As the days get darker and the evenings longer, ghost stories beckon. Curled up on the couch with a warm blanket and a nice cup of tea, you stare at the screen, horrified and trembling.
It’s no wonder that ghost movies capture our imagination. Beliefs in the supernatural — in ghosts, spirits and the afterlife — are quite common across human societies, both large and small.
In fact, most adults in the U.S. believe that the self continues to exist after life and that the dead interact with the living. But even if you don’t share this opinion and consider ghosts a figment of the imagination, once the movie is on, you still find yourself screaming. Hours later, you are startled by every wind gust and wood creak. Despite our rational judgment, our gut tells us that the dead may be visiting.
