The Science of Ghosts

by Joe Nickell

  Folie à deux. The power of suggestibility is a potent force in reported hauntings. One person may excitedly influence another (or the latter may acquiesce to preserve domestic tranquility!), resulting in the phenomenon the French term folie à deux—the folly of two! Typically, as psychologist Robert A. Baker has explained, the more “dominant personality—highly imaginative and convinced of the existence of ghosts—persuades the less imaginative member of the duo that specters exist” (Baker and Nickell 1992, 129).

  Hallucination. Under certain conditions a person may perceive something that is unrelated to an external stimulus. That is, “the person hears, or more rarely sees, something that is not there” (Wortman and Loftus 1981, 491–92). Called a hallucination, this is not to be confused with the misperception of something actually seen (see “illusory experience”; “pareidolia”). Hallucinations may be caused by such factors as exhaustion, starvation, stress, or periods of sustained emotion, as well as by certain drugs. The common waking dream is a form of hallucination (Baker and Nickell 1992, 41, 130).

  Hypnosis. The induced “trance” state in which people experience such alleged phenomena as past-life recall, channeling, or the like is called hypnosis. In fact, the condition is one of a dissociative state, in which, due to suggestibility and imagination, compliant people are prompted to play roles. Susceptibility to hypnosis is one of the traits associated with fantasy proneness, and fantasizing individuals often practice self-hypnosis (Baker 1990a, 161–98; Baker and Nickell 1992, 52).

  Ideomotor effect. This is the psychological phenomenon in which, unconsciously, a subject moves his or her hand sufficiently to affect such “spirit phenomena” as Ouija-board messages, automatic writing and drawing, and table tipping, as well as operate dowsing rods and pendulums (which are sometimes used to “detect” ghosts). That such movement is indeed due to the ideomotor effect has been demonstrated by proper testing (such as by blindfolding the Ouija-board subject, whereupon only gibberish is produced [Randi 1995, 169–70, 223]).

  Illusory experience. Simple illusions (deceptive appearances) are often responsible for paranormal perceptions. For example, when one woman was in her bedroom sewing, she would sometimes see a ghostly flash of white pass by her door. Investigation revealed that “when lights were on in the bath or the headlights from a passing car shown in the bathroom window, they were reflected off the mirror in the door, and when the door moved it was as if someone had flashed a searchlight across the bedroom door” (Baker and Nickell 1992, 127). Similarly, Milbourne Christopher (1970, 172) explains how “a billowing curtain becomes a shrouded woman” and “a shadow becomes a menacing intruder to those with vivid imaginations.” (See “imagination.”)

  Imaginary companionship. Having an imaginary companion as a child or as an adult, or having a guardian angel, a spirit guide, or another entity with which one supposedly communicates, is a trait strongly indicative of fantasy proneness, the tendency of certain normal individuals to perceive as real things from their imagination.

  Imagination. The imagination—the mental ability by which we create images and ideas—enables us to perceive supposedly otherworldly phenomena (see “expectancy”). As psychologist Robert A. Baker observed, “We tend to see and hear those things we believe in” (Baker and Nickell 1992, 129).

  Intuition. Sometimes referred to as a hunch or a “gut feeling,” intuition is the sense of knowing something without understanding why. It is sometimes attributed to psychic phenomena or to “inner voices,” such as from one's imagined spirit guide (Guiley 1991, 285–88). One problem is that people make guesses, then count the hits and disregard (rationalize away) the misses. However, we humans are constantly responding to subtle cues, unconsciously collecting and assembling bits of information, rather like jigsaw-puzzle pieces, thus often arriving at the realization of some greater concept (Nickell 2007, 166–71)

  Memory distortions. The effects of memory can play a critical role in enhancing a reported paranormal occurrence. According to Elizabeth Loftus (1980, 37):

  Memory is imperfect. This is because we often do not see things accurately in the first place. But even if we take in a reasonably accurate picture of some experience, it does not necessarily stay perfectly intact in memory. Another force is at work. The memory traces can actually undergo distortion. With the passage of time, with proper motivation, with the introduction of special kinds of interfering facts, the memory traces seem sometimes to change or become transformed. These distortions can be quite frightening, for they can cause us to have memories of things that never happened. Even in the most intelligent among us is memory thus malleable.

