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Original poster

Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

218 replies

Glitterandpolkadots · 05/04/2022 08:56

I am curious to know if people do believe in ghosts/paranormal? If you do, what made you believe in it?

I think I do. Have had odd things happen. Once went to a campsite up by Blackpool, very odd atmosphere as soon as we arrived, we all just felt flat. I couldn't sleep one night due to snoring and I saw a bright white light/figure outside the tent and a childlike voice saying it hurts over and over again. Just couldn't wait to leave.

OP posts:
AchillesPoirot · 05/04/2022 08:57

No.

veronicagoldberg · 05/04/2022 09:01

I think paranormal stuff could possibly be due to a build up of energy in a place. Energy has to go somewhere.

I visited Auschwitz a few years ago in July, on a bright and sunny day. The atmosphere on the site and on the road leading to it was noticeably different. Darker and colder, as if the energy and pain of those millions of people were still hanging there.

KylieCharlene · 05/04/2022 09:01

Yes, I believe.
I've had odd experiences and used to visit a family members home when I was a child/teen that very obviously (to me) was haunted (weird atmosphere, smells, feeling of being watched, almost other worldly vibe that's difficult to explain). My relative had many experiences there I later found out and door handles would lift upwards, the radio would play when not plugged in etc.
There was always a smell of pipe smoke on an evening too.

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Spooky & paranormal
romdowa · 05/04/2022 09:12

Yes I believe because as a child I seen someone who had died ten days before (I hadn't been told she had passed) this woman was 6 feet from Me dressed how she always was and doing something she regularly used to do. I've had other weird experiences but this one could not be explained away.

KonTikki · 05/04/2022 09:25

No.
A few years ago the BBC news ran an item that neuroscientists had identified the part of the brain responsible for sensory perceptions relating to the paranormal.
I didn't believe before that anyway.

WhiskersPete · 05/04/2022 09:39

I don't believe in ghosts, but I am afraid of them.

Tadpolesandcress · 05/04/2022 09:48

No I don't. I used to a little bit but now think we use paranormal to explain little known environmental phenomenon, sound waves at different frequencies, reactions to stress, loss, anxiety, migraine, MH conditions that can cause auditory and visual hallucinations, inbuilt fears of the dark etc.

Xpologog · 05/04/2022 10:06

As a teenager I heard a dog in my room that wasn’t there. My own dog was on my bed and was growling.
I’ve given messages to people who I didn’t know ( at spiritual development days, not just random people on the street) which I was told were accurate.
I saw a medium I’d never met before a few weeks after my DP died. Told her only my first name, not where I lived or my full name, nor his name. Parked my car down the road so she didn’t even see what I drove. She gave me at least 20 true and accurate facts and at least 8 names. I was too upset to say anything so certainly didn’t lead her. She didn’t guess names ( it’s a Jim, Jon, Jack, sort of thing —- every name was definite a specific) You mother Deidre is here, your partner was travelling here, his daughter Elizabeth…. It was all so accurate and no way she could ever have known any of it.

ShowOfHands · 05/04/2022 10:13

No.

I've seen a couple of videos/recordings taken by friends of visits to mediums with some pretty good cold reading, lots of guesswork and some lukewarm hits. I've watched these people over the years retell the story of it and they've reached the "uncanny, knew things she couldn't" stage of retelling. Interestingly, there are never any videos or independent witnesses to these "amazing" mediums and the people who tell the stories are usually bereaved/believers/desperate.

Laiste · 05/04/2022 10:30

''Ghosts'' is a childish easily dismissed word which doesn't adequately encompass the subject of the paranormal IMO.

Despite having lots of odd experiences I was always firmly in the camp of 'i'm sure there is a boring explanation - but still it's a good laugh having a woo story'. One of them wasn't a good laugh, thinking about it, but i was still more comfortable being in the sceptical camp.

But about 10 years ago a couple of experiences in the same building involving physical objects shook me. Then an incident which DH and i both shared when out one day has made me seriously question what we consider to be 'super'natural.

So in answer to the question do i believe? The answer is i have been forced to believe there is more going on than is generally scientifically accepted at the moment.

BadgeronaMoped · 05/04/2022 10:41

I do, I find it especially interesting when very rational non-believers experience the paranormal. Seems pretty rare, I'm happy to say I've never experienced anything, nor would I like to.

My mum is a nurse and has a couple of odd stories, as does her friend (another nurse) who worked in a strange modern building where they heard children's laughter, singing and footsteps regularly during nightshifts. All staff accounted for, no child patients, happened over a period of years.

I read about a specific frequency of sound which induces hallucinatory effects, I think the scientist who discovered it dubbed it the ghost in the machine (1998).

ifonly4 · 05/04/2022 10:45

I think I do. I used to stay in my friends' house when they were away and had some things happen there I can't explain. I remember standing at top of the cellar saying "George you have to stop it". I mentioned to my friend I'd called him George and that freaked her out as what she termed a "hermit" used to live in the house and he was found dead roughly where I'd stood and said those words.

BadgeronaMoped · 05/04/2022 10:46

I'd also recommend reading Gavin Maxwell's book Raven Seek thy Brother, particularly chaper 7, Kyleakin Lighthouse, where he discusses collective paranormal experiences from an initially skeptical viewpoint. Fascinating, creepy and one of those sorts of accounts which solidified my own thoughts on the paranormal.

Figgygal · 05/04/2022 10:48

No as believe when we are dead we're dead but there some things ive seen that challenge that thinking

eandz13 · 05/04/2022 10:51

I don't want to believe, especially since my beloved Brian Cox said he doesn't believe Grin
However I have experienced some freaky shit that I haven't yet been able to logically explain. I could put that down to my own mind playing tricks, but I've been in a couple of situations with other people who've seen/heard the same thing I did, which makes it harder to believe both of us were having a mad moment at the same time. Who knows.

Laiste · 05/04/2022 10:59

@Figgygal

No as believe when we are dead we're dead but there some things ive seen that challenge that thinking
Well this is it.

So many people think a belief in the supernatural means you happily believe Auntie Maud, just for example, can and has come back from the dead in order to rattle a doorknob, move your teaspoons and frighten the dog.

The 3 experiences which have shaken my scepticism - i don't have any belief that they were caused by dead people. I really don't know what the hell it was! Just that it happened.

CathyorClaire · 05/04/2022 11:06

No.

There's a reason no prize offered for paranormal activity to be replicated under controlled conditions has ever been claimed.

JudyGemstone · 05/04/2022 11:10

Yea I do - I haven’t experienced anything personally but I’m my work as a therapist have heard so many similar accounts from different people that I think there’s got to be something in it.

Laiste · 05/04/2022 11:10

Maybe the reason is we haven't got the capacity to control the conditions. (Yet?)

I mean i don't feel strongly enough to argue very hard, but ''no one has proved it'' doesn't feel like a good enough reason to dismiss the whole thing. Equally no one has disproved it. What ever IT is.

Laiste · 05/04/2022 11:11

Sorry that was in response to

There's a reason no prize offered for paranormal activity to be replicated under controlled conditions has ever been claimed.

FatCatThinCat · 05/04/2022 11:13

Absolutely not. Until I'm home alone at night and there's an unexpected noise. Then I'm hiding under the duvet muttering 'I don't believe in ghosts' over and over.

ThePlantsitter · 05/04/2022 11:18

@WhiskersPete

I don't believe in ghosts, but I am afraid of them.
Same
Furrbabymama87 · 05/04/2022 11:21

Yes I do. I believe in the afterlife and ghosts but not in the way we think.

FrenchMustard · 05/04/2022 11:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tiredmum100 · 05/04/2022 11:30

@Laiste

''Ghosts'' is a childish easily dismissed word which doesn't adequately encompass the subject of the paranormal IMO.

Despite having lots of odd experiences I was always firmly in the camp of 'i'm sure there is a boring explanation - but still it's a good laugh having a woo story'. One of them wasn't a good laugh, thinking about it, but i was still more comfortable being in the sceptical camp.

But about 10 years ago a couple of experiences in the same building involving physical objects shook me. Then an incident which DH and i both shared when out one day has made me seriously question what we consider to be 'super'natural.

So in answer to the question do i believe? The answer is i have been forced to believe there is more going on than is generally scientifically accepted at the moment.

What was the incident?