[Closed] Ghosts?

Non - surely Most Haunted/Ghost Hunters/the local paranormal society and global equivalents of the above would have caught something conclusive on film by now?

Never understimate the power of the mind to play convincing tricks. Is what I would say. Having had a couple of similar "events", and being firmly sceptical about the whole thing (despite really wanting to believe in ghosts, because they are pretty ace in theory).

Human imagination is a wonderful thing. That and many humans' desire for there to be something more to life than just multiplying and dying (hence gods, aliens, etc).

Daytime sceptic.

Ask me again at midnight. Whooo-ahhh!

Up until this point you've been on my list of vaguely sensible people. Now I'm going to have to add you to the other list.

i believe in ghosts about as much as i believe in the following:
Unicorns
Dragons
fairies
trolls
homeopathy
an all powerful being who made the world and medles in our lives

Wooobob +1 you have an overactive imagination, eat less cheese before bed

🙂

Driving in the Peak District to Eyam a few years ago with the missus. We saw a runner on the verge next to the road. As we were driving past he stepped out. We swerved and slowed but the ****er was nowhere to be seen.

We both saw it.

We have no explantion as to where he went.

We were once prey. We have bits in our minds dedicated to look for threats, "monsters", predators stalking us. That's why you can often "feel" someone looking at you even though you didn't consciously see them.

I reckon "ghosts" etc are often just these senses kicking in.

I'm sceptical. But, and it's a big one, my father in law had a crazy experience in his house that I'm not sure how to explain. He was a naval overseer on Polaris subs, not given (or even capable) of 'flights of fancy'.

I'm thinking that the universe is infinitely more complex than we can hope to understand, maybe 'ghosts' are part if the bit we haven't rationalised yet.

grown-ups dont believe in ghosts, the ones that do i tend to end up receiving medication from people like me until the ghosts go away 😉

the human brain is an incredible thing, once looked after a lady who didnt move from her chair for over 48 hours because she could see, hear and feel a gargoyle type creature sitting on her back with claws dug in tight. once the chemicals in her brain were levelled out a little she never experienced anything like that again and hasn't been back in hospital for years now 🙂 medication free and doing great.

Perhaps you CAN help me phil because I keep seeing smiley faces in your written text... Can anyone else see those happy smiling faces? They really are there, aren't they?

Who is this "phil" you keep talking about don?

Who is this "don" you are talking too?

😀 😀 😀 😀 before 🙂 i can 🙂 assess you 😀 don i need:D to know if you're the 🙂 murdering sort? 😀 😀 if so its not 😀 😀 😀 a problem, i'll just 😀 need to bring the paperwork for our 😀 😀 😀 place in oxford instead 🙂 of reading.

🙂 🙂 😀 :):D

non - strictly speaking

I spent a large portion of my early 20s completely at the mercy of my imagination though.. so I am aware of the power of the mind..
but that strange time also gave me cause to wonder if there possibly [i]are[/i] other life experiences just at the edges of our perception..

On the other hand my other half I suspect would like to believe in ghosts and for this reason I call her a fruitcake at every opportunity.. 🙂

I always thought somewhere like Auschwitz, the Somme or Cannae would be very haunted places due to the carnage and death there?

Murder [i]is[/i] premeditated, no?

Nope not seeing any smileys here.

[img] [/img]

not given (or even capable) of 'flights of fancy'.

and therefore just as susceptable as anyone else..

don simon - Member
Who is this "don" you are talking too?

[img] [/img]

Caher, I've been to the war graves in Northern France and while there is an atmosphere there and they are very sombre, thought provoking places, there was no sensation of the supernatural.

I once pretended to be a ghost just so i could rub up against some fit bird in pottery class.

I had an experience when I was 19. I won't forget it. The climax was a plastic carrier bag travelling in a dead straight line for 45 yards or more before wrapping around my feet. At this point I did scream and run for the front door.

The climax was a plastic carrier bag travelling in a dead straight line for 45 yards or more before wrapping around my feet.

Making a note of this for the next time I'm caught in the toilets standing in a carrier bag.

imagine how many people die in hospitals, often in painful ways, 'too young to die' and with unfinished business..... had a family friend who claimed to be psychic, communicate with spirits and even designed and released her own tarot deck, she didnt consider the whole hospital thing until i pointed it out to her, all of a sudden she could sense ghosts around us in the hospital ward.

our understanding of the world is limited by several things, what we can observe, measure and record; then there's our imagination. there could be squillions of things happening around us that we're not aware of... the idea of ghosts however require a 'soul' to be left behind, a soul is a spiritual/religious concept that i don't adhere to personally.

