Do you believe in ghosts?

[Callisto]

I just finished reading Mary Roach's book Spook which is about the afterlife but also discusses ghosts and other supernatural beings. It's an alright book (though I highly recommend her other two, Bonk and Stiff) but it definitely has some interesting points to it. Apparently there is a study that has shown that Infrasound(outside our range of hearing) can make a person feel like there is a presence around them and even produce mild hallucinations which one scientist hypothesizes may be the cause of some the reported ghosts.


WITHOUT GETTING INTO RELIGION, what are your thoughts on ghosts? Do they exist? Any weird experiences that you've had?

 

[dragonfly411]

Personally I believe. I believe because we as beings have souls, and I believe that ghosts are those souls in limbo. I haven't really decided to myself what that means per say, if they are stuck, if they have unfinished business, if they are waiting to be reborn. But I do believe.

I actually had one that followed me for a very long time, that I believe is the same that followed my mother for a very long time. It is a male presence, who we believe to be my great step grandfather. When he was alive he was very cruel to my mom. After he passed, she would wake up in the night to this male presence standing over her. It started with me when I was a teenager (which is the age he knew her at, and most recognized her, and I look very much like her). I would wake up and feel as if someone was watching me from the closet. It got progressively worse for me. My tv and radio in my room would turn themselves on and off. My closet door would slam of it's own accord. If I was on the computer, the disc drives would go in and out by themselves. The last thing in that house (our first house that I grew up in) was that I had a tear shaped blown glass decoration hanging from a shelf over my tv. Our AC was off, and it began spinning... like a pendulum. It was constant for at least five minutes before my mom came in. I showed her and we watched it for another few minutes before she finally stopped it. Nothing had touched it before.

After we moved, I still would wake up to the presence watching me, either from my balcony, or my bathroom at our farm house. My door there would not stay open. If I opened it, it would shut. Sometimes it was abrupt, sometimes it was slow. It also followed me down south when I lived there, and again, I would wake up to the presence watching from different areas in the room, closet or bathroom.

It finally stopped after we moved back up here, probably because I am now past an age of recognition? That is what I believe at least.

I've felt, seen and heard other things as well, though some of you might think I'm a bit silly.

 

[kenny]

No.

But if they are real they don't care what I believe.

 

[radiantquest]

I really do. Some people think that it is silly, but I know. My and mom too have a thing with a ghost. We dont know who it is, but it never hurts us just does things. There were a couple times that it scared me, but it never hurt me so whatever. It would do funny things with my mom. Like out of nowhere there was a little army man that came. We would find him several times a day in different places in the house. Another thing that was funny was the ghost was playing with the pots and pans in the cabinet. It was a low cabinet and my mom went to walk into the kitchen and as soon as she got to it a little saucepan came out and the door was shut behind it. Who knows.

DH thinks that I am weird because that is the only thing that I am afraid of, well besides spiders, but that is different. I am afraid to be home alone not because of an intruder. I can kill a man. There is no doubt about that, but something supernatural? I have no defense.

 

[diamondbuggy]

I do. In our previous house there was definitely a presence in the house. My mom and I both felt it and often heard things. Like in the middle of the night we would hear mumbling from the next room like someone was talking. At first I thought it was the tv that someone had left on but whenever I checked there was nothing. This is going to sound stupid but it's almost like 'they' stopped talking when they saw us and once we were back in bed or out of the room the 'mumbling' would start again. This happened for years. One night my mom even saw a blue coloured male figure in her bedroom. I don't believe that they were evil at all, just there.

We've now been in our new house for just over 2 years and we don't 'feel' any kind of presence anymore. There was definitely something in the last house. I'm not entirely sure what I believe a ghost is, whether it's a soul in limbo or what, but I do believe that they exist.

 

[Lady_Disdain]

No, although I love ghost stories.

 

[davi_el_mejor]

I don't think they are the embodiment of dead people/animals. That goes beyond my thoughts on the afterlife. Ghosts as we may call them can be spirits though. There are so many strange and wonderful things we don't know about our world that I don't discount anything.

 

[Nashville]

Yes. I know for a fact that ghosts do exist and are very present among us. No doubt in my mind.

