"Classification" of ghosts. Do ghosts exist? Facts about the existence of ghosts
Esotericists and skeptics are constantly arguing about whether ghosts exist in real life- or these are just inventions for gullible lovers of mysticism. However, the desire to touch the unknown is too great, so any mention of proven “habitats” of ghosts instantly attracts thousands of tourists. This is especially actively used in England.
- Residents of Foggy Albion sincerely believe that every castle and mansion is simply obliged to have its own mysterious story, and your own ghost.
Eyewitness Accounts: Ghosts Really Exist!
When ghosts help
British realtors will never hide evidence from buyers that ghosts exist if they have chosen a secluded corner in the house they are selling. Vice versa! The presence of such “neighbors” significantly increases the value of real estate. In some cities, they try to create the most favorable conditions for ghosts. If the presence of mysterious entities is proven by witness testimony, the house will never be demolished; it will also be repaired at the expense of the municipality.
Tower
The British are not afraid of otherworldly guests (even those who should cause awe “by default”). Here, every schoolchild knows where ghosts exist - these are the places of the most monstrous crimes! The Tower is literally “teeming” with them. And it’s not surprising, because the walls of this ancient prison are literally saturated with horror. It is here that the restless souls of the young princes wander, whom their uncle Richard III killed in the Bloody Tower. Here the sad Lady Jane lights mysterious lights and the rebellious Sir Walter Raleigh, a mocker and intriguer, wanders the walls.
Where do they come from?
Why can't some deceased people find peace? What ghosts exist in our reality, side by side with the living?
- The most common belief is that victims of gross injustice or excessive cruelty turn into ghosts.
In the same Tower, visitors and staff periodically see the phantom of the elderly Countess Margaret Pole, who, a minute before her death, tries to run away and hide from her killers. Or the headless ghost of the beautiful Anne Boleyn, brutally executed on the orders of her “loving” husband.
Do ghosts exist - evidence
A personal meeting
The surest way to be sure of the presence of ghosts is to meet them in person (usually it is advised to go to cemeteries, places of massacres, executions, terrible disasters, and old houses with a frightening past). It is clear that even with such a walk only a few curious people will be lucky. But mediums offer everyone who wants to take part in communication sessions with the other world.
Audio and video evidence
There are also a lot of audio and video tapes on which strange voices and sounds are recorded, luminous silhouettes are visible that appear out of nowhere and dissolve in the air. We are not talking about the results of Photoshop. Experts who are trying to find out whether ghosts exist in reality prefer to trust old films that were made in the first half of the last century, before the advent of computer technology. But even today, in randomly taken digital photographs, one can see hazy silhouettes that usually stand behind the shoulders of those posing. Who are they? It's a mystery every time.
Hello, please tell me, do ghosts exist? Is it possible Orthodox Christian To believe in them, isn’t it a sin? They say that in the cardiac center. Bakulev, someone saw ghosts... Thank you, E.R.
Answered by Priest Roman BATSMAN, acting rector of the Church of the Holy Confessor Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol at the Center for Cardiovascular Surgery named after. Bakuleva
— In the ordinary mind, “ghosts” usually mean something fantastic, unreal, frightening living people. Such “ghosts” - spirits of the dead, independently appearing and acting, of course, do not exist. From a Christian point of view, most often the phenomenon of ghosts is associated with dark force. Fallen angels, or demons, can appear to people, by God’s permission, in various forms with the purpose of scaring. This is why the word “ghost” is most often associated with something scary. Fallen spirits do this out of hatred and envy of man. And the Lord allows them such actions to admonish or punish people.
Since ancient times, there have always been people who practiced magic, witchcraft, and summoning the spirits of the dead. Demons can take on any form - not only frightening ghosts, but also dead people, and even bright angels. With these phenomena fallen spirits They can even warn a person about dangers, tell the truth about some things, but only for the purpose of making a person trust them, so that it is easier to destroy his soul.
For our safety, the invisible world of fallen spirits is hidden from us. And if a person is interested in this invisible world, and even more so tries to establish contact, then, of course, the so-called “ghosts” will appear until they drive the person to madness or to a crime, including against himself (suicide).
There are also manifestations from God, but, firstly, very rarely, due to the unworthiness of people. Secondly, it is not ghosts that appear, but the saints themselves or angels, or the Lord and the Mother of God. Thirdly, these phenomena are not accompanied by fear or anxiety, but by awe. The souls of deceased relatives may appear, either themselves, or a holy angel can take their form, which in general is the same thing, since this happens only by the command of God for the benefit of the living.
Wall sheet “About the maiden Mary and her posthumous appearance to her father”, Russian popular print, 19th century.
When demons try to take on the appearance of deceased relatives or saints, this appearance always has some kind of distortion (by God's permission) - and because of this it looks more like ghosts, i.e. to a ghostly, unreal vision.
