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?

Flatmate and I used to glimpse a cat in our flat. Just on the edge of vision. Things would go missing from drawers too. Very odd feel to the place.
I’ve also been mistaken for a ghost. I frightened the life out of some poor man, I was standing by a lamp-post in misty drizzle, early evening in December, waiting for my friend who had run back to her house for something. Man came walking along, saw me, and started screaming.
I was in a Victorian style dress and coat, and I’m very pale . I had to calm him down.

Someone I worked for there was evidence on CCTV the security people saw it with their own eyes and it did show up. Management decided it was not for public consumption for good reasons, did not want to get a reputation for that type of thing. Could be upsetting to the residents and guests who visited. It is a bit like the guys who dig roads motorways property foundations and find skeletal remains keep quiet. Not everyone is comfortable with this

No. Proper evidence scientifically verified would convince me. Just as with anything else.

As the great Tim Minchin said - "Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved"

A picture or a video that stood up to proper scrutiny by video editing specialists or could be recreated under controlled conditions would be proof enough for me and most of the scientific community I would imagine. And I'll never rule out a day that that might happen.. its just not so far, so its a bit too much of a leap of faith for me to imagine that ghosts or other paranormal phenomenon are 'real' when there's generally a non-supernatural explanation for them.

And the important thing to remember is that of course there is loads we don't know. And loads to find out. But there has never been a single paranormal/supernatural/ghostly event that has remained mysterious once it has been properly investigated. Not one.

So many of them are fleeting though, Bertrand, by the time you got a paranormal research team there, or even a camera out, it would all be over.

I can understand why you are sceptical, and I'm not trying to persuade you otherwise. Each to their own. Given my educational/professional background, I think I would probably feel the same if I had not had all the experiences I have had (and there have been many of them), indeed I did try to ignore it for 15 years or so, until it became so obvious I couldn't ignore it anymore.

I think some people are sensitive to it, and some aren't. If you're not, there are probably no amount of anecdotes/ evidenxethat will convince you. And indeed, why do you need to believe? If it doesn't make sense to you, that's fine, isn't it?

on the local facebook page comments now mention not ghosts in the woods but a witch that would throw children down the well.
sounds a bit mean to me. and you don't often find wells in woods.

oddly enough in another local wood have seen naked people jumping over the fire years ago.

but that has nothing to do with this ghost in the woods.

Where do you live OP? Sounds thrilling.

not thrilling. usually deadly boring and quiet.

I'm not sure that an unsubstantiated witness statement would convict someone either

Not if it was a single unsubstantiated statement, no, but statements seeing the same thing from unconnected witnesses have convicted many people. Particularly when these people are experienced at sifting out false memory etc from evidence. Stop changing what I actually said.

I completely agree with shoving, I'm a scientist/applied statistician (don't want to out myself so being vague) I have a science PhD and a maths/science Masters.

In the field I work in, when I was a junior quite a few years ago, I was shadowing a very senior, very well respected colleague. Some of his work was literally groundbreaking, his contribution to the field was unprecedented.

We were overseas on an assignment, and something woo happened, and because of the circumstances, colleague had to officially report it. Not going into details as again don't want to out myself.

It close to ruined his career. He was sneered at (called "Shaman Xxx" to his face and behind his back) none of his work was taken seriously anymore and there were some additional rather unpleasant consequences. Disciplinary action included.

I backed up his account of what happened, and it didn't do wonders for my career either. It was a shitty time.

In the end, colleague took legal action because of the discrimination and other stuff, and he was laughed at and his case dismissed as "his judgement was clearly flawed", his case didn't get taken even remotely seriously, it was a farce. It was recommended he had therapy as the stress of the job had clearly got to him. He retired instead.

That is why scientists etc don't go public with what they see, because it destroys your career if there's even a sniff of the paranormal .

.

Well, if he insisted that "something woo happened" rather than saying that something unexpected happened that needed to. W investigated, then I am not really surprised that his judgement was questioned, frankly. If that was his first explanation, rather than the last remaining explanation when everything else has been eliminated...

