hubby says he has seen a ghost five times so far.

[lowresidue]

Hubby has taken our dog to a local wood, and lets the dog go for a run.
He goes at different times and different days.
He came home and told me that he has seen the same woman ghost five separate times so far. Tonight with bonnet wearing woman made him jump when she popped up in front of him. When he said 'you made me jump', she smiled nodded and walked away from him.

He was quite serious but I asked why he thought she was a dead/ ghost? He said because she is wearing a long coat and a bonnet type hat.
AIBU to suggest that this woman isn't dead, isn't a ghost and is an odd lady with a strange fashion sense?
He is quite firm she is a ghost, and walks along the path but not on it though the trees.

personally I am glad we are going on holiday soon my hubby really needs it asap.
Then again AIBU?

Ansumpasty - i've had similar. I had two messages pop up on my screen that I couldn't find anywhere on my phone. The first said 'I am not a ghost', the second said 'I have a hole in my head'. It really freaked me out actually but not because I thought it was a ghost - I thought my phone had somehow been hacked. But now you say that, it's putting the whole thing in a new light!

Also, could the 'clever' people stop mentioning Tesco and cavemen. You think you sound original but the point has been made 10x over. Be original!

I have had experiences since childhood and have posted here and there on MN about them over the years. However, two stand out ones are experiences that were shared with other people, namely my dad and my daughter. When I was 11, we moved into a big old house in North London, a beautiful happy place that had been loved and cared for by the previous owners for 50-odd years. They were in their 80's and sold because they were both nearly blind and simply couldn't cope with the upkeep but were desperately sad to be leaving. We had a home that was just full of their history but required a huge overhaul. Sadly they both died within a year of the move although my parents kept in touch and had them over for lunch a few times. My Dad and I came in one day to see the lady standing on the stairs looking out of the window. We both saw her, it was the middle of the afternoon. We looked at eachother and she was gone. Nobody saw her again but I would say the house was fairly "busy" in a nice way, not frightening but there was always "presence". It was a happy home.

The second occasion was a holiday home in Cornwall. My DD was about 10 at the time. She didn't like it at all but couldn't say why. She said her bedroom felt "weird" and was a bit of a pain with it. The weather was crap but we were largely out and didn't spend a lot of time in the cottage. On the day we were due to go home we decided to leave very early in the morning as it was a very long drive. We were taking stuff out to the car, DH was loading stuff in the boot and I could see him from the window. DD and I were in the kitchen when a VERY tall man wearing jeans and a shirt walked past the kitchen door and went up the stairs. DD and I were horrified because he couldn't have come in the way he did, there was just a wall. I called out "hello" in a panic and DH and I shot up the stairs to check but there was nobody there. It was a tiny place, no way could a man of that height hide anywhere, there was nowhere to hide! DD got quite distressed and said she'd felt like somebody had been on the other bed in her room at night but had thought we'd not believe her. After that, we believed her. The cottage itself was fairly new but was an add-on to a much older building that would have had a history.

So, I suppose my Dad and I could have simultaneously imagined the lady on the stairs and indeed, DD and I could have done the same with the man who could only have entered through a brick wall. I can't explain it. I always wonder about time slips, imprints, I don't know. However, I 100% stand by the experiences I have had.

I’ve never seen an actual, period costume ghost - not that that means anything. But how would you know if the figure you’re seeing is a ghost? If it’s in modern dress would it not look just the same as any one else? Same for animals, present day ones at least.

When a student I stayed at a tenement flat in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh - this was in the late 1970s. There would be a smell of shit in the kitchen late at night. The kitchen had no window, it was in the middle of the flat, so not well ventilated. Maybe just plumbing problems? But I only noticed the smell at night. I wondered if something awful had happened there, however I didn’t see or hear of anything. Just found it really odd. In that flat, a couple of times I also had a weird and terrifying experience like I imagine having some kind of fit would be, when dropping off to sleep. A really loud blaring noise in my head which of course woke me up. It had never happened before or since that place and time which was 42 years ago. I wondered if it was lack of oxygen? Again, my bedroom had no window.

I’m usually quite sceptical but this is my story.

I was 24, and had moved back home. My dad was in the final stages of cancer, bedridden and doses up with morphine.

I had a dream and in it was a woman with long red curly hair who said her name was Agnes and not to worry as she would look after my dad.

I can still recall this dream 25 years later.

