Don’t Damn Me!

I thought i’d start off with something that i’ve been interested in since i was a child. It’s also quite an interesting topic, and should avoid the wrath of my boredom or dis-interest.

I’m not going to cover absolutely every possibility, as it would take a lot of work and time, which i don’t really have in me. But i’ll cover the most likely ones, in my opinion anyway.

• Fear

If there’s something strange, in your neighbourhood, who’s you gonna call? Well, it better not be me, because although i’m open minded (sort of) on the subject, and quite willing to believe there’s more to it, i don’t really want to have it proven to me, as the idea in general creeps me out.

There’s something about the idea of a ghost, an entity which can walk through sollid objects, is oblivious to attack and in some cases and can be an evil force, that makes me hope they aren’t real. Maybe it’s a lack of control, after all if you run into such a being, and it decides to be evil, what can you do to stop it? The Entity – anyone?

• Rationality

Although the subject itself is quite paranormal and supernatural, there are certainly some scientific thinkings in the mix, amongst people who believe.

Some of them argue a good case, and i certainly can’t rule out one or two of the theories.

My own favourite theory, for at least some instances of ghostly appearances/sounds, is the idea of “echoes”. From my rather lacking understanding of science (i got a D in my Science GCSE), and my reading of books that were to say the least, above me, there does seem to be the idea in science that everything is energy, be it protons, photons, nuclei and the The Flintstones.

There also seems to be the belief that nothing truly dies, or just disappears. Energy merely disperses or transforms, like Ice turns to water and then to steam, if heated. Solid -> Liquid -> Gas.

So it makes sense to think of everything around us in these terms. Including sounds, and maybe to some lesser degree (at least through my own capabilities) images.

• Sound

If i shout something in my garden on a windy day, my voice will be carried on the wind, travelling some distance, while the sound waves that make up my voice get weaker, because the waves get weaker, the longer they travel and become separated at a smaller level? (I’m not sure on this, but it’s my current understanding – I really should read up on it).

It’s also my understanding that the sound never actually disappears or dies, it merely keeps getting weaker, as the individual components of the sound wave disperse, being separated and blending into the surrounding waves and components of the world around us (wind, oxygen, other sounds, etc).

So, using this reasoning, i could certainly believe that when a group of drunken students are staying in a haunted house for a bet, and hear a creepy voice from the bathroom, even though no-one is in there, it could well be an echo of a voice that once came from the bathroom. Where somehow the wave reformed, or where the environment, in some way, made it possible for the human ear to get a flavour of what the sound once was. Hence the usual detachment in the ghostly voice, where it isn’t quite solid.

• Image

Images are slightly more complicated and a litlte harder to find reason in. But it’s not impossible, by a long shot.

From a purely-energy point of view, i can’t make much sense of it, as the image of me walking down the street isn’t just an image, it’s an event, i am actually walking down the street, and once i turn a corner, my image isn’t on that street any longer. The only thing left behind would be a tiny amount of heat from my body, and perhaps a small amount of smell from the rather lush coconut shampoo in my lustrous long hair.

But, on a more complicated and detailed layer, what i am, my physical being and mental-make up are all just very small elements, thrown together, to give what people see, hear, smell, when i’m around. So all of those particles that go into making me, me, could, in theory, be reproduced randomly by the environment, or even just hinted at, which might be enough to convince someone else’s mind that they saw me.

• Time

Another explanation could be a time phenomenon. A black hole, being the obvious favourite reason, or a tear in the fabric of time, letting older/newer events be seen/heard/experienced.

Haunted houses might be nothing more than a point in space and time, where there’s a tear in what separates yesterday from today and today from tomorrow. Anyone standing in that spot, today, might well be able to see a glimpse of what happened yesterday, or what will happen tomorrow.

So the vision of a 17th century cavalry-man, might just be a glimpse of something that happened in that spot, all those years ago.

• Imagination and/or Fantasy

Now onto the most likely explanation, for most cases of ghost sightings and experiences.

The human mind is a very powerful thing. How many of us have seen faces in the flames of a fire? Or shapes on the bark of a tree that form to make an image? And who hasn’t laid on their back in the summer, looking up at the clouds and seeing shapes and formations?

