Spirits Are Among Us
Over the years, experiences and widespread reports led to an increased curiosity as to whether ghosts are real or imagined. This curiosity is apparent in our modern media, and has led to such shows as Ghost Hunters, GHI, Most Haunted, and a slew of documentaries. Studies show that in today’s society, more people believe in ghosts than those who do not. In addition, more people believe in spirits every day. Despite serious public curiosity, mainstream science dismisses the idea quickly. Is this because there is no evidence? More importantly, is this because science is afraid of the implications if one were to prove such an idea? Whatever the reason, science at large steers clear of the topic. I believe in the existence of spirits because evidence, history, experience, physics, and widespread reports indicate this to me as truth.
Spirit is known as the life force that animates the living; which is the energy that resides in the body or soul. The idea is known throughout the world in many traditions. Spirits are called by many names: ghosts, apparitions, poltergeist, specters, and entities. A spirit becomes a ghost when the soul, or animating life force, leaves the body upon death and stays behind on our physical plane instead of crossing over. I believe that everything in our world is made up of the same vibrational energy on a molecular level. This energy is in everything, everywhere, and in everyone. This energy is limitless, cannot be created or destroyed, and has no beginning or end. It is vibrational; eternal. This energy is called many names: Chi, Ki, spirit, Prana, Orgone, and bio-electric magnetic energy. It has been photographed, recorded, and measured. Why then can it be so easily discounted?
The most convincing evidence for me was experiencing this personally. In September 2000, I was visiting my girlfriend. I knocked on the door and received no answer. I knew that she was home, so I let myself in and walked into the living room. Her son was asleep in the adjacent bedroom. There was a woman, dressed in an old nurse's uniform, sitting on the edge of his bed. She noticed me walk into the living room and smiled. She grabbed a blanket and covered the boy up. I thought nothing strange about the woman. She did not look odd or transparent like in the movies. I went into the other room to ask my girlfriend who her friend was. She looked at me as if I were a lunatic and replied there was nobody there except her and her son. I immediately ran into the other room to find her son alone and sound asleep. This experience scared me to the point of rethinking my beliefs.
I experienced another encounter on November 27th, 2010. I was working the night shift at Sonic replacing the burned out florescent light bulbs. The new ones were outside in our storage building, which had no electricity. The bulbs were stored beside the door on a shelf. In order to reach them I had to close the door behind me. With the door closed it was pitch black. I began to feel as if someone was watching me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I became covered in goose bumps. I tried to convince myself there was no reason to be scared. I grabbed a hold of a florescent light bulb. To my surprise, it began to glow a dull orange. My heart began to race out of control and I dropped the bulb onto a cardboard box. The bulb continued to produce light, becoming as bright as daylight. This scared me half to death. I grabbed the box of bulbs and ran directly back to the main building. At 6a.m. the next morning, I woke up to a phone call from my Father-in-law. His wife passed away the night before, about the same time I had my experience. The ambulance passed right by sonic on the way to the hospital. This told me I was not crazy, that spirits do in fact exist.
I am not the only person with these experiences. There are reports of ghost sightings throughout history. My own experience led me to study and research the subject. In my search, I came across numerous cases that shed light on the topic. One of the first was Pliny the younger, who wrote about such experiences in the first century A.D. This is just one of the many examples. Plato wrote about ghost experiences in The Republic. Reports of spirits are not limited to a select group of people or geographical area. These reports come from all over the world, from every race, all throughout history. Perhaps the most curious to me was the ghost of Benjamin Franklin and President Lincoln. Both have numerous sightings by many people. For instance presidents, queens, first ladies, and prime ministers all witnessed Lincoln’s ghost in the White House. Here we have reports from reputable sources with impeccable credibility, people with nothing to gain and everything to lose (History).
Though some experiences are easily explained as hoaxes, hallucinations, or biased claims, there are thousands of wide spread reports by reputable sources. I studied cases of doctors caring for terminally ill cancer patients. These doctors hear about near death experiences daily, and give their medical opinion that these experiences are the result of pain medication or hallucinations. Then, the same doctor's medical opinions take a 180-degree turn when they have their own experience. Such is the case of Mary Jo Rapini, a clinical psychologist, who was accustomed to discounting stories of near death experiences. She collapsed from a brain aneurysm while exercising at a local gym. Once revived, she described the exact same experience discounted numerous times before (Kastenbaum). This is just one example of the many cases of well-educated people rethinking their stance on belief in spirits because of firsthand experience. There is no short supply of these accounts.
