Errymath: ghost

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Psychologist claims most late-night paranormal experiences are simply down to sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome<br />
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If you believe in the paranormal you might not be surprised if 
you hear stories of deceased loved ones appearing during the night, huge
 explosions heard just as someone is drifting off with no obvious cause,
 and other peculiar occurrences. But what if you don’t?<br />
My interest in the paranormal started with an impromptu coffee with a colleague, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christopher-french-168769">Chris French</a>,
 who researches reports of paranormal experiences. He told me stories of
 countless people who had recounted such events. These experiences 
tended to start while lying in bed. Then something unusual would happen –
 perhaps a demon would appear or the environment would seem strange or 
there would be a sensed presence. The person having this experience 
might also report being glued to their mattress, tarmacked into the bed,
 totally unable to move.<br />
<br />
It’s unsurprising that people who experience such things might interpret them as paranormal. But certain phenomena such as <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sleep-paralysis-9780199313808?q=brian%20sharpless&lang=en&cc=us">sleep paralysis</a>
 provide an alternative to paranormal explanations for such occurrences.
 Hence my interest in the subject, as a sleep researcher.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Sleep paralysis</h2>
When we sleep, we cycle through different stages. We start the night 
in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep – which gets progressively 
deeper. We then cycle back until we hit rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. 
During REM sleep we are most likely to have vivid dreams. At this stage 
we are also paralysed, perhaps as a safety mechanism to stop us acting 
out our dreams so that we don’t end up attempting to fly.<br />
<br />
But during sleep paralysis, features of REM sleep continue into 
waking life. Those who experience it will feel awake yet might 
experience dream-like hallucinations and struggle to move. This 
experience is pretty common, occurring in around 8% of people (although <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1087079211000098?via%3Dihub">estimates vary dramatically</a> depending on who we are asking). It’s even possible to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1621022">induce sleep paralysis</a> in some people, by disrupting their sleep in specific ways.<br />
<br />
Certain researchers, French among them, believe that this explains a 
huge number of paranormal accounts. Information about sleep paralysis is
 finally seeping into <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kendall-jenner-sleep-paralysis_us_580a2833e4b0cdea3d86e413">public awareness</a>, but we now need to understand more about this common complaint. <br />
Our preliminary work, which I recount in my new book <a href="https://bloomsbury.com/uk/nodding-off-9781472946188/">Nodding Off: The science of sleep from cradle to grave</a>, hints at possible <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsr.12282">genetic and environmental explanations</a>
 for why some people are more likely than others to experience sleep 
paralysis. This now needs to be replicated using much larger samples. 
Reviewing the literature, we have also highlighted a host of other <a href="http://www.smrv-journal.com/article/S1087-0792(17)30112-0/abstract">variables associated with this common experience</a>, including stress, trauma, psychiatric difficulties and physical illnesses.<br />
<br />
<br />
<figure class="align-center ">
            <img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223620/original/file-20180618-85854-xl2b58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" />
            <figcaption>
              <span class="caption">The worst dreams.</span>
              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/afraid-young-woman-hiding-white-blanket-106535048?src=oHbLZiN9CMU_8X-qIuLZiw-1-23">Creativa Images/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption><figcaption><span class="attribution"> </span>
            </figcaption>
          </figure>

<br />
<h2>
Exploding head syndrome</h2>
Sleep paralysis aside, how else are sleep researchers helping to 
explain paranormal experiences? People sometimes describe experiencing 
huge explosions during the night which simply can’t be explained. There 
is no sign that a shelf has fallen down or a car has backfired. There is
 no one playing the electric guitar next to their head. <br />
Again, this can be linked to our sleep - this time explained by “<a href="http://www.smrv-journal.com/article/S1087-0792(14)00022-7/abstract">exploding head syndrome</a>”, a term <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673688925512?via%3Dihub">coined relatively recently</a>
 by the neurologist JMS Pearce. When we fall asleep, the reticular 
formation of the brainstem (a part of our brain involved in 
consciousness) typically starts to inhibit our ability to move, see and 
hear things. When we experience a “bang” in our sleep this might be 
because of a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2982.2007.01522.x">delay in this process</a>. Instead of the reticular formation shutting down the auditory neurons, they might  fire at once. <br />
As with sleep paralysis, this phenomenon is also under-researched. 
For this very reason, in 2017 my colleagues and I joined forces with <a href="http://www.sciencefocus.com/article/mind/qa-sleep-paralysis-and-exploding-head-syndrome">BBC Focus</a> and <a href="http://briansharpless.com/index.html">Brian Sharpless</a>, a leading expert on this phenomenon, to collect data on this topic.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Imps and ghouls</h2>
Finally, what might scientists make of precognitive dreams? We might 
dream of a friend we haven’t seen for years only to have them call us 
the very next day. French thinks science can provide an explanation for 
this too. Referencing work by John Allen Paulos that focuses on 
probabilities, <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.8727&rep=rep1&type=pdf">he explains</a> how such an occurrence may be surprising on any single day, but over time, quite likely to occur. <br />
Researching my book, I spoke to Mrs Sinclair, who is 70, and lives 
alone. 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. Having scientific explanations provided her with 
immense comfort and she no longer believes in paranormal explanations 
for the things that she experienced. <br />
Our hope is that scientific explanations of paranormal experiences 
might help others by lowering anxiety. Decreasing anxiety has also been <a href="http://www.smrv-journal.com/article/S1087-0792(17)30112-0/pdf">hypothesised</a>
 as a potential method by which to reduce sleep paralysis. So, perhaps 
providing more information about these unusual experiences might even 
mean that things are less likely to go bump in the night.<br />
<br />
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Do ghosts really exist? What lies behind ghosts, demons and aliens – according to sleep researchers

Psychologist claims most late-night paranormal experiences are simply down to sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome If you belie...

