Physics for the Soul

As the United States shuts down its eastern seaboard for Cyclone Sandy, the Philippines will be shutting down as well, for completely different reasons. November 1 marks All Saints’ Day, when many establishments close up, since most people head to cemeteries to gamble and eat among the remains of the dead.

What comes with the holiday is the belief that when our bodies cease to function, even after we are laid into the soil or burned to ash, something survives. We are not just bodies, supernaturalist believers claim. There is a ghost in this machine and it breaks free from its mortal shackles upon death.

Some people claim to see these surviving entities, these spirits or souls, dwelling among the living. Ghostly apparitions are reported with disturbing regularity. Disturbing, in that even in the age of ubiquitous photography, no one has ever gathered any credible support for these ectoplasmic assertions. The reality of disembodied souls would necessarily overturn everything we know about physics. Any scientist would be itching to find evidence for the supernatural—evidence that never seems to turn up, despite the most adamant and most confident protestations of believers.

Human visual perception works because of light, and light works through electromagnetism. Electromagnetic/light particles called photons travel at the speed limit of the universe. When they hit objects, the energy of the photons is absorbed by particles in the object (such as electrons). These particles then release some energy back as another photon. The energy of the photon released determines the color and intensity of the light humans perceive.

If ghosts (under which I include saintly apparitions) can be seen, that means ghosts interact with photons! Electromagnetism is a physical phenomenon. This implies that at least some aspects of ghosts are physical, and therefore investigable by the methods of science. What kinds of photons are these spirits carrying? Are they different from everyday photons?

When people claim to hear ghosts, either through spooky screams or through elaborate homilies about the current geopolitical situation, they are actually claiming that physical objects are being moved by supernatural events. The perception of hearing occurs when the pressure of the air around us is locally fluctuated. When people talk, their vocal folds vibrate and push around air molecules. The air then vibrates the eardrums of animals within earshot. These vibrations correspond to what we hear as sound. The case is similar for those who report interacting with apparitions through touch (except that objects apart from air molecules are being moved, such as a uterus).

The Earth rotates on its own axis at around 1,674.4 km/h. It revolves around the Sun at 108,000 km/h. We don’t even feel these exorbitant speeds because we are moving with the Earth. We move with the Earth because we are on it and its forces are acting on us without variation. Should the Earth suddenly change in speed, however, we would definitely feel a calamitous disturbance. The Earth is tumbling around our galaxy, which is itself moving with respect to the rest of the universe. Should the Earth’s motion stop, we’d fly off into space—like a tetherball released from its rope. For the most part, we can happily ignore that we are hurtling across space because we are physical objects that obey the laws of physics. It is curious, therefore, when even immaterial ghosts follow physical laws.

When people claim to see ghosts, nobody ever reports them appearing one moment then zipping out into space the next, left behind by the Earth’s motion. Rather, people claim to see them stay in place long enough to scare the bejesus out of them, or tell them about some magic water that would heal people. Again, ghosts are eerily physical in all convenient aspects.

Imagine now that you have died. Ignore the paradox that you could not do such imagining because that would be imagining that your imagination could not imagine any longer. For the sake of argument, let us say that souls do exist and you are one right now, formerly in control of a body, currently disembodied.

Where are you? What do you see? Let us suppose that even though you are supernatural, you have some sort of particles that interact electromagnetically. Can you blink? It would be odd to do so, seeing as your soul would need to have eyelids.

At what direction are you looking? When you had a body, your eyeballs would sense a local cone of vision. Now that you’re a ghost, do you see all of existence at once? If so, where in the world are you? Certainly not floating just above your corpse.

When you had a body, you used your vision (and other senses) to determine where you were. You were limited by the local area that could be perceived by your physical sense organs. Now that you are without a body, the question of ‘where’ becomes meaningless. If ghosts exist, then they must be everywhere. They cannot otherwise be.

If these ghosts cannot exist as they have been claimed to be, then it must be that they are wholly in the mind of those who see them. They don’t have photons bouncing off of them, they don’t fly through space, because they’re not in the outside world! They do not exist objectively. These disembodied souls are figments, like how optical illusions, while very convincing, do not really show moving objects.

Our brains are easily fooled into seeing things that do not exist. People who claim to see ghosts often truly believe that they have experienced such a thing. I do not believe that they are all liars (though some must be). However, even though their brush with the supernatural must have felt very real, that does not mean that it was anything more than a psychological episode. The human brain is so adept at pattern recognition that it sees patterns everywhere—from clouds to dog anuses. It is no surprise, then, that ghosts follow the patterns we are so familiar with and that they are so much like normal natural objects, except for that little difficulty of being able to show them to others.

