Do you believe in ghosts?

[Chazwozel]

So of all things, I've gotten into a facebook argument over one of my friend's posts.

short of it: I'm going back and forth with this one person about the existence of ghosts. She's convinced of their existence. So much so that to her "saying that ghosts don't exist is like saying cat food doesn't exist". I tell her that's crap. You can empirically measure the existence of something like cat food. There is no proof ghosts exist.

Now I'm a 100% skeptic of the paranormal, however, I still really enjoy reading about it.

I personally think it's a little weird when a person is so sure of the paranormal that running into a ghost in a haunted area is their top priority. My top priority would be making sure I don't get shanked by a random hobo wandering around, say, an abandoned graveyard.

I ask you halforums: do you believe in ghosts?

 

[MindDetective]

Nope. Like you, I find it interesting to read about. Are ghosts possible? We can't rule them out. That's the problem. Ghost sightings are unfalsifiable and unrepeatable.

 

[makare]

I don't have a strong feeling either way. Im not scared of them or anything but I don't actively doubt they exist.

 

[Null]

I'm open-minded about the possibility, and I'm entertained by shows like Ghost Hunters. I believe there are things that happen that cannot be adequately explained through normal methods, currently. That being said, I think most shows about the supernatural are full of crap. On the other hand, I'm much more apt to believe in cryptids - as yet undiscovered or unclassified wildlife. There is a case to be made for an unidentified north american primate that happens to resemble the legendary bigfoot and skunk ape. The 'mothman' of West Virginia, though, is almost certainly a misidentified gray owl, in the same way that the Jersey Devil is almost assuredly a great horned owl. The Caribbean kraken analogue, the Lusca, may very well be a colossal octopoid inhabiting the system of odd Blue Holes in the Bahamas. It's an awfully big, strange world out there.

 

[Cajungal]

I kind of wish they did sometimes, but when I really think about it, I don't believe in them.

 

[Vagabond]

No.

People die and that's it. They are gone.

Forever.

 

[Tress]

I enjoy ghost stories, but I hate shows like Ghost Hunters. It's just some idiots freaking themselves out and playing mind games before nothing happens for the show's "climax." I would say that I don't believe in ghosts but I acknowledge that I can't prove they don't exist.

 

[General Specific]

Due to a personal experience involving my uncle's death, I do believe ghosts exist. However, not the traditional view of ghosts and hauntings.

 

[Element 117]

They are real. They will eat you.

Spoiler

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

Due to a personal experience involving my uncle's death, I do believe ghosts exist. However, not the traditional view of ghosts and hauntings.

Same here, I've had quite a few strange experiences myself.

 

[sixpackshaker]

No, but our family has a phantom limb story that is fucking creepy.

 

[LittleSin]

Believer here. I don't think that can hurt you though.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I don't believe in ghosts. But my immediate family sure does. My mom and aunt both go on "paranormal investigations" with a woman whose business card claims her to be a "certified psychic."

Who the hell certifies psychics?

They also have a website and quote "radio show" (read: audio blog)
Cross City
Cross City Paranormal Host Tena Marie | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

 

[Calleja]

Ghosts are supposed to be the "life energy" you leave behind, or an "impression" you leave, right?

The problem with that is that's it's incredibly self-centered to believe your energy would stay in one planet, let alone one confined space. The individual atoms in your body literally come from different stars from all around the universe. Earth is not a separate entity. Everything is connected. And "everything" means EVERYTHING not just all that's on this puny little blue rock. The point I'm trying to make is... even if your energy, soul, whatever you want to call it... DID stay behind after your body rots, it would go back to where it came from.. the universe. It would not stay behind to haunt your shed.

