Are Ghosts Real ?

[JamesGatz]

I think we should have a discussion on evidence or maybe disproving the existence of ghosts - the subject has always fascinated me - or maybe people would like to argue that ghosts are spiritual entities ? What does this forum think about ghosts ?

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[DaveFoster]

Yes.

 

[Rafael Henrique]

Oh, Yes. We can discuss about the meaning of ghosts, but not about the phenomenon itself. For myself, I really convinced that they are most dead people -- in this planet or in another one.

 

[Christopher R.]

Perhaps they are the energetic continuations of human beings, persisting in the "neutrino sea" after their physical body has failed and detached from them.

 

[Jing]

Maybe a species we don't know about?

 

[magnesiumania]

Its been a long time since i heard a ghost story and many of them are just made up simply because we enjoy them. If they exist they are rare, which is very dissapointing.

 

[peateats1]

Someone ask Peat! I'd be interested to know what his response would be

 

[japanesedude]

some people can see the colors in sounds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromesthesia
maybe there's people who can visualize anxious mood as ghost.

 

[JamesGatz]

some people can see the colors in sounds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromesthesia
maybe there's people who can visualize anxious mood as ghost.

This is interesting - I find it interesting how the behavior of people they perform exorcisms on seem to be extremely high serotonin behavior - it's a fascinating subject

I also find it interesting how all ghost stories occur at night - serotonin raises in pitch black environments - so the greatest chance of anxiety/serotonin playing tricks on the mind I think is at night

I think it is certainly possible ghosts are real but if not I think serotonin and/or anxiety plays a huge role in making this phenomenon happen.

 

[Sheik]

I don't think they exist. Our unconscious/imagination tries to protect us against what could be in the dark, so we imagine a presence.

It would be really cool if they did exist, but tbh I don't know how anyone can believe in ghosts aside from just wanting to believe.

 

[Lollipop2]

I heard it explained that ghosts are a “memory” of trauma on a loop. The person died and a “memory from their life” replays one trauma scene over and over. The person that passed on has gone on, moved on.

 

[Sugartits]

I have a little ghost story from when I was young, about 14 years old. It was my own fault. I had killed a cockroach with a Bible (not religious back then), and I guess it drew something negative into our apartment.

I first encountered it one day when I was home alone watching television. I felt like I was being stared at. I couldn't ignore it, it was really invasive. When I looked in the direction it seemed to come from, I saw a solid shadow head duck behind the doorframe. As you can imagine, I was in shock.

I also remember hearing the sound of a vicious struggle in the vacant apartment above me, and just as I went to call 911, it fell dead silent. No footsteps walking away, just nothing because there was nobody in that apartment. That was mystifying to me.

The worst event happened when I was lying in bed one night and I became overwhelmed with the feeling of utter abandonment. This was truly bizarre because I knew the emotion didn't come from myself. I had never experienced a feeling that was not my own. While I was puzzling over this my Staffordshire pup who was sleeping next to me suddenly woke up and let out a savage roaring sound toward the foot of the bed. This was a pitifully timid young dog, I had even called her breeder asking what was wrong with her, but now here she was in full rage mode trying to attack someone I couldn't see! I could feel them in there with me just like before, but it was dark and I didn't have my glasses. I was too scared to scream. My mom came rushing in like a hero to confront whoever was battling my dog but as soon as the light turned on it was gone. The room was freezing cold. Shortly thereafter our apartment was robbed and we moved out. The pup ended up being a great dog and never acted that way again.

I still feel sorry for whoever had to live there after us. I didn't mean to curse the place, I just really hate cockroaches and I needed something heavy to squish it with and the Bible was right there. Oops.

 

[hei]

I always thought it was interesting that ghosts are known to all cultures.

 

[JamesGatz]

I have a little ghost story from when I was young, about 14 years old. It was my own fault. I had killed a cockroach with a Bible (not religious back then), and I guess it drew something negative into our apartment.

I first encountered it one day when I was home alone watching television. I felt like I was being stared at. I couldn't ignore it, it was really invasive. When I looked in the direction it seemed to come from, I saw a solid shadow head duck behind the doorframe. As you can imagine, I was in shock.

I also remember hearing the sound of a vicious struggle in the vacant apartment above me, and just as I went to call 911, it fell dead silent. No footsteps walking away, just nothing because there was nobody in that apartment. That was mystifying to me.

The worst event happened when I was lying in bed one night and I became overwhelmed with the feeling of utter abandonment. This was truly bizarre because I knew the emotion didn't come from myself. I had never experienced a feeling that was not my own. While I was puzzling over this my Staffordshire pup who was sleeping next to me suddenly woke up and let out a savage roaring sound toward the foot of the bed. This was a pitifully timid young dog, I had even called her breeder asking what was wrong with her, but now here she was in full rage mode trying to attack someone I couldn't see! I could feel them in there with me just like before, but it was dark and I didn't have my glasses. I was too scared to scream. My mom came rushing in like a hero to confront whoever was battling my dog but as soon as the light turned on it was gone. The room was freezing cold. Shortly thereafter our apartment was robbed and we moved out. The pup ended up being a great dog and never acted that way again.

I still feel sorry for whoever had to live there after us. I didn't mean to curse the place, I just really hate cockroaches and I needed something heavy to squish it with and the Bible was right there. Oops.

