To people who believe in ghosts..

[AnxiousAnniee]

I used to believe in ghosts when I was a child but as an adult I don’t. I find that there’s too many things that don’t make sense to me and just aren’t logical. When you actually start thinking about it and what it means to be a ghost, I think it just seems silly. I get that everyone has a different opinion though so I’m really genuinely interested to hear what people believe about the following questions…

• if ghosts exist and look like the person who has died, how do they walk around and move things without muscles or a brain? How do people hear ghosts giggle and speak if they Dont have a brain or a voice box? If they are just a see through sprit how can they really do this? You can’t move, think, or talk without a brain. And they don’t have a brain or muscles because they are spirits.
• similarly with moving things around or opening cupboards. First of all why would they do this? Why would a ghost turn a tap on??? For what reason? Secondly if they are so light and see through and can walk through things, how can they pick things up instead of just moving through them?
• if a ghost is a spirit and someone’s soul, then how come they are always wearing clothes when people claim to have seen them? Clothes don’t die and clothes don’t have souls, so clothes don’t have an afterlife and shouldn’t come back as clothes ghosts. They should all be naked.
• how come people only ever see ghosts of loved ones and scary Victorian children or soldiers and things? How come no one ever sees a caveman ghost or a chav ghost in trackies? (Again, they shouldn’t really be wearing anything anyway)
• if ghosts are souls then that means everyone will turn into a ghost when they die. Which means we are currently SWAMPED with ghosts. They’re everywhere. We’re constantly walking through them everywhere we go because that many people have died in the world, we are bombarded with them
• what about baby ghosts? Babies can’t walk so does that mean that there’s loads of ghost babies just lay on the floor all around us?

I’m not taking the piss here, these are genuine questions that I have asked myself when I believed. And the more I think about it the more I just don’t believe it. However, I’m aware that people still do, so I’d love to hear what you think the answers are to these questions and what you think ghosts actually are, and their purpose?

I don't believe in ghosts in the traditional sense either. If people genuinely believe they have seen a ghost I believe it could be far better explained by some anomaly of the mind, or even echoes of time or some other quirk or physics, rather than trapped souls doomed to haunt and terrorist this they left behind.

The concept of ghosts is incredibly interesting, but, obviously, like religion, they are a man-made concept that loosely fulfils a set of social needs. Before mass media ‘flattened’ and internationalised ideas of the supernatural, ghosts were a lot more localised to a specific region, culture or society.

I’m from a part of rural Ireland very badly affected by the Famine, emigration and sectarian feeling, and all the ghost/spooky stories my mother grew up hearing from her grandparents and parents were about ghosts haunting famine graveyards that horses would refuse to pass at night, or houses where no one had buried the dead, or priests trying to get to the dying but being prevented by the devil, or dying emigrants in the US supernaturally appearing at home or leaving a personal belonging at a family grave, or cemeteries refusing to ‘accept’ a Protestant being buried there etc. And fairy forts and cillíní.

It’s a culture’s way of trying to deal with trauma, unspoken guilts, difficult memories.

Since e erything we experience us processed in the brain I think it's perfectly likely that all ghost experiences are some misfiring of neurons, but would be 100%real to the person experiencing it.

I dont believe in the sentient interacting types of ghosts, but I've had a few experiences. There was an old man at the bottom of the bed when I used to stay with my great grandpa when I was little, and a guy in a 3 piece suit who was often seen in my halls of residence which was previously a town Hall. I remember it as more like watching a bit of a movie played out on thin air, no interaction at all just a loop of time repeating.

Now Time I find very interesting, multiple dimensions and time lines could account for a lot of these experiences.

I've just remembered about my dog too. Died recently and a few days later 5 of us sat in the livingroom watching the TV and every one of us turned to look at the same piece of carpet at the same time, the bit where she'd run in and roll. That was creepier than seeing the people! Never happened again.

But makes a point, no reason there wouldn't be animal ghosts as well as humans. If they were all amongst us it'd be crammed so more likely something to do with the person perceiving it than an actual ghost entity.

