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?

Could just mean ‘weird see-through disappearing figure I don’t have an explanation for’.

But your encompassing definition doesn't make it more likely. They both have the same proof, that of other people's testament.

Around 8 years my DM lived with us, and told me very hesitantly that she kept getting prodded really hard in the night. She was in her 80s, and not in the best of health. This went on for some weeks, and was getting worse.

She spoke to her cardiologist about it, but he didn't know what it could be. He joked about it being a ghost. She felt really silly, as she was thinking it was something woo. I quietly prayed in her room - thought of speaking to our local vicar. We really were at the end of our tether, she wasn't sleeping, and was really worried.

She happened to have a GP appt. and our old GP who had retired was standing in. He immediately said it was codeine, and she was surprised as she'd been taking a low dose for ages. Apparently it has has this side effect, especially over a length of time.

We often used to tease her about the time she was haunted. for my Mum.

I'd want to be seen by someone with the knowhow to make discoveries

How can you possibly say this? Who knows what you'd think and feel and want? It'd be a whole new ball game!

“Bertrand I would, but can't be bothered“

Fair enough. The evidence for your personal insults is obviously almost as thin as your evidence for the supernatural.

But your encompassing definition doesn't make it more likely.

Well yes it does, because it’s much broader than the definition for ‘Zeus’. It’s an entirely reasonable position to say “since ‘ghost’ could mean a variety of natural or supernatural phenomena, it’s more likely that one of these things might be true than that the specific divine personality of Zeus exists.”

that of other people's testament

Not really, given the number of people in threads like this who say something like “I don’t know if I believe in ghosts but I saw XYZ.” People are typically describing and comparing their own experience - they’re coming to conclusions based on their experiences rather than the testimony of others.

If you’re saying “but why should I, an outside observer, believe your statement about your own experience”, then you don’t have to? God knows I don’t believe 75% of the ‘cheeky fucker’ threads on AIBU. But if you’re discussing the subject of ghosts with someone who has seen something they’d class as a ghost, you can’t expect them to disregard their own experiences because you don’t have an explanatory framework for them yourself.

Oh no bertrand, I was only wondering.

@imtrying, I'm not a sceptic but I see nothing woo in your needle story. Needles are unpredictable buggers and countless times I've searched for them in the same spot with no success, and then they appear later.

I believe in woo stories but always look at logical causes before I come to calling something unexplainable.

Your new bedding contained several factory needles which found their way round your new home - that's the logical cause. The embroidery is a red herring.

Referencing the cavemen: How many of us live in caves?

I use it as in first humans so 220000 years ago?

headinhands, my interpretation of Shiftymake’s point is that we don’t see caveman ghosts because they’re busy haunting caves while we all live in houses

Iamtrying- am I being thick? I don’t see anything unusual about your story at all.

ajandjj thanks for sharing the codeine story about your mum, I can chalk that down to what happened to me rather than wonder if I'm losing it!

I get a bit frustrated by the die-hard sceptics. I appreciate that, on the whole, a call for evidence is a good thing.

But there are complicating factors with the so-called 'supernatural'.

Firstly, it seems logical to me that, if there is a spiritual realm/an after-life etc, then it's way beyond what our brains can compute. Trying to stuff it into a test tube ain't going to work. Being human would be a very different (and poorer) experience if we KNEW there was a new world waiting. If (again, I'm only saying 'if') there were a spiritual realm, we would, surely, be actively prevented from knowing of it in proper, scientific terms? We couldn't cope with it!

So I see all the demands for scientific evidence as quite bizarre for that reason.

Secondly, most of the evidence people do offer is the odd encounter here and there. It's simply not possible to verify that sort of thing. Jeez, I have enough trouble trying to verify which of my children is lying when they've just had a falling out. Life is a series of moments, not a laboratory.

I'm not saying that I definitely think there are ghosts; I'm just explaining my difficulty with the confidence of those who state "There is no such thing as the supernatural." I mean, as pp have mentioned, doesn't it rather come down to definitions?

Generally, sceptics say they accept that there may be things in the world science is yet to understand. But they are not actually accepting that if the "things we don't yet know/may never know" have to adhere to already understood rules and concepts.

