Thread: Are ghosts real?

This was a pretty cool list. Just figured it was relevant:

Top 10 Bizarre Afterlife Experiments

Also, this is a must for people who are interested in the subject. Whether or not you believe in the afterlife (or the credibility of the author, for that matter), there is some great stuff in here, to consider:

A Lawyer Presents a Case for the Afterlife

(I chose 'probably not', by the way. If there was a 'possibly', option up there, I probably would have chosen that. I don't staunchly declare that they do not exist, but I'm not ready to say that ghosts are 'probable', yet.)

Hmm noted. I saw most people leaning on either side of the fence but a Possibly option may be helpful

I can actually refute those two points you mentioned stormcrow, in that I am an atheist and I saw a ghost full on. I also saw it multiple times, at least five or six times. When I was a little kid, I remember laying in bed and waking up in the middle of the night and looking across my room and I saw a green hazy looking ghost that started off small but formed into a much larger shape as it walked across the room closer and closer to me. I saw it a few times like I said, though when it reached half way across the room it would disappear. Though often I hid under my covers and tried to act like it wasn't there because it scared me. There was never any stories of ghosts in my house and no one ever said anything about it and I never mentioned it to anyone else, so it isn't like I imagined it based off stories or anything.

The only problem is that I woke up in the middle of the night each time I saw it. Now I remember I was fully awake at the time I saw it, but I was a little kid and I didn't know about sleep paralysis or very much about dreams and stuff.

So it is possible it was some dream related hallucination. I wish I would see something like that now, because I believe I would be able to tell with a high degree of certainty if it was real or not. However, I have not seen anything like that since then. I really don't think my 6 year old self is a reliable source of information, since kids don't really have the skills to tell the difference between dream related hallucination, or even optical illusions, from real life.

So I do allow the possibly that ghost might be real, because I may have saw one. Though in all honesty, I think that it is unlikely that they really exist.

I had the same thing. When i was like 6 or 5, i saw bender from futurama , stealing everything in my house. And i was a 100% sure it was real. But no shit, it wasnt.

Weird story, i know

I also heard them laughing while they were staling the crap

I would vote maybe, but there is no option. I'm agnostic at pretty much everything.

Originally Posted by Alric

I can actually refute those two points you mentioned stormcrow, in that I am an atheist and I saw a ghost full on. I also saw it multiple times, at least five or six times. When I was a little kid, I remember laying in bed and waking up in the middle of the night and looking across my room and I saw a green hazy looking ghost that started off small but formed into a much larger shape as it walked across the room closer and closer to me. I saw it a few times like I said, though when it reached half way across the room it would disappear. Though often I hid under my covers and tried to act like it wasn't there because it scared me. There was never any stories of ghosts in my house and no one ever said anything about it and I never mentioned it to anyone else, so it isn't like I imagined it based off stories or anything.

The only problem is that I woke up in the middle of the night each time I saw it. Now I remember I was fully awake at the time I saw it, but I was a little kid and I didn't know about sleep paralysis or very much about dreams and stuff.

So it is possible it was some dream related hallucination. I wish I would see something like that now, because I believe I would be able to tell with a high degree of certainty if it was real or not. However, I have not seen anything like that since then. I really don't think my 6 year old self is a reliable source of information, since kids don't really have the skills to tell the difference between dream related hallucination, or even optical illusions, from real life.

So I do allow the possibly that ghost might be real, because I may have saw one. Though in all honesty, I think that it is unlikely that they really exist.

I believe you. Although I dont think you refuted my second point. You still provided a subjective anecdotal experience not to mention the fact that it happened in the middle of the night when you where a kid. I used to have night terrors, not bad dreams but night fucking terrors its hard to explain but I used to become paralyzed in my bed because I thought a demon man was watching me at the foot of my bed( this happened from the time I was about 5 till maybe 7 or 8). In retrospect my fear of this "demon" was completely irrational, I had an overactive imagination (although I dont think that is always necessarily a bad thing) and freaked myself out from just staring at the shadows in my room. Anyway interesting story, I cant attest to your personal experience which brings us to somewhat of a roadblock.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

Are ghosts a real phenomena or not?

What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

Originally Posted by Scatterbrain

What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.

I loved listening to him say that.

There should have been an option "I don't know for sure." Because I don't know for sure. Making assertions for OR against without definitive evidence is a poorly-devised assertion.

