Do you Believe in Ghosts?

[Seastallion]

Believing in ghosts should be mandatory for any religious person.

Myself, I certainly believe that there is a life force outside the realm we see, so yes, despite not having seen one myself, I believe it's possible.

My wife certainly believes in them.

Jury is out for me, but your use of the term "life force" is good. Why couldn't there be life force outside the realm we see (and sometimes do see)?

My story.....

I used to live in the tropics. A small village nearby had the art of tapping the sap of coconut flowers and harvesting the nectar. (drunk as a sweet drink or fermented to alcohol) This was a semi-sacred art and only a few families did it, and it was passed down from father to son, and no other people in the entire country knew how to do it. I was privileged to be taught it, and there was mumbo jumbo involved.

Being a student of Western science, I discarded the mumbo jumbo after a while.

My harvest not only diminished drastically, but would often be foul tasting.

I lived on a very remote coconut plantation and this "arak" was important to me.

One night I had a dream. This old chap came to me and showed me some different mumbo jumbo. (as with a previous poster, the old guy didn't talk, I just heard his thoughts), I tried the "new" mumbo jumbo, and lo! It worked.

Next time I was in the village, I told my mentor the story (it was actually a woman's family that held the "secret" but it was her husband that taught me), Mentor and wife listened attentively, asked about the new mumbo jumbo, and wife exclaimed that's how my father used to do it! Then she went to her suitcase and brought out an old photo. It was the guy in my dream, her father.

True story. There's another episode where I met her grandfather, similar to the above.

Needless to say, I discarded the science and stuck to the mumbo jumbo after that.

All very Carlos Castaneda without the psychotropics.

[KarenBravo]

If dreams were considered "evidence", then I would be the world's greatest stud-muffin.

[Choonpon]

What you can't see doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If your luck is down or you have a pair of 'special eyes', then you can see ghosts. It also depends on whether the ghost wants you to see or not.

If you really want to have that special ability to see ghosts, there is a couple methods. You can find a female black dog, use her eyes discharge to rub against your eyes.

Another method is to use bat's blood to rub against your eyes.

Caution: once you have done so, you will forever be able to see ghosts. The ability is irreversible.

I wish to edit 2 points from my original statement:

First method: female dog, not necessary black ones.

Second method: Use bat's eye discharge, not blood.

[Choonpon]

Those people who couldn't see ghosts, count yourself lucky:)

I had a school mate last time, who has the ability to see ghosts. He didnt like abit at all. Said he try not to go outdoors after 6:45pm.

[n210mp]

I can say without a doubt that I sincerely believe in Spirits and their effects and affects on my life.

Namely

Whisky, Gin, Brandy to name but three that I am regularly involved with!

[n210mp]

Seriously though.

Can't see electricity but you sure can feel it.

Hard to know the difference between a dream, an hallucination, maybe even a reality!

A friend of mine in the late stages of Alcohol abuse swore blind and couldn't be dissuaded that He had met little green men and visited their home somewhere up there!

He was so sure, so definate

The mind so complex, so infinite!

So fallible?

[Seastallion]

Seriously though.

Can't see electricity but you sure can feel it.

Hard to know the difference between a dream, an hallucination, maybe even a reality!

A friend of mine in the late stages of Alcohol abuse swore blind and couldn't be dissuaded that He had met little green men and visited their home somewhere up there!

He was so sure, so definate

The mind so complex, so infinite!

So fallible?

Have you asked yourself if your friend's alcohol abuse was coincidental to his sightings?

Easy to assume the two are connected, but that is assumption.

[Misty]

Google "Ghost room 4714 company G-3 " to read about a ghost haunting in the West Point barracks. The US Army later hired Ed & Lorraine Warren to exorcise the ghost, and then boarded it up. Later the room was opened, but only for day-time use - no one was allowed to stay in the room.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Misty

[Mosha]

I've never seen a ghost. That being said, I was a slob in my teens and early 20s, my bedroom was a mess. Mum died 37 years ago Dec 27th, I went on a binge, drunk as a skunk every night. 7 days after she died. I woke up to a tidy bedroom. Didn't stop me boozing, but I can;t explain ghow a piss head could clean a room like that.

[beautifulthailand99]

Yes I might have captured one back in January ...on video no less....

[faraday]

Science being the new religion, everybody is obsessed with proof. What would someone from the 15C have thought about an MRI?

