Late night thinking/ranting

I've been giving some thought to the issue of why apparitions show up on cameras, when people appear to be shooting at nothing but air or certain objects, or in the case shown by Doug's photo of the old man, in reflections, and why we don't see these things with plain sight.

We also know that certain animals appear to have a reaction to ghosts/apparitions/whatever. The question is: "why most often to animals and cameras?". I gave this some thought tonight and fell back on findings a couple courses I took. I've got a theory.

Some may know humans have cells, or our eyes contain a whole range of specialized receptor cells. Some fire only when we see light and shadow in conjunction, others fire when we see horizontal or vertical lines - horizons or trees, for example. Humans have three (active) cones in our eyes, however cats and snakes and other predatory animals often have four - ones operating at near infrared. This isn't taking into account Tapetum Lucidum (the reflectivity layer on the retina of a lot of nocturnal animals that cause their eyes to "glow" reflectively in light)

I'm just wondering if this has any bearing on our perceptions as a neutral human observer vs cameras and/or animals, and what the real difference between our eyes and that of the lense and machinations of a camera are. Michael Meyers might be able to address these (hopefully he'll be reading this and can give his input), but I'd like to get others ideas as to what they think of this.

Regards,
-Tony

That's an interesting concept. The reflecting lucidum serves to reflect light back into the eye's retna, so objects can be seen in low light. There may be something similar in the camera lense; however, this does not explain why is it so much more common for children to see ghosts (like I did when young). Maybe it is a combination of our eye morphology and the brain's "willingness" to see something that does not fit into our perception of what reality should be. Children, cameras and animals have one thing that adult humans don't have... an openess to what is really there...

What about some adults who have the ability (or curse) of seeing ghosts? I wish I had that ability, myself.

There may be something similar in the camera lense; however, this does not explain why is it so much more common for children to see ghosts (like I did when young). Maybe it is a combination of our eye morphology and the brain's "willingness" to see something that does not fit into our perception of what reality should be.

Agreed. We're dealing with an inherently spiritual topic, and from what I've been reading, children are reported be more susceptible to seeing phenomena. I'll do some research into changes to the human eye from childhood to adulthood, but it could definitely be willingness as well as perhaps something ..learned... as we get indoctrinated as to what Spirits or religion are supposed to be - that later "blocks" us

Children, cameras and animals have one thing that adult humans don't have... an openess to what is really there...

That is true. I may have been hasty in labeling humans earlier as "neutral" observers. Our natural skepticism tends to effect our perceptions. But with kids, It could also be that children tend to be inherently creepy. But then again, I may have watched "Children of the Damned" one too many times.. :-)

But we do have ways of possibly detecting them, and some of the questions and certain responses, which along with the battery drain issues mentioned, shows that we can not only effect the phenomena, it can be measured.

As an aside, I haven't seen this in the literature I've read thus far, but has anyone tried a more definitive question yet? I see a lot of yes/no questions, but simple cognitive questions like 'what is 2 plus 1" and getting 3 EM spikes might yield results, and begin to remove possibilities of natural occurrence. I'm not suggesting giving a ghost an IQ test or throwing the DSM-IV at it, but a few simple ones might yield interesting results.

I'm digressing. I have a sciences background, so I tend to be a dork about these things.

Regards,
-Tony

I have heard that you mostly are capable of seeing ghosts at the corner of your eyes with your peripheral vision. This is where you mostly have rod cells that are good at sensing motion and seeing in the dark. Does anyone know if rod cells predominate in the eye as a child as opposed to cone cells that are good at distinguishing color and are found in the middle of the eye? I wonder how you can set up a camera so that it mimics more closely peripheral vision. This might allow for more photographs to be taken of ghosts.

Joseph