laura Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 What do you all believe about ghosts? If you believe they exist, why do you believe so? What are/is your reason(s). Also, what do you believe that they ARE (ie demons, evil people, regular people, other types of spirits, etc....) , and what do you believe is the reason they are here, or how they are here, from where they come from, how long they have been here and will remain here, etc.... What do you believe about psychics, mediums, and the like? Or perhaps you do not believe or are undecided. Why? I want to know what the opinions out there are and the reasons behind them. I myself am undecided, I waver back and forth. I am espcially interested to know what tangible, measurable PROOF paranormal scientists use to come to their conclusions. What do those machines they have DO exactly? If anyone knows anything on this matter, I would love to know. I look forward to yall's responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kal-el Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 What do you all believe about ghosts? If you believe they exist, why do you believe so? What are/is your reason(s). Also, what do you believe that they ARE (ie demons, evil people, regular people, other types of spirits, etc....) , and what do you believe is the reason they are here, or how they are here, from where they come from, how long they have been here and will remain here, etc.... What do you believe about psychics, mediums, and the like? Or perhaps you do not believe or are undecided. Why? I want to know what the opinions out there are and the reasons behind them. I myself am undecided, I waver back and forth. I am espcially interested to know what tangible, measurable PROOF paranormal scientists use to come to their conclusions. What do those machines they have DO exactly? If anyone knows anything on this matter, I would love to know. I look forward to yall's responses. I do not believe in all the delphic, supernatural, mumbo jumbo until it is proven. If one asserts that ghosts exist, they are obligated to prove it, either with observational evidence, or else set up a meeting with one. If they say they don't have to prove it, anything can exist, red dragons, pink unicorns, whatever. The burden of proof always falls on the shoulders of the believer, not the doubter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godless Dave Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I see no reason to think ghosts exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycorth Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I don't see why spirits and similar non-corporeal life-forms can't exist, but without clear proof of them, I cannot accept that they do. I keep an open mind about it, though - anything's possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrmarlin Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 What do you all believe about ghosts? If you believe they exist, why do you believe so? What are/is your reason(s). Also, what do you believe that they ARE (ie demons, evil people, regular people, other types of spirits, etc....) , and what do you believe is the reason they are here, or how they are here, from where they come from, how long they have been here and will remain here, etc.... What do you believe about psychics, mediums, and the like? Or perhaps you do not believe or are undecided. Why? I want to know what the opinions out there are and the reasons behind them. I myself am undecided, I waver back and forth. I am espcially interested to know what tangible, measurable PROOF paranormal scientists use to come to their conclusions. What do those machines they have DO exactly? If anyone knows anything on this matter, I would love to know. I look forward to yall's responses. Actually, the monitors and meters they use measure the atomspheric temperature as when spirits are present, the temperature tends to become colder -- as they say, it is due to the void in the space where a spirit inhabits. The meters also tell the energy changes in the air, i.e. void again. This equipment is also equipped with a special camera system which goes through and takes pictures of 'astral beings,' ghosts, spirits, energy forces, etc. You have probably seen the ghost-hunting shows on channels like Travel where the lighting is gree and the eye pupils glow in a strange light. This is because the camera picks up orbs and ghost imaging a lot easier than a regular film or digital will - due to the high sensitivity to light and reflections. I hope this helps you. As for believeing. Once you've encountered spirits/ghosts, you tend to believe in them. I had had such encounters in an old brownstone I used to live in when I was in New York. It was quite interesting -- but they (the ghosts) really don't interfere or interact with humans (living) as much as most programs claim. Nothing like a good scary story on a cold night when the electricity goes out in the house. I am very interested in learning more about ghosts as well. I have read several books on them and find them fascinating. Some would say they're stuck. Some would even say that it's actually the environment "playing back" a highly emotionally charged event. I don't know about all that but I do know when I have gone places where murder takes place, I have immediately wanted to get out of there -- and that's before I have even learned about the event that took place in the area. So I don't know. I guess some people are more open than others when it comes to things of this nature. Sometimes it's a good thing and sometimes it's a curse. Depends on the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greasemonkey Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I guess I am up in the air on this one; I still think there are a lot of things we don't understand, so I won't toss it out completely. My southern baptist upbringing said that ghosts were really just demons trying to get people to believe in magic ; and all that walking on water and stuff is..... I've known a lot of people who have claimed they had supernatural events occur; some sounded credible, most sound like somebody was looking so hard for something to be true, it magicly did. I had people way back in my spiritual searching days (after de-converting) accuse me of having some kind of latent psychic ability because I tend to have really good intuition; I certainly don't consider it supernatural in origin, just that I tend to pay a lot of attention to details, hence I'm able to anticpate things better. I can say that I've come across absolutely nothing in my own experience to make me believe one way or another; I would think that paranormal investegators ought to be able to come up with something slightly more convincing than what they have to date though. My wife likes watching those stupid ghost-hunting shows. Those people lose every shred of credibility with me the second some twit starts screaming and squealing like a 12 year-old in a haunted house at halloween. If you want to advance the cause, it seems like you should want someone a little less melodramatic appearing as spokespeople. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrmarlin Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Those people lose every shred of credibility with me the second some twit starts screaming and squealing like a 12 year-old in a haunted house at halloween. If you want to advance the cause, it seems like you should want someone a little less melodramatic appearing as spokespeople. I completely agree. They are going through a house they know has "legend" of ghost appearances...so why are they shocked when they see or hear one. I mean it is a bit stupid. But if you just put aside the assinine behavior of those guys, some of what they find is legit. My pet peeve is with Sylvia Brown because she's just too fake for words, yet she believes she is all that and a bag of chips. I can tell when she's lying by her body language and the direction of her eyes when she's asking people's questions. She's always making predictions that never come through...even though she did hit on the transportation problems last summer. But then I again, I had a broken watch that was right twice a day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taphophilia Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 I have read a lot about this. There is a difference between ghosts and spirits. Ghosts are souls who have not make it to the afterlife and wonder around on another plane in between this one and the next. Spirits have made it there and can make connections to this plane of existance. I believe that there are people who beleive in them, as for me, I don't know. I can only go by what I have read of people who believe and what they say are there experiences, but still it's only hear say. Taph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dianka Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 What exactly is proof of spirits and ghosts? Do ghosts have an unspoken pact that resticts them from being seen in anything but a dim room with only one person in it? The whole notion of these secretive spirits that for some friggin reason can't dare to become a known reality is queer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Gods Fail Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 No ghosts, no spirits. If they really existed, we wouldn't be having this discussion. It would be like saying, 'Do you believe in mountain gorillas?' And please, don't get me started on 'orbs'. I'm a photographer, and I've seen crazier shit than that happen due to sloppy lab work, digital photography CCD artifacts, poor flash choices, etc. When I see those 'ghost picture' web sites I just go through the pics and laugh. "Dust...dust...camera strap...reflection...dust...some guy in the background...slow shutter speed...dust...bad Photoshop job...dust..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsterfeets Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 I believe in them. 'Cause i've had encounters. As to what they were exactly I can't say. The ones I encountered COULD interact with their environment though. So maybe they weren't 'ghosts'. They weren't visible, only apparent by what they 'moved around'. But I'm willing to admit these may have all had other explainations other than ghosts. Like weird vibrations or something. And sleep paralysis, even though I've never had it before or since. There is one thing I could never write off as anything other than some kind of entity or haunting, though. It was a room, in my old house. There was something rotten about that room and it seemed to have a tangible effect on whoever stayed in it for long periods of time. Nothing can ever convince me there wasn't something horrible in there. I really don't know what to make of them. I suppose they could be some kind of supernatural entities, or forces. Or something natural that we just dont understand. But I do believe there is a real element to many hauntings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shiva H. Vishnu Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 No ghosts, no spirits. If they really existed, we wouldn't be having this discussion. It would be like saying, 'Do you believe in mountain gorillas?' And please, don't get me started on 'orbs'. ugh.gif I'm a photographer, and I've seen crazier shit than that happen due to sloppy lab work, digital photography CCD artifacts, poor flash choices, etc. When I see those 'ghost picture' web sites I just go through the pics and laugh. "Dust...dust...camera strap...reflection...dust...some guy in the background...slow shutter speed...dust...bad Photoshop job...dust..." rolleyes_old.gif Exactly. The same ignorance of photographical principles and video artifacting has led a great many simpletons to believe that we faked the moonlandings. I hardly think that there is proof of the spirit world in shoddy photography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuroikaze Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 I would generally say I don't believe in them, but only because I've never seen anything that would make me believe...if evidence presents itself I would, but it just doesn't seem to make much sense to me that something without any physical body could exist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura Posted March 4, 2006 Author Share Posted March 4, 2006 Are there any other instruments they use other than the atmospheric thermometers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I believe in ghosts. Absolutely. I've had some "encounters" as