In Ghosts We Trust?

The name came to him on the way to a funeral wake: Cindy Lou. He heard it over and over, though he had no idea who Cindy Lou was.

The man behind the wheel was Rob Gutro, a meteorologist who worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He believed someone who had died was trying to pass along a message. At the wake, he approached his colleague, Cynthia O'Carroll, and told her the name he'd been hearing. She began to cry. "My dad used to call me Cindy Lou," she later told The Washington Post.

Gutro, who has since retired from NASA, has written books about ghosts and says he can communicate with the dead. His scientific training hasn't dissuaded him. "I'm a scientist, so I have to prove everything," he told the newspaper.

It's the sort of story that might make you wonder how someone devoted to science can also believe in ghosts. But new research suggests something surprising: Americans who combine religious faith with independent, scientific thinking may actually be more likely to believe in ghosts, curses, and other supernatural phenomena. Why?

What is a "Secular Rationalist"?

Researchers from Baylor University, Carson-Newman University, and American University examined responses from 1,812 Americans in the 2025 Baylor Religion Survey. Their study, published in Social Forces in July, found an unexpected combination of beliefs.

The researchers measured what they call "secular rationalism," which sounds as though it ought to exclude religion entirely. Here, though, secular describes where someone looks for answers, not where they spend their Sunday mornings. People who score highly on this measure say science is the way to understand the world, morality should be grounded in reason rather than religious teachings, and individuals should interpret spiritual questions for themselves instead of deferring to religious authorities.

Someone can therefore believe in God, go to church, and still think the pastor shouldn't get the final say on what is real. 

Among respondents who believed in God, 40% of those embracing secular-rationalist ideas scored highly on a measure of belief in magic, compared with 19% of those who rejected those ideas. Among people who attended religious services, the figures were 28% and 19%. The questions covered six supernatural phenomena, including ghosts, curses, and communication with the dead; those percentages don't refer to ghosts alone.

The association disappeared among people who didn't believe in God or never attended services. The intriguing group, it seems, consists of those keeping some religious beliefs while reserving the right to decide for themselves which other supernatural possibilities to accept.

Interestingly, our previous reporting on the spiritual beliefs of religious "nones" found that even Americans who reject organized religion frequently retain beliefs in spirits, magic, and the afterlife.

We suspect this new research might be particularly interesting to ordained ministers of the Universal Life Church, many of whom maintain spiritual beliefs while also placing a high value on personal independence, science, and freedom of thought. Dear reader, does this sound like you? And if so, what does that say about your relationship with the supernatural?

Who Gets to Believe in a Ghost?

Religious authorities have spent centuries drawing boundaries around the supernatural. An angelic visitation may be welcomed as a miracle. A séance might be condemned as forbidden magic. The person reporting an encounter might not find the distinction so obvious.

The family of John Wesley, who later founded the Methodist Church, ran into this problem in the winter of 1716. Strange noises shook their rectory in Epworth, England: knocking, footsteps, clattering, and groaning. The family nicknamed the supposed culprit "Old Jeffrey." Wesley's mother, Susanna, first suspected animals, but later became convinced the sounds had no ordinary explanation.

The timing was awkward. Wesley's father had recently preached against local people consulting folk healers and diviners known as "cunning men." Now his own household was entertaining the possibility of a ghost. John, away at school during the disturbances, collected the family's accounts afterward and retained a keen interest in supernatural reports throughout his life. And he wouldn't have to look too hard...

You may be surprised to learn that the Bible itself includes a ghost story. In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul, terrified by an approaching army and unable to get an answer from God, secretly visits a medium in Endor, despite having previously outlawed mediums himself. He asks her to summon the dead prophet Samuel. When Samuel actually appears, the medium lets out a scream. Samuel then delivers some terrible news: Saul and his sons will die the following day. Saul collapses in terror.

And the ghost, as it turns out, mostly got it right. The Bible later recounts how Saul and three of his sons perish in battle against the Philistines. Wounded by archers, Saul falls on his own sword rather than risk capture. Another son, Ish-bosheth, survives and eventually succeeds him. In 1 Chronicles 10:13, Saul's decision to consult a medium is explicitly condemned as a sin. Apparently, even a genuine encounter with the dead could be considered a terrible transgression.

Of course, divination hasn't disappeared in the thousands of years since Saul's supposed encounter. Our own ministry store even carries a wooden divination board and pendulum for those interested in seeking answers to life's mysteries through supernatural means.