About faith. Faith presupposes trust, love, that is why we believe in the Holy Trinity, Mother of God, holy angels. As for the dark force, we don’t believe in it, much less believe it. We know about its existence because the Holy Scriptures and the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we believe, speak about it.
From the moment of the Resurrection of Christ, His victorious words sound: “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) and “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18), meaning that the power of the Cross of the Lord is able to save from Satan of all those who resort to God with faith and humility. Superstition comes from the expression “vain faith” and, of course, if we show special interest in demons, this will be called superstition. Such “ghosts” appeared to some saints and tried to scare them. Archbishop Arseny (Chudovskoy) writes: “Holy ascetics do not advise us to be afraid of the machinations of the enemy, for demons can only threaten us, but are not able to take possession of our being if we protect ourselves with prayer, the sign of the cross and spiritual sobriety.” Superstitions begin when a person is afraid of all these phenomena and is more interested in them than in keeping God’s commandments. We had a case at the Bakulevsky center when female nurses, not churchgoers, but quite possibly believers, were engaged in fortune-telling and calling on spirits. And so, during the night shifts, something really frightened them, perhaps someone appeared to them, since they were engaged in a sinful activity - fortune telling. Therefore, there is no need to seek meetings with dark forces, engage in occult things, read literature that shows a terrible image of man’s enemy, because this is a sin that denigrates the human soul. The Church categorically prohibits engaging in such activities, since demons, as I have already said, seek to destroy a person’s soul. And this is especially easy to do with those who are not under the protection of the Church and do not fulfill Her holy rules.
Recorded by Natalia NIKITINA
Who are ghosts? Speaking of ghosts, many mean the souls of already dead people who appear in our world in visible form. Some people believe in their existence, while others, on the contrary, categorically refuse to believe in the existence of this phenomenon. People who have seen, as they claim, ghosts, according to their testimonies, ghosts are pale images with unclear outlines. Whether ghosts really exist is not yet known. Everyone has the right to believe what they see or hear.Many legends that have come to us since ancient times talk about ghosts, the appearance of which is directly related to the completion of a certain task or some kind of assignment.
Some ghosts return with the goal of carrying out some kind of retribution, or exposing a criminal guilty of murder.
Other ghosts return in order to correct some mistake or injustice that was committed in relation to someone living.
In particular, ghosts can appear in order to correct their own guilt for any actions they committed during their lifetime.
There are several types of ghosts, namely:
Resident ghosts- these, in turn, are ghosts that appear before different people, but it is always the same ghost that lives in a given place. In such cases, it seems that people are absolutely not interested in them. And in turn, it is the place they visit that attracts them. It is worth noting that these can be ghosts of either humans or animals.Ghost messengers– in this case, ghosts visit a person for a specific purpose. These kinds of ghosts are called the souls of the dead, who return to the world of the living in order to convey some kind of message or warning, usually they appear to the family of the deceased or friends. In such cases, the ghost rarely speaks, mainly he prefers to point to this or that object, or convey his message through gestures.
Souls of the living. Strange or not, many reports of ghosts are directly related to the appearance of the souls of living people. An eyewitness at some point sees in front of him the ghost of a relative or friend who is in trouble or is dying. This person himself may be quite far away. This kind of ghost generally appears only once.
Returned- these are ghosts that return to our world for various reasons, and they, in turn, can be very diverse. Such ghosts mainly use people to achieve their goals.
Poltergeist. Its appearance is quite often blamed for some rather unpleasant antics of supernatural forces, for example, cups or plates flying through the air, etc. Many people believe that poltergeists are caused directly by ghosts, but they behave completely differently from normal ghosts. Objects that move through poltergeists acquire rather strange properties. They, in turn, can heat up to such an extent that it is simply impossible to touch them. They also have the ability to pass through doors or windows. And the strangest thing is that they can suddenly appear in the air.
Ghosts and countries
The very first evidence of ghosts that has come down to us is contained in the epic of Gilgamash - ancient Babylonian legends, which were recorded around 2000 BC. This story is written on clay tablets. It tells the story of the hero Gilgamesh and the ghost of his dead friend, who appeared in the form of a human figure.They believed in the existence of ghosts and ancient egyptians. Their ghosts appeared with a bird's head and the name Khu, which in turn represented the souls of the dead. It was believed that these were evil spirits that spread various kinds of diseases and had the ability to inhabit animals, instilling rabies in them at the same time.
Although ancient chinese They treated the dead with great respect and even organized holidays in their honor; they were very much afraid of the spirits of killed people, who were directly considered dangerous and evil. This kind of ghost, according to Chinese belief, appeared in the same clothes that it wore during life. His appearance was quite impressive. First, a shapeless cloud appeared, from which the head and legs of the ghost subsequently grew. And only after that a body was formed, surrounded by a shimmering green cloud.