Just because something cannot be proved, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I have seen ghosts or whatever they're called. Never seen them when drunk.

Then we have Platos 'Allegory of the Cave'.......

Just what is real, because our senses trick us on a daily basis.

[Eddy B]

I believe there are spirits around us, some are good and some not so good.

[Costas2008]

I believe there are spirits around us, some are good and some not so good.

Yes, exactly like the TVF members.

[arjunadawn]

With the faulty tools of our senses we perceive an infinitesimally small spectrum of the material and energetic worlds. Our hearing is limited to some ridiculously narrow freq range and our eyesight binds us in a very particular range. Our sensory input recreates a virtual world in our head, of what our senses say is out there, and it is time delayed. From our other scientific findings we can muse about how very much of creation we simply miss. Increasingly we grasp that there are more dimensions than we'd held- and still we assert we are master and commander. Confidentially we declare what is "not!"

I don't know if there are apparitions or not but I'd prefer to have a mind that simply said "probably," because multiple theories could explain apparitions without religion or souls. My world is richer for accepting anything is possible in nature. There's really no theory that can explain why there are no apparitions, just the rejection of other theories. "There are no apparitions" is a statement of exclusion, not explanation.

[KarenBravo]

With the faulty tools of our senses we perceive an infinitesimally small spectrum of the material and energetic worlds. Our hearing is limited to some ridiculously narrow freq range and our eyesight binds us in a very particular range. Our sensory input recreates a virtual world in our head, of what our senses say is out there, and it is time delayed. From our other scientific findings we can muse about how very much of creation we simply miss. Increasingly we grasp that there are more dimensions than we'd held- and still we assert we are master and commander. Confidentially we declare what is "not!"

I don't know if there are apparitions or not but I'd prefer to have a mind that simply said "probably," because multiple theories could explain apparitions without religion or souls. My world is richer for accepting anything is possible in nature. There's really no theory that can explain why there are no apparitions, just the rejection of other theories. "There are no apparitions" is a statement of exclusion, not explanation.

Yes, but with our science we can perceive the whole electromagnetic spectrum and detect most particles.

Yet, there isn't a single piece of scientific evidence for ghosts, spirits and the supernatural, after all this time and effort.

[AYJAYDEE]

With the faulty tools of our senses we perceive an infinitesimally small spectrum of the material and energetic worlds. Our hearing is limited to some ridiculously narrow freq range and our eyesight binds us in a very particular range. Our sensory input recreates a virtual world in our head, of what our senses say is out there, and it is time delayed. From our other scientific findings we can muse about how very much of creation we simply miss. Increasingly we grasp that there are more dimensions than we'd held- and still we assert we are master and commander. Confidentially we declare what is "not!"

I don't know if there are apparitions or not but I'd prefer to have a mind that simply said "probably," because multiple theories could explain apparitions without religion or souls. My world is richer for accepting anything is possible in nature. There's really no theory that can explain why there are no apparitions, just the rejection of other theories. "There are no apparitions" is a statement of exclusion, not explanation.

Yes, but with our science we can perceive the whole electromagnetic spectrum and detect most particles.

Yet, there isn't a single piece of scientific evidence for ghosts, spirits and the supernatural, after all this time and effort.

let me know when you isolate dark matter and dark energy

[arjunadawn]

With the faulty tools of our senses we perceive an infinitesimally small spectrum of the material and energetic worlds. Our hearing is limited to some ridiculously narrow freq range and our eyesight binds us in a very particular range. Our sensory input recreates a virtual world in our head, of what our senses say is out there, and it is time delayed. From our other scientific findings we can muse about how very much of creation we simply miss. Increasingly we grasp that there are more dimensions than we'd held- and still we assert we are master and commander. Confidentially we declare what is "not!"

I don't know if there are apparitions or not but I'd prefer to have a mind that simply said "probably," because multiple theories could explain apparitions without religion or souls. My world is richer for accepting anything is possible in nature. There's really no theory that can explain why there are no apparitions, just the rejection of other theories. "There are no apparitions" is a statement of exclusion, not explanation.

Yes, but with our science we can perceive the whole electromagnetic spectrum and detect most particles.

Yet, there isn't a single piece of scientific evidence for ghosts, spirits and the supernatural, after all this time and effort.

I agree... and yet I still prefer to keep an open mind. Nearly every story I hear about ghosts I respond 1/2 incredulous and 1/2 entertained, ...and yet.

