Spook

1. Science, Not Faith, Guides the Search for the Afterlife

Flawed as it is, science remains the most solid god I’ve got.

Seeking proof. Dissatisfied with the unprovable tenets of religious belief regarding the afterlife, the author turns to science to investigate what happens when we die. The book explores various scientific and quasi-scientific attempts throughout history to find empirical evidence for the soul's survival.

Scope of inquiry. The focus is strictly on research using scientific methods, technology, and even the law, avoiding philosophical debates or anecdotal spiritual experiences. The author maintains a skeptical but open-minded stance, aiming to investigate without a predetermined agenda.

Proof is elusive. The introduction highlights the difficulty of finding definitive proof for intangible concepts, illustrated by the conflicting accounts surrounding Pope Paul VI's alarm clock ringing at the moment of his death. Even seemingly simple facts can be hard to verify, let alone the departure of a soul.

2. Reincarnation Research Reveals Cultural Beliefs and Human Factors

Are cases solved, or are they built?

Investigating claims. The author travels to India to observe reincarnation research firsthand with Dr. Kirti S. Rawat, who investigates cases of small children claiming to remember past lives. This research involves interviewing families, witnesses, and cataloging alleged memories and recognitions.

Challenges and biases. While some cases present specific, seemingly verifiable details, the research faces significant challenges:

• High incidence in cultures that already believe in reincarnation, suggesting cultural influence or expectation.
• Reliance on potentially fallible human memory, especially when written records are absent.
• Potential for fraud, though less likely in cases involving poor families remembering ordinary lives.

Skepticism prevails. Despite the researchers' dedication, the author concludes that the cases observed, particularly the Aishwary case, are not strong due to factors like the proximity of the families and the parents' enthusiasm, which can bias interpretation. The process often feels more like building a case than objectively solving one.

3. Historical Attempts to Locate the Soul Anatomically Proved Fruitless

Descartes became a familiar sight at the butcher shops in Amsterdam, where he would buy freshly slaughtered animals.

Physical search. Historically, scientists and philosophers attempted to locate the soul within the physical body, particularly the brain. Aristotle believed the soul was a vapor (pneuma) carried in semen, evolving from vegetative to sensitive to rational within the embryo.

Nominated locations:

• Herophilus (3rd century B.C.) suggested the brain's fourth ventricle.
• Descartes (17th century) proposed the pineal gland due to its central, unpaired location.
• Medieval scholars debated the location of the indestructible "luz" bone (soul bone), often settling on the coccyx or big toe.

Shift to function. As understanding of the brain grew through dissection and experimentation (like Galen's nerve cutting or La Peyronie's corpus callosum experiments), the idea of a single soul location gave way to mapping specialized brain functions. Franz Joseph Gall's phrenology, though flawed, exemplified this shift towards understanding the brain as a collection of "organs."

4. Weighing the Soul Yielded Intriguing, Unreplicated Results

The question arose in my mind: Why not weigh a man at the very moment of death?

Macdougall's experiment. In 1901, Dr. Duncan Macdougall attempted to prove the soul's existence by weighing dying patients on a sensitive scale. He reasoned that if the soul was a physical entity, its departure should result in a measurable weight loss.

The 21-gram finding. His first patient showed a sudden loss of three-fourths of an ounce (21 grams) at the moment of death. Subsequent patients' data were less clear or discarded due to issues like scale adjustments or interference.

Criticisms and follow-ups:

• Critics suggested natural causes like insensible water loss or bodily excretions.
• Macdougall attempted to control for these, but his methods were questioned.
• He weighed dying dogs (no loss) and others weighed mice (no loss in sealed containers).
• A modern attempt weighing sheep found temporary gains at death, adding to the mystery.

Despite the fame of the "21 grams" finding, Macdougall's experiment was flawed and has not been reliably replicated, leaving the cause of the weight change unexplained by conventional science.

5. Ectoplasm and Spirit Photography Were Products of Fraud and Misinterpretation

"That there stuff is just gauze!"

Physical manifestations. During the height of spiritualism, mediums claimed to exude a substance called ectoplasm, believed to be materialized spirit energy. This phenomenon, often occurring in darkened séance rooms, was documented in photographs and investigated by prominent scientists.