 

[Karl_K]

yep
Had one living in our house growing up.
His name was Goarge (that is how he spelled it on the blackboard)

 

[elrohwen]

No, but that's because I've never seen one. I've heard of some pretty creepy experiences and if I had a very believable one myself, I think I'd be much more likely to believe. I'm a skeptic at heart though, so I'd definitely try to explain it away logically first.

 

[JewelFreak]

Definitely. I grew up in a 150-yr old house with presences in it. Whatever you want to call them. Not at all scary; we figured they were there before we were & therefore belonged too. I used to see an apparition of a farming-type fellow by the fireplace in my bedroom & my cats would zoom out of the room, staring at the place he seemed usually to appear. A guest left early after seeing a man in a top hat walk past his bed & disappear through the wall. And they liked to play little tricks; I heard a music box playing in the middle of the night, and they made taps & knocks on walls that, with all kinds of investigation, I could find no other cause for -- especially when I'd sit up in bed & holler, "WILL YOU PLEASE CUT IT OUT!" & it would stop. I've had a couple of other experiences in other places. I sure don't claim to be smart enough to know what they are or where they come from, but have positively encountered something.

---Laurie

 

[somethingshiny]

Yes. I saw one. I've posted about it before.

I was a teenager working in an old mansion in our little town. I was carrying a mirror down a huge flight of steps that faced one of the entrance doors flanked with floor to ceiling windows. (the mirror was facing in btw) While coming down, I saw an old man walking 'outside' the door. I yelled to the lady I was working for that her FIL (whom she was expecting) had arrived. I never met the man and didn't know what he looked like. She went to another door to let him in and no one was there. I described the man to her and she pulled out photos of the house many many years ago. There standing in front of his lovely abode was a man named Charlie, the exact same man I had just described.

I don't know if he was actually inside or outside of the house. I thought 'outside' because he wasn't exactly clear so in the brief moment that he walked by, I assumed he was outside the glass.

I don't know that ghosts/spirits/etc go with my religious beliefs per se, but I can't deny what I saw.

 

[dragonfly411]

I don't think they are the embodiment of dead people/animals. That goes beyond my thoughts on the afterlife. Ghosts as we may call them can be spirits though. There are so many strange and wonderful things we don't know about our world that I don't discount anything.

I have had this thought as well.

 

[Tuckins1]

Yes, I believe. All of the women in my family (mom's side and dad's) are able to see/sense ghosts... We all have had some experiences with them. I will not go into detail because others will think i'm CRAZY !!!

 

[DivaDiamond007]

I believe. When I was very young (preschool - kindergarten) my family lived in a house that had a ghost. She was a little girl dressed in a beautiful victorian era dress. She would bouce a ball around the upstairs hallway and down the stairs and you could hear it. I don't remember seeing her downstairs, but I saw her all the time in our bedrooms.

The house my husband and I rented for a bit also had ghosts. I never saw any of them but strange things would happen. Things would mysteriously fall off of shelves, but not break and sometimes things would go missing. They never bothered me but my DH was terrified of them!

 

[AmberWaves]

I totally think so! I actually started a thread like this a million years ago, but geared a little more towards my issue at the time, but there are some good stories in it!
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/can-people-be-haunted.61381/

 

[dragonfly411]

Tuckins - trust me. I won't think you're crazy. I'm actually on the fence about posting some of my stuff FOR that reason lol.

 

[LadyBlue]

Tuckins and Dragon Fly, I would love to heard your stories

 

[lyra]

No.

But if they are real they don't care what I believe.

Agreed! I have yet to see or hear any evidence of ghosts anywhere. If that changes in the future, so be it. For now I'm an unbeliever who loves all things scary, but only as entertainment.

 

[zoebartlett]

I don't really believe in ghosts, but neighbors of my parents do. They live in the historic part of my town and this family has heard many ghost stories aboout their house over the years. I think they've found lights on (or off) in the house, which is not how they left them. They've also heard creaking and all sorts of noises. It's fun to listen to the stories, but I'm not sure how much I truly believe there's a ghost living with them.

 

[ericad]

Totally. I had several experiences as a child and a couple as an adult.

 

[Laila619]

No.

But I believe if a person's death was violent or sudden and he had a lot of unfinished business on Earth, his spirit may be restless and it won't leave Earth yet. So I'm not sure, maybe that is a 'ghost' afterall?