I've an observation about our ability to perceive. We use tools to magnify the various senses we already have- no more. Perhaps that's a limitation we have as humans. But these faulty tools, designed to enable our long flight through the years, are hardly equipped for the journey we discuss now. These tools cannot yet "detect" love, or find consciousness, or discern an organism being aware from an organism that is aware that it is aware. We have to admit that the wonderful tools you describe, that are daily proving how breathtaking the world is, can hardly detect (approx) 80% of the universe.

(Physics food for thought: the most minute particles of matter blink in and out of existence x times per millisecond; curious huh? Where are they when they are not here?) When these great "detectors" you reference can tell me by what mechanism an entangled particle on the other side of the planet, or cosmos, can communicate faster than light, and evidence stimulus to its sister particle a billion miles or million years away, than you will have my attention. Indeed, these "detectors" cannot reveal all that much, when all's considered. By the way, it's an error of thought to presume that all the particles we know represent "most particles."

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." :-)

[bkkjames]

With the faulty tools of our senses we perceive an infinitesimally small spectrum of the material and energetic worlds. Our hearing is limited to some ridiculously narrow freq range and our eyesight binds us in a very particular range. Our sensory input recreates a virtual world in our head, of what our senses say is out there, and it is time delayed. From our other scientific findings we can muse about how very much of creation we simply miss. Increasingly we grasp that there are more dimensions than we'd held- and still we assert we are master and commander. Confidentially we declare what is "not!"

I don't know if there are apparitions or not but I'd prefer to have a mind that simply said "probably," because multiple theories could explain apparitions without religion or souls. My world is richer for accepting anything is possible in nature. There's really no theory that can explain why there are no apparitions, just the rejection of other theories. "There are no apparitions" is a statement of exclusion, not explanation.

Yes, but with our science we can perceive the whole electromagnetic spectrum and detect most particles.

Yet, there isn't a single piece of scientific evidence for ghosts, spirits and the supernatural, after all this time and effort.

let me know when you isolate dark matter and dark energy

Luke, let the force be with you..

[KarenBravo]

With the faulty tools of our senses we perceive an infinitesimally small spectrum of the material and energetic worlds. Our hearing is limited to some ridiculously narrow freq range and our eyesight binds us in a very particular range. Our sensory input recreates a virtual world in our head, of what our senses say is out there, and it is time delayed. From our other scientific findings we can muse about how very much of creation we simply miss. Increasingly we grasp that there are more dimensions than we'd held- and still we assert we are master and commander. Confidentially we declare what is "not!"

I don't know if there are apparitions or not but I'd prefer to have a mind that simply said "probably," because multiple theories could explain apparitions without religion or souls. My world is richer for accepting anything is possible in nature. There's really no theory that can explain why there are no apparitions, just the rejection of other theories. "There are no apparitions" is a statement of exclusion, not explanation.

Yes, but with our science we can perceive the whole electromagnetic spectrum and detect most particles.

Yet, there isn't a single piece of scientific evidence for ghosts, spirits and the supernatural, after all this time and effort.

let me know when you isolate dark matter and dark energy

Science has brought it to you attention. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to post about it.

[KarenBravo]

Back to my original point.

Ghost clothes? Why are ghosts never naked?

[arjunadawn]

With the faulty tools of our senses we perceive an infinitesimally small spectrum of the material and energetic worlds. Our hearing is limited to some ridiculously narrow freq range and our eyesight binds us in a very particular range. Our sensory input recreates a virtual world in our head, of what our senses say is out there, and it is time delayed. From our other scientific findings we can muse about how very much of creation we simply miss. Increasingly we grasp that there are more dimensions than we'd held- and still we assert we are master and commander. Confidentially we declare what is "not!"

I don't know if there are apparitions or not but I'd prefer to have a mind that simply said "probably," because multiple theories could explain apparitions without religion or souls. My world is richer for accepting anything is possible in nature. There's really no theory that can explain why there are no apparitions, just the rejection of other theories. "There are no apparitions" is a statement of exclusion, not explanation.

Yes, but with our science we can perceive the whole electromagnetic spectrum and detect most particles.

Yet, there isn't a single piece of scientific evidence for ghosts, spirits and the supernatural, after all this time and effort.

let me know when you isolate dark matter and dark energy

Luke, let the force be with you..

