THE MYSTERY OF SPIRITS AND GHOSTS (Part-4)
If you haven’t read the first two parts of this article then, I recommend you to read those first for better understanding of the subject. Read here –: Part-1 , Part-2 , Part-3
In the last part, we have seen some scientific explanation along with their validation in practical situations of some paranormal activities.
Now, let us discuss some more of such activities and their
scientific explanation with validation.
Ions
An ion is an electrically charged atom. If an atom gains an
electron, it becomes a “Negative ion”
or, “Cation”, and if it losses an electron,
it becomes a “Positive ion” or, “Anion”.
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| Ions and its types (Cation & Anion) |
Interestingly, according to science, both cation and anion
can affect our moods. Cations can make us feel calm and relaxed while anions
can give us headaches and make us feel lousy.
Paranormal researchers say that, presence of spirits
interferes with normal ion count in the atmosphere while some other experts say
that, ghosts draw upon ionic energy when they want to appear and scare people
to death.
Therefore, when ghost hunters came across uneven ion counts
or, presence of cations and anions in the atmosphere then as per them, it is an
indication of paranormal activity.
However, as per the scientists; Ions can be caused by all
sorts of natural phenomena like weather, solar radiation, radon gas etc. And as these ions can also alter our moods so,
this might explain why people who live in “Haunted”
houses describe feeling tired and tense, as well as describing headaches.
Validation
Though the scientific
reason of uneven ion count is correct but, sometimes it happens in a very natural
and clean weather and paranormal experts don’t confirm the spirit presence by
just one sign rather they search for various other indications to confirm the
presence of spirits.
It is the fake ghost hunters and people who are highly
obsessed with paranormal like stuffs who confirm the presence of spirit just by
judging a single indication and it may be a cold breeze or, a shadow or, uneven
ion count.
Ideomotor effect
One of the most renowned instruments used by paranormal
researchers to communicate with spirits is “Ouija
board”.
An “Ouija board”
consists of some letters and numbers along with some simple words like “yes” and “no”. A wooden piece called “Planchette”
is there over the Ouija board over which the people place his/her hands and ask
question to the spirit by invoking them by means of suitable arrangements of
candles in a dark room.
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| Ouija board |
The spirit then answers the question by moving the
planchette to the suitable letter, word or, number but, the fingers of the
questioner must be there over the planchette.
Similarly, another method for interacting with spirits was “Table tilting”.
In this method, people would gather round a table and place
their hands on the tabletop and the spirit will communicate by tilting the
table in some direction and sometimes lifting a leg of the table also.
Scientist claims the “Ideomotor
effect” is responsible for such movements.
Michael Faraday and Ideomotor effect
The spiritualist movement was pretty big in the 1840’s and
1850’s and it provided a way for people to talk to their loved ones and hence
they adopted methods like Ouija board and table tilting for interaction with
spirits.
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| Michael Faraday |
Through his cleaver experiments; renowned scientists Michael
Faraday discovered that behind all such things, Ideomotor effect is responsible.
In Ideomotor effect, the power of suggestion causes our
muscles to move unconsciously.
Evidences
In 1853; four doctors held a “Table tilting” experiment and they secretly told half of the participants
that the table would move to right and told the rest half that the table would
move to left. But, the table didn’t budge.
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| Table tilting method for invocation of spirits |
Therefore, they told everyone that the spirit will move the
table to one direction and this time it happened because of the “Ideomotor effect”.
Validation
“Ideomotor effect”
is true and may be in most of the cases it triggers but, there are cases when
things move automatically without any physical interaction of the questioner.
Also sometimes along with the methods like “Ouija board” and “Table tilting” ; other supernatural things happen in the room like
blowing of cold wind , flickering of light bulbs , automatic movement of things
etc. and in such cases “Ideomotor effect”
can’t justify anything naturally.
Also there is another method for invoking spirits, i.e., “Dice throwing”. In this experiment there
are several dices with letters engraved in its faces and they are thrown by the
questioner after asking a question to the spirit and the spirit shows off its
presence by forming a meaningful word out of the thrown dice.
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| Questioning spirits by throwing dices |
Well, some might call it a chance but, repetition of such
meaningful words and automatic rearrangement of dices can’t be merely a chance
and neither the “Ideomotor effect”
can explain such phenomena.
Secondary vocal chord
Often it has been see that; when a person is possessed by
any spirit, they speak with a different voice (A male can talk like a female
and vice-versa) or, they speak with a voice which is a mixture of their own
voice with some other voice (male/female/child/old etc.).
Scientist claim that; it is because of the activation of “Secondary vocal cord” in our throat.
Each human being has two vocal chords, i.e., “Primary vocal cord” and “Secondary vocal cord” . But, human being mostly uses the “Primary vocal cord”.
As per science; due to health problems and/or mental illness,
a person may use both the vocal cords (for mixed voice) and/or only the
secondary vocal cord (for altered voice) unconsciously.
Paranormal researchers also agree upon this statement but,
instead of giving reasons like “mental
illness” or, “health problems”, they believe that “Spirits” are responsible for such activation in the vocal cord.
Camera issues
During clicking
photos at night, sometimes glowing balls of light are captured and some people
who are so much obsessed about ghosts think that these orbs are “Spirits”.
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| Glowing orbs captured in a graveyard |
But, it’s a misconception and in this matter both paranormal
researchers and scientists agree.
This is actually a camera issue and it happens because of
the following reason-:
Skeptic Brian Dunning says that , when a dust speck or, bug is too close to the camera , then , it
will show up in the photo as blurry , out-of-focus circle and because of camera
flash, the orb also appear to be glowing.
Other than such photos; there are many fake images of ghosts
out there in the internet and paranormal websites are also aware of such things
and thus they take images very cleverly.
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| An example of fake ghost image found in internet |
Though, there are some real images of spirits (captured in
camera) but, most of such images available in internet are false.
image credit links
for ghost image (Insidious movie)-: http://horrorfreaknews.com/insidious-chapter-4-gets-new-title-advance-january-release
for ions -: https://www.tes.com/lessons/idYLfyVfz8dBJA/les-elements-les-neutrons-les-protons-et-les-electrons
for dices -: http://strawberrybloody.tumblr.com/post/69902428626/insidious-2-review
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