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Philosophy/religion

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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Have you ever seen a ghost?

323 replies

BCBG · 10/02/2015 21:16

Serious question - have you ever seen a ghost? If so, why are you certain about what you saw? Could it have been a natural phenomenon? I ask because something I saw is preying on my mind. I was driving through a village on the East Sussex border one afternoon last year, thinking of God knows what, radio on, when all of a sudden the car filled with the smell of fuel (which makes me feel ill ). I then realised a plane was flying very low left to right across the road, so low that I thought it would crash. I couldn't see any markings on the plane but I remember the shape very clearly. I don't remember whether or not there was any noise, but I was so shocked I brought the car to a standstill and looked back across the road. I realised that to my right the land fell away very sharply, so it would have been possible for a plane to fly over me and then clear the trees heading off over the valley (i think) except that I couldn't see any plane. I honestly stood there and listened for an impact. I could still smell this incredible odour of aviation fuel (like when you are crossing the tarmac sometimes on a small airport and the wind catches you, only much stronger). Never thought about ghosts before, but I still wonder what exactly I saw that day.

OP posts:
BertrandRussell · 13/08/2015 09:10

"you have to believe me because I'm clearly more educated than you and I'm right and you're wrong and obviously stupid or feeble, and I can come up with an explanation for everything. But oh wait, I don't actually have an explanation for that or that, but I'm sure there is one that supports my view I just don't know what it is, so of course I'm still right and you're wrong...."

Yeah- well that would be ridiculous. Has anyone actually said that?

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/08/2015 09:13

Yes more or less Bertrand. Thats pretty much a précis of the two ranters on here.

BertrandRussell · 13/08/2015 09:13

"
There you go again TTWK making things up. Mnhq didn't say that."

Yes they did.

"The thread is being rather derailed by folk who, by their own admission, have no interest in the subject matter and regard is as woo. Which is fine, obviously, but surely easier just to hide the topic, no?"

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/08/2015 09:18

Yes that was following 'the if you can't discuss it naicely..' bit. Fair enough. If you can't discuss it reasonably and nicely then you shouldn't be on this - or any thread - at all. The subsequent suggestion to hide the thread by mnhq if you can't deal with a subject without frothing is excellent.

BertrandRussell · 13/08/2015 09:20

People often seem to think that if you are interested in, or knowledgable about the paranormal, you also have to believe in it.

Not true.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/08/2015 09:27

I don't think people who are interested have to believe Bertrand. I think you have people that absolutely don't believe but enjoy the subject, and people who absolutely do, but the vast majority are somewhere in the middle if they think about it at all.

I'm staggered by the venom spouted by the two non believers on here, and actually curious to know why. I think either they're totally obnoxious wind-up characters which is what I think and is how they come across to me, or possibly they are frightened themselves and keen to put their fingers in their ears and shout la-la-la as loudly as they can to stop everyone's else's opinions.

I am quietly confident in my own experience, they seem not so.

Littleham · 13/08/2015 09:31

Whilst I don't believe in ghosts I did want to share my family story with a friendly crowd and explore possible explanations.

I did not expect a personal attack and have reported it.

BertrandRussell · 13/08/2015 09:33

Well, as I said earlier, if you think, as I do, that belief in the paranormal and pseudoscience is hugely damaging to individuals and to society, and that the level of scientific ignorance shown by many people is utterly shocking it is a bit difficult to keep your cool sometimes...............

Littleham · 13/08/2015 09:34

I wasn't referring to you.

AlanPacino · 13/08/2015 09:37

Have MNHQ deleted any of the posts on here?

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/08/2015 09:37

Well I suggest people try and keep
their cool a bit better if they want to change people's minds. Frothing and spitting does nothing but make them look spiteful and nasty, and who's going to change their mind because of someone like that?

Littleham · 13/08/2015 09:39

No but I would like to ask for the one personal attack to be deleted please.

Degustibusnonestdisputandem · 13/08/2015 09:41

I work in a scientific field, and am very happy to say: "I don't know". I think these things probably will be explained one day.

What I don't get is the vitriol spouted on this thread. Why the need for such venom? Confused

BertrandRussell · 13/08/2015 09:42

Littleham- unless I am missing something- if Mumsnet considers what happened to you a personal attack they will be utterly failing in their role as moderators.

BertrandRussell · 13/08/2015 09:44

How about we agree that some people get a bit heated, and just carry on? Otherwise the whole thread will be full of comments on the posting style of a couple of people- there has been very little "vitriol". But focussing on what there has been is a very good way of avoiding actual, grown up discussion.

Pedestriana · 13/08/2015 09:45

Will someone who is 'non woo' please explain this one to me please? I have tried to find a rational explanation.

Out at a country park doing an early morning walk. Standing 10 metres from building. Not under trees, but under clear skies. No adjacent bushes/plants or anything with which to make physical contact. My group arrive and stand approx 2 metres in front of me.
I talk about various things and having concluded my talk feel a clip on the top, outer part of my ear.

There are no muscles on the part of the ear where I felt the contact (I have checked diagrams). There was nothing on the floor beside, in front of, or behind me. There was nobody within 2 metres of me to have made physical contact.

A minor thing, yes, but I still can't work out how I felt a clip around the ear.

Degustibusnonestdisputandem · 13/08/2015 09:45

Well I see a fair bit of bullying going on.

Pedestriana · 13/08/2015 09:46

To add to the above. No stings or bites received from any insects. Checked that too.

DioneTheDiabolist · 13/08/2015 09:56

Bert, how are the stories on this thread harmful to individuals or society?

Littleham · 13/08/2015 09:57

I only just reported the one personal attack. However I would happily accept an apology if it is forthcoming and move on.

AlanPacino · 13/08/2015 10:00

For something to have physically clipped you it would have had to have muscles because, as you have established, muscles are needed to do certain things, muscles need a supply of oxygen and a functioning brain to control them that is being fed by oxygen from lungs. If, as I believe you are getting at, you think a person who wasn't physical and therefore couldn't be seen, clipped your ear they had to have had all these parts of their body working and functioning just like yours does. Can you see where this is going?

AlanPacino · 13/08/2015 10:02

Without being patronising, and I really don't mean to it's about working forwards from what you know, rather than working backwards. Assuming it is a ghost because you don't yet know is working backwards. Would you be impressed if you took your car to the garage after it made strange sounds and the mechanic said he thought there was a demon inside your engine? No, he works forwards from what he knows about the world. He doesn't jump to a cause that there is no evidence for.

BertrandRussell · 13/08/2015 10:04

"There are no muscles on the part of the ear where I felt the contact (I have checked diagrams)."

Well, there are muscles all over your body. But crucially, there are plenty of nerves in the ear.

Coincidentally, I am currently suffering from Bell's Palsy-which means that the muscleson one side of my face aren't working properly. As the movement is coming back, I am getting all sorts of random pains- some sharp (I could imagine someone was sticking a needle in my ear - some dull- like a hand pushing against my ear.

So I would say that your sensation was some sort of nerve spasm. Bodies are odd.

Pedestriana · 13/08/2015 10:08

Bertrand that is helpful. Nerve spasm could correlate to the experience. Is it likely that it could only ever be experienced once?
This really felt like someone giving me a ringing slap. I had never felt it before, nor have I since.

Pedestriana · 13/08/2015 10:09

Alan sorry, wasn't ignoring you. It felt like someone hitting me, but there was nobody close enough to do so. Several years on, I am still trying to reason it out.