Ghosts: Imagination Vs Reality

Ghosts are something everyone seems to have heard about, and in some cases even experienced, yet they keep an illusive if not ineffectual presence in our world. Ghosts represent a part of life we generally don't spend a great amount of time trying to discover because the spiritual world, for better or for worse, is simply not a pragmatic venture to spend time on; that is unless you're a ghost hunter or something similar.

Yet the nagging questions remain; what are ghosts and are they real? And why do they always seem to have a somewhat muted presence in our world? Ghost encounters have been recorded for centuries and in modern day, ghosts are even assumed to be televised through programs such as 'Ghost Hunters' on the SciFi Channel, and 'Ghost Adventures', on the Travel channel. For those who have seen these shows, there's more than enough reason to think something atypical is going on.

Ghost verification and skepticism:

Ghost verification has evolved from written accounts and stories to recorded electromagnetic resonance. The tools of the modern day ghost hunter span a range of detection that includes psychic contact, ritualistic protection, scientific measurement and parapsychological and paranormal education. A fully equipped ghost hunter may have a number of tools and people to assist with the ghost hunt. Below are a few of these devices:(3)

• Certification in paranormal investigation

• Pychics, spirtualists, and priests

• Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) recorder

• Electro Magnetic Field (EFP) meter

• Thermal imaging device

• Ion detector

The problem with all this equipment is that the actual phenomenon they are measuring cannot be confirmed or disconfirmed making the measurements themselves speculative. Benjamin Radford of livescience.com states "I own an EMF meter, but since it's useless for ghost investigations, I use it in my lectures and seminars as an example of pseudo science" (1)

Radford's claim is that EMF meters find red herrings, but if he checked his logic, he might find the statement that EMF meters find red herrings is a non-sequitor because there's more statistical correlation and probability that EMF meters can measure paranormal activity than not; or at worse, no proof that they don't measure ghosts at all making his statement itself a red herring for the validity of scientific reasoning.

Better yet, U.S. Government agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) use probability in reports to leaders who make political decisions (2) that could affect over 300 million Americans; but that's not scientific enough for a somewhat trite scientific skepticism thats all or nothing expectations shoots itself in the foot when much of what science comes up with itself is merely theoretical, just like ghost hunting.

The accounts of ghosts worldwide are simply massive. Numerous individual testimonies and experiences, unexplained events caught on camera, disembodied voices, highly coincidental if not probable communicative patterns between ghosts and humans, spiritual influences on the minds of humans and even physical contact with ghosts. If consensus has any validity at all, which it does in the scientific community, then the consensus among spiritualists seems to point at the belief ghosts do exist in one form or another. When it all boils down to the ontological basis of life itself, everything seems to have no 'actual' foundation be it science or otherwise.

Ghosts are believed to be present when a sudden drop in temperature in an otherwise warm room occurs. They are also thought to draw energy from batteries of fully charged devices in an effort to make their presence more vivid or to communicate. Ghosts are also theorized to be present in areas where there are negative ions and in the case of limestone deposits, an increased chance of poltergeist activity. To a scientist it may sound like unverified events or uncorroborated evidence because even evidence has to be verified as valid for it to be considered scientific proof. There are reasonable lines of thinking that support both camps.

Spiritual meaning:

The spiritual meaning of ghosts can be implicitly scary, tell a story of an unresolved life event on earth, or an intervention between worlds or dimensions that is for the most part, off limits with limited access. Some people are purported have extra sensory skills that enable them to see spirits at will whereas others only encounter ghosts when certain conditions are met. Still others may never think they've experienced spiritual activity their whole lives.

Ghosts are implicitly not of this world and indicative of something alien to our physical lives on earth. Accepting ghosts as real means acknowledging there is indeed more to life than meets the eye which in essence opens a can of worms that challenges conventional notions of life and how we are supposed to live.

Without ghosts or spirits, the world would be devoid of clues that seem to tell us there is something more to life than we think. Ghosts, or the stories of encounters with ghosts remind us we either would like to believe something more exists which would make them a psychological projection of sorts, or that something more does indeed exist. This dichotomy is the representational crux of the issue; by writing off ghosts as mere imagination we are in effect stating there is nothing else but a self-created perception of the external world and by accepting the probability of ghosts as real we are affirming the notion that reality does extend beyond the tips of our noses.

Sources:

(1) http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/061027_ghost_hunters.html 'Live Science: The Shady side of ghost hunting'

(2) https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/6words.html 'Central Intelligence Agency: Words of Estimative Probability'

(3) http://www.ghost-hunting-equipment.com/category/paranormal-equipment/ 'Ghost Gear: Paranormal Equipment'