Abstract

Even though they've existed for centuries in cultural tales and reportedly been seen by countless individuals, the basic question concerning apparitions remains to be, "what are they?" Are they simply subjective products of the minds of the people who have encountered them, or is there a physical aspect underlying their existence that implies that the reach of human consciousness is much greater than we ever thought it to be? In order to consider the latter, it is best that we first examine the cases in which the former might apply. In this paper, a testable interaction model is presented which suggests that some apparitions are actually altered perceptual phenomena produced through subtle interactions between the brain/nervous system and external factors within the surrounding physical environment. It is proposed that extreme fluctuations of these factors produce physiological effects that are causing either brief periods of hallucination, or are bringing about altered states of consciousness through which these phenomena may be perceived.

The first mode of interaction involves the physical environment influencing the brain in order to generate the experience. The collection of studies by Persinger suggesting a relation between increased geomagnetism, cerebral melatonin levels, and complex partial temporal lobe epilepsy is reviewed and applied to further show how temporal lobe microseizuring can alter electrochemical activity within the mesiobasal structures and produce abnormal sensory and emotional behaviors often associated with apparitions. This action is further reinforced by the effects of strong artificial electromagnetic fields (EM), which have been consistently found in field investigations of hauntings. It is further suggested that paroxysmal neuroelectric activity induced by entrainment from EMs resembling neural "burst-firing" patterns can encourage widespread activation throughout the right hemisphere and incorporate various functional areas into the experience in a manner similar to that seen in chronic hailucinators. This allows several subjective sensory sensations, memories, feelings of fear, and impressions of meaning to be perceived at one time. This EM effect is further used to illustrate the second mode of interaction of brain influencing environment to account for the role of RSPK in producing anomalous movement and possibly "creating" the apparitional experience. Preliminary findings with electrostatic fields, ionizing radiation, infrasonic waves, and meteorological factors are also examined to consider their effects on the brain in relation to apparitional experiences.

The third mode of interaction involves the brain influencing its cognitive functioning to create the content of these experiences. It is proposed that the phenomenology resulting from the brain-environment mode is what gives rise to some types of visual imagery and allows them to be perceived as being external to the observer. The content of these experiences are then influenced by the interpretation of cognitive contextual variables related to survival.

This model is only applicable to certain types of apparitional experiences, while other seemingly more complex ones remain unaccounted for.

In this paper, the environmental, psychophysiological, and psychological components of a testable interaction model are outlined, which have been found in various field investigations and laboratory studies to possibly be correlated with reported apparitional experiences. The ways in which they might collectively "interact" to produce a single, unified, intense, emotional, altered perceptual experience are also described here.