Freaky Friday: Ghostly Visions
by Richard
So, here it is, the day before the greatest holiday ever invented. Halloween. The ghouls and goblins are about to come out, but what I wanted to talk to you about is ghosts. Real ghosts. Or, really, as real as they ever are.
More precisely, I’d like to talk about common characteristics shared by people who report seeing ghosts. And, not, I’m not going to say anything about them all being soft in the head. Although that might be right, now that I think about it. I’m a bit of a skeptic, see. I want to see proof, not vague visions and halting hauntings. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
Anyway.
It’s thought by two researchers, Michael Jawer and Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD, that there might be an actual physical cause of people seeing ghosts. No, not swamp gas. They believe the root cause is in the brain.
As surveys consistently show that anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of the public say they’ve had an extra-sensory experience – with nearly 25% of respondents stating they’ve actually seen or felt a ghost – anomalous perceptions are nothing to shrug off. “People have had these experiences down the ages and across all cultures,” comments Micozzi, a physician and anthropologist. “They’re quite universal. What we’ve begun to document is that there’s a certain type of person most likely to experience them.”
That kind of person, they said, is someone who is environmentally sensitive, prone to such things as pronounced or longstanding allergies, migraine headache, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, irritable bowel, even synesthesia (overlapping senses) and heightened sensitivity to light, sound, touch, and smell. Women make up three-quarters of this sensitive population but there are other markers as well: being ambidextrous, for instance, or recalling a traumatic childhood. The more we look at the people who say they’re psychic, or who have recurring anomalous experience, the more it seems there’s a mix of nature and nurture that predisposes them.”
So, basically, these dudes are saying that the paranormal isn’t really very para after all. More likely, these sorts of things are arising from the brain and the body, rather than the other side. I’m thinking they might be right. Pretty cool, huh?
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