The Science of Ghost Busting

Most people have had had some sort of experience with a ghost or a family member who has recently been deceased or knows someone who knows someone who has. This can range anywhere from a feeling to a full on apparition.  Anyone who has experienced this will say it is indisputable that grandma or grandpa, Aunt Mildred or Uncle Howard showed up the night they passed away or they felt the presence of something or someone in their house.  For some, it may be a unique experience which will never happen again.  Just for the sake of saying it, I have an old boss who was a lunatic nutcase.  If there is a just and loving God, I will be allowed to taunt her from beyond just enough to nudge her over the brink, which trust me, isn’t that far.

One night while watching one of those ghost hunting shows, the “team” was at a lake investigating a haunting.  I approach these shows like a drunk watching Monday Night Football—I yell at the television assuming they can hear me.  They whipped out the trusty EMF Meter or Electromagnetic Field Meter. This is a commonly used instrument by ghost hunters to prove the existence of a discarnated soul.  What. A. Load. Of. Crap.  To dispel any questions about any electronic interference that may have affected  the EMF reading, the Alpha ghost hunter on this particular show announced to the viewer that they would turn off all electricity in the area.  Naturally, they got a strong “reading” from their little machine.  This is when I started yelling.  “ARE THEIR CAMERAS POWERED BY GASOLINE?”  NO ELECTRICITY AROUND AT ALL?  Give me a break.

The whole EMF Meter thing makes me nuts.  I mean it’s usage in the paranormal sense. 

The human brain has well over 100 billion electrical active neurons that emit EM fields.  To date, I have not been able to locate information on the exact amount of Hertz (Hz) the human body collectively emits*. Electricity is moved throughout the human body by means of our nervous system, we are determined “dead” or “alive” by measuring the electrical flux emitted by our cerebral activity (and cardiac activity).  While in deep REM sleep, the brain only throws a meager 0-4 Hz of delta waves, yet I know people who, wide awake, are so boring even this would be an off the hook number for them.  I am going out on a scientific limb here and assume that once we flat line on both a EKG and EEG it is safe to say that we are no longer a power house of electricity, thus we are dead as a doornail.  And I didn’t even go to medical school.

So how is it that Festus Jones, a civil war soldier who croaked in 1863 can throw out 26 hz of electricity with no body? Or what about little Timmy Paddock who died in a freakish head on collision with a bear on his bike in 1924, who can suddenly find the whopping 31Hz to alert a ghost hunter he still exists with no cerebral activity?  They can’t.  It makes it more palatable to the general public that this is proof.  It sells advertising and keeps the ratings up, that’s what it does.

Now, let me flip this around for the sake of argument. 

For proof that ghosts don’t exist, skeptics often use the “infrasound” explanation.  Infrasound again is based on frequencies, this time with sound the human ear can’t perceive.  Exposure to infrasound at around 20 Hz can cause a plethora of side effects.  At these levels, individuals report “eerie” sensations, disorientation, anxiety and in some cases hallucinations.  One explanation (among others) is the sound creates an almost undetectable resonating in the eyeball, causing someone to feel as if they are seeing things.  So effective is infrasound at higher levels that it is often added into the soundtrack in horror movies to evoke feelings of fearfulness.  

What are naturally produced sources of infrasound?  Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, alligators—they use this as a method of communication.  If you are at the zoo or perhaps a circus when you have a meltdown, blame Jumbo the Wonder Elephant for the sudden download in your pants.  Other sources include earthquakes, severe weather and skeptics that pipe in the sound to prove a point.

Ok, that all makes sense.  I get it.  We have reactions to sounds the ear can’t easily detect. I buy that hook line and sinker. 

Let’s just say that a credible medium is in a location that is assumed to be haunted by a ghost.  And let’s also say that there are also documented high levels of infrasound at this location. Sure, he/she may feel the effects both psychological and physically, we understand that.  How do you explain the medium picking up clear and accurate information regarding precise particulars of the ghost’s former life, how they died, their name and any other grand details which is also documented and verifiable?  Where is that answer?  Don’t say “It’s because they researched the location.”  I said a credible medium.  Oh, maybe the proof is in the EMF Meter reading.

Some things are simply unexplainable.  Like why Brett Michaels is still famous.

So, how do we know ghosts exist?  I said so.

*Good luck Googling it.  You will find out how to rent a car.