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IcerocketWho Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts? Neuroscientists!
Posted 10.04.2006 at 1:34 pm
8 Comments
In middle school I had a science teacher who would tell the class that, while we took tests, she could project herself above and behind the classroom and watch us to make sure we weren’t cheating. Seriously. We always thought she was just giving us an excuse to close her eyes and nod off during the test. That, or there were some loose wires in her head.
As it turns out, the latter theory might be pretty close to the truth. In recent studies, neuroscientists have been able to re-create an out-of-body sensation by stimulating specific centers of the brain electrically. When mild electric currents were placed on certain areas of their brains, epilepsy patients claimed not only to find themselves suddenly floating above their bodies, but also at times to feel a malevolent, shadowy presence right behind them, mimicking their moves. Scientists think such electrostimulus can copy the way the brain misinterprets signals to the point where it doesn’t quite know where the body is.
Although this could put the kibosh on any theories of ghosts or shadow people as a mere case of pareidolia, most supernatural stalwarts won’t be convinced. Ghost hunting—an attempt to scientifically explain the unexplainable—has been around for more than a century and has become prominent in books, television programs and movies. The paranormal is deeply entrenched in our society, and there have been too many seemingly unexplained occurrences to give up on it completely.
So if you see a ghost, who you gonna call? A bunch of neuroscientists to help fix your head? Or Ernie Hudson to bring over his proton pack? —Dan Smith
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Comments
Yeah? Well my middle school science teacher regaled us with such tales as the time her husband got killed by a whale (I could perhaps be remembering this incorrectly, good god that was a long time ago) and how her sister, for medical reasons, pumped ozone up her anus (this one I'm sure of). Who knows, maybe it was the same lady...
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfulWell i'm gonna call Ernie Hudson, anyone got the numebr?
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfulThe flipside of the coin is perhaps stimuli to the right part of the brain is actually triggering an out-of-body experience?
Nahhhh, that's just too open-minded.
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful"The flipside of the coin is perhaps stimuli to the right part of the brain is actually triggering an out-of-body experience?
Nahhhh, that's just too open-minded."
Are you actually entertaining the notion that electric stimuli applied to the brain can force a "soul, spirit, and/or consciousness" from a body? Before you say "why yes it is, because I'm just that openen minded" keep in mind that pilots and astronaughts routinely have "out of body experiences" ... in G force chambers.
Though they have these experiences, I'm not willing to say that mankind has finally found a way to artifically free one's consciousness from one's body. I am willing to say that mankind has found a way and does artificially induce hallucinations through unique stimuli.
The name of the game is Popular Science, not Popular Mysticism. If you want openminded, grab some back issues of OMNI.
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfulmy science teacher thought she was pretty cool, so I hit her over the head with my science textbook. Neuroscience that. Nerds!
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfulWassup my fellow neuro- geniouses!!!
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfuli look at this two ways. First, if they are right, then that just proves that we do have the power to change the chemistry of our brains, and tap into area which we dont use (which is 90 percent). This means, we can unlock a whole new plain of evolution for humans.
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpfulThe other way is, that still doesn't explain away things like white noise, unexplained filmed;documented sightings, as well as something moved my comb from where i put it for the hundredth time.
I like cheese.
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful