If I See A Ghost Are My Senses

IF I SEE A GHOST ARE MY SENSES TO BLAME?

To complement the full apprehension of the terms which will be used throughout this argument, a number of meanings taken from The Lexicon Webster Dictionary is provided:

GHOST

The soul or spirit of a dead person. A disembodied spirit.

HALLUCINATION

(psy) an apparent perception, as by sight or hearing, for which there is no real external cause, as distinguished from illusion

ILLUSION

A false impression or belief. False perception or conception of some object of sense. A perception of a thing which misrepresents it, or gives it qualities not present in reality.

GOD

Creator and ruler of the universe, eternal, infinite spirit, the Supreme Being.

“Hobgoblins, ghoulsand other malevolent forces are part of our cultural heritage. But can these nightmares simply be dismissed as superstitious by-products of the medieval mind?'; Introduction to Creatures from Inner Space by S. Gooch

The subject will be argued from the two possible, yet opposite, sides: the “ghost'; as a non-existent and the “ghost'; as an existent spirit. This will be done through the elements of perception. Perception, although being so complex, is the medium by which individuals receive information from the surrounding world.

Let us consider the situation where a person believes that s/he has perceived a ghost. This can be an optical illusion created by the classical example of shadows, or by sound (the wind) which when applied to them the Gestalt psychology we can understand how anyone of us can derive a form from the few elements perceived and rush to a conclusion. Gestalt psychologists have shown how humans use their interests to structure the information perceived, therefore not considering the different parts making it up.

As we can see clearly, in an illusion it’s the minority of the outer senses which are stimulated. Same thing with hallucination, but this time the inner senses do probably play a stronger role. We all know how young persons, when exposed to ghost stories, do have nightmares and/or restless nights. From this we can understand how this retrieval of memory together with imagination and lack of “common sense'; can bring about hallucinations.

In fact these same “tricks'; are what wannabe mediums use in order to deceive their clients. The client has already a strong ...

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...e. I do profoundly agree with the Kant’s philosophy that all knowledge is achieved through experience and filtered through our reasoning processes. It is just that most of the times we are not aware of the input, or else we are not ready to acquire it! Probably this is the factor that creates humans with (the so called) paranormal potentials.

Bibliography

S. Gooch, Creatures From Inner Space, Hutchinson Publishing Group: London, 1984

S. Borella, L’Io Nella Percezione, Citta` Nuova: Rome, 1983

W. G. Chase (Ed.), Visual Information Processing, Academic Press: New York, 1973

R. Boar and N. Blundell, The Worlds Greatest Ghosts, Hamlyn: London, 1995

C. Green and C. McCreery, Apparitions, Hamish Hamilton: London, 1975

The New American Bible, Good Counsel Publishers: Chicago, 1971

D. F. Kellerman (Ed.), The Lexicon Webster Dictionary, Lexicon, 1977

S.P.I.R.I.T, Psychokinesis available: www.ghosthunter.org/archives/ philip.htm

J. Ritchie, Inside The Paranormal, Fontana: London, 1992

READING: A

http://www.ghosthunter.org/archives/philip.html

READING: B

Creatures From Inner Space

READING: C

Inside The Paranormal

READING: D

The Worlds Greatest Ghosts