# Why do so many people believe in ghosts (and other paranormal)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 29, 2013, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802 "2013-07-29T10:55:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/1 "2013-07-29T10:55:15Z")
A few months ago I was basically accused of being a dick for saying ghosts don’t exist and psychics are either frauds or deluded. The person I was talking to isn’t obviously the type to believe in such things, so I was a little surprised. He told me his parents think their house is haunted (in a fairly non-spooky way) and mentioned some experiences they had, so I suppose he took it as an insult to them, because his story seemed hard to explain without claiming they were lying. It seems to me that a huge number of people believe in ghosts or some other kind of paranormal phenomenon and everyone has a story to tell to back up their beliefs. It’s harder to find people who are attached to a belief in visits from aliens, but there are still thousands of claims to have witnessed such things. I see no reason to believe in any paranormal phenomena but struggle to find a better explanation for all the voices to the contrary than “they’re all lying, were fooled or hallucinating”. That’s not a satisfying explanation for me. I have trouble believing so many would lie, and don’t find it that easy to believe that the standard explanations for how our minds can be tricked into thinking we’re sensing a ghost or UFO would account for so many claims, either. Surely they’re not all hallucinating? Is it related to our propensity for religious belief? At least in our culture of religious acceptance you can say you don’t believe in God without insulting someone’s parents. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/2 "2013-07-29T11:02:08Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I have trouble believing so many would lie I think I found your problem. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/3 "2013-07-29T11:16:50Z")
So you think the majority of claims are simple lies? I originally started thinking about this because I wondered why almost any somewhat interesting fact or story I hear turns out to be a myth, or at least an exaggeration. I barely believe anything interesting I hear now, until I’ve had a chance to ask the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/4 "2013-07-29T11:47:42Z")
I too was once called an A-hole for calling BS on ghost stories. People believe in ghosts when it’s convenient to them. For example, sitting around a campfire, swapping ghost stories… People convince themselves they are real because of the visceral response it evokes. But you take those same people, who supposedly believed in them before… Now they’re sitting at home intently watching TV. Their child comes up to them and says: “Daddy, there’s a monster in my bedroom.” Does said parent stop dead in their tracks and give pause to the fact that “OMG! There might actually be a ghost in my kid’s bedroom! Oh noes!!” Of course they don’t. They tell the kid there ain’t no such thing as ghosts and send them on their way. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/5 "2013-07-29T12:00:18Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I see no reason to believe in any paranormal phenomena but struggle to find a better explanation for all the voices to the contrary than “they’re all lying, were fooled or hallucinating”. That’s about as good as it gets. Although “hallucinating” is a bit strong for instances where one’s senses are intact but ambient conditions and sensory processing combine to provide a false impression of ghosties. Lots of people believe lots of ludicrous things. It’s part of the human condition. ---
**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:** [July 29, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/6 "2013-07-29T12:13:08Z")
We have far too much processing power for many stimuli, and our pattern recognition subroutines go into overdrive when given insufficient data. Any odd noise is extrapolated into being the deliberate actions of a sentient entity. No lies or hallucinations required, just imagination and embellished memory. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyMac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@JohnnyMac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyMac)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/7 "2013-07-29T12:20:23Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > I see no reason to believe in any paranormal phenomena but struggle to find a better explanation for all the voices to the contrary than “they’re all lying, were fooled or hallucinating”. I think you underestimate the number of people who have hallucinatory experiences at some point in their lives. Even one could lead to a lasting belief in ghosts. I’ve seen a ghost. I’m not going to say it wasn’t a hallucination - hallucinations are a lot more common than people think. But the experience is both real and convincing, and IMO is a very good explanation for why this is such a common belief. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/8 "2013-07-29T12:29:44Z")
