PC-Files: Do Ghosts Really Exist ?

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An unexplained noise in a silent house, a furtive shadow glimpsed out of the corner of the eye, the inexplicable feeling of a presence in an empty room… You have probably had these experiences. Faced with these strange phenomena, our minds quickly switch to the supernatural hypothesis, perpetuating a belief as old as humanity: ghosts. But what do these manifestations really tell us about our brain and our society? At a time when videos of apparitions are still invading social networks and “ghost hunting” shows are multiplying, it is becoming increasingly urgent to sort out the truth from the lies.

In this first part of our PC-Files series, embark with us on a disturbing journey, at the border of neuroscience and anthropology, to understand why, in 2025, we continue to see ghosts. Even though no established scientific proof has yet demonstrated that they are among us, these beliefs persist and remain deeply rooted in some people.

In exploring this theme, we will not seek to deny the existence of unexplained experiences, but rather to understand them from a rational angle. Because, if ghosts do not exist, what they teach us about our brain, our perception and our relationship to the world concerns us all, without exception.

The historical construction of a universal belief

Our ancestors began to theorize the existence of ghosts from the first civilizations, around the third millennium BCE. Ancient Egypt offers us one of the first examples of an elaborate conception of the afterlife; its inhabitants did not see death as the complete end of the individual.

Egyptian priests distinguished several components of the soul, including the “ ka ” and the “ ba“, each playing a specific role in the post-mortem existence. The “ ka ” , an invisible life force, required regular offerings to survive. Without these offerings, it risked becoming a wandering, malevolent entity, terrorizing the living in order to obtain the spiritual nourishment it was deprived of.

The “ ba “, represented as a bird with a human head, possessed the unique ability to travel between the world of the dead and that of the living. When the Egyptians died, they believed that the “ ba ” could leave the body of the deceased, fly away and allow the latter to continue to exist in a certain way in the afterlife.

Artistic representation on the Neferubenef papyrus illustrating the moment when the Ba, the soul, and the Shat, the shadow, leave the tomb to join the afterlife. © Soutekh67/Wikipedia

Egyptian tombs were full of warnings addressed to potential desecrators, threatening intruders with curses and vengeful apparitions. To our modern eyes, these inscriptions might be seen as superstition, but they were part of an extremely complex theological system, where the preservation of harmony between the visible and invisible worlds was paramount.

The Greeks, for their part, particularly associated spectral manifestations with violent or premature deaths. Murder victims, suicides, and people who died before marriage or childbirth were considered particularly likely to become vengeful spirits. Homer's Odyssey (song X) offers us a striking illustration of this through the story of Elpenor, the sailor who died accidentally and who appears to Ulysses to beg his former captain to give him a decent burial.

The advent of Christianity in its early centuries (1st-4th centuries) profoundly transformed the conception of spectral manifestations in the West. The medieval Catholic Church gradually developed its own theological system, notably through the concept of purgatory. This intermediate place, neither heaven nor hell, was populated by souls awaiting purification who could sometimes manifest themselves to the living.

Representation of tormented souls in purgatory in the Bad Wimpfen Cathedral (Germany), dated 1519. © Peter Schmelzle/Wikipedia

The Victorian period marked a decisive turning point in our relationship with ghosts. The emergence of spiritualism in the 19th century, brought by the Fox sisters in the United States, transformed spectral manifestations into an object of pseudo-scientific investigation. Spiritualist séances, mixing religious beliefs and scientific pretensions, attracted both the working classes and the intellectual elite. Even renowned scientists like William Crookes, a British physicist and chemist, have studied these phenomena, trying to apply the methods of physics to the study of paranormal manifestations.

This fascination with ghosts has not diminished with modernity. The 20th century saw the emergence of new forms of paranormal investigations, using ever more advanced technologies: EMF (ElectroMagnetic Field) detectors, thermal cameras, or EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) recorders. Reality TV shows dedicated to ghost hunting have popularized these practices, particularly in the United States, creating a veritable media genre.

Today, social networks have taken over, with TikTok and YouTube brimming with thousands of videos of alleged apparitions, often filmed with smartphones or surveillance cameras (see the example below, one of many). Although generally faked or simply analyzed through a sensational prism, these viral contents are the perfect symptom of the adaptation of these beliefs to the codes of digital culture.

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Neurological Mechanisms and Sensory Illusions

After this brief historical point, let us now look at the origin of our reactions to manifestations that we do not understand. Let us take an example: when you enter a dark room and suddenly perceive a furtive movement, your brain immediately goes into a state of alert. This instinctive reaction, inherited from our evolution, can transform a simple shadow into a ghostly apparition. But how does science explain these experiences that seem so real to us ?

Let us begin by explaining a fascinating phenomenon: pareidolia.As a human, your brain is wired to recognize faces and shapes, even where there are none. This ability, essential to our primitive survival, explains why you sometimes “see” a face in the pattern of wallpaper, in the clouds, or a silhouette in the folds of a curtain. In the shadows, this mechanism intensifies, transforming the most banal forms into disturbing presences.

The human brain is also good at filling in incomplete shapes, a process called ” perceptive closure ». Research in cognitive psychology has revealed that when we perceive incomplete sensory information, our brain organ automatically empties it based on our past experiences and expectations. In a dark or unfamiliar environment, this mechanism can transform ambiguous stimuli into structured perceptions that we interpret as presences.

