Words related to paranormal abnormal , celestial , ghostly , metaphysical , mysterious , mystic , occult , phenomenal , preternatural , psychic , spectral , transcendental , uncomprehensible , unearthly. Someone out there wants to adopt your creepy toys. Why do we see ghosts?
Jake Bittle October 6, Popular-Science. Cerebrum Albert Teichner. LiveScience: What, to you, is the most interesting or strange paranormal belief?
Wiseman: I suppose ghosts, or the notion that people see something out of the corner of their eye, particularly if they're in a "haunted" location.
It's the power of suggestion, as well as fear. When we become afraid, blood flows from the fingertips from the major muscles of the body as you get ready to run or fight, and that can make you cold. LiveScience: You've done some ghost-debunking investigations. What did you find? Wiseman: These were investigations carried out at Hampton Court Palace, a royal palace south of London, and up in Edinburgh in Scotland, supposedly one of the most haunted places in the U.
We took people into buildings and asked them what locations seemed haunted. They'd often chose the same locations. Part of the reasons what those locations were sometimes physically colder due to thermal patterns. Sometimes they had this weird sort of infrasound [low-frequency sound] which can be caused by the rumble of traffic or wind across an open window. And other times these spots just sort of look scary because they're dark and we have a brain that has evolved to keep us out of dark places for good reason.
LiveScience: Psychics are a big business, and I understand you've upset some of them by discussing the tricks of the trade in your book. In all of your work, you've found no evidence that psychics have special capabilities? Wiseman: No, I found they're very good at fooling people —in that case they have very special capabilities, but in deception.
Here, paranormal belief crosses over from being fun into something serious. People go to psychics because they have problems, whether personal or financial, but you're talking to somebody who, unlike a counselor who would give you to tools to solve the problems, they just give you advice. In a study conducted at the University of British Columbia, researchers Aiyana Willard and Ara Norenzayan found that participants with a higher tendency to anthropomorphize—meaning those that are more likely to assign human qualities to nonhuman things—were also more likely to have paranormal beliefs.
Even though we find the idea of ghosts and spirits scary, in a wider context, they provide evidence for the survival of the soul. With that in mind, I reached out to Apple Inc. Maybe more images like mine will surface and someone will come up with a technical explanation for these spectral iPhone photos. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe.
The author's friend believes she captured a ghost in this photo, taken on a trip to Ethiopia. Laura Martinez de la Calle. Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook.
Gareth, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, is the series editor of Best American Infographics and can be reached at garethideas AT gmail. Sander van der Linden is a social-psychologist and lecturer at Princeton University.
His research explores the psychology of social influence, judgment, and decision-making. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Support science journalism.
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