[Closed] Have you seen a Ghost?

Nope, they don't exist

I've seen Norton Ghost.

I'm no stranger to dodgy spirits, either.

I did. In the disused mine. I was so terrified that myself and my trusty companion ran down endless tunnels, stopping only to stuff a succession of teetering, over sized sandwiches down our throats.

Imagine my disappointment when it turned out, upon being unmasked, that it wasn't a ghost at all, but the owner of the local funfair!

I saw a woman who looked like a ghost in a shopping centre in Montreal once. Then I saw the exact same woman on the metro a few weeks later.

Very freaky.

I did. In the disused mine. I was so terrified that myself and my trusty companion ran down endless tunnels, stopping only to stuff a succession of teetering, over sized sandwiches down our throats.

Imagine my disappointment when it turned out, upon being unmasked, that it wasn't a ghost at all, but the owner of the local funfair!

He'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for you pesky kids!

yes I have done..in an office. it was weird full on grey lady type apparition all hazy and everything. Freaked me out and the the scientist kicked in. Turned out the aircon had a fault and was reverberating in the infrasound range, which can cause the optic nerve to vibrate and make your vision "ghost" very odd experience. Makes me wonder how many of the traditional "grey/white lady" ghosts that are seen on stormy nights in long galleries in stately homes are from the windows reverberating at low frequency in the right wind conditions.

Nah don't believe.

A lot of it is to do with how your eyes deal or rather don't deal with low light.

They digitally mapped the Edinburgh dungeons in 3D and then got people to wander round it virtually wearing a 3D headset.

The virtual visitors experienced similar sensation in the same places as the real visitors.

They were basically being tricked by the geometry of certain parts of the room into thinking something was there that wasn't

Sssshhhhh, don't say ghosts don't exist, hundreds of towns and villages and dreary country houses with sod all to offer depend on them.

That great gift that sets mankind apart from the other animals is actually a curse for many: Imagination.

None believer here. In my experience it is the living you have to watch out for, the dead have never hurt anybody

I once got home from a shopping trip, place my bags on the counter and eggs started popping out of their shells and began frying on my kitchen counter. My refrigerator was making a strange noise and emitting a very bright light. When I looked inside I saw an otherworldly mythic pyramid-shaped temple in front of which laid a Terror Dog who suddenly glared at me and roared the word "Zooool!"

Weird

Saw one locked up in the bike rack in town the other evening. Carbon HT. Bit posh to leave there I thought.
😉

Had an out of body experience. Does that count?

A hot girl who lived down the street from me used to phone me up late at night and ask me to come down to her house because she was scared of the ghosts in her house. We were both about 18 and she lived alone as her parents had gone travelling for a while.

I'd go down there and she'd flirt with me for a bit, I'd sit there oblivious thinking she was actually scared. I'd then go home a couple of hours later.

I was such a moron...there were no ghosts.

It's weird, in that I don't believe in ghosts but if I read a scary book or watch a really tense, spooky film or whatever when I'm in on my own I can still feel a bit nervy and spooked out afterwards...

I guess it's just that if people push the right buttons then it will have that effect and it's just human nature.

Even as an adult if I've just watched a particularly scary film I might find myself looking over my shoulder when I go into the kitchen to make a cup of tea or something...unless that's just me? 😳

...unless that's just me?

Sat there nodding through your whole post, so obviously not.

richmtb - Member
Nah don't believe.

A lot of it is to do with how your eyes deal or rather don't deal with low light.

They digitally mapped the Edinburgh dungeons in 3D and then got people to wander round it virtually wearing a 3D headset.

The virtual visitors experienced similar sensation in the same places as the real visitors.

They were basically being tricked by the geometry of certain parts of the room into thinking something was there that wasn't

I can vouch for this. It was my pals/colleagues at Edinburgh and Glasgow Unis that did this. Interesting stuff

I definitely saw a ghost once.

I was 6 and I saw the figure of a woman by a local community center, one second she was there the next gone.

Thinking about it I'm not sure if was a ghost or a penguin or just a woman who walked off. Pretty sure finding my home made boomerang became my main priority just after the sighting.

I've seen Ghos****ch. Still scarred.

Oh, I love Derek Pacorah and his spirit guide Sam!

PSA!!! Sept 5th Theatre Royal Margate (Psychic & Science).

This guy is amazing...Psychic 'AND' Science in one night!

**** me.

I was such a moron...there were no ghosts.

And no ectoplasm.

