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1:20

This is Strange and Unusual Headlines.

1:23

And welcome to this week's headline. Scientist

1:26

Proves Ghosts Real. Haunted

1:29

Houses? Lots of them.

2:03

The Toronto

2:05

Star Weekly, April 5, 1924

2:12

Headline, Scientist

2:14

Proves Ghosts Real Haunted

2:17

Houses, Lots of Them Sub

2:21

headline, La Marillon,

2:23

famous French astronomer, has

2:26

given Paris sleepless nights

2:28

by compiling thousands of

2:31

authentic cases of weird and

2:33

startling doings of spirits. Paris

2:38

is said to be having sleepless

2:40

nights since a book on haunted

2:42

houses by the famous French

2:44

astronomer Camille La Marillon

2:47

appeared there recently. In

2:50

it he has compiled 5,690 authentic

2:52

cases. In

2:58

this article he tells some

3:00

of the things that make him believe in

3:02

ghosts. By

3:05

Camille La Marillon, founder

3:07

of the Astronomical Society of France.

3:12

Article

3:15

May one believe in haunted houses? Many

3:20

are the credulous and feeble-minded

3:22

who believe in them, you say. And

3:25

from these persons one hears

3:27

all sorts of old women's tales

3:30

to make the hair of little children stand

3:33

on end in terror. But

3:36

putting these stories aside, can

3:39

the thinking man of science believe in

3:41

haunted houses? I

3:43

believe in them. I believe

3:46

they have existed and continue to exist.

3:50

They have been noted in all ages and

3:52

in all countries. But

3:55

before going any further, it is

3:57

necessary to remark that the subject

4:00

Intellect of haunted house is open to all

4:02

kinds of trickery, and

4:04

has lent itself easily to

4:06

the projects of Roskles, who

4:09

have wished to impose with more

4:12

or less stupid farce upon

4:14

the average dull intellect of mankind

4:17

down through the ages. In

4:21

all times and in all tongues

4:23

are stories of haunted houses, but

4:27

one can discredit most of them. Some

4:31

have been the result of hallucinations, illusions

4:34

due to hysteria. Others

4:38

have been reported by the lively imaginations

4:41

of little children. Some

4:44

have arisen from the crafty designing

4:47

of a selfish interest. For

4:50

instance, houses are known

4:52

to have been endowed with an evil legend

4:55

in order that some shrewd

4:57

fellow might buy them at a low

4:59

price. Trickeries

5:02

have been practiced in so-called haunted

5:04

houses by persons bearing

5:06

grudges against the proprietors

5:09

or occupants. There

5:12

are a thousand reasons why at first

5:14

glance any story of a haunted

5:16

house be deemed suspect. Therefore

5:21

it was with a skeptical spirit that

5:23

I approached the subject of haunted houses.

5:26

But after examining many hundreds

5:29

of these stories, I have reached the conclusion

5:31

that haunted houses exist. Perhaps

5:35

as many real ones as false. Persons

5:39

should not scoff at the existence of

5:41

real ones because they have met so

5:44

many false ones. The

5:47

fact that false banknotes exist

5:50

does not prevent real ones from existing

5:52

too. In

5:54

examining the testimony about haunted

5:56

houses, I found that some of

5:58

it came from men who devoted

6:00

their lives to the study of science

6:03

and the truth. I

6:05

hold the testimony of man of this kind

6:08

valuable. They

6:11

are, by the very nature

6:12

of their calling, sincere,

6:14

not apt to lie.

6:17

Here is an example of a haunted

6:19

house, carefully set forth by

6:22

the observer himself.

6:24

An observer who is a professor

6:27

of mathematics in a French university,

6:31

and whom I know to be sincere and truthful.

6:34

Listen to his own account. Quote,

6:39

I

6:41

have kept secret for more than twenty years. The

6:44

strange unheard of facts that

6:46

I am now detailing with careful accuracy.

6:49

In

6:52

the early days of 1867, I was

6:54

a public instructor and was then

6:57

twenty years old.

