Believing in ghosts

[Sophisticatedsarcasm]

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?

I know a few people who were hardened sceptics until something happened to change their minds. As I suspect is often the case.
I've never seen anything, but remain reasonably open minded.

A friend's sister bought a house that seemed very cheap - she and her Dh counted themselves very lucky to get it at the price.
Her Dh used to have to,leave very early to go to work, leaving her still half asleep in bed.

After they'd been there a short while she gradually became aware of a sensation of 'somebody' sitting on the bed after her Dh had left.

Over the days the sensation grew stronger - it was as if whoever it was, was moving further up the bed. She 'knew' it was male. She didn't feel threatened, but naturally enough it did put the wind up her. And they were beginning to realise why the house was cheap!

Eventually they got a medium in.
She said his name was Albert and he was an old soldier. She asked him to,leave, and he went. There were no more early morning 'visits'.

Another one - shortly after we moved house when I was 9, my sister aged 3 talked more than once of 'a lady' sitting on the end of her bed and smiling at her. Sister was quite matter of fact, not bothered at all.

We found out not long afterwards that the previous owner - she can't have been more than early 30s - had died in childbirth.

Only in your opinion

No, according to all known laws of the universe. You know, physics and shit?

You can have whatever opinions you want. But you can't have whatever facts you want, they just ARE. It's not rude to you to say so.

So we know all the laws of the universe and ''physics and shit'' have now proved as a fact that the phenomenon commonly known as poltergeist activity does not exist. As a fact.

When did this happen?

No, but we do know some of them and they rule it out.

But there is no convincing daft woo believers with things like actual facts and logic, so why am I bothering? I'll leave you to you nice chat about ghosties and goblins and fairies, hey?

Yes. Bye bye.

When I was a youngster, I saw a couple of non- corporeal manifestations , as clear as day.

They were Care Bears though.

I WANT TO BELIEVE

No clem NO!

You don't want to believe. That's what happened to me! But it's ok 'cos physics and shit will save me

Why would they make it up?

For attention.

I see that the intellectually superior posters have arrived. Oh joy.

Throughout history in all cultures spirts/ghosts/jinns have been told and written about

Peoples experiences are often very similar something that can’t be explained but the experience was real to them

I find many things that can’t be explained that can’t be measured/recorded/caught on camera interesting it’s about the experience and at times that just can’t be measured

It’s similar to deja vu though isn’t, no one can prove or disprove deja vu.

I thought a read a news story not too long about how they'd figured out what (at least some) deja vu was due to, using an MRI machine to measure brains, and were able to create it on demand in the laboratory?

If human see/experience/believe they see/whatever ghosts, what I can't help wondering about is animals. Not ghost animals, but do they see/think they see ghosts too? Like mice see ghost mice, and foxes see ghost foxes or whatever. Or is it just humans? What about more intelligent animals, like chimps or dolphins?

I've never seen anything and generally consider myself quite rational; I like things I can explain with science and facts.

However, a few years ago my dad was unwell after surgery and there's no other way I could have known (I was driving home after being with him) but knew I had to go back to him immediately. I've never known a feeling or force like it before or since, and would be willing to admit that it must have been something 'more' because there's nothing rational I can use to explain it.

I hope if there is an afterlife I won’t spend it cluttering up relatives halls or moving small objects. It seems a bit pointless?

A pp mentioned that animal ghosts aren't reported, but historically they are

If you look to folklore there's loads of reports of that kind of thing

And if you look to London, we have our famous shivering chicken of Highgate
Okay, he was a very specific chicken but I just like to mention him

But ghosts of random animals are reported, you have to have to go back quite far to find them though.

I don't believe in an afterlife but if I did, I wouldn't necessarily think it applied to everyone and everything, so as one poster said, there'd be trillions of rats - would there? Do people picture an afterlife as a complete copy of current life?

As for "why do ghosts wear clothes" why wouldn't they? And there must be some reports of naked ghosts, but it's a long time since I read any ghost history, so I can't remember any specific ones.

No, but we do know some of them and they rule it out.

I could never have posted this ^

Science rules things in, not out. Of course, who am I arguing with? They are just words, sentences, characters on a screen. On a piece of plastic and metal. MN is just a physical experience created just for me. There are no real people behind it. These messages are computer generated.

The poster saying she always sees a man peeing in a bush by the road reminds me about a man my mum always saw walking a beagle dog on the motorway bridge outside Bridgwater. It didn't matter when she drove over it, morning, afternoon or even late at night, he was there. Funnily enough I have never ever seen him

Just thought, pp also said why aren't there reports of sightings of ghost dinosaurs...the word dinosaur came into use in the Victorian age, so previously people who reported sighting a "creature" might have meant dinosaur.

If you regularly see a ghost of a man, peeing in a bush, and your husband has seen him too - why haven't you taken a photo of it?

Smashedmug, a relative of mine used to see children around her hospital bed, it was a urine infection/dehydration, in the elderly they can bring on hallucinations.

*Science rules things in, not out
*
It's the other way round. Science can never prove that anything is true with 100% certainty, just to a very high level of probability.

It can prove that things are false, though...and, in fact, any hypothesis needs to be potentially falsifiable in order for science to be able to test it.

If you make a claim that cannot be proven wrong (like invisible unicorns living in a supernatural realm) then science cannot investigate.

*Idontbelieveinthemoon
*
You can't explain a strong sensation of wanting to be with someone you love who'd just had surgery? Really?

Lots of older people are unwell after surgery so it's hardly a stunningly unlikely event to show up at the bedside of an older person who'd just had surgery and find tham unwell.

Science rules things in, not out

Nope.

I don't believe at all. I don't care that others do, as long as they refrain from getting cross that I think there's nothing to it and their "it must be true because otherwise this thing that happened is totally inexplicable" stories do, always, have an alternative and more likely explanation.

Don't they call it the sixth sense? If ghosts do exist then probably some people have a heightened sense and are more likely to experience it. Some places creep me out and give me a funny feeling, I've also heard unexplained footsteps upstairs but never seen a ghostly figure (I and I never want to!! )