Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

to not be scared by seeing ghosts

105 replies

Handmethegin · 04/07/2019 21:53

Just that really. I just saw someone walk across the landing in my house, there's no one there of course. Usually like this incident it's out the corner of my eye but I've also seen ghosts looking straight at them too. Sometimes I smell things that aren't there too. I'm reasonably sane and well adjusted and I've been seeing phenomena for years and years. I was just thinking though that ghosts are supposed to be scary but it's not that I've got used to it, I can't remember them ever scaring me. Would you be scared if you saw a ghost? I don't feel brave, more like "oh look there's another one"
Well prepared for all the people saying I'm stark raving bonkers but I know I'm not imagining any of it.

OP posts:

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 04/07/2019 23:59

@70sWitch. Your reference is DR Sam Parnia.

WorraLiberty · 04/07/2019 23:59

And how on earth can dead people take their clothes with them, Victorian or Adidas tracksuit?

Even the Egyptians didn't manage to haul their riches over to the other side.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 05/07/2019 00:01

If you think about it though.
Would it not be more terrifying if ghosts didn't exist and after death that was it. That thought makes me go ice cold

IvanaPee · 05/07/2019 00:04

Would it not be more terrifying if ghosts didn't exist and after death that was it. That thought makes me go ice cold

Not at all! I much rather a proper ending. Why would you want to be a ghost?? And eternal life sounds awful. No end to anything, ever??? I’d hate that!

FissionChips · 05/07/2019 00:05

Would it not be more terrifying if ghosts didn't exist and after death that was it

How do you know they are spirits of dead people and not some other force or demon? If you look at ghost tales from around the world and throughout history you will find that the ghosts are evil spirits tricking people and bring great harm.

Original poster

Handmethegin · 05/07/2019 00:18

Well if they are, they're not very good at it. I'm still ok after 42 years. Not sure what tonight's apparition was tricking me into by walking across my landing?

OP posts:

StressToy · 05/07/2019 00:56

@Awwlookatmybabyspider, you don’t think an imaginative child grieving for a dead parent might imagine/invent/ wish for a night-time conversation with her dead father in which he says comforting things? For exactly the reason you state — that when it comes to a loved one, we struggle with death being the end?

FckIt · 05/07/2019 01:06

I believe you OP - I've had so many occurrences with ghosts, spirits etc whatever you wanna call them.
I've smelt things that would be impossible to be there in that moment; I've seen things out the corner of my eye as well as right in front of my face, no matter the time of day.
(Don't worry, we are all mostly sane)

Tinkerbell456 · 05/07/2019 01:51

I’m not sure whether I believe in ghosts or not. Obviously, there are a great many ghost tales around. People have reported seeing ghosts forever. This makes me think that there are too many stories for them to all be false. On the other hand, it does defy science and logic. What does puzzle me though is that all ghosts in horror movies etc are depicted as evil and bent on killing people. I find it hard to believe that if someone who has been a placid soul who never harmed a fly in life would suddenly become a homicidal maniac on passing away. Just my 2c worth!

Limitedsimba123 · 05/07/2019 04:49

I think I’ve caught a ghost on camera. I’m the least woo person ever and a massive sceptic, but I’ve watched the footage multiple times and can’t come up with an alternative explanation for what it is. I can’t post online or share as what I now think was a ghost was floating inside my neighbours house, passing the window multiple times for ten minutes or so, and I filmed from my house. I shouldn’t have filmed it really, I only did to try and slow it down and prove to the people I was with at the time that it wasn’t a ghost, as they were adamant that it was. The figure looked completely normal in real life, ie flesh coloured but wearing odd clothing. But on film it’s more like grey smoke with some sort of cape on. If I hadn’t seen the ‘flesh’ version with my own eyes I would probably dismiss the footage as trick of the light/tv. I hope I never see anything like it again and I’m glad it wasn’t in my house.

VivienneHolt · 05/07/2019 05:44

‘There are more things in heaven and earth horatio, than are dreamt of you in your philosophy’

It always amuses me when this line is trotted out by people in support of the idea that the world is full of ghosts and other woo, because it is spoken by Hamlet, a character whose mind is about to unravel, and is an early forecast of his ultimate breakdown and surrender to insanity.

StressToy · 05/07/2019 07:20

Yy, @VivienneHolt. And spoken by a madman at a time of massive religious and ideological confusion and dissent, and the beginning of what would become the breaking away of the Church of England and the ‘disinvention’ of purgatory, from which we assume the ghost of Hamlet’s father comes.

Not ‘I’m so open-minded, me, Horatio.’