Funny! :-) really. But the point does persist: only a minority of the universe is detected. Science does recognize this problem, even if some posters here do not, and some are trying to change or modify the paradigm by which certain queries are made. We will only ever yield data relative to input. When the scientific method is compared with the meditative method they demonstrate remarkably similar discipline. Moreover, when the meditation injunctions are followed similar findings can be duplicated by others, as with the scientific method (K. Wilber, Integrative Philosophy).

So I find it interesting that many meditators and traditions have commented on incorporeal beings... out there, if you will. I have never noted anything remotely similar to this but many traditions report and reinforce ideas that there are such immaterial beings. Personally, I tend to think they mix up the imaginative faculties with the experiential faculties but many of these "sojourners" were brilliant sages; could they really have been wrong?

1. The current scientific tools have proven inept for a number of queries. We don't apprehend the majority of the universe.

2. Meditation traditions do have a similar repeatability such as the religion of modern science.

3. Numerous, really smart people, have offered there are immaterial beings (Neidan, Chan, Indian, Theravada, Mahayanna, Shamanic, Yogic) and use repeatable mechanisms to access this lucidity.

4. They assert there is something that we might now call "ghost."

[partington]

Back to my original point.

Ghost clothes? Why are ghosts never naked?

Because I am not limited by any kind of logic, or reality or even having to make sense I can literally say anything you or I like as an answer to that one, and it wouldn't matter.

For example ghosts are remains of strong stimuli that happened in a certain place, and so represent lingering visual echoes of what once happened.

Or ghosts are telepathic projections from dead people's memories and the dead people remember wearing clothes.

Or God in his wisdom created human brains so that they would perceive ghosts as clothed , even though they are really naked, to avoid the sin of lust being evoked by evil spirits.

Or ghosts have an infinite source of Deepak Chopra like energy that they can use to manifest clothes, just as they can use it to twirl tambourines in a darkened room,

or

well do I need to go on?

Not being constrained by any necessity to make sense you can say anything you want and it's always OK! Obviously the above is all BS, but it shows how easy it is...

[arjunadawn]

Back to my original point.

Ghost clothes? Why are ghosts never naked?

This is hilarious. Your right of course. Why not? (Still laughing). Funny how all the grand ideas of cosmology could finally pivot on a handbag and loafers. :-)

And yes, science provides the tools. But that's a point we agree on. I just think it's limited. Indeed, it's greatest trove is suggesting how much it hasn't noted. But the clothes? :-) I actually do have a thought, and don't think it's new.

There is a mechanism by which nature remembers choices taken... Be patient. I don't profess to grasp it but perhaps these same mechanisms that provide the impression of an arrow of time shooting forward also store images... Impressions if you will, that linger at locales, events, or people. Perhaps not animated, cognitive beings but... stills, clips, of previous warps in time- tiny Einstein-Rosen like bridges- windows. The only difference is now the being is dead. Not sure. I am sure that the point you make about clothes is important.

[arjunadawn]

Back to my original point.

Ghost clothes? Why are ghosts never naked?

Because I am not limited by any kind of logic, or reality or even having to make sense I can literally say anything you or I like as an answer to that one, and it wouldn't matter.

For example ghosts are remains of strong stimuli that happened in a certain place, and so represent lingering visual echoes of what once happened.

Or ghosts are telepathic projections from dead people's memories and the dead people remember wearing clothes.

Or God in his wisdom created human brains so that they would perceive ghosts as clothed , even though they are really naked, to avoid the sin of lust being evoked by evil spirits.

Or ghosts have an infinite source of Deepak Chopra like energy that they can use to manifest clothes, just as they can use it to twirl tambourines in a darkened room,

or

well do I need to go on?

Not being constrained by any necessity to make sense you can say anything you want and it's always OK! Obviously the above is all BS, but it shows how easy it is...

Wow! Brilliant. Loved this post. Spot on. Wipes me out. Thank you folks. I couldn't possibly add more to this simple brilliant post.

[CharlieH]

Just because we cant "detect" it, doesnt mean it isnt there.

Does that prove more about our ability or inability.

[Neeranam]

Ghosts don't have clothes or bodies - they are not material, this is why science has not captured one.

Here's what the experts say.

TROY TAYLOR
American Ghost Society

Why do ghosts need clothes? No one really seems to know, but it’s possible that in most cases, ghosts seen wearing clothing are simply “residual” images – imprints or memories that linger on the atmosphere of a place like a recording. A ghost of this sort would have no “personality” and is simply like an old movie that just keeps playing.

