The unpopular opinions thread.

Ghosts are generally defined as "The spirit of a dead person, especially one believed to appear in bodily likeness to living persons or to haunt former habitats." There are two problems with this definition:

- Besides ghostly people, there are also ghostly ships (e.g. Flying Dutchman), ghostly planes, a ghostly double decker bus and enough ghostly pets to open an SPCGA.

- Ghosts are nearly always the product of apophenia₁ (seeing a pattern that in reality doesn't exist.) In the ways that it isn't, it's something explainable. 

Those of us who know the claim knows that there are two main kinds of ghostly haunting's, namely residual and intelligent. A residual spook is unaware that it's dead, apparently, and will pass through a room, or wash ghostly dishes, without interacting with any living people in the vicinity. An intelligent ghost is the one that makes it into the movies, because they're the ones that know they are dead and are pissed off. This results in them chasing Pac-Man around a maze poltergeist activity, strange houses in Amityville and Freddie Kruger. In either case, almost all ghostly apparitions are "seen" wearing clothing, which may suggest that your clothes have a soul and that they will die when you do.

Now, onto the basis for where we get the image of ghostly figures. Especially around Halloween, newspapers, television and the internet are flooded with supposedly factual ghost stories told from the point of view that ghosts are scary, no conventional explanation for them is likely, and witnesses couldn't possibly be exaggerating or embroidering their accounts. Supporting testimony from scientific-sounding experts can make them seem all the more convincing. In truth, ghost stories are a form of largely formulaic storytelling that historians speculate evolved as a way of dealing with deep-rooted fears of death and dying, possibly inspired by cultural memories of 14th century Black Plague victims wrapped in white sheets. Many of the credulous "true tales" and "eyewitness reports" being published and passed around today are merely modern-day versions of traditional supernatural folklore that has been with us for hundreds of years.

And now, for the meat of scientific explanations! Except... There is nothing to explain, since there are no consistently observable phenomena to investigate. Hell, even if there was evidence, there isn't really anything that can be used to experiment on such phenomena. Evidence assembled for the existence of ghosts is largely ad hoc, anecdotal and difficult (or impossible) to duplicate or investigate further.

Explanations of ghosts supposedly dodging physical laws (like being semi-transparent or able to pass through walls) date back to Cambridge Platonist Henry Moore in the 17th century who suggested that souls (and therefore ghosts) are essentially four-dimensional beings, an idea that Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner promoted in the 19th century.₂

Using Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland as his foundation, Carl Sagan in the print version of Cosmos stated:

"If a fourth-dimension creature existed it could, in our three-dimensional universe, appear and dematerialize at will, change shape remarkably, pluck us out of locked rooms, and make us appear from nowhere."₃

The problem is that most ghost lovers go the easier 'doesn't follow physical laws' route and call it a day. In reality they (though they don't realize it) mean 'doesn't follow three dimensional physical laws'.

Apophenia (seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data) in conjunction with strong emotions can explain many ghost sightings. This combination was used by Carl Sagan to explain the Martian canals seen by Percival Lowell:

"There is no doubt that the Mars canals of Percival Lowell were of intelligent origin. The only question is which side of the telescope the intelligence was on. Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves."

Distorted shadows, reflections by not-immediately-obvious fixtures (or the flash of the camera itself), out-of-focus objects (the bug on a lens theory has been used to explain many ghost images in video tapes), and even particularities of the equipment itself coupled to the desire to believe can explain many ghost sightings and even videos of ghosts.

Other possible explanations include hallucinations due to a mental disorder or disease. In particular, Lewy Body dementia, in addition to being characterized by the presence of Lewy bodies in a sufferer's brain, is also characterized by hallucinations of people and animals usually manifesting from the sufferer's memory.

A certain hallucinogenic has been reported to induce visions of ghosts.₄ The Humr people of Sudan consume the drink umm nyolokh, which is created from the liver and marrow of giraffes. Umm nyolokh often contains DMT and other psychoactive substances from plants the giraffes eat such as acacia, and is known to cause hallucinations of giraffes, believed to be the giraffes' ghosts by the Humr.

