Think about the consequences Ghost faces as a result of his decision to steal a pair of running shoes. Do you think that the way that Coach punishes him is fair? What would the consequences have been if Ghost had been stopped by the police instead? What would the consequences have been if his mother had discovered the theft? What would have happened if Ghost had never been caught? Why might it have been better for him to get caught?

On a visit to the White House shortly after World War II, Winston Churchill claimed to have met the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Completely naked, Churchill supposedly said, “Good evening, Mr President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage,” before the spirit smiled and vanished. Now accepted as neurological phenomena, out-of-body experiences (OBEs) can arise from various psychological and neurological factors. They can be induced by traumatic brain injuries, sensory deprivation, dehydration and a range of other causes. Proponents of the supernatural may use these occurrences as evidence to support their beliefs. However, while interesting, they do not constitute scientific evidence. AnthropomorphismI am one of two experts on the show, alongside Dr O'Keeffe. We are both paranormal psychologists but where Ciarán considers himself a hardcore sceptic I am more open minded. My job is essentially to answer the question of 'If this is paranormal then what type of paranormal phenomena is it and how does it relate to our current understanding of the supernatural?' Inspired by the BBC Sounds podcast of the same name, Uncanny features real-life stories of apparently supernatural encounters told by the people they happened to - experiences that appear to defy logical explanation. Or do they? Consider the way that the author contrasts Glass Manor with Sunny’s neighborhood in Chapter 7. How does this contrast help you understand Ghost? Classics of Greek literature like Homer's 'Odyssey' and 'Iliad' both feature ghosts. However, these ghosts rarely interacted with the living, and were not depicted as daunting beings; occasionally, they were invoked to provide prophecy or advice.

Throughout the novel, Ghost has a number of adults who act as advocates for him: Mr. Charles, Coach, his mom, and even Principal Marshall. Consider the importance of each of these figures in Ghost’s life. Then write an essay or prepare a speech about a trusted adult in your own life. Why do you trust this person? Let me guess, sunflower seeds,” Mr. Charles practically shouts from behind the counter of what he calls his “country store,” even though we live in a city. Mr. Charles, who, by the way, looks just like James Brown if James Brown were white, has been ringing me up for sunflower seeds five days a week for about, let me think… since the fourth grade, which is when Ma took the hospital job. So for about three years now. He’s also hard of hearing, which when my mom used to say this, I always thought she was saying “harder hearing,” which made no sense at all to me. I don’t know why she just didn’t say “almost deaf.” Maybe because “hard of hearing” is more like hospital talk, which was probably rubbing off on her. But, yeah, Mr. Charles can barely hear a thing, which is why he’s always yelling at everybody and everybody’s always yelling at him. His store is a straight-up scream fest, not to mention the extra sound effects from the loud TV he keeps behind the counter—cowboy movies on repeat. Mr. Charles is also the guy who gave me this book, Guinness World Records, which is where I found out about Andrew Dahl and Charlotte Lee. He tells me I can set a record one day. A real record. Be one of the world’s greatest somethings. Maybe. But I know one thing, Mr. Charles has to hold the record for saying, Let me guess, sunflower seeds, because he says that every single time I come in, which means I probably also already hold the record for responding, loudly, the exact same way.We can perhaps see the brain’s ability to “spot” illusory patterns in the response to the Ebola epidemic – such as the emergence of folk remedies (including the belief that drinking salt water is a cure), fears in the West that it will spread through air travel, and theories that it was created by industrialised governments. She told me about what she had thought was a ghost living in her house, an imp throttling her during the night and other things that had left her petrified. The cover of Ghost includes this question: Running for his life, or from it? Explain the role that running plays in Ghost’s life. Why does he start running? How does his reason for running change?

