Do you believe in ghosts/spirits? Have you ever encountered one?

[Gheld]

'That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.'
- Christopher Hitchens


Let that be the end of it.

Oh man, do I wish it were that simple. My family accused me the other day of not being very open minded because I dismissed "frequency healing" as quackery, and refused to explain why (because I'd have to get into physics to do that) and I simply retorted with the question "and which frequencies are those?".

But the standard of evidence for somebody who believes in the paranormal is much lower than that, than say the standard of evidence for a skeptic such as myself.

The fact is, because modern quackery drives me up the fucking wall, and pisses me off when people keep touting it, I've probably opened my mind far wider to do way more reading about crap like crystal healing and frequency therapy and all that bullshit than the people who do believe in it, because "it made my friends jock itch better" is enough evidence for them, and no further research is required.

EDIT: Oh, and then my SiL mentioned that her friend did all sorts of 'energy healing' and asked if I was going to call her a quack to her face? And I was like "sure why not?" and then she mentioned that her friend had a black belt in Tae Kwon Do... gee that's a very intellectually compelling argument.

As soon as I hear somebody say "open minded" I want to throw up, because it's used almost exclusively to bully people into abandoning contrary opinions.

[Ashnazg]

It would be so awesome if all this shit really existed, because it would mean the universe has some kind of magic to it, but dammit there ain't any.

What is magic if not science advanced beyond our understanding?

[Suikoden]

I tend to keep my mind open to possibilities. Oh I've also had sleep paralysis happen to me twice. Both times being equally as freaky.

[Horrid Crow]

No. Of course not. I'm really sorry OP, but your 10-year old self probably had a LOT of imagination.
I don't believe in spirits (or god, or anything supernatural) but I have such a vidid imagination that I can scare myself into seeing and hearing stuff.

[Santti]

No, and for a good reason. They don't exist.

[wpken]

Honestly I'm skeptical, but there is one time I am convinced I had contact with the deceased. When i was maybe around 3/4 years old my grandfather(mothers side) lived at home with us for some reason unknown to me. Either way me and this man were the bestest of buds, inseparable! Whenever my mother or my father tried scolding me I'd run to him and eventually i'd still get talked to but it would be less heated. Well, as "heated" as a 3 year old scolding can get. But I digress, eventually he passed, me being a toddler, i cannot recall his passing, but my only actual memory i recounted to my mother frightens and upsets her and she told me why. One night i remember sleeping on the couch out in the living room, this was where he liked to spend most of his time, I remember feeling calm like everything was ok, just very tired. I was awoken to the sight of being lifted up, and I was in my grandfathers arms, he was looking at me and i felt something weird about it seeing as he looked much different, even though that is my only recalled image of him i knew it was off; it was mostly his eyes. Anyway my only memory of my grandfather was of him lifting me up in the middle of the night from his couch that i was sleeping on, i feel like he said something simple like goodnight, but i am not entirely sure. i was out like a light shortly after that and that was it. A few years ago i was talking to my mom about him, her reminiscing and my general curiosity, and told her that story and she just broke down and told me the only time she let me sleep on that couch was the day that he died. Hit me like a train. Felt so many feels that i didn't understand.

ALSO, sorry for the long post. i probably rambled a little, but i felt some backstory helps it because i don't actually talk about this much.

Let's just say i was 5 actually instead of 3 or 4.

[Deleted]

What do you guys thino of the Paranormal Activity movie ?

[Powerogue]

Oh I had a scary ghost experience. Some black dog standing on me when I woke up in the middle of the night. Then I found out that's a very specific kind of dream that happens to a lot of people, and it was k. Something about being awake but paralyzed and still in dream mode.

Even the most real paranormal experiences have explanations.

[Deepsidedj]

Nope. Never. But if i would i would probably get very scared.

[Systam]

you know what i find is funny? We talk about how idiotic people were 100's of years ago for believing in XX things and then some of its proven 100's of years later and suddenly they dont seem dumb.

Personally i've had experiances but not sure if its my own brain doing it or something else so to an extent i guess i kind of believe it and on the same time i dont.

Idk it'll play out in time. If they're not there eventually they'd die out as they're part of our human mind now right? It's just such an odd thing that ghost and spirits vengeful or not have been around in our history forever. Were we as humans raised from the first modern man with something in our mind to tell us that ghosts are real/could be real or is it just the biggest made up lie in history?(remember our brains will interpret things we dont understand into things we do understand)

[La]

The only people who still believe in anything of the supernatural are either of the following:

• Idiots
  
• Raised in a very religious home
  
• Ignoramuses following the social norm
  
• Frauds and crooks
  
• Delusional
  
• Despots seeking to use the faith of a people for their own gain

'That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.'
- Christopher Hitchens


Let that be the end of it.

seems like you`re trying to point out people who believe in god are idiots and not people who believe in ghosts.

i wouldn`t say i believe in ghosts, but i`m sure we`ve all had that feeling at some point where we thought we saw something or we were afraid for some stupid reason, or maybe not.

[Adam Jensen]

seems like you`re trying to point out people who believe in god are idiots and not people who believe in ghosts.

i wouldn`t say i believe in ghosts, but i`m sure we`ve all had that feeling at some point where we thought we saw something or we were afraid for some stupid reason, or maybe not.

We all have had those moments. But those moments are simply caused by our brains not perceiving reality properly. The brain is very easily fooled into seeing things that are not there.

[Deleted]

Most people that think they see this kind of things are probably either crazy or just desperate for some attention or acknowledgment of their own existence. No offense OP.

