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Author: The Paranormal Blog
It's not often that one can actually cite Star Trek (The Original Series) when discussing ghostly apparitions, but I'm about to do just that.
For my sceptical (or American spelt, skeptical) friends and readers... this article is probably not for you as it assumes a number of things...
First that 'ghosts', by popular definition, exist.
Second is that people 'see' them.
Third, and this is the biggy, is that they are an external thing... something in the environment that could feasibly be seen by anyone who happened along... potentially even photographed.
To my 'believer' friends, this is self evident, but I like to cover my own bases.
Moving on...
I've discussed, at length, a couple of things about apparitions and what they *should* be made of (see this post - click here - on the blog and this one - click here - as well,) which is some sort of atomic structure. If we assume that an apparition can be seen and potentially photographed, light must "play off" it... quite frankly, there is no other option. It must break, bend, absorb, reflect, and/or refract light waves/particles/bands or else, nope, it can't be photographed... or seen unless it's all in the witnesses' head.
This argument (all in the head) loses steam when an apparition is seen by multiple witnesses at the same time. Although there is a case for "mass hallucination", it's a very weak case, and even using that model, the chances of all these people seeing the "same" thing at the "same" time when it's a mental construct is beyond unlikely. I could also, of course, toss in something far more prevalent which is apparitions seen by multiple witnesses (as potentially "uncorrupted" by hearing previous reports as therefore unlikely to be pre-disposed to "seeing" what they expect to see,) seeing the same apparition at differing times in the same (or nearby) locations that cannot be explained through normal methods. These sightings do question some hypothesis as to how apparitions are seen and why.
So, for this article, we have to go with the idea that, indeed, it's not "all in their heads"...
...which leaves us with the question, just what are apparitions made of... and why do they seem to be able to appear and disappear so rapidly?
The first part of that question is *the* mystery, so to work towards a potential resolution, let's look at the last part.
Here is an important thought for you to consider...
Despite the popular media conceptualizations, the number of people who have seen an apparition "pass through" a solid thing is actually quite small, but allow me to qualify this.
I went through a number of our "true ghost story" books1 (not all as we currently have far too many to try this with at home,) and through our own database of reported sightings. I eliminated everything that wasn't a reported apparition... so no poltergeists, prophetic or "message bearing" dreams, weird feelings or the like, and no odd sounds, smells, or touches. I only looked at people who reported to see something or someone.
When the person spotted what they assumed was an apparition, the first things is almost all of them did not "tweak" to the notion the person (or thing) they saw was out of the ordinary, and would carry on whatever they were doing. Only after (even a split-second) of realising that the person (or thing) should not "be" (either "be" there or "be" dressed like 'that' or "be" something that gives them away as not being 'normal', hence potentially 'paranormal',) they look up or around or back and... vanished.
This is potentially where the semi-myth* of the ghostly apparition "going through" a wall or door comes into play, so it seems. Since the 'ghost' vanished, our minds go, with good reason, to the idea that "it" must have gone somewhere... so it HAD to pass "right through that wall" or "right through that door without opening it!"
* - I can't call it a complete myth because I did find three or four witness reports that saw someone or something pass "into" a door or wall, but no witness on the other side to suggest these apparitions truly passed through the doors or walls or simply "merged"(?) with them.
Of course, this doesn't at all *have* to be the case, but it makes the most logical and classical sense to most people. Things must go somewhere, I mean, they don't just disappear, right?
I'm certain more than a few of you thought about instances where gases can be visible and then disappear as they are affected by the air (think steam of breath vapour on a cold day,) but remember, those gases don't disappear and they do take up the same volume of space... so, working with that notion, is that true for apparitions? Could this be the origins of strange feelings, atmospheres, and "energies"?
I can't say for sure, but it is food for thought...
...but..... continues
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