Do you believe in 'ghosts'?

[Bump2021]

I'm not a woo person by nature, I'm more of a sceptic but there has been two or three occasions where I've encountered something unexplainable.

Do you believe in the paranormal?

YANBU - yes (please explain why)
YABU - no, it's a load of bollocks

@Chargebeam

The idea that you wouldn't do something that would save someone's life because of some woo bullshit would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

My body My choice My beliefs

I saw an old woman when I was about 12, out my living room window. I think the thing that drew my attention to her was the way she moved along. Her legs were moving at a normal pace but she was moving ahead quickly as though she was running. Her hair was so bright white and her make up was so thick.
I saw the puzzled expression on her face when she knew I could see her. I ducked down out the window when her eyes met mine and a second later looked up and she was gone. There was absolutely no way she could have gone anywhere.

My body
My choice
My beliefs

I'm not saying otherwise, but it doesn't make it any less fucking stupid and sad.

Talking of Roman soldiers, @1dayatatime, a few years ago when a dd and I were spending a weekend in York, we visited what (IIRC) is the very old Treasurer’s (?) House. There was an old B&W film of a chap who’d long since died, speaking about the time he was working in the cellar as a young electrician or plumber, forget the details. I think it was in the 50s.

He said how he’d heard what he thought was a trumpet, assumed it came from above, paid no attention until Roman soldiers started coming through a wall. He was petrified, flattened himself against the wall, but they took no notice, just marched on silently - and they were visible only from the knees up. He said they looked weary and dishevelled. There were a lot of them, eventually all disappearing through another wall.

He was questioned by historians at the time as to their dress, helmets, etc. And was told that what he’d described was wrong, but a few decades on, it was found that what he’d described would have been correct after all.

The other thing nobody had realised at the time, was that the building was on the site of an old Roman Road. Which would explain why they were visible only from the knees up - Roman level being well below even the cellar.

He wasn’t the only one to have seen them - someone else working in the same place had seen his white face as he eventually emerged and said, ‘You’ve seen them too, then.’

Dd and I paid our £3 each to look at the cellars but felt nothing spooky alas. Just damp!

I wish I could be a non-believing cynic but we had some stuff go on in our house when I was a pre-teen that just couldn't be explained away.

25 years later I have a semi-regular recurring dream about the staircase and one room in that house, and I'm afraid of the dark unless I'm in a very familiar place.

I believe in the unexplained, if your explanation is ghosts then why not? If it's energy or science or physics or whatever, yeah. It could be the same thing with a different name.

I had a weird instance in my late teens where I got to my bedroom door one night, which I shared with my sister, and just did not want to go in. The feeling was so strong that I dodged behind my sister who had been coming up behind me, so that she was now in front and, this was slightly mean of me, I gave her a little shove so that she would go in first. She had got the feeling of not wanting to go in too. She put the light on and the bulb instantly blew, and she says she saw a white thing float up from the floor. The house was a 1999 new build so not really ghost-fodder but it was weird and scary. We screamed the house down!

Me and many of my family members all reported having smelled cigarette smoke in the lead up to my grandmother's death. I hadn't mentioned it to anyone but once someone mentioned it, it turned out a lot of us had experienced it. She wasn't a smoker but her dad and my grandad were - we wondered if it was a relative coming to collect her, which she certainly believed in.

I play with the idea of going to see a psychic. I'm intrigued by it but also very sceptical!

I don't care whether you believe or not.
What bugs me are the people who slag and mock you for years.
Then they have an experience and suddenly they want to be best buds.

I don’t believe in ghosts but I am scared of the fact that two thirds of people who voted apparently do. Have now completely lost faith in mumsnet.

I think it's a load of tosh but I also absolutely love a woo thread so thanks OP

Whether or not that's true depends upon what you're looking for by way of evidence

No-one has ever claimed any of many prizes offered over the years for evidence of various paranormal events under observed conditions.

Why do you think that is?

@partyatthepalace

I don’t believe in ghosts but I am scared of the fact that two thirds of people who voted apparently do. Have now completely lost faith in mumsnet.

I’m assuming that at least some of those people don’t but are saying so for the same reason as @MyMonsteraisDeliciosa is on the thread.