Capital Great Britain For quite some time now, and not without reason, it has been famous as a world center for the concentration of various kinds of spirits and ghosts.
Stories from people's lives
More than 70 years Londoners tell the story about how on the evening of July 13, 1930, 8,000 people gathered in one of the most luxurious concert halls, namely the most beautiful Royal Albert Hall, not a solemn event that was organized in honor of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous writer and creator of the famous Sherlock Holmes .The hero of the occasion, dressed in a tailcoat, entered the hall shortly before the start of the concert and took a place of honor next to his wife Jean, and remained there until the end of the event.
The most interesting thing is that Sir Arthur died six days before the concert, which in turn was dedicated to his memory.
Lady Jean, the writer's widow, took care in advance to order an entrance ticket and a place of honor for the deceased. This woman was known for being a gifted medium, that is, she could communicate with the spirits of the dead and organize visits to the world of the living. Consequently, that is why she knew about the appearance of the phantom of the deceased Sir Arthur in the concert hall. The concertgoers, who knew Sir Arthur by sight, perceived his appearance in the Albert Hall with the absolute calm and composure characteristic of the English, since it happened directly in London, where encounters with ghosts are not something supernatural and rare.
In some cases ghosts provide assistance to historians in comparing facts and restoring a true picture of the past, and the correctness of the given details of ghosts is later proven by researchers or found documents. The most striking example in this case is the death of the second wife of the English king Henry VIII, 29-year-old Anne Boleyn, who was executed in 1536 as a result of accusing her of treason against her husband. Previously, historians believed that the procedure for Anna’s execution was usual for those times, that is, the victim was laid with her head on the block, and the executioner cut her neck with an ax. But it later turned out that with Anne Boleyn everything was different.
In 1972 there was tour of the Castle Tower, there was one young girl accompanied by her parents. And while examining the place of executions - the Green Tower - what happened here almost four and a half centuries ago appeared before the girl’s gaze. Namely: Queen Anne was kneeling, leaning forward slightly. The executioner with a sword (not an ax) in his hand approached her from behind absolutely silently, since he was without shoes, wearing only stockings. Most likely, he simply took off his boots in advance, so that Anna would not hear him approaching, and so that mortal horror would not overwhelm her ahead of time. The queen did not even have time to move before the executioner swung his sword and cut off her head with one blow. Within a moment, he took the severed head by the hair and lifted it. The crowd saw how the dead face was disfigured by a grimace of horror.
Those around her received the girl’s story with skepticism, since other than her, none of the tourists saw the execution scene. But after a couple of months, several historians confirmed that the death of Queen Anne actually happened exactly as the girl had imagined. In addition, scientists have established that the sentence was carried out by a man known for his rather delicate treatment of convicts, and was specially invited from France for this purpose.
It should be noted that frightening and inexplicable incidents outside the walls of the Tower continue to this day. One day, it happened that a young guard was making the most ordinary night tour of the castle grounds. At that moment, when he passed by the chapel of St. Peter in Chains, he had a great desire to look out the window.
The young man put the ladder against the wall, climbed it and looked inside. What he saw there almost made him faint.
A group walked leisurely in the middle of the chapel historical figures, familiar to the young man from the portraits that hung in the castle. Walking ahead was a young woman with long black hair, who, by all appearances, resembled Anne Boleyn. Following her was Thomas More, a statesman and writer who was accused of treason and executed in 1535. They were followed by the Duchess of Salisbury and Jane Gray, arm in arm with her husband, Lord Dudley. The procession was closed by several participants in the 1745 riot. These people, beheaded in the Green Tower, made a rather creepy impression with their appearance: each of them had a red bloody stripe visible on their necks, their faces had a deathly pale tint, with a bluish tint and with eyes burning like coals.
This begs the question why ghosts appear most often to people in London. One version claims that this directly occurs due to the fact that in the capital of Great Britain many children are born at midnight. There is a fairly widespread belief among mediums that it is precisely such people who can feel and see ghosts, as well as directly communicate with them. But still, this hypothesis does not explain why London ghosts appear to tourists who come from all over the world.
Probably every Englishman, somewhere deep down in his soul, is ready to meet ghosts, although he is unlikely to ever admit it.
Computer scientist at Coventry University, Vic Tandy, also attributed all these legends about ghosts to complete nonsense, not worth any attention. One fine evening he was working when suddenly he broke out in a cold sweat. He quite clearly felt someone looking at him, and this gaze carried something sinister. Afterwards, this something materialized into a shapeless mass, ash-gray in color, darted around the room and came close to the scientist. In the blurry outlines one could see legs and arms, but instead of a head there was fog swirling, in the center of which there was a dark spot, as if a mouth. A moment later the vision disappeared into thin air without a trace.