  Among common distortions is the tendency for people to confuse what occurred on one occasion with what happened on another. Also, when memories become vague, people tend to “fill in the gaps with what they believe to be true,” that is, to engage in confabulation (Wortman and Loftus 1981, 189–91). As a result, the stories that people tell of their alleged ghost encounters and experiences of haunting phenomena cannot be relied upon no matter how sincerely they are related. Such anecdotal evidence, therefore, is disparaged by scientific investigators.

  Near-death experience (NDE). People having close encounters with death, as from heart failure, sometimes report having near-death experiences (NDEs), which are offered as proof for survival of death. Some describe out-of-body experiences (OBEs), others a sense of passing through a tunnel; still others see their life flash before them, or they visit otherworldly realms. Actually, British parapsychologist Susan Blackmore (1991) has shown that these phenomena are quite explicable: effects of the brain. The OBE is a hallucination, as is the tunnel experience (the effect of oxygen depletion on the visual cortex), while the life review results from stimulation of memory associate areas of the brain, and the otherworldly visits are a product of the imagination. (See also Nickell 1995, 172–76.)

  Out-of-body experience (OBE). The sensation that one floats out of one's body is a type of hallucination that can occur during an altered state of consciousness, as by the ingestion of certain drugs or, commonly, during the experience of a waking dream (Baker and Nickell 1992, 41, 130).

  Pareidolia. Ghostly faces and figures are often perceived in photographs, in the random forms of shadow patterns, and in foliage or other shapes, like inkblots or pictures in clouds, that are interpreted as recognizable figures. Such images are called simulacra, and the tendency to see them is known as pareidolia, a neurological-psychological phenomenon by which the brain interprets vague images as specific ones. In other words, it is the mind's tendency to “recognize” common shapes in random patterns (DeAngelis 1999; Novella 2001). Similarly, one may perceive seemingly spoken spirit words or phases in random sounds—as from a tape recorder's internal noise.

  Past-life recall. The alleged remembering of previous lives—supposed evidence for reincarnation—is typically done by so-called hypnotic regression. Hypnosis is essentially an invitation to fantasize, and being easily hypnotized is a trait linked to fantasy proneness. Déjà vu is sometimes held to be another indicator of “remembering” a past life.

  Possession. Belief in possession by spirits—especially demonic spirits—flourishes in times and places where there is ignorance about mental states. Some early notions of possession may have been based on the symptoms of such brain disorders as epilepsy, migraine, and Tourette's syndrome (Beyerstein 1988). Psychiatric historians have long attributed demonic manifestations to such aberrant mental conditions as schizophrenia and hysteria, noting that as mental illness began to be recognized as such after the seventeenth century, there was a consequent decline in demonic superstitions and reports of possession. In many cases, however, supposed possession can be a learned role that fulfills certain important functions for those claiming it—such as acting out sexual frustrations, protesting restrictions, escaping unpleasant duties, attracting attention and sympathy, and fulfilling other psychologically useful or necessary functions (Baker and Nickell 1992, 192–217; Nickell 2004, 14�
��27).

  Psychic phenomena (“psi”). Certain people known as “psychics” are held to be sensitive to psychic phenomena, of which there are two main types: extrasensory perception (ESP), which itself consists of clairvoyance and telepathy, and psychokinesis (PK), or mind-over-matter, such as by mentally moving objects. Mainstream science has not validated the existence of psi. Moreover, Ray Hyman (1996) has observed that forms of psi are invariably defined negatively—that is, as an effect remaining after other normal explanations have supposedly been eliminated. He noted that a mere glitch in the experimental data could thus be counted as evidence for psi. “What is needed, of course,” he stated, “is a positive theory of psychic functioning that enables us to tell when psi is present and when it is absent.” He added, “As far as I can tell, every other discipline that claims to be a science deals with phenomena whose presence or absence can clearly be decided” (23).

  Psychokinesis (PK). The alleged ability to influence matter (say by moving objects) using sheer mental power is called psychokinesis (PK). It is popularly referred to as “mind-over-matter.” With extrasensory perception (ESP), PK composes “psi.” (For a brief discussion, see “psychic phenomena.”) Some people believe that subconscious PK from an individual is the cause of some “haunting” phenomena (such as mischievous or malevolent moving of objects, noisy disturbances, fiery outbreaks, or the like) that are otherwise usually attributed to a poltergeist (German for “noisy spirit”). In fact, most poltergeist attacks turn out to be the work of disturbed children or adolescents, or immature adults seeking attention. (For a discussion of poltergeists see Nickell 1995, 79–103.)