TheFastandCurious · 05/07/2019 07:41

But how is it that nobody has ever in the history of the world caught one on camera

Loads have been caught on camera and cctv!

FloofenHoofen · 05/07/2019 07:47

handmethegin "There's too much I can't explain. The only time I've felt unnerved by any of it was once night when I was sitting opposite a friend who was looking slightly away from me with his head tilted a little to the floor. Another face appeared over his and turned to look up straight at me. This other face looked right into my eyes and it wasn't nice. All this time my friend hadn't moved and was still facing a little away from me. I stared back and said something along the lines of "don't mess with me", this other face moved back down over my friend's features then disappeared. Now that was freaky. And I can't explain it. No alcohol involved or anything."

That sounds like schizophrenia I'm sorry to say it. My mum has it and had the exact same hallucinations. She saw faces and all sorts of things. You don't have to have all of the signs though, sometimes you might have auditory without visual or vice versa.

Oysterbabe · 05/07/2019 07:50

My mum was very much a believer and we argued about it often. She died suddenly almost 2 years ago and definitely would have popped back to say I told you so if ghosts were real.

FloofenHoofen · 05/07/2019 07:52

The other thing is that people with schizophrenia don't know they have it, they just think that what they're seeing is real.

I'm not saying you definitely have it OP but I think the fact you're just proclaiming it's ghosts might be another sign that you have schizophrenia.

Anyway, I'll leave it there, not trying to upset anyone, but I know this type of mental illness isn't just something you notice, many people who have it believe that they're gifted or some other delusion, it's all part of the symptoms.

DonkeyHohtay · 05/07/2019 07:53

Course you did. Ghosts dint exist.

malmi · 05/07/2019 08:02

Read up on how normal, ordinary human vision works. The eye is only focusing on a specific part of the 'picture'. The brain fills in all the rest. In other words, the brain is perfectly capable of 'constructing' full motion video that appears to be fully genuine. It's literally doing that as part of your everyday vision. The opportunity for a misfiring occuring in the visual cortex (perhaps caused by a genetic condition) is vastly more likely than any other explanation.

SeaWitchly · 05/07/2019 08:18

I believe you OP.
I feel the same way about UFOs I have seen, only once... bright lights in the sky that moved in a way that I have never seen a plane, lantern, satellite etc move. I know what I saw even if others think I am deluded or lying.
I have never seen a ghost though (and have no wish to either 😁)

IvanaPee · 05/07/2019 08:33

Loads have been caught on camera and cctv!

No, they haven’t. Every now and again you’ll get some oddity posting the shadow of a ceiling fan claiming it’s Great Aunt Suzie but there is never irrefutable, scientific proof!

serenoa · 05/07/2019 08:35

Sometimes I get the impression that there's someone else in the room when in fact my hair has just fallen slightly across my eye when I've moved my head quickly. I have nearly chin level hair but no fringe, it's swept to the side. If I'm home all day I just let it dry naturally and don't give it the full brush blowdry and dab of stuff on the front roots that holds it off my face.

I don't believe there are such things as ghosts. The human eye/brain combo is very unreliable on accurate detection of what has actually been seen, from the black and white is it two heads facing each other or a candlestick thing, to peer reviewed studies of carefully designed and controlled experiments.

I'd like to say there are no such things as ghosts, but a negative cannot be proved.

Halloumimuffin · 05/07/2019 08:36

The problem is that everyone believes they 'know what they saw' because of course, why wouldn't you?

But as @malmi explained, we believe that our eyes and brain record things like a camera when they don't. You can't believe something just because you saw it or you remember it. Our vision and memories are a rough approximation of signals coming into our bodies, not a perfect reflection of reality. People's senses are probably the least reliable evidence possible, because they lie to you all day, every day.

mydogisthebest · 05/07/2019 08:43

I believe you OP. So many know it alls on here. Shame they don't ignore the thread if they are so certain ghosts don't exist

Nittynorathescalpexplorer · 05/07/2019 08:45

Ghosts are real but ghosts and spirits are different!
For example a ghost is simply a recording of past events.
The walls in a home act like sponges and absorb energy and if something happened A LOT or a person frequently visited or something really bad or good happened then it can act like a stain and create an energy to recreate that so yes ghosts are real
A spirit on the other hand is actually a real energy presence.

I often find that the people who are quite violent disbelievers are the ones that are most afraid! “ thou does protect too much”

Lweji · 05/07/2019 08:47

Well, I'd suspect something in your brain, but it's not harming you, so no reason to be afraid anyway, I suppose.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Swipe left for the next trending thread