Between Science and the Supernatural: Why We Still Believe
It seems to be part of the human condition that we seek out mysteries whilst simultaneously want something to believe in.
By Featured Writer, J E Rudd.
I grew up in the multi-racial East End of the 1970’s where my classmates were as likely to be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Jehovah’s Witnesses as they were Christian. My parents had been brought up as Church of England, although one uncle was a Catholic priest. Our household was distinctly non-religious, I was never taken to church except for weddings and funerals and only once attended Sunday School, mainly because I was curious. Christmas was an opportunity for the wider family to visit and there was one day when everyone got presents and ate a big dinner. Religion didn’t really enter into it. But curiously, we did celebrate Halloween, which in the early 1970’s was not a common thing. Family legend goes that one bonfire night at an organised firework display a rocket caught in my brother’s anorak hood and he was only just saved in time.
Thereafter we did not attend November 5 celebrations; I suspect Dad was on the side of Guy Fawkes anyway and given my parents’ budding interest in esoteric subjects such as Tarot and astrology, it makes more sense to me now. They were not pagans as we know the term today; Halloween wasn’t a celebration of the seasons turning nor was it some sort of dark Satanic mass, just a chance for us kids to play games like apple bobbing, charades and maybe later tell ghost stories or watch a horror film. I don’t think we ever had a pumpkin, they were just not readily available in those days and Trick or Treat was something they did on American movies. Looking back I can see this annual event as influencing my interest in magic, the supernatural and the unexplained, even though I had proclaimed myself an atheist by my mid-teens.
The more I studied science, not at school, but as an adult doing horticulture and as an amateur conchologist, the more apparent it became to me that religion was not the answer. A basic appreciation of genetics, evolution, chemistry and physics reinforced my conviction that God had not created the universe, much less in 7 days. Science unravels a lot of life’s mysteries and I feel that understanding how a rainbow is made does not lessen our appreciation for the magic of seeing it, but it enhances it, in much the same way a country walk is made more enjoyable by knowing the names of the wildflowers or which birds are singing. Science has made many astounding revelations, and enhanced what we know about so many aspects of life, the universe and everything, but what we know is still being continually refined. As each new great discovery is made, it changes our perceptions of other things. And science is not omniscient, there are still things that cannot be satisfactorily explained.
The most prominent of these is what happens after death. We know what happens to the physical remains as they decay, but is the body really all there is to us? Do we have a soul or a spirit that somehow transcends death? So many insects go through a metamorphic stage; caterpillars’ and grubs’ very cells break down into a protoplasmic soup in the chrysalis to be reborn as a resplendent butterfly or noble beetle. It is completely understandable that the ancient Egyptians modelled their sarcophagi on chrysalises in the same way they believed Scarab beetles rolled the sun around the heavens. As a race they were clearly familiar with the life cycles of insects as much as they could be and even if the physical remains of people did not transform, there is little doubt that they believed in an afterlife, as do many people today.
Whether our incorporeal forms are transmuted to another realm, reincarnated or remain as ghosts, most religions that I am aware of incorporate the notion that we do have some existence beyond our physical form. It therefore makes sense to me that wanting to believe in an afterlife is one of the primary reasons that people are drawn to religions. It is comforting to believe that you will see your loved ones again in Heaven, or that you will have the opportunity to lead a better life. People are often disturbed by the notion of just nothingness, that death is the final end. Most people need some hope and for many people religion provides it. In the natural order of things, the organic matter of which our bodies are composed would break down to feed plants and in turn be consumed by animals. This is the only afterlife of which I am currently certain.
There is no doubt in my mind that every human being is essentially unique. Our DNA, our heritage and our upbringing give each of us a different take on life, with defining characteristics and attitudes. Even identical twins don’t think alike as they age and especially if they live separately. Two strangers may find themselves to be ‘kindred spirits’, agreeing on moral and philosophical questions, but if they looked the same and had the same background experiences that would be beyond belief. Each of us has something that makes us uniquely us. We have a personality that is individual. If we have a soul, is it just our personality and emotions, or is it something indefinably more than this, and where is it housed? Scientists may argue for the brain; in the west we think of our hearts as being the seat of emotion which has always struck me as illogical. I’ve read that Native American tribes believe emotions are connected to the stomach, far more sensible, else why would we have ‘gut instincts’, butterflies in our tummy or be unable to stomach something unpleasant? Moreover, the question of whether the ‘mind’ and the ‘soul’ are separate from the body has never really been answered in the literature I have read. The scientific possibility that an incorporeal part of us can continue after we die has neither been proved or disproved. Lots of anecdotal evidence exists, but until it happens to you, you will never really know the truth, and the circumstances make eye-witnesses hard to find.
Traditionally souls or ghosts are portrayed as opaque versions of their living counterparts as they leave the dead, although there are stories of glowing or lit up spirits. If souls are basically our personality, it makes some kind of sense that something of that personality would linger in the minds, at least, of loved ones left behind. Certain circumstances might predispose you, however unconsciously, to think about a deceased person and your mind may form an indistinct version of them to act as a focus. Stories of the recently dead appearing to loved ones to say goodbye fit neatly into this category. Ghosts, therefore, could be no more than our imagination forming a projection. There are numerous stories of hauntings where the spirit has no direct connection to the witnesses. In this instance the location seems to be key rather than the person. Poltergeists, unseen forces that move objects, are considered as ghosts yet often apparently have an attachment to a person. It may be more likely that some sort of telekinesis is involved rather than it being caused by someone now dead, depending on which impossibility you think is least irrational. This is a very simplistic definition of a phenomenon that seems to transcend culture, class and history. Ghost stories have probably been around for as long as people sat around fires, and therefore it is hard to dismiss them as completely fictitious. There are far too many instances of spirits being reported for them all to be hoaxes, and too many similarities for them to be purely the product of imagination in my opinion. This could also be true of giants, dragons, UFO’s and cryptids.
