COULD MY HOUSE HAVE A GHOST?

[user1473872482]

Since last year I have had strange going ons in my house. For example - seeing things out of the corner of my eyes, a quick glimpse of ghost child, a white sort of apparition walking around my bed at night when I was trying to get to sleep and something white being thrown in my direction and when I look to pick it up it is not there.

Could I be imagining these things?

I guess it all boils down to our beliefs. If we deny "ghosts" exists we are saying there is no after life, that when we die, that is it. But if we believe and therefore believe in an afterlife, and that we have a soul, it is quite easy to believe in "spiritual" things. By that I don't mean figures in white sheets floating down corridors. It could be a sense of a departed loved one. It isn't the kind of thing that could be captured on a camera anyway.

The difference between believing in ghosts and being open to the possibility of life on other planets is that the known laws of physics don't have to be altered to accommodate the concept of alien life.

"It could be a sense of a departed loved one."

But I have that all the time. It's called memory. I have a pearl button from a cardigan my mum wore when I was a child- the feel of that button brings me a vivid sense of her presence. Sometimes I smell her scent in a crowd- because it's a scent still widely commercially available. I think of her when I see a flock of starlings in the evening- because that was one of her favourite things. Some people would interpret all those things as her spirit communicating with me. And in a way they are. That'/ how people live on- in the memory of the people that loved them. But all those things happened when she was still alive. They are just more poignant now she isn't.

I have 'seen' figures that if you were minded to call them 'ghosts' then that's what you would say they were, including children and figures dressed in old fashioned clothes. However, they always disappear when I fully wake up, so there was no real solidity to the experiences, and once I googled 'hypnogogic hallucinations', I knew that's what I had seen. I have a sleep disorder anyway, caused by medication and it's an extension of that.

If I were into 'woo' it would all be excellent evidence for ghosts, but given that there's a good explanation, I know they are not and just go back to sleep. Stress aggravates the condition, it's far more likely to happen when I'm stressed.

Really BertrandRussell, if you're going to throw Occum's Razor in there - so will everyone else who has ever since the Simpsons or Sherlock...

You use questions to answer my questions - how about answering a few? The Dropa Stones, the 300-million year old screw, Miracle of the Sun, my question about categorical statements? Or are you just ignoring the questions you can't answer?

And for the record, I know about Occum's Razor and once again, you're using a theory with only a basic grasp of its understanding:

" "What can be done with fewer [assumptions] is done in vain with more." One consequence of this methodology is the idea that the simplest or most obvious explanation of several competing ones is the one that should be preferred until it is proven wrong.

Read the bold part - 'should be preferred'. That doesn't mean irrefutably correct.

Google it yourself next time.

I often think of what happened to my friend a few years ago.. Her father, who she was very close to had died. In the days leading up to his funeral a robin (this was his favourite bird) used to perch on her kitchen window sill and stare in at her. This happened every day until the day of his funeral. This sounds so far fetched but she had no reason to lie (she's a very non woo type of person as well).
She had been upstairs and when she walked in the kitchen the robin was on the inside window sill. She was a bit freaked out as she had no windows or doors open.
But after that day he never came again.

blushrush

1. Your categorical statement was "What's important is what you believe"

1. I didn't ignore your questions about the Dropa Stones, the Kaliyah screw and the Miracle of the Sun. I just suggested you google the many rational explanations of the phenomena to save me the trouble of writing them all out for you. I will if you like. But I have 200 cup cakes to make so it might take a while.

1. I am glad that you seem to have grasped the principle of 0ccam'' Razor so well. Yes, "'should be preferred'. That doesn't mean irrefutably correct." is true. Of course it isn't irrefutably correct. But it remains correct until something refutes it.

Can I share an anecdote? Somebody rang a talk radio programme in the Sates and asked a psychic investigator why her piano had suddenly started being played randomly in the night. In the course of the conversation, it emerged that she had 3 kittens who spent the night in the same room as the piano. However the psychic investigator confirmed her belief that the piano was being played by spirits who wanted to communicate with her.

Hopetobehappy- I often see a robin when I think about my mother too. And vice versa. It's very nice. It''s called confirmation bias.

Blush, you're embarrassing yourself now.

I don't think the OP is coming back.

We could go on all day like this. I believe what I believe and all the "logical explanations" for stuff won't sway me. Confirmation bias can work two ways can't it, (or it it can't it should) if you go looking for logic, the odds are you'll find it eventually. I suppose it's what you want to believe.

NO. HTH!

BertrandRussell

1. Wouldn't class that as 'categorical'. I never said it was absolute

1. Ah ok, so I do the research and you sit back and say you're right without question. Seems fair.

1. Not correct, 'preferred'. They are two different words, that's why they are spelt differently.

And, yes, the anecdote is a very good example of a paranormal incident proving to have a completely reasonable explanation. That's totally fine, I never said it doesn't happen at all - only that not every instance can be explained so simply.

But look, as I said before, we're not going to agree on this and you have cupcakes to make, so let's just leave this, shall we?

Iwasjustabouttosaythat

Not, I'm not, and I don't remember engaging with you at all on this thread so why jump in just to be rude?

Ah, I think I might see the problem here. If you put any of the events you mention into the search engine of your choice, the first or second hit will be a rational, non supernatural, explanation. That is not "research" in my book- it appears to be in yours. That's why I thought it would be quicker for you to look than for me to write out. However, you did seem to think that the events had no possible rational explanation. Does that mean you have never googled them?

I very often hear steps in the middle of the night when I know that my DD and DH are both fast asleep.
There are also strange banging noises coming from different spots in the house.
The door to our bedroom also suddenly opens even though I can't see anybody coming in when I look at it.

Wonder if my two cats have anything to do with it.

Hold on, if my method of searching brings up rational, non-supernatural explanations, then wouldn't I be agreeing with you?

I know how to search, and I also know not to believe the first thing I read on the internet.

Yes, I Googled them. And I never said "no possible rational explanation" Never said that at all. Simply stated there is no conclusive evidence as to their cause as of yet.

Wonder if my two cats have anything to do with it.

Yes definitely the cats, would anyone think otherwise?

"What about the Miracle of the Sun? I'm not religious, but this is a fairly large event, viewed by nearly 100,00 people, which has yet to have been given a scientific explanation."

Well, it has, actually!

Which is.....?

"Simply stated there is no conclusive evidence as to their cause as of yet."

Well, there can never be conclusive evidence. Because something else might turn up tomorrow. But if there is an explanation which fits our current knowledge of biology, geography, physics psychology and any other -ology we can think of and one that doesn't-which is the one to go for?

Right, okay, I think we've been arguing two different points here.

My apologies if this has happened due to not getting my point across clearly. I absolutely agree with you on that statement. There can never be conclusive evidence all the time, and that some things have never been conclusively proved.

But can you see where I'm coming from? That there is room for belief in the supernatural when the natural cannot provide a conclusive explanation?

Bit if there are explanations that fit what we already know of the world, why on earth go for the supernatural one? That's the point of the piano and kitten anecdote.