For centuries now man has believed in the existence of ghosts, whether they are in the form of intangible entities, often dead loved ones, or evil spirits and so on.
But the answer comes from science itself, but also from the evolutionary course of the human species.
A leading expert attributes people’s tendency to believe in the paranormal, and therefore ghosts, to past generations.
Emeritus Professor Chris French of the Anomalous Research Unit at Goldsmiths told IFLScience about the theory behind it.
“In terms of our evolution, our brains have evolved to keep us alive long enough to pass our genes on to the next generation, period. This is it. .
“(It’s a bias) toward the belief that when something happens in the world around us, it happens because someone or something with intentions toward us made it happen. I think that many of the kinds of biases that underlie our tendency toward paranormal belief can be explained in terms of these cognitive biases.”
Although he appeared to be scornful of his own neutrality in the field, he went on to admit that he doesn’t actually believe in ghosts at all, but has “no objection” to those who do.
“It’s fair, as long as you’re not forcing your belief system on other people, or anything like that, then fine, believe what you want.”
It was revealed in 2021 that the first sighting of ghosts could have happened more than 3,500 years ago after a Babylonian tablet contained what appeared to be a drawing of a man being taken back to the afterlife.
It is also believed to have contained instructions on how to get rid of ghosts, including the phrase “don’t look behind you!”.