7:00

My home, situated about forty

7:02

meters from the parish church, was

7:04

an old presbytery which had been

7:07

turned over to me completely. It

7:10

had been in a bad state every pair

7:12

in 1865,

7:13

and

7:15

had been overhauled thoroughly in 1866

7:19

to provide for my coming. It

7:22

had upon my arrival all

7:24

the appearance of a newly constructed

7:26

house. The

7:29

ground floor was too low to be lived

7:31

in, but it served me as cellar

7:34

and ruched. It

7:37

was connected with the second floor by a

7:39

large oak staircase. At

7:42

the foot of the staircase were two doors,

7:44

one leading outside and the other

7:47

into this semi-basement which

7:49

had no other entry. I

7:52

never used the stories above the

7:53

second. I lived there

7:56

exclusively in company with my brother,

7:58

who today is

7:59

professor of mathematics at

8:02

the Belfort Lyceum and

8:04

my sister Francois.

8:05

Our apartment

8:07

was composed of four

8:09

very large rooms. There

8:12

was a kitchen, which also served

8:14

as dining room, and there were three

8:16

bedrooms. The school

8:19

was not part of the old presbytery,

8:21

but was back of it, a new building

8:24

built in

8:31

Evenings, we usually went to bed about nine

8:33

o'clock, and we usually

8:35

rose in the morning at six. Before

8:38

retiring, I always closed carefully

8:41

all the doors leading to the outside

8:43

and the door got led downstairs

8:45

to the ground floor. Knocks

8:49

and table heard. I

8:53

had neither cat nor dog, nor

8:55

birds in a cage. The

8:58

house having just been repaired, the

9:00

animals of the neighborhood were not allowed

9:02

to enter it. I

9:05

ought to tell you before entering into the

9:07

heart of my recital that I am going

9:09

to disguise my name and my present

9:11

residence. This

9:14

story is confidential as far

9:16

as my public identity is concerned. One

9:20

night in April 1867, I

9:23

was awakened and startled by

9:26

a singular noise.

9:28

Hard blows were being struck upon the

9:31

table and staid toward in the kitchen, as

9:33

if someone was wielding a stout stick

9:36

upon them,

9:37

sometimes holding the stick horizontally

9:40

and sometimes vertically.

9:43

I listened. Pan, pan,

9:45

pan.

9:46

In silence,

9:48

and some instance later, pan, pan,

9:51

pan. A

9:54

strange thing, but I felt no

9:56

fear. I was puzzled. I

9:59

quickly looked. I lighted a candle, leaped

10:01

from my bed, crossed my chamber

10:04

in the hall, and entered the kitchen.

10:08

I saw nothing unusual there and

10:10

heard not the slightest

10:11

noise. I

10:14

went down the staircase. The

10:16

two doors at the bottom were closed, locked

10:19

with keys, and the keys

10:21

were in their locks undisturbed.

10:25

No human being could have gone through

10:27

those doors and left them locked

10:29

with the keys on the inside that way.

10:33

And I had not dreamed about the noise. I

10:36

went back to the kitchen. I

10:38

opened a sideboard and looked

10:40

within. Nothing

10:42

unusual. By

10:45

the light of the candle I looked

10:47

into the stove and then up the chimney.

10:52

The tiles which kept rain from

10:54

falling upon the hearth and

10:56

at the same time let the smoke upward

10:59

were in their proper place. Again

11:02

I crossed the kitchen and the corridor.

11:05

I entered the sleeping rooms of my sister

11:08

and brother and found them sleeping

11:10

peacefully. I

11:12

must have dreamed, I said to myself. I

11:15

went back to bed but hardly had I

11:17

blown out my candle when the noise began

11:20

again. Pan, pan,

11:22

pan. Then the plates

11:24

began to rattle in their racks and

11:27

the knives, forks, and spoons

11:29

to dance in their places. And

11:32

then the chairs to slide about

11:34

and jump. That

11:36

lasted until about three o'clock in the morning.

11:40

The same noises were renewed the

11:42

following nights for two weeks.

11:52

Nevertheless, every morning

11:54

when I arose I found everything

11:57

intact. Everything

11:59

in its place.

