French's volunteers were exposed to electromagnetic pulses, infrasound, both or neither. "Most people reported at least some slightly odd sensation, such as a presence or feeling dizzy, and some reported terror, which we hadn'’t expected," French says. "Terror is obviously quite an extreme reaction, and we only anticipated getting reports of mildly anomalous sensations in the context of this particular experiment." Still, French and his colleagues could not conclude that EMFs played a role in conjuring these feelings.
Like any dutiful researcher, French—who became interested in paranormal psychology after reading the 1981 book Parapsychology: Science or Magic?, by the renowned doubter and British psychologist James E. Alcock—has gone into the field, visiting purportedly haunted houses, which are in ample supply in England. He says believers "psych each other up. Sitting in pitch darkness you hear noises, which are common in these old houses, but believers see and hear things that just aren't there, according to our recording devices."
French's findings were published in the in the journal Cortex this month, and he and his colleagues have been trying to garner funding for a follow-up study. It will not be easy—poking holes in ghost stories might appear on its face to be of little scientific value. Still, French insists such research can reveal important truths about the human mind, including questions of memory and delusions. "Within psychology, people talk about reality monitoring, trying to understand how we make distinctions between mental events and events that take place out there in the real world," he says. "It's something we take for granted: Did you really lock the door before you went to bed, or did you just think about it?" On the extreme is schizophrenia, in which the brain makes no distinction between the real and the imagined.
"There's a continuum, and this kind of framework is useful when you're talking about hallucinatory experiences," French says. "People are mistaking their attribution, feeling a product of their own mental processes as something that's taking place in the real world. Anything that can lead to making your mental events more similar to events that take place—a vivid imagination, for example—will make it more difficult to distinguish between the two."
Of course, believers say French cannot see or hear ghosts because he is a "horrible skeptic," which he readily admits. "I wish it was a bit more spooky," he says of his time waiting for apparitions to appear in dank, musty castles. "I'm sitting in the dark, in the cold. I wish something more would happen."
Persinger commends French's team on its "splendid experiment," even if it didn't validate his ideas. Still, he contends, EMFs do affect the body in many ways—from the brain to individual cells, to enzymes, and even DNA. The key to testing their effects on brain activity, he says, is to make sure that the fields are neither too strong nor too weak, and that they come in the right pattern. So he is not willing to give up on finding a way to prove scientifically that EMFs are behind at least some ghost sightings. "I'm a scientist," Persinger says. "I don't believe in anything."
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21 Comments
Add CommentElectromagnetic waves have been studied on the brain before, and I think that these studies should be compared in an article like this. Could it have to do with the earth's natural electromagnetic field? Perhaps some people are more sensitive to it, or it is stronger in some places than others. What about in the country or in older homes where EMFs and low frequency sounds are uncommon? Why is this blurb not citing the study of hallucinations, and things that cause them? It is an interesting idea, though, with the elctromagnetic fields. Perhaps certain people who's brains are wired differently are prone to hallucinate with EMF as a stimulus, like the young girl mentioned.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe word is "badly" not "bad" but in in SciAm, the dumbing down of America is going well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe low frequency sounds can be found in the country. The first time I read about low frequency noise in connection with haunting it was an article written about a man who moved into an old home and found that he would get odd uncomfortable sensations. Many visitors and family members had similar experiences and tried to convince him the house was haunted but he didn't believe them and tried to find an explanation. His conclusion was that it had to do with a low frequency noise produced by wood expanding near an old fashioned furnace. I don't remember all the details but he became convinced that this noise produced by the expansion of the wood was the source of the haunting. The sources of these low frequency noises dont have to be electric. It can come from any number of things found in both the city and the country side.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI dont know about the electromagnetic wave aspect but as you point out there are natural variations in the Earths magnetic field. It changes not only from place to place but over time. There have been studies done linking annul reported cases of depression with annual variation in the magnetic field. Many researches have long attempted to link the Bermuda Triangle to magnetic storms. It seems possible that electromagnetism may play a role in the country as well as the city.
