American scientists named the effect of molds on the brain as the reason for the encounters with ghosts in old mansions.
To test their hypothesis, engineers at Clarkson University, New York, are gathering in homes across the state, which are rumored to have been ghosts. They will be compared to buildings where there was no paranormal activity. The project is reported in a press release from the university.
According to scientists, houses, where ghosts were often met, are distinguished by indoor air pollution and this is primarily due to toxic mold. Some molds cause mood swings, tantrums and distorted perceptions of the world.
However, if the link between mold and allergies and asthma is undeniable, then its effect on the psyche is still poorly understood. It is known, for example, that in mice, the mold Stachybotrys chartarum causes brain inflammation, memory loss, and increases feelings of anxiety.
To investigate the hypothesis of a link between molds and ghosts, Professor Shane Rogers and his students began monitoring the air conditions in various buildings in New York State where people were observing paranormal phenomena. The scientist decided to compare air samples in these mansions and in ordinary houses to check how different the species diversity of the mold is. The results of the study are planned to be presented by the end of summer 2015.
Black mold Stachybotrys chartarum
Scientists have already taken air samples from two houses with a "suspicious" reputation. Workers in one of the mansions, converted into an office building, talk about strange noises, moving objects on shelves and tables, and also about the feelings of anxiety experienced by the people who are there. Another building (the Remington Museum of Art in Ogdensburg) has long been a haunted house.
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In November 2014, Swiss neurophysiologists proposed a different explanation for the paranormal. They associated the feeling of the presence of invisible beings (ghosts, angels or demons) next to a person with distortions of the sensory-motor signals of the brain.
Such signals are involved in the formation of a person's self-awareness, collecting information about his movements and the location of the body in space.
