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Do you believe in ghosts?

CoMpX said:
I think what I am about to explain may just be me drifting into dream mode, but it's still odd. When I am laying in bed just about to drift off, I will hear audible noises/people talking. This pulls me back out of my half-asleep state and it stops. Now, is this my mind going into a dream, or something more?
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I've had that... it's weird isn't it.

I'm visiting my ma at the moment, she lives in a 90 odd year old house, the other night I woke about 3am ish, and I could've sworn there was someone in the room in the corner, as I sat up the shape just faded away.

Though that's only one of many in her house, not long after my mum moved in about 5 years ago, she was standing in the kitchen and heard a voice very quietly say 'hello' yet she was the only one in the house.

A couple of years ago, I was back visiting, standing in the kitchen at about... 3am, making a hot chocolate because I couldn't sleep... when I distinctly heard heavy breathing, but at first it was very quiet... then it began to get louder as if someone was approaching, right up to my back... I turned around half expecting to see my mum standing there and there was no one, then the breathing just receded, which was more than enough for me, I shot through the kitchen, dining, lounge and as I got to the bottom of the stairs I just had this horrible feeling that had I turned around at that moment, and looked back into the kitchen, I would've seen what ever it was making the sound. I didn't though... had the most evil feeling, still makes me shudder now, I just bolted up the stairs much to the mirth of the family when I was telling them about it the next day.
 
CoMpX said:
I think what I am about to explain may just be me drifting into dream mode, but it's still odd. When I am laying in bed just about to drift off, I will hear audible noises/people talking. This pulls me back out of my half-asleep state and it stops. Now, is this my mind going into a dream, or something more?

Also, my external hard drive sometimes revs up at random times during the night. :confused: :D
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Hahahaha!
 
iGav said:
Yes, but only as non-conscious, non-intelligent, residual energies. ;)
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That's my take on the subject pretty well summed up, too. There's a lot of strange, inexplicable things in the world (a couple of which I've experienced myself), but I find it hard to believe that the undying souls of the dearly-departed are responsible.

Of course, while there's no concrete evidence that proves ghosts do exist, there's no concrete evidence to prove that they don't... ;)
 
Jaffa Cake said:
but I find it hard to believe that the undying souls of the dearly-departed are responsible.
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I don't believe in the afterlife, heaven, god etc etc... so I'm more inclined to believe that certain events in time can be somehow recorded, though such 'happenings' require certain conditions for this to occur, and similar conditions are required for the sequence to, in essence playback.
 
iGav said:
I don't believe in the afterlife, heaven, god etc etc... so I'm more inclined to believe that certain events in time can be somehow recorded, though such 'happenings' require certain conditions for this to occur, and similar conditions are required for the sequence to, in essence playback.
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Once again, that more or less sums up my opinion, too. There are sightings (like the famous Roman soldiers in York, or the various white/grey/black ladies that flit around our stately homes) that seem to be almost like recordings – there's no interaction with witnesses, and they normally follow a regular route. The only problem is that there are also a number of ghostly going-ons that have been reported where the apparition interacts with people or its surroundings, which goes against the idea of the 'playback'.

But there's not going to be a single explanation behind every sighting. ;)
 
I would rather say its more tied to a dreamlike state, and or a mind that may be tuned to something that its not normally. Very often ghost encounters are tied with the sleeping or near sleeping state. Im not saying that explains all just perhaps a large qty. I like scientific experiences that can be documented and recorded rather then personal experience or feelings. Ghosthunters have had two very interesting experiences that were caught on film in two different lighthouses. Both unless faked show something "else" One was a chair moving and the camera trying to focus on something before the cahir moves. The other since iam rambling is the episode they catch a very fast moving shadow in the dark goes up two flights and then appears to lean over the staircase back down on them. Its either a hoax or they got something, both the founders of TAPS seem legit.
 
I do.

...But within reason. I too would like some proof of some kind, not even concrete, but just something. I find it too far beyond normal that we have the answers to everything, and that "ghosts" can be explained. I personally like to settle on the idea that ghosts aren't dead souls, but rather real abnormalities that occur due to some "wrinkle in time" persay; an image of another dimension - that for some reason - we encounter on occasion. There's just too many instances where humans have encountered these "images" to dismiss them as figments of the imagination.