There is another interesting phenomenon present in the city and the country not discussed here, natural occurring optical illusions. There is a hill on an old country road not far from where I live. It has long been the topic of local urban legend. If you drive to the foot of this hill and put your car in neutral you will roll up the hill. You can get out of the car and try it with a matchbox car, water, what ever you want. The objects will appear to roll up the hill. Some engineers from Perdue University eventually came out and studied the hill. What they discovered is that what looks like an upward slope is actually a downward slope. Just by chance the way the horizon meets the tree lines, the angle of the road, all sorts of little details come together in the this spot to give your eyes the false impression that you are looking up hill, when in fact you are looking down hill. It turns out that Gravity Hill here in Indiana is only such location of this phenomenon. There are quite a few other locations around the globe where a similar optical illusion has created the same impression. There is even one on a river where people long reported that it appeared as though water was flowing up a hill.
Two notes:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst, why didn't French et al re-do the same house experiment--once with an un-primed group (with similar demographics as the first, and with the EMF/infrasound), and again without the EMF pulses and infra-sound? Comparison of these groups--while not offering definitive, scientific proof/disproof--would go much further in bolstering or refuting the researchers' hypothesis due to better controls.
Second--regarding "reality monitoring" hypothesis...the author states that this brain function allows us to make distinction between mental events and those taking place "out there", etc....but phenomenology shows us that some content of thought (the Mind) can be projected (eidetic) onto the environment. Often, our firmest beliefs (based upon perceived and understood information) become tangled up with the world we perceive as external (or "other"). This is as true for scientific notions, interpretations and/or theories (believed to be supported by evidence/data).
'What we see is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.' -- Werner Heisenberg
I'm happy someone is scientifically investigating these phenomena. I have often thought that some of the apparitions people report are not a result of EM effects on the mind but EM recordings within the environment - much in the same way sound waves record broadcasted messages. Many paranormal events in supposedly haunted environs report the same things happening over and over again. If these images are EM recordings, then spikes in the EM fields perhaps can make them visible at the right times. Of course, this will not account for all occurrences but it might be a good place to start experimenting. It's an interesting subject and one that I will look forward to hearing more about.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm happy someone is scientifically investigating these phenomena. I have often thought that some of the apparitions people report are not a result of EM effects on the mind but EM recordings within the environment - much in the same way sound waves record broadcasted messages. Many paranormal events in supposedly haunted environs report the same things happening over and over again. If these images are EM recordings, then spikes in the EM fields perhaps can make them visible at the right times. Of course, this will not account for all occurrences but it might be a good place to start experimenting. It's an interesting subject and one that I will look forward to hearing more about.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll very interesting, but somewhat irrelevant. I am a profoundly skeptical atheist with a thoroughly scientific upbringing, but I believe in ghosts. Not because of some creepy sounds or feelings, but because I have personally seen 2 ghosts and I have several acquaintances - as skeptical as I - who have also seen ghosts. By "ghost" I mean a visual image identical to that of a human in almost all respects, that may however be in an unusual place for a human -- like on an inaccessible rooftop or floating several yards off the ground. And there is a characteristic that all ghost sightings seem to share: at around thigh level ghosts start getting transparent, and everything below their knees is invisible. This brings me to my Intercontinental Ghost Theory�, which has made me notorious in Washington, DC atheistic circles. (Yes, I actually told groups of atheists that I believe in ghosts, and lived!) My reasoning is as follows:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf two or more independent observers who have no communication with each other report observing the same type of phenomenon, describing it in the same terms, it seems plausible that the phenomenon may actually have an existence independent of the human psyche. If the phenomena independently observed by the observers have moreover certain bizarre and intrinsically implausible points in common, it becomes quite likely that the phenomenon has an objective existence.
I have pointed out the paucity of nether limbs that seems to prevail in the ghost population, if there is such a thing. How curious, then, that the Chinese have a proverb that goes like this: "Ghosts have no feet." Who could have given the poor Chinese these laughable ideas? 17th-century Spanish Jesuits were the first Westerners who had close contact with the Far East. They were an unlikely conduit for old wives' tales, since they were possessed with the dauntless scientific spirit that characterized the period. They made the first reliable maps of China, among other things.
