This week I will discuss Hollywood’s influence on what we perceive as ghosts and why their presentations violate almost every law of physics. The first flaw is in apparitions. We are all familiar with “ghosts” traveling through walls and even walking as though it were human. Problem: If a ghost could pass through a wall, it has to pass through the floor, assuming it is comprised of energy. If we assume that the ghost can in fact walk, then the ghost must be made of matter- because as Newton postulated, an object at rest stays at rest until acted upon by an external force. So the ghost must be applying a force to the floor and the floor must be applying an equal and opposite force to propel the body forward (gravity acts as the opposite force). So in scenario 1, the ghost is made of energy- but it can’t walk through a wall as we are familiar with, because that would mean it would have to pass through the floor as well with every step. In scenario 2, the walking ghost is made of matter, because it applies a force to the ground, which applies an equal force back. Matter cannot pass through matter except on a subatomic level.

 

As in many cases of ghost movies, they will have you believe the temperature will significantly drop in the presence of an entity. Problem: When a warm object is placed next to a cold object, energy flows from the warm object to the cold- not the other way around. This is how ice is able to melt in a room- it is absorbing energy from the air, thus warming the ice cube itself- melting it. It stands to reason, then, that if a ghost is cold, it absorbs the energy from the room and makes itself hot. So all ghosts should be hot- or at least room temperature, rendering them invisible to heat sensors anyway. But, if ghosts are in fact energy, where did the warmth go? A possible answer is to refer to the law of conservation of energy that says energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only changed from one form to another. So we have to assume then that ghosts are made of some new kind of energy that science has yet to explain, because matter absorbs thermal energy. Energy itself can’t just heat up like matter. So in that instance, that the ghost is a new form of energy, EMF detectors are worthless because science has already explained electromagnetism.

 

Another problem, which everybody has encountered- otherwise we wouldn’t be doing what we do is sight. Fifth grade science says that every object we see is because light is reflected from it. When its dark, we see nothing, because there’s no light. Turn the lights on and we are able to see. The coffee cup right in front of me is only visible to my eyes because light is reflected off of it into my retina. My brain does the rest. So, if we are able to see ghosts, that suggests that light is being reflected off of them, which also suggests they are made of matter (we obviously can’t see energy, except with special scientific instruments.) Occasionally you may see infrared energy (when you look at a radiator and see the wall just above it being wavy-like, that is the heat energy.)

 

So what can we conclude from all of this? Well, this is where the field of paranormal research gets split right down the middle, and why investigators hate each other, because one thinks the other is stubborn and short sighted.

 

 Either you believe that ghosts are made of energy or they are made of matter (most researchers and investigators buy into the energy bit). If you believe they are made of energy, it must be some form of energy in which we are not yet aware or at least on a different plane of the universe. If it were a form of energy that we are aware of, say for example, radio waves, how does one distinguish naturally occurring from man made and then paranormal? Or infrared radiation- where do you draw the line?

 

If you believe ghosts are some form of matter, then ghosts wouldn’t be able to do half of the things we believe they can do, and we would be able to see them all around us just as soon as we shine a light on them. We’d even be able to take their picture at will. But the bottom line is no picture exists that is proof positive. In either argument (energy or matter) you have to believe that there is more to what we already know. Why is it that no group of investigators has ever seen the same apparition at the same time? They always appear to one or two people, and usually differently- one is able to hear or feel it while the other sees it. Therefore, you also have to believe that telepathy and psychic manipulation are in play. Because we all sense things differently, and some are stronger than others, perhaps that is why we perceive ghosts differently as well (one person can hear something while another sees it, while yet another feels it.) Very rarely are two people able to utilize all of their senses at the same time to perceive the same entity.

 

Finally, as an investigator, you have to be prepared that what you are seeking is nothing more than naturally occurring phenomena on a level that we don’t yet understand. Investigators and detectives go hand in hand. You need to sort through the facts and evidence to come to a reasonable conclusion- and sometimes those conclusions will tell you that you wasted your time.