I saw the holy ghost once. Well, I say saw, it was more felt. And actually I'd say the holy ghost felt me rather than the other way round. And when I say 'I'd say' actually it was what the priest told me to say. Whatever, mum stopped me going to choir shortly after.

not seen a ghost but a shitload of strange things have happened, I'm posting from my phone and about to go out with the dogs so this will be short (lucky for you :)). My dog Sam died, his body was in the lounge, we were going to the crematorium the next morning (wow, he stunk by the way), my bedroom was next door, door open. I got into bed, duvet up to armpits so arms outside, I felt something brush my arm. Felt just like a dog. I swear it. All you scientists can take the mickey but there ARE things we cannot explain.
There's loads more, but I must take these hounds out now. K

My mother does some volenteer work with disabledd children and adults, teaching them to ride horses.
there is one, early 20s bloke, who has 10 imaginary friends. Sometimes they all come, mostly just a few, different ones each time, and different numbers of them. They wait in the yard or the stable or wherever while he rides.
in all the things he has ever done with them and places he has gone with them he has never once had an inconsistancy as to which were there, where they were, even what he says they said or did. The sheer volume of stuff to remember if it were imaginary would be a challenge for someone with a normal brain to remember, never mind a mentally disabled chap!
Anyway, I was thinking, you know those films where only one person can see the ghost...?
.
.
.
never seen one myself, other than a few sleep-deprevation and exhaustion induced halucination in the middle of a 24hr race, looked real but I know they were rubbish.

Felt just like a dog. I swear it

Sure it did but of all the possible things that feel like a dog the very last on the list will be a dog's ghost.

Anyway, I was thinking, you know those films where only one person can see the ghost...?

The fictional ones yeah I've seen a few.

Karinofnine when our dog was put to sleep he used to have a trick which I showed him of flicking the double doors open to our living room, months went by and every now and again the doors would spring open as though he was coming it at first it scared the family then it was just accepted Teal was coming in like his usual self. 🙂

Also for years his fav spot was the top of the stairs waiting for the family to come home and for years and I mean years you could always smell him there (the house was well cleaned BTW) 🙂

I haven't seen anything, but the one common uenxplained sensation that a lot of people have experienced is a walking along a corridor or up a flight of stairs when you are suddenly aware of something behind you and too scared to look back...

All you scientists can take the mickey [b]but there ARE things we cannot explain.[/b]

There certainly are.

But if we worked really hard, and managed to explain them all......

"Ghosts" would not be on the final list of explanations anywhere.

I didnt actually see a ghost, but whilst at my mum and dads house, when on christmas leave from the raf we were sat in the living room watching tv, the living room curtains decided to open them selves. They were heavy curtains, fully drawn in, and there was no breeze etc etc.
When it happened it actually looked like the curtains were creased up in the middle a little, as if held by a pair of hands!
Unexplainable!

Some good reads here. SaxonRider contrat to my OP once swear I saw the same woman driving past me twice in a matter on seconds when I saw on my bike on a country lane. It probably wasn't but it was freaking strange!

Got my laptop fired up so here goes the Princess of Hot Air....

Drac: please list of things it could have been, other than Sam coming to say goodbye one last time.

Ghosts, the word conjures up charlatans and sideshows but I believe there is something, a force, spirit, energy which can span, bridge, cross what is commonly regarded as immutable.

It's accepted that one's mental health can affect one's physical state. Remember being head-over-heels in love and being able to bomb up a hill on your bike - that feeling of lightness, as if you almost had wings? How about when it was all over and you were devastated... that same hill looks like a sheer cliff face now. Remember that feeling? Same physical body, but something has changed.

I've read that a researcher's expectations can alter the outcome of an experiment.

A neighbour told me that Sam used to sleep outside. When she saw him stand up and look intently she knew I would be home in about 10 minutes. Now, at the time I had an old Volvo 740. It made a noise like someone shaking a tin box of bolts, but no way could you hear it 10 minutes away. But every time, she said, Sam would stand up and wait. This was me coming and going irregularly, so Sam had not learnt a routine.

Told this story to a man I got talking to at the water tap. His father had a budgie. Same thing, the budgie would cheep like mad every time its owner was about to arrive home - way before it could possibly have heard him and at all times (so, like Sam, it hadn't learnt a routine).

There's other stuff, I'll do another post.

Drac: please list of things it could have been, other than Sam coming to say goodbye one last time

If that's what you want to believe then no I won't.

It's ok. Let me describe my position. I'm confident in what I believe, but open to explanation/other beliefs and ideas. What I believe to be true may not be true, I'd like to explore that too. I loved my dog but he's gone, I have other dogs now, I love them, they will die, I will be sad, there will be grieving, I will rescue more dogs. Repeat.

How about this. Apparently (I don't remember this) when I was very small I used to describe being in a war (we did not have television at the time and certainly not video/dvd/blu-ray) with guns pulled by horses, I could describe the uniforms, the sounds, the smells of the gunpowder and all other sounds/smells/sights of war.