Ghosts supposedly occur when the spirit leaves the body and is in limbo, between states of living and dying, or in transition to Heaven or Hell if you believe such places exist. According to many myths and legends they are also likely to be the cause of a ‘restless spirit’; a popular theme of many horror films is the unavenged murder of a person. If a personality could linger, them a powerful emotion might too. Despite the preponderance of this as a plot line, it might be more likely that ghosts occur because the ‘spirit’ just doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed, so the energy reserves in our cells could undergo a sudden change transmuting into…who knows what? Just as the heat of a fire dissipates gradually, perhaps not all of the ATP in our cells becomes latent, waiting for the disintegration process to begin and for us to return to dust. Furthermore, as living beings on this planet, we are suffused with other lifeforms. Mites crawl upon our skin, bacteria and fungal colonies occupy our guts and our mitochondria have their own DNA. Surely when a person or animal dies, these organisms do not immediately roll over and bite the dust? We have elements in our bodies such as nitrogen which could be said to form a shadow self, inhabiting every cell, and which does not immediately break down in the atmosphere. The ‘spirit’ might be a combination of all of these things, or couplings of some of them, a sort of homunculus of chemical elements, microscopic life and energy which while persisting for an indefinite time, might not be substantial enough to have a physical form.
It might also be a case of brain chemistry or function which we have yet to understand. I’m not an expert in any of these fields and as with the rest of this article, these thoughts are purely speculative. As we previously didn’t understand psychoses or neuro-diversity, perhaps the ability to become a ghost or to see ghosts is limited to individuals with a particular brain divergence, whether emotional, chemical or physical. This might also account for other psychic phenomenon such as telepathy and telekinesis. Studies of these sorts of phenomena have so far been lacking rigorous scientific controls and cannot be repeated. Many were later debunked as fraudulent or at least with no positive results, for example it is much easier to guess a ‘telepathic’ thought from a person to whom you have an emotional bond. But there remain many people who believe that they are capable of such feats and on more than one occasion I have made a connection or correctly guessed something which chance would seem to rule out. I doubt that it would be replicable in a laboratory. I think it would be amazing if there were a proper scientific study into telepathy and telekinesis that found it to be true, but then I’ve always been a big fan of science fiction.
I have heard first hand accounts of people who have seen what they definitely believe to be a ghost, and around the time of my mum’s funeral there were several strange occurrences that I still can’t explain. Once I saw a string of Christmas baubles rattling up and down when no-one was near enough to touch it and was assured by my friend that she had a friendly poltergeist in her home. But the lack of hard evidence is what makes it impossible for me to say that there is actual proof. In this digital age when everyone has a phone with a camera, shouldn’t there be clear photographic evidence by now? The sceptics view is that it’s because ghosts don’t exist. The alternative is that the spirit is not visible in the limited light spectrum in which we see, which may account for some instances of other animals being sensitive to hauntings. Sometimes ghostly voices or figures are apparent after the incident, neither audible nor visible to those present, and it’s likely that there is a rational explanation for this, as our perception changes when we see an image. When we see photos of ourselves we rarely look like our self-image, and they are probably few people who hear their own voice who don’t say ‘do I really sound like that?’, so if a hidden shadow is suddenly made apparent it is unsurprising. Likewise soundwaves outside our normal range may be picked up on recording equipment. Our tendency to pareidolia also makes it likely that we see faces in images when none are present, or make words from random noises. Ghost hunters use a device which picks up on Electromagnetic Frequencies (EMF), but to be honest I’m not really sure why a ghost would register in such a way. There are also no current ways of recording the ‘soul’ either before or after death, and our best method of contact beyond the grave still appears to be the Ouija board. We don’t really know what it is that we are trying to record, and perhaps that is why supposed footage is so fascinating, that even a tantalising glimpse of something that defies our explanation piques our interest. We want to believe in ghosts, for there to be some proof, but we also are drawn to the unknown; that is what makes us want to discover things and part of what makes us human.
There are so many fascinating things to discover in this world and beyond, with science opening the doors. The James Webb Space Telescope has shown us far reaching views of the galaxy and SEM photos give us a perspective on the minutiae of cells; less than 10% of the ocean is mapped, and we continue to advance in genetics, computing, medicine and warfare. It’s not really surprising that investigations into the paranormal are not top of the list for scientific investigation. For a start, it is of very little practical use. Non-existence cannot be proved and the opposite would take vast amounts of time, resources, volunteers and money. Those people who already believe are likely to be comforted by the notion that death is not the end, so confirmation would benefit only those who have an unhealthy obsession. Advances in CGI and AI can now make such believable fakes that it would be hard to convince the world if progress was actually made in this area. The academic and atheist in me imagine that I would express disbelief in whatever might be found, although I’m sure I would want to know about it if there was some kind of breakthrough. I don’t believe understanding what happens after death would lessen our enthusiasm for spooky stories at Hallowe’en although it might put a different perspective on them.
No matter whether you have a faith or not, the chances are high that you have a belief in something that we have no logical explanation for, whether that is an afterlife, god, ghosts, Nessie, aliens or telepathy. It seems to be part of the human condition that we seek out mysteries whilst simultaneously want something to believe in. This may seem paradoxical, but in many ways they are two sides of the same coin. The truth is out there, as Mulder would say. Examining our beliefs or looking for explanations is a way of expanding our minds, which is no bad thing. And maybe, just maybe, after we die and our bodies are transmuted, we will have an answer. But not in this life, I think.
Yes, the spooky season of Halloween might be over, but its spirit lingers on… or does it?
