Do you believe in ghosts?

Zer0 · 01-05-2010, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duga

being a scientist i always try to apply some kind of rational explanation. the human mind is too powerful and uses too much energy to not have an impact in the unseen world. i say unseen simply because we only have 5 senses and we only have those because it was evolutionarily advantageous. there are animals with different senses than us. it doesn't have to be fantasy...you just have to look at a bigger picture.

I've always thought about there being more to the world as we see it. I remember being told by one of my teachers in class when i was young that 'most ghosts are invisible, in fact they're probably walking around the classroom right now'. This makes me think how can people see some ghosts but not see other ghosts. I've also read stories about ghosts being captured in photos, when supposedly there was nothing there. It's something to do with camera lenses being able to pick up more light than the naked human eye.

Freebase Dali · 01-05-2010, 05:29 PM

There's definitely more to the world than we currently know. That much is obvious. But there is also more to ourselves than we currently know, and I think people should keep that in mind before claiming an occurrence is based in reality or not.
Believe what you want in the mean-time though.
We all have that right. I'd just hope that if people are open minded enough to believe in a supernatural realm, they'd also be open minded enough to believe that it could be explained naturally in the future.

Astronomer · 01-05-2010, 05:43 PM

I'm not really sure if I believe in ghosts, especially ghosts in the traditional sense, but I have certainly had a bunch of seemingly supernatural things happen to me in my life, who seen odd things which cannot be explained. I'm sure there is SOME explanation for them but I'll never know.

duga · 01-05-2010, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BTown787

I used to have such a big problem with ghosts when I was around 13 to the point where it basically controlled my life.

I had always had problems with ghosts before then and when I was in maybe 4th grade went to therapy because of them. I can remember it starting in 2nd grade where I had a nightmare. In the dream I was at my cousins house and there was a big family party. My Dad had to step outside into the night to take a phone call and I decided to go out with him for whatever reason. He went in and left me out there and from the darkness this figure emerged. It was a lady without a face in a brown dress. I can remember waking up immediately in a cold sweat and running into my parents room.
I began to see that lady whom I saw in that dream in other places along with seeing more ghosts. There had always been about 3 that were reoccurring in my old house.

When I moved to the current house I live in when I was 13 it all kind of came back to me. The house is about 50 years old and has 12 acres. Having 12 acres where I live is pretty rare. Anyway when I got here I started to see a new set of ghosts which freaked me out to the point where I would refuse to be left home alone and needed someone close by in the house at all times.

I went to therapy once again but it wasn't only for the ghosts this time, I had really bad anxiety problems and I've come to the conclusion that both times when I had problems with the ghosts it was due to my anxieties because now that my anxieties are fully conquered I don't see any.

But I believe in ghosts. I'm not sure how much those situations influenced my opinion but from further reading I came to the conclusion. Usually when I try to explain my opinion on it in tends to not make any sense so I'm not sure how far I want to get into it. It always sounds better in my head.

I would explain it myself but due to the fact that when I do explain my feelings on this matter it tends to sound really far fetched.

I really want to make it known that I don't base my opinions off of this youtube video, I don't agree with everything he is saying. I could go into great detail about his book but I just think the easiest way for me to explain is to just show this.

I was kind of reluctant to post in this thread, and post the video, because I think I'm going to take some heat because people may think I completely base my theories off of a youtube video but that is not the case at all. I just want to make it clear.

If ghosts do exist I agree that it would be a big relief and I also think that it kind of makes sense that ghosts exist.

don't feel apprehensive about posting that kind of stuff...i love to hear about it. in fact, i have done a lot of thinking on the topic myself.

i think people who experience more "ghostly encounters" are people who are either born receptive to it or people who have experienced anxiety or a very stressful time. i don't know why, but maybe experiencing something so emotionally deep causes some subconscious expansion of perception. for example, the roommate i talked about had no experiences until he got back from iraq...now he has them all the time.

have you ever done any reading on near death experiences? it is highly enlightening, and has shaped a lot of what i think happens when we die. i personally believe in reincarnation simply due to the fact that there has been a lot of politically suppressed research on the subject showing overwhelming evidence in support of it.