12:00

and seemingly just as it was

12:03

when we had gone to bed.

12:05

This surprised me, for the glasses

12:08

and plates had been dancing during the night in

12:10

a way that should have reduced

12:12

them to small chips. Only

12:15

once the chair was found tipped over, a

12:18

napkin which had been thrown over the

12:20

back of it had been tossed half a

12:22

meter away. For

12:28

the first time since the beginning of these

12:30

strange manifestations, a

12:32

shiver of horror and fear crept

12:35

over me.

12:36

I felt it gripping me, absurdly,

12:39

unreasonably.

12:41

I will confess it to anyone.

12:44

I was terribly frightened. A

12:48

little later, before going to bed,

12:50

I had been drinking some sugar and

12:53

water. The

12:55

coffee spoon, which I had used to stir

12:57

the sugar, I left in the glass.

13:01

Under it, I left a little note on

13:03

which I had written these words. If

13:07

it is ghosts which are making this uproar,

13:10

I beg of them to keep quiet

13:12

and let us sleep. For

13:15

more than three hours that spoon was rattled

13:18

in the glass, with intermittent

13:20

intervals of scarcely a minute.

13:24

One time at least, and I believe

13:26

twice, the glass seemed

13:28

to roll along the table back

13:31

and forth without rolling off the end

13:33

and breaking. But

13:36

when I arose the next morning, I found

13:38

the glass, the spoon,

13:39

and the note,

13:41

left exactly as they had been placed

13:43

the evening

13:43

before.

13:45

Another night, three blows like

13:48

those of a stick sounded upon

13:50

the edge of my bed.

13:52

That was a night when I had at first induced

13:55

a friend to come sleep with me.

13:58

He heard the blows and said,

13:59

I really believe you

14:02

have infernal powers and are making

14:04

this Shivavari yourself." This

14:08

friend has signed a statement corroborating

14:11

the

14:11

professor's story.

14:19

An explicable uproar. Another

14:24

night I heard footsteps in the kitchen.

14:29

Slowly and firm. But

14:31

on arising could find nothing. Nor

14:35

could I hear any further noise. Another

14:38

night when I returned home later

14:40

than usual, my brother

14:42

from his room heard footsteps in

14:44

my room. Believing

14:47

that I had returned, he called out to me

14:49

to go to bed and let him get some sleep.

14:53

When I finally did return, he called

14:55

out to me again. Are you

14:57

never going to bed? Here you've been keeping

15:00

me awake for an hour. I

15:03

answered him that I was just returning but said

15:05

I understood that he had been kept awake.

15:08

For as I came up the stairs I heard someone

15:11

walking in the kitchen. By

15:14

this time, this inexplicable

15:16

uproar of nights had begun to worry

15:18

me so much that I decided

15:20

to speak to the village priest about it. That

15:24

good man received my declaration

15:26

with more indifference, apparently,

15:29

than concern. All

15:32

that is without great importance, he said.

15:34

The house is old.

15:36

It is a long time since it was blessed. As

15:39

the noise continues, I will come around

15:41

and bless the house and pray that the

15:43

noise may stop. Then

15:46

perhaps you will not hear

15:47

it anymore.

15:49

But I did and called in the priest.

15:53

He blessed the house and prayed. And

15:56

after that, the noise never occurred

15:58

again. Now

16:00

that is very strange too, but

16:03

it is not more strange nor more

16:05

astonishing than that the noises

16:07

should have happened at all. Professor

16:15

whom I know who wrote this article adds

16:18

to it corroboration from reputable

16:20

persons including the village priest.

16:22

I have their evidence in my

16:25

home,

16:26

but it is useless to reproduce it

16:28

here.

16:33

This is perhaps one of the strangest cases

16:36

that seems to be proved. The

16:39

house was in the route d'etnevers

16:41

near the Sorbonne in Paris. A

16:45

hail of projectiles including paving

16:47

stones and huge stone blocks

16:50

which could not be thrown by human hands

16:53

rained on the swelling uninhabited

16:55

at the time. They

16:58

broke the windows and fell like shells into

17:00

most of the rooms. The

17:04

police surrounded the house to see that nobody

17:07

in neighboring houses could be responsible

17:09

for what was taking place. Even

17:13

while the police caught on was guarding

17:15

the premises however the phenomenon

17:18

continued with unabated intensity.

