Overview
- Maffeo published her synthesis on June 1, which brings together decades of studies into a three‑factor model that aims to explain why some people report paranormal encounters.
- The model identifies environmental stimuli like electromagnetic field fluctuations and infrasound as one factor and cites studies finding greater EMF variability in reputedly haunted sites and a MacEwan paper tying infrasound from aging infrastructure to mood shifts.
- A second factor is neurological events, including temporoparietal junction disruption and REM‑sleep intrusion or sleep paralysis, which can produce disembodiment, vivid hallucinations, and the sense of a presence.
- The third factor is personality and belief, particularly high levels of schizotypy, which make people more likely to notice ambiguous sensations and label them as supernatural; lab 'haunted‑room' experiments show reported experiences track with prior belief rather than with manipulated conditions.
- Reporters note that the current development is wider public dissemination of Maffeo’s accessible framework, not new experimental proof, and researchers call for targeted, controlled studies to test whether and how the three factors combine to produce reported ghost encounters.