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Asked by woken_dreams to Vicky, Tom, Simon, Serena, Amanda on 22 Jan 2014.
Question: Some people claim to see ghosts or the future, how is this possible? And why can only some people have this ability and not everyone?
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Simon Butt answered on 22 Jan 2014:
Our visual awareness of the world around us likely differs a lot from person to person. I’m colour blind in reds and greesn but manage to get by without too much alarm or concern. Imaging studies on the human brain have revealed that the part important for initial higher order processing of visual information, an area termed V1 at the back of the brain (occipital lobe to be all technical) varies is size a lot between people. Does that mean we all see the world in slightly different ways? Possibly, but then we are often constrained by conventions – like my colour blindness and traffic lights. I was taught that the top light is red and to me the top light ‘looks’ red!
Supernatural phenomena (like ghosts) are part of the fabric of our consciousness – the stories our parents tell us when we are children and so on. Such beliefs are encoded within our brains and should you for example dress up in a sheet with 2 eyes holes cut out and rattle some chains most people in the UK will recognize you as a ‘ghost’. Is it possible that visual stimuli can trigger such thoughts – yes. Are they really there? Impossible to say but it all comes back to how the nerve cells in our brain constantly sample our environment around us and work together to help us understand those signals, ghosts or not!
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Comments
Dave commented on :
I’m going to give a straighter, harsher answer. As it seems not very many people can see ghosts or the future and we have no reliable way of showing that these things are possible, then I would have to say that it is not possible to see ghosts or the future. I think those people who think they can see weird stuff like ghosts are wrong, even though I can’t really prove them wrong. Whereas, I don’t think there is anyone who has successfully shown that they definitely can predict the future, so they really must be wrong about that.
Vanamonde commented on :
I can accept that some people are able to see something which their brain (via social pre-conditioning) interprets as ‘ghosts’ or a vision of the future. Like Simon I’m red-green colourblind. Like Simon I’m quite Ok with the way the world looks to ME, and I cant see how the world looks to YOU because you cannot explain one sense in terms of another. I’m just aware that most people see things differently. I’m also aware that my vision means I’m less confused by camouflage, and would have been wanted by the observer corps in ww2.
Some people can taste, or see , loud sounds. No really. Its a known phenomenon. So maybe a sense that we have had no experience in learning (because our parents didnt have it) can cross-over into the senses we have fully developed.
Alternatively medication may provoke brain activity which triggers our senses accidentally. Many years ago, immediately after a major operation, I briefly thought I had developed some kind of extra visual sense. I could see the room ‘in negative’ with my eyes closed. When the meds stopped messing with my head I realised that what I had experienced was a long-lasting (and highly detailed) ‘after image’, when I closed my eyes. The image didnt move as I turned my head. It was a real sensastion, but I interpreted it in entirely the wrong way because of my state of mind at the time.
When it comes to telling the future my view is that IF someone genuinely could predict the future then you would never know. Either they would keep very quiet about it and live a rich, anonymous, existence or they’d be seen as an ‘asset’ by covert Govt departments and ‘disappear’ into some secure facility.
Leila commented on :
If people really could see into the future, there would be no point in the National Lottery existing!