Poll: Do you belive in ghosts?

[-BloodRush-]

Well as an insomniac sometimes after a few nights of not sleeping my mind will start functioning inefficiently. I used to be convinced that ghosts (or at least some kind of paranormal specter type thing) existed when I was like, 13-14 because of this, because I would hear things that sounded like whispers and my mind would turn certain objects in my room that I couldn't see too well into faces and eyes and things of that nature. I've learned to dismiss it for what it is, because it never happens when I'm fully alert, but it just goes to show how easily your mind can play tricks on you.

When I lost the mentality of "these are ghosts" and it shifted to "I'm sleep deprived" my hallucinations where changed to different things, became more nonsensical and nondescript. There was actually a test done, where they took two groups and put them in the same old empty theatre. They told group A that they where redecorating the theatre and they wanted their opinion, and they told group B some story that the theatre was haunted (which was not ever an actual rumor). To no surprise, group B came back reporting all of these spectral anomalies that where supposedly unmistakeably paranormal. Group A reported absolutely nothing. I realize there is a lot of human factor that makes this test a bit invalid by scientific method, but obviously by observation there is at least some concrete evidence that "ghosts" are more related to mentality than they are to actual physical occurrences.

but what about these reports we hear about that involve people who dont believe in anything supernatural, and all of a sudden they experience something? many cases involve more than one person.

 

[Snotnarok]

How can I be expected to believe in ghosts when there's no scientific way about it. The electrical energy has been explained, the "orbs" have been explained so I'm not sure there's much going on in that department.

All the shows of people going into haunted houses depict 6+ people who fully believe in ghosts and expect to see them jumping at every noise and gasping at every blip on a camera.

Ghostbusters make a more convincing case and that's science fiction. At one point I believed it, but after I hit a certain age I realized, nothings under the bed, and I've never seen a ghost despite thinking one could jump out at me at any time.

Believe what you want, I've never seen one, my friend who claims to see them is a bit mental in the face, and jumps if you say hi to her.

 

[HTID Raver]

only in videogames do ghosts exists. and books.

 

[-BloodRush-]

*edit* most of them cant exactly reveal themselves to the world on account that theyre dead and not famous celebrities. can you imagine the public relations necessary for a ghost to reveal itself like that? theyre like invisible.

A ghost revealing itself would be the arguably the biggest news story in human history. If they are invisible how come so many people have "seen" them? And even if they aren't invisible, how come none of them have ever got a piece of chalk and written on a board in front of a group of people saying "Hi Guys. I died a few years ago....."

The point he was making is that ghosts seem to do whatever the hell they want. Some can throw chairs around, some can speak, some are able to be seen. Why hasn't any of them come forward and revealed themselves in some way (which wouldn't even be that hard to do). After all, if I died and all of a sudden I was a ghost - I'd try and contact humans and tell them what the fuck just happened and I think all of us would. We wouldn't just walk around opening and closing doors and groaning.

Anyway, on topic no I don't believe in ghosts. Science has only come up with evidence against their existence, not for it. If ghosts existed we would see them every day, and there would be huge amounts of proof for them. Do people forget at the sheer amount of human beings who have died in our existence? How come we don't feel their presence constantly? How come ghosts only really tend to appear in scary old houses? Shouldn't they be literally everywhere? Why aren't areas such as The Somme in France absolutely filled with ghosts? How come most ghosts come from the Victorian Era? How come he hardly ever hear about cavemen ghosts? Was becoming a ghost more fashionable in the 1800s? How can ghosts walk through walls, but don't fall through the floor?

Not one bit of hard evidence can vouch for ghosts. It's all unverifiable rubbish.

They are still excellent subjects for scary movies though. I don't believe in ghosts, but they still scare me.

lol you personified one specific side of the argument of the supernatural.

from what i can tell with my limited knowledge of the subject, and research, it seems that ghosts barely even realize theyre there. its like a signature, or an after image of a persons consciousness. and there are people called "empaths" that feel what others feel strongly. those people would be able to feel the presence of specters and such. and yes they are everywhere, all the time, always.

like i stated earlier though, i'm indifferent in their existence. only thing i'm sure of is my own perceptions and experiences. and even those are compromised. :/

 

[senorcromas]

I would've thought the TUB OF WATER might have played a part.

