The SCIENCE of Monsters and Ghosts

Wisdom Quarterly HALLOWEEN SERIES

Too bad most of us do not believe in science. If we did, we'd believe in ghosts. What will happen when science dictates there is enough evidence for disembodied phenomena? Frightening thought. Science-lovers run out of haunted dwellings as quickly as ignoramuses. Why? The body knows what the brain cannot yet accept. What? Seen and unseen monstrosities roam about and among us. Wisdom Quarterly is only interested in the real-life ones in history and today.

• Buddhist Ghosts? Stories of the Departed
• Could dragons (nagas) have been real?

  The Science of Monsters
Matt Kaplan, The Science of Monsters (ScienceFriday.com, Oct. 26, 2012)

At their most basic level, monsters represent fears held by society, fears associated with dangers perceived in the surrounding world.

  

The Science of Monsters (Matt Kaplan)

These fears have a powerful evolutionary history by encouraging people to flee instead of fighting suicidal battles. When ancient hunters encountered a saber-toothed tiger by accident, they ran. When the human ancestor Homo erectus caught angry cave bears by surprise, it ran. When chimpanzees and [our sexy cousins the] bonobos, the nearest genetic relatives to modern humans, encounter large predators in the wild, they run.

  

While Hollywood heroes have made running away distinctly unpopular on the silver screen, every single actor who has ever portrayed a hero/heroine who stood his or her ground against some abominable terror comes from a long genetic lineage of cowards who fled in the face of danger.

  

Real life sea serpents: sturgeon (naga)

That is why they are here to act today. If their ancestors had fought against monsters far more powerful than themselves, as Hollywood heroes do all the time, their lineage would have been destroyed by predators long ago. Fear, in short, keeps people alive. But fear can also go too far.

  

Recent work in animal behavior has revealed something fascinating: There are personality types in animals. Among fish in a single species, there are adventurous individuals, ready and willing to take risks, and there are more cautious and timid individuals, fearful of doing anything that could put them in danger.
  

Yeti's bones, Tibet (factfictionandconjecture.ca)

Similar variations in personality are starting to be found in birds and mammals too. A recent study led by Kathryn Arnold at the University of York revealed... Being courageous or curious undoubtedly presents serious dangers. Ongoing studies indicate that fish with more daring personalities are...

  

Whether some humans are genetically predisposed to be more adventurous than others remains to be determined, but there clearly are some people who ultimately are more willing to take risks. Make no mistake, the instinct to flee from danger is still deeply rooted in every person’s brain, but some of us are more willing than others to go to places associated with danger....
  

LISTEN: Science of Monsters (Science Friday, NPR)
Parapsychology: Scary science (Coast to Coast AM) 
 
Like lion cubs play-fighting in the safety of their den, monsters may be allowing threats to be toyed with in the safe sandbox of the imagination.

  
So if monsters are present in society for both pleasure and mental practice for future frightening interactions, what happens when our fears are overcome? What then?
   

Camera catches real ghost (angelsghosts.com)

To a certain extent, danger should function as the life essence of monsters... Fears have changed a lot since the dawn of humanity, and with these changes have come alterations in the pantheon of monsters that lurk in our world.
  
The Minotaur is no longer with us, but aliens are. In a sense, monsters, while strictly the stuff of fantasy, experience evolution at a rate that is in stride with the pace of human understanding of the surrounding world. Science, the empirical testing and exploration of the world, which is about as seemingly unrelated to monsters as can be... [actually only denies their existence because of acceptability-filters not because of an absence of evidence.]

  
[Excerpted from Medusa’s Gaze and Vampire’s Bite:  The Science of Monsters (Scribner). Copyright © 2012 by Matt Kaplan. Kaplan is a science journalist and a regular contributor to The Economist. He has also written for National Geographic, New Scientist, Nature, Scientific American, Science, BBC Wildlife, and The New York Times. When not chained to a desk, he travels the wilds of the world as part of a London expedition group. He lives in London.]

