Ghosts & the Afterlife: Science Unveils the Mystery of Spirits

Ghosts and specters. Do they actually exist? And that was really like a flash from another world. People are terrified of these spirits from the afterlife. Every sixth person believes they are real. Death happens so quickly that their spirit lingers behind. Ghostbusters and scientists alike are on the hunt for evidence. I have been to apartments that looked like they'd been hit by a bomb. Do things really exist beyond reason? Look! Lights! Where does reality end and where does the inexplicable start? Is it fantasy or reality? The great myths of mankind. Mysteries passed on over thousands of years. Inexplicable events, places shrouded in legend and superhuman heroes. Even scientists are fascinated. Is there any truth to these ancient legends? Researchers across the globe are working hard to solve the greatest mysteries of our time. Scharnberg Castle in Lower Austria dates back to the medieval times and has a dark past. Some visitors are said to have fled the castle in haste. Legend has it that the ghost of a young girl haunts the catacombs. Her face covered with hair. The villagers call her the Dog Maiden. For 28 years, Johannes Ertl has been the custodian of Scharnberg Castle. He claims to have seen the Dog Maiden many times. It all started one night when Ertl was checking the castle cellar. He says this was his first encounter with the ghost. It was late and an event had taken place that night. Everyone had gone home. I was patrolling the place to make sure everything was locked. Then I entered the crypt where I was hit with a wall of fog. As the fog began to clear, the custodian was able to make out a shape. In his eyes, it looked just like the ghost of the Dog Maiden. There stood the Dog Maiden. Around five feet, five inches tall. Beautiful dark black hair. She had what resembled a dog snout, but there was nothing mean about her. It was the first time Johannes Ertl ever saw a ghost. I was panicking. All of a sudden, the fog closed in on me. And the Dog Maiden passed through me, filling me with a powerful positive energy. That lasted maybe three seconds, and then she was gone. He's not the only one who believes in ghosts. Similar sightings are reported frequently from all over the world. Studies show that 15% of the world's population believes in ghosts. Some say they appear as transparent spirits. Some claim they look just like us. Others talk of bizarre sounds, sudden drops in temperature, or an eerie energy. The souls of the dead usually haunt old castles or cemeteries. Some believe that if a person loses their life in a cruel way, they can't find their way to the afterlife and wander between the worlds instead. The concept of a ghost, also known as a specter, is based on a very ancient idea that a person's body is separate from their spirit. And when their body dies, their spirit goes on living. Many cultures actually develop funerary rites to make sure that the spirit would not come back and haunt the living. England, home to a striking number of ghost tales. Every other castle is allegedly haunted. On foggy days, reality seems to blur. And the souls of the dead are said to roam the alleyways of towns and villages. Around 500 years ago, London becomes a scene of a horrible act. Henry VIII, King of England, orders the beheading of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, for failing to provide him with an heir to the throne. Legend has it that every year on the day of her execution, Anne returns to Blicklinghall in a carriage drawn by headless horses. Until the break of day, her ghost wanders through the rooms of the mansion where she was born, holding her head in her hands. That's just one of many tales of ghosts. Is it all an illusion? Or is there more to it? The appearances of the dogmaiden in Chalaberg Castle are also allegedly linked to a real story. Back in the 16th century, the Lozenstein brothers were residing in the castle. They got into a fight, and the younger brother died. To honor him, the villagers put up a cross in the valley, infuriating the older brother so much so that he shot the cross one night. Legend has it that his wife had a baby girl that night, but she was born with a furry face. The family rejected her, forcing her to live in the catacombs of the castle until the end of her days. Ever since, the dogmaiden's ghost is said to haunt the castle. There have been numerous sightings. Legend has it that if you see her, one of your family members will die three days later. However, no such cases have ever been recorded. Johannes Ertl has grown accustomed to seeing the ghost. I felt her presence again three days ago on the second floor, and right now she's standing behind us. The custodian has no doubts. Researchers are looking for explanations. Death may be the primary concern of most humans all over the world throughout time, and to confront a ghost isn't just to confront this scary representation of death, but it's also to existentially confront the concept of death. And so seeing a ghost is kind of like the ultimate confirmation that there is an afterlife, that it doesn't just end. Humanity has long believed in spirits. Even the Neanderthals had burial rites. Researchers have come across lovingly arranged grave offerings and interpret this as proof that people have long believed in life after death. In ancient Egypt, the deceased were honored and their corpses were mummified so that their souls could return to their bodies. The Egyptians built extremely elaborate tombs for their pharaohs, some even with west-facing