Anywho, I can't say I believe in ghosts, but I DO believe a supernatural force moved all of your punctuations into one part of your post.

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry but I have to be a dick at least once a day, and seeing as I'm off from school...

 

[Kodosou]

I'm glad this thread has a whole lot less stupid in in than some of the other ones where people discuss belief in magic stuff.

First, no matter what interpretation you care to choose, ghosts are totally physically impossible. This doesn't just mean "Ooh, it just can't be explained", it means "No".
This sounds narrow minded, but that's just because the discussion and explanation required is so longwinded to into in a forum like this (Seriously, try me)

It isn't just our senses or our imaginations that play tricks on us. The entire set of logical filters that constitute 'consciousness' are incredibly crude, and are by evolutionary neccesity the very bare minimum that a hunter gatherer could get by on. We shouldn't be surprised when people think they see S**t.

 

[Scorp123]

Nope.

 

[-BloodRush-]

i try to stay on the middle ground of discussions that catch my interest. my own experiences lead me to know something that apparently has been "proven" to not exists or even be relevant. thats why i like gathering other perspectives, and i've found that people dont want to admit to themselves that science isnt perfect, and there are actually very few facts out there regarding many of these subjects. most science is still theoretical, even with something as concrete as gravity.

 

[sidereal_day]

Off topic, but why is every single poll on this site full of misspellings and grammatical errors? I know the majority of the people here can type reasonably well. HMM I WONDER.

Answer to poll: No. Don't be silly.

 

[-BloodRush-]

I lived in an old haunted farmhouse.
Many strange occurrences there like footsteps on the staircase, a locked door (for which nobody had the key) that would open and close of its own volition, cupboads that opened and closed on their own, a voice singing "Amazing Grace" in my roomates bedroom at 3am (her boyfriend was also present), among other things...

So to sum it up, yes.
I was skeptical until living in that house though.

i also feel as though the environments in these stories provide so much mental stimulation, that it'd be weird NOT to experience something weird. i'm not disagreeing with your post i'm just thinking because my own reality is in question.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

but what about these reports we hear about that involve people who dont believe in anything supernatural, and all of a sudden they experience something? many cases involve more than one person.

It's probably more related to fear or paranoia combined with knowledge of the notion of supernatural beings than an actual concrete belief in the supernatural. Like when you watch a scary movie that might not scare you at the time, but then lying in bed in the middle of the night alone in a quiet dark room you start thinking about it and it makes you uneasy, even though you know for a fact that the monster/ghost/whatever from the movie isn't real.

As for the second one, if other people are around sometimes their emotions project onto people near them. For example, it's the middle of the night and you're walking down an empty street with your friend, who all of the sudden goes "shit did you hear that?" scared out of his mind. This will most likely make you a bit uneasy, even if you think he's just freaking out, there's still at least some small part of your mind that harbors the possibility that he might have heard something out of the ordinary, or that something is around that made the noise. Eventually if your friend continues to freak out enough you might become overtly uneasy and start "hearing" things too. In some cases being with other people may amplify it. Plus to my knowledge this has never happened to a very large group of people. They're usually relatively "alone" within reason.

 

[Mrsoupcup]

No, I don't. I've never seen one but I think people that want to believe them, see them. Also, people in extreme fear or depression could see them as a result of their brain basically going "you need help" or "FUCK!"

You know that boy could've just been visited by a serial killer dressed in green.

Or a Leprican turned into a full sized woman because of gama rays at a secrect lab in the Pentagon, and started killing after it went crazy. = P

 

[historybuff]

I have no reason to believe in the existence of ghosts, or deny the existence of ghosts.

