Hallucinations...Nah I think it's Ghosts

            Frances Klemperer argues that ghosts do not exist. Rather hearing and seeing ghosts can be attributed to “perceptual mistakes” (1518). Although she gives evidence supporting her argument, is there still a possibility that ghosts may exist?  Klemperer talks about people who have just recently been in accidents, and may have stress disorders that can lead to them seeing and hearing things that aren’t really there (1518). But there are people who haven’t suffered any accidents, or don’t suffer from any psychological disorders who still claim to see ghosts. If sane people claim to see ghosts, who is to say they don’t exist. It is important for people to understand that ghosts could be real; it may open gateways into other supernatural sciences.

            Ghosts have been a popular topic in society for years. Ranging from scary fictional movies and books, to claimed real life encounters. So the main question is do ghosts really exist. Many experts would say that they don’t exist, that most supernatural experiences can be solved scientifically. Most is the keyword here; most can be solved scientifically, but what about that small percent that can’t be solved using science? If they can’t be solved scientifically, maybe it could be something paranormal (The Spirit Book, 162).

            A ghost according to Hilary Evans is, “a person, formally alive, now dead, who returned to Earth” (Evans, page 42). One of Klemperer’s arguments is that ghosts are simply hallucinations; hallucinations of loved ones that have passed on (Klemperer, page 1518). What about all of the people who have seen ghosts of someone they have no relation to? Many people claim to see ghosts, or as Evans puts it “Haunters” who have no acquaintance to them what so ever (43). In the example of the Whiteman’s Haunted Bed, a couple and their one year old son moved into a new home, they had no furniture and decided to sleep on an old bed they found in the attic of the house. After they took the bed out they started to experience ghostly events; they would hear footsteps, the cups would always fall over, and one night they actually saw the husbands’ slippers float in mid- air. After the family called in a medium to look at the house, they found out that an old woman who used to live in the house died in the bed they were sleeping in (Cahill, page 371). These people had no personal relation to the woman who died in the home. Also, they never once actually saw the apparition, just experienced strange things that the apparition was doing. 

            It is hard to believe that someone could hallucinate slippers floating in mid- air. With four witnesses to what had happened that night, is it really possible that all four of them were experiencing the exact same hallucination, or was what they were witnessing the work of a ghost? Klemperer argues that hallucinations can be brought on by stress, that a person under a lot of stress can hallucinate and see things that aren’t really there (Klemperer, page 1518). Now stress is a possible explination, moving and having a young son can put stress on people, but that theory is thrown out the window due to the fact that four people experienced this event. Also many instances with ghosts can be witnessed on tape for, showing clear evidence of what has occurred.

            Klemperer argues that hallucinations can happen in the stage of clouded consciousness when one is waking up or falling asleep (Klemperer, 1518). Take for example the case of the lady in black at the St. Anne’s house in England. She has been seen by not only family members and servants in the house, but by neighbors and strangers as well, and most importantly she has been seen in the middle of the day (Evans, page 43). The people who have seen this ghost have seen her in broad daylight; they were wide awake, so there consciousness was not clouded by just waking up. It is too far-fetched to think that all of these people are simply misinterpreting objects all throughout the house for a woman.

            Although Klemperer’s argument makes some good points, it doesn’t definitively prove that ghosts do not exist. True many people may be suffering from hallucinations when they see the ghosts of loved ones, or hear their names being called. Also people can be simply misinterpreting real objects for something they are not at night. But her argument doesn’t acknowledge all the other forms of ghostly encounters. It doesn’t discuss situations like the Whiteman’s bed story, or the lady in black.  If there are so many cases of people seeing ghosts that goes against Klemperer’s argument, who is to say they aren’t real? What if ghosts aren’t simple hallucinations but something everyone can see, and hear if they are subjected to it. Ghosts might very well be a real thing in our world.

Works Cited

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Buckland, Raymond. The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channeling, and          Spirit Communication. Canton, MI: Visible Ink, 2006. Ebook.

Cahill, Robert. “Whiteman’s Haunted Bed.” Writing Without Formulas. Ed. William H. Thelin.                Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2008. 371- 373. Print.

Evans, Hilary. “The Ghost Experience in a Wider Context.” Hauntings and Poltergeists     Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Ed. James Houran, Rense Lange. Jefferson: McFarland          and Company, 2001. 41- 49. Print.

"REAL Ghost Girl Caught on Video Tape 2 (The Haunting)." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Sept.         2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcCLiMAxE9o>.