Another probable explanation could involve the effects of sleep paralysis, especially as many sufferers experience the sensation of being held down by something, sometimes accompanied by terrifying hallucinations.

Infrasound may be responsible for many reports of hauntings. The symphonic resonance of the human eye is 18Hz, and vibrations (including sound) in that frequency can distort a person's vision, sending inconsistent information to the brain which does its best to make sense of it, but often makes us "see" things that aren't there.

Infrasound also affects people in chilling ways, causing them to feel like someone else is in the room, that they're being watched, etc.; the low sounds put out by extraction fans, and wind blowing across an opening in an old abandoned house (where the whole house acts as a resonance chamber), are good examples.

Belief in ghosts may also come from the refusal to accept the finality of one's own mortality and the absence of an afterlife, as well as the inability to cope with the loss of a loved one. Ghosts are, effectively, the "eternal spirit" of someone who has passed from the earthly realm and not finally lodged in heaven (nor hell).

I hope I answered your challenge adequately there bud. I can tone up the condescension if you like, but in all honesty, despite what you're saying, I'd rather not be disreputable jerkass that directly antagonizes people. I'm a harsh critic, but I'm not an asshole.

1. Google it.

2. Pickover, Cliff (2001)Surfing Through Hyperspace Oxford University Press pg 123

3. Carl Sagan. Cosmos pg 219

4. Ian Cunnison (1958). "Giraffe hunting among the Humr tribe". Sudan Notes and Records 39.

Also, SPGCA stands for The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ghostly Animals.

Extraordinary Ample evidence for a non-extraordinary claim! Ya know, since I'm arguing against the extraordinary. 

Nothing against you Dobby. Sorry you got dragged in on this. Also, sorry to Keith and Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Speirs (I forget your screen name). My post was not meant to be condescending or patronizing toward you, though I do humbly encourage you to seek out an alternate explanation of your experiences.

ghost are beings of the 4th (possibly 5th) dimension that are beyond our puny 3d understanding

they're real but they're not dead people, they're like the lizard overlords except they can't put fluoride in our water to brainwash our kids

Welp, my claim isn't extraordinary now is it? I daresay I made a materialistically-normative claim (based on skepticism) that simply requires a logical demonstration. And a statement of belief on the part of others is a claim; shifting the burden of proof on me (while not accepting my evidence and providing no adequate counter argument) isn't cogency of argument. 

Can you measure a ghost by the way? 

In all honesty, you don't like my tone? That's fine. I'm not under the illusion that everyone is going to like everything I post. But I also think you're a rational person, and despite your rather charged attack on my position, I would hope that you would recognize the point of skepticism. No belief or opinion is free from criticism if it warrants it. I had hoped you'd recognize that (and you kind of did, but you got hung up on shooting the messenger instead.)

Rape? sure go for it

- dr who
- adventure time
- steven universe
- big bang theory

..are shit.

meanwhile,

DA2 was a decent game
the endings of ME3 were pretty fine with the addition of the EC.

@ this whole exchange

uhh WEW


brb goin 2 injet a weeds

Pleb.

Not from Lower Hutt. Not too far off though.

Ah, Palmy then?  Makes sense.   Crazy avatars, general confusion and a propensity to grow facial hair.

don't kill them, chain them to each other and put them in mines, they will die from exposure to the hazards anyway and when the shaft collapses/floods you don't need to bother trying to rescue them, and just keep them being productive until they die at which point they can be useful al protein supplement for the rest....

put the rest on work gangs doing hard labour (if their a rapist neuter them first), for the victimless crimes (there's no such thing really) hold them in prison working the laundry, for wider society to have clean sheets for free....

and any prisoners that try to escape /protest there's always a the hangman's jig,

also I would remove rioters by using knockout gas and put them all in enforced labour until the collective damage has been repaid at a rate of 5 cents an hour per person, that'll discourage civil protestors from descending into chaos and carnage.....