The next morning I asked my mum.

She went grey in the face and almost fainted.

My dad had an aunt who had died in the early 1950s, called Agnes but only known as Aggie, she had long red curly hair. She practically raised my dad as his mum (my grandma) was only 17 when he was born and it was a bit of a family scandal. There were no photos of her, I was born almost 20 years after she died and she had never been mentioned to me or in front of me.

My dad died that night.

I will always believe that there is something after death.

shovingleopard

I genuinely do not see why believing in ghosts is any less absurd than believing that the Queen is a lizard.

Do you believe in werewolves, pixies and the tooth fairy too? Or is that a rude question?

Also, could the 'clever' people stop mentioning Tesco and cavemen. You think you sound original but the point has been made 10x over. Be original

I guess if people have never offered an explanation for this trend why wouldn't it continue to be asked? I don't ask it to sound clever, I'm pretty sure I don't! I ask it because I am genuinely curious how someone who believes in ghosts could 'square' it?

I'm also curious why you might think someone could think they sound clever by asking it?

You can't really comment on what you haven't experienced

Of course you can! What would mumsnet be like if we couldn't!?

And how dangerous it would be if we were not allowed to comment on things we hadn't experienced.

Oh god I've loads.

Used to work in a school, circa 1850. I was assistant to the director. Both our offices were next to each other, with a small reception area in between.

A colleague was in my office chatting. Directors office was open, but she wasn't in there. Someone walked straight in to her office without saying hello, is she there, etc. I called out, hello? Very rude of them to just walk in.

I called out again, hello, can I help? No reply. Both colleague and I looked at each other. She saw them too. I went in to the directors office and there was no one there! We both saw someone go in! It was empty. We both saw them

That place was fine during the day but spooky at night. Used to be run by nuns and a few people had seen old ladies wandering around late at night. Bizarre.

I’m always slightly irked by people who claim proudly and smugly “ghosts don’t exist”.

How on earth does anyone know?

I love these threads. Sadly I haven’t seen a ghost myself but my dad has seen a number over the years - ha is very sane. It’s just something he picks up on

My youngest child saw “things” until she was about three but sadly not any longer

OK. How about “all the evidence currently available suggests that ghosts don:t exist. Evidence to the contrary may turn up in the future, but until that happens, it is safe to say that they don’t exist”

Seriously Plimmy? You genuinely don't see how...

Just like some odd people believe the Queen is a lizard. Well done, you’re in with the lizard folk.

Infers that anyone who believes in the supernatural is odd. You really don't see how that's rude?

The earth was apparantly flat for centuries then we discovered it was round. Does that mean it was not round before as a fact? No.

Anyone read the nurses thread, some interesting stories on there.

allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/whats-your-best-108202.html

I’ve seen a ghost I woke up and it was fairly light as I had left the landing light on and see a ghost a woman I woke my husband up. Toys have gone off on their own, lights flicker.

No, I don't see how that's rude. You're defending a belief in the kind of nonsense that children get excited about at Halloween.

This has nothing to do with organised belief, or ethnic or cultural heritage. And nothing to do with the creative effects of the religious impulse - Mozart Requiem, Sistine Chapel, William Blake etc.

There's no sensibility to upset. You are choosing to argue the reality of Scooby-Doo monsters.

There has been a sighting of a Bronze Age horseman on Bottlebrush Down in Dorset:
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/fairweatherlewis.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/the-phantom-horseman-of-bottlebrush-down/amp/
There are numerous sightings of Roman ghosts, perhaps because people know what they’re supposed to look like and might not mistake them for hobos? books.google.co.uk/books?id=lMGrBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT168&lpg=PT168&dq=roman+ghost+wroxeter&source=bl&ots=FeT4-spF4h&sig=KkliOmARYfCczUzj-_MKcjfEJ0Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjx_aWg_KbcAhWMa8AKHVXiAeIQ6AEwH3oECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=roman%20ghost%20wroxeter&f=false

