All over the world, cultures believe in ghosts and spirits that survive the death of the physical body to live in another realm. The idea of the dead remaining on Earth in spirit is a popular trope in literature, and has featured in texts as renowned as the Bible and Macbeth. People may believe in ghosts for lots of reasons, such as the comfort it brings to consider that lost family members are with us in our time of need. So if there’s no evidence of ghosts or spirits, then why is it so common for people to wonder, “are ghosts real?”. It turns out that scientists have discovered lots of reasons why people might think they’ve had an encounter with a ghost. Sleep paralysis

Ghost hunters use many creative (and dubious) methods to detect the spirits' presences, often including psychics. Virtually all ghost hunters claim to be scientific, and most give that appearance because they use high-tech scientific equipment such as Geiger counters, Electromagnetic Field (EMF) detectors, ion detectors, infrared cameras and sensitive microphones. Yet none of this equipment has ever been shown to actually detect ghosts.In the folklore of the Igbo people , people are both physical and spiritual entities; it is their spiritual element that is abiding. Akan people imagine the human personality in five constituent parts: the body, the soul, the spirit, the character from the father, and the character from the mother. European folklore It’s been hugely exciting. The last 3 years have been a bit of a mad dream for me. I never anticipated that my podcasts would become as popular as they have. After The Battersea Poltergeist, I found myself in the surreal situation of fielding calls from Hollywood horror producers in my shed at the bottom of my garden in Walthamstow, and then, as Uncanny got popular too, watching this wonderful community build around it on social media, a group of people, some sceptics and some believers, who, unusually for the times we live in, agree to disagree but all enjoy the stories in their own way. Alongside the success of my play 2:22 – A Ghost Story in the West End and now on tour, I’ve found myself in this lovely, unexpected position of being described by newspapers as “the UK’s go-to ghost guy” and “High Priest of the Paranormal”, but I think really the popularity of what I do speaks to the huge interest in this subject matter at the moment. I’m talking about something that has obsessed me my whole life, but it feels like there is an audience of people out there who are equally fascinated. Shadow people are silhouettes of humanoid figures that are interpreted as the presence of paranormal or supernatural forces. The interactive personality Despite the fact that many people believe in ghosts, science overwhelmingly denies their existence; there is no evidence either that ghosts exist, or that a particular location is inhabited by spirits of the dead. What does paranormal mean? That vague criteria for ghostly happenings is part of the reason why myths about the afterlife are more alive than ever. The science and logic of ghosts

In addition to training the Defenders to be competitive runners, Coach also teaches them to work together as a team, helping them learn to be responsible and empathetic. What tactics does he use to teach these life lessons? Ghosts featured in Mesopotamian religions, and traces of these beliefs influence the subsequent Abrahamic religions that have shaped the modern world. Ghosts were believed to come into existence at the time of death, taking on the personality and memory of the deceased.Added to this, Riekki has found that believers may have weaker cognitive “inhibition”, compared to sceptics. That’s the skill that allows you to quash unwanted thoughts, so perhaps we are all spooked by strange coincidences and patterns from time to time, but sceptics are better at pushing them aside. Riekki gives the example of someone who is thinking about their mother, only for her to call two minutes later. “Is it just that sceptics can laugh and say it is just coincidence, and then think of something else?” he wonders. Significantly, another paper reported that paranormal believers also tend to have greater confidence in their decisions, even when they are based on ambiguous information. So once they have latched onto the belief, you might be less likely to let it go. If ghosts are real, and are some sort of as-yet-unknown energy or entity, then their existence will (like all other scientific discoveries) be discovered and verified by scientists through controlled experiments — not by weekend ghost hunters wandering around abandoned, supposedly haunted houses in the dark late at night with cameras and flashlights.

We can perhaps see the brain’s ability to “spot” illusory patterns in the response to the Ebola epidemic – such as the emergence of folk remedies (including the belief that drinking salt water is a cure), fears in the West that it will spread through air travel, and theories that it was created by industrialised governments. I remain objectively sceptical throughout all investigations and in hearing accounts of ghostly encounters. I am more swayed by the eyewitness testimony from others that my own experiences. For example, moments in “The Battersea Poltergeist” Case were genuine head-scratching moments. There have also been some Uncanny moments (including this series) that have pushed my sceptical armour to the max… Chapter 8 ends with Ghost saying, “And it felt good to feel like one of the teammates. Like I was there—really, really there—as me, but without as much scream inside.” Why are teams important? Have you ever been a part of a team? If so, how did your experience compare to Ghost’s experience? Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa - South Africa's oldest building had its first supposed ghost sighting in 1915 when a spectre of a tall gentleman was spotted jumping off the castle walls! There's even a bell tower that's thought to ring of its own accord. Alexandra Moon has a problem: her shadow has escaped! Set on the Valley View Farm, she must uncover the malevolent plot of the evil Ringmaster at the Halloween fair and solve the mystery of the missing shadows before it's too late.Uncanny is the TV incarnation of a podcast I have been making for the BBC for the last two years. It features real people telling me about experiences they’ve had that they feel could be paranormal. Each episode features a new story, told by the person it happened to; ordinary people who have experienced the extraordinary. I guess the major difference between us and pretty much any other paranormal show out there is that our audience is divided equally between believers and sceptics. There are detective stories – if you are a sceptic, it’s a howdunnit, you can try to figure out if you think the ‘haunting’ could have been caused by environmental or psychological factors, and if you are a believer, it’s a whodunnit – you want to know who is the ghost and why are they there. Personal experience is one thing, but scientific evidence is another matter. Part of the difficulty in investigating ghosts is that there is not one universally agreed-upon definition of what a ghost is. 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 instead telepathic entities projected into the world from our minds. Wallace's sphinx moth: The long-tongued insect predicted by Darwin a century before it was discovered Twinkl Originals stories are designed to inspire learning for children aged 0-12. Below are a couple of spooky stories that are great to introduce children to paranormal and supernatural themes! The Curse of Cogston House If someone hands you an electronic device to sense aghost, then they’re probably doing it to get your money during aghosttour," Hupp said.

Jason Reynolds uses world records as a framing motif in the novel. Research world records and create a poster about some of the most interesting world records that you find. If you were going to try to break a world record, which one would you attempt? There’s still so much to this universe that we don’t understand, and it’s comforting to fill in the void with explanations. Supernatural explanations are often stated with confidence, even when there’s no actual evidence, and this confidence provides a false sense of actual truth," Hupp said.Jason Reynolds Grab the Mic Tell Your Story educator guide for middle school (pdf) High Resolution Images Ancient Romans believed that ghosts could be invoked to inflict revenge on enemies; to do so, they would inscribe a curse on a piece of lead and place it into a grave. There are several supernatural accounts from the time, detailing haunted houses and ghost sightings. What do you think Ghost means when he tells Coach, “I guess the only other person I’m really scared of, maybe . . . is me”? How does Coach respond? Do you think Ghost is hard on himself? Our hope is that scientific explanations of paranormal experiences might help others by lowering anxiety. The show spawned dozens of spinoffs and imitators, and it's not hard to see why the show is so popular: the premise is that anyone can look for ghosts. The two original stars were ordinary guys (plumbers, in fact) who decided to look for evidence of spirits. Their message: You don't need to be an egghead scientist, or even have any training in science or investigation. All you need is some free time, a dark place, and maybe a few gadgets from an electronics store. If you look long enough any unexplained light or noise might be evidence of ghosts.