Jason and I were watching a re-run of The Colbert Report last night, and saw a clip about a recent scientific study that links coffee consumption to seeing ghosts. I laughed, and then thought, “No…. really?! Someone actually researched this?”
Sure enough, I found some information about the study, conducted by Durham University, online. Apparently the study included 200 college students who reported their daily caffeine consumption and whether they’d ever experienced “hallucinations” such as seeing ghosts, hearing voices, or having any type of contact with dead people after consuming large amounts of caffeine.
According to the results, students who consumed more than seven cups of instant coffee a day (or an equivalent amount of caffeine in other caffeinated beverages) were three times more likely to have hallucinatory experiences than people who consumed little or no caffeine.
One of the study’s co-authors said the study raises an “important” question - does caffeine cause the hallucinations, or do people turn to caffeine to help deal with seeing or hearing things that aren't considered normal? And did the students experience hallucinations, or were they actually connecting with the spiritual world?
I found this study interesting, if only because it shows that these researchers had too much time on their hands. I’d like to know what prompted them to study a link between coffee and ghosts. Did they discover that most mediums are heavy coffee drinkers and decided to explore further.
Personally, I think I’d have a much greater chance of seeing ghosts after drinking alcohol!
2 comments:
OK, so my guess is that this was a group of Stats 101 students who hung out in their "quad" and asked the students that passed by.
Seriously...this is research? There are so many more important things out there, like..."are pregnant woman more likely to eat a Big Mac or a Whopper with their chocolate covered donuts?"
My answer....Whopper Jr!
I agree with you, absolutely too much time on their hands.....what's next??
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