I think that he is paraphrasing the line in the movie, Sixth Sense, where the little boy says, “I see dead people”.
A Ghost Story: It is said the Hoosac Tunnel in northwest MA is haunted. Nearly 200 workers died digging that 4.75 mile long tunnel. According to the stories, some of dead were very unhappy and decided to hang around and haunt the tunnel they called "the bloody pit".. There have been numerous reports of ghostly apparitions and sounds coming from the tunnel over the years. One such story was told to me by a fellow rider who suggested we pay homage to unhappy ghosts by taking them some beer. He figured nobody had done that before. Another fellow rider mentioned that some brewery was making a Hoosac Tunnel brand ale and that I should try to find some and take to the.ghosts. After much searching, two bottles of the amber ale were located and one was packed into the pannier for a trip west to the haunted tunnel where proper homage was paid. Being someone who doesn't drink and ride/drive, the beer was used to anoint the tunnel entrance and the bottle disposed of properly. A year or so later, I stopped by the tunnel and observed clouds of fog rolling and roiling out of the tunnel entrance in a way that someone with a runaway imagination could interpret as a ghostly presence. There is, of course, a quite natural reason why that can happen but it gives some people evidence of what they want to believe.
Some people DEFINE ghosts as something for their own purposes , or just accept someone else's definition as that is what they are told and don't necessarily know it is false.