IStock Photo 2228716 © Mark Coffey

Bruce Greyson, a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia Health System, displays simple images of butterflies, sailboats, and kites on a laptop in the operating room—just in case a patient has a near-death experience. About 1 out of every 10 people in cardiac arrest, Greyson told Discover magazine, report that they could see what was happening while they were unconscious, often as though floating above their inert bodies and looking down at the scene. So Greyson mounts a laptop 10 feet off the floor, the screen facing up at the ceiling. Any floating patients, he figures, should later be able to tell him which image appeared on the screen.

That would be the first scientific demonstration of a disembodied soul. But Americans aren’t waiting for the proof: 1 in 2.94 US adults believes in ghosts. And the odds are with them.

About 100,000,000,000 people have been born since the beginning of the human race. If every one of them has a unique soul, then potential ghosts outnumber the living 15 to 1.

The spooks should be swarming. And 1 in 2.69 US adults agrees that “places can be haunted.” In fact, they believe they’ve been there: 1 in 3.98 women (but only 1 in 5.78 men) has visited or lived somewhere ghosts are believed to inhabit, too.

So what’s the verdict on the science of the floating souls? Greyson set up his experiment for 50 different heart-stopping surgeries. The patients, all of whom had been given medications that inhibit memory formation, reported 0 near-death experiences. Asking the dead may be the only solution—and 1 in 5.03 Americans thinks we can.