My new theory regarding the existence of ghosts.

[huedell]

This theory explains why some ghosts appear to be going on about their daily routines over and over, completely oblivious to the observer. You are in essence seeing a specific moment in time replay itself over and over like a recording. Since it has been proven that magnetic fields affect not only spacetime, but the human brain as well, intense magnetic fields could make people more susceptible to these intersections.

I also believe when a person encounters an intelligent haunting, the person in each time period sees the other as a "ghost". I think people from the present see people from the past as they were, while apparitions from the future appear as the commonly seen shadow people, because future people/events are not truly clear since they can still be affected by actions in the present.

Your thoughts?

I believe your theory is a good possibility. But, I also believe there may be a certain amount of additional possibilities that could exist, yet still not negate *your* theory. Like: just because the layered dimensions would (hypothetically) be a truism, I'd add some additional entities may have been birthed by all this "time craziness"... maybe these entities have some specific "issues" based on issues of actual "souls"/"people" who have repeated a painful thing so many times over that it separates into a restless entity unto itself. Just a theory.

[huedell]

When a human dies ("falls apart"), his building blocks are again scattered. To me, something like reincarnation is what happens when some of those building blocks remain stuck together and get re-used in another form. Let's say I "know" something about a past life, then maybe I just "inherited" some of those blocks from an organism that "fell apart" and didn't 100% "disassemble". Like copy/pasting part of a computer file into a new file.
Ghosts may be something like that, partial files that remained stuck together (for a while or permanently), and remain floating around in the cosmic airwaves, like a glitch, a faulty program that stubbornly refuses to get deleted for some reason. A bit like the "ghost in the machine". Ghosts might be temp files that Mother Nature's PC is unable to flush out.

Analogy, when it "clicks" is a great philosophical discussion tool IMHO.
"Computer/human brain" analogy has always worked for me, and I believe that a "computer/nature" view is just as valid.

[MegoCapnMike]

Interesting theory. I have thought along similar lines myself from time to time.

I used to be part of a "ghost hunter" group. Saw a lot of things that just flat out cannot be explained away as imagination. But probably 95% of the investigations I did were easily explainable. It was the remaining ones that were most interesting as those would often defy logic by saying they weren't something paranormal.

To me saying that they absolutely do not exist is like saying, "well, we know everything at this point. No reason to keep researching any kind of science at all". Not gonna get into my own theories here, but I do feel its arrogant to say that something does not exist just because there is currently nothing out there to prove it to the masses. If you don't believe that's one thing, but you gotta at least have a open mind.

One thing I'll say is that of the shows on TV with investigators, the closest to the real thing is Ghost Hunters and possibly Paranormal State (although I am not 100% convinced with that one). Ghost Adventures is absolutely a load of crap. My girlfriend enjoys that series but I can't stand it because it is just so fake.

Anyway, like I said, interesting theory. Definitely very plausible. Always keep asking questions and keep an open mind. There is more out there to still be discovered.

[Brazoo]

I think that's a very imaginative take on ghosts and the experienced phenomenon.

What I like about most it is that it acknowledges how much of the typical ghost experience is created by our shared cultural knowledge. I agree that we don't have any evidence to suggest that ghosts are dead people. I think that interpretation is taken for granted because it's thought of as common knowledge, but I agree that there isn't' much evidence to support it. I think the belief that ghosts are dead people also perpetuates itself because it's seen as common knowledge. So, I think it's fantastic that you're questioning the core of that idea.

Personally, over the years my thinking has taken me to this conclusion: When people experience something unusual they often attribute it to ghosts, but is that phenomena genuinely created by unknown forces, or are people naturally prone to attributing unknown forces to explain something WE can't immediately understand because it's such a culturally popular idea?

Can we find better evidence for examples of how our senses can be fooled to produce the effects of these experiences? Can we use experimentation to exactly measure the deficiency of our senses and replicate these experiences without supernatural abilities? Of course I think the answer is 'yes' to both of these questions.

[Brazoo]

1. There is no true scientific evidence we have a "soul". I personally believe most of if not all of our personality comes from a combination of our brains and the experiences of our lives. If who we are was defined spiritually, our personalities could not be altered chemically by drugs, or by disease or injury such as Alzheimer's or brain damage.

I think you've posted some excellent examples - even though your examples can't be used to prove there isn't a soul (only because nobody can logically prove a negative) - I agree that these examples DO suggest that our sense of self comes from our physical brain and not from some outside force.

2. Why do people only see ghosts from the relatively recent past? Most ghost witnesses report seeing recently deceased relatives or people from within the last few hundred years, usually centered around major historical events or tragedies, such as Civil War ghosts, or WWII ghosts. You never hear of anyone seeing the ghost of a caveman for instance.

I'd argue this is strong evidence that ghosts are at least partially constructs from our minds. We might see a shadowy figure, and then our brains fill in missing details with things that make sense to us in hindsight. The trick is that our memory is malleable. So we don't remember we've automatically added these details - we remember seeing them the first time.

We easily trick ourselves all the time this way and there's tons of experimentation to prove this.

