Next Subject: Ghosts?

Secular Theories, Technology and Truth:

Now for anyone who's watched "UFO Files" or "Ghost Hunters" or anything like that; it's easy to say that what has been caught on tape is "ambiguous" at best. Some times it's easy to see the footage has been tampered with. Sometimes there is a reasonable geologic or physics explanation for an occurrence. (I'll cover some of these in a minute.) Other times though, I see things caught on tape and I scratch my head: What is that really?

I've seen a couple of episodes on "Ghost Hunters" that fall into the last category for me. As per my opinion of that particular program; it seems to me that most of the paranormal investigators featured on "Ghost Hunters" are basically honest people. Of course the show has a fair amount of interpersonal drama among the members of the team, but I think that's one of the elements that draws people to these quasi-reality TV shows in the first place. Some of the footage that has been shown on "Ghost Hunters" though, has raised the question for me as to whether or not the supernatural realm is actually "able to be photographed" and / or caught on other such devices we posses in this physical world?

Chapter two of this study brought up the question of "Quantum Transportation", as a scientific theory of being able to "teleport" biological entities from one place in the universe to another. The idea was raised that non-carbon based life forms may be able to "put on" carbon-based elements so as to appear in physical form in the material world. If this is indeed the case and is indeed what happens, than yes, it would make sense that you could photograph them in various states of materialization. Now is that what is actually happening in some of the footage on shows like "Ghost Hunters"? I don't know.

Before I get into talking about Biblical theories related to ghosts, angels and demons, I want to talk a bit about some of the more common phenomena that happens on some of these paranormal investigative shows.

Light Orbs and Electromagnetic Fields:

Many times, the presence of orbs of light is attributed to spirits haunting an area. These little orbs are frequently captured on camera. If you are walking in the woods, you may encounter them. I encountered a quite large one that flew past my head one evening in my living room. They make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and they can be a little unnerving to encounter. So, what are they?

These little orbs or balls of light are a geological phenomena. What they actually are, is balls of electromagnetic energy. The earth has an electromagnetic field and when the tectonic plates move, electromagnetic energy is released. Much like lightning that needs certain atmospheric conditions to "make lightening appear". These balls of electromagnetic energy need certain conditions to be made visible. This is why they are more common in wooded and rural areas than in cities. The fact that its usually darker in these areas and they are easier to see is another factor.

Now these balls of electromagnetic energy have a tendency to collect in areas where there is seismic activity. Earthquakes run the gambit of "1" on the Richter Scale to "10". You have to get up to about "3" or "4" before you can even feel an earthquake. So when these light orbs are present, if you look on a geological map, you will see that they congregate in areas where the earth's crust is thinner.

So what happens to a human being who gets too close to one of these light orbs and it passes through your body? Because we are also electrically charged (all organic life is); if you get in a certain range of free floating electromagnetic energy, you will draw it too yourself. The process is similar to being struck by lightening, although since electromagnetic fields aren't hardly as intense as lightening, people walk away with welts and discomforted feelings of "something passed through me". Now being struck by electromagnetic energy, depending on where it entered and exited your body, can cause you to hallucinate. People can walk through these fields and not even realize they've done so, because electromagnetic energy has varying degrees of strength. If the field is very weak and passed through the visual cortex, you may think you saw something running through the trees. If it's very strong it may knock you out. It depends on where you are in relation to the source and timing of the energy release.

Add to this scenario; electronic equipment. There are devices that can tell you where electromagnetic energy fields are and if you are carrying one of these devices looking for increase and or decrees in readings; if you "hit the right spot" you are going to get "zapped". Anyone who watches these paranormal investigative shows has seen this. It happens quite frequently. Sometime I wonder how much some of these paranormal investigators really know about physics? They didn't get "bit by a ghost" but by an electromagnetic energy field.

Another thing that's "worth knowing" when it comes to electromagnetic fields is that electrical wiring that you encounter in buildings creates its own fields. It's no accident that "haunted buildings" are usually old. One thing contractors may do when working on an old building is to take an electromagnetic energy detection device to see if old wiring is emitting a field. If it is, this tells the the contractor that the wiring is still "hot" and was never properly disconnected from the electrical intake. Old "knob and tube" wiring is notorious for this type of thing.