Notable mediums and debunking:

• Eva C.: Investigated by Charles Richet, initially seemed convincing but later exposed.
• Kathleen Goligher: Studied by engineer W. J. Crawford, who theorized ectoplasmic "cantilevers" for table levitation. Photos clearly showed fabric, and Crawford's theories became increasingly bizarre before his suicide.
• Margery Crandon: Investigated by Scientific American committee including Houdini. Her ectoplasm often emerged from her body's orifices and was suspected to be regurgitated or concealed material (like sheep lung or cheesecloth).

Misinterpretation and fraud. Despite the involvement of respected figures, ectoplasm was largely the result of simple parlor tricks, misinterpretation of phenomena (like heat affecting photographic plates in "effluviographs"), and wishful thinking, often aided by the dark conditions of séances.

6. Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) Likely Stem from Natural Causes and Perception

The heaven of these voices sounds like an airship hangar.

Recording the dead. The EVP movement began with claims of capturing voices of the deceased on tape recorders, often from radio static or ambient air. These voices are typically faint, garbled, and only audible upon playback.

Research and explanations:

• Friedrich Jürgenson and Konstantin Raudive popularized EVP, collecting thousands of alleged "voice-texts."
• Skeptical investigations, like David Ellis's, found that many voices could be attributed to radio breakthrough, mechanical noises, or unnoticed human speech.
• Psychological effects like the "verbal transformation effect" (hearing words in nonsense sounds) and the mind's tendency to find patterns in noise contribute to the phenomenon.

Alternative theories. While some proponents suggest spirits communicate via electromagnetic fields or ultrasound, engineers point to natural explanations:

• Ducting effect: Atmospheric conditions allowing distant radio signals to travel far.
• Demodulation: Electrical sparking between metal objects picking up strong radio broadcasts.

Despite the conviction of enthusiasts, controlled studies have failed to produce clear, anomalous voices attributable to discarnate beings, suggesting psychological and environmental factors are the primary drivers.

7. Electromagnetic Fields May Induce Feelings of a "Presence"

Michael Persinger, the neuroscience professor who runs the lab, has a theory about ghosts.

EMF and hauntings. Neuroscientist Michael Persinger theorizes that certain patterns of electromagnetic fields (EMFs), both natural (geomagnetic) and man-made (wiring, appliances), can influence the brain, particularly the temporal lobe, to produce hallucinatory experiences, including the feeling of an invisible presence.

Proposed mechanism: EMF exposure may lower melatonin levels, increasing the likelihood of subtle, seizure-like activity in the temporal lobe, which is linked to mystical and hallucinatory experiences. Stress hormones from fear or bereavement may exacerbate this.

Laboratory experiments. Persinger's "haunt box" experiments expose subjects to complex EMF patterns via a helmet. He reports that a high percentage of subjects feel a presence, fear, or other unusual sensations, particularly when the right temporal lobe is stimulated.

Alternative interpretation. While this suggests EMFs can cause the feeling of being haunted, Persinger also entertains the possibility that EMFs might enhance the brain's ability to perceive genuine, normally undetectable paranormal stimuli, especially in locations with reported recurring hauntings.

8. Infrasound Can Cause Physical Sensations Mistaken for Hauntings

The eyeball, Tandy explains to me, has a resonant frequency of nineteen hertz.

Acoustic ghosts. Chartered engineer Vic Tandy proposes that low-frequency sound waves (infrasound, below 20 Hz), inaudible to humans but powerful, can cause physical and visual effects that people interpret as hauntings.

Infrasound effects:

• Vibration of objects (like Tandy's fencing foil).
• Resonance of the eyeball at 19 Hz, causing visual distortions or blurry shapes in peripheral vision.
• Activation of the fight-or-flight response, leading to feelings of unease, chills, or racing heart.
• Potential to cause nausea or other physical discomforts at higher intensities.

Haunted locations. Tandy found 19 Hz infrasound in his "haunted" lab and near a purportedly haunted cellar, suggesting that architectural features or malfunctioning equipment can generate these waves. Old, empty buildings with resonant structures are more likely to trap and amplify infrasound.

Predator detection. The ability of some humans to sense infrasound might be an evolutionary remnant, perhaps linked to detecting large animals like tigers (which communicate using infrasound) from a distance, leading to a "tiger detector" going off in a seemingly empty space.

9. A Ghost's Testimony Was Accepted in a Court of Law

"He pointed to the inside pocket," Chaffin is quoted as saying in Mocksville’s Davie Record, "and he said: ‘You will find something about my last will in my overcoat pocket.’"

