Do you believe in ghosts?
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thorsmom01 wrote: »I used to believe. When I was an early teen , my sisters and I had one of those quija boards. It scared us so we walked it to the dumpster and threw it away in top of an old washing machine.
The next day it was on our porch. We screamed and ran Inside. We then bagged it up and threw it back in the dumpster.
For years we where scared and wondered how it hovered out of the trash back to our house. It was enough of a scare for us to stop playing those ghost games .
When I was about 20 I asked my mom If she remembered that ghost game that came back from the dumpster.
She said " yeah you guys learned your lesson about playing scary games that night ! I got it out and put it on the porch because you guys threw away a 20$ toy for no reason "
My Mother is definitely not religious, other worldly, spiritual, etc. But she specifically warned me against ever messing about with a ouija board. Thing is, the ouija board is an entirely commercial creation like a typical board game. If there has indeed been any contact with the 'other side' through its use it is believed to have nothing to do with it being a ouija board and more down to contact being attempted regardless of the means of contact. The supposed spirit just recognises the effort rather than the means. Basically, you may aswell try contacting a spirit with a game of monopoly.0 -
Absolutely! I've never seen one but definitely heard one making noise and saw things move/fall in my sister-in-law's house. Terrifying experience.0
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I definitely believe in them and although I have never seen one, I strongly believe they are present. This is going to be my favorite thread
post more stories! 0 -
I've never seen one but for the longest time I've heard someone walking up to the side of my bed in the middle of the night, like someone quietly walking on the carpet and it stops right by my bed.. could just sense someone and my body would freeze up, I was terrified. Then I started working out in the morning and I get up at 4:20 so I'm so tired I could be abducted by aliens and would have no knowledge lolz.0
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Who you gonna call??0
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Booooo0
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There are no ghosts. Only figments of our imaginations, or waking dreams. If you are alone, and stare at a coat rack in the corner long enough, pretty soon it will say.."Hey how ya doin"? For every story, or unexplained happening, I can present you with a completely logical reasoning. Then again...That's just my opinion.0
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thorsmom01 wrote: »I used to believe. When I was an early teen , my sisters and I had one of those quija boards. It scared us so we walked it to the dumpster and threw it away in top of an old washing machine.
The next day it was on our porch. We screamed and ran Inside. We then bagged it up and threw it back in the dumpster.
For years we where scared and wondered how it hovered out of the trash back to our house. It was enough of a scare for us to stop playing those ghost games .
When I was about 20 I asked my mom If she remembered that ghost game that came back from the dumpster.
She said " yeah you guys learned your lesson about playing scary games that night ! I got it out and put it on the porch because you guys threw away a 20$ toy for no reason "
My Mother is definitely not religious, other worldly, spiritual, etc. But she specifically warned me against ever messing about with a ouija board. Thing is, the ouija board is an entirely commercial creation like a typical board game. If there has indeed been any contact with the 'other side' through its use it is believed to have nothing to do with it being a ouija board and more down to contact being attempted regardless of the means of contact. The supposed spirit just recognises the effort rather than the means. Basically, you may aswell try contacting a spirit with a game of monopoly.
These boards have existed to contact hidden spiritual forces - using one format or another - for 1,000+ years. Long before Parker Brothers. The set up of a Ouija board looks nothing like a Monopoly board. The intent behind its use differs greatly from a Monopoly game. Even 8 year olds know that playing with a Ouija board is fun and exciting but mysterious, a bit scary, and potentially dangerous. Unlike an innocent, family friendly game of Monopoly. It's good your mother explicitly warned you against using a Ouija. Even non-religious people with little to no interest in spiritual matters, when they mature, seem to automatically repel a Ouija board.
You're gonna feel silly when you have to pay a ghost all of your monopoly money because you landed on its hotel filled property.
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At one point I did believe in ghosts. I got so into it that I started doing "investigations" with some friends. As I got more into it, my interest shifted more to a general interest in science. Wow, how quickly I learned that paranormal "research " and the methods used on investigations, even by the big names in the field, are so far from actual science.
Once you really understand the scientific method, and develop a healthy scientific skepticism, it's kind of impossible to accept the techniques used by paranormal researchers and their evidence presented as anything more than a complete misunderstanding of the very basics of science.
The more I read about how the brain works, and how memories are formed and recalled, and effects such as pareidolia, it pushed so many more explanations as to why so many people think they've seen ghosts well above any likelihood that an actual ghost was the root of what happened.
If anyone is interested, Carl Sagan's book "The Demon-Haunted World" is an amazing book that delves into a lot of similar topics and lays out the scientific method pretty nicely. There's also a whole slew of books that detail the science behind paranormal things such as Richard Wiseman's, "Paranormality" and Michael Shermer's "The believing brain."
