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[escepticos] El Escéptico Electrónico Nº 3 - Fantasmas de nuestra mente
Vaya tal y como ha sido recibido, aún calentito, el
tercer boletín de El Escéptico Electrónico con un tema
realmente interesante.
De demostrarse esta hipótesis nos encontraríamos con
otro campo típicamente magufo que se desvanecería cual
fantasma a la luz del amanecer.
===============================================
Los fantasmas, los dobles de uno mismo y las
experiencias extracorpóreas tendrían, según Peter
Brugger, del Hospital Universitario de Zurich, su
origen en nuestro cerebro que, del mismo modo que
'percibe' en casos de amputaciones la presencia de
'miembros fantasma', puede 'percibir' la presencia de
'fantasmas del cuerpo entero'. La revista 'New
Scientist' (http://www.newscientist.com) informa esta
semana de la teoría de Brugger, de la que ya se ha
hecho eco 'AbcNews'
(http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/).
Mind phantoms
THERE'S nothing supernatural about ghosts,
doppelgängers and
out-of-body experiences, says a Swiss neuroscientist.
They are simply
phantom sensations like a phantom limb, he says, but
spread to the
whole body.
People experience phantom limbs--the sense that an
amputated limb is
still present--when the part of the brain that
normally senses the
limb loses those signals (New Scientist, 17 June, p
27). Peter
Brugger
of the University Hospital in Zurich says that
doppelgängers, in
which
people are aware of phantom "doubles" of themselves,
have a similar
origin.
Some people actually see their double, often as a
mirror image. This
may be the result of damage to visual areas of the
brain that affect
the way we sense our body, says Brugger. Others merely
feel the
presence of a double without actually seeing one. He
believes that
these doubles are generated when the parietal lobes,
the regions
responsible for the distinction between body and
surrounding space,
are damaged.
Out-of-body experiences, where a person "sees" their
body from the
outside, may be caused by temporary overactivity of
certain brain
regions. "Excitability of the temporal lobes seems to
be a plausible
explanation," says Brugger. These regions are
connected to the
parietal lobes and are sensitive to visual signals,
low levels of
oxygen and emotional arousal.
Brugger believes the brain could account for other
paranormal
experiences: "Ghosts are probably nothing more but
also nothing less
than phantoms of the body."
Helen Phillip
'New Scientist'. 8 de julio de 2000
Meet Your Phantom Self
Seeing Things: Are Ghosts Just Brain Creations?
By Edward Mazza
July 6 - Have you ever seen a ghost? "Felt" a
presence?
Has your
phantom double ever followed you around? Ever leave
your body for a
few moments?
These might not be paranormal experiences. But they
don't
necessarily mean you're crazy, either.
Much like some people experience a "phantom limb"
after an
amputation, you could be experiencing the presence of
a "phantom
of
the entire body," according to Swiss neuroscientist
Peter Brugger
of
the University Hospital in Zurich.
This can be caused by brain damage, but intense
emotion can
also
trigger the "ghosts," he told ABCNEWS.com. An article
on
Brugger's
doppelganger theories will appear in an upcoming
edition of New
Scientist magazine, according to Reuters.
"Many healthy people have ghost experiences and do not
suffer
from overt brain damage," said Brugger. "Normal brains
can
easily be
duped about the source of an `action at a distance,'
that
they
themselves have the agency over actions."
Looking at the Brain
These phantoms could be the result of damaged
pariental lobes, which
help the brain distinguish between the body and the
space surrounding
it, but it can also pop up in "normal brains" as a
result of
powerful
emotions such as intense fear, sadness, or euphoria,
said Brugger.
He pointed to the example of automatic writing, in
which
practitioners claim other entities take control of
their hands in
order to write messages from beyond.
"If one's own hands to not seem to obey one's own
brain, the
brain must construct an entity responsible for an
action," he
said.
"In cases of brain damage, the threshold for
unreasonable
conclusions/misinterpretations (of all kinds) is
simply lowered."
Other research bears this out: amputees often describe
not
only
the presence of their phantom limb, but the presence
of the very pain
once associated with that limb - pain that,
neurologically
speaking,
should no longer exist (see Web Link).
The Invisible Doppelganger
In one case, Brugger and his colleagues interviewed
eight world-class
mountaineers, all of whom reached altitudes above
27,000 feet without
supplementary oxygen. These climbers often reported
feeling "a
presence," and sometimes even out-of-body experiences.
This, says Brugger, is the same condition. He calls it
the
"invisible doppelganger."
Brugger hopes to test this theory by use of something
similar
to
the "virtual reality box," which has been used to
treat
people
experiencing the phantom limb phenomenon.
"It will only be a simulation but comes as close to
the
real
thing as possibly to be achieved without drugs," he
said.
A series of video cameras and VR glasses will be
attached to
the
subjects so that they are aware of their own presence
sitting next to
them.
Ghosts, said Brugger, are illusory. "But even the
illusory has to
be explained."
Perhaps the modern technology of the virtual reality
box can
explain the age-old mystery behind ghosts, phantoms
and doppelganger.
'ABCNews', 6 de julio de 2000
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