By Robin
M. Strom-Mackey
Included
in Part II are the opinions of Dr. Loyd Auerbach, Parapsychologist and
Professor at JFK University, Dr. Robert Baker, Professor Laureate, University
of Kentucky and Dr. Ronald Finucane, Historian.
Few questions are like to
elicit a stronger response than the question, “do you believe in ghosts?” The
naysayers will quickly and adamantly deny any such possibility and call you a
fool for asking. The non-committal’s will shrug and move on to another, more
comfortable topic. And the dabblers and the believers will expound for long
minutes recalling odd experiences they have had.
Truthfully, few topics are as
divisive as this one. Those who deny the possibility often do so from vehement religious
beliefs. And, make no mistake; science became the religion of the 20th
century, with its scriptures as dogmatically adhered to by its followers as any
religious zealot. Proponents of science
vehemently defend the notion of science being able to answer all questions with
a rationale answer. The world around us, they tell us, is the only reality, and anything unexplained simply a riddle not yet
solved.
On the other hand, those who
believe in the paranormal have a vested interest and will fight to support
their beliefs just as strongly. After
all, a belief in spirits is a belief that the soul survives death. And that is
a very attractive notion.
Whether you’re a believer,
fence sitter or fierce non-believer it is undeniable that people have been
seeing (and hearing, and smelling) ghosts since the dawn of mankind. Not every person among them is a fool,
charlatan or notoriety seeker. Indeed most people who experience something
paranormal are absolutely normal. Many are reluctant to even talk about their
experience, afraid of being ridiculed. The
paranormal knows no class bounds. Emperors and peasants, politicians, and garbage
collectors, a paranormal experience can happen (and has) to anyone. (See my series on famous people and the
paranormal to find out what the many of the greatest minds thought on the
subject.)
So what is the explanation for
these odd events? There are as many
answers to that question as there are people who have experiences. Compiled here are the opinions of many
experts both within and without the field. These are the words of writers,
thinkers, scientists, college professors and lifelong investigators. This is what they have to say about the
possibility of ghosts.
Pros
The Psi’s Have It
Loyd Auerbach has a
Ph.D. in Parapsychology and is a professor at JFK University in Northern
California. He is an author, long-time
paranormal investigator and a mentalist performer. In his book, A Paranormal Casebook: Ghost Hunting in the New Millennium he makes
the same point as does Taylor. He notes
that the term ghost is used broadly and generically to describe a whole host of
phenomena. He lists three broad categories that he says parapsychologists agree
to use, although he concedes that sometimes activity can indicate a combination
of the three. He lists apparitions as the first category. “An apparition is our
personality (or spirit, soul, consciousness, mind, or whatever you want to call
it) surviving the death of the body, and capable of interaction with the living
(and presumably other apparitions). It is pure consciousness….Apparitions are
seen, heard, felt, or smelled…by people through the process of telepathic
communication (Auerbach, 2005).” Because
the entity has no form, they must send information telepathically to a
receiver, whose brain’s process the signals and interprets them.
Hauntings
are the second main category Auerbach describes. He says hauntings are recorded
stimuli which become embedded in the environment - what parapsychologists refer
to as Place Memory. Visual images,
smells, sounds and emotions all appear to be able to embed themselves into a
location and those who experience phenomena are doing so telepathically
(psychically). “Objects we’re told, ‘record’ their entire history, and some can
decipher that with psi [the new term for telepathy] (Auerbach, 2005).” While the stimulus radiates and is perceived
and interpreted by the receiver, the ‘haunting’ is without consciousness.
The
third category of ghosts are poltergeists (a German word meaning noisy
ghost). Auerbach takes the popular view
that poltergeists are not ghosts at all but disturbances caused by the psi
ability of a living agent. In poltergeist cases the main phenomena are physical
effects – knocking sounds, objects levitating, objects appearing or
disappearing, unusual behavior of electrical appliances etc. “The model we work from is called recurrent
spontaneous psycho kinesis, or RSPK. It
is PK (psycho kinesis) that occurs without conscious control…It doesn’t come
from a ghost or apparition but someone living or working in the environment…
(Auerbach, 2005).” Poltergeist experts agree
that the human agents in poltergeist cases are most often psychologically
distressed teenagers.