I've witnessed some strange things in my life, things I just can't come up with a logical explanation for. While on the few occasions I was truly frightened that I encountered a "ghost" or some other paranormal occurrence, I have never been surprised, because I truly believe stuff like that exists. I often like to rationalize such events as explainable scientific oddities, as we know things of that nature do happen. But in reality, sometimes it might be worth it to chock it up to the unexplained. Somethings just aren't meant to be explained.

On a lighten note, but still something I can't explain...Recently, my iPod has been turning on at odd hours (I'll wake up at 3 AM to hear music coming out of my earbuds on my night stand where I set it down before falling asleep), always to songs with ominous titles/siginificance... Kinda freaking me out.
 
I was reading some interesting theories about the separation of different dimensions and even universes, and how these might interplay from time to time and how creatures could have evolved to make use of these in an unconscious manner, in that a portion of our existence could be outside the established four dimensions.

It gives hope to those who believe in the afterlife I guess, although if you're going to spend it shuffling around buildings it seems like not much of a life. Maybe ghosts are like the tramps of afterlifers, continuing to live on or near where they used to be?

I have come across some odd situations including recently where I came into an office room on the ground floor and I noticed rapid movement from behind a colleague (the office is built not far away from a graveyard and numerous crypts) and the feeling that someone was looking over my shoulder (not in any particularly hostile way) when I was there by myself one night.

Of course I can't say how much of that is due to the almost pavlovian reaction of graves = ghosts but I did feel something. It wasn't creepy in any way but it was certainly odd.
 
One thing I keep noticing in a lot of posts is "I had an odd feeling". This to me says more about the person posting, than a ghost! We'll all had odd feelings and our senses and imagination play with us all the time.
 
I don't believe in the spiritual, lost soul type explanation for ghosts but I do believe there is a rational explanation out there somewhere, we just haven't discovered it yet. :p Something along the lines of what iGav has said, certain events in time can somehow be recorded.

I've never seen anything ghostly and most paranormal stuff I just have to call BS on, but ghost sighting are just too common to dismiss. Like Abstract, I have friends and family members who confess to seeing strange things and you can tell they aren't lies. My Mother had a particularly frightening experience which we've spoke about a few times over dinner etc. but every time we have, she gets upset. Not something my Mother is inclined to do. Which makes it slightly uncomfortable to think about. In saying that, I would love to see/experiance something.

Just not in the dark or when I'm in the house on me own. :eek: (I'm a big wuss )
 
Abstract said:
Just wondering.

I'm a physics major, and as someone who studies science, I really can't take this sort of thing seriously. I mean, the souls of the dead still wandering the Earth? No thanks.

However, I was talking with 3 friends about ghosts (after watching a horror movie), and I mentioned to them that two of my uncles say they have seen ghosts, and as far as I know, they aren't crazy.
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A lot of people who think the have seen ghosts are normal, and normal people can and will continue to be fool by their mind. You know this better than I than this is natural human behavior/condition. In all cases of citing, there are always a simpler explantion for the event (most likely a mind trick/ duping themselves), but most people don't seek the simplest of explanation rather they jump to a long and complicated explanation. I guess this is why science and scientists are unique. We seek the simplest explanation for events, because their are infinite longer explanations. Seeking the shortest explanation is not enough, we have to ask others of sound reasonable mind to critique our explanation. Most other enterprises that we pursue don't do these two things. Scientists are odd in this way, I suppose. :D

Cinch
 
im_to_hyper said:
random soups have gone missing...
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I just have to ask Random Soups you say?

As a response to the OP, I would have to say that I do believe in Ghosts, though I haven't really experianced too many things my-self, however two things comes to mind.

My Grandfather recently passed away, and we got a call from his Girlfriend a few weeks later, and the Caller ID, came up with my Grandfathers Name, which had never came up before. The account is in his girlfriends name, and his name is not even associated with the accont. While not really a ghost it is something that I can't really explaine.

When my Mother's boyfriend passed away a few years ago, his sister took a plant from his hospital room home with her, it had a little get well sign, or something similar stuck in the pot, and it was sitting on the table. We were all out and there was NOBODY in the house. We came back to here house and the get well sign was out of the plant and about 10ft down the hallway. Freaky if you ask me.