Bla, bla, bla. QED.
Most of the studies are conducted on phenomena that appear to be recurrent to some people, in specific areas/houses presumably �haunted�.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy younger brother took his life by hanging 10 years ago. One night , 2 years ago, he came in my bedroom, where he has never been before in his lifetime. (We lived 500 miles apart).
Standing up close to our bed,very pale and sad,he stared at my wife who was asleep, then looked at me and said: �I came to see you but I can't stay, as you know, I am dead.� and then shortly after he vanished away. This is my house for almost 20 years. Never something like that has ever happened to me before. And for those who are skeptical, I do not drink or �smoke�, take drugs or eat before going to bed.
Over the week-end, I met somebody who saw him at the morgue after his death and she said that his face was very pale (as expected) and very sad. An attitude that is not very common for that type of death as normally pain is visible on the face. One more very important information: I have not been able to see my brother after his death.
Hallucination? Dream? Personnally, I do not think so. I f it is a dream, why such a dream?
Anybody with an explaination...?
Careful in your criticism of grammar. "dumbing" is not a word and you used "in in"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI do not deny the scientific method. In the long run scientific methodology is crucial to our understanding, but it is not comprehensive. What I do doubt is that we understand enough about the universe that we exist in to understand some of the things that some of us occasionally experience.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs an example: Hundreds of years ago, if not thousands, it was observed that some birds were able to migrate over vast distances. About a thousand years ago, magnetic compasses were invented. The Earths magnetic field is involved in these things, but magnetism was not observed and named until less than two hundred years ago. Should the people of a thousand years ago have refused to accept their observations of migration and of compasses because they did not have a scientific explanation for these things?
As with observations of migration and compasses, so it may be with claims of the observation of many things that we cannot yet explain. Many, many observers, without reference to monetary or other gain, have said that they have observed "ghosts", have experienced "precognition", have experienced "telekinesis", and other things that science today, for lack of a better name, labels "paranormal".
We are constantly discovering new things about the universe that we live in. While we may not yet be able to measure or even test for things that we now call "paranormal", perhaps the time will come in the not too distant future when we will discover explanations which will facilitate a better understanding of these things. In the meantime, perhaps it is unscientific both to deny the existence of things that we cannot yet understand, and to deny that millions of people worldwide are claiming that they have experienced as-yet unexplainable and untestable phenomena.
Having myself seen ghosts, having experienced precogition of experiences decades before they occured, and of having witnessed telekinesis, I am not willing to say that they are in no way real. I am also not claiming to in any meaningful way understand them.
Uphill:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn Sri Lanka my guide showed me a similar place. Same explanation, of course.
this study is all very well, but unfortunately utterly lfawed: ghosts have been reported throughout human history - long before we were generating powerful electromagnetic waves all over the place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've seen seen a ghost. Yes, it was a dark, stormy night, and yes, it was a spooky setting. However, as I assumed it was my girlfriend I spoke calmly to the figure in the darkened room as it moved around, apparently tidying up. It was only when my real gf stepped out of the storeroom on the other side of the old library she worked in did I realise my mistake. When i turned around, the figure had vanished. I was standing at the only entrance to the room.
So, my dear scientists, these are your options: I was drunk, or under the influence of drugs, I am mad, or I am lying. I wasn't feeling spooky and 'expecting' something paranormal; as I explained, I thought I was talking to my gf. I was perfectly relaxed. Now. Assuming I am telling the truth, what happened that night? (And if you guys can't do better than the above theory, I'm going to stick with my own spiritual beliefs ; P )
This study is all very interesting, but unfortunately fundamentally flawed: ghosts have been reported throughout human history - long before we were generating powerful electromagnetic waves all over the place. I would, however, suggest that there is something very important to be learnt about the interaction between our mind and the universe we perceive. Those of you with a conservative nature and a preference for Western thinking should look to relativity theory and quantum physics, whilst the hippies among us should perhaps consider bhuddism and the tao te ching (they all amount to the same thing). mind, reality, dreams, magic, the universe, the self: all the same thing, I reckon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've seen seen a ghost. Yes, it was a dark, stormy night, and yes, it was a spooky setting. However, as I assumed it was my girlfriend I spoke calmly to the figure in the darkened room as it moved around, apparently tidying up. It was only when my real gf stepped out of the storeroom on the other side of the old library she worked in did I realise my mistake. When i turned around, the figure had vanished. I was standing at the only entrance to the room.
