Ghosts/Ghost-Hunting

[Endgame]

'Paranormal' videos. Whispers caught on tape. Mysterious floorboard creaks and light flickers. There's countless examples of people who believe they've found evidence of the existance of ghosts.

A friend of mine's taken an interest recently, and it got me thinking about all the alleged 'proof' that's out there, some of which can't really be explained.

I've spoken to locals who go 'ghost-hunting'. From my understanding, you drive out to a supposedly haunted place, turn off your car, and sit around waiting for some kinda sign of paranormal activity. Apparently, you're meant to keep quiet, or it offends the wayward spirit. At first I thought they were messing around when they started telling me tales of their friends who hadn't observed the 'Keep Quiet' rule, but they all seem to share similar tales for similar places, all of which they claim to have happened to different people in each story.

The question I pose to you is this: Do you think they actually exist, and if not, how then would we go about explaining the 'paranormal' events attributed to their existance?

 

[Lumen et ignem]

I don't really believe in ghosts because really the idea of ghosts just sounds kind of unbelievable. To explain the "paranormal" activities I'd say this is because the people that are ghost hunting are wanting to see/hear/smell something related to ghosts so their minds trick them. However I do believe spirits coming back for a short period of time to say bye to a loved one to allow the loved one peace of mind.

 

[Endgame]

I don't really believe in ghosts because really the idea of ghosts just sounds kind of unbelievable.

However I do believe spirits coming back for a short period of time to say bye to a loved one to allow the loved one peace of mind.

Uh.

Well, yeah, at first I started thinking along the trick-of-the-mind path myself. People want to see something, so they interpret something as what they want to see. There's a lot of evidence against it though, such as images caught on film, recorded conversations, ect.

We'll assume, for now, that at least some of these are genuine. By genuine, I mean, we hear/see it exactly as it was originally recorded. No doubt there's some out there shooping clouds and clipping some moans in to get a quick buck.

 

[Ulti]

You don't give your mind enough credit. People call something they don't understand as something paranormal. Moving shadows? Whispers? Its all in your damn head. I know of these stupid "whispers" that people here. Its just your mind. I think someone is calling me but I don't "hear" it. I just think that I did.

If you go into a "haunted" house and expect something weird, your mind is going to make you believe you do.

 

[Shadow Soldier]

Didn't we have a thread on this already?

 

[Wehrmacht]

Ghost-hunting? Trying to teach your dog high-energy physics would be a better way to employ your time.

 

[Ulti]

Ghost-hunting? Trying to teach your dog high-energy physics would be a better way to employ your time.

And probably would pay off a lot better. Oh you captured someone's grandmother? Keen. My dog is making a nuclear bomb out of his own crap.

 

[Pinwheel]

I couldn't give two shits about what people say to disclaim it. After an incident I had when I was babysitting, I know somehow they have to be real. I dunno about Ouiji boards or anything, I just know that "ghosts" exist.

 

[Endgame]

I couldn't give two shits about what people say to disclaim it. After an incident I had when I was babysitting, I know somehow they have to be real. I dunno about Ouiji boards or anything, I just know that "ghosts" exist.

Care to share? Sounds like you're pretty convinced.

 

[iSeeYOU]

I have a friend who's from a long family of "Spirit Callers" one time we were alone at home it was about 3 am, we were 3 (not 3 years old, i mean we were 3 guys), and we thought it would be funny to "call spirits", let me just tell you it was not funny at all. My friend passed out from the fear.

For a whole week I was scared shitless of the dark, I would sleep with the lights open and the TV on. But of course a week later i managed to convince myself of the absurdity of it all. I'm not saying I don't believe in ghosts after everything's that's happened but I know that the more you believe the more chances you have of "experiencing paranormal activities"

 

[Endgame]

the more you believe the more chances you have of "experiencing paranormal activities"

Anyone else think this statement alone speaks volumes?

 

[Ulti]

Anyone else think this statement alone speaks volumes?

What, that ghosts exist as much as Santa Claus? If you believe it will happen, then your mind will trick you :\

 

[Apostle]

What, that ghosts exist as much as Santa Claus? If you believe it will happen, then your mind will trick you :\

so then, if two people are ghost hunting together, anf they experience something paranormal that isn't explainable by normal means, both of their minds tricked them in the exact same way at the same time?

 

[UsagiOkami]

I believe in ghosts, or spirits, paranormal, demons, whatever you choose to call them I believe in them. I add demons on there because of some ghost shows I watch. I also believe in those thhat can see them as well as speak with them, be it psychics, mediums, clairvoyance, fortune tellers.

Things involving spirits have surrounded my family for as far back as I know. As a little girl I was taught that your intuition is an important thing and that you should trust it. My mom tells me that as a child I would see shadowy things and unexplainable lights. It slowed down in frequency until I could barely remember but picked back up as I got older.

Now you couldn't try to convince me that such things as spirits and psychics don exist. Because you can try but there is no way to explain some of the things that me and my family have been through. Just a few weeks ago a text message woke me up, I ignored it for a moment but saw something by the door, it was a man, approx 6' or taller with a burgundy striped shirt. He had shoulder length brownish blond hair. Everything else was obscured in shadow, the edges of the guy himself were obscured in shadow, like taking a picture of a moving object, I couldn't even see his face it was just blur. He made no sound, spoke not one word, and then suddenly vanished. No I was not asleep, when I wake up I am up and I can always tell the difference between my dreams and reality.

Other instances include that often when I walk by the downstairs hallway there are shapes, brightly colored figures and objects that do not belong there, upon walking by again they have vanished from sight. Walking by my closet I sometimes see a black figure watching me with glowing yellow eyes. And that is just some of the things that have happened to me personally, the rest of my family especially the women experience other things.

So yes I believe in all that stuff, and anyone who plays around with Ouija boards is a fool, my mom had a friend who went ot a party where they ised one, she didn't participate or anything and she ended up having to have her house blessed by a priest, she didn't even believe in ghosts.

I believe that sometimes our minds can trick us yes, but I in no way discount that there are things that walk among us that we cannot see, what these things are exactly I don't know, I just know that they cannot be explained and they do exist.

 

[Wehrmacht]

I just know that they cannot be explained and they do exist.

Doesn't necessarily mean we won't ever be able to explain them, though.

Just saying.

 

[UsagiOkami]

True enough. Then allow me to rephrase that, with present technology being what it is, it seems unlikely that we will be able to find out with actual scientific proof.

 

[▽]

Interestingly, a magnetic field of just a few mT messe with your brain, giving you feelings of strange things happening, like seeing spirits, or being abducted by aliens. Better yet, old houses often have faulty wiring, and the magnetic fields produced in the wiring isn't shielded as it should be. Hell, they use gaussmeters on gost hunting trips (the gauss being an old unit before being replaced by the tesla), so i'm not convinced.

And pictures and videos are prone to faults, spots in pictures aren't more then faults caused by optics, the lenses in the equipment. Since we know the human brain tries to sift out shapes from the visual information it gets, it's not so damn strange that people think they see human-like spots or faces when they really aren't there.

 

[XIII Nobodies]

Meh, not so sure I believe the whole ghost thing. I think people just get overly paranoid, and the bad stuff that happens to them is probably their own karma. Either that, or it's in their head.