Science of the Paranormal: Can You Trust Your Own Mind?


Of all the paranormal phenomena that surround Halloween, the haunted house may be the last to inspire real fear. Witches? Haven’t been scary since the days of Salem. Zombies? Fun makeup, sure, but a bit campy.Vampires? Blame sparkly Robert Pattinson for taking the bite out of those bloodsuckers.

But the haunted house can send chills up the spine of the staunchest nonbeliever. Ghost stories tend to happen to the unsuspecting; who’s to say they might not happen to you? They’re also passed around by word of mouth, often by seemingly trustworthy sources. Nowadays, theInternet expands this oral tradition to almost anyone: Witness the website Jezebel’s annual spooky stories contest (and then try to sleep soundly tonight).

Science, of course, counsels skepticism toward the idea of spirits and spooks. So if real ghosts aren’t to blame for things that go bump, what might be? Though researchers have investigated culprits like electromagnetic fields and infrasound below the range of human hearing, the ultimate source of hauntings may just be that 3-lb. organ between the ears.

Source: Live Science

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