Do you believe in Ghosts?

[dottiedodah]

just that really ,found some interesting things online that made me think .YABU ghosts dont exist YANBU could be something in it

Really? That surprises me because I've never read about them and nobody ever won the million dollar Randi prize.

I'd love to read more about the studies and learn about the scientists and theur credentials but Google doesn't seem to come up with much. Could you point me in the right direction?

Perhaps you do.

Oh bu@@er. My phat phingers.

Oh god, it's not daryl bem though is it? Him I've read about. 😂

Are airlocks really well known for causing mirrors to jump off walls and fly several feet forward where you live? The plumbers there must live interesting lives.

Ah - you see I just don't believe that bit.

Also I firmly believe that some individuals are more in tune than others to experience these things. Certain folks are quite 'low energy' and aren't particularly in tune to other real life people let alone anyone in a spiritual form. Those individuals would probably struggle to meditate even.

@Howbizarre22

Yes,

Ghosts? No. I’m an atheist so don’t believe in spirits living or dead.
Something we can’t explain relating to history? Yes.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one, so yes.

Not even a tiny, tiny bit. Likewise santa, the tooth fairy or the loch Ness monster.

Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer’s book whose foreword acknowledges that the scientific results of extra-sensory perception have been ‘disappointing’ and that the history of ESP research under scientific conditions is murky because of well-founded accusations of cheating at one particular institute and because the other main institute was funded by the CIA?

The remote viewing experiments carried out by varios branches of the US goverment.
Extraordinary Knowing by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer ( I promise I am not her) details it alll.

She summarises the scientific evidence for these phenomena at the time of writing.

That's a big part of the problem isn't it? You've first got to believe you are being told the truth.

And it's hard to say that because nobody likes to be called a liar but it's a huge thing to ask of others, to accept that you are telling the actual truth when you say, for example, that a woman floated down the stairs towards you then the dining table lifted up and touched the ceiling and the cat's head turned full circle.

And they may well believe what they are saying is true! Purposefully lying is not the only possibility.

Before I was put in a mental health unit as a young woman I regularly heard and saw things such as voices in my room, voices in my head, figures in shadows and things out of the corners of my eye. After I was sectioned and first medicated I saw a giant orange bodied spider that wanted to murder me because I had killed her babies!!

I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I had seen and heard all of those things and it was deeply distressing when people told me none of it was real.

Years later I had post partum psychosis and thought my son had died during delivery and been relaced with a demon. I saw his face contort into evil.

I absolutely believed all of those things to be real. They were not.

Pulling out the citations from the book I mentioned is not a simple endeavour, since I'd want to point you to the ones that have incontrovertible results.

Since this is something I feel strongly about, and trusting that you are actually interested in being pointed at some strong evidence for the existence of psychic phenomena, I will attempt to provide some citations in the next week ( I work and dogsit).

This is a rabbit hole that you will never come back out of

In 2017 the Pentagon stated that there's things in the skies that they have absolutely no idea of what they are

In July last year I saw something that I can't explain. If you ever see something yourself it will change your opinion on everything

There's definitely things up there that are monitoring us, where it's from I have no idea

No.

I hope you're not because she's been dead for 20 years 😁

No they dont exist

Theyre the fabric of a preconditioned mind that’s receptive to those ideas- nothing less, nothing more.

Consciousness can fool the brain into thinking whatever it likes, to be the truth.

See also: aliens.

Her book is a history of the study of ESP. No one is doubting there’s a history of studying it. It’s just that the results under scientific conditions have never been more than ‘slightly better than chance’, and the Society for Psychical Research ‘studies’ are anecdotal.

I think there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in my philosophy.

But I also think it's hard to understand an immortal soul, or a ghost, when brain damage/stroke/dementia changes a person so completely. How can an essence survive death?

I hope you're not because she's been dead for 20 years 😁

Yes, but if she is, I think this might answer the question about the existence of ghosts.

I used to work in a pub in my village. Used to be a coach house many years ago I believe, one of the original buildings of the village. It was split into 2 rooms with a long bar. I used to hear whistling but no one was there. I also lost the top of a drip tray. Put them all in the wash. Went to put them back and one had only the bottom part. I looked everywhere. Even in the toilet thinking maybe I did something weird and took it with me. In the end had to explain to my boss id lost it. She had a look too She text me the next morning as it had turned up.... right in the middle of the bar floor.

Perhaps we are- you just don't see them. Your home may be full of Marys, Captains and Fannys.

I absolutely 100% believe in aliens. I believe the universe is teeming with life.

I just don't believe they are hanging around earth waiting for bottoms to probe.

You have to ask yourself what on earth would any species capable of travelling astronomical distances want from a bunch of warlike apes who can barely get into orbit? What do we have to offer? Fuck all. We have nothing technologically impressive to any species that could actually travel here (if that was even possible) and the earth itself has nothing unique.

Advanced (to us) tech with countries spying on each other I would believe. Alien overlords watching our every move with some dastardly plan of world domination? Not so much.

Frankly, we're just not that important and it's only human arrogance that makes people think otherwise.

There’s a long take-down of the Mayer book here:

https://www.skepticforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=23281