The supernatural world is suspicious to the scientifically literate because it is too convenient. It looks exactly like the natural world except when it’s favorable not to be. It looks like bad science fiction. Ghosts can hover, but not be left behind by a moving Earth. Ghosts can pass through solid walls, but can affect air molecules to produce sound. Ghosts can be perceived but not leave behind any independently-verifiable traces.

Surely some scientist must have left from the spirit world by now to show all his skeptical journal-publishing colleagues that the supernatural does exist. And yet, no scientist has ever come back from the grave to do so. Instead, we have saints who supposedly cure comatose patients, almost 400 years removed.

The vastness of space and time is available to the dead, if we are to believe the claims of the religious. Despite that, what is regularly professed to be done from beyond the grave is so vapid that miraculous claims are barely worth a 30 second spot on the evening news. The deep incongruence between the scale of the universe and the parochial concerns of people betrays the very human imaginations that spawn these stories.

9 comments

  1. I am a physical scientist who intellectually mainly "grew up" at a cosmologically oriented institute of astronomy in Germany. It is practically impossible to study Physics, let alone Astrophysics, and retain a commonplace religious view of the world. That would be, to quote Einstein in this respect, "Childish". Nonetheless, I am, so to say, religiously awed by it all, the sheer size, the complexity, our own infinite smallness and yet our capability to at least begin to grasp this vastness. We are small in size and yet our brains (and those of a few other fellow earthling animals) rival the size of the universe in complexity. There might be some 10E23 stars out there, matching the 10E23 synaptic interconnections in our brain. There is not a thing supernatural out there. Not a thing parananormal. There cannot be anything beyond nature since nature is, simply by definition, all there is. However, we only BEGIN to understand nature, and new insight comes in by the minute – including weird and unexpected things. Who would have expected, that the eye of a fly could utilize quantum tunneling effects? Some are long established and seemingly profane: who, actually, is aware, that the human eye is able to detect polarized light? There also used to be an interesting research effort at Princeton University, which is worth looking at (the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Lab, closed down in 2007 – no money in that sort of thing, I suppose, and too much ideological and religious itchiness involved, perhaps): http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/. There are many weird phenomena that actually were proven to exist but could not yet be explained. Mind you: compared to all there is practically nothing is explained yet in detail, despite the apparently huge volume of publications. So – although I lightheartedly dismiss all notions of universal creators and related "divine" interventions in human affairs, I certainly suggest to remain open minded about the weirdness of it all. We only began to lift the sky-high veil of this mysterious universe. I think humans are best when they are humble, friendly and curious. And your friendly scientists, if he or she are worth their bread, are fully aware of their limitations. They will speculate broadly, now and then, in a friendly round with friends and over some glasses of good wine, but they will not proclaim their "maybes" and "who knows" as truth. Professionally they will remain faithful to what can be proven and falsified. It is psychologically understandable that people are befallen by fear when looking into that endless abyss of space and time and complexity that surrounds us, but filling the gaps of our insight with invented stories and illusions is only a temporary – and dangerous – cure. For the result is that we have developed a world wide cultural habit of strongly believing in things that don't exist. Ultimately that can be a fatal disease, because from the beginning on we grow up unlearning the ability to distinguish fact from fiction and authority from fraud. Religions that demand blind belief destroy our natural immune system that protects us against outside manipulation. And in the end most are susceptible to all those manipulations from ideologists and marketeers out there, following the mantras of make believe that create contemporary globalized cultural archetypes focused on possessions, status, outside appearance, fun, entertainment, dancing around the golden calve of endless perpetual economic growth that only benefits a few while consuming the planet we live on. Few have noticed, for example, how destructive the simple concept of usury is – a concept that has become the leading religious archetype of Earth – and one of its prime existential risks. Creation of wealth and debt out of thin air. Belief in things that don't exist and yet control and pervade everything.

    The Philippines unfortunately are a prime example of what has befallen the people Earth. What happens to the Philippines over the next 50 years pretty much will be the forebode of what mankind at large has to expect, for the Earth, too is only an island. Population grew from some 16 million in the early 20th century and breached 100 million one of these past years. Doubling time at current rates is in the range of 30 years. The Philippines already are the world's largest importer or rice. What if nobody will export rice anymore because THEIR growing populations will eat it themselves? Prayers anyone? Being realistic does not exclude acknowledging the possibility of mystic – or at least mysterious – phenomena. BUT it definitely means to dismiss bogus concepts and deal with obvious real world problems knocking at our doors.