I also found numerous examples of evidence. EMF (electro-magnetic field) detectors are able to locate, measure, and verify the presence of a spirit. Digital cameras are capable of capturing apparitions on film. FLIR (forward looking infrared), is capable of picking up spirits invisible to the naked eye. The most concrete evidence I came across was the scientific experiments carried out by William Reich, the founder of the theory of Orgone energy. Reich believed he stumbled across an energy field in the human body. Through experimentation he recorded and measured this energy. Later he discovered this energy existed everywhere, in all things. In one case, Experiment XX, Reich proved that living entities could develop seemingly from nowhere (Grad). In conjunction with another experiment, The Oranur Experiment, Reich proved without a doubt the existence of Orgone energy (Reich). This energy is the same spoken of in nearly every religious tradition.
Modern physics agree with the notion that energy exists in all things. On an atomic level, this vibrational, bioelectric magnetic energy exists in every atom. A basic atom is comprised of three components: electrons, neutrons, and protons. This energy resides in the space between the nucleus and the electron, keeping them stable. There is phenomenally more space (filled with this energy) than matter (nucleus) in an atom. On a larger scale, it becomes apparent that we exist more as energy (spirit) than as solid matter. This notion, as with all laws of physics, is subject to the First Law of Thermodynamics. (5) "The First Law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed." This one law profoundly changed my understanding of the world around me. This law states that our life force (energy), upon our bodily death, does not cease to exist. There is research that states, at the exact moment of our death, we lose around 28 grams of mass. Could this be the weight of the soul?
For many people it is simply difficult to believe in something that they cannot evaluate. To other people, belief in something that is invisible is lunacy. However, we cannot "see" the air around us, yet without it, we would not exist. We cannot touch human emotion, yet we know that it exists because we all feel it. Would it be the same if we all had better developed temporal lobes and everyone experienced spirits daily? Have you seen gravity, or touched it? Yet we all experience gravity, so it is accepted.
For many people, reported experiences or evidence is the result of medication, hallucinations, delusions, or hoaxes. This is perfectly acceptable, unfortunately. A good percentage of reports are the result of medication or the fact of limited credibility. There are also several instances were reports are proven to be a hoax. Most sad perhaps is the investigator who is biased to the point of blindness. Such investigators only report one side of the facts to meet their ends. This is encountered in all areas of reporting and cannot be avoided. Although numerous reports can be discredited, what about the thousands of others that cannot be disproven, discredited, or attributed to hoaxes? What about the reports from statesmen, doctors, judges, or even leaders of countries? They put their reputation on the line and stand to gain nothing.
Having sifted through tons of evidence I have come to the conclusion that spirits are among us. The idea sparks controversy, but then again, at one time in history so did mathematics. Just because we fear something, or do not understand it, is not a justifiable reason for ignoring the evidence that sways the balance. It is time for science to quit running from the inevitable and admit that it was wrong. Though the implications frighten some and upset others, discovery and growth is at the heart of mankind. We must not follow science in turning a deaf ear. One day we might find ourselves a spirit attempting to communicate with a loved one.
Works Cited
“Historical Ghost Stories,” 2011. The History Channel Website. August 27 2011, 12:32. http://www.history.com/topics/historical-ghoststories.
(i) “Encyclopedia of Death”, edited by Robert and Beatrice Kastenbaum (1989, pp. 170-174. Oryx Press, 2214 North Central at Encanto, Phoenix, Arizona 85004-1483).
(ii) Grad, Bernard. William Reich’s Experiment XX. Core, Vol. (3 and 4). 130-143.
(iii) Reich, Wilhelm. The Oranur Experiment. Orgone Energy Bulletin, Vol. 3 (4), 185-344, October, 1951
(iv) Tro, Nivaldo (2008). Chemistry: a molecular approach. Upper Saddle River N. J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall. P. 810. ISBN 9780131000650
