The paranormal can best be thought of as a subset of pseudoscience. What sets the paranormal apart from other pseudosciences is a reliance on explanations for alleged phenomena that are well outside the bounds of established science.

Based on the laws of science as we know them – ghosts, demons, zombies, vampires, and wandering spirits are just fiction. There is no substantial evidence that suggests the existence of any such supernatural phenomenon in the real world. However, there may be reasons based on science for why people feel they have had a paranormal experience.

For centuries hallucinations such as seeing ghosts were used as proof of madness, an objective marker of mental abnormality. But what people typically think of as objective reality is in fact a compromise. A one-to-one correspondence between outer reality and inner brain events does not exist.

That depends. Current science can’t prove that there are spirits walking through walls or screaming below floorboards. Our spooky sightings, however, have certainly felt real. Humans have been spotting specters for as long as we’ve been around, and to some degree we can explain why.