Believing in ghosts

I totally believe in God and an after life. Just watched a few "near death experiences" also read of others in the comment sections.

I certainly dont think the experiences people have when they briefly "die" are just the brain easing us into a peaceful death. They are far too detailed and profound for that. It's far far more than just the light at the end of the tunnel.

People remember the exact details years later.

Truly faith inspiring.

I have a couple of "unexplained" experiences.

• There was a bedroom in my nanny's house that I was always afraid to go into, if I was asked to get something from there I would have my sister hold the door open for me. There was a wash basin and stand in the room and my mam took it to our house when my nan died. She put it initially in her bedroom but soon after moved it to mine and sisters. We complained to her about it as it was always making creaking noises. She admitted years later that she moved it from her room as it kept her wake creaking. When she was a child her brother said he saw a man at it. I dont know why it would creak so much, it was well made a sturdy.

• I almost dont believe this one myself though it happened to me. Myself and man when through a phase of looking for feathers thinking they were from the angels/dead. One day in the sitting room I asked my dead nan to put a feather in a container in the mantlepiece for me if she was really out there. I opened the container and there was a large white feather in it. I assumed it was probably there from my mam as she used to collect them. I closed the lid and left the room and said if it actually was her that the feather would be gone when I came back. I reentered the room a few mins later and feather was gone from the container. I know it happened but I dont believe it myself as it sounds nuts!!

• I went to a psyhic John Edward years ago with my sis, her DH and his parents. He called on us for a reading and gave loads of information about my sister's brother in law that had died. He started by giving his first and middle name and gave loads of info on specific things. It was very spooky. I cant explain how he did it. I booked the tickets in my name, we didnt speak of him at the venue and he wasnt asking questions and cold reading, he was giving specific details without us speaking.

I have seen things I can't easily explain, once with a friend who also saw it. Maybe we had some kind of episode but seems unlikely that it would have affected us just for the brief seconds it did, simultaneously, completely out of the blue and to 2 people who were definitely not woo.

I don't believe they are lost souls, I don't believe in an afterlife, I am inclined to believe in parallel universes/dimensions and diverging realities but that's more a fancy/interest than a belief, as the level of quantum science that goes into those theories is mostly beyond me

In some cases though there IS no current rational explanation. Whether one will be found as science progresses remains to be seen.

There are huge holes in our understanding of how the universe functions.

This is how I feel about God.

The one I saw wasn't in old fashioned clothes, jeans and t shirt. It was my friend's son about a year after he died.

@KimberleyClark Rubbish! We have guides to help.

You may have a natural aptitude for the techniques involved, but anyone can learn those techniques. There is no paranormality involved.

Equally, for those desperate to believe, no amount of rational logical explanation will be enough.

The sceptics will only tell you that you faked it.

For those who don’t believe ( or don’t want to) no proof will ever be enough

No photos or proof of ghosts, no photos or proof of dark matter either, bar observation and inference.

I bloody would be. Occasionally when in bed, my brain starts telling me that I'm being watched, and I like being able to tell myself that there is logically speaking nothing there. I don't really want someone to prove that anything could pop up and scare the shit out of me while I'm in the shower/going upstairs at night to see to DS.

@KimberleyClark Some of us can do them for real..

I’ve just read the book Paranormality by Richard Wiseman that was referred to above. It’s great. Tells you exactly how to do a psychic reading!

No , nothing to do with fear . I just don’t believe .

I'm not going to argue with you. I'm just going to say that those who fear most, shout loudest.

But you do you.

Speak for yourself Vroom, because for me that is absolute drivel.

To suggest that people are 'afraid' to believe in ghosts and force themselves to accept rational explanations instead is absurd.

People accept rational explanations because they are far more likely and can be proven with evidence. That's it.

If you could scientifically prove that ghosts were real, it would literally be one of the biggest scientific discoveries of all time and the person who made it would go down in history.

Are you seriously suggesting that anyone would be afraid of that?