I am sceptical too, although I would love to see something, or even see some compelling evidence.

My take on it is that our brains are basically electrical signals and our bodies contain a lot of energy: Is it not a fundamental law of physics that states that energy can not be destroyed, only transferred, so what happens to all this energy that creates our personalities after we die?

I spent a large portion of my early 20s completely at the mercy of my imagination though.. so I am aware of the power of really good acid..

FTFY

LOL brassneck.. very perceptive..!

the idea of ghosts however require a 'soul' to be left behind

Not necessarily, you could just as easily come up with a dodgy pseudo-science Dr Who style explanation:

loops in the dimension of time giving us glimpses of the past; the magnetic field of people being somehow recorded into ferrous material; partial rifts to parallel universes;

That kind of guff.

so what happens to all this energy that creates our personalities after we die?

Ever watched a body burn? Or felt the gentle warmth of a decomposing corpse?

(if not, pop round to my cellar after midnight...)

Nice bikes

Video killed the radio star.

The supply of dependable electrical lighting killed the ghost.

Are there any modern-day ghosts? Ghosts occupying s****y modern bars or townhouses? Ghosts in cinemas or bowling alleys? Ghosts in MacDonalds?

so what happens to all this energy that creates our personalities after we die?

eaten by worms, cremated and transferred to heat energy... that kinda thing 🙂

Mrs. S. floated from the bed to the ceiling when she was about 20. She felt the rough ceiling artex against her face and after a few seconds she plunged back into the bed. She thinks her heart may have stopped in her sleep (out of body bit) and then re-started (back to bed at speed bit).

She's embarrassed about it and won't tell anyone but me.

The Infinite Monkey Cage

Mon 04 July 11: Science and the supernatural

Tue, 5 Jul 11

Duration:
29 mins

Robin Ince and Brian Cox pit science against the supernatural, as they explore ghosts and other paranormal phenomena with the help of actor and magician Andy Nyman, psychologist Richard Wiseman and neuroscientist Bruce Hood.

OP I've also experienced this. Apperently (well I heard somewhere) it can be mould/fungous in the room that affects children.

Ghosts? What a load of $hit.

Makes good movie viewing though!

[img] [/img]

(Sorry for my silent but deadly...)

so what happens to all this energy that creates our personalities after we die?
Ever watched a body burn? Or felt the gentle warmth of a decomposing corpse?

(if not, pop round to my cellar after midnight...)

Quite probably, although these things don't generally happen in isolation and there must be some kind of interaction with the surroundings.

I am not saying they exist, or that this maybe a relevant point, I am just thinking of possible answers.

As I said, I would like to see some compelling evidence. However, as there hasn't been any (unless anyone else has seen some) it pretty much suggests that they don't exist. I mean, it's not as if no one has tried to collect evidence.

My main reaction to hearing most ghost stories is, as others have mentioned, that the mind is a powerful thing.

If you don't really believe in them they never show themselves.

[i]My take on it is that our brains are basically electrical signals and our bodies contain a lot of energy: Is it not a fundamental law of physics that states that energy can not be destroyed, only transferred, so what happens to all this energy that creates our personalities after we die.[/i]

[url] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy [/url]

I was reading this:

"Hello,
I live in Phoenix AZ, my husband took this picture with a disposable film camera on Halloween with me and my kids, when i got them developed at Walmart I noticed that half of the lamp behind us was covered, it was not when we took the picture so i asked to have it lightened, the developer hunted me down in the toy section to show me the lightened and enlarged picture, i was freaked, it looks like a black sheet is hanging from behind us like from i ceiling fan, i do not have a ceiling fan or anything on the ceiling for that matter, at the top of the picture is where you piss your pants, the face is something which i want to never know but i think we all have a good idea. the figure has a second body which is longer and continues into the next negative. I rushed home from Walmart and called my husband, not 5 seconds after i hung up all the lights in the house went out, i rushed into the garage to flip the breakers, when i returned into my house, i found my 3 year old son banging on the basement door (which i had locked previously for i have a baby that could fall downstairs if my 3 year old son opened it) i asked him why he wanted to go downstairs and he replied he wanted to talk to the tall man with the stick! I was shocked! We currently have moved out of that home for that reason, and now live in a new home near a church! LOL, i hope you will find this picture interesting..."