 

[packrat]

I think there was a ghost thread a while back that I posted my story in. I remain skeptical but..I can't say for sure, you know? It's one of those things where I've exhausted every explanation I can think of but yet, I just can't bring myself to say yes, that's what it was. JD's got stories, my brother does, all our friends do that hung out at this house, and again, no explanation, but nobody likes to say it.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Nope. I love ghost stories and I'm a bit superstitious, but I don't believe in ghosts. And if you grew up on images/stories of Korean ghosts, you wouldn't want to believe in them either. They are scary, scary mofos.

 

[chemgirl]

I usually don't believe in ghosts...unless its 4:00 am, I'm alone, and something really freaky happens. I used to rent a room in a really old house. It is on a historic property and has a really old cemetary behind it (we're talking late 1700's to early 1800's). Really odd things would happen whenever anyone stayed home alone. I lived there for two years and there were nights where the oven, radio, tv, and side door light would turn on by themselves. Once I woke up boiling hot six times during the night to find the oven on high. I would obviously turn it off each time. I ended up turning off the power to half of the kitchen and huddling under my blankets until morning. Another time I was in the shower and I could hear classical music. I got out to find the radio on, but it was definitely not on a station we ever listen to. The tv turning on was the worst, because I would wake up to the sound of voices (on the tv) and have a bit of a panic attack before realizing what it was. I think that there must be a "logical" explanation to all of this. The wiring in the house had just been replaced so maybe something wasn't done correctly. I have no idea. I just know that we established a rule that nobody sleeps alone in that house after several other housemates had similar experiences.

We also discovered that creepy things can't happen while you're playing teen pop music. For some reason nothing is scary if there is Brittany Spears music playing in the background.

Also, I recently went on a ghost walk of Ottawa with a friend and it included the old prison. If you don't believe in ghosts, you will after standing inside one of those old jail cells (the jail was closed in the 70's because the cells were inhumane). Something just felt seriously wrong the entire time I was in there.

 

[Autumnovember]

Yes, I do.

A guy that I was dating passed away and for whatever reason communicated with me the most out of everyone he knew for several years after his death. It has only been recently that the communication has quieted down significantly. If anyone cares, I can talk about my experiences....it'll take a solid hour for me to write all of them out. His mom and I have become friends as a result and I think there were many times that I shared the stories with her and was able to give her a sense of relief that her son was doing ok. I never directly saw any "ghosts" but I have definitely communicated with his spirit.

 

[zhuzhu]

For those of you who have not "seen" ghosts but "felt" ghosts, could you clarify how you distinguish their presence from your imagination?

 

[niccia]

I do yes. Psychic abilities run in my mum's side of the family but I don't have any and neither does my grandma. My great grandmother and my mum do. My mum has forewarned us about at least three accidents right before they occured (just in time that none of us were hurt). She can't read anyones future or anything like that. Her grandma was taken away from her birth mother as a child and never knew her. Years later she awoke one night and saw a coffin next to her bed. She woke her husband up and told him her mother had died. A few days later they received a telegram informing her that her birth mother had passed away at that very time. The only experience I have ever had was with my cat. I had him for almost 20 years, and after he passed I continued to wake up in the night and hear him purring behind my head (where he always slept) or felt him jumping up on the bed. That happened a lot initially, and then on and off for a few years but I havent felt it for a long time. It felt so real that sometimes I wouldnt even think about it until I remembered he had died

I love hearing everyone else's stories !

 

[iheartscience]

No.

But if they are real they don't care what I believe.

Ha, ditto!

 

[Nashville]

For those of you who have not "seen" ghosts but "felt" ghosts, could you clarify how you distinguish their presence from your imagination?

I've both seen and felt the presence of ghosts, but I'll tell you how you can "feel" them and let you decide if I'm crazy

We lived in a house when I was growing up that was very old, and there was a horse stable out back where my brother and I would play. When we first moved into the property the barn was a serious novelty and we spent a lot of time there, but gradually we both stopped going in there. We were young so I know we didn't understand what had kept us away, but later in adulthood we were talking about it and we both had the EXACT same experience.

We'd enter the barn and were overwhelmed by a feeling of total sadness and despair. This started happening after a few weeks of going there. When we stood or played in certain areas of the stables, we'd feel as though we were freezing, even if it was the middle of July. We did a bit of research and later discovered that the area had been a pig farm and that a young boy had died somewhere on the property. Now we know he died in the barn. We felt him.