Originally Posted by ThePreserver

There should have been an option "I don't know for sure." Because I don't know for sure. Making assertions for OR against without definitive evidence is a poorly-devised assertion.

What's wrong with "probably" and "probably not"? None of those imply knowing for sure.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

What's wrong with "probably" and "probably not"? None of those imply knowing for sure.

There is a difference between "probably exist", "probably don't exist", and "I dunno".

Originally Posted by LucidFlanders

There is a difference between "probably exist", "probably don't exist", and "I dunno".

Yes, but "I dunno" or "I don't know for sure", which is the term ThePreserver used is implied in both "probably" and "probably not".

I agree that a 5th option might be added in the middle for people who really have no idea and don't lean one way or another, but "I don't know for sure" wouldn't be the right wording.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

Yes, but "I dunno" or "I don't know for sure", which is the term ThePreserver used is implied in both "probably" and "probably not".

I agree that a 5th option might be added in the middle for people who really have no idea and don't lean one way or another, but "I don't know for sure" wouldn't be the right wording.

Well by saying "I don't know for sure"... I'm not really leaning either way. I just don't know and cannot say "probably yes" or "probably no." I don't know for sure, therefore I don't know the answer to the question

Originally Posted by ThePreserver

Well by saying "I don't know for sure"... I'm not really leaning either way. I just don't know and cannot say "probably yes" or "probably no." I don't know for sure, therefore I don't know the answer to the question

Okay, I realize that what you mean is that you really have no idea. But you're using the term "I don't know for sure" incorrectly. Knowing for sure means you're 100% certain, or somewhere close to there, maybe 99% certain, since 100% certainty is impossible. So in saying you don't know for sure, you're really saying you're somewhere from 0% to 99% certain, which isn't saying much. Everyone would fall under that category.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

Everyone would fall under that category.

And that's why I was looking for a 5th option. In reality, no one can know for sure if what they've experienced was a ghost or not!

Would be nice if someone got a video of a full on apparition in good lighting. You would think if someone found a haunted area, that constantly had ghost activity, you could just place a camera in the area and get a bunch of good video.

Your feedback will be used for future polls. I figured forcing people to pick a side of the fence would be constructive but I'm having my doubts.

Alric - See my theory is that if they exist, they're not an ectoplasmic being mobbin around earth. I'm seeing man's posthumous travel to be through the dimension of mind, simply because of the effect expectation has on a spirit's ability to make contact.

Had my first experience with something ghostlike just this morning. Right after i woke up. I don't know how real it was. But it sure as hell was scary. I voted definetly by the way because the phenomenon is definetly real. To the objective observer. What it is and it's origin is not sure to me. But it's still real.

The ghost was white/transparent. Wearing what could be mistaken for a white sheet. With a cross on his face. I was expecting something frightening to come from the door and this ghost appeared. Moving trough the door, trough my bed and body while i was paralyzed. I didn't want to see it anymore and i made it vanish. But if i didn't do it this would just pass on trough the wall and fly outside. It did not interact with anything. Say anything, or do anything frightful . I don't know if this was non-interacting matter/non-matter thing but ít was fully 3d and it just moved in a straight line right across the room. I projected all my fear into this being and that's why i was so scared. But i don't see any valid reason to be scared of this.

Originally Posted by Dthoughts

Had my first experience with something ghostlike just this morning. Right after i woke up. I don't know how real it was. But it sure as hell was scary. I voted definetly by the way because the phenomenon is definetly real. To the objective subjective observer. What it is and it's origin is not sure to me. But it's still real.

Fixed. You really shouldn't use words if you don't know their meaning.

Also, what you experienced was sleep paralysis. Yes it is.

Dthoughts, that is classic sleep paralysis. If you just woke up and you have paralysis and see things, it is sleep paralysis. In your case we can pretty much gaurentee that it wasn't a ghost of any kind.

So what is sleep paralysis?

Sleep paralysis is the number one cause of "alien abduction" as well. Just like ball lightning is a big contributor to UFO conspiracies.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Great video.
So in sleep paralysis you can see things that you can only observe while u are in this state. I know this is true because when i moved and willed myself to stop seeing a ghost. It kept moving but to my sight it vanished.
How many times do two people in the same room wake up in sleep paralysis and see things? We don't know anything. I haven't found any scientific test for this yet.
If two people wake up in sleep paralysis and see different things then we can say for certain that this was only real in a subjective point of view. Or if the vision is shared then we must ask ourselves what this was and why we can see ghosts flying through walls.