The Chaffin Will case. In 1925, James Pinkney Chaffin claimed his deceased father's ghost appeared to him in a dream, directing him to a hidden pocket in an old overcoat where a second, later will was concealed. This will contradicted an earlier one that disinherited Pink and his brothers.

Legal outcome. The case went to court, but before a jury could rule, the widow of the brother who inherited under the first will agreed that the signature on the second will was genuine. The court formally accepted the second will, effectively validating the ghost's message in a legal sense.

Skepticism and analysis. The Society for Psychical Research and a forensic document examiner later investigated:

• The second will's language seemed too sophisticated for the nearly illiterate father.
• Handwriting analysis suggested the signature on the second will was not written by the same person who signed the first will, indicating forgery.
• A plausible theory emerged: the brothers forged the will and used the ghost story to pressure the widow into a settlement.

Despite the legal outcome, forensic evidence strongly suggests the second will was a forgery, making the ghost story a likely fabrication used to achieve a desired legal result.

10. Near-Death Experiences Offer Potential, Yet Elusive, Evidence

Such a brain would be roughly analogous to a computer with its power source unplugged and its circuits detached.

Exploring NDEs. Near-death experiences (NDEs) are subjective accounts by people who came close to death, often involving out-of-body sensations, tunnels, light, and encounters with deceased relatives. Researchers like Bruce Greyson and Pim van Lommel study NDEs as potential evidence for consciousness surviving brain death.

The medical paradox. NDEs often occur when brain activity is minimal or absent (e.g., during cardiac arrest), posing a challenge to purely physiological explanations like oxygen deprivation or drug effects, which typically impair, not enhance, consciousness and memory.

Theories of NDE causation:

• Physiological: Anoxia, drugs, seizures, endorphins.
• Psychological: Stress, expectation, memory fabrication.
• Transcendent: Consciousness operating independently of the body, potentially accessing an "immaterial world."

While medical factors can induce NDE-like elements, the consistency and clarity of some NDE accounts, particularly those involving verifiable perceptions, lead some researchers to consider the possibility of a non-local consciousness.

11. Verifying Out-of-Body Perceptions Remains a Challenge

Were they up there or not?

Seeking objective proof. A key challenge in NDE research is verifying perceptions reported during out-of-body experiences (OBEs). Patients sometimes describe watching their resuscitation from above, including specific details of the medical procedures or objects in the room.

Verification attempts:

• Cardiologist Michael Sabom found NDE patients whose descriptions of their resuscitation matched medical records, unlike control patients who fabricated details.
• The "computer on the ceiling" experiment places randomly selected images facing upwards in operating rooms, hoping an OBE patient will see and report one.
• Studies of blind individuals reporting visual perceptions during NDEs, including those blind from birth, suggest "seeing" without functional eyes.

Limitations and anecdotes. Despite intriguing anecdotes (like the Pam Reynolds case or the "Maria's shoe" story), rigorous, independently verified cases of accurate OBE perception remain rare. Studies attempting to induce OBEs and verify perceptions (e.g., with strain gauges or animal detectors) have yielded inconclusive results, often plagued by methodological issues or lack of replication.

12. The Search Leads to Belief in the Unexplainable, Not Necessarily Survival

I guess I believe that what he believed was simply that they were evidence of something we can’t explain with our current knowledge.

Lack of definitive proof. After exploring various scientific and historical attempts to prove the afterlife, the author finds no conclusive evidence that definitively demonstrates the survival of consciousness after death. Each line of inquiry, from reincarnation to ectoplasm to EVP and NDEs, presents significant flaws, alternative explanations, or a lack of rigorous, replicable data.

Subjectivity of belief. The author observes that belief in paranormal phenomena is often influenced more by personal experience and social circles than by scientific evidence. Skeptics and believers alike tend to interpret ambiguous data through the lens of their existing worldview.

Embracing the mystery. While remaining skeptical of specific claims and methodologies, the author's journey leads to an acceptance that there are phenomena related to consciousness and death that current science cannot fully explain. This is not necessarily proof of survival, but rather an acknowledgment of the limits of present knowledge.

Personal conclusion. The book concludes without a definitive answer to the question of what happens when we die. The author's personal takeaway is not a newfound belief in a specific afterlife scenario, but a belief in the existence of something currently unexplainable, leaving the ultimate mystery intact.

Last updated: May 15, 2025