But, despite the fact that the scientist experienced terrible fear and shock, he began to act like a scientist, that is, to look for the cause of an incomprehensible phenomenon. The most in a simple way This phenomenon was classified as a hallucination. But how could they arise, since the scientist did not drink alcohol or drugs. As for otherworldly forces directly, the scientist simply did not believe in them. And then he decided that it was necessary to look for ordinary physical factors.
And it is worth noting that Tendi found them, although it happened by accident. His hobby, fencing, helped him to some extent. Some time after meeting the ghost, the scientist took the sword home with him in order to put it in order for the upcoming competition. And suddenly, at some point, the blade, clamped in a vice, began to vibrate stronger and stronger, as if someone was touching it.
Another person would have thought exactly that. But this gave the scientist the idea of resonant vibrations, which are to some extent similar to those caused by sound waves. For example, when music plays very loudly, the dishes in the cupboard begin to rattle. But in the laboratory, oddly enough, there was complete silence. But the scientist immediately measured the sound background using special equipment. And as it turned out in fact, there was an unimaginable noise in the room, but it was not audible because the sound waves had a rather low frequency that the human ear could not detect. This in turn was infrasound. After a short search for the source of the sound, it was found; as it turned out, it was a fan installed in the air conditioner not so long ago. As soon as the scientist turned it off, the “spirit” disappeared and the blade no longer vibrated.
It is worth noting that infrasound is a thing that carries quite a lot of surprises. For many years, sailors were tormented by the mystery " flying Dutchman c" - ships that wander the seas without a crew. At the same time, the ships were in perfect order, but where could the people go then? The last of the series of “flying Dutchmen” was the “Mary Celeste” - an excellent schooner, which one day was noticed by another ship in the ocean.
Approaching the schooner, and later landing on it, the sailors from the other ship could not really understand anything: there was still a hot lunch in the galley, the ink in the ship’s log with which the captain wrote had not yet dried, and there were no people. Everyone has disappeared somewhere. For several decades this mystery haunted me, but then it was finally solved. As it turned out, infrasound with a frequency of seven hertz, which is directly created by ocean waves under certain conditions, is to blame for everything. As for a person, this sound causes him simply unimaginable horror. People just go crazy and throw themselves overboard to save themselves.
And the scientist wondered whether infrasound was connected with his nightmare. Measurements of the frequency of infrasound in the laboratory showed 18.98 hertz, and this practically corresponds to the frequency at which the human eyeball begins to resonate. Therefore, apparently, the sound waves caused Vic Tendi's eyeballs to vibrate and thereby caused an optical illusion, that is, he saw a figure that was not really there.
Subsequent studies have shown that, under natural conditions, waves of such low frequencies can occur quite often. For example, infrasound can be produced when strong gusts of wind collide with smokestacks or towers. Especially often, sound waves of this type begin to rumble in corridors that are directly shaped like a tunnel. Therefore, it is not at all accidental that quite often people encounter ghosts in precisely such corridors, the long and winding corridors of old castles.
Vic Tendi published his work in the Journal of the Society for Physical Research. Which was formed in 1822 and unites British parapsychologists and natural scientists, the task of this society is to find a reasonable explanation for paranormal phenomena. Therefore, it should not be surprising that professional “ghost hunters” accepted Tendi’s idea with great enthusiasm. Thus, one of the leading parapsychologists Tony Cornell believes that this idea will explain many mysterious phenomena.
As for other scientists, they have doubts about this theory. Physicists who directly study the influence of infrasound on the human body note that people who directly participate in experiments complain of fatigue, severe pressure in the eyes or ears, but as for hallucinations, especially in the form of ghosts, no one has them was not observed. Car drivers also do not experience any optical illusion, although it has long been known that when a high-speed car overcomes air resistance, the level of infrasound waves in the cabin is very high.
How do ghosts appear?
As already mentioned, there are many theories about the appearance of a ghost. As an example, let’s take another theory from Vladimir Vitvitsky, head of the information technology department of the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow. This man has been seriously studying optical illusions and deceptions for quite a long time; he believes that most strange visions are explained by simple physical laws. He believes that in this case, it's all about the light. In his opinion, the human eye does not perceive the objects themselves as such, but only the light that is reflected from them.After that, with the help of the retina, light and at the same time dark spots with halftones are translated into a digital code or, to put it simply, into electrical impulses, and they, in turn, enter the brain. Next, the brain deciphers them and, based on the information received, creates an image of the object in the human mind. This is a completely ordinary, standard scheme for constructing what people consider to be an image of the real world. But it is worth noting that it can be violated, this can be done in the following way: light should not be reflected according to the principles to which the human eye and brain are accustomed.
This is how many illusionist tricks in the circus are built. The simplest way is to make them using a system of mirrors, which in turn redirect the streams of light reflected from real objects somewhere to another point, where it is thus produced and appears before us.
