Quote:
'Eye problems may explain ghost sightings'
Feb 28 2008 by Robin Turner, Western Mail
CENTURIES of apparent ghost sightings can actually be explained by cataracts, according to a leading Welsh surgeon.
Chris Gorman, an ophthalmologist at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales, claims many dramatic reports of spectres and ghostly, floating figures are probably no more than early signs that a person is starting to lose their sight.
Until modern medicine came up with an effective treatment for cataracts – clouding of the eye lens – a large proportion of the elderly population gradually went blind.
A little talked about – but relatively common – side effect of losing eyesight could be visions or hallucinations, according to the 44-year-old eye surgeon.
This phenomenon has been known since the 18th century as Charles Bonnet Syndrome after the Swiss philosopher who recognised it in his grandfather who was going blind.
Mr Gorman said yesterday, “People with the syndrome see patterns such as latticework in front of them. But they can also see people who are not there and sometimes parts of people such as headless men and women apparently walking around.
“People with the syndrome have tended not to talk about it openly for fear of being mistaken as mentally ill so it is not widely known. I have actually rescued people from mental health wards after diagnosing them with eye problems.
“For instance, one patient I had reported to his doctor that he saw a three foot tall Tom Jones dancing around his living room. That does sound crazy, but there can be a rational explanation.
“I have a theory that in the past, stories about ghosts and hauntings may have sprung up because of this problem at a time when no one could explain or understand the visions.
“It is linked to how the brain stores the information it gets from the eyes and how we use this information to help us create the pictures we see.
“When people start losing their sight, their brains are not receiving as many pictures as they used to, and sometimes new fantasy pictures or old pictures stored in our brains are released and experienced as though they were seen.”
Mr Gorman, who will present his theory in a talk at the Sunrise Care Home in Cardiff today, added, “These experiences seem to happen when there is not much going on, for example, when people are sitting alone somewhere quiet that is familiar to them or when they are lying in bed at night.”
Cataracts, the major cause of blindness in developed countries, is now treated with the removal of clouded eye lenses and insertion of perspex replacements.
During World War II British doctors noticed that slivers of perspex lodged in the eyes of Spitfire pilots when their canopies were shattered by gunfire did not cause infection and that tiny amounts of perspex were “accepted” by human eyes.
Mr Gorman said, “If my theory is right there will be a lot less ghost spotting going on now that cataracts can be treated quickly and effectively.”
The Rev Lionel Fanthorpe, Cardiff-based President of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena agreed eye problems could be behind some, but not all, ghost sightings.
He said, “I think scientists would accept the brain does not like a vacuum and it likes to fill in empty space with constructs of its own. However, there are a good 10-11% of ghost sightings by honest, reliable witnesses with no health problems.
“It could be dramatic events such as murders or battles are somehow recorded in the fabric where they happen such as stones or earth and can be seen by sensitive people. Also of course there is the spiritual dimension and perhaps these visions are actual entities in some other dimension.”
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