Ghosts Aren't Real: 4 Scientific Explanations for Paranormal Activity

Do you believe in ghosts? While wandering an old dark building at night can be creepy, we believe there's a scientific explanation for everything. Join Michael Aranda for a spook-tacular new episode of SciShow!

----------
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:

Avi Yashchin, Adam Brainard, Greg, Alex Hackman, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
----------
Sources:
------
Images:

[shadowprince]

I'm pretty positive that barn owls are a big reason/influence for many ghost sightings. The fly silently, are white with solid black eyes, screech/scream, like to be in old buildings, usually flee when humans get near, are found almost everywhere on earth and are nocturnal.

[xxXthekevXxx]

Ghost hunters: go to 1000 year old German castle

*_Tries to talk to the ghosts in English_*

[aste]

Growing up with some major anxiety, I turned to science, skepticism, and psychology. It was like shining a flashlight on the fears, helping me realize how exaggerated and likely to provably false they were, and leading me back to reassuring grounding in reality.

[HermanVonPetri]

I love it when those ghost hunter shows get excited by the spike on the EMF sensor just as the guys recording the show come in for a closer look carrying their digital cameras, microphones, battery packs, and lighting rig.

[keejinjohanson]

I don’t believe in ghosts. Until I’m alone In the dark, then I’m a little more open minded.

[danielm.]

"Sophisticated Bad Dreams" would be a great name for a band...

[LoraCoggins]

Buzzfeed Unsolved: hunts for ghosts
SciShow: _I'm about to end this man's whole career_

[JeremyWinfreeDev]

Sawmill ghosts always bragging about how many cows they have 🙄

[KRJayster]

Sleep paralysis is terrifying. I’ve had a few minor versions, but only one of the classical hallucination incidents. I was in my room, it was early morning, and I swore there was a demon or monster standing behind me, whispering in my ear words I couldn’t understand but I KNEW that if I turned around it would kill me. I “woke up” crying and was a nervous wreck for the rest of the day, and i still think of it over a decade later. After that experience, I can totally understand where stories of demons and ghosts come from and became a part of our culture.

[fahrinurlaubvg]

"Magic is just science we don't understand yet." -Arthur C. Clarke

Right? 😉

[EyesOfByes]

6:37 I've had sleep paralysis. If it doesn't scare you shitless, it will at least f***k you up for the rest of the night.

[EverythingScience]

I saw the ghost of Michael on Vsauce 1 come back to life recently... Pretty spooky stuff

[Yarsig]

My mother is a massive ghost enthusiast. If anyone has ever known a ghost enthusiast, you'd know that no matter how many times you explain that there's a logical explanation to what was seen, it's met with "No, it's definitely a ghost!" or "I KNOW WHAT I SAW!"

[Coffee-hjdi]

I’ve had sleep paralysis once, it was so freaky and terrifying, but i already knew about the concept so when I woke up I got excited that I was able to experience it

[Matthewn]

"It's not a ghost" is something that a ghost would want you to think

[andreapildis]

I had sleep paralysis once about 20 years ago. Back then, I had NO idea that sleep paralysis even existed. I had the whole gamut of hallucinations. It was absolutely terrifying! I abruptly woke from a nightmare and just laid there. I started feeling a tingling sensation in my feet and it slowly worked it's way all the way up my body until it got to my ears. Once it reached my ears, I started hearing a weird sound, like water flowing through pipes...After that, I felt people poking me through the blankets, repeatedly...then I felt someone messing with the blankets at my feet. It felt more mischevious to me than anything, like little kids playing a game or something. I don't remember being super scared at that point...just having a WTF moment...But then a woman came right up to my face and stared at me...she looked like me, but she had a super stern look on her face and she was completely gray..like out of a black and white film. THAT was scary. Then it all went away. I remember lying there thinking "OMG, I have to get up and walk across the room to turn the light on!!"...I didn't sleep in my bed for about 6 months after that. I was absolutely petrified it would happen again...Sleep paralysis is no joke.

[Simon-owtd]

I regularly have sleep-paralysis. It sucks, but once you recognize it, it is way easier to deal with.

It is probably different for everyone, but my best tip is to keep your eyes closed at all times to make it easier to not panic about the things you experience, and to start working on wiggling your toes and fingers until you can move again.

[morsecodereviews]

Funny you mentioned sleep paralysis. I figured out years later, THAT was what gave me multiple night terrors as a child. At least 4 times a week I'd partially wake up with a heavy feeling on my chest, unable to move, eyes barely open to spy a shadowy figure standing at the foot of my bed. Or even more terrifying was when it clung to the ceiling where the walls met...

[waxwinged_hound]

These scientific explanations actually changed my entire view of life. I used to believe in ghosts and an afterlife, but that was due to not having an explanation for certain "paranormal" things. When I first saw this video, I had to reckon with the realization that I was wrong. There is nothing to suggest that there is any sort of afterlife, or at least, nothing that can't be explained by non-paranormal things.
This has led to an existential crisis due to now believing that there is nothing after death. But it has also led to a stronger resolve to enjoy life as much as I can while I have it.

[twilafreek]

EMFs are my leading theory of why I was so anxious and convinced I was being haunted as a child until I simply moved my bedroom to another room in the house and then was totally fine. That bedroom was next to the furnace room in an old farm house and I'm pretty sure there must've been some weird vibrations going on in there, along with the added bonus of my brother telling me ghost stories all the time