Question: Do you believe in ghosts? My dad says no because then everyone would be a ghost and they would be all around are there scientific explanations to why people think they can see ghosts? Do u think there real?

Tom Lister answered on 27 Jun 2012:

There are about 7 billion people living, and probably about 30 or 40 billion people who have ever lived, although perhaps half of those died before the age on 1. So it would be pretty crowded if they were all ghosts, and full of baby ghosts too.

My understanding about our perception of ghosts is that we are great at finding patterns in things and our body immediately assumes that anything which might resemble a living creature actually is one. This must have been useful when searching for prey or evading predators at some point in our evolution. This is why we see images of people (e.g. Elvis, Jesus) in slices of toast of splodges of paint. I think a wisp of smoke, or a funny reflection from something shiny could be momentarily interpreted as a person, which people think is a ghost.

Also, it is very difficult to deal with the loss of a loved one, and thinking they are a ghost might be comforting for some people – making them more inclined to believe it.