Ghosts: skeptic or believer?

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While some accept ghosts as a reality, many others are skeptical of the existence of ghosts. Much of the scientific community believes that ghosts, as well as other supernatural and paranormal entities, do not exist. The current tentative consensus among parapsychologists is that ghosts are not the spirits of deceased humans, but psychic imprints which have been left behind, often because of especially strong emotions in the persons who leave the ghost. Skeptics often explain ghost sightings with the principle of Occam's razor, which argues that explanations should maximize parsimony with the rest of our knowledge, thus making the simplest and most mundane explanation the one which is best. They may suggest that, since few to none of us have ever had an encounter with a ghost, but most or all of us have had an experience of self-delusion or have attributed a false cause to an event, that these options should be preferred in the absence of a great abundance of evidence for supernatural explanations. Skeptics are also keen to note that most ghost sightings happen when our senses are impaired, and that the evidence is unreliable because it doesn't occur when we have full use of our faculties. (It however bears noting that, conversely, spiritualists or theists such as demonologists and other occultists invoking the principle of Occam's razor will come to differing if not opposite conclusions, since, to them, "the rest of our knowledge" provides us with unfathomably vast amounts of positive data regarding the supernatural; ideas like "parsimony" are, by nature, entirely context-dependent.) Human physiology may play a role in ghost sightings: * Ghosts are often associated with a chilling sensation, but a natural animal response to fear is hair raising, which can be mistaken for chill. * Peripheral vision is very sensitive to motion, but does not contain much colour or the ability to sharply distinguish shapes. Any random motion outside the focused view can create a strong illusion of an eerie figure. * Sound waves with frequencies lower than 20 hertz are called infrasound and are normally inaudible, but British scientists Richard Lord and Richard Wiseman have concluded that infrasound can cause humans to feel a "presence" in the room, or unexplained feelings of anxiety or dread. [2] Sometimes ghosts are associated with electromagnetic disturbances, which suggests that they might be attributable to the electromagnetic field and not to a presently dead person. Often, videos of paranormal investigators will show them using E-field or B-field detectors and finding "ghostly" results near wall outlets and electrical appliances. Psychological factors may also relate to ghost sightings. Many people exaggerate their own perceptions, either when visiting a place they believe to be haunted, or when visiting a site which they know unpleasant historical events have occurred. Certain images such as paintings and movies might "program" a person to automatically associate a certain structure or area with ghosts. Also, the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia may cause people to perceive human-like faces or figures in the otherwise mundane surroundings of their environments, particularly in conditions where vision is partly obscured, as in a dark corridor or at night. The earliest literature to rationally discuss the issue comes from the Chinese philosopher, Mo Tzu (470-391 BC) "Since we must understand whether ghosts and spirits exist or not, how can we find out? Mo Tzu said: The way to find out whether anything exists or not is to depend on the testimony of the ears and eyes of the multitude. If some have heard it or some have seen it then we have to say it exists. If no one has heard it and no one has seen it then we have to say it does not exist. So, then, why not go to some village or some district and inquire? If from antiquity to the present, and since the beginning of man, there are men who have seen the bodies of ghosts and spirits and heard their voices, how can we say that they do not exist? If none have heard them and none have seen them, then how can we say they do? But those who deny the existence of the spirits say: "Many in the world have heard and seen something of ghosts and spirits. Since they vary in testimony, who are to be accepted as really having heard and seen them? Mo Tzu said: As we are to rely on what many have jointly seen and what many have jointly heard, the case of Tu Po is to be accepted. (note: King Hsuan (827-783 BC) executed his minister, Tu Po, on false charges even after being warned that Tu Po's ghost would seek revenge. Three years later, according to historical chronicles, Tu's ghost shot and killed Hsuan with a bow and arrow before an assembly of feudal lords)" — Taken from Chapter 31, translated by Yi-pao Mei