There’s also the matter of context, certainly where sound is involved. I’m sure we’ve all had an experience of being home alone at night, and hearing a sound that makes no sense, where your mind conjures up images to match the sound, resulting in you coming close to laying a little brown egg in your pants, only to laugh at yourself when you’ve finally picked up the courage to go look at the source of the sound and find out it’s something perfectly natural.

Putting all these things together, would certainly make it possible for us to hear a sound we don’t understand, and see something that isn’t there, without any stretch of the imagination. Add to that the desire of some people (braver people than myself) to see ghosts, and you have the perfect example of an average sighting without proof.

• Evidence/Proof

This is the trickiest part of all in today’s society. Computers have almost made proof impossible. It’s too easy for some people to manipulate images and even video, with a few clicks of a button and a bit of know-how, for these things to be creditable anymore.

I tested this very point not so long ago (maybe 18 months to 2 years ago), after my brother had been anoying the rest of the family with stories of having experienced a ghostly happening in the shower (he claimed that the shower gel, which had been sitting on the rail of the shower, flew past him while he washed his hair).

• The Prank

I decided to, erm, playfully and lovingly (as a brother should), scare the living shit out of him.

I told him i would take countless photos of the bathroom, and inside the shower unit, then zoom in on the images on my computer and see if i could find anything of interest.

I took the pictures, loaded them up on my computer while he was at work, and promptly loaded up Photoshop, whereby i added the face of a young girl from a horror film, added it to the picture of the shower on a different layer and took the transparency quite low. I’m by no means a Photoshop genius, in fact i’m quite, quite rubbish with it. But as one last little step, i added a few lens flares, making them quite small and the picture was complete. It took no more than ten minutes, including time to find a suitable face, etc.

The finished image:

If you’ve had a look and can’t see the “ghost”, then look at the top of the picture, in the middle. I’m sure you don’t need any help in seeing the “orbs”.

Needless to say, because my brother was convinced in his belief of what had happened in the shower, and because my Father already believed wholeheartedly in ghosts, they both fell for the image hook, line and sinker. My Mother and other Brother had been in on the joke, because i was so entertained by the idea of scaring my middle Brother, that i couldn’t keep a straight face while telling them. I even tried it on a few online friends and some of those fell for it too. Granted not many, because they were computer literate and knew of the capabilities of Photoshop, etc.

24 hours later, when i finally came clean to my Father and middle Brother (yes, i hear you, i know it was cruel, but what you’re missing out is that it was FUNNY, cruel is perfectly legit if funny at the same time), and they were in awe of my image manipulation skills (Or as i would call them, lack of skill). So, if my lack of skills can conjure up something to convince a bunch of people from different walks of life, just how much more thrilling and proof-establishing would the work of a talented individual cause?

• Conclusion

So, what do i believe? I’m not sure in all honesty. I can see merit in some of the arguments i’ve put forth, and obviously i’ve left out the rather obvious cases of “there’s nothing to it at all” and “it’s the disembodied spirits of lives from yesteryear”, as they speak for themselves.

I think my current thinking is based around echoes, and that somehow people can tune into the right frequency to hear sound waves from yesteryear, which either conjures up images to accompany in the human mind, or is actually a part of a greater echo, ie. an echo of time itself, which includes images, smells, tastes, sounds, etc.

I don’t personally believe in the interaction, reported by some people, between witnesses and the entities they witness, maybe because i just can’t get my head around it, or maybe because i just don’t want it to be true. Either way, i can’t buy it.

I’m sure a lot of people are merely victims of their own imagination, fantasies and desires being made real by the power of their own mind.

A smaller group of people have probably seen something, or heard something and again the power of their own imagination has filled in the gaps, making for a more detailed story and experience.

Again smaller, another group might well have seen something which was external to them, and genuinely unexplained. Either through a time phenomenon, black hole, or some other equally fantastic breach of accepted, normal reality.

I’ve personally never seen a ghost, and as mentioned above, i don’t really want to. I’m more than happy making do with Ghostbusters and The Sixth Sense, thank you very much!