So, my dear scientists, these are your options: I was drunk, or under the influence of drugs. Perhaps I am mad, or lying? I wasn't feeling spooky and 'expecting' something paranormal; as I explained, I thought I was talking to my gf. I was perfectly relaxed. Assuming I am telling the truth, what happened that night? (And if you guys can't do better than the above theory, I'm going to stick with my own spiritual beliefs ; P )
sorry about doubling the above post!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wouldn't say this article conclusively debunks any type of supernatural phenomena, by any means. What it does is offer insight into how some natural occurrences as well as some less-understood mechanisms of the brain and their interactions with physically unacceptable external stimuli may create or contribute to the illusion of experiencing something supernatural. As others have stated, I have also experienced (though rarely) specific events in my life I have no choice but to consider supernatural, something that cannot be explained by conventional science in it's current state. For those who say all phenomena such as this is purely imagined or merely the result of some neuronal malfunction are denying the possibility that there may be an alternate explanation, and are thus choosing to live in a state of blissful ignorance (or arrogantly clinical skepticism, whichever the case may be). Science, though the first rational place to look for an answer to any question, does not yet offer an answer to every question that exists. Science is not perfect. It is constantly evolving. Theories that are now widely accepted by the scientific community would have been disregarded as nonsense or even laughed at 50 years ago (even less in some cases). When science fails to offer a conclusive answer, you have to remain open minded to other possibilities and take them all into consideration based on the evidence at hand (personal experience, physical evidence, circumstantial evidence, as well as the eye witness testimony of others) and form your own conclusions, and not be afraid to alter your conclusion should better evidence or explanations become available.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisunperceptable*
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCouldn't a ghost be the source of the electromagnetic energy? After all, the girl's clock was haunted by electrons.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI love the way ghosts play games with scientist.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is difficult to explain in terms that would satisfy a skeptic. There have been studies of the brain waves of those who are able to link with spirit at ease, and they are found to be at the delta and theta stages when awake. But it is mostly about getting the ego out of the way and being open to the possibility of all things. Drugs are not necessary at all !! Many orbs show up in pictures now, and though some are reflections from dust, others are spirit beings. We have many pictures of the orbs on our website.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreetings : Like some of the Comments abvove , I've also witnessed Ghosts/Spirits/etc. for a better word.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever... There were NO signs of E.M.F. Present...? , Now I also study the Paranormal and have an understanding on what Your presenting here...And I agree (ie): That a... Fear~Cage effect can be induced using E.M.F.
I've also formed My Own theories that there is indeed a dirrect link between E.M.F. and the Paranormal.
So... How do You explain a location where E.M.F. is NOT an issue (Checked via an EMF Metering device) , Yet... Paranormal Activity still exists...?
Could it be... That exposure to E.M.F. (Merely allows for the Human Brains natural Receptors to begin operating...? , To prepare the Individual for possible Paranormal Activity...?) , In much the same ways as say... The Adrenal Function..?
Greetings : Like some of the Comments abvove , I've also witnessed Ghosts/Spirits/etc. for a better word.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever... There were NO signs of E.M.F. Present...? , Now I also study the Paranormal and have an understanding on what Your presenting here...And I agree (ie): That a... Fear~Cage effect can be induced using E.M.F.
I've also formed My Own theories that there is indeed a dirrect link between E.M.F. and the Paranormal.
So... How do You explain a location where E.M.F. is NOT an issue (Checked via an EMF Metering device) , Yet... Paranormal Activity still exists...?
Could it be... That exposure to E.M.F. (Merely allows for the Human Brains natural Receptors to begin operating...? , To prepare the Individual for possible Paranormal Activity...?) , In much the same ways as say... The Adrenal Function..?