stairs that allowed their souls to leave the burial site in search of the realm of the dead. Symbols and drawings on the walls of the burial chambers served as maps, guiding the soul towards the afterlife. To the Egyptians, nature was proof that all life is born again. Just like the sun continues to rise and the grass sprouts anew, people too rise from the dead. In Egyptian thought, the afterlife was believed to be the field of reeds where spirits existed. But if something was very wrong, they could then come back to the land of the living and to haunt people. But if all was well, the spirits could serve a very useful job in watching over the lives of the living. In the Roman Empire, people deeply believed in the existence of ghosts that haunt the living. In his letters, Consul Pliny the Younger writes about a haunted house where people have heard mysterious knocking sounds and been frightened by ghosts. Believing in ghosts is an ancient part of our culture. The first written reference we have to a ghost haunting a house or a person is by Pliny the Younger in the first century AD. And ghosts are based upon the idea of the separation of the body and soul. Now in some cultures, funeral rites are carried out to make sure that the person is fully at rest, that the soul is at rest and that therefore they will not come back and haunt us. But do ghosts really exist? Or do we just want to believe in life after death so badly that we think we see them? St. Francisville, Louisiana. Myrtle's Plantation is known across the United States as the haunted place. Ghosts are even said to leave behind traces. Hester Eby has known the house for more than 40 years. She shows us an old mirror with a curious detail. Well, the mirror frame itself dates from around the 1840s. Now the glass has been changed a number of times. And each time a new glass is placed back into the original frame, the same prints will reappear. We clean the mirror, normal, Windex, whatever, but those prints do not go away. Fingerprints on a mirror that won't disappear. Messages from a ghost? I think the prints continue to appear and the faces when people take photographs show up in the mirror because that is where the spirits live or that's where they want to be seen. So they do come out. It's their way of letting you know that, yes, I am here. Staff and visitors report seeing a ghost-like woman in a green turban. Pictures show a shape. Are these merely stories to entertain the tourists? Or are we dealing with an actual ghost? Locals tell the story of an enslaved woman named Chloe who allegedly worked on the plantation. In an era when wealth and dignity could only be enjoyed by white people, the hard work in the fields and around the house was left to the slaves. In the early 1800s, the Woodruffs live on Myrtle's plantation. Chloe, one of their slaves, wants to take revenge on the plantation owner for sexually harassing her. She makes a poison cake. But only his wife and two children end up eating it. They all die. A legend has it that the other slaves decided to hang Chloe for this. After committing such a horrible crime, her soul is unable to rest. She is said to still haunt the plantation to this very day. I believe they're still here after all these years because it's their home. A lot of psychics have told us time and time again that death has happened so quickly with some that their spirit lingers behind, you know, and they're not at rest yet. This was their home. It's still their home. Esther then speaks about something that happened to her on the plantation. What happened to me not long ago, if you permit me to say, we had a school group here and we have about 13 children. I came out and was greeting this small group. There was a little girl, she was about maybe eight or so. And she looked at me and she said, why are you dirty? So I looked down to make sure I was kind of halfway decent, knowing a spot was there. But everything luckily would look like it was fairly in place. But then she said, are you hungry? Why are your clothes torn? And I could tell she was looking beyond me. So she was not talking to me. She was talking to someone else. And I looked at her mother and her mother looked at me and she wanked and we didn't say anything else. You know, we left it at that. Did the young girl really see Chloe's ghost? Believing in ghosts is something that is widespread in many countries across the world. Some people even think they convey deeper messages. Custodian Johannes Ertl also has an explanation for why the dogmaiden shows herself to him. I believe that I've had a previous life. In the 12th century, I was a priest, a yesair. And in the 14th century, I was an executioner and led people and souls to the dark side. To him, the dogmaiden is sending a clear message from the afterlife, asking him to do good in this life. The encounters have fundamentally changed Johannes Ertl. The dogmaiden reveals herself. And when she does, she always fills me with positive energy, showing me I have the strength to push away negative energy, thereby stopping my soul from caving into dark impulses. Can science provide us with an explanation for ghosts like the dogmaiden? The Black Forest, southern Germany. The scene of many ghost tales. This deserted hotel in the town of Freudenstadt is said to hold dark secrets. Most locals steer clear of the place altogether. A hundred years ago, high society from all across Europe came here, including the Queen of the Netherlands. In World War II, the hotel was turned into a military hospital, which appears to have left behind a grim