17:22

When the windows were closely shuttered the

17:24

stones assumed long flat shapes

17:27

so that they could enter through the smallest

17:29

slits between the slits. Not

17:33

till the house was torn down did

17:36

the mysterious bombardment cease. Raining

17:40

heavy stones. A

17:43

rain of heavy stones was the prelude

17:45

to a shower of Belgian coins

17:48

into the courtyard of another house in

17:50

France. Police

17:53

and judiciary authorities also

17:56

threw a court on of guards around this place

17:58

to preclude any chance of fraud.

18:02

No sooner had the coins began to

18:04

fall than a calendar placed

18:07

over the chimney in the dining room mysteriously

18:09

fell to the floor, followed

18:12

immediately afterwards by the jumping

18:14

around the room of shoes placed near the

18:16

door. And

18:19

all this took place in the presence

18:21

of many witnesses in broad daylight.

18:30

At night the owner of the house decided

18:32

to keep a strict watch.

18:35

Although he kept his candle burning and sat

18:37

perfectly still on his chair, first

18:40

a chandelier fell off the chimney and

18:42

as he stopped to pick it up a second

18:44

one hit him heavily on the back. This

18:48

continued uncannily throughout

18:50

the whole night. The

18:53

next morning the owner's wife while

18:55

sweeping the same room screamed

18:57

when two knives planted themselves

18:59

in the floor while another embedded

19:01

itself in a ceiling

19:03

with an ominous lid.

19:07

How she received warning of the death

19:10

of a dear personal friend is told

19:12

by a young woman who writes

19:14

a met as follows. I

19:18

was 25 when I first met my friend.

19:22

He was a poor man but we loved

19:24

each other tenderly. One

19:28

day my friend came to me and told

19:30

me that he wanted to marry someone else.

19:34

I gave him his full liberty although

19:37

my feelings were

19:38

very much hurt.

19:40

He then married and I never saw him

19:42

again. Seven

19:45

years later one night I dreamed

19:47

I saw a human form walked into my

19:50

room wrapped in a white mantle

19:53

almost completely hiding the face. Terror

19:57

stricken I saw the form advance towards

19:59

my bed and bend over me and

20:02

kiss me ardently on the mouth. I

20:06

jumped out of my bed. The

20:08

human form had disappeared, but the kiss

20:11

I received I will always remember. I

20:14

felt no pressure of any kind, no

20:17

movement, but the kiss was a cold

20:19

one.

20:20

I felt like the kiss of a dead person.

20:23

Only afterwards I fell asleep

20:27

and dreamed no more of this apparition, but

20:29

all the next morning I thought of it and

20:32

felt nervous. That

20:35

noon I read in a newspaper that

20:37

my friend had been buried the previous

20:39

day. Experts

20:42

who investigated this strange event refused

20:44

to classify it as a mere coincidence

20:48

or a pre-sentiment. They

20:50

honestly believed that it was the spiritual

20:52

form of the dead person on electric

20:55

currents.

20:56

One is led to make the assertion that

20:59

today there are thousands of such cases.

21:05

One bases this theory on the

21:07

example of wireless telegraphy.

21:11

Electric currents passing through the air convey

21:14

the thoughts and wishes of departed ones

21:17

about whom the dying persons were thinking

21:19

in their last moments. Wireless

21:22

offers a physical comparison showing

21:25

us with what speed transmission

21:28

of these messages is possible. This

21:30

case occurred after death, but

21:33

here is the story of an event which

21:35

warned a person of what he was to

21:37

see

21:37

in the near future.