I've had "emotion" thrown into the argument... but I call bull crap on that. Our consciousness, who "we" are, is a result of electrical sparks in our neurons, emotions are created by hormones and chemical reactions and.. physical things. Even if we were to say the "life energy" thing is plausible (which I don't really argue on cause energy can certainly not be destroyed, just transformed), whatever was left behind would not be "you".. that would be gone with the rotting of your brain and the loss of that particular brain wiring. So why would your energy stay here when it's connected to every atom in existence?

 

[Cajungal]

I've only had one experience in my life that made me REALLY consider things like ghosts. I can't explain it, and I can't convince anyone of what I saw. But I cling to it for some reason. It's one of my most prominent memories.

I was 5 or 6, and I was really scared of the dark at that age. I never had night terrors or any horrible nightmares; I would just scare myself so much that I literally could not close my eyes. I was too scared. Well one night, I crawled into bed with mom and dad (without them knowing; they would have sent me back). I still couldn't sleep, but with them I was never scared. So I just sat up and looked around the room. And I swear, when I looked in their bathroom, I saw a the shadow of a pacing man. He just moved back and forth, then he stopped and looked at me, and then he started pacing again. Surprisingly, I didn't feel scared. I was always finding scary things in the shadows to keep me awake, but there were no windows in that room to make the shadows move. And they were never as vivid as that. I guess I wish I believed in them so that story wouldn't make me feel so crazy. As strong as my imagination is, I can distinguish between what's in my mind and what I feel I could reach out and touch.

Damnit, no one believes me except sometimes Jake, and even when he concedes I think he just doesn't want to upset me.

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

I've only had one experience in my life that made me REALLY consider things like ghosts. I can't explain it, and I can't convince anyone of what I saw. But I cling to it for some reason. It's one of my most prominent memories.

I was 5 or 6, and I was really scared of the dark at that age. I never had night terrors or any horrible nightmares; I would just scare myself so much that I literally could not close my eyes. I was too scared. Well one night, I crawled into bed with mom and dad (without them knowing; they would have sent me back). I still couldn't sleep, but with them I was never scared. So I just sat up and looked around the room. And I swear, when I looked in their bathroom, I saw a the shadow of a pacing man. He just moved back and forth, then he stopped and looked at me, and then he started pacing again. Surprisingly, I didn't feel scared. I was always finding scary things in the shadows to keep me awake, but there were no windows in that room to make the shadows move. And they were never as vivid as that. I guess I wish I believed in them so that story wouldn't make me feel so crazy. As strong as my imagination is, I can distinguish between what's in my mind and what I feel I could reach out and touch.

Damnit, no one believes me except sometimes Jake, and even when he concedes I think he just doesn't want to upset me.

Seriously, I just got chills from that CG.

 

[Matt²]

I personally believe in what we call ghosts, but as something different (which I'm not willing to discuss in detail right now) ... but that said, if you go looking for "ghosts" wholeheartedly, you will probably find them, whether real or imagined.

---------- Post added at 08:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 PM ----------

I don't have a strong feeling either way. I'm not scared of them or anything but I don't actively doubt they don't exist.

Sorry, I couldn't resist! I totally heard Pinocchio from Shrek saying this as I read it (modified slightly)

 

[Cajungal]

I've only had one experience in my life that made me REALLY consider things like ghosts. I can't explain it, and I can't convince anyone of what I saw. But I cling to it for some reason. It's one of my most prominent memories.

I was 5 or 6, and I was really scared of the dark at that age. I never had night terrors or any horrible nightmares; I would just scare myself so much that I literally could not close my eyes. I was too scared. Well one night, I crawled into bed with mom and dad (without them knowing; they would have sent me back). I still couldn't sleep, but with them I was never scared. So I just sat up and looked around the room. And I swear, when I looked in their bathroom, I saw a the shadow of a pacing man. He just moved back and forth, then he stopped and looked at me, and then he started pacing again. Surprisingly, I didn't feel scared. I was always finding scary things in the shadows to keep me awake, but there were no windows in that room to make the shadows move. And they were never as vivid as that. I guess I wish I believed in them so that story wouldn't make me feel so crazy. As strong as my imagination is, I can distinguish between what's in my mind and what I feel I could reach out and touch.