legacy. Legend has it that the owner of the hotel was killed in her room in 1949. Soon, rumors about ghosts started to spread. We use the empty hotel for a nighttime experiment. We want two teams to find out if the place really is haunted and see the impact the ghost stories have on our participants. Researchers believe that ghosts primarily exist in our heads. Psychologist Lydia Benecker will evaluate the participants' behavior from a scientific point of view. The participants describe their first impressions. The scariest part for me is knowing everything that's happened here. And now I have to walk through this place, maybe even alone. That's what makes me nervous. Yes, I'm nervous. The sheer fact that everything still looks the same, and nothing's changed, and that's really quite, well, creepy. The hotel seems unusually clean to me, but not terrifying in itself. I actually don't believe in ghosts. I generally don't believe in ghosts, but let's just see what happens. The hotel is in complete darkness. Our participants are only carrying a torch and a night vision camera. Ah, now I get it. I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable. My God. I actually don't want to go into this hallway. Me neither. Our psychologist Lydia Benecker notices how uneasy they feel. What's perfect about this is that they set the general mood. Of course, they're afraid because they are thinking about the terrifying stories. The team that doesn't believe in ghosts remains fairly unimpressed. What's that? A torch, I believe. Okay, now we're walking down the hallway. Of course, lots of unexpected things can happen. That was so scary back there, wasn't it? Holy cow. Oh no. Okay, this is getting really scary now. Um, okay. What is it? I don't know where to go. The place, the darkness, and the scary stories have an impact. Zoom in a bit. Okay, is that a painting or something? Get a little closer. I don't even want to touch it. Oh God, go a little closer. I'll hold this and I'll do it. What is that? Wow, it's freezing in here. It's as though somebody doesn't want us to go any further. None of them wants to rule out that the place is haunted. This is a perfect example of how our expectations and interpretations can impact our perception. They're imagining that something's out there. They view this as a warning not to continue. Instead of seeing it as an ordinary phenomenon with a simple physical explanation, being that hallways are sometimes cooler than closed rooms. Team one aborts the test. The second team also decides to finish their tour through the haunted house. We had a chat and decided, all right, let's quit. I wouldn't have wanted to continue because I didn't know what else was going to happen, what was coming. It did get quite scary at times and we felt a strong current of air pass by, but we couldn't see an open window or anything. Yes, I found it a bit frightening, I'll admit. Do I believe there could be ghosts here? I'm tempted to say yes. The experiment confirms the hypothesis. The environment and our briefings had an impact on both teams. The way we perceive the world is actually based on how our brain interprets sensory signals. Our perception is therefore never objective. It's always a subjective interpretation. That builds off of our knowledge, our experience and our world views. If everything happens in our minds and we all live in our own worlds, does that mean that ghosts exist for some but not for others? People have always been fascinated by stories of ghosts and spirits. They have also come to cinematic fame like the infamous poltergeist. Poltergeists are said to communicate via knocking sounds or ravage entire rooms. Witnesses describe a typical poltergeist as an amorphous being whose actions you can only see or hear. Most incidents are actually caused by people who want to scare others, but initially they create a lot of bewilderment and fear. Bavaria, Germany in the 1980s. Events at a dental clinic make international headlines. There's a voice inside the walls of one of the treatment rooms. The dentist and his patients are baffled. Police investigators are trying to solve the riddle using malicious caller identification and radio receivers. Chopper, as the voice calls itself, keeps everyone in suspense for over a year. Until the staff noticed that the poltergeist only appears during the shifts of one particular assistant. I won't contact you again. The colleague is caught and the chopper case is closed. Chopper, the supposed ghost voice at a dental clinic in Neutraubling, Bavaria, made headlines for quite some time, but now the real chopper has been exposed. So it turns out that this time the ghost was man-made. However, this isn't always the case. One thing is absolutely certain, and it's that there are some things in the modern world that science cannot explain, and yet there's an intrinsic desire within humans to try and explain everything. One solution, of course, is to say that things which there is no scientific reason for are supernatural. Freiburg in the deep heart of southern Germany. Walter von Lukerdu is a physicist and psychologist, and head of the Center for Parapsychology. Since 1989, he's been investigating all sorts of ghost phenomena. The center works on up to 3,000 cases each year. The parapsychologist believes paranormal phenomena are real. I've been to apartments that looked like they've been hit by a bomb, and the people there said, we didn't do that. Walter von Lukerdu wants to find scientific evidence for haunted places. There's often a simple explanation. One case I'd like to cite involves