![]() ![]() Seeing a ghost, the image of a person who by all accounts isn’t actually there and is most probably deceased, fits just about every definition of a hallucination. There are a number of different things going on in your mind and body that result in seeing, hearing, or sensing an otherworldly presence, but they all more or less tie back to one primary process - the brain’s ability (or inability, as the case may be) to discriminate between internal and external stimuli. The question then becomes not whether ghosts exist (something that is unlikely but probably ultimately unknowable) but what’s happening in our minds to convince us, even only in our secret hearts, that they do? The variation in interpretation of these events offers two possible solutions: Either ghosts are real and they are different, depending on local or cultural lines, or we are the ones who are different, and we’re collectively inventing these experiences from singular phenomena. These experiences, while interpreted in different ways across various demographics and cultures, are almost universal. ![]() I've always wondered what I'd do if I found someone, or something, there. Even still, despite a robust skepticism of the supernatural, I struggle not to run up the basement stairs at night or check behind the shower curtain. However, that hasn’t stopped me from, on occasion, seeing things out of the corner of my eye, hearing the laughter or talking of unseen voices, or feeling a presence when none was there. There is no good, verifiable evidence of the existence of an eternal soul or an afterlife of any kind, a prerequisite for the existence of visiting spirits. Let’s get this out on front street: It is not this author’s belief that ghosts exist. Are a fifth of us living in Bly Manor? What's the deal? Those numbers, taken in 2015 from a sample of just over 2,000 participants, indicate that one of every five of you have had some experience you consider a ghostly encounter. ![]() According to the Pew Research Center, 18 percent of adults in the United States report having seen or been in the presence of a ghost. ![]()
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