Nature can perform the same tricks. We all know what mirages are - so this is the most famous phenomenon of this series. Sometimes wanderers see a lake in the desert, or even a whole city, they go to it, but in the end it turns out to be just an optical illusion. As the physicist explains, in fact, a city or lake really exists, only it is located somewhere very far, beyond the horizon, the distance can even be a thousand kilometers. Naturally, it is simply impossible to see the city from such a distance.
But air at different altitudes has different densities, this directly depends on the distribution of temperature and humidity. Scientists have found that light is reflected from a denser layer of air as if from a mirror. At a certain moment there can be quite a lot of mirrors of this type, so they take the image of the city far from its real location, and then simply focus it in another place.
But not everything can be explained only by physical properties. Professor of the Moscow Medical Academy named after. I.M. Sechenov, Doctor of Medical Sciences Yuri Sivolap, said that in some cases illusions arise in the human mind. With all this, from the point of view of psychiatry, supernatural phenomena arise due to two components, namely: a lack of external information and the play of a person’s imagination. A rather important role in all this is played by a person’s readiness to perceive an object. A person is simply waiting for a miracle, and those who wait will almost always see what they want, says Yuri Sivolap. This phenomenon is quite common among people who have a creative mind, or among those who, in turn, are passionate about studying paranormal phenomena.
It also happens that a person does not want to see something, simply out of fear. In such a state of fear, for example, he will walk through a cemetery at night, and suddenly, instead of a cross, he will see a figure that will also begin to approach. But a normal person will not be able to see the ghost in detail. For this, in turn, either a great suggestion or an illness is necessary, says the professor. In addition, the main difference between hallucinations and illusions is that illusions do not arise out of nothing, they appear as a result of an altered vision of another object. But hallucinations are, in turn, the fruit of a sick consciousness.
But not only special impressionability can force a person to see something that is not really there. According to Yuri Sivolap, a person has been noted to have such states when dreams literally burst into his seemingly waking consciousness. For example, during fairly long journeys over long distances, a person’s tired brain may enter a state bordering on sleep and reality. Thus, a person can see certain objects with open eyes, information is sent to the brain, and there, in parallel, the sleep mechanism is launched, and images from there are superimposed on real world.
On the one hand, it would seem that they have found the answer to the reason for the appearance of ghosts, but on the other hand, there are only many questions to which there are no answers. But as for ghosts, they still occur, and not only in the British Isles. It is impossible to assert unconditionally that this is an optical illusion or that they are really guests from the other world. Believing in the existence of ghosts or rejecting this phenomenon is the direct right of every person.
There is still no definitive evidence indicating that ghosts exist. However, one cannot deny the fact that there are photographs depicting paranormal phenomena. It’s difficult to say with certainty whether these are real photographs or a photomontage. The article provides information about unusual places and eyewitnesses of the unknown.
At the end of the article we have prepared a surprise 🎁 - an exciting test to test your attentiveness 😃
Ghosts in photographs of different places
Photographic art began to actively develop in the 19th century. Since then, many photographs have appeared depicting strange creatures. According to some experts, the shadow in the frame is nothing more than a ghost. However, not only in ancient, but also in modern photographs taken with a smartphone, you can sometimes see an incomprehensible figure. A selfie with a ghost looks creepy and fascinating at the same time. Such anomalies are carefully studied by specialists who try to prove that other world still exists.
Worsted Church is located in Great Britain. Local legend says that the temple grounds are inhabited by White lady, which comes to parishioners in need of healing help. Skeptics were suspicious of such stories until they saw a photograph showing a woman praying while the ghost of the White Lady leaned over her.
The photo of the praying wife was taken by Peter Berfelot. Seeing the anomaly in the photo and remembering the local legend, the woman noted that she was sick at that time, but after visiting the church she quickly recovered.
The next photo was also taken in England in 1966. Canadian priest Ralph Hardy and his wife traveled around the UK. One day the couple decided to visit the Maritime Museum. The priest’s attention was drawn to a forged vintage staircase, which he decided to capture in a photo. After developing the film, it was possible to notice that a strange translucent figure could be seen in the lens, holding the railing with its hands.
Interesting!
Museum employees claim that in 2002 they also managed to capture a strange ghost-like figure in a photo.
In December 1924, the tanker Watertown was sailing in a given direction when suddenly a terrible tragedy occurred. There was an accident on board - a gasoline leak. Two sailors were poisoned by the substance and could not survive. The poor guy was buried at sea, and the tanker continued on its way.
The next morning, the captain's assistant accidentally noticed two strange objects in the sea. He looked through binoculars and was horrified - recently buried sailors were floundering in the sea waves and trying to catch up with the ship. The ghosts of the men seemed larger than they were in life. The event was immediately reported to the captain of the ship, who gave the order to take a closer look at the anomaly.
