Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think adults believing in ghosts are odd

328 replies

nothingmore · 09/08/2019 12:22

Hi,

Aibu to think grown adults believing in ghosts is a bit odd?

I have an acquaintance who is also going on about going on ghost hunts and 'investigations' at supposed haunted sights. Of course they always seem to come back from them and say the evenings where 'quiet'.

I feel it's a bit odd that a grown adult can believe in this sort of thing. They're obviously not hurting anyone with this hobby but I find it so strange they're certain that ghosts exist.

OP posts:
twinnywinny14 · 09/08/2019 16:58

I’m not sure about ghosts as such but I believe I saw my brother after he had died but before I knew he had. I was on my way to work and stopped to fill up the car with fuel. I pulled up behind a man filling his car up and had to double look as I was certain it was him- everything about him was identical and he really wasn’t very ‘normal’ looking, even down to the Levi jeans he always wore. I knew it couldn’t be him as he lived 100 miles away from me and would have no reason to be in my area. I did think to myself ‘hat must be how it is when you see someone after they have died who is so similar to their loved one. Only 8hrs later did I discover that he had died that and his body was found at the time I was getting fuel at the petrol station

ElizaPancakes · 09/08/2019 16:59

YANBU.

Zaphodsotherhead · 09/08/2019 17:04

I've read Paranormality.

I'm also a sceptic, but one who believes that there may be more out there than we understand. I think it's a little daft to think we know everything about everything, and there may well be as yet undiscovered forms of energy out there. Why is should manefest as Great Aunt Mabel (or, even more puzzlingly, in the shape of someone we've never even met), I have no idea.

ArtisanPopcorn · 09/08/2019 17:06

Ghosts, gods, psychics etc, I find it odd any adults believe any of it.

BohemianDream · 09/08/2019 17:07

@Badcat666
I have searched for this before and have never found very much at all. When really the amount of animal ghost sightings should be significantly higher?
I do like your username though, very fitting.

Zaphodsotherhead · 09/08/2019 17:33

@BohemianDream - head over to the Fortean forum forums.forteana.org/index.php and have a poke around. There are millions of stories of animal ghost sightings on there!

Some of the posters are barking mad, mind you.

gearandloathing · 09/08/2019 17:39

some people need absolute proof, scientific evidence to believe in something. fair enough. Me, I think there is the possibility that science can't explain everything. We have invented this thing called science, scientific method, and we think it is infallible but maybe there are things going on that we don't have the capability to be aware of through scienc.e

CitadelsofScience · 09/08/2019 17:44

Lifecraft I actually think it says more about you with your dogmatic view about the unexplained.

Yes in part I agree, of sorts, what you say about a certain demographic that believe more in wood stuff but they're not stupid, not remotely, it's how they cope with the crap we call life. And none of us have any right to dismiss them as stupid or ignorant and uneducated.

But I also know a lot of extremely intelligent people, some who throughout their careers in the medical profession in emergency medicine, have seen stuff that just can't be explained.

StarlightIntheNight · 09/08/2019 17:47

I have never seen a ghost, but I believe there is something after death. Maybe some people have seen ghosts. Sometimes you can have strange experiences in life.

For example, when my father was dying, it was only a matter of hours, I asked if he could give me a sign there was something after life and suddenly I asked if he could show me a shooting star, as that was something not so scary and that I have never seen in my home town....I have seen one before in another country and another country I travelled to...so basically twice in my entire life. He passed away shortly after that request and that very night, I went out to look in the sky with my mum. We sat for about 10 minutes and we saw some planes fly buy and just as I said, with all these planes flying by, how will we know when we see our shooting star? Suddenly one shot by (shooting star is very different from a plane flying in the night). Anyway, in the same spot a minute later a second shooting star. We could not believe. And the only reason I believe it now, is because my mum was with me and she saw it too. She was also with me when I asked my father. Never in my life have I seen a shooting star growing up and looking in the sky at night. I used to sit many evenings looking into the star lit sky, because it was so beautiful. So that is what makes me think there is something after death and perhaps some people come back and appear as ghosts. Or they do other things to make themselves known. But of course you would not believe it unless it happened to you.

