Someone posed the question "Are ghost real?". Can the scientific method be applied to that question? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Hi Alana A.,

An interesting query. To determine if something is real, a useful equivalent statement might be that it exists. Now, if you want to investigate something, you must first define what it is you want to investigate.

Since there is no general agreement as to what a ghost might be, other than an impression a recipient has about the spirit of a previously living entity, you can't even begin. If spirits existed, they ought to be able to make such impressions reproducibly on several people. They haven't been demonstrated to even do that, let alone generate physically measurable phenomena reproducibly.

There are plenty of people who believe that if they believe something intensely, it must be true. If that were true, perhaps truth would be determined by majority opinion (er, belief), and change at whim. Science, and the scientific method of inquiry, exist to keep us honest in that regard, as history has demonstrated that humans have almost unlimited powers of self-deception!

Note that that's not to say that ghosts could never be shown to exist scientifically. But so many people have worked to show it, unsuccessfully to date, that the best answer to your query might as well be, "Don't waste your time trying."

-- Cheers, -- Mr. d.