one thing i can say for certain that happens when we die is that a ****load of dmt is released...hence the reason many people who take it for recreation feel as if they are dieing when in fact, the drug is completely safe. so safe that we experience a dmt trip every time we sleep (and why dreams are so easily mistaken for reality). how this has any relation to ghosts...well, i don't know i just thought it was interesting.

most scientists end up as very rigid thinkers. there is so much we don't know that we better stick with what we do know and chip away at science until we get to an endpoint. i do not think that way...i am so fascinated by how little we know that i tend to think anything is possible...including ghosts. i have caught a lot of **** from colleagues about this, but imo all of the great scientists in history have been big thinkers.

thanks for sharing that btw...i think most people would feel uncomfortable sharing something like that.

**Janszoon** · 01-05-2010, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duga

i think people who experience more "ghostly encounters" are people who are either born receptive to it or people who have experienced anxiety or a very stressful time. i don't know why, but maybe experiencing something so emotionally deep causes some subconscious expansion of perception. for example, the roommate i talked about had no experiences until he got back from iraq...now he has them all the time.

Or more likely, experiences that mess with your mind, you know, mess with your mind and you sometimes see things that aren't there.

duga · 01-05-2010, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

Or more likely, experiences that mess with your mind, you know, mess with your mind and you sometimes see things that aren't there.

i saw that one coming...but when 2 people can vouch for the same experience that argument becomes somewhat null

**Janszoon** · 01-05-2010, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duga

i saw that one coming...but when 2 people can vouch for the same experience that argument becomes somewhat null

Not really. People's memories of events are notoriously malleable. That's why eyewitness testimony is often very unreliable.

BTown · 01-05-2010, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duga

don't feel apprehensive about posting that kind of stuff...i love to hear about it. in fact, i have done a lot of thinking on the topic myself.

i think people who experience more "ghostly encounters" are people who are either born receptive to it or people who have experienced anxiety or a very stressful time. i don't know why, but maybe experiencing something so emotionally deep causes some subconscious expansion of perception. for example, the roommate i talked about had no experiences until he got back from iraq...now he has them all the time.

have you ever done any reading on near death experiences? it is highly enlightening, and has shaped a lot of what i think happens when we die. i personally believe in reincarnation simply due to the fact that there has been a lot of politically suppressed research on the subject showing overwhelming evidence in support of it.

one thing i can say for certain that happens when we die is that a ****load of dmt is released...hence the reason many people who take it for recreation feel as if they are dieing when in fact, the drug is completely safe. so safe that we experience a dmt trip every time we sleep (and why dreams are so easily mistaken for reality). how this has any relation to ghosts...well, i don't know i just thought it was interesting.

most scientists end up as very rigid thinkers. there is so much we don't know that we better stick with what we do know and chip away at science until we get to an endpoint. i do not think that way...i am so fascinated by how little we know that i tend to think anything is possible...including ghosts. i have caught a lot of **** from colleagues about this, but imo all of the great scientists in history have been big thinkers.

thanks for sharing that btw...i think most people would feel uncomfortable sharing something like that.

Yeah I had a phase where I was obsessed with near death experiences and I too think that they have influenced my opinions on the afterlife a lot.

I've toyed with reincarnation before and it's definitely a fun thing to think about but I still think that when you die you don't get instantly reincarnated. I think there is some downtime, I guess, and after a period of time you get reincarnated.

But that's a new thing I've been thinking of and I don't think I have a strong enough opinion about it to try to justify it although something like that can't really be justified.

I've read numerous times that babies can see ghosts but since they are just babies they don't have the kind of thought process to understand it. Supposedly once you hit a certain age most people stop seeing these ghosts but for some the window stays open.

Another thing I've found entertaining to toy with is fate.

duga · 01-05-2010, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BTown787

Yeah I had a phase where I was obsessed with near death experiences and I too think that they have influenced my opinions on the afterlife a lot.

I've toyed with reincarnation before and it's definitely a fun thing to think about but I still think that when you die you don't get instantly reincarnated. I think there is some downtime, I guess, and after a period of time you get reincarnated.

But that's a new thing I've been thinking of and I don't think I have a strong enough opinion about it to try to justify it although something like that can't really be justified.

