Do You Believe In Ghosts?

[delalluvia]

Delalluvia -

I often hear my name called when I am awake (such as sitting in the living room reading the paper). It doesn't  always happen as I am going to sleep. In my living room for example, I might hear this voice coming from across the room (I am already facing in the  direction the sound is coming from) and the animals will perk up and turn their heads (the animals are facing me) in order to be looking in the direction of this sound.  This has happened many times. BUT.... and here is the really strange thing, if my boyfriend Cory is in the room, he will not hear this voice;  only me and the animal/animals.

It is hard to explain.

I understand, I hear/heard the name calling both nights and days as well, awake and asleep, so I get where you're coming from.  Additionally, my mother every so often 'hears' voices in her head.  Not like someone is talking to her, but like she's picking up other people's conversations.  It's always in hushed/distant sounding voices so she can't make them out.  We used to live near an airport, so we came up with all sorts of crazy possibilities.  My favorite was that the metal fillings in her teeth were acting as antenna/receivers and picking up radio waves from air traffic into her head.  And me and my mom hear 'explosions' in our heads.  They're sudden loud noises that seem to occur for no reason.  Loud enough to make you start, turn you around, wake you up.  But it's not happening in the outside world, only in our heads.  My mother spoke with the doctor about it, and he explained what he thought that was, but she couldn't remember enough of about his expanation to tell me.  He found it 'normal' though.

But how do you explain the feather on my back deck the day my mother died? It was a large creamy (beige) colored feather. To my knowledge, there are no beige colored birds ( at least not the color of that feather) in Indiana. Where did it come from? And why did it appear just several hours after mom passed away? Yes, perhaps someone dropped it there (even though I was the only one (no roommates or boyfriend at the time) living in the house at the time of mom's death). But that is a highly unlikely coincidence in my opinion.

I can't.  Won't even try.  I do believe in signs from the gods.  They do happen and just like you say at strangely opportune times or with coincidental timing.  As if in summoning.  It's bizarre.  It's happened to me as well.

[David In Indy]

My favorite was that the metal fillings in her teeth were acting as antenna/receivers and picking up radio waves from air traffic into her head. 

You know, for years and years Lucille Ball swore this very same thing was happening to her. It's weird, and probably very rare, but things like this do happen to people. I think these explosions you mentioned would be entirely different though. That sounds absolutely miserable. 

[jasbbm]

I 'm not sure about ghosts. I 've never seen one.  But I do believe ghosts form the past can haunt you

[Wayne]

I think a lot of things that I might call ghosts are my mind's recollection of familiar sounds or images that I (reasonably) try to assign to something I know.

The squeak of a branch on a window sounds a little like my cat from a few years ago and I look to see if it's her.

Whether sometimes it really is her - well, probably not, but I don't have to completely rule out.

[David In Indy]

There are some things in this world we will never understand. It's as simple as that. I believe in UFOs too. Someone asked me recently why "people" from other planets would even take an interest in us. Perhaps they are just trying to find out the same thing we are... "is there somebody else out there"? Or maybe there are millions of planets populated with people far more advanced than we are. And if so, there would be a million, maybe more, "space ships" or UFOs out there flying around having a look at everything. And perhaps every now and then, one of those space ships just happens to fly past Earth and they decide to check us out! 

Like I said, there are things in this world (and this Universe) we will NEVER undertand. But just because we don't understand something doesn't necessarily mean it isn't possible. There is a wonderful little phrase people at SETI always use... "Absence of Evidence  isn't Evidence of Absence". I think the same thing is true of ghosts.

I believe in them and I have even seen a few... at least I think I have. 

[moremojo]

There are some things in this world we will never understand. It's as simple as that. I believe in UFOs too. Someone asked me recently why "people" from other planets would even take an interest in us. Perhaps they are just trying to find out the same thing we are... "is there somebody else out there"? Or maybe there are millions of planets populated with people far more advanced than we are. And if so, there would be a million, maybe more, "space ships" or UFOs out there flying around having a look at everything. And perhaps every now and then, one of those space ships just happens to fly past Earth and they decide to check us out! 

If one refers to the original definition of 'UFO', any reasonable person should be able to believe in them. All 'UFO' originally meant was 'unidentified flying object'--ANY object seen flying that could not be identified was a UFO if and until identification could be made; nothing necessarily extraterrestrial or paranormal about them.

But, like you, I too believe in the existence of UFO's as a paranormal phenomenon. I don't think they're necessarily extraterrestrial in origin; I think they could be symptomatic of some kind of sentience that has coexisted with human beings throughout our history. There are striking parallels between fairy lore and many of the contemporary accounts of UFO and abduction experiences. Could they both be manifestations of the same phenomenon, interpreted according to differing cultural and historical circumstances?

You might consider starting a new poll on UFO's, David. It would be interesting to see how our members responded.

[David In Indy]

You might consider starting a new poll on UFO's, David. It would be interesting to see how our members responded.

It's funny you should mention a UFO poll. Actually I was thinking of creating a poll on UFOs the same day I created this ghost thread, but I decided not to. I haven't started a thread on Bettermost for a long time now. Thanks for the idea!

And yes, you are correct. A UFO can be just about anything. Those little objects floating outside the space shuttle the other day were technically UFOs, but any reasonable person would know they weren't occupied by little space creatures. They were probably just bags of trash.

[David In Indy]

There are striking parallels between fairy lore and many of the contemporary accounts of UFO and abduction experiences. Could they both be manifestations of the same phenomenon, interpreted according to differing cultural and historical circumstances?

<using a bevis and butthead voice>   hehe. hehe. He said fairy. 

By the way.... I did create a UFO poll, so be sure to go there and post something! 

[Kelpersmek]

I've had spooky experiences, and I don't believe in ghosts.

I don't believe in a soul, an afterlife, anything like that.  I'm a cynic.
Consequently, I think people ought to try to take part more in this life than waiting for the next.

Ghost stories still send a chill up my spine, but it's about suspending disbelief.  We want to be scared, or have the veil drawn back on some other world.  Sometimes when we experience something we can't explain, "ghosts" seem like a plausible answer.  But I find it more compelling to believe that my brain, which I *know* can conjure up all sorts of weirdness, and is easily tricked by illusions, is responsible for ghosts.  Tricks of the mind or of light are things i have experienced, but a soul floating around the world?  Nah.

[Marge_Innavera]

I voted "YES I believe in ghosts but I have never seen one before" because my own experiences haven't been visual sightings. However, I've worked in two places with some kind of presence or poltergeist activity.

The most recent one was a log cabin at a Living History museum where I worked for 7 years. It was known to be a haunted building, and with clocklike regularity, new volunteers or employees would laugh at the idea and change their minds. I had a supervisor who wouldn't even enter the building, but it was my regular work station and I never felt like it was any kind of negative thing. My own two experiences were with hearing footsteps behind me but no seeing anyone, and one instance of a knock on the door one cold day when I had the fireplace going - no one there when I opened it. Other people saw things like candles in the window in the evening, went to the building with the idea that someone had carelessly left a candle burning and found none lit but a strong smell of candle wax.

Also, when I was in school at Athens, Georgia there was a Civil War era neighborhood where haunted houses were so common most people who lived there were just used to it and took it for granted.