Emotions, particularly fear, profoundly alter our perception. Studies using functional MRI have shown that activation of the amygdala, the fear center in the brain, increases the sensitivity of our visual and auditory systems. The book The Emotional Brain or the Neuroanatomy of Emotions by Françoise Lotstra explains this process perfectly. ” LeDoux (1994) gives us the example of a walker in a wood, perceiving via his thalamus, the blurred image of a stick that could turn out to be a snake; the thalamus activates the amygdala which in turn triggers the bodily reactions of fear ” she writes in this excerpt available on Cairn.Info.

In a state of anxiety, we become hypersensitive to environmental stimuli, interpreting ordinary events as signs of potential danger. This phenomenon, essential to our evolutionary survival, explains why we “see” ghosts more easily when we are afraid. The video below of this woman visibly terrified by the noises in her house is a glaring example.

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♬ original sound – yumi

Selective attention also plays a role in these reactions. Experiments in cognitive psychology have shown that when we expect to see something in particular, our brains become more likely to detect patterns that match. to these expectations, even in random stimuli. This is called the attentional bias and explains why people who believe in ghosts report more paranormal experiences.

Environmental conditions can also amplify these perceptual phenomena. Fatigue, stress, or spatial disorientation (common in large buildings with complex layouts and oppressive atmospheres, as shown in this short video at the bottom of the paragraph) disrupt our ability to correctly process sensory information. Our brain, seeking to maintain a coherent representation of the environment, can then generate erroneous interpretations of the perceived stimuli.

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♬ Creepy, scary, horror, synth, tension – Sound Production Gin

Certainly, these neurological and cognitive mechanisms are much less spectacular than the paranormal explanations. They are, however, irrefutable proof that our perceptive systems, optimized by evolution for our survival, can sometimes lead us to misinterpret certain natural phenomena.

The anthropology of spectral beliefs: a social and cognitive necessity

How can we explain that these beliefs, apparently irrational in the age of satellites and artificial intelligence, retain such a hold on our collective imagination ? To do this, we must look to cognitive anthropology and the evolutionary psychology, two disciplinary fields that will provide us with some keys to understanding.

In his book And Man Created Gods (2001), anthropologist Pascal Boyer demonstrated that our brain is naturally predisposed to detect intentional agentsin our environment. These agents could be defined as anything we perceive as having an intention, a will of their own and the ability to act autonomously. This hypersensitivity to agent detection (HADD – Hyperactive Agency Detection Device), developed as a survival mechanism, thus pushes us to attribute intentions and consciousness to natural phenomena. Thus, a rustling of leaves potentially becomes the sign of an evil presence, a nocturnal creaking transforms into the footsteps of a potential entity.

This cognitive predisposition is articulated with a fundamental need to give meaning to death, a phenomenon that the anthropologist Maurice Bloch describes as a “cognitive paradox” in his work Anthropology and the Cognitive Challenge (2013). Our consciousness allows us to conceive of our own mortality while rendering us incapable of concretely imagining our non-existence. This cognitive tension creates fertile ground for the blossoming of beliefs in a form of post-mortem continuity.

Ghosts also fulfill an essential social function as symbolic guardians of moral norms. In Les Revenants: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society(1994), ethnologist Jean-Claude Schmitt showed us how the stories of apparitions have historically served to reinforce the moral codes of societies. Vengeful spirits, troubled souls, ghosts expiating their sins: so many figures that recall the consequences of transgressing social norms.

The therapeutic dimension of spectral beliefs should not be neglected, because it is just as important as the others. In Death, Grief and Mourning (1965), anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer underlines their role as an emotional pillar in the grieving process. The possibility of communication with the deceased, even imaginary, allows for maintaining a symbolic link that soothes the pain of loss. These beliefs provide a structuring cultural framework for managing the trauma of definitive separation.

Last point, spectral manifestations also play a fundamental epistemological role in our relationship to the unexplained. They help us construct our knowledge of the world, even if this knowledge is sometimes erroneous or incomplete, an aspect addressed by anthropologist David Hufford in The Terror That Comes in the Night(1982). Ghosts serve as a link to integrate into our worldview experiences that defy our rational understanding. In the face of unexplained phenomena, recourse to the supernatural offers an interpretative set of codes that preserves our sense of control over our environment, which sometimes appears to us as chaotic and unpredictable.

Ghosts thus present themselves to us as specific social facts, embodying what we might call a residual category of collective understanding. That is to say, everything that, in a given society or group, is not explicitly codified or institutionalized, but which still influences the behaviors and representations of individuals. The 21st century is deeply marked by scientific positivism and techno-rationalization, two visions that structure social thought, but also simplify the complexity of the world. Ghosts, specters or spirits, therefore participate in a space of belief which, while accommodating the dominant rationality, preserves a space for the ineffable. To believe that the persistence of these supernatural manifestations would only be a simple archaic survival is a thought that is far too reductive. The latter serves a specific purpose: to maintain, in societies, within their most rationalized structures, zones of indeterminacy necessary for the reproduction of the social bond and the expression of collective anxieties.

• Ghosts have existed in all cultures since ancient times, driven by religious, social and historical beliefs that have evolved over time.
• Our brain, through cognitive biases and perceptive mechanisms such as pareidolia or hypervigilance, makes us see shapes and hear sounds interpreted as paranormal.
• These beliefs provide us with tools to frame painful events such as mourning or death, to structure moral norms and to give meaning to inexplicable events.

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