@MilkMoon I agree! I didn't vote though but I'm sure I'm not the only absolute non-believer who nevertheless loves reading a bit of ghosty woo

I have been with a lot of people when they have died, handled dead people, done all the associated death rituals, opened windows, number of pieces of tape on the sheet etc, actual dead people have never been scary to me.
I think that's why what I experienced wasn't scary, that and I am a bona fide people pleaser dead or alive

It's really interesting to hear others stories, and reassuring. It kind of helps confirm you're not crazy or alone in your experiences, even if they can't be explained. It can still be a hard thing to dicuss because of the reaction of some non believers. There's no pressure on anyone to believe (or to read / participate in this thread) and no need to be nasty to those that do. It's healthier all round to be open minded and respect difference of opinon and belief.

I was so distraught when my DM died and was absolutely desperate for a sign that something of her was still around. When I think back what I did was quite bonkers but I left an open note pad and a pen on the table in case she could somehow write a message. For a while I left a tape recorder set on record before I went up to bed to see if there’d be any EVP. I tried to talk to her and ask for any sign she could hear. Unsurprisingly there was not one single iota of a hint she was existing in some way. She used to have dreams that then came true and was very sensitive to the atmosphere around an area or building so I do think if anyone could communicate she would have done. Once on a day out she said she felt the place were were sitting felt heavy and oppressive and sad. When we were next in the library we looked the place up and the bridge we were sat near had collapsed during its construction and killed the workers building it. She would go into a house when we were looking to move and would know straight away if it felt happy or not. I feel like that too. There will be a logical explanation I’m sure such as memory, smell, seeing a film or reading a book in which there was a similar looking house or room.

@BorderlineHappy

I don't care whether you believe or not. What bugs me are the people who slag and mock you for years. Then they have an experience and suddenly they want to be best buds.

That's really horrible. I don't believe in ghosts but I'll listen to anyones story and wouldn't mock them or slag them off. Whether ghosts exist or it was some kind of hallucination, the person was half asleep or one of the explanations people have given the person has still had that experience. The same with anything really eg I'm not religious but wouldn't tell anyone they're wrong for being religious, I'm not vegan but I love a lot of vegan meals and wouldn't be rude to a vegan.

What a boring world if all (nearly) 8 billion people were exactly the same as me, how would I learn anything or find out different perspectives and hear others experiences.

@DuzzyFuck - Would you care to tell us pleaae?

I am open minded about them. The way I see it is this....if we look at all the people who claim to have seen ghosts, they can't ALL be lying.

Then we take the ones who really did see something and discount the sightings which were probably shadows or hallucinations away...we're still going to be left with some ghosts.

I believe that true sightings are rare...but we would not have such a deeply ingrained tradition of ghosts in every single culture going would we?

@MrsHugsxx

I saw an old woman when I was about 12, out my living room window. I think the thing that drew my attention to her was the way she moved along. Her legs were moving at a normal pace but she was moving ahead quickly as though she was running. Her hair was so bright white and her make up was so thick. I saw the puzzled expression on her face when she knew I could see her. I ducked down out the window when her eyes met mine and a second later looked up and she was gone. There was absolutely no way she could have gone anywhere.

My DD had a weirdly similar experience where she saw a small child walking but not moving...she said it looked as though the figure was almost running but getting nowhere.

We live on old land...there was a slight glow. I have no reason to disbelieve her.

My sister saw a coachman in her kitchen. He was in his own rain...the kitchen was an extension and her house was indeed a stop for coaches to use when they needed to change horses.

No, because they never seem to appear to the sorts of people like myself who find it all a bit daft (which some people would likely say is down to my not being on 'the wavelength').

It's more likely to be a psychological/physical explanation if you're having hallucinations.

[quote PumpkinPieAlibi]@DuzzyFuck - Would you care to tell us pleaae?[/quote]

A few examples of the many :

The old style heavy 'push and slide' loft hatch would randomly open overnight (there was only me & my Mum living in the house and we didn't even have a ladder. My Grandad would have to come round with his to close it)

Ornaments having fully moved between us leaving the house and returning.

Things going missing and turning up weeks later in places we'd already looked or had been using in the meantime - think back door keys appearing in the tape compartment of a regularly used stereo.

