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Original poster

Believing in ghosts

150 replies

Sophisticatedsarcasm · 18/02/2018 19:24

Taken off the back of the ‘conspiracy theory’ thread made me think about people believing in ghosts.
I personally believe as I’ve seen it, as has my mum, Nan and DP.
We have a ghost whom we call Mary. No particular reason we just use that when talking about her so the kids don’t get scared if we say ghost.
It all started 9 years ago when we first moved here. As it was a very harsh winter we had all windows closed (usually sleep with them open) at around 1am we heard a massive bang. Turned on the side light to see 3 deodorants all fallen on the floor. This went on for 8 nights in a row, it became normal and didn’t surprise us. A few months later I saw a white ghostly figure of a women standing over my sons cot. As I live for this kind of stuff I was not bothered. Since then we’ve witness more and more things. When you tell others some believ and some don’t. One of my friends used to take the piss out of me until one day he stayed at a relatives house in the countryside and witness a strange ghost like figure. It’s true what they say, seeing is believing. On my bucket list is to visit some of the most haunted places in America.
I tried to find out if anything had happened before we move here but from what I can make out it’s a saintly town which has only ever had one murder in over 100 years and a was severely affected by the great storm of 1987.
Who else believes?

OP posts:
SmashedMug · 18/02/2018 22:24

But if the human brain is unreliable (memory) and photo/film is fakeable then what firm evidence can there ever be?

If there was footage that couldn't be proven fake, I think that would convince a lot of people.

Laiste · 18/02/2018 22:27

Who would you believe? Telling you a piece of footage was real i mean.

Genuine question.

SmashedMug · 18/02/2018 22:36

I wouldn't believe someone saying "this is real". I would believe someone showing how the footage could not have been made using any modern or old methods used to fake stuff.

NooNooHead · 18/02/2018 22:49

I saw a lady lying in my DH’s bed when I was staying at his old flat years ago before we bought a house together. He was asleep on the sofa and I was in the bed, trying to get some sleep before going on a press trip abroad.

I’d been tossing and turning all night, and so was probably just overtired and half asleep. I turned over to see a young woman lying in the bed next to me, actually under the duvet and asleep - dressed in what I can only remember as being some kind of 1920s head dress / head band like a flapper would wear.

As you can imagine, I was very awake by now and half sat up in bed to look at her properly. Luckily she didn’t wake up otherwise I would have been seriously freaking out! I’m sure it was only a couple of minutes, but I sat there terrified, and then the only way the ghost / whoever it was went away was for me to do the only logical thing in that situation - hide under the covers and only reappear to see she had disappeared.

As much as I think it was probably my brain being fatigued and not functioning properly, I’m certain that there was more to what I saw. That the woman looked so real, much more so than a shadow, it was impossible to say it was just a trick of the light. It was like I was looking at a solid figure lying under the covers next to me in bed, and I am not woo at all but this certainly convinced me there might just possibly be something there we can’t explain.

I know that naysayers and cynics will say otherwise, but I am pretty sure about what I saw.

inkandstone · 18/02/2018 22:52

I definitely believe in them, even though I've never seen one. I think some people can tune into them, like tuning into a radio station. I'd like to think that my "self" or "soul", whatever you want to call it, is more than just some chemical/electrical processes, and when my body dies, it carries on in some form.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 18/02/2018 23:06

I believe becuase I have seen a ghost

Somethings just can’t be explained will science ever explain it I don’t know

HolyAngelus · 18/02/2018 23:24

What I always notice on these threads is that the grammar, punctuation and spelling of those saying they believe in ghosts is in general far poorer than those who say they don’t.

NooNooHead · 18/02/2018 23:37

Holy Hmm

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 18/02/2018 23:39

What a fascinating observation Holy ⭐️ for you

NooNooHead · 18/02/2018 23:42

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed Grin

GrimDamnFanjo · 19/02/2018 01:03

I don't really believe but I wonder if there is energy around us that sparks what is perceived as a paranormal experience?

DioneTheDiabolist · 19/02/2018 01:10

You notice SPAG on woo threads, other people notice ghosts. What's your point Holy?

Hawkmoth · 19/02/2018 01:24

I believe that, as some people are more sensitive to light, sound, EM radiation, some people are more sensitive to a kind of energy as yet undefined. Whether this is the soul as an entity or echoes of life... who knows.

What I do know is that I have felt and recounted things about buildings that were confirmed. History I couldn't have researched. But it's just one of those things to me, and tiresome at times so I try to ignore it.

But X-rays, radio... all relatively modern to be quantified, but obviously present in the world coming from the sun from the beginning. Can we say we've got every kind of ray, every energy, pinned down?

Loveache · 19/02/2018 01:35

There's a funny thing about waking dreams that's interesting to Google. It's about REM disturbance. Your eyes are open but your body is immobile, and you 'see ' your dream in the setting you're in. It's happened to me twice.

