The Leningrad biochemist Maria Valchikhina is trying to explain incomprehensible phenomena based on the laws of physics, biology, and mathematics.
Castle accident
“Once, traveling with friends in Estonia, we came across a dilapidated old castle,” recalls Maria Dmitrievna. “Built far from villages and roads, it was almost unknown to tourists. An elderly caretaker met us and led us through the damp, mysterious halls. Someone asked about ghosts.
“Only one lives here,” the caretaker replied casually, as if it were a question of a cat. "I've seen him a couple of times in an art gallery."
No one took these words seriously, and the caretaker, angry, invited us to go to the gallery at night. Two volunteered. Having lit a candle, they almost reached the second floor by touch. The flames wavered, huge, blurry shadows gliding along the walls, inducing fear. The gallery door opened with a piercing creak. Both volunteers were covered with cold sweat, their hands were trembling, they wanted to retreat, to run at breakneck speed. And suddenly - oh horror! - a white shapeless spot separated from one portrait and slowly moved towards the aliens. Two respectable, already middle-aged scientists ran without feeling their feet. They rushed into the caretaker's room, and from their pale, frightened faces it became clear that they had seen him.
This case became the reason for painstaking research work. Rereading literary, historical works, M. Valchikhina drew attention to three curious patterns. Firstly, our contemporaries tell about ghosts in the same way as they were described a hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago. Here, for example, is an excerpt from M. Lermontov's fantastic story "Shtose". The hero plays cards with a ghost. "What is it?" said Lugin, frightened and nodding to the left. Something white, indistinct, transparent swayed near him."
Very similar descriptions can be found in Gogol, Bryusov, Odoevsky, and even English literature is simply flooded with them. So, let's note - something vague. Let's go further. Ghosts settled only in certain places - castles, art galleries, artists' workshops, and especially near old paintings. And, finally, ghosts always preferred low light - a candle, embers, a dying torch … In Gogol's "Portrait" this detail is also noticed: the old man's features shifted only when the moonlight illuminated the room. It seemed to us - just a little more, and the secret will cease to be a secret. But the guess, like an inspiration, came later, in the holographic museum. Having been there, we assumed that the ghost is a holographic image.
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- But whose ?! - I was surprised.
- Human, - they answered me.
A retreat into physics
“The human body emits a wide range of electromagnetic waves,” says Maria Dmitrievna. - We were interested in waves in the range close to thermal radiation - with a frequency of 1-1011 hertz. This is the frequency of vibrations of charged cell membranes of all internal organs - kidneys, heart, lungs … They fluctuate in concert, or, as physicists say, coherently; However, we are more familiar with coherent radiation from technology - it is a laser beam. But it is he who creates the holographic image. So why not compare humans to a microwave-only laser. Of course, the analogy is crude, but clear.
To better understand this idea, it is necessary to make a digression. What does a hologram recording look like? It looks like an ordinary illuminated photographic plate. Only at high magnification, you can see the finest lines on it - thousands of stripes in every square millimeter. All information about the subject is encoded in them. As soon as the plate is illuminated, a three-dimensional image appears indistinguishable from the natural one. But if a person, like a laser, emits coherent waves, he can also record a hologram. A reasonable assumption? But on what? Didn't ghosts frighten people's imaginations long before the invention of photographic plates? Holograms can appear not only on photographic plates, but also on materials that are sensitive to temperature. True, the recording quality will be much worse, but the electromagnetic radiation will still leave traces. And we already said that it is close to heat,so it is captured by materials whose structure changes under the influence of heat. For example, quick-drying oil films, varnishes, paints, all kinds of canvas impregnations, and even blood. It was not for nothing that ghosts often appeared at the scene of the murder until the blood was washed away.
Such antediluvian holograms can last for centuries. Only strong heating can erase the recording. By the way, isn't that why fire has been considered purifying since ancient times?
Are ghosts emotions?
“If you don’t believe in ghosts, you will never see them,” continues Maria Dmitrievna. “Calm, balanced people, always knowing everything in advance, have never met wandering shadows. And only in a state of extreme excitement - in anger, fear, suffering, with excessive joy, a meeting is possible. The played out imagination has nothing to do with it. The fact is that the biochemical processes in the body are unstable, and electromagnetic radiation also changes. When a person is in an ordinary, calm state, he is able to leave a hologram on a suitable material. But it will be so blurry that no one will see it. A clear hologram is another matter. For her, it is necessary to tune all organs in a certain way. Let's say, bring the body into a special emotional and stressful state. Then there will be clear on the heat-sensitive surface,but so far an invisible trace.
In real life it happens approximately like this: the artist creates with enthusiasm, feels an unprecedented rise in vitality. Meanwhile, the paints are applied unevenly to the canvas, thinner layers dry faster, thick ones - slower. An uneven relief appears, which, like a sponge, "absorbs" electromagnetic waves emitted by the artist in a special emotional state. A century later, another person appears near the picture. He not only admires the painting, but after hearing enough stories about ghosts, he trembles with fear, especially if it happens at night. A kind of resonance arises, fine tuning to the same radiation frequency as the artist's. The hologram comes to life.
That is, if two scientists, traveling around the castle, had not been frightened in advance, they would not have seen anything. It is not mysterious figures that terrify, but, on the contrary, fear gives rise to vision. This is probably why the ancient spellcasters did not tolerate skeptical viewers. "Miracles happen where they are believed," wrote the French educator Diderot. To his words, you can add: and where they are most feared.
And why do we need a candle - a constant attribute of these meetings? Weak light makes the image clearer. After all, the heat flux from a candle, burning out coals, torches complements human radiation. They overlap and induce vision faster. However, the ghost can be seen on a clear sunny day. But for this, the light beam must pass through a light filter, say, stained glass. Then, in broad daylight, a vague, fluttering whitish spot appears - someone's ancient imprint, a faded hologram that has survived to this day. It seems that shamans and fortune tellers knew how to summon spirits. Their amulets are made of materials capable of focusing human radiation. These are crystals of table salt, soft alloys of some metals, natural minerals - sylvinite, fluorite … They, like lenses in a camera, make the image sharp.
Obtaining a clear hologram is extremely difficult. Its quality depends on many variable factors. So meeting with a ghost is still a rare accident.
From the book: "SECRETS OF THE TWENTY CENTURY". I. I. Mosin