In fact, Beverly Hills is not a sanatorium, but a former medical institution. In the 1900s, they fought here against a terrible deadly disease - tuberculosis. The epidemic developed so rapidly that the hospital was constantly overcrowded with patients, many of whom never managed to leave the walls alive.
There is information that most people died not from the disease itself, but from the barbaric experiments that were performed on the sick. For example, the scientific minds of those times believed that implantation would help save from tuberculosis and prevent the patient from suffocating balloons into the lungs. Such cruel methods of treatment, for obvious reasons, ended in death.
In our time, the Waverly Hills sanatorium has become famous as a haunted house. Lovers of the unidentified have visited its walls more than once. Everyone assured that they had to deal with paranormal phenomena more than once. Some saw a man in a white robe, others smelled different smells, and the third saw the ghost of a woman with bloody hands, screaming in pain and begging for help.
The last owners of an ominous mansion in Amityville, famous for its terrible past, have no doubt that ghosts exist in reality. Since the beginning of its construction, not a single family could stay in the three-story house for long. Everyone complained about extraneous sounds, whispering voices, and a depressing atmosphere.
In 1965, the De Fero family moved into the mansion - father, mother and five children. The family lived in the house for 9 years, after which the irreparable happened. An unknown person called the police, reporting that he saw flashes in the house similar to those that appear from gunshots. The patrol immediately arrived at the scene, and a terrible picture appeared before them - all family members, except the youngest son, were brutally killed. During the investigation, it was possible to establish that the massacre of the family was committed by the youngest son, Ronald. The boy said that a mysterious voice forced him to commit a crime.
After this event, more than one horror film was made about the mansion, and lovers of paranormal phenomena tried to settle and live in it. One of the last residents of the house took a photo in which you can clearly see the boy - the ghost of Amityville. The family has no children and, according to them, they were alone in the house that evening.
In the town of Oak Goruv, which is located in the state of Kentucky, there is a long-standing legend that tells that a local soldier, suspecting his wife of treason, could not forgive the betrayal and threw the unfaithful woman from the bridge. The woman did not survive, drowning in a deep river. Since then, the ghost of the unfortunate woman has been wandering around, scaring passers-by and children.
The story took place in Texas. The Cooper family celebrated their housewarming - they moved into a new house and decided to celebrate this event with their family. The head of the family decided to take a photo of his happy wife and children. When the photo was developed, in addition to living people, they saw the image of a dead man hanging from the ceiling upside down.
It is known that the Cooper family did not live long in this house. They were constantly bothered by a creepy spirit that made loud noises and damaged property.
Guy Winters is a passionate ghost hunter. The man scoured abandoned cemeteries and buildings in the hope of witnessing something anomalous and unusual. And during the next search, he finally found what he was looking for. Together with a friend, Guy came to an abandoned building, where they were frightened from the threshold by increased paranormal activity. The friends managed to take only a few pictures, after which they fled from there. After developing the film, Guy noticed that in one of the photos the ghost of a girl dressed in pink was looking out of the window.
A man named Fred Leichter was hired by authorities to update and improve the prison's electric chair. The engineer came up with the idea of bringing a chair to his home so as not to be interrupted from his work and complete the task on time. Before the renovation, the man took several photos. After the development, Fred was alarmed by what he saw in the photographs - the ghost of a man was sitting in the electric chair. His hands were where they would have been during his execution.
Mary Andrews is the woman who took the photograph of the girl's ghost. Mary's daughter died at the age of seventeen. The girl was buried in a Queensland cemetery, and a year after that, the mother decided to photograph the grave. The woman was shocked when in the photo she clearly saw the figure of a child sitting by the grave. Experts confirmed the authenticity of the photo. Mary later learned that two little girls were buried next to her daughter.
In the 90s of the last century, a man took a photo of a friend dressed in cowboy clothes in a cemetery. After developing the film, friends noticed that the image of a man in a cowboy hat could be seen from behind. Both friends assured that at that moment there was not a soul in the cemetery.
The fact that ghosts are not fiction, but reality, was convinced by Rev. K.F. The lord who photographed a ghost near the altar of one of the English churches. The photo clearly shows a phantom with a hood on its head. The man swears there was no one in the room when he took the photo.
Freddie Jackson is a former aircraft repairman. The man died from injuries received after being hit by a propeller. After 2 days, the photographer took a general photo of the squadron where Freddie served, with the image of the deceased aircraft mechanic visible in the background.
Since ancient times. Some describe them as visions and strange light, the feeling of someone's presence in the room, noises, or a sudden drop in temperature.
Others smelled the deceased person's favorite food, heard their favorite song, or saw objects begin to fall from shelves and doors open and close on their own.