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a coworker who said her mother believes in astrology. I told her, probably less tactfully than I should have, that such a belief was ridiculous, to which my coworker became angry because I supposedly insulted her mom, even though my coworker doesn’t beleive in astrology. I don’t think most people who say they believe in ghosts are lying; a surprising number of people believe in all manner of nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/9 "2013-07-29T12:32:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > That’s about as good as it gets. Although “hallucinating” is a bit strong for instances where one’s senses are intact but ambient conditions and sensory processing combine to provide a false impression of ghosties. > > Lots of people believe lots of ludicrous things. It’s part of the human condition. > [@DrFidelius](#): > > We have far too much processing power for many stimuli, and our pattern recognition subroutines go into overdrive when given insufficient data. Any odd noise is extrapolated into being the deliberate actions of a sentient entity. No lies or hallucinations required, just imagination and embellished memory. That’s where the “they were fooled” explanation comes in, rather than hallucinations. > [@JohnnyMac](#): > > I think you underestimate the number of people who have hallucinatory experiences at some point in their lives. Even one could lead to a lasting belief in ghosts. Quite possible. I’ve never experienced anything close to a reason to believe in ghosts, visits from aliens or the divine, so I have considered that my inability to understand how so many people can be convinced is simply because I have been lucky enough to avoid such experiences. I notice that so far I’ve had votes for all three explanations. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/10 "2013-07-29T13:05:04Z")
It’s really the old caretaker in a mask. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids! ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/11 "2013-07-29T13:17:22Z")
People don’t like to think that they can be fooled. They want to think their senses are perfect, that they can always trust what they see & hear, as well as what they remember. I have no doubt that the majority of people who say they’ve seen something have in fact seen _something_, it’s their interpretation that’s the problem. Our senses are fallible, very fallible in some ways. Our brains interpret things, put sensory input through filters, biases, etc. Just look up Pareidolia for an example. Simple wishful thinking happens too. That noise in the attic had to have been my recently departed grandma’s ghost walking around, there’s no possible way it could be anything else. Once people settle on an explanation they become invested in it, and questioning their conclusion is seen as an attack on them, especially if it has to do with something personal. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/12 "2013-07-29T14:23:54Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > People don’t like to think that they can be fooled. They want to think their senses are perfect, that they can always trust what they see & hear, as well as what they remember. > > I have no doubt that the majority of people who say they’ve seen something have in fact seen _something_, it’s their interpretation that’s the problem. Our senses are fallible, very fallible in some ways. Our brains interpret things, put sensory input through filters, biases, etc. Just look up Pareidolia for an example. > > Simple wishful thinking happens too. That noise in the attic had to have been my recently departed grandma’s ghost walking around, there’s no possible way it could be anything else. Once people settle on an explanation they become invested in it, and questioning their conclusion is seen as an attack on them, especially if it has to do with something personal. +1 ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/13 "2013-07-29T16:03:12Z")
I think this is a great question, and I’m looking forward to reading more opinions. I don’t have a straight-forward answer, but my mom said something years ago that has always stuck with me (and is somewhat relevant here); “_The only people who see ghosts are people who believe in ghosts_”. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/14 "2013-07-29T16:59:29Z")
OK, I am a complete skeptic. But back many years ago, I was a member of a skeptic group, we investigated “hauntings” etc. They get it mostly right on “Fact or Faked”, when you are staying the night in a spooky abandoned old house, and you are off by your self, there are creepy noises and weird little unexplained things you see out of the corner of your eye. It \*is \*creepy & spooky. Now, so I was a little creeped and spooked, even tho I am a skeptic. So imagine dudes without a high skeptical sense, and without powerful flashlights and other people within call. People that were raised on Ghost stories. Damn right - they have \*what they think \*is a supernatural encounter. So when people say they hear or saw something weird that they think is/was a ghost under such circumstances, I explain gently my experiences. I don’t think they are crazy or super-credulous. Now, if they say they saw a “free-floating, full-torso, vaporous apparition”, then either they were spoofed or crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/15 "2013-07-29T17:37:58Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Reminds me of a conversation I had with a coworker who said her mother believes in astrology. I told her, probably less tactfully than I should have, that such a belief was ridiculous, to which my coworker became angry because I supposedly insulted her mom, even though my coworker doesn’t beleive in astrology. The difference is that it’s easy to disprove astrology, and it’s been done many, many times. You cannot, however, prove that ghosts don’t exist – just like Sasquatches, yetis, unicorns, aliens making crop circles, and Nessie. Every time you show the true believer that a particular instance has a mundane explanation, he will dismiss _that one instance_ while continuing to believe in all of the others. ---