Didn't happen to me but a mate out cycling on a steep climb country road in clent in the.West mids trees an fields both sides with no turn offs said he had his head down cycling looked up and there was a bloke standing by the side of the road flat cap he thought it was a farmer but looked a bit odd looked up again still there as drew nearer then lifted his head when he was about to draw level with the bloke. Went to say morning No one there stopped to look but no pathways in sight. Freaked him out a bit. The road is very quiet and always damp as north facing so never gets sun on it and it is a bit creepy. But he has never been one to get spooked or make things up but this did said it was the fastest he had ever got to the top of he hill.

my brother when he was very small used to talk about his 'other' mum and dad

he used to tell us his other dad was a fisherman in China, and the lived in a 'house that wasn't a house', my parents asked what he meant and he said it was made of wood and grass

this was before he'd been to school or anything, no books about anything like that, no idea where he got it from, he hadn't been talking long 😮

op the receptionist is just pale and not interested in you

Sometimes when I'm in bed by myself or sometimes with the wife, generally after I've been drinking, the duvet will flap at the edge nearest me, all by itself.

out on a wet day running in the Lakes I saw a runner coming towards me with a black dog a few metres behind - as I passed the runner stopped and said hello - and I realised that under the cag and hat it was someone I knew - we exchanged route notes and went on our ways - a few metres on as I passed a signpost where I first spotted them approaching and I thought "where's the dog?" then realised there wasn't one - the odd thing was my friend had a black dog for many years that had always gone running with her but it had died a year or so ago

jekkyl - Member

Sometimes when I'm in bed by myself or sometimes with the wife, generally after I've been drinking, the duvet will flap at the edge nearest me, all by itself.

Flatulence?

Ghosts, the word conjures up charlatans and sideshows but I believe there is something, a force, spirit, energy which can span, bridge, cross what is commonly regarded as immutable.

I've read that a researcher's expectations can alter the outcome of an experiment.

I dont see what this has to do with ghosts tbh

A neighbour told me that Sam used to sleep outside. When she saw him stand up and look intently she knew I would be home in about 10 minutes. Now, at the time I had an old Volvo 740. It made a noise like someone shaking a tin box of bolts, but no way could you hear it 10 minutes away. But every time, she said, Sam would stand up and wait. This was me coming and going irregularly, so Sam had not learnt a routine.

Apparently (I don't remember this) when I was very small I used to describe being in a war (we did not have television at the time and certainly not video/dvd/blu-ray) with guns pulled by horses, I could describe the uniforms, the sounds, the smells of the gunpowder and all other sounds/smells/sights of war.

FWIW I have the outmost respect for you to continue rescuing dogs. When my dog died I knew I could never go through that again you are stronger than me.

10 years on and i still have to do the whistle for her every now and again and call her name 😥

All you scientists can take the mickey but there ARE things we cannot explain.

Sure. But that does not mean we should give equal credence to any old rubbish we think up. (See also, religion)

Most of these anecdotes will have a rational explanation. Mix something not readily obvious in with a bit of coincidence and we have "ooh, spooky." The human brain is prone to pattern-finding - ever see shapes in clouds? - and susceptible to misleading information, especially when tired or deprived of normal input. How many ghost stories start, "it was late one night, and..."

I got into bed the other night and could've sworn I could see it vibrating. It was an optical illusion with chequered bed sheets, and I suppose being bone tired and only having half-light in the room probably didn't help. But I was absolutely convinced it was vibrating, even when I rationalised that it wasn't I could still see it.

Something brushing against your arm in the night could be a mouse or a bat or a draft even, but most likely is you'd imagined / dreamt is as you were half asleep and expecting a familiar sensation.

The door opening could just be that it wasn't closed properly. Could be that a loving father had rigged a bit of cotton to it to help a daughter deal with her grief; "he's still here, look!" (Amusingly, the door next to me just popped open as I was typing this paragraph. Spooky.)

If a dog has a favourite spot where he spent a lot of time, it's not a great leap to expect the smell to linger. It's going to take more than a quick vacuum to remove twenty years of wet dog. Smells and memories are tightly linked; the fact that you expect him to be there probably amplifies the sensation.

Or, y'know, it could be ghosts. That's the easiest answer, after all.

Thanks for remark re rescuing dogs. I only wish I could afford to do more.

Yes, my post did wander a bit. It's such a huge subject. I gave it all some more thought this morning.

I think there are some kinds of energy which we do not (yet?) have equipment to measure. I think one of the names for these could be 'ghost'. I think that when one experiences an instance of this one interprets it according to one's experience/folklore/culture. Thus, different cultures have different 'ghosts'.

I think that some people (scientists), instead of saying 'we don't understand this' say 'silly superstition'. Because it is not currently capable of being replicated (for your empirical data) it is dismissed. Go back 100 years and tell people about mobile phones - an immensely powerful computer that you can put in your pocket, which can communicate, pretty much instantly, with someone in Australia - voice and video! You'd be burnt at the stake.

Yes, I believe in reincarnation and past life memory and recall, definitely. I have had other experiences of this. No, not imagination.

And I also think that just because we have explained something it doesn't have to stop being 'spiritual' or 'magical'. Yup, we know how things work, cells divide, electrons and protons whizz around and swap from molecule to molecule, but there's the why.

Yes, I do think animals have 'special powers' - see above re not having equipment to measure/record things so dismiss them as 'quack' (oh! see what I did there? :)).

You think I'm crazy? Check out some quantum physics. Wild! 🙂

Massive bump

...in the night? 😆