Hateloggingin · 19/02/2018 01:51

Holy - had noticed the same thing myself

notangelinajolie · 19/02/2018 01:53

I believe in woo. On holiday, I saw the ghost of my late uncle and just put it down to my vivid imagination but years later my DH and youngest DD admitted to me that they had seen him too.

nonfatnofoamlatte · 19/02/2018 06:29

My DH and I have belonged to a paranormal group for many years now. The more I research and investigate ghosts, the less I believe in them. Even though I think I've seen ghosts, black figures and heard a cat's meow in a building without any animal, I have to wonder how much of this is imagination at work. I believe you see what you want to see and hear what you want to hear as imagination is so powerful. Mind, we do have a recording of a child's voice singing which is very eerie but we can't say it wasn't a child singing loudly outside the building.

We get sent a lot of pictures of supposed ghosts but usually it's quite easy to see that the ghost comes from an app or it's been photoshopped. And as one poster indicated, orbs are not ghosts - it's either dust caught in the camera flash or, as I found out, a dirty lens.

Once, in my early days of investigating, I thought I saw a figure leaning on a gravestone in a photo I had taken. No one else could see it but me and I swore it was a figure of a young man. Years later I found the photo again but, this time, I couldn't see the figure anymore. That was my imagination at work.

ImogenTubbs · 19/02/2018 07:15

I also believe that people have these experiences (sometimes!) but that doesn't mean I believe that the spirits of the dead have come back to visit us - that's far too much of a leap and there could be many many other reasons. Also recommend Paranormality as an enlightening read into why people think they have had a supernatural experience, and also - research sleep paralysis and infrasound. They have the potential to explain the vast majority of supernatural experiences. Maybe not all, but I'm sure the answer is out there. I find it fascinating.

The one type of story I am completely cynical about anyone experiencing (I think people just make them up) are the time slip type stories where people see themselves as an adult or find themselves in a town from the past. Don't believe a word of it!

ImogenTubbs · 19/02/2018 07:22

GimDamnFanjo - I have a (completely unscientifically tested) theory about this.

If you accept the idea that we leave an electrical trace then it could follow that if something happens regularly (say the same person walking the same path every day for years) or something happens under high emotional intensity (a murder) then the trace could be intensified. Perhaps some people's brains are able to detect these traces and the only way their brains can make sense of the information is to play it out as a chronological image - ie - you see the 'ghost' of someone walking along the path they always used to walk along. The person standing next to you might not see it as their brain has not detected or processed the trace.

As I say, completely made up theory - I am not a scientist! Seems far more likely to me, however, than the dead popping back to say hello.

Idontevencareanymore · 19/02/2018 07:41

This morning I "heard" someone walk down my hallway and put something in my kitchen bin.
Except I didn't, I heard someone walk down my passageway (outside) and let the door to the communal hallway shut gently.
It really did sound like the former though, and I could easily believe it.

I remember when my dad died, I felt him everywhere, by my side. It was a massive comfort, I was grieving terribly and I believe that his "presence" got me through those early days, now 11 years later I don't feel him, I think my brain conjured those feelings to help me, to comfort me.

Clairvoyants though, they can get in the sea. Charlatans taking money off vulnerable people for a desperate attempt to hear your passed loved ones words. All the nope.
Although I did and still do love the program afterlife..... way before Andrew Lincoln became besties with zombies, amazing show.

malificent7 · 19/02/2018 07:49

You cannot prove ghosts exist but you can sense them.
I lived in a flat where there was a presence...you could cut the air with a knife. It was like static electricity.
My first visitor said it was haunted...i agreed!
8 months later a colleague asked me where i lived. The first thing she said was ' our collegue x used to live there ...it's haunted ...she saw a man walk through a wall!'
how do you explain that? too much of a coincidence imo. It wasnt remotely scary. the living are more terrifying!

Tessliketrees · 19/02/2018 07:52

how do you explain that?

They made it up.

Idontevencareanymore · 19/02/2018 08:18

saw a man walk through a wall

Why do ghosts always disappear through a wall? Too convenient, almost as if they have to pass through a wall to prove their ghost status.
Also why wouldn't they just use a door?

Unless there was physical proof the building had been altered to move/add a wall which wasn't there when ghost person inhabited the building, I'm sceptical.

I do like the ones though that are cut off at the knees, Romans usually as their Street level was lower than modern day times (apparently, could have made that up)

Quaza · 19/02/2018 08:25

I believe that some people believe they have seen ghosts. I don't believe that they have actually seen them. Sorry

This ^^. Sorry but it's your mind playing tricks.

malificent7 · 19/02/2018 08:34

Why would they make it up? why would that be the first thing that popped into their head when i mentioned the address.

If someone tells me the address i go hmm..i know it ( or not)

why would ex colleague make it up?

even if she did...it was a major coincidence as i felt a presence. A presence to me feels like an electrical field. The air feels thick...alive...like you could cut it...weird