  2. Too much ‘palabok’ even theist can explain these non-sense so called ‘ghost’… in a simple word …. Pareidolia!

    Too much wording can’t help your case na magmukha kang matalino.

    Try to investigate if all theist believe as such.

    • ghosts no matter how "holy" fall in the same category. theists have that concept across beliefs – no matter what form, what name, what influence they claim to possess.

      [Try to investigate if all theist believe as such.] no need. that's the core concept in becoming a theist. the belief of a super mega ultimate all-powerful ultra electromagnetic being you call god

      • LOL. you have’nt prove to me that all theist believe such ‘ghost’ as your article would like to imply the generalization.

        let me give you an analogy how funny you are:

        (Atheistang Tanga): Pabili nga ng isang bote ng mixture containing various sugars, flavorings and carbon dioxide. Then became a chemical compound, containing sodium : Sodium carbonate, Na2CO3 etc.

        (Tindera): Tanga, pinahaba mo pa Soda lang ang binibili mo. Hindi ka magmumukhang matalino dahil lang sa mahaba ang mga sinabi mo

        (Atheistang Tanga) napanganga

        • not my article. im just a regular commenter here. If you are in the sense of thinking the author of this article is trying to impress anyone with the technicalities, you're doing it wrong. and i think you are impressed actually to the point of commenting about this facet of the topic which in fact doesn't concern anyone but you. techie-phobic?

          "too much wording" doesn't mean someone is trying to impress. i don't know about that line of thinking. maybe from your bubble that's the way to bring awe and submission. here, in reality, people use terms and elaboration to EXPLAIN the point. if you find that funny, then try what "Pareidolia" accomplishes without further reading on another reference.

          (theistang matalino): ang dami mu namang ligoy hindi ka naman nagmukang matalino.
          (atheistang tanga): sino ba nagsabing nagmamatalino ako? kung naramdaman mu yan, siguro nga nakakaimpress yung ginawa ko.
          (theistang matalino): LOL walang makakaintindi sayo sa tindahan kung ganyan ka kateknikal.
          (atheistang tanga raw): tindahan? nasa tindahan ba tayo? bawas bawasan ang kape kapatid. nasa informative site tayo.

          • //”too much wording” doesn’t mean someone is trying to impress. i don’t know about that line of thinking.//

            having know not that line of thinking, doesn’t necessarily mean that it did not exist.

            //and i think you are impressed //

            That’s what you think but mine is different

            (theistang matalino): ang dami mu namang ligoy hindi ka naman nagmukang matalino.

            (atheistang tanga): sino ba nagsabing nagmamatalino ako? kung naramdaman mu yan, siguro nga nakakaimpress yung ginawa ko.

            (theistang matalino): LOL walang makakaintindi sayo sa tindahan kung ganyan ka kateknikal.

            (atheistang tanga raw): tindahan? nasa tindahan ba tayo? bawas bawasan ang kape kapatid. nasa informative site tayo.

            (Tindera) Hoy kayong dalawa umalis nga kayo at nakakaabala kayo sa bumibili ng Soda na nagpapa-impress. Nasa tindahan ang eksana wala sa site. iwasan ang kapeng walang tubig.. naghahallucinate ka na, kung saan-saan lugar na ang sinasabi mo.

          • analogy detection fail. to be confused by your own analogy……:'(

            your "tindahan" analogy fails in two points. (1) being unable to relate the conditions of this article and website to that of a casual situation. the author is not being too "wordy" trying to explain his point. this is an informative site. there's no maximum word nor time limit here. to be elaborative is courtesy in an info site. (2) his audience is not your average tindera, as readers here at least share an above the average IQ as I believe.

            //i don't know about that line of thinking//
            i mean im totally out from that reasoning. im aware this line of thinking is what the majority use in our country. VENERATION by lengthy and cranky sermons. ADORATION by all-white costume and soft voice. when scientists explain in a lengthy speech, they are not trying to impress – they already are. when you think of it your way as someone is showing off, that's your line of thinking that is at work. accustomed in equating credibility with REVERENCE.

            scientific community doesn't see a wordy speech as a display of smart-assing. as long as the references are scientific – proven and credible thus valid. "too much palabok" is not always bad, specially when your audience is hungry for knowledge. and lastly, one-word answer never accomplish its purpose to address a query. you have to elaborate in the end.
            who made everything? God.
            who made man? God.
            what makes man bad? sin.
            who tempts man to sin? devil.

            again that line of thinking. did that provide any answer at all? certainly not.

  3. dreaming is not only for those who are asleep. as walking and eating is possible to a lucid dreamer, dreaming while awake should not be a surprise.

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