If Halloween is supposed to be frightening, the holiday came early for me last night.
The Nationals defeated the heavily favored Houston Astros last night to bring Washington their first World Series title since 1924. As a native Houstonian, watching my team lose was painful. But the Nationals are a great story of perseverance whose playoff run united a city divided by deep political rancor these days.
Now it’s time for something else Democrats and Republicans can do together.
Some 175 million Americans participated in Halloween last year, spending $9 billion in the process. NASA has even joined the effort, bringing us the Colossal Flaming Jack-O’-Lantern. (That’s my name, not theirs.)
It’s a picture of the sun captured by the space agency. Because of active regions burning more brightly than others, it really does look like a huge jack-o’-lantern in the sky.
It seems everyone is celebrating Halloween these days. But for many in the US, the holiday is more than candy and make-believe. Much more, in fact.
Why do people believe in ghosts?
According to a YouGov survey, 45 percent of Americans believe ghosts exist. Forty-three percent think ghosts can come back to haunt people or places.
What explains such belief?
“Paranormal investigator” Sharon A. Hill: “For over 200 years, many people, even scientists, have sought evidence for ghosts and life after death. There are millions of pages of previous research and experimentation into paranormal ideas. Definite proof has never been found.”
However, “because almost all paranormal investigators have a preconceived belief about ghosts, they do not look very hard for other explanations. They quickly embrace a paranormal conclusion since that is their goal.”
Psychology professor Christopher French agrees: “Studies…
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