a young man who heard a voice in his apartment, so he called me. I asked him where the voice was coming from, and he got very shy and said, it's coming from my tea kettle. He thought nobody would believe him and think he was crazy. The physicist has a suspicion. He asks his client to put the kettle on the stove, just as he always does. I asked him if there were any strong medium-wave transmitters nearby, and it turned out he was picking up the radio signal with his kettle. A boiling tea kettle, a stovetop, and a nearby radio station. Case solved. The alleged voices from the afterlife came from the radio. Curious. This time, there is a logical, physical explanation after all. But some mysteries remain unsolved. One famous example dates back to 1967. The Rosenheim case makes headlines worldwide and remains one of the most investigated, best-documented paranormal phenomena to this day. Legal assistant Anna-Marie S. is suspected of staging the spooky events. Every time she enters a room, unusual things happen. It's not every day that fluorescent lamps turn in their sockets, that bulbs burst and you hear banging noises. The Freiburg Parapsychological Center paws over every detail from the case. The former head of the center is convinced that this case was neither fraud nor the product of a technological issue. The Rosenheim case is unique because they conducted physical tests. These events have been confirmed by an objective source, adding credibility to the witness testimonies. I was standing in front of this small table while Ms. Anna-Marie was making copies. At the very moment, the flower painting turned very quickly counterclockwise. By about 320 degrees and the mounting wire got caught in the hook. Is there an explanation for these unusual events? Anna-Marie is accused of fraud. Experts believe that in this case, mental state had an effect on the objects. According to the theory of psychokinesis, some people carry so much anger that it causes pictures to suddenly spin or objects to fly through the room. Parapsychologists like Hans Bender and Walter von Lockerdu believe that psychokinesis can serve as an explanation for the Rosenheim case. The ghost is a psychosomatic reaction. It's called externalization and it can mean that people transfer their inattention to their environment. And obviously, that's typically the place where they live or work. We call them focus persons or paranormal triggers. Lockerdu says that most paranormal phenomena arise when physics and psychology intersect. Looking at the phenomena, we can see there's a very intense and direct relationship between what happens in the external world and what happens in a person's mind. Are we the ghosts? Can we move objects with our minds? Scientists still have a long way to go. Some ghost phenomena can be explained by science. And some explanations require kind of either or logic. So the idea is that if science can explain it, no other explanation can be true. So the real question to me is, if science can capture or explain or show some type of paranormal phenomena, does that mean there isn't some kind of subjective experience on the inside of that energy? Who knows? Perhaps there is. The history of humanity is full of ghost-like phenomena. They can be found in every country and culture. But there's disagreement amongst the different cultures of the world when it comes to how the souls of the dead behave or whether they are a blessing or a curse. This backyard in Berlin-Kreuzberg leads to the only Candomblé temple in Germany. It's a community center for people who believe in this Afro-Brazilian religion. The belief revolves around connecting and communicating with the Orishas, the spirits of Candomblé. The Babel Orisha is the highest spiritual leader of the community. Candomblé is a good fit for Germany. Not least because Germans like the principle of give and take. We feel the same way. It's all like a trade. I give something and in return I receive something. That's the balance. That's Candomblé. The Orishas are forces of nature. They're in the trees, the wind, the sea, the earth. There are up to 16 different main ghosts and every person is connected to several of them. Every worshipper within the Candomblé community is told which Orishas will offer them strength and knowledge. But only the oracle can reveal this information. The Babel Orisha is the only one allowed to share it. In a small room in the basement of the Candomblé temple, the spiritual leader establishes contact with the spirits. You are meant to identify with the elements that we call Orisha or receive strength from them. For example, some people like the sea. When they are in the ocean, they feel a sense of power, a certain strength. By allowing this strength to enter their bodies, their existence is enhanced. When Africans were displaced as slaves, the Orishas crossed the ocean too and reached the shores of Brazil, where they've remained omnipresent to their worshippers. Holidays are celebrated with the Orishas, who are treated to dances, music and offerings. The children of the saints, as they are called, can establish contact with the spirits in a ritual trance, allowing people to receive their blessings and strength. The Candomblé community calls this strength ashe. But what happens when someone dies? There is no such thing as death. You don't die. You no longer need the strength. And your body turns into earth, into Orisha earth. And the spirit goes to the ancestors, where it evolves. The Babel Orisha explains there's a special room in this house where, according to him, he sees