Ghosts

[chunkylover58]

I was chatting with a friend of mine, who happens to be a devout Christian, and asked her, "Do you believe in ghosts?" She said, "No. Not ghosts. But I believe in demon spirits who make you THINK they're ghosts." I thought, "Holy SHIT! That's more frightening than ghosts!!!"

Anyhoo, that's the reason for the poll. Plus, I'm over the UFO stuff. I don't see too much ghost activity here in the pseudoscience forum, and it DOES have paranormal activity as a subcategory.

 

[crazymikey]

I do not think ghosts exist, but, if they did exist, I think it would be, because of a bizarre quantum effect caused by the mind when it is dying, replicating the mind and body in some form of energy dimension. It's as if evolution has a found a way of having us survive after death too. Remember what I said before, the mind is like a quantum computer and thus capable of quantum effects. Ghosts may just be one of those quantum effects.

 

[Faulty]

Crazymikey, sometimes I feel like all I do is hound you from thread to thread. Do you mean that you think that the MIND is like a quantum computer, or that the BRAIN is like a quantum computer? Sorry to split hairs, but I just wasn't sure. Anyway... why do you think this? My layman's opinion is that brains have enough fine structure for 'simple' chemistry to explain their intricacies, without recourse to arcane quantum effects. I accept, of course, that quantum effects are fundamental. What I mean is that I think the brain functions more as a classical computer than a quantum one. Not that I know one way or another, mind, just that I think chemistry can do the job on its own.

Anyway... getting back on topic, I do not think that the explanation for genuine ghost sightings will not involve an immortal or mortal soul, as I don't believe that the mind exists independently of the body.

 

[craterchains (Norval]

None of the above.

So I won't vote because you didn't list my choice.

Oh my poor heart I feel so rejected because of this now.

ADDED
They are the loser ETI's screwing with humans and trying to deceive them.

 

[crazymikey]

Faulty isn't chemistry also a quantum process at the fundamental level? All matter and energy are manifestations at the quantum level. I am not sure if it correct to say the brain is the quantum computer, I would rather say it is the mind, that is caused by the aggregation of the processes of the body and the brain, which may indeed be a quantum effect.

I am not going to be ignorant here, and tell you, I know why this occurs, why zillions of processes running simutaneously causes what we perceive to be consciousness. No one knows what causes consciousness or how the brain operates.

Yet I do know this much. A microscopic molecule of self-replicating DNA contains all the information and processing power to outperform the most powerful supercomputers on Earth today. It operates at a level well beyond our technology.
Now imagine a mind that can tap that vast computing powers that can possibly bring about quantum effects. Evolution is about survival, that much we know, but when evolution can access such vast powers of computing, don't you think it could devise a quantum solution for the mind to survive? and this we call ghosts?

In fact with so much bizarre phenomena happening in this universe, it would not surprise me, if ghosts really were just quantum regenerations.

 

[Votorx]

Hmm ghosts...Pretty weird if you ask me. Especially since there are only a few ghost cases meanwhile trillions and trillions of people have died throughout history. Wouldn't you think these "spritual beings" would be populating and terrorizing the earth, lol where are they all?

 

[Faulty]

I agree totally that chemistry is fundamentally a quantum process - that's what I meant when I said:

"I accept, of course, that quantum effects are fundamental".

I just don't think that quantum effects are more important in the brain than they are in any other chemical system.
I am quite certain that the persistence of the mind beyond physical death would not arise due to evolution. The controlling factor in the process of evolution is how many offspring an organism can father or give birth to in its lifetime. The fact that an animal's mind continued to exist after its body had deceased would provide no evolutionary advantage to it, as (I'm fairly sure) ghosts don't tend to impregnate or become impregnated by living beings. The immortal soul of an animal would only be selected for in evolution if it conferred an advantage on those creatures with a close genetic relation to the deceased.
Do many ghosts come back to aid their siblings and descendants in reproduction?