Debate: Do ghosts exist?

Bengaluru teens take a stand on paranormal activity

For:

Name: Vidhisha R Maurya

Grade: 9 School: Nirmala Rani High School, Bengaluru

Many are sceptical while discussing ghosts. Horror films always come with a disclaimer that ‘the story is set in a fictional world’. This has fuelled people’s disbelief in ghosts. But in reality, ghosts have a different meaning. A ghost is referred to as the soul of a dead person. It is experienced as a vague and evanescent form, wandering among living people.

Science has its boundaries. It is very particular about where it can be applied. But science fails to explain some of the mysteries of the world.

According to a theory, ghosts may be dark energy as they are in the form of pure energy, which is present in an enormous amount, though people can’t see it. As we know, energy is neither made nor destroyed. So if a ghost is made of dark energy, it gets a continuous supply of energy, resulting in movement. Thermodynamics is used as a study to substantiate the argument.

Gaurav Tiwari, Ed Warren, and Lorraine Warren, some prominent paranormal investigators, have made interesting contributions in this field. There are many incidents about humans being possessed and haunted by ghosts and they come with strong evidence and witnesses. Many unexplainable sightings have been caught on camera too. I conclude that ghosts are real as not every peculiar phenomenon is a hoax.

Against:

Name: Arnay Agarwal

Grade: 8 School: Greenwood High International School, Bengaluru

According to me, all our beliefs must have scientific reasoning. Ghosts are non-scientific creatures, whose existence is yet to be proved. In the past, the so-called ‘ghost experts’ have supposedly picked up a signal or electromagnetic activity that shows that ghosts are real. People argue that this is the ultimate truth of the paranormal.

However, there are many explanations for strange activities but they lack concrete conclusions. Sometimes the brain finds meaning in meaningless things. At the end of the day, these are fictional stories.

There is another way of looking at this debate. People become delusional and start seeing things that aren’t real. It’s a common phenomenon. This happens because you are used to your sensors giving you accurate information about the things around you. In such cases, we experience hallucinations. In such a state, you might feel your phone is ringing when it actually isn’t. Someone might call your name when nobody is really doing it and you may see a face or a figure in a dark shadow. We tend to believe that these incidents are paranormal activities. I don’t deny that many activities around us are unbelievably strange. But if you dig deep into them, you will find the real meanings behind them and they have nothing to do with ghosts or any paranormal activity.