Topic: Do you believe in ghosts?

[Lord Raven]

This is the problem. Energy is everything. Conservation of energy = conservation of everything. Even matter is incarnate energy.

Energy is a mathematical construct used to solve physics problems, so we can state "energy = conserved."  And we invent new rules that are somehow consistent with our already established laws in case there's some inconsistency.

I don't think I can explain to you what Electromagnetic energy is without using a whole ton of math.  You know why?  Because that's effectively what it is, and it just so happens that certain things can be easily justified and somehow visualized (like kinetic energy etc) when in reality, there's no inherent mystical attribute known as energy.  It's just a mathematical construct that's conserved, much like momentum and all of that.



Anyway, I believe in ghosts until they're unmasked

[f3raligatr]

It's a nice thought isn't it, that each and every one of us (somehow isolated to humans) have a soul and that once the body passes the soul preserves and lives on, but that sometimes those souls are not at rest and so remain here to find that peace explaining why we so often see deceased relatives as opposed to complete strangers.

My belief is that based entirely on available scientific evidence which'd suggest that the vast, vast majority of 'visitings' that people have - you know, the classic late at night or early in the morning visitation where their relative is at the foot of their bed or at their bedroom door - is due to their rapid awakening whilst still in the REM stage of sleep, thus confusing and tricking the mind into something that may not be true. You snap out of those dreams so quickly it's disorientating. Sleep paralysis, which was never well documented until recently, has probably also contributed to a conception of ghosts.

I think it's far more to do with human psychology and how our brains work, we're still to fully understand how our brains and our minds work, than an external being such as a soul. The mind can and does play tricks on you, I think there's more in that than a 'ghostly' vision.

That being said, that's probably due to any experiences I've had with 'ghosts' have been fitting to the above, although it did shake me up at the time. Two friends of mine who'd have no reason to make things up both have a very opposite view due to their own experiences. One of them grew up in a house that had had a domestic violence history prior to his family moving in and he used to apparently witness some of his shelves being 'cleared' in a sweeping matter. Apparently the house gave off an aura which frightened his girlfriend off visiting full stop. The other used to see a ghost of a man in his bedroom which, again apparently, was the father of the family who used to live there but had died in a car accident, presumably visiting his family home to see his family again. He only made the connection when he was talking to his neighbours who'd been there before showed him a picture and he discovered it was the 'same' person.

But I don't know.. the first one can be explained through dodgy shelves, but the second one is more puzzling. Even the aura aspect can be explained through preconceptions; if you know something has happened there, you tend to feel more on edge. Maybe it's just me, I've visited supposed haunted grounds and places where abuse occurred and never felt anything, yet others have..

Even on camera, 'ghost' footage never seems to convince me other than that it's a series of coincidences that portrayed together gives the impression of such. People'll take what they want from such videos, stories etc..

[.~:Sly Foxx:~.]

I definitely believe in some level of ghosts, or 'the supernatural'. I've experienced too much within that realm to think of it as something that flat-up doesn't exist. I mean... Even if not in spirits wandering the world after death, maybe more beings that exist on a separate plane to us, and some level of ability within people to affect things on that plane. Does it make sense? I'm not really sure, but I dunno... I do think there's a perfectly rational sciencey explanation for it, but I think that sciencey explanation includes the existence of the supernatural as we know it, if that makes sense.

[Inferna]

I sort of do. Those programmes like most haunted are crap.
*creak* "oh there's a dead man named nick coming through he died in a fire"
I do beleive in life after death and white feathers being a sign. Eh

[Clairefable]

Nope, I believe when you die that's it, and I like it that way because seriously living forever in any form would be such a drag.

[sylar]

yeah.
my old room was all kinds of haunted lmao. id be asleep and id feel someone smack/stroke my arm or shoulder and id feel someone kick the back of my computer chair sometimes and sit down on my bed when i was trying to sleep

i asked the landlord and he said he felt it too last time he was in there (like 4 years ago) and apparently got a lot of complaints about it from people whod lived there previously

my gran also died in my old old house. like before the paramedics could get there and stuff, and she spent her last months in my old room in that house
sometimes when i was going to the bathroom at night id see her standing in the doorway to the room or hear her shuffling around from bathroom to room
im pretty sure she sat on my bed one night a few days before moving out of that house

its probably just my imagination lol but its pretty cool to think that theyre just hangin out

[lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes]

I consider them in the same way as God/deities/higher powers - there's not enough evidence to prove or disprove their existence, so I'm agonistic about it.

basically this

if ghosts exist then hahahah im gonna haunt all you losers forever esp. those of you who dont believe in ghosts, if not and death is the amighty end then well i welcome becoming a skeleton

either way im gonna rise from the dead 666 years after my death and take over the world









additionally, derek acorah is terrible and i wish i could get money for pretending to be posessed

[Sebastian Moran]

according to my mother, our house is haunted........ by a cat. 
yeah. 
she and somebody else have apparently seen it jumping across the hallway and vanishing into where there's a wall... the place is built on the site of a farm so... wooooooooo. 
cat ghosts. idk. 
 
she likes psychics as well, she's been to a few of those. not sure that she believes in them though, but she finds them fun so that's what counts i guess.

additionally, derek acorah is terrible and i wish i could get money for pretending to be posessed

that reminds me, we need to watch derren brown's "messiah" sometime, he does stuff like pretending to contact the dead and mind reading, posing as somebody trying to get accepted into the community to see if it can all be explained by trickery. 
 
(also dont u dare haunt me or i will haunt your ghost right back) 
 

[Liam]

I remember watching Derek Acorah on tv and he pretended he was being strangled by a ghost or something like that. It was hilarious, like, that's his life. Being strangled by ghosts and talking to himself in the dark. That's brilliant, and he's probably got a nice house.

I don't believe in ghosts, but I like them in terms of stories and stuff. Good fun.

[Clairefable]

if ghosts exist then hahahah im gonna haunt all you losers forever esp. those of you who dont believe in ghosts, if not and death is the amighty end then well i welcome becoming a skeleton

If you're going to haunt me then I'll need a sign to know you're the real deal. An alcoholic sign...

[quack98]

This debate is easily solved! Ask a dying person to rewind Big Ben an hour if they become a ghost!

[.~:Sly Foxx:~.]

That would make Daylight Savings Time very interesting indeed...

[SirBlaziken]

Yes, yes it would.

[lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes]

ngl though i hate on derek acorah (esp after my mother and sister decided watching every Most Haunted that was on ever was something that needed to be done) but i think ghosts are neato so i tend not to be That Person if i can help it
i'll probably Get Haunted one day so eh i'll figure out how to make ghost drinks and we can party instead i'll put on "bela lugosi's dead" and we'll all goth dance



also someone from my hometown wrote a book about ghosts on the iow and their name is gay baldwin isn't that a gr8 name

(also dont u dare haunt me or i will haunt your ghost right back) 

that sounds like a challenge, challenge accepted
ive got 13 years experience being a terrible goth so i hope you know what you got yourself into here

you're on
If you're going to haunt me then I'll need a sign to know you're the real deal. An alcoholic sign...

what is an expensive & delicious liquor you like i will posess it and bring it to your house






regularly

[Sebastian Moran]

If you're going to haunt me then I'll need a sign to know you're the real deal. An alcoholic sign...

what is an expensive & delicious liquor you like i will posess it and bring it to your house

should i make a joke about spirits here or would that be too obvious?