I’ll break this down into three sections to make it easier to answer.
Witches: There isn’t much evidence for witches being real. At least not the magical kind like the witches from Hamlet or Maleficent. There is a religion known as Wicca though. Some of their more enthusiastic members may consider themselves to have magical powers and describe themselves as witches (but they probably aren’t ;)).
Monsters: If we’re talking about Monsters like Sully from Monsters Inc or the Dementors from Harry Potter then no, they don’t seem likely to be real. There are some creatures out there which do look pretty monstrous though! A good example would be the Aye-aye (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aye-aye), a lemur from Madagascar. They have creepy long fingers that they use to find their prey. The local people are terrified of them because of their creepy eyes and fingers. They are thought of as bringers of bad luck and a symbol of death. As a result the Aye-aye is now endangered because of hunting.
Another weird animal is the poodle moth (), a moth which looks an awful lot like a pokemon! Not too much is known about them though.
I don’t know how you feel about spiders but this one is a heck of a beast. The Goliath Birdeater (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_birdeater) is the second largest spider in the world. In the UK spiders eat birds. In South America it’s the other way around! It also eats snakes and lizards. Certainly not the kind of thing you’d want in your bedroom!
Ghosts: According to the Daily Mail, yes. I’m a little more skeptical than them though. :p The human mind is an amazing thing and can produce extremely convincing hallucinations. There’s this peculiar condition called sleep paralysis. This happens when someone is halfway between being awake and asleep. They are unable to move but feel an intense feeling of dread or terror. I’ve actually had this happen to me a couple of times and I reckon that if I wasn’t the skeptical scientist I’m meant to be that I’d have believed that I’d encountered a ghost. I think it might be worth asking Charli about how the brain can trick us into thinking we’ve seen a ghost. She knows way more about brains than I do.
To summarise then: some people think they’re witches (but they aren’t), monsters are real and ghosts are probably a quirk of how the brain works. I hope you found that as entertaining to read as it was for me to write. And as always, if you want to know more about anything I’ve covered then just ask!
What a fun set of questions 🙂 While I know that lots of people have tried to study ghosts scientifically, I’m not sure anyone has really got very far! As a scientist we have to prove that either they definitely do exist (which is difficult given their ghostly nature) or that they definitely don’t (which is even harder!). For what it’s worth, I’m with Oliver and think that the “ghosts” that people claim to see are probably tricks of the mind.
Seeing things that aren’t there is called “hallucinating”. You can also hear things, smell things and feel things that aren’t there. This happens a lot in an illness called “schizophrenia”. It can also happen if you take certain types of drugs.
Hallucinations are usually short and so quite difficult to investigate, but scientists think that they could be due to unusual activity happening in the areas of the brain that control what we see (e.g. visual cortex) or what we hear (e.g. auditory cortex). Another reason could be that the messages that get sent between these areas have gotten mixed up.
The hallucinations that you might see when you are just falling asleep are called hypnagogic hallucinations and are completely normal (if a little disturbing).
Hello again, if I’m completely honest; I hate maths! I find it really hard and if i have to do maths in my head my mind sometimes goes blank and I can’t even add up! It’s OK though because that’s what calculators are for – right? 🙂 As for reading and writing, I love to read and I often read books in my spare time. My favourite books are fantasy books about magic, dragons and wizards, like Harry Potter and books by George RR Martin and Terry Pratchett. As for spelling, I wouldn’t worry about it too much – you get better at spelling as you get older and every time you see that red squiggly line you know you need to change something! If you keep at it, you’ll get there in the end 🙂
Comments
Charli commented on :
Hi ucantseeme123 and Oliver,
What a fun set of questions 🙂 While I know that lots of people have tried to study ghosts scientifically, I’m not sure anyone has really got very far! As a scientist we have to prove that either they definitely do exist (which is difficult given their ghostly nature) or that they definitely don’t (which is even harder!). For what it’s worth, I’m with Oliver and think that the “ghosts” that people claim to see are probably tricks of the mind.
Seeing things that aren’t there is called “hallucinating”. You can also hear things, smell things and feel things that aren’t there. This happens a lot in an illness called “schizophrenia”. It can also happen if you take certain types of drugs.
Hallucinations are usually short and so quite difficult to investigate, but scientists think that they could be due to unusual activity happening in the areas of the brain that control what we see (e.g. visual cortex) or what we hear (e.g. auditory cortex). Another reason could be that the messages that get sent between these areas have gotten mixed up.
The hallucinations that you might see when you are just falling asleep are called hypnagogic hallucinations and are completely normal (if a little disturbing).
Hope that helps!
minekraft123 commented on :
Hi i am back with some mare questions.
minekraft123 commented on :
How are you doing I mean what do you like math , letaresy or reading I know my spelling is bad but thats how it is in life right?
Charli commented on :
Hello again, if I’m completely honest; I hate maths! I find it really hard and if i have to do maths in my head my mind sometimes goes blank and I can’t even add up! It’s OK though because that’s what calculators are for – right? 🙂 As for reading and writing, I love to read and I often read books in my spare time. My favourite books are fantasy books about magic, dragons and wizards, like Harry Potter and books by George RR Martin and Terry Pratchett. As for spelling, I wouldn’t worry about it too much – you get better at spelling as you get older and every time you see that red squiggly line you know you need to change something! If you keep at it, you’ll get there in the end 🙂