[Deleted]

I believe. Am I 100% sure? Of course not, I have an open mind though so I'm open to all explanations both for and against. I'll say this though, I don't think Humanity has achieved all knowledge of the Universe. I think there a lot of mysteries out there and the best mindset is to have an open mind and be inquisitive but also sceptic.

I don't have any story or seen anything although I remember one night as I was closing my bedroom's door I felt something touch my hand, but it was probably nothing paranormal really, most likely an itch.

[Adam Jensen]

I believe. Am I 100% sure? Of course not, I have an open mind though so I'm open to all explanations both for and against. I'll say this though, I don't think Humanity has achieved all knowledge of the Universe. I think there a lot of mysteries out there and the best mindset is to have an open mind and be inquisitive but also sceptic.

I don't have any story or seen anything although I remember one night as I was closing my bedroom's door I felt something touch my hand, but it was probably nothing paranormal really, most likely an itch.

I consider myself open minded too. But I'm also going to consider the evidence and if the evidence isn't based in logic, then I won't accept it. Yes, there are things science doesn't explain, if science explained everything, there'd be no need to continue doing science. To simply claim the supernatural is at work where science does not have an explanation is at best lazy and stifles scientific curiosity and progression.

[Deleted]

I wish ghosts were real. Life would be more interesting then.

[Cowt]

seems like you`re trying to point out people who believe in god are idiots and not people who believe in ghosts.

They're both the same to me.

Neither is impossible, but both are illogical to devote your life to.

[Adam Jensen]

They're both the same to me.

Neither is impossible, but both are illogical to devote your life to.

Agreed. I'm an agnostic for that reasons (concerning both ghosts and gods.) You can't disprove them but there's no way to confirm their existence or their effect on us (if they even have one) so there's no point in giving them any extra thought.

[Deleted]

I consider myself open minded too. But I'm also going to consider the evidence and if the evidence isn't based in logic, then I won't accept it. Yes, there are things science doesn't explain, if science explained everything, there'd be no need to continue doing science. To simply claim the supernatural is at work where science does not have an explanation is at best lazy and stifles scientific curiosity and progression.

Sure but why dismiss paranormal activity as a theory/explanation completely? I believe that for everything there is a logical/scientific explanation, if spirits exist or God exists there is a scientific explanation, but just because we haven't discovered it doesn't mean it isn't real, that's my opinion anyway.

I think people do it only because of the stigma that is associated with it which we can see in this thread. This is another thing that I don't like, just because someone claims to have seen or experience something that can't be explained by conventional science doesn't mean they are crazy or stupid. I love reading or watching documentaries about history and science but I'm also interested in knowing explanations or theories for things that science hasn't been able to explain, nothing wrong with that.

[Tisane]

Sounds really scary, I've never had such an experience before. But I believe you, even though I never had such a massive experience like you had. But I do have a couple of other not-so-massive experiences.

The only moment I had thought/think about ghosts/spirits is when I walk in our hallway in the night. Many times when I walk in our hallway (and not in any other room), I got the feeling I'm getting watched by something. But I suppose it's nothing special, as I know more people around me who told me they had the same experience in their hallway.

But here's another strange thing which I'll never forget: About 15 year's ago, when I was a kid still, I was with my parents on my vacation in Austria. On an evening we were driving on a small non-lighted, mountain road with a dense forest. And suddenly a bear crossed the road. Which is weird as the bear population in Austria is about, if not already, extinct. There's only a couple left living in the wild there currently. But the weirdest thing was, that I knew this bear would cross the road, about 30 seconds before the event I had some vision, telling me a bear will cross the road in a moment. At that time I even told my parents ''watch out!'' before we actually even saw anything. But because I said ''watch out'' my father slowed down the car, and indeed, a few moments later a bear crossed the road. Afterwards they asked me how I knew this would happen and I just said I had a feeling/vision that a bear would cross the road. My parents are nowadays still baffled about the fact that I knew beforehand that a bear would cross the road. Nowadays we still talk about this event, a few times per year. It was really the strangest experience ever to me (and probably my parents).

I also dream a lot. Most people can't remember if or what they dreamed in their last night, but I remember almost after every night I've slept/dreamed. And the strange thing is that I sometimes dream about a future event, which actually happened a few years later after I had that dream, and in the exact same detail as in my dream. And I'm not talking about graduating or some birthday-party or something else obvious. But actually a chain of events which I dreamed about. Like one time I dreamed about a family meeting in a ''bauern-hoff'' in Germany (I visit Germany a lot as I live only 1 mile of the border). Some sort of an open-air, farmers restaurant. And in my dream a chain of events happened in the same location. The host spilling a glass, followed by family members making a joke the host spilling his glass and some stray cat walking up to our terrace. And this chain of events happened both in the exact same way in both my dream as in reality. Even while this chain of events lasted only for about 30 seconds, it happened in the exact same detail as I had in the dream a few years earlier. The host dropping spilling his glass, in the same background with his grumbling, the family members making the exact same joke as they said in my dream, and than a few seconds later a stray cat appearing and walking up to our terrace. And it wasn't the only foretold dream I had, it has happened to me about twice or thrice more. And when those events happen like which I had in my dream, I'm just stunned for a moment and having a flashback about the moment I dreamed a couple of years ago. I don't know how this happened, or if it's just my brain playing with me. But I find it very interesting how those strange events happen, both mine and other's their events. So mysterious and hard/impossible to explain how those things happen even if they have nothing to do with ghosts or spirits.

(Apologizes if there's any spelling mistakes, rushed it as I was about to go to sleep, lol.)