It's amazing all these people such as Plimmy who state that ghosts have never been caught on video cameras when there have been several instances of surveillance tapes doing just that and which have been examined by experts who can give no explanation. Do they really go around never paying attention to any news that doesn't fit their viewpoint? Very Trumpian Fake News! 😂

I firmly believe that there are many things that happen that science cannot explain - yet. I'm not so idiotic as to rule out the witness statements that have been given directly to me by reputable witnesses, my own experiences and my father's which affected me. If someone like Stephen Hawking can actually consider the possibility of time travel as allowed by Einstein's theory (even if he eventually ruled it out on the grounds that warping would cause the destruction of any spaceship and possibly time itself), I'm not going to rule anything out for the future. Much of what we take for granted now would have seemed paranormal short centuries ago. It's simply closed minded and idiotic to assume that we know everything now. Several university departments are dedicated to parapsychology, one at least in the UK, so they presumably don't think that we know everything about such 'paranormal' this gs as telepathy, far seeing, etc. Hell, even the US military spent millions on it.

*That is why scientists etc don't go public with what they see, because it destroys your career if there's even a sniff of the paranormal."

I really don't see the argument here at all. If a scientist went public with evidence that did demonstrate the reality even of some small aspect of the paranormal s/he would be in for every prize available and would become one of the biggest names in history.

If a scientist just goes public with ghost stories or the like they won't get those things.

And there are very well known cases of delusion and hasty judgment in scientific matters - announcements about N rays, cold fusion and so on.

Sadly not Bertrand we both stuck like glue to "something we can't explain". To do anything else would have been career suicide and it was bad enough as it was.

I don't believe in ghosts in the slightest.

I saw something I can't explain.

I love being a conundrum

It's amazing all these people such as Plimmy who state that ghosts have never been caught on video cameras when there have been several instances of surveillance tapes doing just that and which have been examined by experts who can give no explanation

That's not right. No ghost photo has ever managed any more credibility than those 'phenomena' like seeing the face of God in a pizza.

Are you a scientist Plimmy? I'm guessing not because I don't know a single scientist who would risk being caught even entertaining the idea of anything woo unless it was an absolute last resort.

There is no such thing as “ghosts” so he’s either making it up entirely or he’s mistaking something else for what he believes to be “ghosts”

What makes me feel uncomfortable about these beliefs are the opportunity for people who are suffering to not get the help they need.

Sometime ago there was a thread on here where a mother who believed in ghosts came on to share how her daughter, not an adult, had started seeing and hearing things.

The op put it down to their haunted house. I and others advised her to make a gps appt which was met with outrage. Outrage that we didn't go along with the sage burning/waving advice.

It was unsettling.

headinhands
Many of the examples you give can, I’m sure, be explained this way. Not this one.

So you're assuming that anyone who recounts seeing anything in that category won't be as adamant. Doesn't this sound just like people who believe in god a discounting the experiences of people who believe in god b based on the their assumption that it just can't be true so they can't feel as strongly about their experiences.

That isn’t what I meant at all. I was merely responding to you telling me
‘if you are inclined to believe what she saw was some sort of spirit person ... then you have to give credence to every recount of anyone who appears sane (most people). Every account’.

Notwithstanding the fact that at no stage have I said I believed it to be a ghost, merely that I had no logical explanation for it, I am happy to confirm I might be less open-minded and more likely to find a prosaic explanation for some accounts. For example, if the person involved had been in a situation where it could have been a trick of the light or had they been drinking excessively or asleep immediately before the incident. Just examples. However, your god a and god b point seems to suggest you think I am prepared to be open-minded about only my grandmother’s experience. Not so. I remain open minded about several of the stories other posters have recounted, especially, but not necessarily limited to, those where more than one person has shared the experience.

I joined this thread with no axe to grind one way or another but simply to recount a story that I thought others would find interesting, one that is, I think, very touching but then it’s very personal to my family so I suppose I would, wouldn’t I? I didn’t come here to have an argument with anyone, and certainly not to do so defending a belief I don’t even hold. So I shall bow out now and you to have the last word if that’s important to you.

BlameItOnTheNeon

Perhaps I was unclear. Of course scientists will shy away from publicly supporting woo. Because quite rightly their judgement and reasoning would be questioned.

There is no scientific basis for woo. Exactly the opposite. Science accepts propositions for which there is evidence. There is no evidence for ghosts so science rejects them in favour of better explanations.

Since you ask, no, I am not a scientist, but I have had a scientific training. Not that that really matters. These things are matters of common sense.

"It's simply closed minded and idiotic to assume that we know everything now"
I agree.
But there has not been a single incident any sort of paranormal activity that has not been shown, on investigation, to have a perfectly rational explanation. That is not to say that there may not be one tomorrow. But don't you think there would have been one?

headinhands

Having gone, I’ve come back to say I’ve just seen your post immediately above my last one and totally agree.

More that unites us than divides us maybe?

@lowresidue

but are you going to go for a walk with your DH there? We need updates! I luffs a ghostly tale.