Why Do We Believe in Ghosts?

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We all find it much easier to believe in things that we want to be true. Psychologists call this the ‘confirmation bias’, and it is particularly acute at a time of bereavement. Professor Christopher French, head of psychology at Goldsmiths College and co-editor of The Skeptic magazine, tells us: ‘It is common for people who have recently lost a partner to strongly feel their presence, be it a vision of that person sitting in their favourite chair, or the sound of their voice about the house.’ By believing in ghosts, we reassure ourselves that death isn’t the end.

Hallucinations are a well documented part of the grief process, and recent research suggests that those who have these experiences actually cope better than those who don’t. Some people feel that they see their loved one everywhere they go: in the street, at work, around the house − anywhere they spent time together. Studies show that the young are less likely to have hallucinations than the elderly, and the experiences increase in proportion to the length and ‘happiness’ of the relationship with the deceased. Thankfully, distressing experiences tend to be rare, and most people who feel another presence during bereavement find it comforting.

If they are so common and innocuous, why then is there such a taboo attached to grief hallucinations? People are often too embarrassed or scared to talk about their experiences for fear of appearing mentally destabilised by their loss. It is unlikely that hallucinations are disclosed to close friends or relatives, or even to physicians. Psychiatrist Dr Julian Bird of King’s College Hospital stresses that pseudo- hallucinations are a perfectly natural when grieving, and are not a condition that requires treatment. They are, however, quite emphatically not ghosts.

Another kind of hallucinatory experience that may feed into a belief in ghosts is Awareness during Sleep Paralysis, or ASP. This is a state somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, where the person is conscious but feels he or she cannot move. A considerable 40% of people in the UK have suffered from ASP at some stage in their lives; 5% of these report a strong sense of presence, be it visual, auditory, tactile, perhaps associated with smell or taste. These can include a glimpse of a lost loved one, the sound of footsteps, the touch of a hand, or in extreme cases, the sensation of being pulled out of bed.

Christopher French explains that paralysis is, in fact, something that we go through every night but are usually not aware of. ‘The muscles of the body are always paralysed during rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep, the stage of sleep associated with dreaming,’ he says. ‘This prevents the dreamer from actually carrying out the actions of the dream.’ Although research suggests only a small minority of ASP sufferers believe the cause to be paranormal, this still means that many thousands of people are attributing their experiences to ghosts.

Belief in ghosts is widespread. A poll carried out by MORI showed that 37% of British adults claimed to have personally experienced a ghost. The belief may seem illogical and untenable in the cold light of day, but scientifically it is also perfectly natural. Bereavement is one of life’s great and inevitable crises. The acute distress of mourning usually lasts from four to six weeks, but if the mourning has not been adequately resolved, prolonged depressive reactions may occur. Talking about hallucinatory experiences is a useful therapeutic tool to assist the bereaved person during their crisis. It might be better to take this route before calling up the ghost hunters.

Have you had experiences of ghosts? Do you think that ghost sightings are more than just figments of the imagination? Let us know below.