The Science Of Scary: 10 Reasons Why You Love Being Scared

2. The Science Of The Supernatural

Any filmmaker knows that a horror movie is made exactly x36.5 scarier by putting "based on a true story" at the beginning. The internet, TV, films, books and the media are all full of real stories about the time someone saw and actual ghost/demon/angel/whatever, so is art imitating life or the other way around?

Shockingly, I'm not about to reveal some irrefutable evidence to you that ghosts are actually real. However, there are a number of explanations as to what causes someone to think they've had contact with the supernatural.

Things like carbon monoxide poisoning and infrasound can reproduce some pretty serious effects of a "haunting", to the point where you will see visions, hear voices and all of your pets and houseplants will mysteriously die.

Ouija boards, table tipping, automatic writing and even possessions can all be brought on by the power of suggestion and the observers of the supernatural phenomena are actually unknowingly the perpetrators. This is basically mistaking the subconscious actions of yourself or another to be something supernatural.

Sleep paralysis is another phenomenon that can really feeling like a visitation from beyond the grave. If a person is disturbed during REM sleep, then their brain can sometimes "wake up" without properly exiting its dream state. This means that the body is completely paralysed (you are paralysed when you sleep to stop you acting out your dreams) and the sufferer will often hallucinate. Something that feels normal when you're asleep, (i.e. dreaming), becomes terrifying when you feel as though you should be awake.

These sensations, coupled with the constant images of the supernatural that we love to consume through TV, film and books, are all too easy to interpret as the workings of the netherworld, rather than a dodgy carbon monoxide detector.