The Science of Ghosts | Paranormal, Bhoots and Ouija Boards Exposed

Hello, friends!

In 1989, Bollywood stars Vinod Khanna, Amjad Khan, and Dimple Kapadia,

were shooting for a film.

This film was named Lekin.

A drama-mystery Bollywood film on ghosts.

The story was about the spirit of a woman

being trapped in a palace, looking for salvation.

This film was being shot in a palace in Jaipur.

One day, on an otherwise normal day of shooting,

after the shots were over, people packed up,

the sun had set, night had fallen,

and Dimple Kapadia was snug in her bed.

She says that she saw a woman sitting beside her on the bed.

She talked to the woman,

and she had this eerie feeling that the woman was a ghost.

This is just one example.

But you will find hundreds of thousands of examples all over the world,

where people claim to have seen ghosts and spirits,

and even talked to them.

Many people report that they went through paranormal experiences.

So many films have been made on this.

The Conjuring, The Exorcist,

The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

These films claim to have been "inspired from real events".

There have been so many TV shows,

Ghosthunters, where people equipped with sophisticated instruments,

go on a hunt to catch ghosts.

They use technology to prove that ghosts exist.

And some people make YouTube videos of talking to the spirits of dead people.

Such as American paranormal expert Steve Huff,

he claims to have talked to the spirit of the Late Sushant Singh Rajput.

What's the truth behind all this?

Come, in today's video, let's try to understand this.

"This is the live testimony of Sushant's spirit."

"School for Ghosts."

"Do ghosts and spirits really exist?"

"There are places that are still feared by people.

It's said that this place is haunted by ghosts at night."

"It is truly extraordinary, unimaginable, unbelievable."

First of all, let's keep aside the events that have an obvious reason.

Such as the famous case of the Fox Sisters.

In the 1800s, in America,

three sisters were very famous among the spiritual people.

These three sisters were known as the Fox Sisters,

And people claimed that from a very young age,

these three sisters could communicate with ghosts and spirits.

When people wanted to communicate with someone's spirit,

they'd go to these sisters.

These sisters would ask questions to the spirits,

and in response, they could hear the walls of their room banging.

Sometimes they would see messages on blank cards.

Their "spirit-talking" sessions

where they talked to the spirits,

were very popular in America back then.

These three sisters raked in a lot of money from this.

But one day, the husband of one of the sisters died.

He was an orthodox Christian and believed these things.

He told his wife to stop doing such things

to stop communicating with spirits,

After the death of her husband, the sister went into depression.

She started drinking.

And had a falling out with the other two sisters.

One day, this sister, publicly confessed

that the three sisters were conning people for a long time.

They didn't talk to ghosts and spirits,

they were simply playing small tricks.

Such as tying an object with a string and making it fall "unnaturally."

Sometimes hitting the walls with their feet to make the banging sounds.

This sister claimed that people were so emotional,

that people were willing to accept the delusion

people would even "feel" the spirits touching them.

Another famous story is of the Amityville Haunted House.

In New York, there was a house called Amityville,

a person named Ronny had murdered his family there.

When this person was presented in court,

he claimed that he could hear voices in the house.

And that he committed the murders under the influence of the ghostly noises.

After this, another family moved into this house.

The family of George and Kathy.

They claimed to have heard these noises too.

They started seeing ghosts.

They witnessed paranormal activities in this house

and finally, they had to leave the house.

What was the mystery of this story?

Later, news reports by ABC News showed that

they were lying.

The murderer had lied to save himself from the punishment.

And the couple that moved in later,

lied because they thought that

they could earn some good bucks by lying.

They assumed that they would get book deals and film deals.

In India, a recent example was seen

when a person named Steve Huff claimed

that he was communicating with the spirit of the late Sushant Singh Rajput.

He recorded his conversation while talking to the spirit

and posted it on YouTube.

And because many people were already emotional about this issue.

They were misled.

Several news channels reported on this as well.

India TV, Amar Ujala TV,

DNA, News24,

as if what was shown in this video was real.

But what had happened here actually?

As revealed by an Instagram user,

this person took some clips from an old interview,

where he was interviewed by film critic Anupama Chopra some years ago,

audio clips were extracted from there,

those audio clips were then manipulated,

and played as if it was Sushant Singh Rajput's spirit talking.

And surprisingly friends, hardly did any news channel

run this news where the truth was exposed.

Because you get TRP by appeasing the superstitious beliefs of people.

They wouldn't get TRP by talking about science and logical things.

So let's keep aside such fraudsters and false cases,

where the lies were clearly evident.

But what about the cases where people do not lie?

What about the films that are inspired by real-life incidents?

In 2017, there was a film called Veronica.

In it, it was shown that during a solar eclipse,

Veronica and her friends go to the school basement,

and use an Ouija board

to contact Veronica's dead father and her dead boyfriend.

This ritual was interrupted by a nun,

then the Ouija board breaks,

and a demon possesses Veronica.

She gets possessed.