Interestingly enough I had a similar unexplainable experience when I was about 15 or 16 I think


It happened on the night of Halloween as well which made it all the more surreal to me -

I woke up in the night at about 3am and felt like gasping for air and couldn't breath or move - felt like I was paralyzed in a way. I felt a large dark figure standing over me and I tried to scream to wake up my parents but nothing came out of my mouth - literally was unable to form a sound - felt freezing cold in my room too. After about 30 seconds the figure ran away from my bedside and I could move/breathe again.

I told my parents and brother about it the following day and my parents were deeply religious and had always dragged me to church the first 14 years of my life and my parents took it very seriously - my mom used to pray for me with holy water - speaking in tongues and all that.

My older brother - being the typical pseudo-intellectual liberal college student he was told me it "was all in my head" and started showing me articles about sleep paralysis or something

It is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life and I will never forget how real it felt - unlike my brother and sister I never moved away from God mainly because of this experience and a few other experiences in my life - near-death experiences mainly where I narrowly escaped death and something I cannot explain just saved me

I don't even bother debating with atheists or agnostics because I know maybe the arguments I can think maybe can never be "proven" real enough for them but my life experiences were enough to instill my belief in a very-real spiritual world and I will never move away from it

 

[abnerdoubleday]

Interestingly enough I had a similar unexplainable experience when I was about 15 or 16 I think


It happened on the night of Halloween as well which made it all the more surreal to me -

I woke up in the night at about 3am and felt like gasping for air and couldn't breath or move - felt like I was paralyzed in a way. I felt a large dark figure standing over me and I tried to scream to wake up my parents but nothing came out of my mouth - literally was unable to form a sound - felt freezing cold in my room too. After about 30 seconds the figure ran away from my bedside and I could move/breathe again.

I told my parents and brother about it the following day and my parents were deeply religious and had always dragged me to church the first 14 years of my life and my parents took it very seriously - my mom used to pray for me with holy water - speaking in tongues and all that.

My older brother - being the typical pseudo-intellectual liberal college student he was told me it "was all in my head" and started showing me articles about sleep paralysis or something

It is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life and I will never forget how real it felt - unlike my brother and sister I never moved away from God mainly because of this experience and a few other experiences in my life - near-death experiences mainly where I narrowly escaped death and something I cannot explain just saved me

I don't even bother debating with atheists or agnostics because I know maybe the arguments I can think maybe can never be "proven" real enough for them but my life experiences were enough to instill my belief in a very-real spiritual world and I will never move away from it

What makes you think it wasn't sleep paralysis? That story sounds awfully similar to it.

 

[JamesGatz]

What makes you think it wasn't sleep paralysis? That story sounds awfully similar to it.

To re-iterate myself - It's not wise for me to formulate arguments for an experience that happened to me whether it was a spiritual phenomenon or easily explainable

A good argument for this experience or my other experiences being easily explainable through sleep paralysis or not is like trying to debate the existence of God- I do not believe it was sleep paralysis but I understand that people like you want to find some other logical explanation

 

[abnerdoubleday]

Well, maybe there's no contradiction between the two anyways

 

[Sugartits]

My sister had that experience as a teenager too. I noticed one morning her eyes looked strange, her pupils were really large. She said she was in bed and suddenly felt that she wasn't alone, then a heavy weight landed on her body, but only for a moment, as if something was testing what it could get away with. Then it gripped her whole body and squeezed, like an anaconda crushing a deer. She could feel it breathing in her face and see the silhouette of a head and shoulders. I asked if it was a man and she said no it was more like an animal because it had long pointed ears on the sides of its head. I wondered if they might have been horns, but I didn't say that to her. Anyways she attempted to pray but she couldn't remember how to. Just as she felt she would suffocate she remembered the name of Jesus and it backed off. It stood over her menacingly for a bit and then it disappeared.

We asked a traditional priest to come bless our home with holy water, and he gave us some more holy water to bless our beds at night before we went to sleep. He also gave my sister a large Saint Benedict medal. It has an exorcism prayer on it in Latin: "Vade retro Satana! Nunquam suade mihi vana! Sunt mala quae libas. Ipse venena bibas!" He said that sometimes you get assaulted by these things when they see you becoming more spiritual. They hate that. You just have to keep going and push through it. You can't let them intimidate you.

 

[youngsinatra]

I know many friends of mine who personally had paranormal activities in their houses. Just beginning with hearing steps at night, to whispering voices, to self-locking doors, to body-dragging nightmares, to seeing dark entities at home at night or simply just generally feeling unwell in the building.

Every evil power surrenders and flees at the name of Jesus Christ.

If you are dealing with paranormal activity, consider 4 things:
1. Removal of ungodly objects / possible medium
2. Inclusion of holy items like a crucifix, the rosary, pictures of saints, the Bible or holy water
3. Personal refuge in God‘s protection and his guardian angles through prayer
4. Reach out for professional help by a priest for sanctification of your house in severe cases

 

[JamesGatz]

Ray's thoughts on ghosts:

Q:
Hello Ray,

I was curious to know if you had any thoughts on ghosts and ghosts stories ? Sometimes I think that ghosts are not real and the stories are from people with high serotonin who may visualize things but there seem to be many stories

- do you personally believe in ghosts or have a take on it ?

A:

A physical chemisst, John O’Meara Bockris, compiled a collection of well documented stories (The New Paradigm); I think it’s likely that interaction among the living can account for what appear to be actions of ghosts—usually.