3. Why do ghosts always appear clothed? When a person dies, their clothes do not. Shouldn't all ghosts appear naked? The same question applies to hearing phantom music. A piano, radio, etc cannot die, so it is absolutely impossible to hear "ghostly" music from beyond the grave. Even if the spirit of a person is present, they would have no way of producing said music. This is where my theory comes into play.

I think this is a great observation, and I'd argue that ghosts usually appear clothed because that's how we normally see and identify people. Our brains are adding details that are familiar to us to make sense of a confusing and frightening situation. I'd bet that if you asked most people to "picture another person" they'd usually picture someone wearing clothes, not naked. Again, to me this is more evidence that our thoughts and memories shape the experience to some degree.

I have come to the conclusion that when people see or hear a "ghost" they are not encountering a dead person, but a living person in another time. If you follow time theory, most scientists believe time is linear, meaning it follows a straight line.

Well, this is a really tricky statement - from what I know. I think most scientists question the idea of time being linear to a varying degree. I think it's agreed that WE experience time as linear - but "time is relative" is a key part of our model of the universe. I'm not sure that most modern scientists will put their chips down on the idea that time only moves in one direction. A lot of research I've read suggest that direction of time is an illusion --- not necessarily totally relevant to what you're discussing, but I just wanted to point out how complex discussions of time can be. I'm sure you're familiar with what I'm talking about.

Since time itself is an abstract concept, I believe it is entirely possible that we exist simultaneously along the timeline in our own present, past and future. This would explain deja vu. You experience the feeling of deja vu when your present self catches up to a point in time where your future self has already done something, and for a split second, you "remember" something you haven't experienced yet, because you have experienced it and are "sharing" the memory with your future self.

Deja Vu actually has some decent clinical neurological research behind it. You should check out some of the scientific articles on this. Interesting stuff!

This theory explains why some ghosts appear to be going on about their daily routines over and over, completely oblivious to the observer. You are in essence seeing a specific moment in time replay itself over and over like a recording. Since it has been proven that magnetic fields affect not only spacetime, but the human brain as well, intense magnetic fields could make people more susceptible to these intersections.

Sorry - I'm not sure I follow you here. I'm not sure I've ever seen evidence that magnetic fields have measurable influence on the human brain. I'd like to see it though! If you have references, I mean.

From what I know an MRI machine uses a strong magnetic force - so if magnetic fields effected our brains MRI wouldn't really work, because the magnetic force would throw everything off. No?

I also believe when a person encounters an intelligent haunting, the person in each time period sees the other as a "ghost". I think people from the present see people from the past as they were, while apparitions from the future appear as the commonly seen shadow people, because future people/events are not truly clear since they can still be affected by actions in the present.

Your thoughts?

I think you made a lot of fantastic observations! Thanks for the post, it was thoughtful and it made me think. I sincerely hope you don't take offense to my views on some of your points!

[Werewolf]

Personally I say keep some form of magic in your life.

I think that's a positive and healthy outlook on life.

[enyawd72]

^Thanks Brazoo, and no offense at all. If you Google magnetic field effect on human brain, you'll see there have been many studies done. Even weak magnetic fields affect brain wave function, and studies have been conducted on astronaut brainwaves as they leave Earth's magnetic field. In fact, migratory bird brains are sensitive to the Earth's magnetic fields...this is how they know to fly south.
MRI's actually work because they affect the brain's function, not in spite of it. They provide the stimuli against which the brain's response to it is measured. It's pretty complicated, but they look for changes in blood flow, etc.
They recently found magnetic fields can make people dizzy because they affect charged particles in your inner ear fluid.

That probably accounts for all the people pushed down the stairs by ghosts, LOL. They just lost their balance.

[Brazoo]

^Thanks Brazoo, and no offense at all. If you Google magnetic field effect on human brain, you'll see there have been many studies done. Even weak magnetic fields affect brain wave function, and studies have been conducted on astronaut brainwaves as they leave Earth's magnetic field. In fact, migratory bird brains are sensitive to the Earth's magnetic fields...this is how they know to fly south.
MRI's actually work because they affect the brain's function, not in spite of it. They provide the stimuli against which the brain's response to it is measured. It's pretty complicated, but they look for changes in blood flow, etc.
They recently found magnetic fields can make people dizzy because they affect charged particles in your inner ear fluid.

That probably accounts for all the people pushed down the stairs by ghosts, LOL. They just lost their balance.

Yeah, this is going to get more complex as we look at the details. There are for sure articles on experiments that show effects - I've also seen arguments against those experiments and conclusions. It's hard stuff to casually wade through, for sure!

From what I know MRI creates images by altering the direction of particles that make up the brain, but I haven't seen anything that shows it actually changes the way our brain operates - or the way we think. Recent searches didn't turn up much. I wish I could find more one way or the other.

Based on this conversation I did see one article today that mentioned people often reported that they felt dizzy in an MRI, and that dizziness was attributed to inner ear fluid - just as you mentioned. So, yeah - I think you're right - a weird fluctuation in electro magnetic fields could make someone suddenly feel dizzy. So thank you, I learned something!

About birds: I'm not sure it's been clearly demonstrated that bird's detect magnetic fields specifically in their brain - I think it's still being figured out right now - but from what I've read it's thought birds could be detecting these fields in their inner ears (like with people in the MRI) or even their eyes too.