21:42

Although this event does not give one

21:44

a blood-curdling impression, it is

21:47

worthy of note as showing that

21:49

there is some mysterious

21:51

force about which scientists

21:53

can know very little. In

21:55

this case, the dreamer saw himself

21:58

going to school and having to Ross

22:00

a famous square. Before

22:02

he reached the square, he saw a small

22:04

dog being chased by a group of children

22:07

in a street hawker's cart, ambling

22:10

along while employees of large stores

22:12

were settling out their wares

22:15

on the sidewalk. The

22:17

dreamer had never been near the square,

22:19

but out of curiosity he

22:21

went there the following morning. As

22:24

he approached it, he saw the dog and

22:26

the hawkers just as he had seen

22:28

them in his dream.

22:30

Similarly he puts forward his

22:33

strong belief that some mysterious force

22:35

does really exist which causes

22:37

persons to be possessed also

22:40

with some mysterious force causing

22:43

all manners of weird and blood-curdling

22:46

incidents in inhabited homes.

22:51

One of the most spooky episodes

22:53

concerns the ghostly adventures

22:56

of M. Homann Christo,

22:58

a well-known writer of Portuguese birth who

23:01

had been a resident of Paris for many years.

23:06

It was in 1919, soon

23:09

after he had been expelled from the university

23:12

where he had been studying law, that

23:14

M. Christo took up his residence

23:16

near the village of Comida in

23:18

a house which the whole countryside

23:21

described as being inhabited each

23:23

night by the spirits of hell. Child

23:28

through walls. Like

23:30

the average Canadian, M. Christo

23:33

was laughingly skeptical.

23:35

Undisturbed by these stories, he

23:38

went calmly to bed on the first night

23:41

without giving the matter a second thought.

23:44

The next room slept his wife and

23:46

their baby. Nothing

23:49

seemed to happen. The first

23:51

night was calm. The

23:53

second, third, and as a matter

23:55

of fact, the first seven nights were

23:58

as peaceful as an eagle's eye. gondola on

24:00

a Venetian canal, but

24:03

the eighth night was

24:04

a different affair.

24:07

At one o'clock in the morning, an infernal

24:10

thumping shook the house to its very

24:12

foundations. Violent

24:15

blows and peals of malevolent

24:17

laughter rang out. Tightly

24:21

bolted doors and shutters swung open

24:23

and banged. The

24:25

police were notified the next morning

24:27

and arranged to set a guard

24:29

the next night. Things

24:32

began to happen soon after dark. They

24:35

assumed particularly diabolical

24:37

forms. As M.

24:40

Christo was going upstairs, an

24:42

unseen hand struck him violently.

24:46

His wife screamed as visible hands clutched

24:48

her feet and pulled her backwards.

24:52

It was the disappearance of the baby, however,

24:54

that added a temporary, terrific

24:57

climax to the whole affair. Some

25:00

time later it was discovered, unharmed,

25:03

on top of a marble table and a room

25:06

on the floor below.

25:08

A careful inspection disclosed the fact

25:11

that all the doors through which it must have

25:13

passed were still locked and

25:16

bolted. The

25:18

child had evidently been transported

25:21

through the solid doors by some

25:23

unseen and ghostly power. As

25:27

a result of this terrible experience,

25:29

one of the police guards

25:31

became insane.

25:33

As for M. Christo, his

25:36

skepticism in ghosts considerably

25:38

shaken and his courage greatly shattered

25:41

with his family flooding the house. Police

25:44

Convinced Neither M.

25:47

Christo nor the police believed

25:49

for a minute that a trick had been played

25:52

on them. They were certain

25:54

that no other human beings besides

25:57

themselves had been in the house

25:59

at night. M. Christo

26:01

had been struck vigorously, and yet

26:04

there had not been anybody visible near him.

26:07

There were no curtains behind which anybody

26:09

could hide.

26:14

What do these observations prove? They

26:18

prove that such things as haunted houses

26:21

do exist, and that they

26:23

who deny their existence are either

26:26

ignorant of the facts or are

26:28

guilty of bad faith. To

26:30

take the testimony of such a group of reputable

26:33

persons as those cited in

26:35

this last case and say

26:37

that they are all victims of hallucination

26:41

is inadmissible. I

26:43

do not discuss the explanation of these

26:45

phenomena. I merely

26:48

state that they exist. I

26:50

affirm the reality of the haunted house.