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Must admit I would be freaked if I saw something come up in a picture!

Can't make it out to well but the interior design in that house would make me want leave.

She looked like she was abit of a MILF. Probably a Gilf now though.

Of course, one could say that there is a very simple explanation for the ghost in the photo.

I'm not sure about ghosts, but goblins definitely exist. I've just seen loads of them in the middle of Manchester, mainly carrying Sports Direct and JD sports carrier bags.

LOL@Gary.

Ghosts? probably a load of tosh but you may change your mind after this scary video(not):

Ok this one is freaky

I didn't see anything in this one

Of course there are ghosts but they are not as scary as those maggots that ruin our lives. 😡

Ghosts might make you shite in your pants but maggots will turn you into zombie slave.

A few thoughts, if I may:

Belief in some sort of life after death is one of the things that keeps most of us from going mental - if everyone believed that this one life was all there was and that death was final society as we know it would be very different.

You have to be very naive to think that nothing paranormal exists and that absolutely everything can be explained away. There are things that happen that our tiny little minds can’t comprehend… at least not yet.

I think that ( as IanMunro says ) our brains are just electrical signals and wave patterns ... and that there are some cases where external electrical signals and wave patterns can influence our brain to the point that our conscious notices it ( be it a feeling or seeing of something )

By the same rational ... I do think there is some merit in the posibility of telepathy. I.e. you're brain being sensitive to another person's brain waves and signals.

I dont consider myself telepath by any means, however, I do notice that ( i.e. more than randon conincidence occassions I would say ) I get a feeling or sense of something going to happen, or something that isn't sitting right in my mind about what i've seen ... and that a few moments later, something along the lines of my sense does happen, or it transpires later that something did happen. ( i.e. i've all but stopped the car on a completely blind bend cause I had a feeling about something coming, and seconds later a car comes flying round only just missing me - the wife was questioning why i had slowed right down when the car came round - just had a feeling )

Its to the point now that the people I work with notice when I pause when I've seen something and ask me about it, or force me to have a closer look at it.

Hard to describe, I nickname it my spidey-sense 😕

PHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!!!

I'm more inclined to think that inputs to the senses can sometimes be 'spoofed' (by the brain itself probably) to make you feel or see things that aren't there than that ghosts exist.

The primal bit of your mind is pretty powerful though so that wouldn't stop me being scared $hitless in the right dark and scary situation!

If there are such things as ghosts, why should they just be limited to humans? Imagine if there were ghosts of every species that's ever lived! Insect ghosts 😯

lets just say i've recently seen one @ dusk after a ride. Not going into any more detail as *some* logical science types will probably shoot me down. 🙄

How Copernicus would laugh at the scientistism of today.

And Issac Newton, in between writing-up Principia and trying to turn lead into gold

Insect ghosts

Hah, DINOSAUR GHOSTS!!!

although i like you all really . I would just say just because you haven't seen one, doesn't mean others haven't. People understandably remember these experiences but do not often talk about them much. imho.

Hah, DINOSAUR GHOSTS

Been in to many situations and places to not believe even walking through Auschwitz & Birkenau
to not be a believer

I don't believe, but last year whilst on my bike i had a very strange experience to which i cannot answer...

I was heading back through the Netherton Canal tunnel ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherton_Tunnel_Branch_Canal ) from the North End to the South End Riding on the West towpath.

As i entered the tunnel i switched on my USE Diablo helmet light and set it to full whack. Riding along splashing through the deep puddles on the towpath i could just about make out some damp footprints on the dry concrete sections of the towpath. As i rode further and further into the tunnel (i wasn't dawdling along) i noticed the footprints become darker/wetter. I tilted my head up so the beam of light could reach further down the tunnel. I expected to catch this person up quite soon. The footprints now were very wet and there were other droplets of water around them, still i couldn't see anyone. As i had to be virtually on top of this person now i shouted out a few 'excuse me's, biker behind'.
I was now about halfway in to the tunnel, there wasn't anyone else around apart from me and this person. I splashed through another pothole, looked down to see how wet the footprints were (yep you guessed it) there were none! WTF?! Where had this person gone? There were no doors, no boats (in either direction) and no one else in the tunnel!
I got the proper heebee jeebies and rode the rest of it as fast as i could!

Could someone offer an explanation to that?