I don't expect many to actually seek out those books if they're already set in their beliefs, but I am always of the mindset that it's important to seek out opposing opinions and look at them with an open, but skeptical eye, so you don't get yourself stuck in a feedback loop where you just constantly read what affirms your existing beliefs.1 -
TheCrawlingChaos wrote: »At one point I did believe in ghosts. I got so into it that I started doing "investigations" with some friends.
Why such an explosion of people interested in so-called ghosts and ghost hunting nowadays? I know this may sound wacky, but it seems to me that a belief or interest in ghosty woo woo things and inexplicable activity is a new religion. Steadily replacing traditional religious beliefs and communities. Thoughts?
I didn't intend for that to be an explosion of any sort. It was just a start to my backstory to my answer to the question. I didn't always believe in ghosts befote that point. It was a quick flare up that lead to other interests that quickly killed my original interests, replacing it with some thing i now see as even more exciting and fascinating.
Even if it is seen as a new religion, that doesn't exclude it from criticisms. I think it's important to respect other people, but it certainly doesn't mean their beliefs require that same respect. People should separate themselves from their beliefs.
I intended no disrespect to anyone who may belief one way or another. I'm just bad at words and expressing the idea of "hey I have some interesting information for you."
As a scientific skeptic, I put a lot of emphasis on how we know something to be true. To me, believing in something that is correct is important. If there's evidence out there that refutes something I believe, I want to know. Of course this just leads to a philosophical discussion about absurdism and existencialism, and what is important is only what is important to the person it's important to.
All I'm saying, if there's someone out there that got an interest in paranormal stuff because of an interest to understand the world, theyou may be interested in looking outside of their own comfort zones and read some of the available information criticizing and refuting a lot of those claims. The universe is immensely fascinating and awe-inspiring without having to resort to pseudoscience. And now I'm projecting I guess.
Tl;dr sorry if I sounded like I was attacking or anything. I didn't mean to.1 -
I don't believe in anything paranormal, supernatural, UFOs, bigfoot, etc, I just haven't seen anything to convince me otherwise in my life. There are more than enough many amazing real and tangible things in this world to occupy my time.0
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thorsmom01 wrote: »I used to believe. When I was an early teen , my sisters and I had one of those quija boards. It scared us so we walked it to the dumpster and threw it away in top of an old washing machine.
The next day it was on our porch. We screamed and ran Inside. We then bagged it up and threw it back in the dumpster.
For years we where scared and wondered how it hovered out of the trash back to our house. It was enough of a scare for us to stop playing those ghost games .
When I was about 20 I asked my mom If she remembered that ghost game that came back from the dumpster.
She said " yeah you guys learned your lesson about playing scary games that night ! I got it out and put it on the porch because you guys threw away a 20$ toy for no reason "
My Mother is definitely not religious, other worldly, spiritual, etc. But she specifically warned me against ever messing about with a ouija board. Thing is, the ouija board is an entirely commercial creation like a typical board game. If there has indeed been any contact with the 'other side' through its use it is believed to have nothing to do with it being a ouija board and more down to contact being attempted regardless of the means of contact. The supposed spirit just recognises the effort rather than the means. Basically, you may aswell try contacting a spirit with a game of monopoly.
These boards have existed to contact hidden spiritual forces - using one format or another - for 1,000+ years. Long before Parker Brothers. The set up of a Ouija board looks nothing like a Monopoly board. The intent behind its use differs greatly from a Monopoly game. Even 8 year olds know that playing with a Ouija board is fun and exciting but mysterious, a bit scary, and potentially dangerous. Unlike an innocent, family friendly game of Monopoly. It's good your mother explicitly warned you against using a Ouija. Even non-religious people with little to no interest in spiritual matters, when they mature, seem to automatically repel a Ouija board.
You're gonna feel silly when you have to pay a ghost all of your monopoly money because you landed on its hotel filled property.
Okay call my bluff why don't ya? I never played a game of Monopoly in my life
You are right to have never played it, every time I've played it people have gotten hurt.1 -
thorsmom01 wrote: »I used to believe. When I was an early teen , my sisters and I had one of those quija boards. It scared us so we walked it to the dumpster and threw it away in top of an old washing machine.
The next day it was on our porch. We screamed and ran Inside. We then bagged it up and threw it back in the dumpster.
For years we where scared and wondered how it hovered out of the trash back to our house. It was enough of a scare for us to stop playing those ghost games .
When I was about 20 I asked my mom If she remembered that ghost game that came back from the dumpster.