For many of them, such an experience is irrefutable proof of the existence of ghosts. But scientists found several possible explanations phenomena that are often attributed to ghosts.
Do ghosts exist?
1. Electrical brain stimulation
Frightened eyewitnesses from different parts of the world say that see people's shadows. These dark entities, which are noticed out of the corner of the eye, disappear immediately after a person comes face to face with them.
Many believe that these are demons, others that they are astral bodies, and still others claim that they are time travelers. But some researchers have proposed another unexpected version.
When Swiss scientists used electricity stimulated the brains of epileptics, the result was somewhat creepy.
One patient spoke about the shadow of a man who sat behind her and copied her every move. If the patient sat down, the shadow sat down with her; if she bent over and grabbed her knee, the shadow tried to hold her. When the doctors asked the woman to read from the card, the shadow tried to take it away.
As it turned out, scientists stimulated the left temporoparietal node - area of the brain that determines our concept of self. By interfering with this area, which helps us differentiate ourselves from other people, the doctors interfered with the patient's ability to understand her own body, and this led to the creation of a shadow of personality.
Scientists believe this will help explain why so many people, healthy and schizophrenic, encounter ghosts, aliens and other creatures.
How to summon a ghost?
2. Ideomotor effect
The Spiritualist movement gained popularity in the 1840s and 1850s and allowed people to communicate with deceased relatives. Ouija boards were used during séances, covered with letters, numbers and in simple words("Yes or no"). People placed their hands on the tablet and asked the spirits a question. The spirit responded by moving the tablet from letter to letter, giving the answer.
Another method of communicating with spirits was swing table. During the session, people gathered around the table and placed their hands on the surface of the table. To everyone's surprise, the table began to move, tilting on one leg, rising off the ground and moving around the room.
There may have been scammers involved in many cases, but were all these sessions really nothing more than a scam? The famous physicist Michael Faraday conducted an experiment and found that the table often moved due to the so-called ideomotor effect. This effect occurs when the power of suggestion causes our muscles to move unconsciously. People expected the table to start moving, and it did.
A similar event occurred in 1853, when four doctors conducted an experimental session. When they told half the participants that the table would move to the right and half that it would move to the left, the table did not budge. When they told him that he would move in one direction, the ideomotor effect worked again. The same can be said about the Ouija board when our muscles, not spirits, point to words.
Is it a real ghost?
3. Infrasound
When British researcher Vic Tandy saw a gray ghost next to his desk one day, he thought his laboratory was haunted. But the next day the scientist made an interesting discovery.
As he was preparing for a fencing competition, he placed his sword in its holder and noticed that it vibrates on its own. He suddenly realized that what was causing his sword to shake was infrasound.
Humans are capable of hearing sounds up to 20,000 Hertz, but cannot detect sounds with frequencies below 20 Hertz. These "quiet" noises are called infrasound and, although we cannot see them, we can feel them in the form of vibrations. We can feel these waves, especially in the abdomen, and this can create a positive sensation, such as trepidation, or a negative sensation, such as anxiety. In certain environments, such as a scary house, this can lead to feelings of panic.
Thunderstorm, wind, certain weather conditions and even household utensils can produce infrasounds. As Vic Tandy watched the trembling sword, he remembered that the laboratory had installed a new fan that produced vibrations with a frequency of less than 19 Hertz. Since the resonant frequency of the eyeball is approximately 20 Hertz, the infrasound caused vibration and created images that were not there. After the fan was turned off, the ghosts no longer appeared.
Some scientists believe the vibrations explain paranormal activity in some places. So Richard Wiseman, who explored two underground places, discovered the presence of infrasound that came from traffic above.
How to see a ghost
4. Automaticity
Channeling– the ability of “otherworldly forces” to control the human body – was one of the oldest attempts by mankind to communicate with the worlds of spirits. The idea was to clear the mind, connect with some cosmic consciousness and allow to the ancient spirit take over your body.
It was believed that shamans of ancient religions were able to receive information from the dead. Although modern mediums often resort to fraud, some people sincerely believe in what they do.
An explanation for this could be automaticity or altered state of consciousness when a person talks and thinks about things that he is not aware of. When a medium clears his mind, he begins to seek a spirit that enters his body and provides him with secret knowledge about the world. In fact, at this time, random ideas and thoughts begin to appear in his head, and he believes that they came to him from another reality. However ideas come from his own head, and our brain is able to generate them without any effort on the part of consciousness.
Do you remember how often something inspired you completely unexpectedly? How often have you had strange nightmares and dreams? All this is not the other world, but our wild brain.
Ghost stories
5. Drafts
Imagine walking through a scary, run-down house in the middle of the night and suddenly feeling a chill in the air. But as soon as you take a few steps left or right, the temperature returns to normal. Parapsychologists call this phenomenon " cold place" - a place of paranormal activity. They explain this by saying that the spirit needs energy, and in order to appear, it receives it from the environment, including people.
