# More on the existence of ghosts **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 30, 2003, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481 "2003-05-30T11:09:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/1 "2003-05-30T11:09:42Z")
This is an interesting one: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3044607.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3044607.stm) > [@](#): > > Hauntings exist, in the sense that places exist where people reliably have unusual experiences," Dr Richard Wiseman told BBC News Online. “The existence of ghosts is a way of explaining these experiences.” > But are the ghosts real? Dr Wiseman and his colleagues are not so sure. > They claim, somewhat paradoxically, that the hauntings exist but the ghosts do not. > “People do have consistent experiences in consistent places, but I think that this is driven by visual factors mainly, and perhaps some other environmental cues,” he said. People responding to the ‘spookiness’ of a place, without prior knowledge of its being ‘haunted’? What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/2 "2003-05-30T13:20:08Z")
I’d put environmental conditions down as a preferred choice to “ghosts”. There has been work done on magnetic fields and the brain that have mimicked “presence of god”. I don’t see why cold drafts, electric/magnetic fields and societal conditioning wouldn’t be the reason for the feeling of “spookiness” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/3 "2003-05-30T14:17:01Z")
Not to mention the power of suggestion if a place already has a reputation for being “haunted.” ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/4 "2003-05-30T14:31:16Z")
Architecture and interior design can influence a person’s feelings about a place. So, I would say that it’s very possible to have a building, say, that disturbs people without them recognizing why. Then throw in **DtC’s** power of suggestion, and _bing_ you’ve got a “haunted house.” Julie ---
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/5 "2003-05-30T14:35:35Z")
Kinda cool, though. And note the conclusion of the study, **Diogenes** – although the subjects chose specific places that had a reputation for being haunted, they had no knowledge of that reputation. (Although going to visit places like Hampton Court and the Edinburgh vaults may have been a bit of a giveaway.) So, the scientists claim, the only reason for the subjects’ reactions is the environment. So, how come some rooms or vaults had a ‘spooky’ feel and some didn’t? _That’s_ the cool part. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/6 "2003-05-30T14:58:19Z")
Yes, Hampton Court and the South Bridge Vaults do have spooky reputations and asking people to fill in a questionaire no doubt did make them more likely to report spooky feelings, but the crucial point about the study was that it found differences between different locations within the same site. Of course, the fact that one of the locations at Hampton Court is called ‘The Haunted Gallery’ presumably did distort the results. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/7 "2003-05-30T15:02:12Z")
And, of course, this is the same study that was repeatedly cited in the most recent ‘ghosts’ thread. ---
**Author:** ![Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susma_Rio_Sep)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/8 "2003-05-31T12:36:21Z")
The people who should know about ghosts are the embalmers. They are not afraid of ghosts. Ask them. I once ask someone in the cemetery who lives inside whether he is afraid of ghosts. He says no, they don’t exist. He’s more worried about living human beings loitering in the cemetery at night or up to some activity not of convenience to him. On my part, I don’t accept the existence of ghosts, but I am afraid just the same to be in an abandoned house all by myself at night. When I examine my fear, it is more exactly what the guy living in the cemetery tells me: fear of living humans up to some at least naughty designs on harmless guys like me. There used to be a school in our city called Holy Ghost Collge. After many years of being Holy Ghost College, the sisters changed the name to Holy Spirit College. Have you noticed that the Holy Ghost is now called Holy Spirit? Back to the embalmers and pathologists working in the morgue, I think they are the people who can really be the best authority on the existence of ghosts, the kind that is really dead but still around and making our hair rise and a chill up our spine. Susma Rio Sep ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/9 "2003-05-31T13:24:00Z")
I myself have felt the ghosts in several places. Most recently, Ellis Island left a strong impression. When I was younger, a ship I was on had a man in a brown suit walking around. Dark brown, with a fedora. Not an official uniform. I saw him myself a few times in the early hours, going past a hatch, but when I reached that hatch he was nowhere to be seen. I am conviunced by my personal experiences that hauntings are a subjective (but very real) phenomena, with no objective reality. ---
**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/10 "2003-05-31T14:35:18Z")
Clearly, ‘haunted’ areas are simply glitches in the Matrix. They’ll be debugged shortly, don’t worry. …yeah, I just recently saw the Animatrix short, ‘Beyond’. Did the girl in that short have a Nibbler (from Futurama) beadspread, or was it just me? DrFidelius, did others on the ship see this apparition? Were you told about him by others before you saw him? ---
**Author:** ![BytopianDream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9de0a6/32.png) [@BytopianDream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BytopianDream)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-on-the-existence-of-ghosts/178481/11 "2003-05-31T17:03:42Z")
I really saw a ghost once. I sure did. About a month ago. My Story: I was smoking a cigarette (which is bad kids) outside my brother’s house while I was visiting him. I was out back looking at the house and looked up at my nephew’s (my brother’s middle child) window. I saw a ghost in his room. I froze. My blood drained from my body. I felt the hair stand up all over and stuff. I saw a boy about my nephew’s age looked out at me with an erie blue glow and a vacant, yet terrified look on his face. I looked closer. Hmm… Double, hmm… It was really a blue swirling night light that reflected off a mirror on one side of the room to the window on the outside. A plant was hanging from the ceiling behind curtains that constantly waved from a fan blowing at them. The window was dirty. The entire effect looked very much like a ghost… And felt like it, until I objectively looked at it. My brother and sister-in-law thought it was pretty cool looking and scary. My sis-in-law moved things around because it creeped her out. My brother thought it would be a good anti-theft system.