Curious Kids is a series for youngsters of all ages. If you’ve got a matter you'd like answered by an authority, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.
Is it possible that ghosts exist? – Madelyn, age 11, Fort Lupton, Colorado
Certainly many individuals imagine in ghosts – spirits left behind after the death of somebody who was alive.
In 2021 survey of 1,000 American adults41% said they believed in ghosts and 20% said that they had personally experienced them. If they're right, which means over 50 million ghost encounters within the United States alone.
This also features a shop owner near my house who believes his place is haunted. When I asked what he found most compelling about it, he sent me dozens of fantastic video clips from security cameras. He also brought in ghost hunters who reinforced his suspicions.
Some videos show small balls of sunshine gliding across the room. In others, faint voices and loud banging sounds may be heard when nobody is present. Others show A a book falling off the desk and products jumping off the shelf.
It's not unusual for me to listen to stories like this. As a sociologista few of my work deals with beliefs on issues comparable to: ghostsaliens, power of the pyramid and superstitions.
Like others who practice scientific skepticism, I keep an open mind, maintaining that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Tell me you had a burger for lunch and I'll take your word for it. Tell me you shared fries with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln and I'll need more proof.
In the spirit of critical considering, consider the next three questions:
Are ghosts possible?
People might imagine they’re experiencing ghosts once they hear strange voices, see moving objects, witness orbs or streaks of sunshine, and even translucent people.
However, nobody describes ghosts as aging, eating, respiratory or using bathrooms – although plumbers get a variety of calls about toilets.”spiritual intoxication”
So can ghosts be made from… a special sort of energy that floats and flies without scattering?
If that is the case, it implies that when ghosts glow, move objects, and make sounds, they behave like matter – something that takes up space and has mass, like wood, water, plants, and folks. Conversely, when passing through partitions or disappearing, they can’t behave like matter.
But ages physics research they haven't discovered that such a thing exists and that's why physicists say so ghosts cannot exist.
As yet, there isn’t any evidence that any a part of an individual can proceed to operate after death.
What is the evidence?
Never before in history have people recorded so many ghost encounters, thanks partly to cameras and microphones on cell phones. It looks like there shall be serious evidence. But scientists don't have it.
Instead, we now have a variety of ambiguous footage sabotaged by poor lighting and faulty equipment. But popular ghost hunting TV shows persuade many viewers that blurred images and emotional reactions are sufficient evidence.
When it involves all devices ghost hunters use to capture sounds, electric fields and infrared radiation – it could seem scientific, but They usually are not. Measurements are worthless without some knowledge of the thing you might be measuring.
When ghost hunters go to a supposedly haunted place for an evening of wandering and measuring, they sometimes find something that they later imagine to be paranormal. These could possibly be a moving door (wind?), cold (a spot within the floorboards?), glow (light coming from outside?), power fluctuations (old wiring?), or shocks and faint voices (crew in other rooms?).
Whatever happens, ghost hunters will draw a bullseye around it and interpret it as “evidence” and don't investigate further.
Are there alternative explanations?
Personal experiences with ghosts may be misleading because of the restrictions of human senses. Therefore, anecdotes cannot replace objective research. Alleged hauntings often have many explanations aside from ghosts.
One example is a retail store in my neighborhood. I reviewed security camera footage and gathered information concerning the location and layout of the shop, in addition to the precise equipment utilized in the footage.
First, the “balls”: The videos captured many small balls of sunshine that seemingly moved across the room.
They are literally balls effective dust particles floating near the camera lens, “blooming” under the influence of the camera's infrared light. The undeniable fact that they seem to drift across the room is an optical illusion. Watch any video of bullets rigorously and also you'll see that they never hide behind objects within the room. This is precisely what you’d expect from dust particles near your camera lens.
Then voices and shocks: the shop is in a busy mini-mall on the corner. Three partitions adjoin sidewalks, loading areas and parking lots; the adjoining store shares a fourth. The security cameras' microphones likely recorded sounds from outside, other rooms and the neighboring premises. The owner never checked such possibilities.
Then flying objects: The video shows objects falling from the front room wall. The shelf rests on adjustable supports, one in all which is just not fully seated within the slot. The weight of the shelf caused the bracket to fall into place with a noticeable jerk. As a results of this move, some products fell off the shelf.
Then the flying book: I used an easy trick recreate the event at home: a hidden string taped to the quilt of a book, wrapped across the kitchen island, and prolonged with the proper hand out of view of the camera.
Now I can't prove there wasn't a ghost in the unique movie. The idea is to offer a more plausible explanation than “it must have been a ghost.”
One final note: virtually all spiritual experiences involve obstacles to creating accurate observations and judgments – bad lighting, emotional arousal, dream phenomena, social influences, culturemisunderstanding how recording devices workAND previous beliefs AND character those that claim to see ghosts. All of this has the potential to trigger unforgettable ghost encounters.
But every part may be explained without the presence of ghosts.
Hello curious kids! Do you’ve got a matter you want to answered by an authority? Ask an adult to send your query to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and town where you reside.
And because curiosity has no age limit – adults, tell us what you're wondering about. We is not going to find a way to reply every query, but we’ll try to reply.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