Not everyone in the religious establishment is comfortable with the possibility of ghosts. The evangelical Christian ministry Got Questions rejects the idea that deceased human souls might wander the earth, suggesting that supposed hauntings may instead involve demons impersonating the dead. Its warning is blunt: "The demons surely laugh at the spiritual mass-deception that exists in the world today."

Similar concerns about demonic influences are at the heart of ongoing Christian disagreements over Halloween, with some believers warning that celebrating the supernatural can invite dangerous spiritual forces into people's lives.

But other Christian authorities are considerably more receptive. Catholic priest Father Dwight Longenecker, who has investigated reported hauntings himself, recalls meeting a widow who claimed her deceased husband appeared in her living room every evening, carrying his customary cup of cocoa. After considering similar accounts, Longenecker concluded that "there are indeed such things as ghosts." Although he also warned that supposed spirits could be demons in disguise.

The Catholic Church itself teaches that human souls survive death, but has no general doctrine declaring that ghosts haunt houses. And yes, the Church officially performs exorcisms, although those rituals address demonic activity rather than departed human souls. The Catholic Catechism is unequivocal about trying to contact the dead: "All forms of divination are to be rejected," it declares, explicitly prohibiting the use of mediums and attempts to summon departed spirits. Believing a deceased loved one might appear is one thing. Attempting to summon them is quite another.

Such prohibitions haven't stopped people from experimenting with the supernatural, as evidenced by the growing popularity of online spellcasting and curses

When the Dead Come Home

Elsewhere, encounters between the living and the dead have long been woven into accepted religious practice.

In Mexico, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, brings families together to welcome the spirits of deceased loved ones. In communities that observe the tradition, families lay out favorite foods, candles and marigold petals to help guide the returning souls. The celebration blends Indigenous beliefs with Catholic observances around November 1 and 2. For participants, the visit is generally an occasion for remembrance and reunion rather than fear.

And in Malaysia this August, thousands gathered for the Hungry Ghost Festival in Bukit Mertajam. Worshippers offered prayers and gifts before an enormous paper figure of Da Shi Ye, the Guardian God of Ghosts. The festival draws on Buddhist, Taoist and Chinese folk religious traditions, with particular attention to spirits who have no living relatives to remember them.

"The main purpose is to look after wandering spirits," organizer Lee Kim Fong told the Associated Press.

These ceremonies are established traditions, rather than the independent magical beliefs measured in the American study. But they offer a useful contrast: A spirit's return can be understood as a cherished family visit, an obligation to the dead, a forbidden act of divination, or a frightening haunting, depending on the religious framework people bring to it.

For American Spiritualists, meanwhile, communicating with the dead isn't some forbidden curiosity. It's a foundational element of their religion. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches declares: "We affirm that communication with the so-called dead is a fact, scientifically proven by the phenomena of Spiritualism." The organization's insistence that communication with the dead has been scientifically proven is particularly striking, given the new research exploring how people reconcile scientific thinking with supernatural beliefs.

Belief Without Permission

Consider the competing messages religious believers receive. One pastor warns that ghosts are demons in disguise. Another priest believes they're departed souls. The Catholic Church forbids summoning the dead, while Spiritualist churches consider communicating with them an expression of faith. So who's right? The Baylor researchers found that people who trust their own judgment on such questions, rather than simply accepting religious authorities' answers, are particularly likely to embrace supernatural beliefs when they also retain religious ties.

For one believer, the dead belong in heaven, hell, or purgatory, not wandering around an old house. For another, an encounter with a deceased relative might feel entirely compatible with prayer and belief in an afterlife. Trusting science to explain a thunderstorm doesn't necessarily stop someone from wondering what happened when a familiar voice seemed to speak in an empty room.

The personal pull of these experiences is hard to overlook. In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 38 percent of U.S. adults said they'd felt that someone who had died was trying to communicate with them. Thirty percent reported personally encountering a spirit or unseen spiritual force. Belief in ghosts isn't confined to people who reject science, and it doesn't sit neatly inside any one religious tradition.

Which brings us back to the wake where Cynthia O'Carroll heard that old nickname. Gutro interpreted what happened through his belief that the dead can send messages. For O'Carroll, the words carried something even more immediate: a reminder of her father. 

With Halloween approaching, we want to hear your stories. Have you ever seen a ghost, felt the presence of someone who'd died, or experienced something you still can't explain? Tell us what happened in the comments.