If you believe in ghosts or demons, you are not alone. Belief in such paranormal entities is very high in many cultures around the world. However, no evidence of such beings has been found by scientists for thousands of years.
The reason for these seemingly metaphysical images is actually purely physical. So what happens when people see these images? What are the facts behind it? Let’s explain in detail:
Never trust your eyes, ears or brain all the time!
Let’s start with the “nightmare vision” you’ve probably read about before. Ever since we were kids, we grew up thinking the nightmare was real, but what actually happened was just sleep paralysis.
Our waking routine can sometimes be interrupted by illness or fatigue. In a normal awakening, the dream we see ends and our muscles are activated, but in sleep paralysis, although our eyes are opened, our muscles still do not come into play and because our body cannot fully wake up, there is a confusion between the dream and reality.
That’s why we see images we don’t want to see. In other words, the nightmare that we think is a real existence is actually a hallucination. If our muscles were not locked during sleep, we would react physically to what we saw in the dream, and it would not be pleasant.
Our brain loves to make things look like a face, a body, due to a phenomenon called pareidolia.
You may have compared the things in your dark room to a frightening existence while you were sleeping at night. Most of us are a little surprised when we see such images, but some people may want to give meaning to these meaningless images with the influence of their past life, character and belief.
Moreover, the number of people who attribute meaning not only to images but also to sounds is substantial. You may mistake the sound of a wind or an animal for a supernatural presence, or you may hear someone calling your name when no one is around.
Sometimes you feel like your phone is vibrating but you can’t see a notification when you turn it on and look at it. This is because the brain wants to give a meaning to the current mysterious sound or image.
Even the things you see in daily life are not really a reality.
What you see is a picture your brain draws for you based on the signals your eyes capture. The same goes for your other senses. Yes, what you see is mostly real, but your brain can scatter things that aren’t there.
The video above shows a practical example of this. You claim that that propeller is not actually spinning, but scientific evidence shows that it does. Situations like this can happen in life.
People think they see the ghosts of their deceased relatives. So what is the reason for this?
Phantom Limb Syndrome should be mentioned here. Even if a limb has been amputated, it is sometimes perceived as actually in place. The brain understands that there is a problem where the amputated limb is and creates a feeling that comes from the non-existent limb.
When a close relative of the person dies, the brain may create a hallucination due to his absence. If the trauma is much greater, these hallucinations may be much more intense. Experts think such ghosts help us deal with painful or confusing events.
Research suggests that children who are bullied are more likely to see paranormal images. A trend also seen in adults with a history of childhood trauma.
Ghosts—not surprisingly—usually occur when the brain is not working at full capacity.
It is more visible in the dark because there is not enough light and the brain cannot receive enough data. Due to insufficient data, you tend to hear and see what you believe. Sometimes the brain tries to impose its own creations on reality. Various hallucinations can be seen at these moments, as the brain does not work at full capacity while falling asleep or waking up from sleep.
Likewise, neurological disorders can cause you to see unreal images and hear sounds.
Ghostly images may be the result of larger problems in our brains. Hearing absent sounds or seeing an image can be an early indication of medical conditions such as schizophrenia.
Neurologists suggest that seizures in the temporal lobe (the noggin area that processes visual memory and spoken language) can trigger ghost images. Electrical disturbances in this part of the brain can cause patients to see paranormal images.
You don’t have to be mentally ill to see these images.
Temporary changes in brain activity can also lead to hallucinations. Using psychoactive substances such as LSD and magic mushrooms can also affect the brain and take you to a fantasy universe.
“The most important reasons for these misconceptions are context and belief,” says Christopher French, professor of psychology at the University of London and head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit.
So, if a person believes a place is haunted, then they will probably see it that way. Studies have shown that when people are told that a place is haunted, they have abnormal experiences there, but people who are not given this information have not experienced anything mysterious in the same place.
Because people who are given false information tend to create a bad reality in their minds and believe it. They think that the slightest click, shadow, anything touching the hair is dangerous.
Even mysterious events that are thought to be inexplicable can be explained.
When a town in the USA saw a light beam flashing in the cemetery, the idea that it was a “ghost mother looking for her son” spread and later turned into a legend. But when skeptical people investigated why, they found that the light actually came from the headlights of cars turning a bend on a highway in the distance.
In this tragic story, a young girl was killed because she was thought to be possessed by the devil, but it turned out that the girl actually had epilepsy:
Sometimes even a sound frequency can cause you to see ghostly images.
Psychologist Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire says ghostly images can be seen due to infrasonic vibrations. He suggested that an 18.98 Hz infrasonic signal may be responsible for some ghost images.
Here is the event that led to the discovery of this frequency: Instructor Vic Tandy was working alone in a lab late one night when a strange sight appeared in his eye. After a short while, this vague image disappeared. The next day, he saw a knife begin to vibrate wildly, although no one had touched it.
Or was the lab haunted? Since Vic Tandy is a scientist, the possibility of a fairy did not even occur to him, he questioned why and managed to solve this mystery. The reason he saw a ghostly figure was that the extractor fan in the laboratory emitted a frequency of 18.98 Hz. This caused his eyeball to move, causing him to see a ghostly image. It was this frequency that made the blade move on its own.
Geological phenomena can also cause ghostly appearances.
For example, some theorists say that the number of people who see ghostly images increases on days when the Earth’s geomagnetic activity suddenly drops. Abnormal changes in the planet’s magnetosphere, often caused by solar flares, can mess up our perceptions in strange ways by disrupting the inner workings of the brain. However, the evidence supporting this hypothesis is currently weak.
Mold, etc., which is often found in old buildings. It is thought that substances can also confuse people.
Environmental engineering students at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, have determined that the so-called haunted structures in the Empire State are “sporting” rather than haunted. Rotting food, fungi, molds can make occupants more depressed, anxious and even trigger psychosis.
Some historians say rye bread contaminated with ergot fungus (the same microbe from which LSD is derived) was also instrumental in the Salem witchcraft events of the late 1600s.
So, what should you do when you encounter a frightening image like these examples?
You have to think critically and question. You should know that the possibility of sleep paralysis, hallucinations, pareidolia, neurological disorders, even holograms is much more likely than the possibility of ghosts.
A University of South Wales study found that college students with critical thinking skills were less likely to believe in paranormal phenomena.
Students with high grades and studying in departments such as physics, engineering, and mathematics were less likely to have paranormal beliefs. Because they are good at proving a mysterious event by questioning. This trend has also been seen in research by others.
In other words, it would be much more logical to say “cat is a cat” instead of thinking that every strange sound and image is a ghost.
Sources: Live Science, Science News Explores, Wikipedia, Yahoo! Life, Popular Science
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