well that I have yet to come up with an explination for. Plus Ive known a lot of people with similar experiences who are the elast likely to make that stuff up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura Posted March 4, 2006 Author Share Posted March 4, 2006 What have some of the descriptions of these entities been? I've heard of blue orbs, and blue silhouettes. Does anyone know of any other descriptions and supposed characteristics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBeeland Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I saw a ghost once, but it doesn't count because I'd just inhaled a bowl of marijuana. But seriously I've had encounters before, but they were probably just side effects of my Zoloft when I couldn't sleep for a day or so, so I'm skeptical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrmarlin Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I was watching that Most Haunted show tonight -- and man, that's the corniest show. Don't use that show as a reference. Most parapsychologists don't act the way these people do when they're on a 'hunt.' The thing that blew my mind was the woman that is always on the show, still gets scared every time they encounter something that is extraordinary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lapdog Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I used to believe in everything: ghosts, UFOs, God. I've never had an encounter with a ghost, but when my brother died a medium provided very specific information supposedly coming from him that the medium could not have known about, let alone my mother in law who went to see his show. As with UFOs, the fakes are what destroy credibility of the most believeable evidence. One thing of which I am certain, is that everything comes under the umbrella of science. That is, no matter whether we call something spiritual or physical, there must be, simply by reason of its existence, a scientific element to it. Those of you that know about quantum physics and things like the uncertainty principle and QED and the behaviour of light, will already be familiar with such things, which pertain to important parts of science that are not physical in the sense of having a material substance. Similarly, mathematics describes things such as movement, which cannot be represented by a physical state. Since the very building blocks of our physical world are not actually "real", I have no difficulty believing in ghosts and spirits per se, it's just that much of which I have seen myself is easily discounted. The medium mentioned above indicates to me that there is more to us than our bodies. Stories I have been told by friends that have visited media, make me believe there is definitely something to it. If you know about that water crystals-and-thoughts/music stuff then you will understand how I view it, as something physical but not in the old-fashioned sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Gods Fail Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Ghosts, spirits, gods and demons have been with humankind from the start. We used them to try and explain the mysteries of the physical world and our own imaginations. We've 'seen' them and had 'experiences' with them, so we tend to believe what everyones says about them. The conventional wisdom today is that ghosts exist, but they may be some unexplained phenomena that isn't necessarily supernatural (the 'Stone Tape' theory is a good example - ghosts and spirits may be 'recorded' psychic events that certain, special people can trigger). But all things supernatural remain as elusive, unseen and untestable as they were when we scared ourselves with tales of the unknown around the fire 100,000 years ago. No one is ever going to be able to prove the existence of spirits beyond the neurological plane, because that's where they exist - in our minds. Same goes for most paranormal 'phenomena' - UFO's, telekinesis, mediums, demonology, EVP, etc. They exists first and foremost in our brains, just like biblegod. Outside of our brains, there's scant evidence they're a reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thackerie Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 My pet peeve is with Sylvia Brown because she's just too fake for words, yet she believes she is all that and a bag of chips. I can tell when she's lying by her body language and the direction of her eyes when she's asking people's questions. I caught a few moments of Ms. Brown on the Montel Williams Show not long ago. (A few moments was all I could stand.) She was avowing that "In the afterlife, we are all 30 years old." I guess that leaves me out of luck; my parents were in their mid-40s when I was born, so I won't recognize them when I get to the pearly gates or wherever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 I believe there is something that we can't currently explain, which people tend to call "hauntings" or "ghosts" or other paranormal activity. I believe this because I've experienced it firsthand, though not for some time now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibby Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 In 1983 a friend of mine convinced me there was something to it. He saw a ghost. He didn,t believe. But he does now. There,s nothing like personal experience I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beowulf Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 I'll leave my mind open on this one, but tend toward them not existing. My wife and I like watching "Ghost Hunters" on SciFi Channel, mainly just for its entertainment value. They purport to be "scientific" in their findings, but could not be further from science. When someone encounters something out of the ordinary, then it absolutely MUST be something paranormal. It couldnt POSSIBLY be anything else. Talk about letting preconceived notions influence your investigation... It's more of a soap opera/reality show, highlighting disputes between the various investigators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandora Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 Could all of you who have had these personal experiences please describe them in detail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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