Tumble Science Podcast for Kids Are Ghosts Real?
Oct 29, 2025
Join science historian Efram Sera-Shriar, who delves into the intriguing world of ghost investigations. Discover how 19th-century scientists explored spiritualism, attended seances, and used experimental controls to debunk tricks. Learn about Thomas Edison's ambitious spirit phone idea and Michael Faraday's inventions aimed at testing ghostly phenomena. With the rise of spirit photography, curiosity about the supernatural continues, but science remains skeptical. Efram shares tips on how to investigate ghost sightings, sparking a fun discussion on the unknown!
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How A Ghost Movie Sparked A Career
- Efram Sera-Shriar traced his interest in ghost investigation back to watching Ghostbusters as a child.
- He later went on to visit haunted sites and sit in seances as part of his research into historical ghost investigations.
Victorian Science Met Spiritualism
- Spiritualism rose alongside the professionalization of 19th-century science, so scientists took ghost claims seriously.
- Researchers applied empirical methods to examine mediums and seances rather than dismissing them outright.
A Renowned Scientist Convinced By Seances
- Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of natural selection, sat with medium Agnes Guppy and reported levitations despite controls.
- Wallace repeated controlled sittings and concluded the phenomena were real based on repeated observations.