I've read numerous times that babies can see ghosts but since they are just babies they don't have the kind of thought process to understand it. Supposedly once you hit a certain age most people stop seeing these ghosts but for some the window stays open.

Another thing I've found entertaining to toy with is fate.

ah fate...i believe in fate in a very indirect way.

now...i HATE to quote a sci fi movie...but i do really like the way it was put in the matrix:
"you've already made all the choices, now you are just here to understand them."

linear time is completely a human perception, time is actually something entirely different. this implies that everything that has happened and everything that will happen is still happening right now...hence string theory in quantum physics. that means that we DO have a fate...a fate we have made all our own, but a fate nonetheless.

i agree on the "downtime" between reincarnations thing, too

Davey Moore · 01-05-2010, 09:20 PM

Me and two other guys were walking around in an abandoned biotech building on campus(This is the URI campus). We called it the Skag Factory because we imagined heroin addicts crouched around in there and acting all like Gollum. It was a place we would vandalize.

At about 3am we were screwing around in the place. All we were on, or doing was drinking, and we drank at around midnight. I say this because the first thing people ask is, oh, you guys were high. We weren't. We were pretty sober actually.

Anyway, we were about to leave when my friend Wilson said he wanted to check out one more room. So we went in there and looked around. Suddenly we heard a noise, it sounded like somebody with a high pitched voice, and distinctly human mind you, go 'woo woo woo'

We turned around and saw a disembodied face floating there. It's head looked like the scream except there was no mouth. It just floated there and we stared at it for about four seconds. It didn't go away when we looked at it or anything. It just sort of stared back.

Suddenly Wilson just ran, and so did we. We got back to Wilson's frat house and crashed in his room, we smoked. Then in the middle of the night, Wilson kept waking up suddenly. He would scratch at his face, and do all these weird things. He would essentially throw tantrums. He would say to us 'I can't control my body, but I can control my mind'

The next day he essentially ignored us and was busy working on a piece of paper. It took him like hours. Finally he came to my other friend's room(it was me, Wilson and Ralph), and showed us it was a handmade ouija board thing. It was very detailed. The numbers went up to 250.

Outside of the building, there are tree trunks and pieces of trees that were cut down. Wilson taped the ouija thing to one of the trunks and dragged it into the abandoned building. We didn't help him, it was a foolish venture.

When he came back he said he knew the name of the ghost. Her name was Rita and she died when she was little. Supposedly, she was supposed to be a doctor.

A week later, Wilson's parents pulled him out of school. He's on a leave of absence. He certifiably lost it. I saw something which I'm pretty damn sure was a ghost, and a friend of mine who I always thought was a stable guy, was driven insane.

After that me and Ralph would go back there and investigate. Surprisingly, in the room right next to where we saw the ghost, there was a tiny little fetus skeleton propped up, as like an example of human anatomy.

Once when we went back, we were on acid, and we didn't see anything but I posed the theory that perhaps ghosts are merely trapped spirits of people who couldn't accept death, because surely a small child couldn't conceive of death, coupled with the fact that perhaps the buildings one lives in and such absorb the memory of those who live there. And the appearance of ghosts is like a faint echo in the fabric of the universe where the memories come back up.

My second story is this: My mother's friend, Lori, she claims to know about all the supernatural stuff and she claims she can see spirits. A member of my mother's group of friends(Lori was also in that group), his name was Anthony, and his brother died in the Station Night Club fire in Rhode Island, the one with Great White. Anyway, for a couple of days after his death, his spirit kept showing up, or at least his voice or something. Finally she relented and told Anthony that she couldn't sleep, his brother had been appearing before her and talking to her, telling her that he wanted to be buried in his jeans and boots. Anthony, knowing Lori has a history with the whole spiritual thing, and looked around in his brother's house. Anthony found a box in his brother's closet where there was a paper that was a sort of will thing, and it said he would like to be buried in his jeans and boots. When Anthony asked his brother's wife about this, she had no idea.

I don't know exactly what's going on, but I do know that it's foolish to outright deny a phenomena that is so widespread and has so many eyewitnesses.

