THERE鈥檚 nothing supernatural about ghosts, doppelg盲ngers and out-of-body
experiences, says a Swiss neuroscientist. They are simply phantom sensations
like a phantom limb, he says, but spread to the whole body.
People experience phantom limbs鈥攖he sense that an amputated limb is
still present鈥攚hen the part of the brain that normally senses the limb
loses those signals
(New Scientist, 17 June, p 27).
Peter Brugger of
the University Hospital in Zurich says that doppelg盲ngers, in which people
are aware of phantom 鈥渄oubles鈥� of themselves, have a similar origin.
Some people actually see their double, often as a mirror image. This may be
the result of damage to visual areas of the brain that affect the way we sense
our body, says Brugger. Others merely feel the presence of a double without
actually seeing one. He believes that these doubles are generated when the
parietal lobes, the regions responsible for the distinction between body and
surrounding space, are damaged.
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Out-of-body experiences, where a person 鈥渟ees鈥� their body from the outside,
may be caused by temporary overactivity of certain brain regions. 鈥淓xcitability
of the temporal lobes seems to be a plausible explanation,鈥� says Brugger. These
regions are connected to the parietal lobes and are sensitive to visual signals,
low levels of oxygen and emotional arousal.
Brugger believes the brain could account for other paranormal experiences:
鈥淕hosts are probably nothing more but also nothing less than phantoms of the
产辞诲测.鈥�
