Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

[Glitterandpolkadots]

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.

There is a reason why there are no viable hypothesis regarding the nature of the paranormal, and it isn't because of disinterest or want of trying, it's because it's impossible to describe the nature of that which does not exist.

You say they dont exist @XDownwiththissortofthingX, other people disagree with you. There is no science behind either opinion.

I would like to believe. I had some incidences before and after my mums death which have made me questions things.
However one story I do think of a lot is when we lived in a very large 12 bed house when I was a teenager, grand drawing rooms etc.

There was the back room which was a sort of lounge for us kids and our friends and I was terrified of it, I could stand it as long as other people were there but alone it made the hairs on my neck stand up.
It was such an uncomfortable feeling that I never could have fallen asleep on the sofa in there or anything.

One week my younger brother had been unwell, and had stayed off school. He spent the day in the back room with our two dogs, watching TV and snoozing on the sofa. My mum had been cleaning the house top to bottom.
When I arrived home from school and opened the front door a wave of gas literally bounced off my face. I shouted mum who could smell it now that fresh air was rushing into the house, my brother and the two dogs were almost unconscious through carbon monoxide poisoning that had been pouring out of adamant pipe in fire place the backroom. A few more hours and they would have died.

From that experience I do assume that rather than the room being spooky, I had been smelling that gas as a very low level leaking into the room and my subconcious was shouting at me that something was scary and to stay away.

I’d like to but no.

You say they dont exist @XDownwiththissortofthingX, other people disagree with you. There is no science behind either opinion

Well your statement is half-true. There's certainly no science that supports the claim that ghosts exist.

It's ok to not believe in ghosts @XDownwiththissortofthingX, you don't need scientific validation for it. Just as it's ok to believe in them without the need of scientific validation.

Scientists who discovered and researched the amazing discoveries you've mentioned believed in ghosts and gods and lucky pants. Not having a belief in such things does not make a person cleverer or better than those who do.

So why do people feel entitled to scorn and mock? The answer is not "science".

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

You say they dont exist @XDownwiththissortofthingX, other people disagree with you. There is no science behind either opinion

Well your statement is half-true. There's certainly no science that supports the claim that ghosts exist.

I see , so nothing exists unless science says so eh?

No. Get a life

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

And even after accepting that the paranormal might be an actual thing, you still don't "rush to attribute" anything out of the ordinary to woo; you do what you've always done, and try to find a rational explanation

And then when you can't find a rational explanation, rather than accepting that something isn't easily explained, you somehow conclude that the explanation is something ambiguous, nebulous, completely lacking in credibility, and then wonder why people mock you and sneer at you?

I used the term 'rush' in the sense that some 'believers', whether that is religion or woo, seem to need to attribute an explanation to absolutely everything that is unexplained. It's not about the length of time spent deliberating, it's about the apparent inability to accept that it's perfectly normal not to be able to explain certain phenomenon.

It's this 'rush' to come to any sort of conclusion, no matter how improbable, simply for the sake of having an explanation which is ridiculous and provokes the sneering response.

'I don't know' is an infinitely more sensible, credible, and reasonable conclusion than 'ghosts'. We've got a great example in here. 2 instances across an adults lifetime, conclusion = ESP. I've lost count the number of times I've had dreams or random thoughts that turned out to have no relevance or relation to reality. The few times I have had ones that then later became reality are the phenomenon known as 'coincidence' nothing more. I have no ability whatsoever to 'communicate' over extended distances with relatives, 'sense' events I have no prior knowledge of, or predict the future, and neither does any other human being on the planet. To conclude it's ESP or some sort of psychic power when you are no physiologically different to any one else and the phenomenon of coincidence is well understood, is not only risible, but it's completely pompous. It's no wonder people mock and sneer.

"rather than accepting that something isn't easily explained"

seems to be far more the position of the sceptics, in my experience.

While I (and a lot of people who've had such experiences here) are prepared to allow that events cannot be explained, and that, hoo, what's going on? The sceptics are all about deciding there's a perfectly rational explanation (e.g. the prank played on the new Saturday girl) and then, when you tell them why that couldn't have been the case, start sneering about "believers".

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

There is so little science around this because the subject of ghosts doesn't lend itself to scientific study

That just isn't true. People are making claims about ghosts all the time, yet when it's subjected to any sort of scrutiny it fails the most simple of tests. This isn't because 'it doesn't lend itself to study', it's because ghosts do not exist.

Science has been long able to hypothesise about things which are only theoretical, i.e. the hypothetical, and then develop the means of proving the hypothesis true. Do you honestly think that people who are capable of hypothesising things like the Higgs Boson, Big Bang, nature of Black Holes etc and then later going on to validate those hypothesis, are totally incapable of doing the same with 'ghosts' simply because 'ghosts' are a bit nebulous and difficult to pin down?

How many people had witnessed a Higgs Boson prior to Peter Higgs and Co proposing Higgs mechanism? They still came up with a hypothesis that science was then able to set about validating. None of us have ever been anywhere near a black hole, nor were we around at the time of the big bang, yet as a species we are still perfectly capable of formulating hypothesis regarding these phenomenon and then demonstrating that the hypothesis 'fits' with what we understand about our universe.

What is the exception that makes 'spirits', 'ghosts', 'the divine' and so on so problematic that science 'can't study' them? It's clearly not lack of proximity or the ability to stick them in a lab, as that clearly isn't a problem with things like Big Bang and black holes.

"What is the exception that makes 'spirits', 'ghosts', 'the divine' and so on so problematic that science 'can't study' them?"

Sustained hostility to the discipline of parapsychology. The sort that leads to the closing down of research because "it doesn't happen because it can't happen". That leads to reviewers of papers on precognition admitting that they can find no fault in the methodology, the process, the data or the conclusions; but who still recommend that the paper not be published because "this kind of thing just can't happen".

In other words, the same kind of closed-mindedness we're seeing on this thread.

@Lollyfalalalalalalalalaaahhhhh

I would like to believe. I had some incidences before and after my mums death which have made me questions things. However one story I do think of a lot is when we lived in a very large 12 bed house when I was a teenager, grand drawing rooms etc. There was the back room which was a sort of lounge for us kids and our friends and I was terrified of it, I could stand it as long as other people were there but alone it made the hairs on my neck stand up. It was such an uncomfortable feeling that I never could have fallen asleep on the sofa in there or anything.

One week my younger brother had been unwell, and had stayed off school. He spent the day in the back room with our two dogs, watching TV and snoozing on the sofa. My mum had been cleaning the house top to bottom.
When I arrived home from school and opened the front door a wave of gas literally bounced off my face. I shouted mum who could smell it now that fresh air was rushing into the house, my brother and the two dogs were almost unconscious through carbon monoxide poisoning that had been pouring out of adamant pipe in fire place the backroom. A few more hours and they would have died.

From that experience I do assume that rather than the room being spooky, I had been smelling that gas as a very low level leaking into the room and my subconcious was shouting at me that something was scary and to stay away.

Lolly Carbon monoxide gas is colourless and odourless. Maybe what you smelt was simply gas.

I believe that some people genuinely believe they saw/heard/smelt something that they consider paranormal, but also believe it is a combination of their minds playing tricks on them, maybe a subconcious reaction to events or feelings, and wanting to believe rather than wanting to see the logical conclusions.

A person who believes there is no such thing as ghosts etc. to the extent that they sneer and mock, is not a sceptic. Sceptics are sceptical, not dogmatic.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

How sad to be so narrow minded. Oh and opinionated

Another one who somehow concludes that believing in fact and science is 'narrow minded' and 'opinionated'.

Take it you don't have any opinions on anything then, and you are so 'open minded' that you believe anything anyone tells you without question, no matter how ridiculous?

Again, if people are going to make ridiculous claims, they haven't got a leg to stand on when they then turn around and complain that they are being ridiculed.

You do not know 100% for certain there are no such things as ghosts. Scientists are discovering new things all the time.

I am not making ridiculous claims. You don't even know what I am claiming so how can you say it is ridiculous?

I did not see a ghost and nor did DH but a couple of things happened that cannot be explained.

I am open minded and would never ever dismiss something as ridiculous unless I was absolutely certain it could not be true. You cannot be sure and yet you dismiss every post that does not agree with you.

At the end of the day I don't really care whether you believe or not. I am absolutely certain of what happened and I am not being ridiculous. As I have already said, more than once, my DH never believed in anything like ghosts or paranormal experiences but he absolutely does now

No, I don't believe in anything paranormal or spiritual. It's a load of crap, total nonsense. I do like reading ghost stories and watching spooky films though, so I can't imagine how exciting life would be if I thought I was going to see a ghost at any moment.

@Seemssounfair

I believe that some people genuinely believe they saw/heard/smelt something that they consider paranormal, but also believe it is a combination of their minds playing tricks on them, maybe a subconcious reaction to events or feelings, and wanting to believe rather than wanting to see the logical conclusions.

So how do you explain that what I saw (a couple of times) my DH also saw? Were both our minds playing the same trick at the same time? My that would be amazing

@LubaLuca

No, I don't believe in anything paranormal or spiritual. It's a load of crap, total nonsense. I do like reading ghost stories and watching spooky films though, so I can't imagine how exciting life would be if I thought I was going to see a ghost at any moment.

You DO NOT know for certain that it is total nonsense. Why are disbelievers always so sure they are right?

Yeah, I do though. I know lots of things don't exist.

Scientists are discovering new things all the time

Seem to be dragging their heels on the many hundreds of years worth of reported cases of the paranormal though.

Wonder why?

I'm starting to think that people don't understand what "science" is and how it is run.

I think I do, I don’t really see how there’s any proof that these don’t exist so how can anybody be sure?

I had a strange experience once, a man sought out my brother as “the one” he was looking for and he healed an ailment of my brothers and believes that he has some kind of powers or whatever. It’s all very long winded.

Anyway, I was going through a tough time and my brother brought him to see me, before he left he gave me this weird hug, where he was almost shaking and then looked physically exhausted. That night I heard screaming outside my flat, it got so distressing that eventually I went out to see what was happening to find a couple screaming that their baby wasn’t breathing, myself and some other neighbours were trying to contact an ambulance but they couldn’t find our address so I drove the family to the hospital. The wife in the back and the man next to me in the front with the baby, for whatever reason, I leant over and touched this baby, I could feel the baby was still alive and was trying to calm the wife down as best I could whilst rushing them to a&e. I left them there.

No sooner had I got home (I hadn’t spoken to anybody) and this man that my brother brought round called my phone and just said “you touched that baby didn’t you” I was obviously shocked, as nobody knew what had happened and he didn’t live in the same city. He repeated it and just siad “what I passed to you, you passed to the baby. The baby will be ok”

Anyway the baby was ok, the parents dropped a card and flowers round to thank me for giving them “a lift for life” and I don’t for one minute believe that the baby survived because I touched them but I will forever be weirded out wondering how the man could have ever possibly known.

So how do you explain that what I saw (a couple of times) my DH also saw? Were both our minds playing the same trick at the same time? My that would be amazing

Yes, some people are more susceptible to suggestions, similar to when some people are easily hypnotised and others aren't. Similar to the ouiji board ideometer effect. Your subconcious and above average suggestibilty is playing tricks on you.

Much more believable than ghosts. I do believe though you do genuinely believe in ghosts.

@Tlollj

What I don’t understand is if I were a ghost I would March up to 10 Downing Street call a press conference and tell the world about it. Not throw boxes of crisps about.

😂

Re the whole how do you explain what I/we saw thing.

First of all that requires people to believe what they are being told. If someone was chatting with me and claimed they, their partner and their granny saw a woman walk through a wall, I would simply not believe them.

I do believe.
I've had plenty of experiences.

My mam comes to me in dreams.
I had a dream of my mam and uncle pushing a pram.
I was in the dream also.
They gave me the pram,and got on a bus.

I mentioned it toy eldest ds.
Next day my other D's and gf told me they where expecting.

I had a disturbing dream about 2 months ago.
Bombs being dropped and a city destroyed.
About a week later Russia invaded the Ukraine.

I love these sorts of threads - one of my favourite things is to hear other people's ghost stories/experiences! I've not had anything happen to me personally, but my parents had a really creepy experience that we've never been able to explain.

Growing up we lived in an old, grand house which had been converted in to apartments. We lived in the ground floor - so we entered our apartment via the original houses doorway and our bedrooms were in the basement.

My sister was away at University and I was home. My bedroom was in the middle of a long corridor with my sister's and parent's either side. My Dad suffered badly with asthma and was having a particularly bad night where he was snoring very loudly! He felt awful on my Mum so decided to sleep in my sister's room to give her some quiet. A few days later they were out together for a meal when my Mum turned to my Dad and said she'd had a strange experience the other night. She told him that she'd heard soft footsteps coming down the stairs and the sound of a child gently crying, the footsteps padded in to their bedroom right up to her bed and she then heard a little girl ask "Mummy?". My Mum said she never replied as she was absolutely frozen in fear. My Dad looked at her and said that he knew what she was about to tell him. He had heard the exact same thing, only the child had come to his room and beside his bed and asked the same thing - "Mummy?". He said it had sounded just like me and my sister did when we were very young and had woken in the night. He hadn't mentioned it to my Mum as he didn't want to frighten her! Needless to say I was obliviously fast asleep that night and am secretly very glad I never heard anything!!!

Both my parents, particularly my Dad, are very skeptical so for them both to have had this experience separately and not share immediately freaked us all out!!!