26:54

The explanation to be found is not

26:56

so simple a matter as the

26:58

recognition of their existence.

27:01

The scarcity of authentic observation

27:03

of haunted houses proves nothing

27:06

against their reality, as some strange

27:08

thinking has asserted. In

27:10

a court of justice, the witness called

27:13

upon to determine questions of fact. Are

27:15

those who have seen and heard naturally?

27:19

What would one say if one heard the following

27:21

decision in court? In view of

27:23

the fact that ten men saw

27:26

the accused commit the crime while

27:28

several million did not see him, the accused

27:30

is acquitted. The

27:32

millions of persons who have not seen

27:34

haunted houses do not have even

27:37

a negative value as against the testimony

27:39

of those who have seen them. And

27:43

yet, it is by such reasoning

27:45

that the opponents of our research into

27:47

the fields of haunted houses

27:48

and spirits often

27:50

argue. The testimony

27:53

which I have just cited is sufficient for

27:55

me. Knowing the witnesses,

27:57

I have no doubt that houses are haunted.

28:00

I know some hundreds of other cases just

28:03

as incontestable. I

28:06

have given the reader three widely

28:08

varying instances of haunted houses.

28:10

I could just as

28:12

easily cite ten, twenty,

28:14

or a hundred, for they are very

28:16

numerous. And accounts

28:18

of this nature, subjected to close

28:20

study today, can only be taken for

28:23

authentic.

28:30

What is their explanation? A

28:33

certain number of them are connected with the

28:35

souls of the departed. Others

28:38

do not appear to have any connection with the survival

28:41

of

28:41

human beings.

28:43

Such are those which in Germany

28:45

go under the name Poltergeist,

28:48

from polter meaning to make a noise,

28:51

ingeist or spirit, thence

28:53

noisy

28:54

spirits.

28:56

Noises, tapings, upphors,

28:59

all sorts of sounds, blows,

29:01

truck, steps heard, slipping

29:04

or rustling noises, murmurs, moans,

29:07

etc. All astonishing,

29:10

surprising, sometimes terrifying.

29:14

These things are common occurrences in houses

29:17

where it is impossible to link them with any

29:19

natural cause. People

29:22

have often remarked that

29:24

these phenomena are linked with

29:27

the presence in the neighborhood of hysterical

29:29

young girls or youths approaching

29:32

adult age. And they

29:34

frequently accuse such adolescents

29:36

of being conscious authors of the phenomena

29:39

related. But

29:41

the facts are otherwise. In

29:44

the phenomena which I have cited, there

29:46

are two elements

29:48

face to face.

29:49

The first is the human faculty of the

29:51

observer.

29:53

And the second is the psychic element,

29:55

invisible and exterior to our natures.

29:59

I have already said in other writings that

30:02

the word medium is an improper one

30:04

to use because it presupposes

30:07

that the person endowed with certain faculties

30:09

is an intermediary between the spirits

30:12

and the investigators. I

30:15

have suggested the more appropriate title

30:18

of dynamo gene.

30:21

The universe is an immense system of dynamics

30:23

of interacting forces,

30:26

the extent of which science is barely

30:28

beginning to appreciate. We

30:31

are far from knowing everything. Haunted

30:35

houses belong in the category of those problems

30:38

which offer themselves to

30:39

our attention,

30:40

make us regret our limited knowledge,

30:43

and arouse in us a desire to study.

30:47

This

30:51

article gets into a topic that's fascinated

30:54

me for years, truly, since

30:56

I was a child, and that is the

30:59

19th century and early 20th century rise

31:01

of the occult and the rise of science

31:05

and technology and how they intertwined

31:08

during that time. This

31:12

was peak spiritualism during

31:15

a time of rapid leaps in technology.

