Do You Believe In Ghosts?

I don't. It's that simple. I can't see them, I've never felt any sort of strange presence, and more to the point I think that when you die you just, well, die.

My girlfriend is very much a believer and has felt them and seen them. And I believe her.

This thread started after I saw a comment from Dia that really, we're just programmed by our own DNA but it got me wondering. If there are such things ghosts, spirits or what have you, I presume they exist as some sort of residue of the person who was once actually there. I find this a little curious since it might also imply that this presence exists in this space despite the fact that we're only microfragments spinning on a big rock that's being hurtled across the universe.

But I'm digressing.

What are you're thoughts and/or experiences?

The house I lived in from age 4 to 10 was haunted, so, yeah I believe in ghosts.

[Edited on Nov 16, 2002 by crispy]

Once when I was a little kid I stayed up late cuz I was bored as usual and walked downstairs and I swear I saw this oval blerry flourescent green shape hover up and down. I don't believe in ghosts, but I still have that memory. Must have been a brain blerb. ya thats it.

i live in one of the most haunted cities in the world. and my workplace is haunted. seriously. her name is mary lou and she likes to mess with things at work. i have always believed in ghosts.

yes

I saw one out of the corner of my eye yesterday.

TXF

Yes, I believe in ghoss. My dorm during my freshman year of college was haunted - heavy doors slamming shut right in front of me, lights being switched on and off, someone pacing being heard in the locked attic, and, finally, having the ghost walk next to me down the hallway only being able to see him in the full-length mirror at the end of the hall was plenty of evidence for me.

Was that Charlesgate in Boston,MA?

Nope, it was Joyce Hall at Saint Michael's College up in Colchester, VT. Couldn't pass up the free ride, both my parents work there.

I believe!

I am going to start hunting them soon. I am taking the official Ghost Hunter course!

Too Cool.

I don't, but I'd be open to having some sort of really creepy undeniable experience that goes beyond wierd sounds in a creaky old place to convince me otherwise.
-I sorta believe in souls, so I guess I could be convinced that one could get lost and make creepy things happen.
Dave

I believe in ghosts. My mother has seen one. And there's lots of stories from people saying they've seen ghosts for at least SOME of them to be true.
I also thought I saw a dog out of the corner of my eye yesterday, but there was nothing there. I told a few people I passed I was being followed by invisible animals and they looked at me funny.
Then again, that particular instance was probably just the reflection off of a puddle being odd.

I really dig this response, especially since I'm on the same page.

No, I don't believe in the supernatural, really, of any kind. But as I mentioned, my girlfriend certainly does. And it isn't creaking doors or faint voices or other odd noises. She says she can feel the presence, very immediately, and is very sensitive to these things. Examples as clearly as in college, she would hear a girl crying in her dormitory bathroom with nobody there. Not a hint of a cry, but genuine, out loud crying. And you if knew her you'd know she's not one to fabricate stories.

I analyze the world in scientific terms, Western science if you want to be accurate (which isn't to say I don't believe in Eastern medicines, etc.). But if I don't believe in souls, what the hell is it? Some sort of imprint left behind? Figments of overactive imaginations? Centuries of boogeymen stories told as cautionary tales to our children?

I fear them because I cannot control them, cannot respond to them in any way of which I know. I have no way of measuring what it is, of guaging what it can do.

In a sense, I guess I'm blessed because I'm oblivious to this kind of influence. Or at least I'm told.

oh, the ghost encounter stories i could tell (and do)!

but by far the most interesting was the house i lived in when i was 15. the nearest town has an absurdly large amount of ghost stories associated with it for a population of 3,000, and its in the middle of nowhere basically. the house was 3 miles outside of town, surrounded by wheat fields. my parents commuted an hour away, and on top of that, i had had back surgery, so i was home alone a lot. i would hear footsteps when i knew for a fact that no one was there. i even heard someone calling my name a few times. my dogs would growl at thin air... i was telling my friend about this on the phone one night while home alone and one of the kitchen lights broke.

ack. now i'm getting goosebumps.

anyway, yeah, i believe in ghosts. i've never heard crying like you say your gf has or anything like that, but i have walked into places and immediately said, "you have ghosts, don't you?" much to the surprise of the people who live there.

oh, and most aren't malicious at all, but they are still kind of scary.

Growing up in that house, my brother and I shared a bedroom (he's 2 yrs. older than me). Shortly after we moved in, he started complaining about the "shadows" at night, poking and giggling at him while he slept. He took to always sleeping facing the wall, so he wouldn't have to see them.