01-05-2010, 05:29 PM	#12 (permalink)
Freebase Dali Partying on the inside Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5,584	There's definitely more to the world than we currently know. That much is obvious. But there is also more to ourselves than we currently know, and I think people should keep that in mind before claiming an occurrence is based in reality or not. Believe what you want in the mean-time though. We all have that right. I'd just hope that if people are open minded enough to believe in a supernatural realm, they'd also be open minded enough to believe that it could be explained naturally in the future. __________________

01-05-2010, 05:43 PM	#13 (permalink)
Astronomer we are stardust Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 2,894	I'm not really sure if I believe in ghosts, especially ghosts in the traditional sense, but I have certainly had a bunch of seemingly supernatural things happen to me in my life, who seen odd things which cannot be explained. I'm sure there is SOME explanation for them but I'll never know. __________________

01-05-2010, 09:20 PM	#20 (permalink)
Davey Moore The Great Disappearer Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: URI Campus and Coventry, both in RI Posts: 462	Me and two other guys were walking around in an abandoned biotech building on campus(This is the URI campus). We called it the Skag Factory because we imagined heroin addicts crouched around in there and acting all like Gollum. It was a place we would vandalize. At about 3am we were screwing around in the place. All we were on, or doing was drinking, and we drank at around midnight. I say this because the first thing people ask is, oh, you guys were high. We weren't. We were pretty sober actually. Anyway, we were about to leave when my friend Wilson said he wanted to check out one more room. So we went in there and looked around. Suddenly we heard a noise, it sounded like somebody with a high pitched voice, and distinctly human mind you, go 'woo woo woo' We turned around and saw a disembodied face floating there. It's head looked like the scream except there was no mouth. It just floated there and we stared at it for about four seconds. It didn't go away when we looked at it or anything. It just sort of stared back. Suddenly Wilson just ran, and so did we. We got back to Wilson's frat house and crashed in his room, we smoked. Then in the middle of the night, Wilson kept waking up suddenly. He would scratch at his face, and do all these weird things. He would essentially throw tantrums. He would say to us 'I can't control my body, but I can control my mind' The next day he essentially ignored us and was busy working on a piece of paper. It took him like hours. Finally he came to my other friend's room(it was me, Wilson and Ralph), and showed us it was a handmade ouija board thing. It was very detailed. The numbers went up to 250. Outside of the building, there are tree trunks and pieces of trees that were cut down. Wilson taped the ouija thing to one of the trunks and dragged it into the abandoned building. We didn't help him, it was a foolish venture. When he came back he said he knew the name of the ghost. Her name was Rita and she died when she was little. Supposedly, she was supposed to be a doctor. A week later, Wilson's parents pulled him out of school. He's on a leave of absence. He certifiably lost it. I saw something which I'm pretty damn sure was a ghost, and a friend of mine who I always thought was a stable guy, was driven insane. After that me and Ralph would go back there and investigate. Surprisingly, in the room right next to where we saw the ghost, there was a tiny little fetus skeleton propped up, as like an example of human anatomy. Once when we went back, we were on acid, and we didn't see anything but I posed the theory that perhaps ghosts are merely trapped spirits of people who couldn't accept death, because surely a small child couldn't conceive of death, coupled with the fact that perhaps the buildings one lives in and such absorb the memory of those who live there. And the appearance of ghosts is like a faint echo in the fabric of the universe where the memories come back up. My second story is this: My mother's friend, Lori, she claims to know about all the supernatural stuff and she claims she can see spirits. A member of my mother's group of friends(Lori was also in that group), his name was Anthony, and his brother died in the Station Night Club fire in Rhode Island, the one with Great White. Anyway, for a couple of days after his death, his spirit kept showing up, or at least his voice or something. Finally she relented and told Anthony that she couldn't sleep, his brother had been appearing before her and talking to her, telling her that he wanted to be buried in his jeans and boots. Anthony, knowing Lori has a history with the whole spiritual thing, and looked around in his brother's house. Anthony found a box in his brother's closet where there was a paper that was a sort of will thing, and it said he would like to be buried in his jeans and boots. When Anthony asked his brother's wife about this, she had no idea. I don't know exactly what's going on, but I do know that it's foolish to outright deny a phenomena that is so widespread and has so many eyewitnesses. __________________ The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.