Paranormal Phenomena

Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Mar 21, 2014

 I was still in my teens when I first saw the ruins of what had been a spacious and magnificent house, while I was trekking my way from Kalka to Kasauli. There was an eerie silence inside the house. Totally desolate, partly ruined, its well-laid paths were overgrown with weeds, and its garden had disappeared under a growth of thorny jungle. Now abandoned, feared and shunned, it stood encircled in mystery - reportedly the home of evil spirits. It had seven rooms, which were now occupied by bats and other animals and insects. The house was hidden by large pine and other wild trees. Some wild trees and creepers grew out of the ruins of the house, strangling it - much as its owner Vijay Singh Rana was said to have done to a number of persons passing through. Rana’s evil spirit was said to haunt the deserted house. I entered the building and examined the room where he reportedly strangled the victims. I did not encounter any spirit of this notorious man. Perhaps I was too innocent at that time to be targeted by evil spirits. But that did not mean that the stories about Rana, his atrocities, the malignant spirits and paranormal beliefs were not true. Later I was told that there were other unexplained occurrences – of people hearing sounds of wailing and weeping women. Occasionally, residents of the area complained of a malignant ghost in their midst, who was given to flagging down cars, especially those driven by single men. There had been one or two mysterious disappearances. Ask anyone living along this stretch of the Kalka – Kasauli, and they will tell you that it is true. There are several people who have had similar experiences and dropped dead, from inexplicable heart attacks. One of my friends in Himachal told me, “Ignore it, my friend; do not stop to answer any questions from anybody on this stretch of road at night, especially if driving alone.”  I have never believed in ghosts, but that piece of advice given by my friend has made me believe that, perhaps, there are some things beyond our realm. 

More than two decades ago, long before the Hollywood film, The Sixth Sense, created the ‘I see dead people’ blitzkrieg, there were individuals who said that they could see and even converse with ghosts. They were looked upon as freaks. In some cases the parents wanted their children to get professional help, for treating such paranoia or figments of the imagination. Today a lot of people - sometimes even doctors - come to my psychiatrist friend, requesting him to act as a ‘medium’, so that they can get in touch with their dead. It is strange how non-believers become believers when they want something. While the supernatural has its believers, there are those, many of them from the fields of the science and academia, who debunk any such claims. According to mental health experts, the reasons for such a belief system are varied, often detached from reality. Very often a temporary reactive cause to trauma, such as the death of someone close, can trigger hallucinations and psychosis, which are classified as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSDs), opines my Consulting Psychiatrist friend. “Such reactions are not pathological in nature and they very often abate after proper counselling and medication. But those of an esoteric bent of mind, who believe in the existence of ghosts, spirits and other things supernatural, are very often conditioned by the environment they live in. They often externalise these beliefs, by giving them a form and a shape,” he says. Then there are those who are ambivalent. Whether or not they believe, they do not dispute others’ claims. Many seem to feel: “Although I have never seen a ghost, I believe that there is something out there; and I feel that the day may be very near when their existence will be confirmed.” The debate continues to rage at a frenzied pace - questioning supernatural beliefs, seeking an insight into the unknown and reasoning with the ‘decidedly’ unreasonable. However, the one question desperately looking for an answer seems to be, ‘Is there something, or more importantly someone, out there?’ Scientists feel that people consistently report unusual experiences in ‘haunted’ areas because of environmental factors, which may differ across locations. Some of these factors include the variance of local magnetic fields, size of location and the lighting level - stimuli which witnesses may not be consciously aware of.