I am a skeptical believer. 99% of noises and visions can be scientifically explained, BUT 1% can't. Just because we are humans doesn't mean we know everything. I believe I have seen spirits and witnessed events, but these are MY beliefs alone. There is energy inside every living thing that needs to go somewhere when it's "body" dies. I don't know where it goes, but I believe that it does. I also believe in stone wall and time slips.

OP, can I respectfully ask if you believe in God? Should we question everyone who has a religion as to whether they have actually seen their God? This would certainly stir up a large can of worms!

Each to their own as long as they're not hurting someone else.

With CCTV and camera phones all over the place, how come there isn’t a single picture of a ghost?

Ghosts are obvious nonsense, for all the reasons you give OP, and for many others.

What’s more interesting is that people who believe in ghosts seem more touchy about being told they’re deluded than mainstream religious people are about denial of God and scripture. I suppose it’s all about a belief in ghosts fulfilling some personal need, but without the disciplines of organised faith.

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · Today 12:43

With CCTV and camera phones all over the place, how come there isn’t a single picture of a ghost?

Are you joking? Have you googled photos/videos of supernatural phenomena? You're fee to believe every single one is fake but theres no way you can say there's no pics or footage.

No I don’t believe in God. I’m the only person in my family that doesn’t believe in ghosts or god but I wouldn’t be able to bring this up with them as they would get very offended at the very mention of it

Of course they’re all fake.

You believe prank YouTube videos and photoshopped pictures of fairies, seriously?

One I visit regularly is haunted. The residents mention it frequently.

Watch the film Everything Everywhere All At Once.

I have always wanted to know do they see you naked or doing the deed, all feels very inappropriate

what about baby ghosts? Babies can’t walk so does that mean that there’s loads of ghost babies just lay on the floor all around us?

The vast majority of spirits just cross over. They say that ghosts are earthbound spirits. Mostly they stay earthbound out of ignorance or fear. Babies being innocent and having no conceptions or built up fears of hell and punishment have no reason to be earthbound. That's what some believe, anyway.

I haven't said anything about what i personally believe or don't believe but i was responding to the poster who said there were no pics of ghosts.

Oh lol it was you who said it!

1. There's no pictures of ghosts.
2. I don't believe any of the pictures of ghosts.

These are two different things. Make your mind up 😂

Recent TV programme I think on BBC2 about the paranormal which set off as a podcast examines all plausible explanations for the possible supernatural to quite extreme levels. Even getting a plumber in to establish whether a toilet could actually flush by itself! Plumber clearly thought it was all a big joke.

I think what made it all fairly plausible was the people on the programme who appeared rational, intelligent and open to other explanations for what they had experienced, not remotely offended by the disbelief of others. In fact I think on the second programme they tracked down a man who was now living in a monastery or similar who was hesitant at best.

I would have a look at that op, if you haven't already. I sit in the middle on this, not a believer but open to people's experiences.

This sounds interesting, do you remember what it’s called?

Yes similar to when you are buying a house and it’s got a ‘feeling’ and that makes you like it or not.

I believe in them because I have seen one, there are some things we just can’t explain and I think it’s best to accept that.

A ‘picture’ of a ghost that’s mocked up, easily explained as not being a ghost, completely indistinct etc etc, is not a picture of a ghost. There isn’t a single image of a ghost that can’t be debunked.

And why are these pictures nearly always bad quality still photos? Why haven’t ghosts turned up on CCTV or on webcams in nice sharp video? There’s billions of hours of these recordings, yet not a solitary headless monk, or chain-clanking skeleton ghost or Victorian widow in black?

It’s like people who’ve lived before - they are always Cleopatra, not Mrs Miggins with her pie shop

She means the ‘pictures of ghosts’ that exists are just mock ups.

Following in the hope of hearing some creepy ghost stories!

The TV Program on BBC 2 was called Uncanny OP originally a podcast I believe.

🤣