The Paranormal Blog

It's rare, oddly enough, that Sue and I sit down to watch a television program on ghosts... and for those that don't know us well, that's because I have high blood pressure and most shows that report to revolve around our studies cause this problem to escalate for various reasons. That said, the other day, we caved in and watched a documentary from National Geographic on ghosts named "American Paranormal".

Realistically, it wasn't too bad... and perhaps I'll write out a full (not completely praising as it had issues,) review of the program, but for now, I want to focus on one thing mentioned in the show.

In the show, theoretical astrophysicist, Dr. Dan Hooper of the Fermi Lab/University of Chicago, addressed the idea that ghosts "go through walls" and the like... and how could that happen?

Dr. Hooper quite rightly suggested that, since all matter (as we know it,) is made of atoms and all atoms carry an electrical charge, when one atom with a charge meets another, then the atoms are repulsed by the charge carried in their electons. Think baseball hitting brick wall... The atoms of the baseball do not allow it to pass through the brick wall and there's a collision and the ball is bounced back.

In simple physics, this is true... so, are there atomic particles that do not have this problem?

Enter what is called "The Ghost Particle"... or neutrinos.

Neutrinos are unique in that they don't have an electron as such... they are, in effect, electrically neutral and because of this, can pass through matter pretty easily. In fact, in the time you read this, approximately 250 trillion neutrinos from our own sun's neutrinos, created from the natural radioactive decay, passed through your body... and hopefully, you didn't feel a thing.

This passing through of (literally) everything is why neutrinos are called the "ghost particle"... and if you'd like to know more about them, and prefer television as a medium, try to locate an excellent BBC documentary from the Horizon series called "Project Poltergeist", or if you wish to stay online, look up information about the neutrino particle collector in Sudbury known as "The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory".

Dr. Hooper suggested that since neutrinos can pass through solid matter, perhaps ghosts are made up of neutrinos.

There is a flaw with this, of course, because it would mean, since the ghosts he's referring to are seen, that these neutrinos become visible... now, one could argue they could "clump" together, but this doesn't hold water either... as in order for ANYTHING to be seen, it needs to either absorb or reflect light waves. Neutrinos, by their makeup, should not be able to do this.

So the neutrino-made ghosts is a good speculative theory, but not a great one.

If we assume, and we really should, that in order to be seen by people (especially in cases where these things are seen by more than one witness at a single time,) these things reflect or absorb light (making them visible,) then ghosts... or more correctly, apparitions need to have some form of atomic structure (or at least some sort of structure,) that plays against and with bands of light.

...but I had another rather important thought...

Much like when so-called sceptics (those who use the term "sceptic" but are usually little more than evangelical non-believers,) decree success on debunking all ghost sightings as the ghosts are "dressed" and how can clothes have a soul, (to which, the appropriate response is, "You're right... but this doesn't mean the sightings didn't happen... so the better question - rather than proclamation of non-existence based on a seeming logic flaw - is why ARE ghosts seen as clothed?") when the idea that atomic based matter can't "pass through" other solid atomic based matter and be seen by the naked eye (or without some seriously large equipment in terms of the neutrino... which shouldn't be able to be seen because of the problem with not being able to reflect/absorb light,) proves there's no such thing as ghosts... the question might NOT be, "Why do they then?"... but "When has this been reported to have happened?"

...because the question I had was just that.

How many times has an apparition been reported being SEEN going THROUGH something.

Not hitting a wall or door and disappearing... Not suddenly appearing at a wall or door... but seen on one side GOING THROUGH to the other?

The answer seems to be... almost never.

Oh, there are the odd cases... but when examining multitudes of books and stories... all kinds of reports and data... and even going through our last decade's worth of reports, I couldn't find anything other than people saying an apparition "went through" a wall or door or whatever because it hit the obstacle and vanished... not because it was seen on both sides of the obstacle.

I found a grand total of two cases where something was "seen" on one side of something solid, then re-appeared on the other side. That's two out of literally thousands.

This is not to say those two were "wrong", but they are in a deep minority.

Now, I did discount people filming "video orbs" and smoke as those can be (and honestly are,) most often mistaken natural phenomena (video orbs are usually insects as they're wee points of light - from where the light was reflecting from them - and when they turn or "go behind" something or someone, they appear to some folks as going through... but that's almost impossible to verify that it was "through" rather than around...) and strictly went for reports containing a recognisable figure that was seen doing this... like a person, animal, or vehicle... and the findings, such as they are, do seem to stand.

So, do ghosts have some sort of "atomic mass"? Do they "pass though" things?

I guess these are questions that, hopefully, one day we'll have an answer for.