Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => New Theories => Topic started by: thedoc on 24/10/2014 13:30:02
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Paul McGill asked the Naked Scientists:
When one considers that all of the "most haunted" places in the world are places where horrific mass deaths have occurred, and/or where human remains are still present. We may then realize that the reason that they are considered "most haunted" is due to the presence of these remains, and our ability to detect them with an ancient survival adaptation. This adaptation, which is almost ubiquitous among creatures that share a common ancestor in which chemo-detection first appeared some three hundred million years ago. This chemical death avoidance mechanism works the same way for each, but each will cue on a chemical signature specific to their species.
The first thing we may notice about human beings is that their largest single gene group is dedicated to this most ancient sensory modality, which contains some 345 active genes. This is significant when one considers that the next largest group (for neurotransmitters in the brain) contains only 15 genes. We may also notice that we have more odor-producing glands than virtually any other creature and combined with our "superb" sense of smell this makes us, for all practical purposes, a giant chemo-transmitter/receiver.
Human beings are able to discriminate one trillion odors, which shatters the old "made up" number of 10,000, and the assertion that our sense of smell is vestigial, puny and irrelevant, as the "skeptics" have said all along. Although, neither we, nor scientists currently researching this mechanism, have been able to find any empirical data to support the skeptics claim.
The fact is human beings are, in our area of expertise, as good as a dog and better than a rat, at sensing air-born odors, and the concentrations at which we become consciously aware are miniscule and on the order of a millionth of a millionth of a gram in a liter of air. Furthermore, our subconscious threshold is lower by orders of magnitude still, and this is where “ghosts and hauntings" are born.
It turns out that we not only have a superb sense of smell, but that we also possess "high affinity" receptors called TAAR, which detect trace amines in the atmosphere, and trigger the release of both amphetamine and hallucinogenic compounds in our brains, which have different affects on individuals with different genotypes. The MAOA-L "warrior†genotype (our anti-predator-predator) lacks the agonist to receive the hallucinatory affect and only get stimulated in the presence of these breakdown compounds of decomposition. This gave credence to the idea that the reason neither side of the argument will ever concede is that both are actually correct, but only for their particular genotype.
If any of this is interesting to you, you wish to look at the research on which we base our theoretical model, or discuss any part of it, please contact us, as we are being stonewalled by both sides of the debate in our attempt to make this information known. Of course, the problem is, we are not scientist, but rather, I am a "sensitive skeptic" that founded a small think-tank, and who has spent his whole life seeking out the answer for why I "get" hauntings in certain places, when I absolutely do not believe in ghosts.
What do you think?