Im sure there have been other weird things, I'll post if I think of any.
 
I've seen a few. The most prominent was one I saw when I was living in a rooming house in college with 6 other guys. I saw it around 9pm one night off to my left in the hall during a card game. I called out to it thinking it was one of my housemates. It didn't answer. Then the person I thought it was walked out of the bathroom behind me. I was freaked. He said, "You finally saw the ghost! We were wondering when you would." They had all seen it too. No way that was faked. And they had never mentioned it to me before.
 
One evening some time ago, I was visiting a friend at his apartment. We were in his room talking about something I don't recall when suddenly we heard glass crashing in the kitchen. We walked out of his room and saw the glass ceiling light had fallen and somehow managed to to land on the other side of the kitchen. All of the cabinets and drawers were opened as well. I'll never forget that. It's something that truly defies any reasonable explanation.
 
Abstract said:
Just wondering.

I'm a physics major, and as someone who studies science, I really can't take this sort of thing seriously. I mean, the souls of the dead still wandering the Earth? No thanks.

However, I was talking with 3 friends about ghosts (after watching a horror movie), and I mentioned to them that two of my uncles say they have seen ghosts, and as far as I know, they aren't crazy. My mum says she has seen a ghost, and she's not crazy. My grandfather's maid has seen one in his apartment, and quickly quit the job. And here's the thing.......I think my parent's house has a ghost in it. But I don't believe in ghosts though, so I've always thought that some strange things have occurred in my parents house for reasons I can't think of. :eek:

So for myself, I don't believe in ghosts, but there's 1% of me that believes there really ARE ghosts, because I love my mum, have no reason to doubt her, and don't believe she is crazy or delusional at all (she's 48 years old right now). And again, things happen that I simply can't explain.

Anyone else believe in ghosts? :confused:
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Haha, you sound just like my dad. He's a sceptic. No heaven, that's it when your dead etc. But he's had the strangest experiences.

- Saw an old lady whilst out running once. He ran past her, looked back and she vanished. This is a notorious spot for ghost sightings though, a teacher (!!!) saw something in the same spot whilst on the coach with us all going back to school from swimming.
- Actually felt something in his old house. My mum was downstairs cooking and he was clearing out the attic and something distinctly 'pinched' his bum!
- Theres another road that he jogged along once, he felt a compelling urge to leave. But he ran on and felt, as he describes as "shouldn't have been there at all". this was in the 70's. around last year I was in the car with my dad and we had to go along the same stretch of road, first time since then. He said his knees were seizing up and had to get out of there.
- Thought he saw me whilst getting the car out of the garage, silhouetted against a curtain downstairs. Everyone else was in bed.
- Seen (along with me) little black things moving around downstairs. You don't get it upstairs. I keep thinking their mice or something but they really do just vanish. get them on the wall/cieling, everywhere. also they never appear near animals. they're just strange black figures, 4" tall that just disappear.
- My cousin, when she was 3 years old would see a sailor on the end of her bed, wearing some distinctive coat. she drew it and much to the amazement of the rest of the family was my granddad. We never saw him as he died in WW2 and nobody had told her about him. No photos exist either. My great grandma said her sisters would see a sailor on the end of their bed a week before they died.
- He thought someone was breaking in once and jumped over and kicked them, only to find nothing there. despite seeing a figure walking across his room.

Of course I have my own experiences. but I just thought you'd like to hear what somebody who didn't believe in ghosts has experienced.

-My own include seeing a bright blue ball floating in my room, silently. I woke up and shouted "****!", waking Caz up she said "WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?!" before it faded away.
-chairs and doors have moved in my bedroom etc. lots of little abrupt moments.
-When I was a very young child I used to see things in my room. A guy in the corner of the room. I'd never go over there. From memory I just remember this strange dark mass that only seemed to be there when my little brother wasn't there.
-and recently at my aunts place, electric devices would turn themselves on and off randomly. Even wireless things like my phone, iPod and DS. The phones would ring too, different times but certainly 1-3 times a day. Even during a phonecall. Oh and I heard footsteps on the stairs, thinking it was a cat I went to put it back in her basket, but I opened the door and nothing!

