Did Einstein Give Scientific Proof That Ghosts Exist?

February 08, 2020 6:00 AM ‐ ParanormalScienceGhosts

This article is more than four years old and was last updated in April 2021.

Albert Einstein
German-born theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientific minds we've ever known. His work provided a backbone for our current understanding of the universe.

So, it's no wonder believers in the paranormal get so excited when Einstein appears to be backing up their beliefs. Some paranormal investigators claim that Einstein has offered a scientific basis for the existence of ghosts.

There's a meme currently doing the rounds that states "one of the greatest minds of humanity, Albert Einstein, believed that ghosts are real. He said that all the energy in the universe is constant and since this energy cannot be destroyed, it can transform into new energy and creation of ghost."
Einstein Says Ghosts Exist

So, Is This True?

The grammar in this meme should be your first clue that this isn't an accurate quote. Some of it is true, but you can actually tell the point where the facts tail off and the grammar deteriorates.

Einstein did state that "energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another." This is known as the conservation of energy and it seems to be an accurate model for describing how energy in the universe behaves.

When it comes to the human body, we eat food in order to get energy. We don't create it. We convert (changed from one form to another) the chemical energy in food, which is primarily stored in carbohydrates, fats, proteins and ethanol. Some of this energy is lost as heat, some is converted into other chemicals which make our muscles move.

Where this becomes relevant to paranormal investigators is that some believe that some of this energy can live on outside the body. It's thought to be the electrical energy produced in the body which can live on and even be detected by EMF meters.

If Einstein stated that all the energy of the universe is constant and that it can neither be created nor destroyed, then what happens to the energy in our bodies when we die? Well, in line with Einstein's laws, the energy is simply transferred into other forms.

Electrical energy is created in our body by chemical reactions. The energy we produce is used almost instantly, it send signals around the brain and through our central nervous system. When the electrical impulse reaches its destination it is again converted into chemical energy which causes that specific bit of the body to do something like move your arm.

So, there is never a surplus of electrical energy drifting around your body. It constantly comes, does a job and then goes.

When we die these reactions cease and we no longer produce electricity and the electricity we've already produced has already done its job and been transferred into another type of energy. The rest of our energy is lost in the form of heat and transferred into the bacteria that causes our bodies to breakdown and decay. If we are cremated, the energy in our bodies is released in the form of heat and light.

But what if there's another type of energy that exists within the human body that is responsible for human consciousness, could this energy live on outside the body? Yes, it could - however there is no proof that this energy exists.

Professor Brian Cox thinks the experiments being conducted using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have proven that this energy doesn't exist. He said, "if there's some kind of substance that's driving our bodies, making my arms move and legs move, then it must interact with the particles out of which our bodies are made. And seeing as we've made high precision measurements of the ways that particles interact, then my assertion is there can be no such thing as an energy source that's driving our bodies."

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"If we want some sort of pattern that carries information about our living cells to persist then we must specify precisely what medium carries that pattern and how it interacts with the matter particles out of which our bodies are made. We must, in other words, invent an extension to the Standard Model of Particle Physics that has escaped detection at the Large Hadron Collider. That's almost inconceivable at the energy scales typical of the particle interactions in our bodies."
Professor Brian Cox
None of this means that ghosts don't exist. It merely means that you can't use Einstein's quote relating to the conservation of energy to prove or support existence of the paranormal, doing so just displays a lack of understanding of basic scientific principles.

This isn't the only quote that is currently being shared by believers in the paranormal. Another reads "everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics."
Einstein \"Everything Is Energy\" Quote

Again, this isn't a valid quote from the famous physicist. The clue should be the spiritual use of the term "frequency" rather than the use of the word as a genuine scientific principle - a mistake Einstein wouldn't have made.

It's perfectly acceptable to talk about frequency in connection to energy, but to talk about matching a frequency as a human doesn't make sense. No one is able to alter the frequency of the atoms that make up the cells in their body either consciously or through technology.

This quote was never written or spoken even in part by Einstein, it actually originates from a New Age author named Darryl Anka, a spiritual channeller who claims to be able to speak to a multi-dimensional being called Bashar.

As you can see in the image above, the quote is directly attributed to Einstein, which just goes to show how important it is to fact check anything that gets shared on social media.

Did Einstein Believe In Ghosts?

It seems the answer to this question is no. Einstein never showed any kind of interest or belief in the paranormal. He once said, "even if I saw a ghost, I wouldn't believe it." He added, "when twelve other persons have witnessed the same phenomenon at the same time, then I might believe."

It might seem like science and the paranormal are disconnected, but most paranormal investigators' prime aim is to definitively prove the existing of the paranormal. A strong understanding of scientific methods and how the universe works can only help to achieve this goal.

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