Ghosts and spirits have always interested human beings. The feeling of being closer to someone unknown or someone from the ‘other world’, has always aroused a sense of both fear and curiosity. Whether there is life after death is a question that none has an answer to. There are hundreds of ‘haunted’ houses all around the world; all these have an element of mystery, fear and the unknown associated with them. Because there are so many incidents, places and people who are believed to be linked with this paranormal phenomenon, there must be something ‘out there’ that instigates these stories every now and then. Ghosts are explicitly recognised in the Tibetan Buddhist religion, as they were in Indian Buddhism - occupying a distinct but overlapping world to the human one, and feature in many traditional legends. They believe that when humans die, after a period of uncertainty they may enter the ghost world. A hungry ghost (Tibetan: yidag, Sanskrit: preta) has a tiny throat and a huge stomach, and so can never be satisfied. Ghosts may be killed with a ritual dagger or caught in a spirit trap and burnt, thus releasing them to be reborn. Ghosts may also be exorcised, and an annual festival is held throughout Tibet for this purpose. As per beliefs, such spirits are usually considered to be perturbed and restless, due to some factor that prevents them from moving on to transmigration, non-being, heaven or hell - depending on tradition. This could be due to a violent death, unsettled matters in their lives, or simply the failure of their survivors to perform proper funerals. While we Indians believe in ghosts of all types - ‘bhoots’, ‘pretas’, ‘jinns’ -  we are not alone. A 2005 Gallup Poll found that 37 percent of Americans believe in haunted houses, and about one-third believes in ghosts. Tens of thousands of people around the world actively search for ghosts as a hobby. Researchers have counted about 2,000 active amateur ghost-hunting groups in America. Ghosts have been a popular subject for millennia, appearing in countless stories, from Macbeth to The Bible - and even spawning their own folklore genre: ghost stories. Ghosts are perhaps the most common paranormal belief in the world. Part of the reason is that belief in ghosts is part of a larger web of related paranormal beliefs, including near-death experience, life after death and spirit communication. The idea that the dead remain with us in spirit is an ancient one, and one that offers many people comfort. Who doesn’t want to believe that our beloved but deceased family members aren’t looking out for us, or will be with us in our times of need? Most people believe in ghosts because of personal experience; they have seen or sensed some unexplained presence. 

However, scientific evidence is another matter. Part of the difficulty in investigating ghosts is that there is not any universally agreed-upon definition of ghosts. Some believe that they are spirits of the dead who, for whatever reason, get ‘lost’ on their way to ‘the other side’; others claim that ghosts are telepathic entities projected into the world from our minds; still others create their own special categories for different types of ghosts - such as ‘intelligent spirits’, ‘residual haunting’ and ‘shadow people’. Of course it is all made up - like speculating on the different races of fairies or dragons. There are as many types of ghosts as you want there to be. There are also many contradictions inherent in our ideas about ghosts. For example, are ghosts ‘material’ or not? Do they move through solid objects without disturbing them, or do they slam doors shut and throw objects across the room? Logically and physically, it should one or the other. If ghosts are human souls, why do they appear clothed, and with inanimate objects like hats, canes and dresses - not to mention the many reports of ghost trains, cars and carriages? If ghosts are the spirits of those whose deaths were un-avenged, why are there unsolved murders - since ghosts are said to communicate with psychic mediums and should be able to identify their killers for the police? Just about any claim about ghosts raises logical reasons to doubt it. In recent years, the study of quantum mechanics has enlightened our understanding, not only on the existence of ghosts, but also the existence of ‘parallel worlds’. Modern physicists have helped us explain and understand the ghost apparition phenomena., based on ‘quantum chromo dynamics’. The evidence on ghosts is no better today than it was a year ago, a decade ago or a century ago. There are two possible reasons for the failure of ghost hunters to find ‘good’ evidence. The first is that ghosts don’t exist, and that reports of ghosts can be explained by psychology, misperceptions, mistakes and hoaxes. The second option is that ghosts do exist, but that ghost hunters are simply incompetent. However, ultimately, ghost hunting is not about the evidence (if it was, the search would have been abandoned long ago). Instead, it’s about having fun with friends, telling stories, and the enjoyment of pretending that they are searching the ‘edge of the unknown’. Everyone loves a good ghost story! 

There can sometimes be a darker side. In the wake of popular ghost-hunting TV shows, police across the country have seen a surge in people being arrested, injured and even killed, while looking for ghosts. In 2010 a man died while ‘ghost-hunting’ with a group of friends, hoping to see the ghost of a train that had crashed years earlier. The ghost train did not appear - but a real train came around a bend and killed him…

Dr. Rajesh Bhola is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities for more than 25 years. He can be contacted at rabhola@yahoo.com