UW Journalism prof Deborah Plum recently had an op-ed piece in the New York Times called "Ghosts in the Machine". She talks about an article in the journal Nature in which scientists who stimulated a patient's angular gyrus were able to induce feelings of being haunted. Perhaps, they concluded, this is the kind of thing that happens in the brain of folks who sense the presence of ghosts and other such supernatural bullshit. Plum contrasts this with our natural tendency to eschew the rational in favor of the goofy when confronted with the inexplicable.
Brains are so fascinating.
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