75% of people believe in the supernatural. What is it about human beings that makes the majority require a belief in the supernatural? It's part and parcel of our make up. There is an inclination in all of us to interpret events in the world, and sometimes the explanations resonate with belief in spirits, ghosts and gods which are not viable scientifically.
The first historically recorded written ghost stories were in 600AD in Pope Gregory’s dialogs, and this was the first time that the church recognised such stories as something useful to explain to people how to behave. After the reformation when the catholic church lost some power, the notion of a ghost story became a secular idea as a way to cope with tragedy and a way to frame the terrible things that happened in our lives, so then ghost stories were not just tied to the church.
1 in 4 people say they have experienced a ghost-like phenomenon. The most common is the incubus – demonic figures that appear mainly at night. They different forms depending on the individual's context of belief e.g. aliens appear for people who believe in alien abduction. Incubus type manifestations appears in nearly every culture over time, and they can be explained by psychology – as we dream we become paralysed (we would injure ourselves if we acted out what we were dreaming). As we drift from dream state to waking state, some of the bizarre imagery comes across, as does the feeling of paralysis and so to make sense of it we combine those two ideas. Some people are terrified by these experiences, but once the psychology is explained, it is no longer scary.
Similarly, hearing voices has been assumed to be the voice of gods, spirits, or the dead, or some other supernatural entity that may be trying to possess us or influence us. But in fact it is just our normal internal dialog produced by our brains for all sorts of psychological reasons.
People who are inclined towards supernatural notions are more likely to see structures and patterns in random noise. The evolutionary explanation is that people are pre-disposed to assume the worst, and this is a good thing (e.g. it's safer to assume a predator is there than to assume it isn't) so generally it’s advantageous to assume there is something there rather than ignore it.
Why do many people enjoy being scared, enjoy horror stories? Because the experience is life affirming, but also we know it's safe. In the same way that a roller coaster is scary and people enjoy it, because they essentially know they are safe. A supernatural explanation is often favoured over a rational explanation purely because of a desire to believe something magical. Supernatural explanations are often more attractive to the human mind than rational explanations.
Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster, mermaids, unicorns, alien abductions… these are things that many assume are real because we naturally /want/ them to be real. It would be wonderful if they were real! We tend to believe what we would like to be true e.g. the afterlife. But some people are more inclined than others towards supernatural explanations and tests show that these people tend to be more prone to influence by suggestion through hypnosis and generally more credulous. These people also tend to be more imaginative, more likely to see ghosts, more creative, less sceptical.
But we are also influenced by our situation which will enhance this effect, especially in stressful situations. A person in a plane that is plummeting from 35,000 feet is more likely to be superstitious and ritualistic in their behaviour than normal. If in our lives there is a bereavement or a loss of control for some reason, people become more superstitious. It is an inclination swayed by context. When we are under pressure we don’t like to be stressed so we seek out control, and when we feel we have control we then feel in control of the situation, either through rituals or processes of superstitious behaviours - we feel we are controlling the situation, and that inoculates us against the unpleasant effects of stress.
Humans generally hate uncertainty – especially in stressful situations. So someone with a magical and wonderful solution feeds our desire to believe and so we often believe things that are untrue.
Psychic mediums – do they cause harm? People who visit these people may get comfort and that is a benefit. The important thing is the intention of the person claiming to be psychic. Some psychics have good intentions and they genuinely believe what they are giving during a psychic reading (these are known as “shut eyes”). But the taking of money and scams of “open eye” psychics can be harmful. It is also arguable that the comfort gained from a psychic is a short term benefit, but would be longer term from a professional, trained counsellor.
Coincidence lies at the heart of many of belief systems and there's generally a misunderstanding of what a coincidence is. We all believe we are very different but we are actually the same animal whichever culture we live in. We are far more predictable than we think and this is the key to success of mediums, astrologers etc. who can come up with a general statement that we feel is personal to us.
Is belief in the paranormal growing? This has been tested over the last 50 years and it seems to be constant – not growing or receding. One third of people claim to have experienced ESP, telepathy, ghosts and so on and this level seems stable.
Does it matter if so many people have these beliefs? A lot of artists, musicians and creative people in general have these beliefs – so it can be argued our culture would be a lot poorer without them. They also played a part in our evolutionary history - it's possible we'd be extinct without them! Supernatural beliefs are only a problem if the belief affects peoples’ wellbeing.
What does physics have to say about ghosts? It says ghosts don’t exist because they are perpetual motion machines and hence violate the laws of thermodynamics.
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