There are hundreds of stories of animal ghosts, of all sorts. A ghost bear was once apparently spotted at the Tower of London. I would imagine that witnesses are more likely to recognise a ghost cat than a ghost squirrel because of the domestic setting that cats would be most likely to appear in. Ghost dogs have their own subsection in the realm of sightings because of what they have been taken to stand for (psychopomps, harbingers, etc).
There have also been plenty of sightings of people in ‘modern’ clothes (see the mini skirted school seen outside the Feathers hotel in Ludlow).
As for ghosts in Tesco, here’s the Co-Op in Whaley Bridge: www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/spooky-video-shows-poltergeist-hurling-6731620
I offer these stories with no other comment than to say that there are obviously things being experienced in all sorts of different places by different people for different reasons. I’ve got no idea whether what these people experienced is true as I wasn’t there and didn’t experience it myself. Recreating such subjective experiences in a scientifically proveable manner is always going to be problematic. They’re subjective not objective for a start. It’s hard to say what is going on as there are as many different explanations as there are witnesses. I can only imagine that there will be better explanations one day for explaining the data that we’re receiving but for now it’s mysterious and sometimes very frightening because we don’t understand it. Right now it’s like trying to explain the internet to the Tudors.

“The earth was apparantly flat for centuries then we discovered it was round.“

People have known it was round for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks knew it was round. So did the ancient Egyptians. There have always been people who insisted it was flat even when presented with evidence to the contrary. There still are some......

In addition, not all bonneted women are Victorian. Women were required to cover their heads in public for centuries and bonnets were in use for many of those centuries.
vintagefashionguild.org/fashion-history/the-history-of-womens-hats/

It's not that no one has claimed to see someone from a different era or no animals. It's that it's largely Victorians or dogs and cats and as such no one has come up with a paranormal explanation. The only one that I can think of is tied to the fact that our penchant for ghosts, mediums etc started in Victorian times and the animals that most people are likely to miss are much loved pets.

On the plus side. If you do believe in ghost animals and you're scared of spiders then surely some of them are ghost versions. No wait, that's no comfort for you is it?

Plimmy I don't wish to derail the thread, so I will make this my last response to you.

Do you seriously not think the 'well done' in your post of 19.33 was somewhat snide and mocking?

I'm also not sure why you wish to know why I believe in fairies, werewolves, or whatever. What is it to you, either way? You don't know me from Eve. You are of course entitled to your own beliefs, and to state them, just as everybody else on this thread is. It's ok to disagree. It's not really in the spirit (no pun intended), and in my view constitutes bad manners, for you to mock or try to control the beliefs of others.

Anyway, I for one am enjoying the stories that have been posted on this thread.

I'm also not sure why you wish to know why I believe in fairies, werewolves, or whatever.

It's just a method of highlighting the contradictory proof thresholds that people may have.

I've done it before and people have said 'don't be ridiculous, everyone knows they're not real' when of course some people do think they're real and when examined these people have the same evidence as any one else would who believe in any other paranormal phenomena.

(Not sure if that last sentence makes any sense. Half MNetting half watching Gogglebox.)

I'm not sure about the logic here tbh - belief in ghosts does not mean you believe in anything.

Belief in time-slips/ some sort of imprint in time, lost souls, the existence of souls i.e ghosts or spirits (I'm not saying I believe in that, btw) - doesn't automatically mean you believe in men changing into wolves at the full moon. IMO.

Mind you - I've been shit-scared of werewolves since I saw American Werewolf in London aged 14 - so maybe I do believe on some level

doesn't automatically mean you believe in men changing into wolves at the full moon. IMO.

No. It's not that anyone is suggesting you do believe in all things. They're using the very fact that you don't to illustrate the untenable nature of the thing you do believe in, because both positions have the same weight of evidence behind them.

During the period when I was starting to lose my Christian faith a friend was telling me about a man in a hat they kept seeing sitting at the bottom of my stairs when they were round. She was very woo.

While I internally giggled at her recounts it occurred to me that my belief in a personal god who listened to my prayers was as well backed up as was her bloke on the stairs. And I was like 'oops'.

Low frequency sounds (infrasound) can make people think they have had supernatural experiences, as they vibrate your eyeballs so you see things that aren't there, and make you feel anxious and fearful even though you can't consciously hear anything.

So perhaps there is some kind of resonance or machinery nearby.

Headinhands - you're a blanket non-believer, that's fine. My DH is the same- a massive skeptic and puts everything down to draughts, people making stuff up, and people wanting to believe. When one has actually had an experience they can't explain, though, it is quite interesting to analyse/talk about it - without the grumbling of the "don't exist" brigade.

rosiejaune, I've heard that before, and it resonates with me (ha!).

I have wondered if it was something like that that explains my own experience.

Although it probably wouldn't account for every experience - like people seeing the same person.