Damnit, no one believes me except sometimes Jake, and even when he concedes I think he just doesn't want to upset me.

Seriously, I just got chills from that CG.[/QUOTE]

Well, I wouldn't have typed it if I didn't 100% believe that it was something I really saw. I've had "weird" things happen to me that I figure were all in my head. For example, I hold very dear a dream I had about my godmother after she died--standing in a clean white dress in the middle of a garden (her favorite place) telling me "don't worry," but I know that it was my grief and my strong wish to see her again that caused it. That doesn't make it less precious, just because it's something that can be explained. But this other thing is on a completely different level.

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

You don't understand, I've seen that same "shadow" man. I would've dismissed that experience, but my brother and my cousin also saw it the night I did.

 

[Cajungal]

Now I can't get the villian from The Princess and the Frog out of my head.

Where are you from, GI?

 

[makare]

That reminds me of Gerald's Game

that is the only book to ever give me nightmares. if I have nightmares tonight I am going to spend 10 minutes tomorrow wishing bad things on all of you!

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

Canadaland, Ontario. An island on Lake Huron.

 

[Matt²]

I had a dream recently about a ghost in a room guarding a chest. It couldn't be seen but it's evil presence could be clearly felt just going in the room. I took authority over it since it was my house and began demanding it leave and not return. At that moment I woke UP.. and clearly heard an audible voice say in my right ear (not both!) a loud " NO." ... THAT was creepy!!

 

[Cajungal]

Huh. Just curious.

Ya know, at my sister's bachelorette party, we were all at this cabin way out in the middle of nowhere, and I thought I saw him again... but I was really drunk, and it turned out to be shadows moving in a terrible storm. It looked like a man with a knife raised high above his head. I screamed at the top of my lungs and scared everyone. Shoulda known. My shadow guy seemed perfectly nice. It was a very horror movie-esque cabin, though... lots of TGI Fridays-looking junk on the patio, plenty of places to hide, and overlooking this nasty old lake. WoooOOOoooooooo....

---------- Post added at 10:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:57 PM ----------

AUGH Matt! That's happened to me too! It drives me nuts!

 

[CynicismKills]

My brother and two of his friends refuse to go back to this abandoned grain mill back home.

It's a dilapidated old barn with a large silo connected to it. They crawled through the fence and went through a hole in the barn wall to get in. They wandered around and ended up in the silo. One of them started getting chills and was really nervous though he said he couldn't explain why. He looked up and yelped in surprise, and my brother and the other friend looked up. My brother says he saw a long-haired girl hanging from the top of the silo, completely unmoving, until she eventually turned her head to stare directly at the three of them. They freaked and ran back towards the hole in the wall to get out. he says the hole felt as though it was getting smaller and further away as they ran to it. Once they got outside, he said they looked back and could see her hair billowing out one of the windows on the roof.

 

[Adam]

When my grandfather died a couple dies before Princess Di, it threw me into a tailspin. He was the first grandparent to pass away and it was a terrible time in the family. My parents weren't on speaking terms with my grandparents, despite living 10 minutes from each other, and, at the tender age of 17, I was reduced to ferrying messages between two very immature groups of people. It didn't help that my grandfather was suffering from mesothelioma from a lifetime of working with asbestos and his prognosis was not good. When my grandmother had called me to tell me at the local college that my grandfather had just been sent to the hospital, I dutifully passed on the message to my parents and raced out to see him.

I arrived to find just my grandmother there and a very unresponsive grandfather in a hospital bed. She was quite upset, understandably so, and I did my best to console her. She went out for air and I sat down staring at my grandfather who stared blankly back at me, with the eyes of someone who doesn't quite recognize but is at least aware of your presence. In 5 minutes, recognition dawned on his face, and his best effort was put towards just smiling at me, which I couldn't help but returning. This man had practically raised me, was there the day I was born and I had expected that he would be there the day I died.

