My Ghost (Or, An Exercise in Skepticism)

I was recently on a walk in Greyfriars kirkyard, taking in the end of a sunny Scottish afternoon before a concert in the church that evening. It was so nice, I decided to take some pictures. I do love me some graveyard tourism.

First quarter Moon above the church

I'm in love with the blossoms on this tree. 

By now, I'm sure you've all noticed the little green dot in those middle pictures. I actually didn't see it until I had already put a picture up on Instagram, but as soon as I saw it, I went back to look at it. It's nothing on my lens- I included the pictures that I took immediately before and after this set here just so you could see that. For reference, here's a similar angle taken shortly after but in a slightly different spot with the sun (and castle) in the background, but without the green dot:

Now, I'm a good scientist and so I'm going to go in for natural explanations first. It's probably some optical effect. Secondarily, it may be some errant electromagnetic field messing with my camera. There's the outside change that it's ball lightning, but from the wikipedia page, that seems less likely to me-- either my friend who was walking with me or I would have noticed that on a sunny afternoon. I'm not ruling it out, especially if my only other option is that it's a ghost.

But let's also be sensible here. The facts are these: I was in a graveyard, it was Friday the 13th, and Greyfriars has a reputation for hauntings. Plus, if it's an optical effect, it's not a consistent one. It's enough to make a body wonder.

At the same time, I'm also self-aware enough to know that I'm susceptible to believing in ghosts. I'm pretty certain that the house I grew up in was haunted and I've been around the planetarium at night enough times to be dubious of the idea that that creepy sensation crawling up my back is just old exposed wiring. Plus, I eat up gothic fantasy and the macabre like it's my job. I love Supernatural and everything Stephen King's ever written and I'm addicted to the Lore podcast. Ghost stories are my jam and I am unapologetic on that front. I love to dream about something being there.

But dreams have been the typical limit of my ghost stories (other than the aforementioned growing-up-in-a-haunted house thing). I've seen Ghost Hunters. I know how frequently claims of the supernatural are faked. My pragmatism tells me to focus on the here and now, on the atoms that make up matter. Goodness knows there's enough there to be scared about without introducing spooks.

All that pragmatism went out the window when I saw the little green spot on my photos, though. I felt like I had seen a celebrity. Actually, no, I was much more excited than I've ever been seeing a celebrity. I've kept my cool around the Pope and royalty and Mark Ruffalo, but show me a little unexplained, classically supernatural blip on my camera, and I tell basically everyone. I sent the pictures to my friends, I wrote a (much less analytical) blog post about it, I even considered going back and making a video there, just to see if I could catch anything again. I was so excited for my little ghost.

And I don't mind that about myself, not really. I don't mind a little belief in an existence after this one. I think eternity sounds exhausting and that Jesus will have a lot of working selling me on the idea of living forever in heaven. I mean, I trust the man, but I have my earthly doubts in the heavenly realms. But a couple centuries haunting the living? I could be about that. As long as I wasn't tethered to wherever I died, I'd go ride rollercoasters for free all the live long day and come back in the evenings to hang out with the other deceased. There's a sitcom in there, I'm sure.

I think it's normal to want to put occurrences we can't immediately explain in the realm of the supernatural. No one's good enough of a skeptic to not get a little tingly when walking through a cold spot. It adds a little whimsy to our lives, and that's fun. Though I remain on the side of natural explanations, I think it's worth a wonder when the world around us surprises us. Maybe some ghost stories aren't as absurd after all.