She said " yeah you guys learned your lesson about playing scary games that night ! I got it out and put it on the porch because you guys threw away a 20$ toy for no reason "
My Mother is definitely not religious, other worldly, spiritual, etc. But she specifically warned me against ever messing about with a ouija board. Thing is, the ouija board is an entirely commercial creation like a typical board game. If there has indeed been any contact with the 'other side' through its use it is believed to have nothing to do with it being a ouija board and more down to contact being attempted regardless of the means of contact. The supposed spirit just recognises the effort rather than the means. Basically, you may aswell try contacting a spirit with a game of monopoly.
These boards have existed to contact hidden spiritual forces - using one format or another - for 1,000+ years. Long before Parker Brothers. The set up of a Ouija board looks nothing like a Monopoly board. The intent behind its use differs greatly from a Monopoly game. Even 8 year olds know that playing with a Ouija board is fun and exciting but mysterious, a bit scary, and potentially dangerous. Unlike an innocent, family friendly game of Monopoly. It's good your mother explicitly warned you against using a Ouija. Even non-religious people with little to no interest in spiritual matters, when they mature, seem to automatically repel a Ouija board.
You're gonna feel silly when you have to pay a ghost all of your monopoly money because you landed on its hotel filled property.
Everyone knows the trick is not hotels... it's to create a housing shortage in houses on a monopoly property. The rules are very clear what needs to happen in a housing shortage. Also, the ensuing stock market crash is liable to produce ghost accountants/stock brokers... two problems solved with one method.0 -
The trick to Monopoly isn't the Hotels, or the housing shortages. The trick is to be the banker. I've never lost. 0
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No I didn't mean you personally, sorry. I meant in the U.S. actually. Here there seems to be an explosion of interest in ghost stuff. I've always been interested in getting the personal account of a former ghost hunter so your post piqued my interest.
Ha, I, in no way, would really consider myself having ever been a ghost hunter. Sure, some friends and I spent a lot of time crawling around old abandoned places said to be haunted, and did all the ghost hunter-y things, like lots of photos and videos and tried to collect "EVPs", but, like even a lot of people that would consider themselves legitimate ghost hunters, it really was just a group of friends who had a common interest in the topic, a VERY base understanding (and misunderstanding) of science, and instruments we didn't really know how to use properly, horsing around in creepy places. I've also attended a "ghost hunting class" before, but they didn't seem to have any more of a grasp on things than we did. Sure, we all thought we were being scientific, but... no. we definitely weren't. I'd be lying if I presented myself as any type of authority in the topic. That probably makes my whole position less interesting. :PI see ghost hunting/paranormal/preternatural as potentially replacing traditional religion for a lot of younger and middle aged people. I'm not sure if that is a widely held view though. There just seems to be a high dropout rate in traditional religions yet a real surge of involvement and interest in paranormal investigations (and beliefs).
I'd be very interested in seeing somebody do a formal study on this. While on one hand, I do see a lot of misinformation and bad science being presented in paranormal communities, I can't fully dismiss it as a real problem because it was the path that lead me to better critical thinking and skepticism, and ultimately, my fascination with so many scientific topics.
Percentage wise, what percentage did you find was explainable versus inexplicable in your own investigations - if you remember approximately?
In our funning around in "haunted" places, if you asked me back then, I'd probably have said a lot of places had evidence of ghosts. As I recount those now, I can easily attribute our "evidence" to the things like pareidolia, not understanding how to use the instruments we used and not understanding calibration of those tools, not understanding and applying the scientific method, no controls on any "experiments" we did, not really being able to rule out other possibilities of causes of events, etc.
Not at all! And sorry if I did. I'm as interested in this stuff as you are. Like you though, I'm a bit reserved in what I'll be taken in by. I welcome all stories though. Scary, Skeptical, Religiously influenced, emotional, whatever
you were fine. I just default to "oh i offended somebody again" because i accidentally do that in these type of topics. I may have been applying more context to your response than was actually there!0 -
Percentage wise, what percentage did you find was explainable versus inexplicable in your own investigations - if you remember approximately?
I forgot to mention something about this. I'm not saying you meant it this way, but when phrasing the question that way I'd want to be sure I state that "inexplicable" doesn't necessarily mean "ghosts," or any other paranormal thing really. It just means a suitable answer has not yet been found, whether it be in the real of the normal, or there really is some as of yet unknown entity. I often find myself in discussions on this topic where if I can't come up with a reasonable explanation for a particular piece of evidence that it means it is ghosts. I just wanted to be clear to point out the false dichotomy IF it was read that way, even unintended. It definitely doesn't' have to be taken that way at all, seeing as you didn't directly say the inexplicable=ghosts, but the phrasing of a question sometimes has ways of guiding thinking and even I was thinking of it that way at first.0
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