Ghosts and Spirits

After hearing countless stories of things that go bump in the night, strange sights, unexplainable happenings, and voices from beyond the grave, one has to start believing those stories sooner or later.  Logic can’t always explain everything.  Sometimes the most real things in the world are the things that cannot be seen unless it is searched for.  This is how it works when it comes to ghosts.  Without looking for evidence, the evidence may not be found; but once the effort is put in the evidence is all around.  Especially in modern society, there is incredible technology available, therefor evidence that ghosts and spirits exist can be easily obtained. 

The photo on the left shows photo evidence of a little girl captured on camera in the middle of a burning building.  Several witnesses confirmed that there was no little girl living in the house at the time and there was no body recovered.  Another form of evidence is electronic voices (or EVP) that can be picked up by a recording device and can be the voices of a man, woman, child, or even an animal in some cases.  Orbs are “apparently floating, circular or diamond-shaped objects… which have been captured in many photographs. Video cameras have shown their images floating across the screen, while digital and 35-millimeter cameras have photographed orbs larger than basketballs or as small as a postcard” (Krivyanski).  Cold spots can be measured by advanced technical room thermometers.  Modern technology such as this really allows specialists in this area to dive deeper into the possibilities of spectral existence. 

                Along with photo, audio, and temperature evidence of spectral phenomena, American statistical evidence found in “The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained” states that USA Today found fifty two percent of adult Americans to believe in the possibility of communication or encounters with the dead along with two-thirds of the population to have experienced one or more mystical phenomenon,  nearly forty percent of people claimed to have seen or made contact with a ghost or spirit of the dead, and about eighty-five percent of people reading USA Today admitted to believing in the possibility of communicating with ghosts and the spirit world (USA Today).  The photo on the top shows a famous photo from England in 1936, and the photo on the bottom shows the ghost of a fallen friend in this RAF formation.  The video link below shows actress Keira Knightly and her encounter with a ghost.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R39i2ohhwXM

The most common rebuttal to all the above mentioned evidence is that science clearly explains that ghosts, spirits and poltergeists cannot exist mostly based on the laws of physics.  Lucian Dorneanu, a science editor at Softpedia, states that there are a lot of things that ghosts “can do” but after consulting the laws of physics these things can’t be possible.  For example, Dorneanu writes that “Newton's laws of physics say that if a ghost can walk, it shouldn't be able to pass through walls, since a body at rest will remain so until it's subjected to an external force and for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction”.  Knowing this fact, the idea of a ghost walking through a wall is much less believable.  According to the basic laws of science, the theory of cold spots is also quite impossible.  “When a warm object is placed next to a cold object, energy flows from the warm body to the cooler body, cooling the warm body…when a ghost causes the temperature in a room to drop, the ghost itself warms up, so all ghosts should be hot. But if ghosts are made of pure energy, where did the warmth go? Energy doesn't just heat up, like matter” (Dorneanu).  Clearly Mr. Dorneanu is engulfed in his scientific opinions and does not believe any of the ghost stories out there.  However, regardless of scientists attempting to prove that ghosts don’t exist, there is an overwhelming amount of information supporting that they must exist.

                Granted, all living things abide by these scientific laws of matter and motion but who is to say that non-living things are bound by these same laws?  Scientific laws and rules obviously apply to the living but without proof how can it be said that the same rules apply to the dead?  Although there is scientific evidence on the opposing side, on the other side there is evidence provided by the above mentioned methods that can literally show a non-believer what it is that they are denying exists.  It is said that seeing is believing, this definitely holds true when it comes to this particular argument.  The picture above shows an apparent ghost sitting in his once favorite chair on the left hand side.  Whether or not it can be entirely proven that ghosts exist, the overwhelming amount of evidence supporting their existence cannot be ignored.  After reviewing all the evidence prevented, the clear conclusion is in favor of their existence.

Works Cited:

•               Krivyanski, J. Michael. "Some Evidence Indicates the Existence of Ghosts." Paranormal Phenomena. Ed. Karen Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Probing the Phenomena Called Ghosts." World & I (Aug. 2001). Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.

•               De Strother, Neil. "Ghost stories make London heart of ghoul Britannia; London is reputed to be the world's most haunted capital. The argument about the existence of ghosts never loses its fascination and, as Neil del Strother reports, it will only be fuelled by a new book - Haunted Britain and Ireland." Evening Standard [London, England] 31 Oct. 2001: 18. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.

·          Dorneanu, Lucian. "Ghosts Are Incompatible with Scientific Principles." Paranormal Phenomena. Ed. Karen Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Why Ghosts Can't Walk Through Walls ... and More—Scientific Arguments." Softpedia News. 2007. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.

·          Steiger, Brad, and Sherry Hansen. Steiger. "Ghosts and Phantoms." The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained. Vol. 3. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2003. 11-24. Print.