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-107133" height="426" src="http://mysteriousuniverse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/bend_creepy_curve_dark_fog_foggy_forest_mysterious-980867.jpgd_-570x380.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<br />
A recent <a href="http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/03/mysterious-hitchhiking-ghost-burns-holes-in-trucks-floor-mat/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ghost story in Argentina</a>
 centered around a paranormal encounter that was once very common – the 
ghost hitchhiker. Thumbing for a ride has all but disappeared for a 
variety of reasons and with it, the scary tales of the dark stranger 
picked up on a lonely road.<br />
<br />
Another ghost story fading into obscurity, 
at least in the U.S., is the ghost train – a phantom locomotive that is 
often linked to a tragedy. Fortunately, trains still run in China and, 
as expected, so do the ghostly ones. A recent video appears to show a 
semi-transparent train passing through a station in China and has many 
wondering if it’s real, what caused it and what it might be a harbinger 
of.<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="460" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7BGIEo9LYmg" width="660"></iframe>

<br />
<br />
The video was uploaded to YouTube on March 14 by Hidden Underbelly 2.0 (see the video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BGIEo9LYmg" rel="noopener" target="_blank">here</a><span style="margin-left: 5px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></span>)
 and is said to have been recorded on March 10 by a closed-circuit 
security camera in the Baotou Railway Station in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.<br />
<br />
The station serves both the Jingbao Railway and Baolan Railway. The 
source claims it received the video from a security employee at the 
station. At first glance, it definitely looks like a transparent 
passenger train pulling in, stopping as if to unload and load 
passengers, and then leaving the station. There’s nothing to indicate 
with certainty the exact location (is it really the Baotou Railway 
Station and if so, where inside it?).<br />
There is no other motion in the 
video during the time the train is there.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="u-block" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/974747542461337600/K92FGFyo?format=jpg&name=600x314" height="334" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/974747542461337600/K92FGFyo?format=jpg&name=600x314" width="640" /><br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_107134" style="max-width: 580px;">
<img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-107134" height="425" src="http://mysteriousuniverse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com-Train-Train-Station-Railway-Landscape-Travel-2268685-570x379.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Train stations can be spooky</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
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Is this a video of a ghost train?<br />
The comments run the gamut from 
definitely ghost train to an image from a parallel universe to a secret 
military cloaking train to a reflection in a window of a nearby train to
 a hoax.<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/933810/Ghost-train-caught-CCTV-rail-platform-proof-afterlife" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Daily Express online</a> says the last scenario is supported by <a href="https://www.ufoofinterest.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">debunker Scott Brando</a>,
 who claims it’s a merger of two videos and dates back at least to 2012 
to a railway station in not the Baotou Railway Station in Inner Mongolia
 but the Polezhaevskaya station in Moscow. Are those Russian hackers at 
it again?<br />
<br />
Ghost trains have been the subject of a 1923 play (The Ghost Train by
 English playwright Arnold Ridley), numerous movies (starting with the 
1927 comedy based on the play), a TV series and books such as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Train-American-Railroad-Legends/dp/188308976X" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Ghost Train: American Railroad Ghost Legends.</a><br />
<br />
Famous ghost train tales include the Silverpilen (or Silver Arrow, a 
Stockholm Metro ghost train), the St. Louis Light (which was duplicated 
and debunked by two students) and the phantom funeral train of Abraham 
Lincoln that is said to run between Washington, D.C. and Springfield, 
Illinois, around April 21st, the anniversary of the procession to his 
final resting place.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-107138" height="426" src="http://mysteriousuniverse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Abraham-Lincoln-funeral-train_Harrisburg-570x380.jpg" width="640" />
<br />
Is there any event in Baotou that could be related to a phantom 
train?<br />
The area dates back to the Mongols, but they didn’t have any 
trains. On May 3rd, 1996, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake severely damaged 
the city, killing 26 and destroying the homes of nearly 200,000. Could 
there be a phantom train arriving to take the dead to the afterlife? 
Lesser events have created greater urban legends, not to mention ghost 
train stories.<br />
True or false, it’s nice to add a new one to the 
collection.<br />
As for now, the “What is it?” needle is pushing nearer to double-exposure … until the Baotou phantom express makes another stop.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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Horrifying moment ‘ghost train picks up passenger’ and disappears into ‘parallel universe’ <a href="https://t.co/GVtzg06VSZ">https://t.co/GVtzg06VSZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/fdZHn0smUv">pic.twitter.com/fdZHn0smUv</a></div>
— Daily Star (@Daily_Star) <a href="https://twitter.com/Daily_Star/status/974404039902486528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Horrifying moment ‘ghost train picks up passenger’ and disappears into ‘parallel universe’

A recent ghost story in Argentina centered around a paranormal encounter that was once very common – the ghost hitchhiker. Thumbing fo...

Errymath

Do ghosts really exist? What lies behind ghosts, demons and aliens – according to sleep researchers

Horrifying moment ‘ghost train picks up passenger’ and disappears into ‘parallel universe’

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