Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask why people believe in ghosts and other supernatural nonsense?

291 replies

BowieFan · 23/10/2016 14:25

I just don't get it, I really don't.

There has been no scientific evidence of any genuine psychics or people who can contact the dead (and trust me, people have poured millions into trying to find genuine ones) and yet people still believe this rubbish. How do mediums still make money when it's obvious all they're doing is cold reading?

There's never been a single clear sighting of a ghost or any photographic proof of one.

I really feel sorry for the people who believe this nonsense - they must be lacking something that they feel they have to rely on something that doesn't exist to get answers in their life.

OP posts:
PinkyOfPie · 23/10/2016 18:46

I believe in science. I don't believe or ghost or past lives etc and I think 'clairvoyants' are either scammers or very delusional people but with good intentions.

BIL reckons he can see ghosts, and apparently talks to them. There's a man living in MILs house called James apparently, he sits in his ghost rocking chair upstairs and has conversations with BIL. The whole ILs are taken by this. I'm inclined to believe that it's probably down to the fact that for the last 20 years BIL has taken copious amounts of drugs and smoke marijuana every day.

But no, I'm wrong, it's definitely ghosts Hmm

PinkyOfPie · 23/10/2016 18:51

People who pedal the notion that they can contact people in an afterlife are lying con artists who prey on the vulnerable and unfulfilled

Yep. A week after my dad died, DH's cousin who actually makes a living from being a clairvoyant somehow, snuck up to me at a family do and announced in front of everyone "you have your dad's chin". She had never met my dad or seen a picture, so she was implying she had met him beyond the grave.

Really, she was exploiting my grief to show off her 'skills' in front of one more person (probably touting for business no doubt). It REALLY upset me and we left and haven't spoken to her since.

When I got home I looked at a picture of dad. Our Chins are nothing alike. I have a Jimmy Hill going on and he had a very thick chin. However our eyes and nose were identical, everyone used to say it. Surely if she could see him she'd have picked that feature out? Bitch Angry

Original poster
BowieFan · 23/10/2016 18:53

PinkyofPie

One of my dear friends has had quite a few cosmetic jobs done (mostly due to accidents over the years) and a psychic once told her "you definitely have your mother's nose!" and my friend's response was "I fucking hope not, considering what I paid for it!" Grin

OP posts:
Muskateersmummy · 23/10/2016 18:53

I think there are two separate points. Vulnerable people are often lacking something, but that something they seek comfort in can vary and anyone who prays on the vulnerability is very wrong.

People believing in the ghosts and spirits, that's people's own beliefs and it's OK for them to believe and for you not to. But for you to call it nonsense and assume that everyone who does believe must be lacking something is close minded and judgemental in my opinion.

TheHubblesWindscreenWipers · 23/10/2016 18:57

Why? Because people see or experience things they can't explain rationally and thus ths gives them a framework to understand and rationalise what is often a frightening and unpredictable world.
We see patterns where there are none- it's very hard wired into us.
Same way religion gets started (before it gets hijacked by those using it to control people.)

thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter · 23/10/2016 18:57

I'm a massive scaredy cat who could spook herself in a paper bag - I think it's because I have an overactive imagination/watched too may suspense type films as a child Grin

DH firmly doesn't believe, I wish I was more like him, I do honestly feel quite daft if after watching a scary movie that I have to run up the stairs to bed incase anything gets me! And don't start me on having to have all my limbs under the duvet - as if duvets are some sort of monster/boogeyman deflecting force field Grin

Itisnotwhatyouknow · 23/10/2016 18:58

I believe in ghosts. I have seen them. I don't particularly enjoy seeing them, each time I think "oh why me".

However, I don't know what they are. No explanation makes sense to me. Dead people - doesn't make sense. My imagination - doesn't make sense. Etc.

So, although I believe and have first hand experience, I have no idea what they are.

thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter · 23/10/2016 18:59

PinkyOfPie that is absolutely disgusting of your DH's cousin Angry

Careforadrink · 23/10/2016 19:05

I'm very cynical but open minded.

Personally I think it's totally arrogant and rather ignorant when people dismiss it out of hand.

I don't see it as any different to believing in religion and I wouldn't scoff at that despite not believing myself.

We are constantly learning and evolving and I do think there is more to this life than we currently understand.

itsmine · 23/10/2016 19:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CivQueen · 23/10/2016 19:12

I will agree that those vultures who prey on the hurt and vulnerable need to give their heads a wobble!