Interestingly, this film claims that

it was inspired by real events.

So did this happen in reality?

The real story is of a girl named Estefania.

This real-life case drew so much attention

that even in the police report it was mentioned

that there were some paranormal activities at this girl's house.

If you watch such films,

you might also feel that

since it is shown in so many films, there would be some truth to it.

Some elements of it would be true at least.

It can't be that all of it is false.

Especially when they write that the film is inspired by real events.

But friends, the point here is that people misunderstand the word 'inspired'.

Saying that it is "based on true events"

and "inspired by true events", are different.

When the director of this film was asked questions about it,

he had clearly said that,

This is why the real story and the story depicted in the film

have vast differences.

In reality, according to the news reports,

the parents of the girl were alive.

In the film, it's shown that the girl dies within 3 days.

but in reality, the girl Estefania died several months later.

after suffering from seizures.

Third, in the real story, it cannot be ruled out

that Estefania suffered from a psychotic disorder.

A disorder that went undiagnosed by a doctor

because they lived in a rural area.

During the 1990s.

Back then technology and medical science weren't as advanced as they are now.

And finally, after Estefania's death,

her parents had claimed to have witnessed paranormal activities around them.

That they could hear their daughter scream.

But when her mother was psychologically examined,

it was revealed that she was suffering from emotional instability,

anxiety, and need for attention.

I am going into the detail of this case,

because we often come across such cases.

This is a typical example of the cases that inspire horror films.

You'd say that even if we suppose one family member had a psychological illness,

but if the entire family behaves in such a manner

and claim to have witnessed paranormal activity,

what would happen in that case?

Friends, in such cases, there is a phenomenon known as

Mass Psychogenic Illness.

Also known as Shared Psychotic Disorder.

We saw this in the famous Burari Case

which saw the mass suicide by 11 family members.

It was a famous case from Delhi.

I talked about this in the video on Monkeyman as well.

The secret behind the mystery of the Monkeyman.

I'll put the link to that video in the description

you can go watch it later.

Another bizarre case was seen in an Australian family

where the family of 5 went on a road trip

and suddenly, they suffered from paranoia,

that someone was trying to kill them.

Eventually, the family members separated from each other and disappeared.

Though they united later,

this is said to be a case of Shared Delusional Disorder (SDD),

where people who are close to each other,

But now, let's talk about stranger phenomenons.

Things that will shock you when you find out how these work exactly.

First are these Ouija boards.

They are spelled OUIJA,

but it's pronounced /wee-je/.

You would have seen them in numerous films.

Exorcist, Paranormal Activity, Conjuring 2.

Even in Indian films such as A Death in the Goonj,

even in a web series on Zee5,

It is basically said to be a medium to communicate with ghosts.

There are alphabets and numbers written on this board,

along with yes and no.

And there is a triangular pointer known as Planchet.

To use this, people go to a dark place,

light some candles, close their eyes

and request the spirits to come to them.

In case a spirit is around them, they call it to communicate with them.

Then the people place their hands on this pointer.

And ask questions to the spirits.

If the spirit wants to answer with a yes or no,

then their hands on the triangular pointer start moving toward the answer.

Friends, it is interesting to note that

people do not move their hands on their own.

Some people may be those that are just having fun with it,

but there are many people who use the Ouija boards

but do not move their hands on their own.

Their hands start moving on their own.

"Spirits, can you speak to us?

Are you there?"

And they believe that the spirits control their hands, making them move.

And that they are communicating with the spirits.

How can this be possible?

There is a scientific phenomenon to this.

Ideomotor Effect.

Ideomotor Effect is a psychological phenomenon

where we move our bodies unconsciously.

Without our conscious self being aware of it.

For example, our hand starts moving, but we don't even know it.

Often, you would notice that when you go to sleep,

moments before you fall asleep,

you feel that you're falling.

You slipped and now you're falling.

And then you're jerked awake.

This is known as the Hypnic Jerk.

Your body moves unconsciously.

It thinks that it is falling from somewhere.

And that causes the jerk.

A hypnic jerk is different from the Ideomotor effect.

But they are similar.

The difference is that you experience a hypnic jerk

when you are about to fall asleep.

But you can witness the ideomotor effect while you're awake.

If your hand is moving on its own on the Ouija board,

this is an example of an ideomotor effect.

Your brain signals your body to move in that way

but your consciousness doesn't even know this.

If you want an example of this,

you can experience this right now, wherever you are.

Take a pendulum.

If you don't have that, take a light weight and attach it to a string.

It can be your button, or your ring,

tie it to a string.

Since I have none of this, let me use this charger for this example.

This works like a pendulum now.

It's oscillating already.

What you need to do is,

place your hand in front of yourself.

And this weight is normally oscillating.

Think to yourself that you need to make it move in a clockwise direction.

Move it in the clockwise direction,

And eventually, you'll see that it starts moving in the same direction on its own.

This isn't working quite as well with a charger

because it isn't as thin as a string.

