Our spooky sightings, however, have certainly felt real. These seven mental and physical factors can account for almost any creepy occurrence—including some famous ones ripe for debunking—and help to make sense of our perpetual urge to sleep with the night light on.
Sometimes, hoping for a spectral sighting or, like Heathcliff, dreading one is enough for us to conjure a wraith. Thanks to campfire tales and multimillion-dollar horror flicks, spooky notions can infiltrate our subconscious even without any real-life supernatural encounters.
Nearly half of Americans think ghosts are real, according to market research company YouGov bloodsucking vampires scored a measly 13 percent. That preconception primes our minds to run wild whenever we hear a creaky floorboard or feel a sudden chill. We have such a tendency because the human mind is highly suggestible, French says. Our preconceptions can also cause us to find supernatural evidence in garbled noise or blurred images.
French says this phenomenon, called pareidolia, can explain many supposed recordings of phantom voices. If a ghost hunter or psychic instructs you to listen for a certain phrase, then your brain which loves identifying patterns tries as hard as it can to create those exact words from various bits of random sound. Unfamiliar and threatening environments kick our survival instincts up a notch. Ghost tours capitalize on this hereditary paranoia by forcing the mind to wrestle with ambiguity.
The uncertainty itself drives up the fear factor. Even quirks of architecture can trigger this primitive terror: In , British geographer Jay Appleton found that, when it comes to our habitats, humans tend to think of places as safe when they offer two things: prospect a clear view of the outside world and refuge the opportunity to hide from danger. Research suggests that the brain may summon spirits as a means of coping with trauma, especially the pain of losing a loved one.
One survey in the British Medical Journal found that close to half the widows in Wales and England had seen their mates postmortem. Experts think that such specters help us deal with painful or confusing events.
A analysis published in the journal Death Studies looked at hundreds of incidents of supposed interaction with the deceased. Studies suggest kids who are bullied or exposed to dangerous situations are more likely to have paranormal fantasies, a trend psychologists also found in adults with a history of childhood trauma. In a survey in The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research , 91 percent of participants said their encounter had at least one upside, such as a sense of connection to others.
So if you do see a shroud down the hallway, you might not want to run. Ghostly occurrences can be the result of larger problems in our gray matter. For some, hearing voices or experiencing a vision can be an early indicator of medical conditions such as schizophrenia. While many of us had heard the term before, a poltergeist is actually one of the rarest forms of hauntings and to many, the most terrifying. Loud knocking sounds, lights turning on and off, doors slamming, even fires breaking out mysteriously have all been attributed to this type of a spiritual disturbance.
Another frightening aspect of the poltergeist is that the event usually starts out slowly and mildly, then begins to intensify. And while many times poltergeist activity is harmless and ends quickly, they have been known to actually become dangerous. Some experts explain it as a mass form of energy that a living person is controlling unknowingly.
Whatever the case may be, poltergeists have caught the attention of paranormal enthusiasts and experts, scientists and many others who are just plain curious. Orbs are probably the most photographed type of anomaly. They appear as a transparent or translucent ball of light that is hovering over the ground. It is believed that orbs are the soul of a human or even an animal that has died and is traveling around from one place to another.
The circular shape they take on makes it easier for them to move around and is often the first state they appear in before they become a full-bodied apparition.
And then you would use sea salt and what that does is absorb the negative energy. Sauter adds that, according to shamanism, depression is caused by the parasitic "spirit attachment. If you burned the white sage and still feel spooked, herbs like mugwort and palo santo also have been known to have a cleansing effect, Sauter says. For extra protection against negative forces, work in some obsidian crystals or hematite rocks into your decor. Finally, they may throw a glass and be like, 'Hey, explain this away.
Facebook Twitter Email. Paranormal experts can help you give up the ghost. Steve Wood Cherry Hill, N.
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