we spent all night on the lookout for "enemy" soldiers - my exhausted brain obviously supplied them.

The woman was, I assume, a waking dream.

I totally agree.

I've worked in countless old buildings, hospitals, schools, etc, especially at night, alone, and you do get spooked from time to time. It's so easy to see how the imagination can play tricks on us, especially in places already thought to have a haunted connection. Now if you actually believe in such things, then almost anything you see or hear in those places will probably be attributed to a ghost.

I worked in a couple of well-known ghostly hot-spots in Liverpool doing security overnight, one being Speke hall, the Grade 1 listed Tudor manor house, and the other being Park Lea Manor, which isn't more than a mild stroll away from my house, both reported to be haunted, with Park Lea even reputedly known as the most haunted house in the city.

Working at both of those places, it's easy to see how people could be spooked, I mean...they're bloody old! You do hear sounds, namely the house settling at night. A few of the other people who worked shifts there claimed to have seen and heard things, but I never saw anything, and like I said, I was alone. I'm just not that way inclined, but I do have a wild imagination, and I enjoyed my time in both buildings.

Now imagine a group of ghost-hunters walking around those places in the dark at night actually in pursuit of spirits...

 

[rockysmith76]

Same way we explain UFO sightings or Bigfoot: by looking at individual reports and analysing them. Each may have its own, distinct explanation, whethere it be a hallucination, mistake of fact, optical illusion, deliberate hoax, etc.

Or there"s still an unexplained phenomenon to be considered, quantified and added to collective knowledge.

 

[Butter!]

In your mom's case from the OP, it sounds like hypnopompic hallucinations. I've had some gnarly ones, myself. Once, a grim reaper looking fellow picked me up and slowly carried me around my bedroom while I was unable to move. I thought I was dead for sure, but nope. A few minutes later, I woke up for real. I was in my bed, and I'd been experiencing sleep paralysis, which occurs when a person is in between sleeping and waking states. It's basically a dream, but it seems very real because you're partially awake - just not fully awake. So aspects of it seem unimaginably real.

 

[Belz...]

Or there"s still an unexplained phenomenon to be considered, quantified and added to collective knowledge.

Which fits snuggly into the post I made. What's your point? The OP asked how can we explain stuff, not how we can not explain it.

 

[bluesjnr]

I'm unusual on this forum in believing that ghosts do truly exist.



Ghosts are a very real phenomenon it is just the fact that some people conclude they are something they are not

I accuse you of being a tad disingenuous with how you posted about your experiences. You should provide some more details.

 

[rockysmith76]

Which fits snuggly into the post I made. What's your point? The OP asked how can we explain stuff, not how we can not explain it.

My point: You make the effort to quantify what it is then. I found an odd electrical field out hiking in basically nowhere and brought an EF reader out there in that pursuit, the field is in fact there, and after crunching possibilties most of them although sorta strange, are naturally occuring:

Magnetic or similar ore
Certain facets of the pollination cycle
An underground spring

all come up after some googlish detective work.

Thats my point. Not conjecture, an attempt to confirm the nature of that weird thing.

 

[alfaniner]

I entered a room to find a rocking chair moving by itself. I even had time to get out my phone, start up the app, and video record it. It was about 30 seconds before it stopped.

Turns out, the cat sleeping it had been startled when I walked in, and its leap set the chair in motion. I had not seen the cat (until a few days later, when the same thing happened.) I was surprised that the rocking had such a long decay time, though.

 

[JoeMorgue]

My point: You make the effort to quantify what it is then.

Only once you've reached at least a reasonable burden of reason to even ask the question. "Vague, unsupported anonymous anecdotes" do not a need for a double blind study make.

We'll worry about "explaining ghosts" once we're given a valid reason to even bothered asking the question, not before.