I'm not a believer. But I am prepared to have my mind changed.

I think a lot of the reasons that people don't want to believe, is fear. I know it is in my case. So I will automatically 'debunk' things or try to come up with possible explanations for things happening simply because I am afraid to acknowledge that there's more to life than we know. I want science to have all the answers, and if it doesn't I am unsettled.

So, yes. A lot of 'rational argument' is fear - and I include myself in that.

Go do your own googling

Love it when people make claims then when challenged to provide evidence tell you to look for it yourself. That's really not how it works. 🙄

Water memory

Cool cool cool. 😂

I don't believe in ghosts. Though they are more likely to exist than benefits of Brexit.

Weird random post.

@ColonelDax Go do your own googling. But be sure to look at water memory in particular, as evidence for the shutting down of particular areas of research. You can even exclude all except scientific papers.

Rupert Sheldrake and the like have been doing such research for ages, and are derided for no real reason, whereas you can throw out a paper on antidepressants and all's good.

Yet how many peple know about ratpark? You aren't depressed and addicted because of you - it's society. But no, let's push meds.

And if you believe in SSRIs then you should believe in ghosts. There's less evidence against ghosts.

Regards the building and what a pp has said about atmospheres.

I would not say I believe in ghosts nor have seen one.

However, because people have mentioned buildings it’s reminded me of a situation years ago. A friend (not a very close one, we knew her from a hobby we did) bought a new house and invited us to see it. I knew she had a boyfriend C but didn’t know him or much about their relationship but they seemed happy and had been together about 10 years.

Anyhow, another friend and I went round to the house after they moved in. It was a bit of a doer/upper. I have never felt such negative energy before when entering that house. It was so oppressive I felt I couldn’t breathe. It was a long time ago but I can still remember very clearly feeling freaked out and frightened looking round. It was like it was shrouded in black misery.

I remember suggesting we look at the garden so I could get outside. We made the right noises, said it was a great renovation project and left. When in the car my friend who had viewed it with me said she felt the same inside it.

The hobby thing dissipated and I didn’t see this friend for many years. We liked posts on FB type of thing but that was it.

Out of the blue about 5 years ago she got in touch and said could we meet for a walk:coffee. I met her and without outlining all the goings on whilst they successfully renovated the house most of the things in her life went to pieces. The boyfriend had affairs, got into some really dodgy stuff (porn related) and they split up, she lost her job.. The boyfriend always blamed the house, she had it exorcised - now I would never in a million years think she was in anyway woo or believing of that stuff. Nor were we. Some of the things she told me about what went on would make your hair stand up. I visited the house again whilst she was in the throes of selling it and whilst it was bright and renovated it still felt off.

I’m happy to say she’s now happily married to someone else, lives miles away and it’s all behind her. When we went on the walk she told me all about the house without me telling her previously what I had felt about it. I would love for someone to rationally explain what the feeling was.

She has since found out some history about it and there were some incredibly unpleasant things that happened there. But she didn’t find this out until after she sold it.

As you found out next day, the memory of the passing thought would still be fresh. It's a strange co-incidence so your memory has stored it.

We don't have the capacity to remember every thought, everything we say, everything that happens to us.

There will have been countless times when you have thought of this relative but your subconscious did not recognise that thought as being important enough to retain in the long term memory.

Hence thinking of them the night that they died stands out and seems weird.

I'm not an expert on logical fallacies so I'm not sure which one this is. Could be the availability fallacy.

@BunBungalowLil I only wanted to quote your last paragraph but my phone won't let me.

I recommended Richard Wiseman's book Paranormality earlier on the thread. I highly recommend it. Fascinating and an easy read. He debunks various "psychic" and "paranormal" phenomena including ghosts.

One section describes some researchers creating a fake history for a building and describes how local stories grew up around the building and people were genuinely convinced that they had experienced something strange and otherworldly.

I strongly believe that most woo can already be explained by science and the rest could be explained with more scientific knowledge and/or evidence.