Time passed. His condition improved and while he wasn't talking, we had unspoken conversations.

Eventually it was time for me to go. I think I had to go back to class and as I stood up and made my way to the door, I heard a grumble from the bed. He had leaned up a bit, looked me dead in the eyes, as clear as a bell and said "Don't forget me."

He slid back down into the bed, I left, walked to my car, and sobbed like a baby. He died 20 minutes later. I wasn't there.

That week I was staying with my parents. Late one night, I'm lying in bed, halfway asleep and I hear a rustle at the end of my bed. I sit up ramrod straight and there was my grandfather standing at the end of the bed, just looking at me. Speechless, astounded, horrified, I grabbed a pillow and covered my face. Quickly uncovered, he was gone.

Now, I believe in a lot of shit. I'm okay with karma, reincarnation, aliens, you name it. Ghosts? Not so much. But this was either my mind playing the worst of tricks on me in a time of great stress (probably), or a fucking ghost.

It's easier and makes me feel better to believe it was a ghost. SO yes, ghosts exist.

 

[phil]

Hey now, I was watching a TV show where they check this stuff out, with science and shit, you know? Thermal readings of abandoned buildings in the fall/winter show them to be colder than other places which means ghosts yo!

They were taking pictures and stuff and white orbs would show up every now and again near reflective surfaces when they used flashes.

The people would even see and hear things off camera that the microphones usually couldn't pick up. How can a man hear something that a microphone can't pick up unless it's a ghost! You can't put things that are unprovable one way or another on TV man!

Ergo (note to self find out what ergo really means) ghosts are real!

 

[Ravenpoe]

Hey now, I was watching a TV show where they check this stuff out, with science and shit, you know? Thermal readings of abandoned buildings in the fall/winter show them to be colder than other places which means ghosts yo!

They were taking pictures and stuff and white orbs would show up every now and again near reflective surfaces when they used flashes.

The people would even see and hear things off camera that the microphones usually couldn't pick up. How can a man hear something that a microphone can't pick up unless it's a ghost! You can't put things that are unprovable one way or another on TV man!

Ergo (note to self find out what ergo really means) ghosts are real!

The "psychic" I mentioned in my previous post once told me that of course demons are real, that's why there are demonologists.

Ergo, demonologists are proof that demons exist! QED

 

[Espy]

Nope. I believe in lots of things and I've seen some creepy things but ghosts are not one of them.

 

[Baerdog]

I believe that ghosts exist...

Spoiler

...in my Monster Manual.

 

[General Specific]

Hey now, I was watching a TV show where they check this stuff out, with science and shit, you know? Thermal readings of abandoned buildings in the fall/winter show them to be colder than other places which means ghosts yo!

They were taking pictures and stuff and white orbs would show up every now and again near reflective surfaces when they used flashes.

The people would even see and hear things off camera that the microphones usually couldn't pick up. How can a man hear something that a microphone can't pick up unless it's a ghost! You can't put things that are unprovable one way or another on TV man!

Ergo (note to self find out what ergo really means) ghosts are real!

The "psychic" I mentioned in my previous post once told me that of course demons are real, that's why there are demonologists.

Ergo, demonologists are proof that demons exist! QED[/QUOTE]

Was she also a member of the Tautology Club?

 

[Math242]

I don't. I'm an atheist all the way. This implies i don't believe in the mere possibility of ghosts coming back from wherever.

You're dead, you're done. that's it.

 

[Philosopher B.]

I do not now, nor have I ever, believed in ghosts.

 

[Silver Jelly]

I don't, but that doesn't make me less scared when I'm alone at night and the paranoia slowly creeps in.

 

[@Li3n]

Now I'm a 100% skeptic of the paranormal, however, I still really enjoy reading about it.

I don't think scepticism works that way...