his deceased relatives every now and then. I sometimes see the dead. I don't mean that I talk to them. I mean that I see them like an image passing by. When I see my mother, my grandma, my dad or my siblings, any of them, I see an image. I know they're there and I can feel it too. Seeing ghosts and spirits as companions taking us to the afterlife might be a comforting thought to many. Believing in ghosts is a central and celebrated part of many cultures. In Mexico, the spirits of the deceased are commemorated in an extraordinary festival to this very day, the Dia de los Muertos. Mexicans believe their dead return once a year to visit their families. Starting from the end of October and lasting until the beginning of November. What might seem frightening to outsiders is rather an exuberant celebration to Mexicans. They serve food to the deceased like the sweet bread, pan de muerto. Skulls made of sugar, calaveras de dulce or coffins made of marzipan. It's a big celebration accompanied by dances and music. Yellow and orange colours pave the way for the dead from the graveyards to their homes. The Mexicans say that these colours are easiest for their deceased relatives to see. Believing in spirits and religion, do the two share common origins? We're fascinated by the idea of the afterlife because it is, in fact, one of the last remaining big questions. Is there an afterlife? And we like to conceive of the fact that there is one because it brings great comfort, not only for ourselves, the idea that we will continue on after death, but also because of the fact that we will always have a connection to our relatives. Karin Huber is a medium from Frankfurt, Germany. She believes she's been in touch with spirits since she was a child. Connecting with the afterlife has become routine for her during her sittings. I was able to sense the world of the spirits as a child. I thought there were people walking through my bedroom at night. Talking to others, I realized that they didn't feel the same things and that I was different, maybe even weird to some. And that's why I stopped telling others about what I was sensing. During a car ride, her life was turned upside down. My wake-up call, if you will, was when I was driving down the motorway and I saw this woman standing there. She was wearing a violet dress and a violet floppy hat. She looked straight out of the 70s. I hit the brakes at about 130 kilometers per hour. I almost caused an accident. And that was really like a flash from another world, from the afterlife. Karin Huber is preparing for today's sitting. As always, she is listening to music. The spiritual world vibrates at a higher frequency. We in the present world are contained in our carnal, physical body and therefore vibrate at a lower frequency. We are grounded. To get a little closer to the spiritual world, I have to raise my frequency. Karin Huber says she has the gift of receiving information from the afterlife. I work with my psychic senses. I can pick up images from the spiritual world. Or sounds, sometimes a favorite song. It can also happen through my taste buds, tasting what might have been a favorite dish. I feel a personality and all this information can be used. Four clients are taking part in today's session. They are all hoping for her to make contact. When my sister-in-law lost her husband, we sat there wondering what we could do to help her. I didn't want to send her here alone, so I thought I'd give it a go myself. And at that moment, I didn't have any emotional baggage like, I really want to see someone. I actually just wanted to find out if this works. Okay, so I am sensing a woman and as she gets closer, I feel that I'm working with someone who was very active. What I know is that there is a grandmother who wants to talk to her granddaughter, of course. And I also know that the granddaughter spent time with her grandma, as a child or when she was young, or that she was partly raised by her. She also tells me that she cooked her own vegetables. So I'm in the garden and I'm pulling my potatoes or my carrots from the ground and I am cooking them. That's what she gives me. I could really sense my grandmother, my mom's mom. And that was exactly what Miss Huber said. Carrots and potatoes, that was our thing. I have to speak about food all the time, okay, you get that? She takes me to the kitchen and I'm in this rather old-fashioned looking kitchen with her. Yes, and I would like to... It's like there's a wooden bench I'd like to sit on now. She's showing me memories, how you cooked and peeled vegetables together, because I can see the carrot peels. She says you two were in your own world in that moment. She's just one thought away and right now you are receiving a lot of support from her. That's what she wants me to tell you. Skeptics believe that psychics like Karin Huber can read people well and use other people's body language to trick them into believing they know more about the afterlife. Karin Huber's clients have a whole different take on this. Well, the first contact. That's when I thought, okay, you couldn't have researched that. You couldn't have found that online. Nobody's ever talked about that. Once you've made contact and got this kind of feedback, you feel different. You feel safe somehow. And you know there's something out there. There's more energy and it changes your approach to life. Those who come to Karin Huber are often grieving and looking for help. They find solace in believing in life after death. Spiritism and natural sciences have been developing simultaneously, dividing people