60% of Americans Admit to “Seeing a Ghost”

In the fall of 2018, a group of 2,000 people * in the U.S. were asked if they had ever seen a ghost. Those who reported on the findings of this study all seemed surprised with the result—it reflected a higher percentage than they expected.

60% of the people who responded stated that they felt they had seen a ghost within their lifetimes. One in three stated they had lived or stayed in a house that was haunted.

The survey found women are 20% more likely than men to believe in ghosts.

Over 40% also reported they felt a pet they owned had seen a ghost as well.

This survey then asked, “If you saw a ghost how did you respond?“ According to the reports, most surveyed stated: “I screamed and then ran away.” While others stated they “cried, hid or fainted.”

One reporter who wrote about this study even qualified that the men screamed louder than the women. Huh?

Granted the results of this survey were published in October near Halloween but bits and pieces of this information I find inaccurate.

I have no problem with the percentages, in fact, I think more than 60% of Americans have experienced some kind of paranormal activity.

But since 60% is a higher number than what has been reported in the past, the authors of these articles stated it was surprising. I feel this number just reflects that today admitting to a “ghost sighting” in the U.S is more acceptable than it was 10 to 15 years ago.

 In fact, recently, it is even considered cool to have seen a ghost.

I do have a slight problem with the “screaming, running away, fainting, etc.” Granted this might have been some people’s response but I think this was played up to make these sightings sound much scarier.

As for the finding that more women than men believe in ghosts, I also feel that 20% is too low of a number.

* OnePoll on behalf of Groupon conducted this survey.

One Group that Believes in Ghosts

“To be truly educated you must be able to catch and understand nuances.”

The above is my quote. I firmly believe that one must be able to see more than the obvious in every situation.

I recently read a long-winded opinion piece that asked the question, “Why do some people see ghosts and others don’t?”

Within the first sentence this writer states that people who see ghosts are actually not seeing them.

Her reasons for this included: lying, visual and auditory pareidolia, mistakes, and hallucinating. She continued by stating that people who claim they see ghosts are just wishful thinkers, or are just seeking attention--because “they need to feel special.”

She then jumps to the conclusion that people believe in ghosts because of “spooky stories, opinions, hoaxes, or outright lies by people.”

In the middle of her piece she presents a 240+ word diatribe about how the Scientific Method works. She concludes that since ghosts have not been proven to exist--the only “intelligent and responsible” decision for a person to make is that they “do not exist.”

This writer also draws the conclusions that “believers” are under-educated, superstitious, or just young and naïve.

At the end of her piece she does a complete turn about and announces that people who are more “open-minded” see ghosts.

Do More Research

It is always a good idea to do more research.

In 2006, two researchers, Byran Farha at Oklahoma City University and Gary Stewart at the University of Central Oklahoma conducted a survey with surprising results.

Based upon a 2001 Gallup Poll that reflected “younger Americans” were more likely to believe in the paranormal these two researchers set out to prove that educated Americans would be much more skeptical toward the paranormal.

After polling many college students they were shocked to find the exact opposite is true. In fact, college seniors and graduate students were actually more likely to believe in: haunted houses, ghosts, telepathy, spirit channeling, and other paranormal phenomena.

One interesting sideline is the Skeptical Inquirer magazine--the place for true unbelievers published Farha and Stewart’s findings.

Here are Farha and Stewart’s results as well as several other recent studies that show: “Higher education supports a belief in the paranormal.”