Researchers Ain't Afraid of No Ghost: Scientists investigate ghost sightings

Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada has conducted research on the belief that people who feel that they will see a ghost so badly probably will. One such study, published in 2001 in Perceptual And Motor Skills chronicles the experiences of a teenager who in 1996 claimed to be receiving nocturnal visits. Michael Persinger has studied the potential role that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and infrasound may plan in causing the perception that something is "haunted." As a result of these declarations researchers in Canada, England and elsewhere are exploring what happens in the brain to create the illusion that something is "haunted." So far, they have found evidence that some apparitions may be brain benders caused by spiking EMFs or electromagnetic fields, and possibly even extremely low-frequency sound waves that are known as infrasounds so subtle that the ear will not register them as noise.

It was also reported that in one of these studies people are often mistaking their own mental processes as something that's really taking place in the real world. Anything that can lead to making your mental events more similar to events that take place. It was also noted that a vivid imagination, for example, will likely make it more difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is not.

Note: Posts on Family Anatomy are for information only. If you need to talk to someone about family or mental health issues, you can get a referral from your family doctor.

MiscellaneousrichardbolducJanuary 21, 2009EMF, ghost, haunted, hauntingComment