• Question: is the paranormal possible, if so do you think it is real?

    Asked by marthaben8 on 5 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Daniel Rhodes

      Daniel Rhodes answered on 5 Jun 2018:


      It depends on what you call the paranormal. Sometimes things we think are paranormal are just processes we don’t understand yet.
      So let’s think about ghosts. These don’t fit in with the way we understand our world. This is because the existence of ghosts would break one of the most highly tested principles of physics, the second law of thermodynamics. This basically states that energy is lost in any system and that things become more disordered without more energy input. For example, your room will become messier until you make the effort to tidy it again. A ghost would have to be made up of some form of energy, which would be lost with time.

    • Photo: Laura Hemming

      Laura Hemming answered on 6 Jun 2018:


      There’s a hole branch of Psychology dedicated to the paranormal – called ‘ParaPsychology’. From my vague memories of studying this at University, ParaPsychology aims to try and come up with alternative explanations for some of the ‘paranormal’ things that people claim to see. Often, there is a logical scientific explanation for why people think they see / hear / feel the things they claim.

    • Photo: Hannah Farley

      Hannah Farley answered on 10 Jun 2018:


      I think the whole point of paranormal stuff is that we wouldn’t understand it and so can’t really prove its existence or otherwise. Personally I’m a bit of a sceptic – I think there are scary enough things that definitely do exist, but I do love a good ghost story.

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