31:18

The steamboat, the telegraph, and the

31:21

radio were all invented during the

31:23

19th century, and

31:26

séances, Ouija boards, and

31:28

automatic writing were all the rage at the

31:30

same time. If

31:33

communication was suddenly being improved

31:35

with the living, could it possibly be

31:37

easier to communicate with the dead as well? It

31:41

feels contradictory, this rise of

31:43

spiritualism and the rise of technology

31:46

at the same time, but it's really

31:48

no coincidence at all. There

31:51

has always been and will always continue

31:54

to be questions about

31:56

life after death,

31:58

but it wasn't the 20th and early 20th

32:00

centuries when technology was advancing

32:02

enough that we actually began to

32:05

wonder, can we finally find all the

32:07

answers? And

32:09

it wasn't just people on the fringes who were trying

32:11

to figure out if we could really communicate

32:13

with the

32:14

spirit world.

32:16

Many of them were world-renowned scientists.

32:23

Looking for more articles and information

32:25

online, I found

32:26

an iPad from December 30th, 2006 in

32:30

the New York Times,

32:31

written by Deborah Bloom, a Pulitzer

32:34

Prize-winning science journalist and

32:36

author.

32:38

It's titled Ghosts and the Machine and

32:40

is about this convergence of science

32:43

and ghost hunting. She

32:45

begins, quote,

32:47

The human brain is, in surprising

32:50

part, an appliance powered

32:52

by electricity. It

32:54

constantly generates about 12 watts

32:56

of energy, enough to keep a flashlight

32:59

glowing. It works by sending

33:01

out electrical impulses, bursts

33:04

of power running along the cellular

33:06

wires of the nervous system to stimulate

33:09

muscles into motion or thought into

33:11

being. We're mostly

33:13

aware of this when the machine falters,

33:15

when it short-circuits into

33:17

epilepsy or frays into the tremors

33:20

of Parkinson's disease, end quote.

33:24

She then mentions an article in the journal

33:26

Nature, which was published in September

33:29

of In

33:31

it, scientists wrote that they could

33:34

induce phantom effects, that

33:36

is to say they could induce hauntings. Scientists

33:40

were made to feel the sensation of being haunted by

33:42

some shadowy figure, simply by

33:44

stimulating the brain with electricity.

33:48

Through this article in Nature, it was

33:50

reported that ghosts are a mere, quote,

33:53

bodily delusions, end quote,

33:56

electrical misfirings and nothing more. In

34:00

her New York Times op-ed examining

34:02

the nature piece, Deborah Bloom writes that

34:05

what is reported does kind of look like

34:07

proof that ghosts and phantoms

34:09

are no more than biological

34:11

quirks.

34:13

But it also seems to look like that it could

34:16

be proof that ghosts may

34:18

exist as well. It

34:20

all depends on which perspective you

34:22

believe in. As mentioned

34:24

before, the 19th century is when the

34:26

supernatural began

34:27

to be scientifically studied.

34:31

Science had only just begun to discover

34:33

radio waves, electrical currents,

34:36

magnetic fields. It was an

34:38

exciting time. And

34:40

it wasn't just astronomers like Camille

34:43

Flamerion from the article who

34:45

were exploring hauntings and the occult. Many

34:49

scientists began making the rounds through the

34:51

paranormal circuit. Marie

34:54

Curie attended seances and so

34:56

did British physicist JJ Thompson,

34:59

who was the man who demonstrated the existence

35:01

of the electron in 1897.

35:05

Numerous award-winning scientists

35:07

did attend seances, in fact.

35:11

Sir Oliver Lodge, wireless

35:13

radio pioneer, presented the idea

35:15

that ghosts and telepathy were

35:18

made possible by energy transmissions

35:20

that connected living minds to one another,

35:23

and perhaps even to the dead. He

35:26

said that perhaps the human brain could act

35:28

as a kind of receiver, with signals

35:31

reaching us at a subconscious level. How

35:34

this worked was through some as-yet-undiscovered

35:37

energy that traveled either in waves

35:40

or currents. This, he said,

35:43

could explain telepathic experiences,

35:45

including shared thoughts.

35:48

It was also a specific energy

35:50

signal, he said, that stimulated the brain

35:53

and explained a ghost's appearance.

35:56

In the article in Nature, Swiss neuroscientist

36:00

Dr. Olaf Blank reports

36:02

of using an implanted electrode to

36:04

send a current into a region of

36:07

the brain called the angular gyrus.

