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The Why Factor: Ghosts

Ghosts

15/08/2014

BBC World Service - The Why Factor, Ghosts

Why do so many people claim to see ghosts?

Ghosts have haunted people all over the world for centuries. Mike Williams explores the fear and fascination they provoke and asks why so many people report ghostly apparitions.

Ghosts have been haunting people all over the world for centuries. But why do they persist in this age of reason? Mike Williams explores the fear and fascination ghosts produce and finds out how our reaction to apparitions has changed over the years.  

We join a group of ghost hunters in England on a spooktacular tour of a derelict orphanage; Mike meets the cultural historian Dr Shane McCorristine in the birthplace of the Victorian ghost story; and the psychologist Professor Christopher French explains the mind’s capacity to produce hallucinations.

(Image of a ghostly woman standing by the window. Credit: Shutterstock)

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