Spectre-sighting sociology

Lacey Holowaty, Staff Writer

The existence of spiritual apparitions has been consistently debunked by the laws of physics and sceptics alike. And yet, many people insist they have witnessed ghost encounters first-hand.

According to David Aveline, an associate professor of sociology at Mount Royal University, this reveals a broader paradox.

 If ghosts don’t exist, then why have so many people seen them?

Goosebumps

Anchored in the sociological framing of the Thomas Theorem, Aveline says the legitimacy of the alleged accounts is irrelevant — what really matters is the fact that people do believe ghosts exist, and that the belief itself has an effect on the believers’ lives. 

In 2017, Aveline set out on a journey across Canada to conduct interviews with people who believe they’ve seen ghosts at some point in their lives. 

While Aveline himself doesn’t believe in ghosts, he approached his interviews with knowledge of Grounded Theory — that is, he walked into the interviews with as few assumptions as possible and only based his conclusions on the collected data. 

The study included 38 participants who in total described 215 different apparitions. 

Some of the participants said they had been seeing ghosts since they were young children, while others’ experiences seemed to be out of nowhere.

One participant, who had previously been a sceptic of paranormal occurrences, claimed to see the infamous Sam the Bellman while staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. 

Aveline says the stories that stand out most to him are the ones that seemed physically impossible, such as levitating beds and objects flying across the room.

“There was a man who tried to get rid of a ghost in a child’s bedroom,” Aveline says. “He prayed to the archangels Gabriel and Michael, and they descended from the ceiling, enveloped the ghost in their wings, and brought him back up the ceiling in a cloud of smoke.”

Another story involved a man who was a long-time alcoholic and smoker who described being visited by an apparition that resembled his grandmother, who told him to give up his vices and become an “example to the youth of our community.”

According to the account, the man gave up drinking and smoking the next day and has been sober for 25 years.

Tales from the sceptic

Collecting the first-hand testimonials was quite easy, says Aveline, as most of the people he talked to seemed relieved to have someone lend an ear for them to share their tales. 

What proved to be difficult, however, was keeping his own biases at bay.

Aveline found himself subconsciously trying to deduce a plausible explanation for the ghostly instances despite his intent to remain objective in his research.

“But I found that rather arrogant in myself,” he says. “Who am I to say what was really going on there?”

Throughout his research, Aveline has been able to make many conclusions about ghost sightings.

The sixth sense

Ghosts often appear to people through four of the five senses — sight, hearing, touch and smell — but in some cases, people say they can feel a ghost’s presence through a clairvoyant sixth sense. 

During the sightings, people have reported ghostly activity across four areas: activities with no physical disturbance, activities directed towards the observer, physical disturbances — or Poltergeists — and violence or physical intrusiveness.

Ultimately, Aveline intended to investigate why people see ghosts, especially given the lack of empirical evidence on the subject.

At the end of each interview, Aveline asked participants how they justified their beliefs despite science saying otherwise. 

He concluded that there are three different orientations: some say the existence of ghosts should be further explored scientifically, and others either completely discredit the validity of the scientific debunking or deem the subject a matter of opinion.

Don’t be afraid of the dark

Among many reasons, Aveline says the idea of ghosts provides a sense of continuity to people, as many see it as proof of an afterlife. 

“That’s a very attractive thing to feel,” he says.

From a sociological lens, he says the possibility of ghosts’ existence lends itself to a more optimistic and broader picture. 

“As we become more technologically advanced and ruled by technology and bureaucracy, we lose something in the world,” Aveline says. “We lose this sense of adventure and enchantment and discovery.”

Aveline’s research will contribute to the book he’s been working on regarding the sociology behind ghost sightings, which is currently in the late stages of editing prior to being published.