Another factor for electromagnetic fields is that they tend to be strongest on the poles of their energy source. Guess what that means when translated into building terms. You got it, the strongest electromagnetic energy readings are going to be in basements and attics.

For example, there was one episode of "Ghost Hunters" where the team was investigating the armory in Buffalo NY. In one scene, the crew was walking a catwalk over the main armory floor accompanied by a couple of soldiers. One of the cameramen was walking behind everyone else when his camera bag suddenly flew up and hit him in the head. I'd stopped the video and watched it several times. I did not come off with the impression that the event was staged. The cameraman's arms were by his sides and he had something in each hand. It was obvious that he did not do this to himself; so what happened?

The best explanation I could come up with, was that obviously he had camera equipment in this bag. Camera equipment is made out of metal. Was there something in this camera bag that was magnetic, which would have had a strong reactive interaction by passing through a magnetic field, which could have caused the camera bag to move by itself? I don't know? He fell over, hit his head on the catwalk and obviously was injured, so the people with him appropriately stopped to aid him. If I'm remembering correctly, I believe he also had a welt on his back / shoulder which was interpreted as a "ghost bite". Obviously some sort of electrical charge had passed through his body.

Now finally, I touched on this a bit earlier when talking about magnetic fields passing through humans; but what do you suppose is the most common things people "see" when hallucinating from such an encounter? The answer is: "Grey forms that look like people." Yes, these may be interpreted at ghosts, aliens, angels or devils depending on the person's belief system. It's very well known in the circles of geologists who monitor seismic activity, that there's always an increase in sighting of ghosts, aliens, angels and devils just before and just after an earthquake.

Since this was something geologists picked up on, a university decided to test this theory and asked for participants who did not believe in ghosts and had not experienced anything they considered paranormal or supernatural. Electromagnetic energy can be created in a laboratory, so the researchers put helmets with electrodes attached on the subjects heads and began passing electromagnetic energy through their brains. The first thing they reported is feeling paralyzed. Next was the feeling that someone or something was in the room with them and finally they began to see gray humanoid forms. All of them experienced the same phenomenon, which gives some explanation to the common elements reported in "alien abduction" stories.

Now, electromagnetic energy fields are not the only thing that can cause this type of hallucination; epileptic seizures can also. Basically, epilepsy is where the internal electrical signals in the brain go haywire. Something triggers a discharge that sends a shock-wave through the brain (or through part of the brain). If these shock-waves last 10 seconds or longer, they will produce what is recognized clinically as "a seizure". Now anyone who knows anything about epilepsy knows there's all kinds of seizures. What the body does during a seizure depends on where the discharge passes through the brain and how much of the brain is affected by the discharge. Some parts of the visual cortex will produce what looks like flashing lights to the person experiencing the electrical interference. Other parts of the visual cortex will produce hallucinations that look like gray people. With the exception of watching a laboratory experiment, I've only ever witnessed this happen to one person. The person was my son. He was 8 years old, had just gone to bed and suddenly started screaming that there were gray people in his room. Now it could have been some free form electromagnetic field passing through his bedroom, but given the kid has epilepsy; I'd put my money on a seizure.

EVP – Electronic Voice Phenomena:

This is another thing seen in paranormal investigations. It is a device that records background noise in which investigators hope to pick up "spirit voices". Now the spirits are never very talkative. They only usually say one or two words and it's not like you can have conversions with them. Some of the natural explanations for EVP recordings are interference with radio transmissions and the fact that the human mind tends to look for patterns in random elements, so thus such recordings are interpreted as voices. This is likely true for most of these EVP recordings, although it may not be the case for all of them. I don't know? This to me is more of a questionable source than some of the video footage I've seen on "Ghost Hunters".

So, given the possibility that some of the footage caught may be real; lets start taking a look at this from the perspective of Scripture.