  Sleep paralysis. With a “waking dream,” especially in the case of a hypnopompic (waking-up) hallucination, one may also experience sleep paralysis—an inability to move because the body is still in the sleep mode. In the middle ages this led to reports of demons (incubi in the case of sleeping women, and succubi with men) that were perceived as sitting or lying on the person's body, rendering him or her immobile. In the Victorian era, sleep paralysis could cause one to report being transfixed by the sight of a “Grey Lady” specter, and today the phenomenon is commonly interpreted as the experience of being tied down by aliens aboard their flying saucer (Nickell 2001, 216; Baker and Nickell 1992, 130–31).

  Suggestibility. Many people are quite suggestible; that is, they uncritically accept an idea or adopt a course of action. Some—especially those with fantasy proneness—are more suggestible than others, making them good candidates for hypnosis. Suggestibility has profound consequences to the paranormal. For example, someone who is led to believe a place is haunted is more likely to attribute some experience—real or imagined—to a ghost (Baker and Nickell 1992, 142–43; Nickell 2001, 218–19).

  Synchronicity. To describe coincidences that are “meaningful”—for example, hearing a dead loved one's favorite song come on the radio after just thinking of that person—psychologist Carl Jung (1960) coined the dubious term synchronicity, which he defined as an “acausal connecting principle.” In fact, however, there may sometimes be cause-and-effect relationships of which we are simply unaware. Moreover, the extraordinariness of the coincidence may be misjudged due to the “selection fallacy”: Ruma Falk (1981–1982) explains, “Instead of starting by drawing a random sample and then testing for the occurrence of a rare event, we select rare events that happened and find ourselves marveling at their nonrandomness. This is like the archer who first shoots an arrow and then draws the target around it.” (See also Nickell 1988, 75–88.)

  Telepathy. One of the two main categories of extrasensory perception (clairvoyance is the other), telepathy is supposedly mind-to-mind communication. Deriving from the Greek tele (“distant”) and pathe (“occurrence”), the word was coined by British psychical researcher F. W. H. Meyers in 1882 to replace such terms as “thought-reading” and “thought-transference.” That telepathy's success or failure is not affected by distance or barriers—an observation made by ESP pioneer J. B. Rhine (Guiley 1991, 607–608)—is one of many arguments against its being a physical phenomenon rather than a product of the imagination. (For a skeptical discussion, see Baker and Nickell 1992, 169–75.)

  Trance. See “dissociative state.”

  Waking dream. Many people on occasion have an apparitional experience that occurs in a state between sleeping and waking. If one is falling asleep, the experience is called hypnagogic; if it occurs when one is waking, it is termed hypnopompic. Either hallucination is known popularly as a “waking dream,” which has features of both wakefulness and sleep: imaginary elements that are perceived as real. Consider, for example, this ghostly occurrence described by a caretaker's wife at Toronto's “haunted” Mackenzie House (the historic home of William Lyon Mackenzie [1795–1861]):

  One night I woke up at midnight to see a lady standing over my bed. She wasn't at the side, but at the head of the bed, leaning over me. There is no room for anyone to stand where she was. The bed is pushed against the wall. She was hanging down like a shadow but I could see her clearly. Something seemed to touch me on the shoulder to wake me up. She had long hair hanging down in front of her shoulder…. She had a long narrow face. Then she was gone. [Nickell 1995, 41]

  Such experiences are exceedingly common—not only in sightings of alleged ghosts, but in visitations of extraterrestrials, demons, vampires, and other bedside visitors. Sometimes, the experience is coupled with so-called sleep paralysis (Nickell 2001, 215–16).

  Wishful thinking. Being influenced, often unconsciously, by one's desires is a form of bias commonly known as “wishful thinking,” and it can influence nearly every aspect of the perceptions and reporting of alleged hauntings. Cautioning about the pitfalls of bias caused by wishful thinking, W. I. B. Beveridge (n.d. 67–68), in his The Art of Scientific Investigation, advised, “The best protection against these tendencies is to cultivate an intellectual habit of subordinating one's opinions and wishes to objective evidence and a reverence for things as they really are.”

