How science explains people's belief in ghosts
A young American woman went in search of a half-goat monster and died under the wheels of a train. About why you shouldn't look for ghosts on the railway overpass, what is the danger of the 16-minute films of 1988, and how science explains the behavior of people reacting to ghosts and spirits.
Rockel Bane, a 26-year-old American, went in search of the legendary half-goat monster - and was run over by a train, Discovery reports. The girl was not alone - her young man, who survived, went to look for the hero of the urban legend with her.
The couple in love decided to find and photograph a monster named Pope Lick - a half-man-half-goat with a body completely covered with wool.
According to legend, dating back to the 1940s, the creature lives under a railway overpass in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky.
Although it's already 2016, some Americans (mostly teenagers) like to gather on the overpass with cameras in hand and look for Pope Lick. Due to the acoustics in the nearby hills, approaching trains are very hard to hear. For this reason, in recent years, several Americans have already died under the wheels of a train or were seriously injured after jumping off an overpass while trying to dodge an approaching train.
At the same time, the following interpretation of events appears in a number of media outlets: the legendary monster (which, according to legend, has a very nasty character) meets potential victims, hypnotizes them and throws them off the overpass. Another option - Pope Lick "freezes" thrill-seekers (as a result of which they can not move either an arm or a leg) - and leaves in front of an oncoming train.
The last “victim” Pope Lika noticed the approaching train at the last minute - the guide also noticed a couple standing in the tracks. He tried to stop the train - but it was too late. The young man managed to jump off the overpass, but his beloved was confused - and found herself under the wheels of the train. Moments later, the victim died.
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By the way, a similar accident happened recently in North Carolina - a group of Americans went in search of a "ghost train" - and one of the supernatural lovers was hit by a real train.
The deceased Rockel Bane is known to have loved the 1988 16-minute Pope Lick movie. Thanks to this short film, the urban legend became extremely popular among Americans - many girls and young people began to look for an encounter with the monster. Since the release of the film, the Kentucky state authorities have called it "provocative" and "harmful".
“I don’t understand why so many people believe in this urban legend,” comments one of the local residents. “And even more, I don’t understand why parents cannot explain to their children that they don’t need to walk on railway tracks at night.
The fact that a 26-year-old girl went to look for something non-existent is very strange."
Nevertheless, in our time there are many people who not only believe in the supernatural, but also claim to see ghosts and monsters. Scientists explain this as follows: sometimes a person becomes a victim of illusions and mirages, and some people tend to see the relationship and structure in random or meaningless data. For example, in natural education on Mars, some people see a human face, and recently a theory called "The Dark Side of the Rainbow" has become popular.
According to this theory, the album of the British band Pink Floyd "The Dark Side of the Moon" and the movie "The Wizard of Oz" completely coincide and become a single work of art if you turn on the music immediately after the lion growls from the Metro-Goldwyn screensaver for the third time -Mayer.
Although there is no scientific evidence for the existence of ghosts or the phenomenon of reincarnation, the media constantly reports that someone has again encountered a deceased relative or confirmed that after death a person possesses a new body.
So, the Canadian-American psychiatrist Ian Stevenson for 40 years studied the alleged cases of rebirth, compared the birthmarks and birth defects of children and the deceased who had moles and scars in the same places.
Scientists immediately stated that the psychiatrist is engaged in pseudoscience, however, there is now a whole crowd of Stevenson's followers who do not stop their activities just because many people continue to believe in the supernatural.
An illusionist, Nikolai Fomushin, a mentalist and magician, a member of the expert council of the Harry Houdini Prize, told Gazeta. Ru the science department about belief in the paranormal: “There is always the area of the rational and the area of the irrational. There is something that people want to test, and there is something that people want to believe. People want a miracle. Go online and there will be many sites like "Lose weight by 15 kg in a week." Everyone understands that this is impossible, but such sites will always be relevant - because it is human nature to look for some kind of magic pill. If you have problems in business, then it is rational to say: "I have no entrepreneurial streak" or "I did not have enough knowledge." But this is difficult, it requires work on yourself. And you can say "jinxed" - it's much easier that way. People are constantly trying to absolve themselves of responsibility.
Unmarried girls say: "I have the crown of celibacy." But more often than not, the point is different - in uncertainty, unwillingness to take care of yourself and exclamations like "love me as I am."
It would be nice to spend money on yourself, to become more educated, slimmer, more well-groomed, but this is a way out of your comfort zone, work on yourself. It is easier to take the money to your grandmother, who will give you the amulet, say compliments, and assure that everything will be fine.
And regardless of how science develops, what we discover, the area of faith, the area of the irrational will still remain.
It should be added that the paranormal is now a big industry. It is heavily speculated on, you can make money on it. That is why everything supernatural is so popular these days."
By the way, earlier scientists conducted a test in which 10 mediums participated, and found out which areas of the brain are responsible for the perception of paranormal phenomena. Five of them were newbies and the other five were "experts." All mediums were injected with radioactive markers in order to track the activity of their brains during the session of "communication with spirits", when the subjects entered a state similar to a trance. To determine which areas of the mediums' brains are active during these processes and which are not, the subjects were "scanned" with a single-photon emission computed tomograph.
The researchers found that experienced mediums had lower levels of activity in the left hippocampus, right superior temporal gyrus, and frontal lobes of the anterior left cingulate gyrus and right precentral gyrus during "spirit communication" compared to their normal writing state. At the same time, novice mediums showed the opposite reaction - the activity of the same anterior regions of the brain during "spiritualistic sessions" was higher in them in comparison with the activity during normal writing.
According to scientists, "this was the first ever made neuroscience assessment of the state of trance into which mediums fall." It provided "some interesting data we need to improve our understanding of consciousness and its connection to the brain." "These findings deserve further study," the researchers add.
Ekaterina Shutova