into two camps. There are those who believe in the afterlife and there are those who believe in science, meaning they only believe in things that can be measured and proven. The famous inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison, is ridiculed and mocked by his fellows when word gets out that he's working on a ghost radio. Edison believes it's possible to get in touch with the dead. He thinks humans have two energy units regulating ourselves, one for our body and one for our personality. When we die and the physical cells lose their ability to function, Edison claims, the part of our energy that is linked to our personality lives on. With the right technology, we should be able to communicate with this part. Edison can't manage to build a functioning ghost radio. No signal for now. But what do things look like a hundred years later? Aren't we much more technologically advanced and able to contact the afterlife today? Arianna Gerhold, also known as Minky, is Berlin's most famous ghost hunter. She's heading to Grabose, 30 kilometers from Berlin, a former sanatorium for lung patients. People claim to have witnessed mysterious sightings time and again. In 1896, the first sanatorium for tuberculosis opens its doors in Berlin. The patients come here to recover from their disease, but many can't escape death. Minky seems to feel why the dead can't find peace. Some of the entities stuck in a place like this don't know how to get out. Maybe death came more suddenly than they thought. And that's why I feel a certain sense of sadness here in my chest. Because they might have thought they'd leave this place healthy. After World War II, the former sanatorium was used as a Russian hospital. For decades, this place was witness to many deaths. Minky and Savas are preparing their first contact with the afterlife. Minky will use a ghost radio first. One thing that's really important is that you introduce yourself. You have to invite them, allow them to draw energy from us or from the devices. They have to know that they can trust us, because some of the deceased don't know they are dead. And they are surprised. They rather see us as the intruders. All right, hi, this is me. I'm Minky. I'm Savas. Please give me a yes to let me know it's okay we are here with you. Please take all the energy you need. You can take it from our equipment or from me. Is there anyone else with us? Is the young boy still here? It's not just that Minky only feels the souls of the dead. She also says they appear out of the blue. Minky claims to have met the ghost of a boy in this very place not long ago. I saw a young boy. He was standing over there next to the pillar. I mean, I could really see him. I could see his clothes, sort of a gray vest made of thick cotton, not fine knitwear. He was wearing shards and long socks. And he was standing there, completely lost. He didn't understand what was going on. The first attempt is unsuccessful. No voices from the afterlife. The only frequencies the radio picks up come from a Russian station. The Ghostbuster and her assistant keep on searching. They walk past former hospital rooms, ORs, down to the catacombs of Grabose Sanatorium. More than a hundred years ago, the dead were laid out here. It's a place to say goodbye. Will a former patient get in touch? Up until now, everything's been quiet. But suddenly, Minky senses something. She uses an infrared camera and a magnetic field detector. If energy in the room changes, the device picks it up. The Ghostbuster really believes this to be a sign from the afterlife. Right now, we are hoping someone will sit down on this chair. Whoever is here, please trust us. Come here. It crashed? That means something is about to happen. When something like that happens, I know something is coming. Because the tablet is fully charged. There's no reason why it should shut down like that. To be honest, I have to say, it's turning off again. That's not normal. Come on, the thing is on. It's also new. As I've said before, I'm more neutral when it comes to these things. I'd check the technology first. I mean, it's not cold enough to blame any technological defects on the temperature. Is there anyone here at the table? Does anyone want to communicate with us via the K2? Walk over to the green light? And then something happens that nobody expected. The measuring device starts to flash. Look! Lights! And now it's also safe to say that someone messed with my camera. Nothing happened this whole time, but now it's starting. It's even turning red. That's really rare, yes. It's stopping now. The fact that it turned red means it's an energetic person who has actually found peace here and doesn't want to be disturbed. So you actually don't want me to sit on this chair? I got that now. Look, now it's communicating. Do you want us to leave? Go and find your peace. Thanks for playing along for a while. Contact with the afterlife? Or a placebo effect? The question remains, is there an afterlife? If we look at it from a scientific perspective, there is still not strong enough evidence, either for or against, for us to come to a firm conclusion. Certainly for those humans who have strong beliefs, the evidence for the afterlife is non-negotiable. There certainly is somewhere that we go to after this life. We can provide explanations for almost every ghost sighting and eerie event. Paranormal phenomena are almost always a product of the mind. But we still don't know what happens to us when we die. Is there a life after death? Are there ghosts or angels? For now, it all comes down to what we believe.