But scientists have a simpler and more boring explanation for this phenomenon. When skeptics studied haunted houses, they typically found that cool air entered the house through a chimney or window.
But, even if the room is isolated, this can be explained quite rationally. Every object has a different temperature, and some surfaces are hotter than others. To equalize room temperature, an object tries to give off heat in a process called convection.
In this case, hot air rises and cool air falls. When dry air enters a humid room, the dry air settles on the floor and the humid air rises to the ceiling. This circulating air will feel cold on a person's skin, giving the impression of a cold place.
Ghost Photos
6. Camera
Many also claim that glowing spheres of light are the spirits of deceased people who have not completely left this world. These spheres are invisible to the eye, but can be seen in photographs.
However, skeptics are relentless and explain that when a particle of dust or a small insect is very close to the camera, it will be visible in the photographs as a fuzzy circle. Thanks to the flash, the sphere will appear glowing and can easily be mistaken for a ghost.
Even most of those who believe in ghosts are quite skeptical about the orbs in the photographs. Parapsychologist Pamela Heath believes there are several natural causes for their appearance, including fine hairs, dirty or wet lenses, lens reflection and movement during shooting. Many sites stopped accepting such photographs because there were too many fakes among them.
haunted house
7. Carbon monoxide poisoning
In 1921, ophthalmologist William Wilmer published an unusual paper in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. It told the story of the "H" family and their haunted house. The house was filled with the sounds of slamming doors, moving furniture and the sounds of footsteps in an empty room. One of the children felt something land on him, while another was attacked by a mysterious stranger.
At night, the lady of the house woke up and saw a man and a woman at the foot of the bed, who then disappeared. Family members experienced fatigue and depression, and the plants in the house began to die. And then they discovered a faulty boiler in the house, which was supposed to raise smoke to the chimney, but instead it filled the house. As it turned out, the family suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is very difficult to detect. It is dangerous because red blood cells absorb carbon monoxide more easily than oxygen, and oxygen deprivation leads to symptoms such as weakness, nausea, confusion, hallucinations and ultimately death, as happened in this family.
A similar incident occurred in 2005, when a woman saw a ghost in her bathroom. As it turned out, the paranormal activity was caused by a leaky water heater that filled the house with carbon monoxide.
Real events and ghosts
8. Mass hysteria
In June 2013, more than 3,000 workers went on strike at a garment factory in the city of Ghazipur in Bangladesh. They did not complain about long working hours or better wages, but asked to sort out ghost in the toilet. An angry ghost attacked workers in the women's restroom, causing widespread panic. A riot ensued and the police had to restore order.
A similar event occurred at Patong School in Phuket, where 22 students were hospitalized after seeing the ghost of an old woman.
Both workers and students became victims psychological phenomenon called mass hysteria. These collective illusions occur when people are under extreme stress, usually in an oppressive environment (a strict school or a busy work environment).
Restrained stress leads to symptoms such as headaches, nausea and severe cramps. If you add religious or cultural beliefs to the mix, other people will start to catch the same strange symptoms and they will spread like a disease.
It's interesting to note that only a few of the factory's 3,000 workers had any encounters with the ghost, and the woman who sparked the conflict saw nothing at all. She became ill and decided that it was the work of an evil spirit. The circumstances were so perfect that it caused panic.
Ghostbusters
9. Ions
Ghostbusters use ion counter, which reads the ions. An ion is an atom with an unequal number of protons and electrons. If an atom gains an electron, it becomes a negative ion, and if it loses an electron, it becomes a positive ion.
Ghost hunters believe the ions indicate a paranormal entity. They claim that the presence of a spirit interferes with the amount of ions in the atmosphere, and ghosts draw on the energy of the ions if they want to appear and scare people.
However, the presence of ions causes many natural phenomena, including weather, solar radiation and radon gas.
Interestingly, both positive and negative ions affect our mood. Negative ions are calming, but positive ions can cause headaches and malaise. This may explain why people who live in haunted houses often describe feelings of fatigue and tension, as well as headaches.
Ghosts and ghosts
10. Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics studies small types of matter, which has led to amazing discoveries in science. With its help, physicists are even trying to explain spirits and ghosts.
For example, Dr. Stuart Hameroff and physicist Roger Penrose believe that human consciousness is located in microturbines inside brain cells, and they are responsible for quantum information processing.
Scientists believe that when clinical death, all this quantum information leaves the brain but continues to exist. This is the reason why some people experience out-of-body experiences and see light at the end of the tunnel.
Many scientists do not agree with these theories, but there are those who support them. Thus, Dr. Henry Stapp believes that a person's personality can survive death and exist as " psychic essence"If such entities can return to the physical world, then perhaps paranormal phenomena can be explained.