Ghost Stories
There was a time when even well-educated and levelheaded persons swallowed every tale of the supernatural they came across as gospel truth. And there was a later time when all scientists who valued their reputation would meet every so-called “ghost story” with the vulgar, but emphatic expression, “Rats!” But the modern attitude towards the question is more cautious and open-minded, and so more scientific. In view of the mass of well-authenticated evidence collected and sifted by the Society for Psychical Research, we can no longer airily dismiss all ghost stories as fraud, illusion, or pure fiction. To refuse to face facts is silly and unscientific. The question now is, “Have we any scientific and credible explanation of the proved facts?”
Of course many, ghost stories are pure fiction ; and many can be explained by natural causes. With these we are not concerned. But it has been proved over and over again that people have seen figures exactly like those of friends who had died. The question is, Were these appearances really the spirits of their dead friends, or something else ?
Now it is well known that some people when ill or nervously overwrought sometimes have what are called “spectral illusions”. Such appearances are “illusions”, for they are not real, and “spectral” because people seem to see them with their eyes. They are, in fact, a kind of waking dream. Many ghost stories can be explained in this way. They are true, for the story was not made up; but what was seen was not a “ghost” but a thought-image in the mind.
But this does not explain all such strange appearances. There are many true stories of people seeing the figure of a friend who at that very moment was (unknown to them) really dying at a distance. There must be some connection between the mind of the dying person and the person who sees the vision. It is not believed that one mind can directly influence another mind without the help of the physical senses. This is called “telepathy”. Such visions are probably telepathic. This is, the image of the dying friend, an illusion caused by the influence of the dying person’s mind on the mind of the friend who sees the appearance.
Now there are well-authenticated cases of such visions of persons already dead. These may be due to the influence of the dead person’s mind on that of the living. Many learned scientists, such as Sir Oliver Lodge, believe in such “ghosts”; and base on them their belief in the survival of the soul after death.