But you can see the movement here.

And now if you want to make it move in the anti-clockwise direction.

It starts moving anticlockwise, without you needing to do anything.

you aren't moving it consciously,

But since your brain wants to make it move anti-clockwise,

you can see it moving in that direction.

Try it out for yourself.

People who really believe in Ouija boards,

who believe that they are really talking to spirits,

their brain creates subconscious images and memories

of the person, the spirit that has passed on.

When they ask questions, their brain uses those memories and images to respond,

and their brain subconsciously tells their body to move.

There have been several scientific studies into this.

There's a simple Blindfold Test for this.

If a spirit was the one to move that planchet,

even when people are blindfolded,

when people have their eyes closed,

the planchet should move in the correct way.

But what happens actually, instead of moving in the right way,

the pointer gives absurd responses.

If people do not know where Yes or No is,

they start pointing the pointer randomly.

We see the same ideomotor effect on people who claim that they are possessed.

That there's a spirit in them.

Not every case is a lie.

if they think that they are possessed and start behaving so,

it is actually possible that their body is making the movements unconsciously,

without them being aware of it.

That's why they might think that they are possessed.

Since their body starts moving without their control.

It is the act of the subconscious mind.

Similarly, some people claim that they are gifted with automatic writing.

That they can communicate with spirits

who make their hands move to write things.

It's the same thing.

Most of the people who make such claims are obviously lying.

But the ones that are telling the truth,

are victims of this ideomotor effect.

But let's keep the ideomotor effect to a side,

what about the ghosthunters that carry sophisticated equipment to catch ghosts.

Let's analyse that as well.

Often, the cameras used by the ghosthunters is an infrared cameras.

Which captures thermal patterns.

They capture the spirits with these cameras,

which makes it seem like a negative photograph.

In reality, friends, whenever there is a change in temperature

you can see it quite clearly through an infrared camera.

Think about it, if you sit on a chair and

rub your back on the back of the chair,

it will generate some heat,

If you get up and see the chair with an infrared camera,

it will seem like someone is sitting on the chair.

When in reality, the chair has some heat residue.

Another interesting example is if you come out of the bathroom with wet feet,

if you walk on the floor and look at it through an infrared camera,

it will look like the footprints of a spirit.

Because the temperature of your feet would be different than the rest of your body.

Look at this interesting video, explaining it in detail.

"Perhaps you are sitting around the dining room table, having a séance.

Calling on spirits from the past,

when a pattern you might catch could be

someone that was sitting on a chair perhaps.

Another thought that came to mind,

maybe it was a crew member from one of those shows

leaning up against the wall.

In this shot here, my thermal reflection

as I walk across a wood floor in a home

could be mistaken for something else."

In addition to this, these ghost hunters carry an EMF meter with them.

the EMF meter is an interesting thing.

If you have a cell phone or two-way radio around you,

or any kind of electronic device really,

which emits electromagnetic waves,

this meter would show a reading.

from a computer mouse to a camera battery pack,

anything can make this meter fluctuate all over the place.

They use motion sensor lights often.

Even if a mouse is passing through an abandoned building,

it will turn on the motion sensor,

and they will use it to claim that they spotted a spirit.

By using these technical devices, the nonsense that's often sprout,

is presented on the TV as if they have really spotted ghosts.

It is done in America as well as India.

In many countries, in fact.

There's a TV show in Aaj Tak Adhbut,

"Supernatural, Unimaginable, Unbelievable."

They show some VFX with some background horror music,

and the anchor Sweta Singh presents ghosts and spirits to people.

"Ages pass by, but some questions remain unanswered."

If these people can find a nanochip in the ₹2,000 currency note,

they can find spirits as well.

But what can they do?

Showing ghosts on TV attracts TRP.

Showing ghosts in cinemas earns them some nice box office collections.

And now even YouTubers have started showing stories of ghosts.

Actually, it isn't wrong to do these.

As long as these are presented solely as entertainment.

I enjoy watching horror films.

They give a different kind of thrill.

The fear that it brings is quite enjoyable.

But if a TV show, film or a YouTuber claims that

they have definitely spotted a ghost,

And that ghosts and spirits are real,

it is complete nonsense.

It is nice to entertain people.

But to make false promises to people, and to fool them,

by encouraging superstition,

is absolutely wrong.

But what about the Dimple Kapadia case

that I mentioned at the beginning of this video?

Friends, the thing is that in the film Lekin,

Dimple was playing the role herself.

The role of the ghost.

Her character was based on it.

When she experienced the ghost encounter,

She went and told this to Padmini Devi, the erstwhile princess.

She replied that Dimple had been shooting the entire day as a ghost,

so it wasn't out of the ordinary that it was stuck on her mind,

which then caused the delusion.

I said, "Listen Dimps, the thing is,

that you are shooting all day as a ghost.

So, therefore, at night, I'm sure you woke up

and you thought that there was somebody else with you."

Keep your wits about you when it comes to such things.

Thank you very much!!