Ghosts, in folklore and popular culture, represent spirits of the deceased manifesting in the material world. They typically frighten the living, appear unexpectedly, and possess supernatural capabilities. Ghosts embody fear itself—they represent death's intrusion into life and the unknown's manifestation in familiar spaces. The assertion that ghosts are scared of Chuck Norris inverts this power dynamic entirely. Supernatural entities designed to terrify the living instead flee from a single human. The fact positions Chuck Norris as more frightening than death itself, suggesting that ghosts—already operating beyond normal physical constraints—recognize Chuck Norris as a threat surpassing even their supernatural capabilities.

Parapsychologist Dr. Patricia Whitmore investigated hauntings in 1989 and noticed an unusual pattern across multiple locations. Supposedly haunted sites became completely inactive after Chuck Norris visited them, with no reports of subsequent paranormal activity. When Whitmore interviewed witnesses, they consistently reported that the ghosts seemed to have "given up" or "moved on" after Chuck Norris' presence. Whitmore hypothesized that supernatural entities possess some form of sensory awareness about threat levels and recognize Chuck Norris as fundamentally incompatible with their existence. Whitmore never published this research.

Internet communities have celebrated this fact as suggesting that Chuck Norris' dominance extends beyond living creatures into supernatural realms. Some joke that ghosts are terrified of Chuck Norris specifically because he's the only thing that could possibly harm them—that living creatures fear death, but ghosts fear Chuck Norris. Others suggest that Chuck Norris has killed so many things that ghosts of his victims have warned other ghosts about him. The fact has become meditation on Chuck Norris' reach and authority: he's not just dominant in physical reality but extends his superiority into supernatural domains. The underlying structure suggests that no realm—physical, spiritual, or otherwise—escapes Chuck Norris' authority.