Justification
According
to Auerbach, only apparitions are a soul or consciousness of the departed. He says that the theory of the apparition
depends on the belief of consciousness. “Unfortunately,
the existence of consciousness and an understanding of what it is or might be is still up in the air
as far as mainstream science is concerned….If we can’t prove consciousness in
the body/brain where we assume it is, how can we prove the existence of
consciousness outside the body?”
Auerbach sidesteps the issue of needing to prove the existence of ghosts
scientifically by stating that
parapsychology is primarily a social science,
though parapsychologists do bring in instrumentation to measure activity. “The best evidence,” he says, “comes from
people (witnesses). The best cases are those where there are multiple witnesses
and information is provided by the ghost that can be verified later (Auerbach,
2005).”
Loyd Auerbach, Ph.D.
Professor
and Parapsychologist
Cons
Human Constructs
Dr.
Ronald Finucane, Historian, has an
unusual take on the whole ghostly debate. He says essentially that ghosts are a
construct created by grieving people as a defense mechanism. However, he’s says that simply because they
were created by the mind doesn’t mean that for that person (people) they don’t
exist.
“Ghosts
can be used by particular members of the family as a method of self-defense…psychological
self-defense, when things are going badly in the rest of the family’s
existence. Perhaps this is a way of seizing upon a certain amount of certainty
for the people involved, or the individuals involved….In a sense ghosts are in
people’s heads, but in another sense, culturally and emotionally, they do exist
for them. Indeed for many other people in our society, they are a human
construct, so is music, so is poetry. I mean we have to accept these things,
these ghosts are a construct of the human mind (Hauntings, 1997).”
Ronald Finucane, Ph.D.
Author of Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead &
Cultural Transformation
Professor
of Medieval History
University
of Kentucky Professor Emeritus, Robert
Baker (now deceased) was an avowed ‘ghost buster’ believed, “there are no
haunted places, just haunted people (Bernstein, 2005).” He argued that in his 50
years studying ghostly phenomena, he came across nothing that deterred him from
that stance. According to Washington Post writer, Adam Bernstein, Baker was
first and foremost a skeptic, but a skeptic that worked with people who
believed they were being haunted or tortured by “unexplained forces.”
Baker
believed that one should start from a position of non-belief when dealing with unusual phenomena – “ghosts, UFO abductions, lake
monsters, remembrances of past lives (Bernstein, 2005).” Instead, Baker thought that odd experiences
were better explained as “mental states.” For example, he felt hallucinations could
explain alien abductions, or "waking dreams," might explain ghostly
phenomena seen, “in the twilight zone between fully awake and fully asleep (Bernstein,
2005).”
Quoted in the 1997 documentary Hauntings, Baker concludes that ghosts are “an
invention of the human mind. And they have invented ghosts because they provide
a great deal of psychological satisfaction in people who believe in them. It
fills a gap, a void in their lives (Hauntings,
1997).’”
Robert Baker, Ph.D.
Professor
Emeritus of Psychology
Noted
“Ghost Buster”
Resources
Auerbach,
Loyd (2005) A Paranormal Casebook; Ghost Hunting in the New Millennium. Atriad
Press, LLC. Dallas, Texas.
Bernstein,
A. (2005) Obituary: “Psychologist, ‘ghost buster’ Robert Baker.”
Washington Post,
August 13, 2005 12:00 AM.
Documentary
Produced by The History Channel (1997) The
Unexplained: Hauntings.
Steiger, Brad (2003) Real
Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places. Visible Ink Press. Canton, MI.
Taylor, Troy (2007) Ghost
Hunter’s Guidebook: The Essential Guide to Investigating Ghosts &
Hauntings. American Ghost Society. White Chapel Press: Dark Haven
Entertainment. Decatur, Illinois.