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Update: What about Fukushima? (video)

John B. Wells (caravantomidnight.com); NibiruMagick2012; Wisdom Quarterly, October 2012

WARNING: Occasionally irreverent treatment of alarming subject 

Devastation in Japan due to radioactive debris after earthquake and subsequent tsunami

   

Incoming waves of nuclear radiation pose a very clear and present danger. On Saturday June 9, 2012 Coast to Coast conducted the Fukushima Forum. 

  

Each hour specialists in nuclear engineering, alternative energy, naturopathic detoxification, and decontamination offered opinions and advice.

  

What is the best way to deal with the latest nuclear disaster in Japan? The US is being affected and needs to prepare for the the next incident.

  

The consensus emerging from the Fukushima Forum is we must help ourselves and largely rely on ourselves without expecting so much as honesty from government.
  

Good air, food, and water are essential for human health. And the products at CaravanToMidnight.com offer a measure of security.

   

  
News

This video (published on Oct. 5, 2012 by MsMilkytheclown) deals with California's Diablo Canyon and Japan's Fukushima  nuclear plants. Evacuation zones around Fukushima-Daiichi are being expanded to 50 km rather than 20 km. The new guidelines do not say whether the people of Fukushima will be included. Noda says no to commencing construction on the Kaminaseki nuclear power plant. Meanwhile in the USA, PG&E is blasting the Pacific Ocean in front of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California ostensibly to check for earthquake fault lines. This will destroy aquatic life in the zone, particularly dolphins and whales. But animal abuse (vivisection) continues beyond the beach: Mice are being experimented on with artificial iPS cells to create sperm and ova to produce "normal" mice. Why stop at mice? Japanese scientists are taking "creationism" into their own hands by having done this with HUMANS too as a cure for "infertility" and/or radiation damage. But news reports suggest officials still want to reconstruct Fukushima. In other headlines, an extinct wooly mammoth (Ice Age northern elephant) was found with organs and bones intact. Mainichi: Gov't "choreographed" event on Fukushima health effects. Fukushima newspaper editor: We don't report on health risks from radiation; people might worry. Radiation and health specialist: Children with more than 11 bq/kg of the radioactive element cesium start to see heart problems according to a new study. Now 28 bubbling sites are associated with giant sinkhole: "Air releases" at 3 locations outside are area being tested. New images of fallen steel beam atop fuel assemblies in Unit 3 Pool: Handles covered in debris, barely visible. Local news: Reports of mysterious loud earthquakes flooding into Louisiana towns: "Of course the sinkhole comes to mind" dozens of miles away, so rare and there are no seismic monitors in area. Newspaper: Giant deposits of BP's oil on or beneath US Gulf floor: Devastating fallout of spill continues... ecological calamity! Nuclear engineer: Fukushima plant "is a waste generation facility... with no off switch." Nuclear engineer: "This is the worst possible scenario" -- I think the melted fuel has already eaten through the concrete at Fukushima plant. Boat seen outside boundary of giant sinkhole. Flyover footage shows new area nearby giant sinkhole saturated with water. Coast Guard: 4-mile stretch of oil has appeared near BP's Macondo well in Gulf. Victims of suspected radiological spraying in St. Louis suffer thyroid and other cancers; helicopters covered children in powder: "Oh my God, if they did that, there's no telling what else they're hiding!" Pressure from cavern below giant sinkhole near 1,000 psi, trying to extract "hydrocarbon material" from well. Oil reported at BP's Macondo Well in Gulf could be coming from "fissures or cracks in sea floor" -- NOAA cover up? Gov't held secret meetings about human health impacts from Fukushima crisis. Asahi: Cesium levels spike in Fukushima primates: Radioactivity much higher in 2012 than in June 2011. Tokyo getting five times more radioactive fallout than prefectures closer to Fukushima. NHK: "Underground spring-water" a concern in Fukushima fallout study; drone helicopter now measuring radiation around plant. Radio: "Every few days sinkhole gets bigger and gas bubbles spread out." "My big fear is significant groundwater and aquifer contamination" for that area of Louisiana. Top US nuclear official: Technologies don't exist yet to clean up Fukushima site... very difficult to overstate difficulty. Nuclear whistleblower: I was asked to leave my church. It's been a living hell (VIDEO).

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