**Author:** ![huck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@huck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/huck)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/16 "2013-07-30T00:21:12Z")
Many people do lie. One can watch paranormal shows on t.v. (I don’t but one of my daughters enjoys them for their absurdity) and see and hear the classic signs of fabrication. I actually took a class in college on ESP (not a whole semester, it was one of those between-term things) out of mostly curiosity as the instructor had a really popular course. Everyone in the class was required to run those Duke tests with the symbols on cards that were supposed to be so amazing–and 3everyone in the class got astonishing results except me; my results were exactly what could be ascribed to chance. I got a hollow silence and an A in the course. And obviously many of these stories are sensory mishaps that convince the beholder that they are seeing or hearing something paranormal. On the other hand, I’ve heard a few stories from extremely hard-headed people that have some factor that makes them difficult to entirely dismiss. One was a situation where a guy was at sea and saw his father (after many months of separation) and learned not long after that his father had died unexpectedly back in the states that night. So that’s why some people might at least sort of believe in the paranormal–they’ve had an experience that is otherwise hard to explain, or they’ve heard someone recount one that seems trustworthy. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/17 "2013-07-30T01:08:50Z")
Medication, lack of sleep, dreamtime merging into wakefulness, alcohol, confirmation bias, ignorance, wishful thinking and I suppose other reasons will result in a belief in dang near anything. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/18 "2013-07-30T01:47:19Z")
[“He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts . . .”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donovan's_Brain) ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/19 "2013-07-30T01:50:08Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Medication, lack of sleep, dreamtime merging into wakefulness, alcohol, confirmation bias, ignorance, wishful thinking and I suppose other reasons will result in a belief in dang near anything. This is a fantastic summary of how normal, mostly-skeptical people can end up believing in ghosts. One time, when I was laying in bed on the boat out here where I work, I heard my father, clear as crystal call my name “Drew!” Even just typing that gave me shivers because the experience freaked me out so badly at the time. Was my father astral projecting to me, calling out to me in some spiritual/supernatural sense from Oregon where he lives? Or was it just me laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, and I had a very intense auditory hallucination? I used to see monsters as plain as day when I was a kid, I can even remember the twisted scary face I would see down at the end of the hall, peaking out from my parent’s bedroom when the hallway light was off. There was nothing actually there, not even an old mask or a wash cloth or anything that could have made a face in my mind. It was just my childish imagination putting it there. But it sure looked real to me! Nowadays, whenever I see something that can’t possibly be real, or hear something that I couldn’t possibly have heard, I don’t blame ghosts, spirits, astral projections, alients, or what have you. Do I have a logical, sensible explanation for all of them? Hell no. Some things I’m just never going to know. But that is absolutely no reason to believe in things like spirits and ghosts. But some people want and need an explanation for EVERYTHING that they experience. They aren’t “ok” with not knowing the answers for what that flash of light they saw was, or what that eerie sound was, etc. So ghosts/spirits/etc fill that purpose for them. I think it’s ridiculous and silly and stupid, and I’ll often say insulting things about it. But I understand where it comes from, at the very least. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802/20 "2013-07-30T02:06:01Z")
[RationalWiki:](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ghost) > [@](#): > > Apophenia (seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data) in conjunction with strong emotions can explain many ghost sightings. This combination was used by Carl Sagan to explain the Martian canals seen by Percival Lowell: > > > [@](#): > > > > There is no doubt that the Mars canals of Percival Lowell were of intelligent origin. The only question is which side of the telescope the intelligence was on. Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves. > > —Carl Sagan. Cosmos > > Distorted shadows, reflections by not immediately obvious fixtures (or the flash of the camera itself), out of focus objects (the bug on a lens theory had been used to explain many ghost images in video tapes), and even particularities of the equipment itself coupled to the desire to believe can explain many ghost sightings and even videos of ghosts. > > Other possible explanations include hallucinations due to a mental order or disease. In particular, Lewy Body dementia[7], in addition to being characterized by the presence of Lewy bodies in a sufferer’s brain, is also characterized by hallucinations of people and animals, usually manifesting from the sufferer’s memory. > > Another probable explanation could be the effects of sleep paralysis, especially as many sufferers experience the sensation of being held down by something. > > Belief in ghosts may also come from the refusal to accept the finality of one’s own mortality and the absence of an afterlife, as well as the inability to cope with the loss of a loved one. Ghosts are, effectively, the “eternal spirit” of someone who has passed from the earthly realm and not finally lodged in heaven (nor hell). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-so-many-people-believe-in-ghosts-and-other-paranormal/664802.md?page=2)