  CHAPTER 2. NAKED GHOSTS!

  1. Tyrrell's “theory of apparitions” (1953, 83–115) accounts for much, but it is flawed by his belief in telepathy, the existence of which is unproved and doubtful.

  CHAPTER 3. HEADLESS GHOSTS I HAVE KNOWN

  1. This is according to the genealogical chart of my mother, the late Ella T. Nickell (n.d.), which records Rev. Haute Wyatt as her eighth great-grandfather. He was a great-grandson of Sir Thomas Wyatt (Perkins 2004).

  2. December 30, 1970.

  CHAPTER 8. ELVIS LIVES!

  1. Interviews by Joe Nickell (with Vaughn Rees), March 7, 2004. The information agent wrote her first name, “Roseanne,” on a hotel business card but did not otherwise want to be identified.

  2. The “Elvis impersonators” phenomenon actually started years prior to the star's death (“Elvis Presley Phenomenon” 2008).

  CHAPTER 10. CONJURING GHOSTS

  1. A sign at the garden site mentions the dowsing and the discovery of bones in the vicinity. Actually it was a single bone (“Van Horn Mansion” 2011), and since there was no expert determination that it was human, the evidence is worthless. Also, the use of “cadaver dogs” (“Van Horn Mansion” 2011) was applied in what strikes me as a particularly pseudoscientific manner, even apart from the fact that the dogs followed the dowsers and were obviously encouraged to support their finding.

  2. To test the word choice, I used my close-up photo of the inscription, enlarged it 250 percent on a photocopier, then cut letters from one copy, arranging them on strips of clear tape to form the respective words, and compared them to the available space. Although both have the same number of letters, the word calmly, with the very broad letter m, failed the experiment, whereas softly, having a series of narrow letters, fit perfectly.

  CHAPTER 12. GHOST OF AN ALASKA MURDERER?

  1. Adams (2006) has also given the conflicting stories as two different incidents, attributing one to room 315, the other to 318.

  2. See f
or example, “Ghost Haunts Place of Great Accident or Misfortune” (motif E275), in Thompson 1955, 2:428.

  CHAPTER 14. THE STORIED LIGHTHOUSE GHOST

  1. Some online sources reprint the article under an incorrect title, “The Haunted Lighthouse,” and wrongly attribute it to “Vol. 11” of “Pacific Monthly” [sic]. The correct citation appears in the references (Miller 1899).

  CHAPTER 16. AN AUSTRIAN CASTLE HAUNTED BY PARACELSUS?

  1. Actually, his father's name was Wilhelm Bombast von Hohenheim; bombast is an old word for cotton stuffing (“Paracelsus” 2008).

  CHAPTER 18. CONVICT SPECTERS AT ALCATRAZ

  1. I turned twelve on December 1, 1956, just before the events of January 6, 1957, that I now relate.

  2. After Alcatraz closed the following year, he was transferred back to Atlanta, where he was eventually paroled. He remained, took college courses, and worked as a lab technician yet again. In 1976, however, he was again robbing banks. He returned to prison (though he briefly escaped once from a prison bus), and finally ended up at the federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, where he died on February 22, 1987 (Esslinger 2003, 397–412).

  3. See the video Joe Nickell Investigates: Alcatraz on YouTube ®, produced by Adam Isaac for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, 2010.

  CHAPTER 21. STAGE FRIGHT

  1. See darkhaunts.com (Dark Haunts, http://darkhaunts.com/ArizonaGhostStories/BirdCageTheatre.htm); sgha.net (Southwest Ghost Hunters Association, http://www.sgha.net/az/birdcage/birdcage.html); hauntedarizona.freeiz.com (Haunted Places of Arizona, http://hauntedarizona.freeiz.com/tourism/birdcage.html); ofamerica.com (Legends of America, http://www.legendsofamerica.com/aztombstoneghosts2.html); what-when-how.com(page titled “Birdcage Theater, Tombstone, Arizona [Haunted Place]”) http://what-when-how.com/haunted-places/birdcage-theater-tombstone-arizona-haunted-place/; and strangeusa.com (Strange USA, http://www.strangeusa.com/Viewlocation.aspx?id=12236&desc=BirdCageTheater/OperaHouseTombstone az) (all accessed June 21, 2011).