Ghosts are your mind trying to make sense of weird sensations

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The Conversation

Welcome to the Saturday edition of The Conversation U.S.’s Daily newsletter.

I’ve never seen a ghost. But about a fifth of Americans say they have. That’s many millions of people. That number gives me – a journalist who edits evidence-based science articles day in and day out – pause. What are all these people experiencing?

Setting aside the question of whether otherworldly spirits actually exist and can make themselves known, Wake Forest University psychology professor Melissa Maffeo has put a lot of thought into whether there are “perfectly ordinary explanations for seemingly extraordinary experiences.”

Maffeo walks through what she calls three “haunted factors” that could explain why, in the face of confusing or ambiguous feelings and experiences, someone might conclude that a supernatural explanation is the only one that makes sense. Overall, she writes, “belief in the paranormal is the glue that holds the haunted factors together to create the (mis)perception of a ghost.”

Seem logical to you?

This week we also liked stories about France’s history on slavery and abolition, using the concept of natural selection in engineering, and what forensic linguistics tells us about the phrase ‘86’ in the James Comey indictment.

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Maggie Villiger

Senior Science + Technology Editor
When you experience something that can’t easily be explained, do you think of the supernatural? Zeferli/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Is my brain wired to never see a ghost? A psychologist on three factors that make a paranormal experience more likely

Melissa Maffeo, Wake Forest University

The human mind is always searching for meaning in ambiguity. Could misinterpretations of the external world create the experience of the supernatural?
A sculpture by Fabrice Hyber in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris commemorates the abolition of slavery. Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images

The forgotten story of abolition in revolutionary France – the first emancipation

Jeremy D. Popkin, University of Kentucky

Decades before the United States, France outlawed slavery during the French Revolution – only to see it reimposed by Napoleon within a decade.
A bat hangs onto curtains in a home. Fermate/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Bat in the house? Here’s how to remove it safely

Tara Hohoff, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

A bat biologist walks through the steps for persuading a bat to leave your home, and what to do when a whole family decides to roost in your attic.

What’s wrong with how US and Uganda plan to stop Ebola spreading

Katrine L. Wallace, University of Illinois Chicago

Geography may not provide meaningful protection once an outbreak is already underway.

Blue Origin rocket exploded on launchpad, throwing the future of NASA’s Artemis program into question

Wendy Whitman Cobb, Air University

NASA has several contracts with Blue Origin as part of its Artemis program – this setback for the company could delay the program.

The sacred cloth at the center of the Hajj pilgrimage

Iqbal Akhtar, Florida International University

As millions gather for Hajj, they will circle the Kaaba, which is draped in the black cloth known as the kiswah – a sacred object shaped by centuries of faith, politics and power.

Trump administration pledges $100M in aid for Cuba, but only if Catholic or other faith-based groups distribute it

Dulce Suarez, Florida International University

The timing of the offer was thorny because it coincided with the US indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro.

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