I used to wake up in the middle of the night to see an older man standing over me, just staring at me ... not in a menacing kind of way, but just smiling gently. Strangely, it was rather comforting ... I remember waking up looking for him, and being disappointed if he wasn't there.

My sister (6 yrs. older than me) was at the age of extreme paranoia, and it seemed that someone was always "going through her stuff". She finally ended up locking her door before leaving for school (even though nobody was home all day anyway). The first day she locked the door and every day until she stopped, she'd return home to her still-locked room with powder sprinkled all over her dresser and little finger-swirl patterns in the powder.

One of my father's biggest drinking buddies was a grizzled Vietnam vet who often crashed at the house. One time he was awakened in the middle of the night by a man singing in the kitchen, apparently washing dishes ... he could hear the water running in the sink and the dishes clinking and clacking. When he walked into the kitchen the noises were as strong as when he heard them from the living room, but when he turned on the light, the sounds abruptly stopped, there were no dishes to be seen, and the sink was bone dry. He left right then and there and never crashed at the house again.

The family that lived there right before we did only actually moved four houses away ... they loved the neighborhood but were spooked by the ghosts (who they identified to us as a grandfatherly older gentleman and two grade school aged girls ... after we had already kind of figured that out on our own.).

I could go on and on.
I've actually written a letter to send to the current occupants of that house ... I still drive by from time to time ... but for some reason I've never sent it. I am still curious as to whether the strangeness continues.

Maybe one of these days I'll mail that letter.

[Edited on Nov 15, 2002 by crispy]

Holy jebus ... I think that was my longest post ever.

Sorry.

I do extremely and very much believe in ghosts, though I won't try to make claims about what they actually are. Like Al, I don't believe in the supernatural, but because I think 'supernatural' is an inacurate term. I would venture to say that 'supernatural' phenomena will someday be understood as fully natural. The universe is far more intricate than evan an overactive imagination like my own can begin to guess. It's all but proven that even our basic sensory experiences are highly interpretive, that trying to understand the world based on your physical senses is like trying to comprehend the meaning of a piece of complicated abstract art: pure educated guess work at best. Take light for example. There isn't really any such thing as light, it's more like a very high speed vibration. It's like a very high pitched sound, which does not really exist outside our brains either. The world is very weird down to it's smallest detail. Bear that in mind at all times. How you interpret that strangeness is up to you.

ive never been prevey to (is that the right phrase?) a ghost, but im not gonna say that they dont exist.... my philosophy in life is that nothing is outside the realm of possiblity until it has been disproven beyone a shadow of a doubt (or something to that effect) and although ive never seen anything to make me believe in ghosts, ive never seen anything to make me disbelieve them. so i guess ill believe in them, when i see one...

i do believe in ghosts, and i do believe in spirits...i think...i've never encountered a ghost, though

but, for those of you who prefer to think of it in scientific terms, when i was 12 my best friend and i came up with a theory that what people actually thought of as 'ghosts' were actually just blips in the space/time continuum. the 'ghosts' that we see are just images of the past, that crossed over into the present.

not bad for a couple of 12 year olds, eh?

But would those 'blips' be able to interact, or would they just be projections of actions in a distant time?

yes, i fully believe in ghosts. i have seen them. but not at all in a spooky way, just an impression of the person, passing through a room, or being in the room, but not prominent....visual, nonetheless...hard to explain unless you have see it too...

the latter.

i guess that would mean that the people who actually 'interact' with ghosts are just 'cray-zay'

which i don't necessarily believe, either. like i said, i believe in spirits

and then, of course, that was my first board posty, so i didn't bother to read anything until afterwards...and ya'll know what i am talking about, thank golly.

But Prudence, how would you explain my sister's powder squiggles or my brother's pokings?

just curious ...

here's the text of my proposed letter ... I'll take opinions as to whether or not to send it. Anyway:

Hello current residents of 928,

You're probably going to think that I'm some kind of weirdo or something, but I've wanted to do this for a number of years now, so please indulge me.

From 1973 through 1978 our family lived at 928 Stewart Avenue. I was only four years old at the time that we first moved in, and only 10 when we moved out, so I remember only bits and pieces of my actual time living there. Of course there are pictures and stories and accounts from the rest of the family, but, in my position as the "baby" of the household you always have to wonder what is truth and what is conjecture passed off as truth.

I just want to ask one question about life in good old 928…

Have you ever had experiences within the home that you couldn't explain?
If so, I'd be supremely interested in hearing about them.


In any case, I thank you for your time.

Regards,

Chris P*******


[Edited on Sep 12, 2004 by crispy]