Today during school our teacher randomly started telling us stories originating from Ireland about ghosts. An interesting one popped up about a little boy, whose was name jack, a very depressed little boy until he was "visited" by a beautiful woman dressed in green. One day after a few of the "visits" the boy told his sister that the woman was going to bring him to a place where he would always be happy. That night the sister heard beautiful singing coming from her brothers room, so she went downstairs only to hear the servants talk about banshees. Now, I must warn you, if you are easily scared stop reading now. I'll wait........ is he gone? Good. The next day jack was found in the basement, dead, in a tub of water. This actually happened, jack was found dead but nobody knows what actually killed him. So, what do you think, do you believe in ghosts?

I just had to make a... smoother version.
But, as I said, I have no reason to believe in or deny the existence of ghosts.
No solid proof either way.

Thank you. The lack of punctuation was driving me nuts.

Anyway. Yes. I've had my own experiences. While I certainly don't think they are wandering around doing shit to terrorize us--I do believe that there are ghosties among us.

 

[The_Echo]

I'd like to say that I don't, but I've had experiences that really cannot be explained at all, so I suppose I do.

 

[-BloodRush-]

but what about these reports we hear about that involve people who dont believe in anything supernatural, and all of a sudden they experience something? many cases involve more than one person.

It's probably more related to fear or paranoia combined with knowledge of the notion of supernatural beings than an actual concrete belief in the supernatural. Like when you watch a scary movie that might not scare you at the time, but then lying in bed in the middle of the night alone in a quiet dark room you start thinking about it and it makes you uneasy, even though you know for a fact that the monster/ghost/whatever from the movie isn't real.

As for the second one, if other people are around sometimes their emotions project onto people near them. For example, it's the middle of the night and you're walking down an empty street with your friend, who all of the sudden goes "shit did you hear that?" scared out of his mind. This will most likely make you a bit uneasy, even if you think he's just freaking out, there's still at least some small part of your mind that harbors the possibility that he might have heard something out of the ordinary, or that something is around that made the noise. Eventually if your friend continues to freak out enough you might become overtly uneasy and start "hearing" things too. In some cases being with other people may amplify it. Plus to my knowledge this has never happened to a very large group of people. They're usually relatively "alone" within reason.

i understand what you mean. and because of this its even harder to determine whether something actually happened or not.

i want to bring up an experience of my own. back in high school i was somewhat into the occult. me, my cousin, my rival at the time, and my friend went to this forest area near my school. we did some sort of ritual involving symbolism and what we want in life. it was my rival's idea. so anyway, after this is done, the group starts talking about how uneasy they are. one of them says to look in a direction, we all look. I didnt see a thing so i figured we were all tweaking out and started laughing. my cousin swears to have seen little creatures jumping around in the trees, and he was more skeptical than me. so i'm there trying to tell them to calm the fuck down. acting like a big shot i called them pussies. all of a sudden i felt physical pain between the area under my right arm and my chest. neither of them attacked me at all. the pain was real as i stumbled to one knee.

i still have no idea what the hell happened. pissed me off though.

 

[maninahat]

There is a fairly recent theory that ghost sightings are caused by low frequency sounds: http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/ghost/ghost-in-machine.pdf. The idea is that 19Hz approx is equivelant to the resonant frequency of the human eye, so when a deep noise occurs at this level (which is near indetectable to the human ear), one is more likely to see certain things. Horror or thriller movies occasionally use low frequency notes to encourage a sensation of uneasiness amoung viewers.

 

[-BloodRush-]

There is a fairly recent theory that ghost sightings are caused by low frequency sounds: http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/ghost/ghost-in-machine.pdf. The idea is that 19Hz approx is equivelant to the resonant frequency of the human eye, so when a deep noise occurs at this level (which is near indectable to the human ear), one is more likely to see certain things. Horror or thriller movies occasionally use low frequency notes to encourage a sensation of uneasiness amoung viewers.

that is interesting. i'll have to click the link later though cus i'm in class. sounds like a very interesting theory, especially since i'm playing silent hill: shattered memories.

 

[Jadak]

only in videogames do ghosts exists. and books.

And movies...

And no, I don't believe in Ghosts, and think those that do are nutjobs.