What Science & Quantum Physics Say About Whether Or Not Ghosts Are Real
How is this even possible?
Lario Tus / Shutterstock Many people have had paranormal experiences that they can't explain, while others are quick to dismiss that ghosts exist.
Ghosts are the visual essence of those who have “died.” You may not think about it, or you may not have ever told anyone because you're afraid of how they will respond.
While many seek professional help after seeing ghosts, most aren’t that fortunate, often telling their doctors or therapists, who mistake psychic vision for psychosis; the wrongful diagnosis, medication, and hospitalizations do more harm than they realize.
Are ghosts real?
In many cultures all around the world and throughout history, there has been a long-standing belief that a person's spirit can survive after death, transcending beyond the physical world.
Ghosts have been part of religion, folklore, and even the arts. And people who have had near-death experiences have said there is life after death, along with highly sensitive individuals whose empathic abilities allow them to see beyond the physical realm.
Despite there being some instances where alleged apparitions have appeared in film or photographs, the truth is that ghosts may exist, and they may not exist — we truly don't know.
Why do people believe in ghosts?
With ghosts such a prevalent part of entertainment (shows like "Ghost Hunters" and movies like "Paranormal Activity"), it's no surprise that 46% of Americans believe in ghosts. But the reason may not have anything to do with the media we consume.
The main reason people believe in ghosts is because of having an experience with the paranormal. Perhaps they are sensitive to otherworldly presences, they grew up in a home that was said to be haunted, or have captured spirits on film.
The good news is if you're one of the people who can see ghosts or sense this type of energy, we're scientifically beginning to understand how seeing a ghost may be possible.
You see, what’s happening is a paradigm shift in psychology. The same kind of shift that happened in physics after the discoveries in quantum physics. It’s just that it’s taken psychology over a century to catch up, and really, the shift is only now beginning.
So, what’s the deal? How are paranormal events related to science?
Well, the mainstream field of psychology has been based on the old (19th century and before) materialistic view of the world, that this material plane of reality is the only reality. This is what is referred to as old Newtonian physics.
And this is what most of us learned in school: that there are smaller and smaller physical building blocks out of which we are made. In fact, particle physicists specialize in hunting down and then finding smaller and smaller “particles.”
On the other hand, the new psychology is based on a more quantum understanding of the world, the view ushered in when quantum physics was born in the early 1920s. This is the science that is starting to help us understand that there is much more to our world that we can’t see (estimated between 93-99.9999 percent of reality), than what we can see.
For a clue as to how this is possible, consider that the visible part of the electromagnetic light spectrum is just a tiny sliver of the entire range of frequencies of light.
The visible portion is what we see in a rainbow, the red to violet light. Slower or faster vibration than that, and we can’t see it. (It's kind of like how dogs hear sounds we don’t hear, or hear sounds that too are out of our range).
What were those discoveries that led to more quantum physics? And how is this related to ghosts?
Here are 3 ways quantum science helps us understand the possibilities of ghosts:
1. In the search to find out what light is made of, we realized that light seems like a wave and a particle — it has a dual nature.
Kind of like when we have an adult and a young kid nature inside of us. Sometimes we behave more like the child, and sometimes we behave more like the adult.
It's the same with light. Sometimes it behaves more like we would expect a wave of light to move, but at other times, it looks more as if it were a particle or photon of light.
2. Whether light seems more like a wave or a particle depends on us.
Apparently, when we decide it moves like a wave, it does. When we decide it’s a particle, it is. This was called the “observer effect,” and launched a wave of new science, which began to take into account the role that our human consciousness plays in the creation of a physical reality.
The implications of this are huge, including how important each of us is in creating this world.
Even more mind-blowing is the finding that the observer effect works not only forward, but also backward in time. (And that both time and space are not absolute laws of nature that we once believed.)
3. The wave aspect seems to be the blueprint for the particle aspect.
This wave aspect is really about moving energy, and the patterns created when energy moves (look to the sky when a storm is forming, especially a tornado or hurricane, to get a deeper hint of this).
As it turns out, these wave patterns serve as a design template for the construction of the particle.
If you want to see a really great example, watch the video of “cymatics,” the work of Dr. Hans Jenny and his followers, and see how sound waves make patterns in various materials.
Now, realize that you have a wave-particle dual self, and that your wave self, the part of you that evidently exists first, is used as a template to make your body self. Starting to see what “ghosts” might really be?
It’s possible that ghosts are the wave essence of a human being. The body may be gone, but the energy waves live on.
And this wave pattern may be what some of you can see, who have clairvoyant sight. Furthermore, those who experience clairvoyance may simply be more gifted in detecting a broader bandwidth of energy frequencies than the rest of us.
Physicist William A. Tiller might call you “higher consciousness” because you have a greater channel capacity than most of us — kind of like the latest and greatest cable television ever.
So, if you see ghosts, know you're not alone and that there are many more transpersonal psychotherapists out there who believe you. We know you're likely not "crazy," just quantum — both in vision and in reality.
Valerie Varan, MS, LPC, NCC is a holistic counselor and coach, and the author of 'Living in a Quantum Reality: Using Quantum Physics and Psychology to Embrace Your Higher Consciousness.' Follow her on Facebook or learn more about her holistic psychotherapy practice on her website.