Take the "group halllucinations" phenomenon. It seems that sometimes more than one person sees the same unexplained figure/event. Sceptics will say they all imagined it. Ok. But do we currently have a scientific way of explaining that? What I'm saying is, even if you're adamant that the "ghost" isn't there, doesn't the "group hallucination" concept itself require an explanation that contravenes the currently accepted ideas about how consciousness works? At what point do you concede that what you previously dimissed as supernatural and therefore bollocks is starting to become a new scientific theory? (I'm speculating a bit here, obviously, but just trying to push the idea that new concepts can destroy our convictions).

I don't think the "Huh, bet you believe in the tooth fairy too" comments are clever or logical.

The people who've shared their experiences have generally been quite open-minded, and have often simply said that they can't see a logical explanation for their experience. That's almost the very opposite of nailing it down to a specfic, fabricated storybook creature.

How can you possibly say this? Who knows what you'd think and feel and want? It'd be a whole new ball game!

Most ghosts are wearing clothes. Clothes they wore while they were alive. So it appears may people believe they are still in charge of their faculties. What evidence do you have that after someone dies they completely change?

Firstly, it seems logical to me that, if there is a spiritual realm/an after-life etc, then it's way beyond what our brains can compute

Many people would have thought this of visiting the moon I reckon but humans are stubborn and have a thirst for knowledge.

If it's way beyond us why are they always turning up, moving things etc?

*Would you be ok with a teachers assistant nude photos all over the place appearing everywhere Teaching your children

Depends. Are we talking ghost TA or ghost children?*

Might go some way to solving school staffing problems... bring back a few ghosty maths teachers

That's the point though, isn't it - I don't know. But you're saying "I'd want to do this if I were dead" as if you DO know.

Being human would be a very different (and poorer) experience if we KNEW there was a new world waiting

What about people who do claim to know there is an afterlife. And what evidence do you have that we would be worse off if we knew?

Have these thoughts but can you try to back them up with some reasoning?

Not sure visiting the moon is a fair comparison - it's a physical entity that everyone can see; it's just far away.

I don't have the answers or a specfic theory btw.

As to why are "ghosts" always popping up - again, no idea!

This will be a common theme in my answers... cos I don't know! (Unlike the people who KNOW there is no spiritual realm )

re: caveman sightings, I would have thought the caves would have suffered from the upheavals as the earth settled, earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding etc. Just checked our 4000 year old mines on google which have been re-opened to the public, skeletons have been found, not a woo story to be found.

That's the point though, isn't it - I don't know. But you're saying "I'd want to do this if I were dead" as if you DO know

I can only go on who I am now. Many people visit psychics and feel that their late loved ones have messages. In that case, as far as they are concerned, their relatives are still the same people and still interested in the living.

I guess if there is an afterlife and we're not us anymore and not interested in anyone we used to know then I guess it's similar to the idea of an impersonal god. It'd be interesting to know how it works but there'd be no personal relationship aspect.

“Being human would be a very different (and poorer) experience if we KNEW there was a new world waiting“

A lot of people do know, and find it enriches their lives.

cos I don't know! (Unlike the people who KNOW there is no spiritual realm

I have never said there is no spiritual realm, that there are no ghosts, that there is no god. What I do say is that there is no evidence for these things at this point. People really must remember this distinction.

headinhands

People believe in an afterlife, yes. They don't have scientific proof. Faith is very different from knowledge. As one of the sceptics is keen to point out, NO ONE has successfully proved a ghost's existence or the existence of the afterlife to scientific standards!

No one knows it. People can have very strong faith, but no one can live their life KNOWING what comes next.

I was speculating about what life would be like if we knew it was a dress rehearsal. Sorry - thought that was obvious. Clearly I don't know.

But it seems to me that much of what is precious about life rests on its transience. What do you think it would be like if we all knew for sure we had an immortal soul?

I don't know what you mean Bertrand... No one knows of an afterlife. Some people have a faith that enriches their life.

I've read enough Enid Blyton to explain the footprints in the Canadian snow upthread.

Either the DH was trying to freak out his DW by stamping on the hearts and walking away backwards to the forest then precisely retracting his footsteps to the house. Or it was someone else trying to freak them out by walking to the house from the forest and then retracing their footsteps. Or it was an intruder who walked to the house, couldn't get in through the door and climbed onto the roof to look for a skylight.

All three scenarios are scarier than ghosts.

headinhands

I didn't say you said there was no spiritual realm!