Suppose you are alone in your house in the middle of the night and suddenly a
strong gust of wind forces open your window. The dreadful sound of wind
might capture your imagination and even might utter some scary words in your
ear. You might even see that a dark wicked looking shadow passed across your
window. This is a perfect recipe for your worst nightmare.
Well, I have no intention to scare you!! Ghosts are
one of most speculated, fancied, debated and controversial topics around the
world. Some people believe that they are real, other believe they are not but
everyone is interested in ghosts. Scientists around the world also have played
with this idea and various theories have been proposed to explain the paranormal
activity supplemented by lot of scientific research. Let us discuss some of the
theories of ghost haunting.
Some
researchers believe that changes in geomagnetic fields stimulate brain's
temporal lobes, and transcerebral magnetic fields elicit subjective
experiences that mirror the phenomena associated with hauntings. Magnetic
waves consistently flow through our atmosphere. They are both natural (heating
by the sun, tidal forces from the
sun and moon, the impact of photons from outer space, localized weather
conditions such as lightning) and man-made sources. Michael Persinger subjected
people's brains to complex magnetic field patterns. Varying magnetic fields
disrupted brain's own electricity. Most participants reported that a presence
has entered the room. Some interpreted it as a visit from an angel, some others
as a dead relative and few participants also reported presence of an alien
during the course of the experiment. Persinger believes that magnetic
disruption of mind is responsible for most paranormal activities including
ghosts. However all of this work is controversial and has been subjected to
huge debate. Believers of ghosts propose that it is due to the presence of
ghost that magnet field fluctuates. This debate between believers and skeptics
is not likely to end any soon in future.
Another theory suggest that infrasound may be
responsible for experiences of paranormal activities. Infrasound is
extremely low frequency sound waves between 1-20 Hz. It is so low, that humans cannot hear
it. But we can feel it. Infrasound has a low enough frequency that you don't consciously hear it, but your
ears still sense it. Process of receiving the sensory input without our mind
knowing where it is coming from can cause mayhem and catastrophe to your
emotions. Researchers suggest that specifically, sounds between 7-19 Hz can
induce fear or panic. People who are hypersensitive to these low frequencies
are more prone to experiencing paranormal activity. Researchers also believe
that it also affect vision by causing vibration of the eye ball (Approx 19 Hz
is the frequency around which eyeballs starts resonating). These vibration can
cause people to see ghosts. Infrasounds can be produced by a variety of
phenomena like storms, strong winds, weather patterns, volcanoes, earthquakes,
strong oceanic waves, ventilator of air conditioner, roar of a tiger, etc.
Animals like elephant use infrasound to communicate over long distances. An
experiment was done in which low frequency sound waves were sneaked at a live
concert. At the end of experiment, 22% people reported feelings of
unexplainable dreads chills and depression. However other scientists call the
theory questionable. They say that volunteers in their experiments report
weariness, high pressure in eyes and ears but never mention ghosts or
hallucinations.
Some other researchers give
psychological explanation to experiences of paranormal activity or ghost
haunting. Witness may have prior knowledge about the places that are haunted
resulting in mild psychosomatic and hallucinatory phenomena. Only the idea of
being alone can produce a heightened sense of expectation even before you
introduce any other factors. More often than not, we see what we are expected
to see influenced by our emotional and psychological state at that time. If we
are in heightened emotional state, we can be readily jump to irrational and
unsubstantiated conclusions.
We can see that there
are a lot of scientific theories and beliefs around the existence of ghosts and
paranormal activity. May be some of them are true, may be combination of all these factors is responsible. It cannot be ruled out that none of the explanation is true. As of now, scientists are not unanimous about what causes us
to see ghosts. Meanwhile, it is your choice which theory you want to believe
in. As our scientific community further explores the question of paranormal
activity, you never know you might end up meeting a real ghost in your real
life! I wish you good luck!
Categories:
Article
i think third theory, the psychological theory is correct..
nice post..but what about capturing them in cameras and video recordings?