If you or anyone you know see a ghostly apparition this haunted
holiday, before you run screaming out of the room, consider the
following scientific explanations!

1.  Infrasound

Um, why is that beaker vibrating all by itself? Why do I keep seeing
gray images slip just outside my vision? The answer may be more
scientific than visitors from beyond the grave. Humans can hear
between 20 and 20,000 Hertz. This means anything lower than 20 Hz,
referred to as infrasound, will not be detected by our ears. That
doesn’t mean it won’t make things feel super spooky. Infrasound can
cause objects to vibrate, including your eyeballs, which could create
ghostly visions. Infrasound can come from many things, including
storms and everyday appliances. So the next time you spot a ghostly
apparition, either wait out the storm or unplug everything in the
room.

Is the ghost still there? Hm. We might have to consider another explanation.

2.  Carbon monoxide

Still seeing ghosts in the darkness of your bedroom? Hear a door slam
when no one’s home? Or even worse, feel someone invisible sit on your legs in the middle of the night? Check to see if your plants are
dying. Hallucinations caused by carbon monoxide. Furnaces and other appliances sometimes leak CO into a building or house instead of outside where it belongs. You don’t have to wait for your plants to die to tell if there’s a leak. You can install a carbon monoxide detector in your home. This battles ghosts better than the Ghostbuster’s proton packs.

3.  Temporoparietal Junction

Still seeing dark figures pass through the room? Are all of the
appliances unplugged? The carbon monoxide detector isn’t beeping? Is the dark figure copying everything you’re doing? Well then we’d better check your brain. It turns out there’s a section of your brain, the temporoparietal junction, which when stimulated with electricity will make you see very strange things. This part of your brain helps you understand what your body is doing. If it’s interrupted, it could start believing that your movements are a separate shadow person across the room.

See? It isn’t a ghost! It’s just your brain misfiring and convincing
you things are hovering in front of you that aren’t.

Actually, that might be scarier than a ghost. Shudder.

Happy Halloween!