36:11

The testing he was conducting was focused on

36:13

language processing. But

36:15

with one test subject, a strange

36:18

side effect of the current was reported

36:20

in which they nervously sensed another person

36:23

in bed with her that was not only silent

36:25

but also vague and shadowy. Her

36:28

unsettling companion came and went with

36:31

the ebb and flow of current. Dr.

36:34

Olaf Blank reported of this in only one

36:36

subject but believes this

36:38

one example displays how we may all

36:41

mistake errant signals in the brain

36:43

for something more. Deborah

36:46

Bloom wrote of this conclusion in her

36:48

op-ed piece, quote,

36:51

humans tend, Dr. Blank points out,

36:53

to seek explanation to impose

36:55

meaning on events that may have none. The

36:59

pure rationalists among us suggest

37:01

that our need to add meaning to a basic

37:03

biological existence easily

37:05

accounts for the way we organize religions

37:07

and find evidence of otherworldly powers

37:10

in the stuff of everyday life. The

37:13

non-purest suggest a

37:16

different conclusion, willful

37:18

scientific blindness. And

37:21

there's no reason Dr. Blank's study can't support

37:23

their theories of the paranormal. Perhaps

37:27

his experimental electric current simply

37:29

mimics the work of an equally

37:31

powerful spirit. Much

37:34

of the cyclical research done today applies

37:37

similar principles. Brain

37:39

imaging machines highlight parts

37:41

of the brain that respond to psychic phenomena.

37:45

While other devices are used to search

37:47

for infrared radiation or increased

37:50

electrical activity in haunted houses,

37:52

end quote. In

37:55

her op-ed, Deborah Bloom continues by

37:58

mentioning American psychologist and philosopher

38:01

William James, who was also

38:03

a leader in the Victorian paranormal research

38:05

movement and how he remarked on

38:07

this culture clash by saying, quote,

38:11

How often has science killed off all

38:13

spook philosophy and laid ghosts

38:15

and raps and telepathy underground

38:18

as so much popular delusion? End

38:20

quote. Deborah

38:23

Bloom writes of this quote, and

38:25

how often James wondered rhetorically

38:28

had such effort stopped people from seeing

38:30

ghosts and believing in superpowers.

38:34

Because in the end, of course, the

38:36

conclusion has nothing to do with science at all

38:40

and everything to do with how one sees the world.

38:43

I suspect that will dwell forever and the

38:46

haunted landscape of our beliefs. To

38:49

many people, it's a world more interesting,

38:52

bigger,

38:52

stranger, more mysterious

38:54

than the one offered by science. Why

38:57

choose instead to be creatures of chemical

39:00

impulse and electrical twitch? We

39:02

would rather gamble on even a tiny

39:04

electrical spark of a chance that

39:07

we are something more. End quote.

39:11

As an open minded skeptic, I really

39:13

appreciate this approach because

39:15

even dwelling on the thought of multiple possible

39:18

realities opens up the possibilities

39:20

in all facets of life, makes

39:22

everything just a little more magical

39:25

in existence. To

39:27

quote J.M. Berry from the Little

39:29

Minister 1891, a house

39:32

is never still in darkness to those who listen

39:34

intently. There is a

39:37

whispering in distant chambers

39:39

and an earthly hand presses the

39:41

snip of the window. The latch

39:43

rises. Ghosts

39:46

were created when the first man woke in

39:48

the night.

39:58

Until next time, you can join the conversation. the Strange

40:00

and Unusual Podcast on Instagram

40:03

at the Strange and Unusual Podcast

40:05

and on Facebook as well. Before

40:08

I leave, I just want to update you on the schedule.

40:12

I will be releasing new episodes every other

40:14

Monday through the end of the year and then

40:16

at that point I'll reevaluate the schedule.

40:20

And remember, as Poe said, there

40:22

is no exquisite beauty without

40:25

some strangeness in the proportion. So

40:28

stay strange. Thanks

40:58

for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video. I'll see

41:00

you next time. Bye.

41:58

Bye.

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