Random items we'd never bought turning up in the house.

Cat & Dog both refused to go upstairs after always being happy to do so before.

Doors banging in the night but not a gentle random buffering by the wind, proper handle down, open an inch, slam, and repeat.

I was once woken by a full on punch in the back (could be a dream, but dreams don't bruise?).

Some of the above could be rationalised by the draughts and movements of an old house, but we lived there 14 years and this only went on for about 18 months when I was 10/11.

I’ve started watching the Netflix series thanks to this thread. That Dutch woman who does the voices of the dead! Good grief. Her and her whole ‘retreat’ just seem to be designed to profit from people’s grief. Likewise the blonde American medium - she seemed more plausible in some ways, but look at her OTT macmansion house; there is clearly a lot of money to be made from the bereaved. Unpleasant.

I’m fairly open minded to this stuff on the whole, although I’ve never felt anything personally, but this programme made me feel pretty sceptical. I’ll still watch the rest of it though - it’s an interesting watch!

I don't believe in ghosts in the sense of the spirits of people who have died, and I think most of the time, when people think they have seen a ghost, there is a rational explanation. Our minds can play tricks on us very easily.

However, there are instances that can't be explained rationally, and I do believe there is a spiritual world we can't see and that we ignore, or play around with, to our peril. C.S Lewis said, and I agree with him, that the Devil's greatest achievement is convincing people he doesn't exist.

So, I don't believe in ghosts but I believe in angels and demons. I believe angels can help us and someone might misconstrue that as a ghost. And I believe demons can deliberately masquerade as ghosts.

My story: I went through a phase of using psychics/tarot cards/crystal pendant. I often felt uneasy using the tarot cards, but they did, usually, get it right. I can't explain their being repeatedly right other than some supernatural cause. I also had a longstanding phobia of demonic possession that I couldn't shake, but that often kept me awake at night, and that had got worse after I got into the occult.

I then spoke to a psychic who claimed to be speaking to my dead grandma. The psychic knew things she couldn't have guessed and couldn't have found out on the Internet. But she also got my grandma completely wrong. She said my grandma wanted me to continue with the tarot. My grandma was a committed Christian and I know she would never, ever have said that. I had a moment of clarity where I knew 'you're not speaking to my grandma, but you're speaking to someone/something'.

From there, long story short, I contacted my vicar, went on an Alpha course, became a Christian. On the night I made a commitment to be a Christian, there was so much supernatural activity in my house. Someone or something really did not want me to make that commitment. But as soon as I did, it stopped and it has never returned. That was three years ago.

Believe me or don't believe me, but it's the truth and that's why I believe what I do.

I had a boyfriend who insisted his bedroom was haunted. I was skeptical at the time. He lived in a big old house and his room was in the top, it did have a bit of a chill up there and I preferred the rooms downstairs but they were let to other students. I was happy in the communal lounge but a bit jumpy in that bedroom alone.

One morning he was getting dressed at the other end of the room. I was sitting up in bed very relaxed, sipping a coffee. Suddenly I heard something like a tiny bell ringing and something seemed to flutter quickly from one end of the room towards me. I felt the movement of air on my face, heard the bell get louder, then it seemed to vanish behind the headboard. I was stunned. It felt like everything went still and dim for a moment.

Then I realised he was staring at me anxiously and he said ‘Did you see it too? Did you hear the tinkling bell?’

Apparently he’d seen it a few times. I’d love to hear any rational explanation for it. I wasn’t afraid just bewildered. The bell sounded a bit like those tiny bells you hang on Xmas trees and whatever it was seemed to hover by my face for a few seconds before disappearing!

@VenusClapTrap

I’ve started watching the Netflix series thanks to this thread. That Dutch woman who does the voices of the dead! Good grief. Her and her whole ‘retreat’ just seem to be designed to profit from people’s grief. Likewise the blonde American medium - she seemed more plausible in some ways, but look at her OTT macmansion house; there is clearly a lot of money to be made from the bereaved. Unpleasant.

I’m fairly open minded to this stuff on the whole, although I’ve never felt anything personally, but this programme made me feel pretty sceptical. I’ll still watch the rest of it though - it’s an interesting watch!

Sorry, have bookmarked this but not read it yet

What's the Netflix show please?