Do You Believe in Ghosts?

[Gene Steinberg]

We have covered the topic on several episodes of The Paracast. Now we'd like your opinion. Do you believe or disbelieve, or do you even care?

[meciar]

I personally do not believe in ghosts. But, I can be convinced otherwise of course if a ghost were to show up in my house tonight. They almost seem "too paranormal" to me. I think many of the bumps and noises people hear can be attributed to things we can understand. I think most ghosts people see are likely strange reflections and other phenomena related with light, refraction etc. I'm very skeptical of those whoe have seen full ghost apparitions. I'll have to listen to your paracasts on ghosts (I haven't heard those ones yet). Maybe I'll change my mind.... but probably not

[FOCrumbo]

I suppose this falls into the category of poltergeist, although there's no sound associated with what happened. I wouldn't say I believe in ghosts, yet I have no other explanation for what happened to me.

I moved to Salem, Oregon where I now live in the summer of 1984. My wife (from whom I am now divorced) had a younger brother, Robert, who had run away from home. No one knew where he was, and he made no effort to contact his family. I never actually met him, but I'd heard many tales of the kinds of things he would do to irritate his brothers and sisters. One particularly annoying stunt was to walk up behind someone and flick their ear with his crooked finger.

A few weeks after our arrival we received a phone call from a police detective in Eugene, Oregon. He had bad news. He asked if we could drive down from Salem (about an hour's drive) to identify a body which they believed was my wife's missing brother, Robert. It was. He had been living in his car and had been taking his meals at the Eugene mission. They found him with a knife wound through his head. Who murdered him or why is a mystery to this day.

A short time later (maybe a little more than a week) on a Sunday evening, I think, I was sitting in the front room of a very large house which we had rented. (It was a brand new, unused, state-of-the-art fire station, but I won't go into that here.) The TV was on, and I was sitting on a futon couch which was pushed flat against the wall. The only other living being in the house was my son (aged 2) upstairs asleep in his crib. My wife (an OB/GYN) was away on call at Salem hospital and wouldn't return until the next day.

Then all at once, I felt something press the temple of my glasses down over my ear. It pressed so hard that my ear folded over and the ear piece held the flap of my ear down. I turned instinctively to slap away the hand which had done the deed.

No one was there.

The couch was low enough to the ground so that no one could hide beneath it, but I checked anyway. No one could have moved in or out of the room without my seeing him or her. The doors were all locked (I double-checked). I checked upstairs and my son was still asleep in his bed. There was nothing in the large, open living room area where anyone could hide.

My head wasn't resting against anything. If anything I had been leaning away from the back of the couch with either arms folded or chin in hand. It wasn't a dream. I was wide awake the whole time. It wasn't that late either. About 8:00 PM.

There are no muscles in the ear/scalp area which could spasm to pull the ear down with that much force. And even if there were, it was the ear piece being pressed down which bent my ear. The ear piece very definitely held my folded ear down. Folding down the ear wouldn't allow my glasses to fall down over it. My glasses fit too snugly for that to happen.

I have no rational explanation for this, and I doubt anyone else will either. Does that make me believe in ghosts? If it wasn't a ghost, it was surely something at least as mysterious.

I ran an on going experiment when I was 14 with 2 friends. It involved a ouija board. I blind folded both my friends while they "played" it. I asked the entity if it could read my mind. It said yes. I started to pick words in my mind and the board would spell it out. I wasn't touching the board. This rules out the autonomic response. I told James Randi about it and he ended up asking me to call him once I told him I ruled out the autonomic response. This was several years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't make the call thinking there wouldn't be a point to it. The board has been long gone, one of my friends involved that it worked well for, died via suicide (side note: the board said he would die first between the three of us. We asked) the other friend moved away, and I haven't been able to duplicate that success since. I have had many other successes but the whole episode with that "entity" was something out of a movie. There's much more to this story, and many other experiments, experiences and investigations, but I'd have to write a whole book here. It's time for bed soon.

I have never seen a ghost (excluding the possibility of viewing them on photos, film and video, that is). I have seen manifestions with objects, heard noses that may have been associated with ghost, viewed possible possession and levitation. My friend, the one who commited suicide, levitated twice briefly. It was more like hesitating before a fall though, or hanging in mid air though. Other witnesses were involved. I've talked with many people through out life that have seen ghosts however.

[ROCK]

I find this subject very interesting.
I admit to voting yes, due to only one experiance when I worked as a surveyor for the local hospital in Middlesbrough, UK.
To be brief.
I was working alone in a disused building, measuring rooms etc. All the ward rooms were empty, both of people and furniture.
After measuring all the rooms on one side of the ward, I was paying out the tape, walking backwards down the corridor.
As I was doing this, I watched a guy dressed in night attire, walk out of an empty room (which I had surveyed 2 mins earlier), and walk off down the corridor, turn right and disappear around the corner.
Now the really strange part.
I continued the survey, measured the remaing wards, washrooms etc. Made the notes on the plans and left the building.
It was not until I turned the key in the door to lock up the empty building behind me, that it registered what I had seen... a guy come out of an empty room, from the only door, dressed in hospital night attire, in a totally empty disused building.

Anyway, there`s my ghost story.

Probably some logical explanation, but I don`t have one.

[comix]

Yes I believe in ghosts or spirits because I have seen several. Once at the Copper Queen hotel in Bisbee Az, several times in a rooming house where I lived in Toronto Ontario Canada, and few other times over the years as well.

[Atrayo]

Hello All,

I also adhere to the knowing that Gwops mentions.

Ghosts / Spirits as to their presence i take a more meta-physical view point. Ghosts are in my belief stuck by choice in a substrate of dimensions. Sorta between two worlds of that of the living and of the afterlife. Which I believe in the Buddhist precept that Heaven, Earth, and Hell are all one super imposed reality. All sandwiched together but experienced differently by dimensions of being either in a mortal guise or in a disembodied form.

So like the lovely saying that your loved ones after they have departed are still with you. Has more substance to it with at least for myself when it comes to this belief. Like a strata of dimensions in the same space we occupy. There are Ghosts that are closer to us in dimensional reality than others.

So whilst a ghosts reality may feel to them more like a dreamscape, which most times mortals like us get in the way of their ongoings.

[CapnG]

I don't need to "believe" in ghosts. Almost every house I've ever lived in has been haunted by something or other. I've seen things, heard things, experienced cold, dead areas in otherwise warm, well ventilated houses. I don't doubt their reality for a second. As to WHAT they are... residual energy? earth-bound spirit? visitor from the other side? extradimensional entity? Your guess is as good as mine...

[Aaron LeClair]

Hope you don't mind me dropping the word "belief" in exchange for the word "reason". I reason ghosts exist on the bases of many experiences I and many others have had.

I've never seen a ghost (except for maybe on video) in person, but have witness results of some via changes in the enviroment, sounds, physical manifestations on non-ghostly objects and through the Ouija board etc.

[David Biedny]

Sometime next year, we're going to have a talk with one of my oldest friends, who saw an apparition with me in southern Florida years ago. The incident was extremely intense, lasted for around 15 minutes, and ended with a dematerialization right in front of our eyes. So as far as "believing", I'm with those who think that these things are undeniably real, belief systems aside.