Our hope is that scientific explanations of paranormal experiences might help others by lowering anxiety. There are plenty of misunderstood phenomena that influenceghostsightings. For example, sleep paralysis in a recognized experience that leads to people feeling like they have seen aghost, demon, or alien," Hupp said.We have our most vivid dreams during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Our eyes dart around under closed eyelids and the rest of our bodies are paralysed. Sleep paralysis is the feeling of being conscious but unable to move - as if dreaming with eyes open - and occurs when a person moves through stages of wakefulness and sleep. It's a frightening experience, and can feel like someone is in your room. Pareidolia

Personal experiences with ghosts can be misleading due to the limitations of human senses. That’s why anecdotes can’t substitute for objective research. Alleged hauntings usually have plenty of non-ghostly explanations. King George IV claimed to have woken one day to see 'a little lady all dressed in brown, with dishevelled hair and a face of ashy paleness'. The event occurred at Raynham Hall, which George eagerly left and swore he'd never return to again.

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The thing that differentiates Uncanny from other paranormal shows is that they are usually obsessed with investigating a place – they spend the night in a haunted castle or pub, but I am interested in people, in trying to make sense of the life-changing experiences our witness had. So, you won’t find me camping out somewhere with a night-vision camera and some gadgets, in fact, I can make a solemn promise that you won’t see night vision once this series. That said, I think any ghost story is very much the product of its location and so, with each of our cases, we go and explore the place where it happened. You’ll see me investigating a very unsettling haunted house case in a small village in Cambridgeshire in the first episode, then heading up to a former mining village in County Durham in the North East of England for a poltergeist case in the second episode, which has a particular personal resonance for me as I grew up near to there at the same time this case happened. For our third ep, I’ll be in Oxford to investigate deeply unsettling experiences that a group of students had there in the early 90s. Along the way, I’ll also be conducting some experiments to test the scientific, sceptic theories behind the haunting and delving into some of the history that might explain it. Each episode is a bit of a rollercoaster ride, an adventure that the audience and I go on together. I love the idea that I am like a paranormal Indiana Jones, searching for the Holy Grail of whether ghosts exist or not! The study highlights how common it is for us to imagine strange phenomena in uncertain and unsettled situations. It's an illusion to think we're all fully rational; it's much wiser to recognise that all of us are vulnerable to making lapses in judgement when we feel like we're not in control. Even the sharpest minds can yield to whimsy. Critical thinking Ghosts hue been a popular subject for millennia, appearing in countless stories, from “Macbeth” to the Bible, and even spawning their own folklore genre: ghost stories. Ghosts are perhaps the most common paranormal belief in the world.Part of the reason is that belief in ghosts is part Of a larger web Of related paranormal beliefs, including near-death experience, life after death. And spirit communication. The idea that the dead remain with us in spirit is an ancient one, and one that offers many people comfort; who doesn’t want to believe that our beloved but deceased family members aren’t looking out for us, or with us in our times of need? Most people believe in ghosts because of personal experience; they have seen or sensed some unexplained press It you believe in ghosts, you’re not alone:A 2005 Gallup poll found that 37 percent of Americans believe in haunted houses, and about one-third believe in ghosts. Tens of thousands of people around the world actively search for ghosts as a hobby. Researcher Sharon Hill of the Doubtful Newsboy counted about 2,000 active amateur ghost-hunting groups in America. It’s been hugely exciting. The last 3 years have been a bit of a mad dream for me. I never anticipated that my podcasts would become as popular as they have. After The Battersea Poltergeist, I found myself in the surreal situation of fielding calls from Hollywood horror producers in my shed at the bottom of my garden in Walthamstow, and then, as Uncanny got popular too, watching this wonderful community build around it on social media, a group of people, some sceptics and some believers, who, unusually for the times we live in, agree to disagree but all enjoy the stories in their own way. Alongside the success of my play 2:22 – A Ghost Story in the West End and now on tour, I’ve found myself in this lovely, unexpected position of being described by newspapers as “the UK’s go-to ghost guy” and “High Priest of the Paranormal”, but I think really the popularity of what I do speaks to the huge interest in this subject matter at the moment. I’m talking about something that has obsessed me my whole life, but it feels like there is an audience of people out there who are equally fascinated.