But what about ghosts that are not merely imprints? What about those which are true, traditional spirits who died and stayed behind? Many researchers feel that ghosts are made up of electromagnetic energy. This energy, inside of the body, forms what we call our spirit, soul or personality. Now, science cannot prove this energy or personality actually exists, yet we know it does. If it can exist inside of our bodies, then why can’t it exist outside of the body, once the body itself stops functioning? It’s possible that it does and that this electromagnetic energy contains our personality and is what we think of as our spirit.

It has been shown through scientific experiments that exposure to high levels of electromagnetic energy can cause people to have vivid dreams, nightmares and even hallucinations. In other words, people are seeing things as a result of exposure to this energy. If spirits have any sort of control over the energy they are now comprised of (or even if their personalities are somehow manifested in the energy), then I would think it possible for the witness to see the spirit as the spirit sees itself. If the personality really does remain, the spirit would visualize itself as it was when alive, appearing as a living person and wearing clothing.

This could be a totally unconscious effect of the energy on the living person, or it could be a manipulation on the part of the spirit itself, perhaps causing the person to see what it wants them to. To understand this, I suggest that you close your eyes for a moment and then visualize yourself in your mind. How do you appear to yourself? Most likely, you were wearing clothing in your imagination. With the idea that a ghost appears looking in the same way that he sees himself, this might explain why so many ghosts that are seen are not only wearing clothing.

RICHARD AND DEBBIE SENATE
www.ghost-stalker.com

Ghosts and the clothes they wear have long been a snickering question. It’s a sort of “gotcha” question debunkers use, and it tells more about the way ghosts are interpreted than anything about them. Ghosts appear as wearing cloths because that's how they appear to us. In our era, clothes are part of what we are. They are part of how we see ourselves and this mental image is the one projected and picked up. In fact, clothes can many times give us information about who the ghosts are and what lives they had. There are some reports of nude ghosts, but they are few and far between. Ghosts tend to be seen in the garments they are buried wearing. In many ways the clothing helps us to indentify who they are.

JEFF BELANGER
Founder of Ghostvillage.com and author of The Ghost Files

In many cases, a ghost is a projection of a person. Whether that projection is coming from our own heads, some intelligent energy swarming all around us, or imprinted on the location itself, I don't know. Consider this: If you were to picture yourself somewhere, it's likely you would envision yourself wearing clothes, looking comfortable, yet presentable, and maybe you'd even drop a few pounds in your "projection" (hey, it's cheaper than liposuction, so have at it).

Very few people would picture themselves naked (though there's usually one exhibitionist in every crowd). If you could project any image of yourself that you like, maybe you'd project yourself bleeding from the gunshot would you sustained in your last moments of life in order to make a point to whoever receives that projection. The apparition is always a representation of something/someone else. It's not an entity unto itself; otherwise it wouldn't be so fleeting.

STACEY JONES
Central New York Ghost Hunters

I believe that ghosts can show themselves in whatever form they want. If a spirit were more comfortable at a certain age, they may show themselves at that time. I'm not too familiar with any person who is comfortable showing themselves in the nude, therefore they wouldn't want to show themselves au natural in ghost from.

* * *

These are all very good points. If ghosts are manifestations of the energy of human consciousness, then that consciousness would include clothing since, as stated by others above, that is how we think of ourselves. Or as esoteric author Richelle Hawks put it, considering that humans are far more than just their bodies: Why wouldn’t they be wearing clothes?

http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghosthuntinggeninfo/a/aa042708.htm

[KarenBravo]

Experts ! Bwahahahahahah!

[Seastallion]

Yes I might have captured one back in January ...on video no less....

Well that was a waste of 2 minutes and 26 seconds of my valuable time.

Why on earth did you post that? Complete and utter rubbish.

Next time video paint drying, at least there won't be a false sense of expectation.

[RakJungTorlae]

I have seen a scientific documentary on how the mind works and explains little it about seeing paranormal sightings. Don't remember the name of the documentary but it made perfect logic how our minds can project things when ones not aware.

I've seen some creepy crap in my life but nothing has stood in front of me and had a conversation, therefor I don't believe.

I am a Christian ( far from perfect) but I do believe in science as we'll. And also believe that the dead shall never return or work the earth.

I have also herd from people in my life that a ghost might not be a ghost but a demon sticking fear when one is vulnerable.

[Thongkorn]

do gay ghosts put the willies up each other.