Beclaboo · 09/08/2019 17:51

Why are ghosts always from a particular time period? Why are there no cavemen knocking about? Or a girl who tragically died wearing a spice girls T-shirt and leggings? This is what I don’t understand

I think OP it ties in with religion. If you believe in an afterlife then of course you will be open minded to ghosts. If you don’t then you will disregard the possibility of existence

dustarr73 · 09/08/2019 18:16

Why are ghosts always from a particular time period? Why are there no cavemen knocking about? Or a girl who tragically died wearing a spice girls T-shirt and leggings? This is what I don’t understand

Why is there no dinosaur ghosts then.

Thoughtlessinengland · 09/08/2019 18:19

Unless you have seen one you aren't expected to understand....

Super sound logic right there. Hey there are fairies down my garden. But alas you obviously wouldn’t know because you haven’t seen them.

Beaverdam · 09/08/2019 18:41

Well you obviously havent seen one.

LadyRannaldini · 09/08/2019 19:05

Not sure about actual ghosts but we once had a very very odd experience, a few years later we met a couple in another country who had once lived in our former flat, they had had the exact same experience a few years before us.

Jebuschristchocolatebar · 09/08/2019 19:30

I am a total non believer but I saw something I can’t explain and my husband also independently saw something the same night . It totally freaked me out. I definitely possess critical thinking skills so I’m not sure they go hand in hand.

IvanaPee · 09/08/2019 19:44

I wish people would post their woo experiences!

RedSheep73 · 09/08/2019 19:47

Plenty of adults believe in religion, too - what's the difference?

HouseholdPlantMurderer · 09/08/2019 20:05

I believe in ghosts. But I don't believe in any god.
Well... I like Stargate theory😁

Lifecraft · 09/08/2019 20:23

I think there is the possibility that science can't explain everything.

Well no one is denying that. If science explained everything, we wouldn't be doing it anymore. We'd have no scientists, because there would be nothing left for them to find out. So it's pretty obvious to all that science doesn't know everything

The fact that science can't explain everything and we don't know everything is not a reason to believe in ghosts. Because the science we do know, plus the complete lack of any evidence, tells us they don't exist.

If science can't explain something, then do more science, don't just latch on to any old cobblers.

Bellasblankexpression · 09/08/2019 20:32

I saw something in the night that I would have sworn was the outline of a man. I thought it was my DH but then realised he was in bed next to me and it gave me a real turn.
I realised, through looking at the same spot on subsequent nights, that it was the way the light and shadow fell, and I had been half asleep at the time so I think I saw a shape, expected it to be DH and therefore saw what appeared to be a man.
I’m not dismissing other people’s experiences and I’m open minded because I don’t think we can possibly know everything about the human body and the world around us.

But my experience, I can only liken to when we think we see shapes or faces in clouds, that other people can’t always see, because it was my perception of a shape/shadow.

tierraJ · 09/08/2019 21:07

I think grown adults believing in any 'woo' are odd.

Lots of my colleagues & friends included but I would never ever tell them that!!
I wouldn't want to upset them!!

I don't believe in ghosts, god, angels, spirits, the afterlife, homeopathy, healing, orbs, reincarnation, auras, etc etc but nearly everyone else I know does.

I actually have had hallucinations as part of schizoaffective disorder & i know they are just a result of being overtired, stressed & having a mental illness.

I think people who have similar experiences are probably either unwell or very stressed through eg grief or tiredness.

I don't believe in fate either as we can make our own fate.

Hearthside · 09/08/2019 22:22

I have seen a ghost on more than one occasion so i believe. I don't believe in God but i am not rude enough call people who do names because everyone to their own to believe what they wish .

BearFoxBear · 09/08/2019 22:33

I work in a scientific field. I shouldn't believe, but I do, because I've had loads of woo experiences. Loads. And never during the night, so it's not sleep paralysis. First time, I was probably about 6. Last time was a few months ago and I'm in my 40s. I don't believe in God, but I believe in what I've experienced.

ImogenTubbs · 09/08/2019 22:46

I do believe people have strange experiences and do see things, but that's not the same as believing that those things are ghosts (manifestations of dead people). Agree Paranormality is a fascinating book and I'm sure we'll keep discovering things about how the brain and physics works that will offer more explanations.

Sugarformyhoney · 09/08/2019 22:50

I’ve seen one, well oh and I both did during a perfectly normal evening where there had been no talk of ghosts or whatever 😬. Neither of us have neurological issues. I didn’t believe in them either til then
I think it’s bizarre that people believe in God but I don’t insist it doesn’t exist, because not one single person categorically knows.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.