I don't know what to believe myself. There are certainly strange things around, whether or not they are dead people I don't know.
 
I have no idea what to think...I have had some random experiences that have freaked me out in my previous apartment, but usually they could be explained. Except for the feeling of being watched all the time. Everyone told me I was crazy but I started to watch my cat for awhile and when she acted freaked out over the same stuff then I knew there was a dead peep in the room. She stopped going in that room altogether. I constantly caught her looking all funny too. It sucked and was scary and I am glad I moved!
 
I hate to admit this but I have had 5 "paranormal" experiences in my lifetime. The last one was a few years ago but I will tell you about the freakiest one. This was 3 or 4 years ago and I was home from college for the weekend. Everyone one was away at the time and I decided to take a nap. I was sleeping in one of the bedrooms with the door open which I rarely do but I wanted to be able to hear incase someone came home. I am a very light sleeper and wake up every easily. So I was started to take my nap and then I heard a little girl laughing very faintly. I didn’t really think anything at first. Then I felt very cold. I had my back to the doorway when I heard a little girl’s voice say “who is that?” I started to freak out and then I heard a man say I don’t know. I was scared sh*tless. I tried so hard to move but It felt like I was paralyzed. It took all of my strength but I managed to turn around and I look at the doorway and I did manage to get a glimpse of the people standing in the doorway. It was an older man and a little girl. I could make out they were people but they were not solid. They had an aura around them and they looked like they were electrical not transparent, it’s heard to explain. The other thing I noticed was they were dressed in clothes that were very dated. The little girl was wearing a dress that made her look like one of those Shirley Temple kind of dresses. And the Old man was dressed in a coat with a hat on. It was an old house and I don’t know if anything happened there but I never felt right in that particular room. I know this sounds like crap, but it did happen to me. And this wasn’t the first or last time this sort of thing has happened to me but it was one of the most disturbing. I am not the only person who has had paranormal experiences in that house. My parents moved away a few years ago.
 
I do and don't believe in ghosts... spirits... whatever.
I can't explain what I think it is, necessarily, but I also don't think it is dead people. Why not? A lot of my family was dead before I was born. My father died about 6 weeks after I was born. Where are they? I'd love to have a visit from my father - of course, NOT in a DARK room, late at night, while I'm the only one there. Yeah..... no.
I like the idea of dimensions... or even time itself... co-existing. This might explain why NeoMac saw 2 people that wondered who HE was.
 
What a great idea for a thread.

A friend of mine rented a farmhouse near Malden in Essex (very old town in England). One summer night he had a garden party, and I was laid out on the rather substantial lawns with a couple of friends when I got really spooked. It was like I was being watched from one of the first floor windows. Real goosebump stuff. The feeling wouldn't go away and I asked my friends if we could move elsewhere. So we went round to the back of the house and into the kitchen where we found our host with a big group of people. When asked what we'd been up to, one of my friends said jokingly that I'd felt a ghost and got all freaked.

However rather than laughing the host correctly identified it as the first window to the right of the one above the front door. Not only had he got that feeling himself outside the house from that window, but he said he often heard noises coming from that room and that both his cats refused to go in there.
 
NeoMac said:
The other thing I noticed was they were dressed in clothes that were very dated. The little girl was wearing a dress that made her look like one of those Shirley Temple kind of dresses. And the Old man was dressed in a coat with a hat on...
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Who knows - 60 or so years ago a little girl and her father might have seen a ghost in that same room, an unknown figure in strange clothes lying on the bed, looking slightly terrified... :eek:
 
I wonder whether discussions like this are largely split two ways because there are those that have experienced ghostly events, and those that haven't. Sounds obvious, I know. I can't think of ever seeing anything, or "feeling spooked". Likewise, I haven't been with anyone else who saw something and I did not. Maybe I repel ghosts! :eek:

I am a scientist and true, I like evidence. On the other hand, I find it hard to discount people's apparently genuine recounts as mere BS. Just reading this stuff gives me the goose pimples. I believe that some people are inherently more sensitive to paranormal stuff, and therefore will see/perceive things that others won't. Whether these are *real* things, and not just a trick of the mind, is what is doubtful. I am personally sceptical of events recorded at the interface of conciousness i.e. near-death experiences, waking up from sleep etc.
 
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