Guavaf1sh · 23/10/2016 19:12

It is arrogant to dismiss belief out of hand yes. But surely someone who believes something for which there is no objective evidence and which opens the door to exploitation cannot be expected to have their beliefs taken with equal weight to someone with logical evidence based beliefs. For someone to say they believe the earth is flat, that the moon is hollow, 9/11 was an inside job or anything such as that, including belief in ghosts or God, implies a poorly thought out process of reasoning and certainly that point of view cannot be considered 'equal'. Fair enough do experiments find out if there is some validity to these things if you have a hunch you are right

FurryLittleTwerp · 23/10/2016 19:17

I had a scientific education & am not at all religious, but am still open to suggestion about ghosts & the supernatural. Very sceptical about clairvoyants though - I suspect they are mostly clever con-artists.

Dontpanicpyke · 23/10/2016 19:19

I don't think it's anyone's place to tell another competent adult how they should spend their money and to me the churches, synagogues etc are just the same as seeing a psychic. All offer comfort to people some vulnerable and some who just like to go.

I and my dds are seeing psychic Sally again later this year and love it.

LikeDylanInTheMovies · 23/10/2016 19:20

People believing in the ghosts and spirits, that's people's own beliefs and it's OK for them to believe and for you not to. But for you to call it nonsense and assume that everyone who does believe must be lacking something is close minded and judgemental in my opinion.

Yes it is judgmental. Because I believe in making judgements. This extreme relativism of 'this is my truth, it is equally valid as any other form of knowledge just different.' Bollocks. There's two planes you can catch. One has been designed by highly skilled aeronautical engineers who understand aerodynamics and the physics behind flight. The other is built to the design of a witch doctor who drew a sketch based on what the spirits told him.

Which one are you going to catch?

Science is based on analysing observable phenomena in a rigourous and repeatable way. it is by testing and falsifying existing scientific work scientific laws.

Spiritualism, a belief in ghosts and all that other guff requires supposition, huge imaginative leaps, is utterly unverifiable and cannot be analysed in a controlled way. I wouldn't go as far as to say people who believe it are stupid, but they are not using their critical faculties fully, if they are prepared to attribute unexplained things to a supernatural power without exploring other alternatives that don't fly in the face of established scientific laws.

So yes, if thinking about things critically and rationally and trying to understand how evidence works is judgemental, then sign me up.

Original poster
BowieFan · 23/10/2016 19:23

Like I said, I'm not dismissing anyone's beliefs. I just think they are personally nonsense. I just don't get how people can believe in something that has no scientific basis.

Why do we have to accomodate different view points by the way? I don't mind, but I hate the argument that everyone is allowed "opinions". Surely we're allowed to call flat Earth believers morons?

Like I said, it's the fact that it's generally vulnerable people who believe this kind of thing that bothers me.

OP posts:
FurryLittleTwerp · 23/10/2016 19:24

Pyke absolutely - I am sceptical but it is absolutely not my or anyone else's business if you find attending a psychic helpful.

Muskateersmummy · 23/10/2016 19:24

Which is fine for you not to believe but to say that everyone else has to feel the same?

Original poster
BowieFan · 23/10/2016 19:28

Dontpanicpyke

And you and your daughters are welcome to waste your money doing so. It is up to you how you spend your money, but equally I'm allowed to express my view that it's rubbish at best and dangerous and fraudulent at worst.

Don't even get me started on Psychic Sally. The amount of times she's been caught using an earpiece is ridiculous.

OP posts:
StillStayingClassySanDiego · 23/10/2016 19:28

Like I said, I'm not dismissing anyone's beliefs

Grin, you what??

Original poster
BowieFan · 23/10/2016 19:29

Muskateersmummy

I never said people had to feel the same way. I'm still yet to hear any reason as to why people believe this stuff though. I'm waiting.

OP posts:
itsmine · 23/10/2016 19:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheHubblesWindscreenWipers · 23/10/2016 19:30

'I have seen them. I don't particularly enjoy seeing them, each time I think "oh why me'

When do you see them (awake in broad daylight or when you're about to sleep for example could have very different causes.)

What do you see? (For example seeing a shadow move out of the corner of your eye is different to seeing something sit on your bed when you've just woken up which is different again to seeing something clearly in broad daylight for five minutes.)

If you can answer those question I can give you the most likely 'causes' of what you experience.

Original poster
BowieFan · 23/10/2016 19:31

StillStayingClassySanDiego

I'm not. I don't want to stop people believing if that's what they want to do. I just don't appreciate being told that I'm not allowed to express the view that it's nonsense. I don't even want to get rid of psychics - I'd rather they were just better regulated and it needs to be made clear that the techniques they are using are easily learned by anyone.

I think a £1500 licencing fee would probably put most of the really nasty scammers off setting up shop.

OP posts:
HeadDreamer · 23/10/2016 19:31

You can dismiss it if you dismiss Christianity or Islam. It is the basis of the Chinese belief system (Taoism). I grew up in Hong Kong surrounded by this stuff.

So to dismiss it offland like the OP is as offensive as a statement like 'why do people believe in that Jesus nonsense'.

I don't believe in any of that btw. Completely atheist.