Sometimes you will spot your cat staring into the distance, apparently at nothing at all. And sometimes for a long duration too. Something definitely has their attention, but to us, it appears there’s nothing there.
And sometimes they will even react to whatever has caught their attention by behaving strangely and making odd noises.
And this can make you wonder if your cat has seen a spirit or ghost. If one of your loved ones has passed away, it’s nice to think that in their own way, they are still with you in spirit, watching over you.
And if this is the case, it could be possible that your cat has spotted them and is trying to interact with them, totally unbeknownst to you.
This is quite an intriguing prospect, and there is certainly a lot of speculation that cats and other animals can in fact see spirits and ghosts.
And if they are seeing the ghost of a loved one that has passed, this can be reassuring and help put you at ease, especially through more difficult times.
Can Cats See Spirits?
But what do we know about this? Can our beloved pets really see these supernatural beings? Do they have any special abilities that allow them to sense spirits?
There are many stories told about how pets can see spirits. Some people say that they have had personal experiences where their pet has reacted to something strange and then later on when asked, they were able to recall exactly what happened.
Others come across reports of their pets reacting in similar ways, only after being shown photographs of deceased relatives. They may also act oddly around certain places or things, such as a cemetery or graveyard.
But what does science have to say about this? And how much credence should we give to these claims? The answer is not very much.
There hasn’t been enough research done to prove anything conclusively, so we don’t really know if it’s true or not.
However, there are some scientists out there who have studied the subject and have found potential evidence that suggests that some animals can indeed see spirits.
Dr Crookall’s Study
One study was carried out by Dr. Robert Crookall, who worked at the University of Nottingham. He wanted to find out if domestic dogs could actually see spirits. So he set up a series of experiments to test their ability.
The first experiment involved testing if dogs could detect the presence of a dead person simply by looking at them. In order to do this, he used two different individuals, both of whom were dead.
One was his mother and the other was his grandfather. Then he tested how well each dog would respond to the corpse of either his mother or his grandfather.
He then repeated the same tests using three groups of dogs. Two of these were completely unfamiliar with the bodies, while the third group knew the bodies well from previous exposure.
The results showed that the dogs did seem to respond differently depending on whether they were familiar with the body or not. When they were familiar with the body, they seemed to show signs of stress and discomfort.
This included shivering, pawing at themselves and showing fear-related behaviors. But when they weren’t familiar with the corpse, they didn’t appear to display any obvious signs of distress.
And if dogs can respond this way, there’s no reason to assume that cats can too.
Anyway, the conclusion here is that dogs can in fact recognize dead bodies. But it seems like they need to be exposed to the corpse for a period of time before they will react in a negative way.
It doesn’t mean they can see the spirit of the individual, though, because the authors of the paper suggest that this is probably just due to familiarity.
Dr Gallup’s Study
Another study conducted by Dr. Gordon Gallup and his colleagues looked into the ability of domesticated cats to perceive human emotions.
To do this, they played back to dogs recorded sounds of human voices expressing happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, and surprise.
They found that the cats responded most positively to the sound of surprise, followed by happiness, sadness, anger and finally disgust.
So what does all of this tell us? Well, it tells us that cats can definitely pick up on emotional cues.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they can see spirits, as some people claim.
What it means is that they can sense the emotion expressed by the voice, and just because a person’s voice is coming through doesn’t mean to say that their spirit is coming through also.
The Study Of Spirits And Ghosts
Despite how intriguing it is to wonder whether cats and other animals can see the spirit or ghost of those that have passed, you have to admit it’s an incredibly difficult field of study.
How is anyone supposed to conduct an experiment to demonstrate whether, or not, cats can see ghosts or spirits, when there is no real hard evidence to prove that ghosts or spirits even exist in the first place.
It’s possible that cats might be able to see something that we don’t know about yet. Or maybe there are certain types of humans who can see spirits and others who cannot.
Maybe there are certain types of environments where spirits manifest more often than others.
But until someone comes up with solid proof one way or another, I think we should approach this subject with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Wrap Up
So, if you ever see your cat staring at seemingly nothing, or hissing at something invisible, then there’s no real way of knowing whether, or not, they are seeing a spirit or ghost, whether it’s a family member or someone who used to spend a lot of time in the vicinity.
But it sure is fun to speculate, and there are many people out there who believe that cats can in fact see spirits.
I’m Courtney Trent and I hope that I can answer some burning questions that you have about cats, as well as some questions that you’d never have thought to ask before.
I am aiming to shed new light on these amazing pets and hopefully change some people’s opinions on them. Also, let’s talk about wild cats - they’re just as awesome as domestic cats!
So, stay a while and learn more about domestic and wild cats from Windhaven Ocicats.