You'd made some poor bloke jump into the canal??? 😛

Surely if the wetter footprints stopped (started) suddenly and got drier down the tunnel it would indicate that someone got out of the water and not fell in. 😕

Ah, but the water was from the puddles was it not?

Perhaps the poor sod fell in, then got out and started walking backwards? 😛

Footprints were from the puddles and getting darker as i rode in. Water is only a few feet deep even muddydwarf could stand up in it and touch the bottom 😉

It was a ghost then, clearly.

I bet i couldn't! 😆

Wasn't. There must be some explanation..... Does anyone know the tunnels better than I? Are there any service doors that i could have not seen?

[i]You have to be very naive to think that nothing paranormal exists[/i]

Or just rational.

[i]Belief in some sort of life after death[/i]

Please.. I see more people die than just about anyone else on here, I've seen 2 this week already and I've still got another day to work, and I have never, ever, ever seen anything even remotely paranormal or weird or unexplainable.

If ghosts existed every Intensive Care Unit across the country would be so thick with them you wouldn't even be able to sit down.

By the same rational ... I do think there is some merit in the posibility of telepathy. I.e. you're brain being sensitive to another person's brain waves and signals.

Yep.. watch "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman" particularly the episode about 6th Senses. Really interesting stuff.

Ghosts ya say..... 😀

The picture clearly shows a man standing sideways on behind the children, you are looking at his left side and he has his left arm up with his hand behind his head. If you look at the bottom of the stripped material you can clearly make out the bottom of his untucked shirt.

You have to be very naive to think that nothing paranormal exists and that absolutely everything can be explained away

just curious, how do we define 'paranormal'...?

stuff that happens outside the laws of physics? - that by it's very nature, can never be studied/tested/analysed.

or,

stuff that we just don't understand yet?

Can't explain this one.
20+ years ago, living at my parents. My room was up in the attic.
Winters evening. Got called down by my Mum, dinner was ready.
Down I went, 3 flights of stairs to the ground. Left turn into the
kitchen.

Except...as I reached the bottom of the stairs, I glanced to the left. There,
at the living room door, I saw my Dad standing, looking into the living room, holding onto the door jamb.

Something about the way he was standing struck me at the time as very odd, somehow unusual and memorable. It was an odd pose, almost as if he was hanging onto the doorframe. But for some reason, I turned left, and into the kitchen.

Only to see my Dad sitting there, eating his dinner...turned to look at the living room door, no-one there now, of course!

I mention it to Mum and Dad- Dad looked clearly startled, Mum just laughed.

Fast forward a year or so. Very sadly, my middle brother, whom I was very close to in age, goes out one day on his motorbike and gets himself killed. Terrible, terrible thing. As is/was the tradition, the undertakers bring his body home in the coffin and 'lay him out' right there in the living room.They do a fine job, discreet and respectful, and when they're done, they open the living room door and leave us to it.

Dad, head of the family, who I'm standing right behind, takes the first steps forward, but then I suppose the enormity of what he's about to do- view his second-born's corpse- must have hit home.He stalls outside the living room door,clutching the doorframe for support. But I know this already as I've seen it happen, and I know when now.

As I pass him standing there, about to lift the veil and see my brother, my best friend's face, most of me is thinking "Oh holy ****, can I do this?" while a little bit of me is thinking "how about that? thats what that strange experience was all about!" But despite that distraction I still screamed my eyes out.

True story, of course, and I still can't explain it. Can emotions travel through time?

+1 sturmey
It looks like a guy standing sideways, with his arm extended over his head. If I were the woman and I didn't recognize the guy in the picture---now that might be more worrisome than a ghost.

I always find it very strange the way many people dismiss ghosts like those here. To me it would beequallynstrange if people dismissed badgers, for example. In almost every place i have lived I have seen ghosts, except for the years I was in London. To me they are so much a part of the environment. I'm no longer afraid of them, though I stay well away, I have no doubt they are caapable of hurting me if it took their fancy and I have no wish to provoke them I see them, maybe watch a while and move on. Then seeing and hearing folks deny their existence just leaves me in total confusion. How can folks deny something which so clearly exists??

that's either a very subtle troll, or an honest post, i'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

i can show you a badger sett, and if we sit quietly, i can show you badgers.

noone can do that with ghosts...

[i]How can folks deny something which so clearly exists[/i]

Give over y' daft monkey.

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia[/url]