Have you ever seen a ghost?

Femme_Fatale · 03-12-2013 01:03AM

El Guapo! wrote: »

I'm open minded to just about everything. My problem with the ghost thing is, in all the hundreds of years that people have been claiming ghost sightings/experiences, there hasn't been a single shred of even slightly convincing evidence to support it. 99% of it has a logical, rational explanation.
It's like the whole psychic thing too. There has been zero proof offered up as evidence. I'd love to be proven wrong though. And I wouldn't ridicule someone for believing it either. I used to believe in it too not so long ago. I'd just like to see some type of convincing evidence. Or even something that makes me stop and say "Hmm, maybe....just maybe....."

Personally... it's the sight that I fear most, I'd rather have a piece of toast, watch the evening news.
But that's just me.

beano345 · 03-12-2013 01:05AM

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Personally wouldn't rule out ghosts as I can't know for sure - why are people so confident they definitely don't exist?

Why are some people so confident they do exist? Surely its up to them to prove it

RikkFlair · 03-12-2013 01:05AM

Sunglasses Ron wrote: »

I'll tell you something that happened to me once, it was years ago, I was staying with my great aunt at her house in Connemara, it's a big house miles from anywhere, apparently during the great famine a cruel landlord and his beautiful daughter lived there, the story is he forbid the daughter from marrying a young soldier,it broke her heart and in her despair, she hung herself in her bedroom, the room I was staying in was that very bedroom, I remember it was icy cold, lit by a single candle, I was drifting of to sleep when suddenly, I heard a strange creaking noise coming from the far corner of the room........

It's like we're all around the campfire and someone needs to continue this story....

job seeker · 03-12-2013 01:06AM

I ain't sayin' nothin'...

El Guapo! · 03-12-2013 01:10AM

kowloon wrote: »

I don't want to see a ghost, it's the sight I fear the most. I'd rather have a piece of toast and watch the evening news.

Look up.

kowloon · 03-12-2013 01:14AM

El Guapo! wrote: »

Look up.

No idea where you're getting that from, and I certainly wouldn't open a tab and forget to refresh it before I post. Down with your lies El Guapo!

<.<

>.>

>.<

Calibos · 03-12-2013 01:27AM

I 'Resurrect' this previous post of mine when a Ghost thread comes up.

My level of belief in the supernatural was re-affirmed when I came down the stairs one night to the kitchen to get a drink. Through the window in the back door I saw the floating ghostly form of Jesus Christ or a spirit that looked like the traditional white blue eyed bearded man depiction of Jesus.

This apparition just confirmed what I already knew..................

......That the brain is an amazing organ but that it regularily gets things wrong and that even the most convincing visions are in all likelyhood....ahem...brainfarts.

If I was a believer in the supernatural and then saw this apparition, my likely reaction would have been fear and then I would have imediately ran off to tell someone. Mine would have become one of those countless anecdotes that you hear. ie. "I have a friend who said he saw a spirit and he is a straight up guy, he wouldn't lie about something like that, I have no reason not to believe his sincerity" etc etc. (I am a straight up guy and I wouldn't lie about something like this)

The difference is that I am not a believer and I know the illusions the brain is capable off. My first reaction was not fear and the wish to run straight off to tell someone. My reaction was WTF and immediate curiosity. ie. I know I am not really seeing what it looks like I am seeing.

I stopped dead in my tracks and studied this vision of a bearded robed man in the back yard out through the window in the back door. I knew this was likely an instance of the brain taking some visual clues in the murky light and jumping to the wrong conclusion and filling in the gaps incorrrectly when 'drawing' what it guessed I was seeing on my visual cortex. This type of thing has an evolutionary basis. In the dim light around the Plieostecene campfire and the eye/brain detects a shape moving in the bushes nearby, its better for the brain (and its transport mechanism - Your Body!) to be safe than sorry and draw a sabretooth tiger on the visual cortex and make you jump, than guess its just an interplay of light and shadow with a branch of the bush. Better to make you jump by mistake 9 times out of 10 than not make you jump that 1 time it really is a sabretooth tiger.

I knew this was one of those instances. I studied the apparition for a few moments and then it clicked what it was and the apparition collapsed. It was something like the reflection of the towel on the chair beside me in the window of the back door superimposed over something hanging on the gate out in the yard. ONce I knew what it was I was able to make the apparition re-appear and disappear at will. Think of it like that popular illusion of the candlestick and the to faces looking at each other. One can switch their brain from percieving the candlestick or two faces and switch between the perception of them at will.

I smiled and went back to bed. Like I said, what if I was a believer and didn't pause to study the vision and immediately ran off and told the story with complete sincerity to others. This would be just another one of those supernatural anecdotes.

Everyone experiences this kind of brainfart its just that when it happens in daylight and the thing your brain draws on your visual cortex is an everyday object, one doesn't think they saw the ghost of a big rat, one just laughs to ones self that they thought they saw a big rat for a second. For some reason a lot of people don't seem to connect the dots and realise that this is the exact same normal nuerological perceptual brainfart thing that happens when they think they have seen a ghost later in the day

The rat example was me walking out the back door and seeing a big rat run past me which made me jump. A split second later my brain copped on to its mistake. I was looking down as I walked out the door, just as my mother walked past to the utility room. She was wearing beige slacks that camoflaged her legs against the beige floor tiles, In that split second my brain only percieved her disembodied brown shoes zipping past along the ground. My brain made a split second guess and drew a rat on my visual cortex. I jumped, my perspective changed and I saw the rest of my mother in my peripheral visual. The illusion collapsed and the rat disappearred. The exact same type of thing as My Vision of Jesus.

The exact same thing as the ghostly figure on the dark lane ahead disappearing before my eyes. It was just my brain redrawing the bush branch and shadow/light interplay from its human shape into its real shape....a bush branch and a shadow. It wasn't a disappearing fecking spirit of a middle ages soldier from a historical battle in the 16th century haunting the area around the old battlefield etc etc

Plumpynutt · 03-12-2013 01:32AM

Temptamperu wrote: »

Got ten blue ones for 50 quid!

Spotted a fair few blue ones around town alright

prizefighter · 03-12-2013 01:51AM

theblaqueguy wrote: »

Yes I have they were wearing a white sheet I ran faster than usain bolt when I saw them it was scary sh!t

I'd say Usain Bolt is pretty quick when he sees men dressed in white sheets tbf

FlipperThePriest · 03-12-2013 04:34PM

In sleep paralysis during the transition between sleep and waking up hallucination happen as you can mix up reality and dreamed images together.. often resulting in seeing a figure beside the bed... called "Old Hag Syndrome".

This has happened me 2 or 3 times, and although at the time, I knew what was going on it was still pretty freaky being that I'm still half asleep, even if I looked away and back the image was still there. Could take about 10 seconds for the image to disappear.

Maybe this could account for so many people thinking they see ghosts at night or in the bedroom??

jimgoose · 03-12-2013 04:38PM

ahtfulal84 wrote: »

I've never seen one of these lads but many people have. Have you ever seen a ghoul?

I've seen a lot of gowls, but never a ghost.

Akrasia · 03-12-2013 04:42PM

El Guapo! wrote: »

I'll answer for everybody on the planet.

No.

Exactly. Everyone knows that ghosts live in space

fedor.2. · 03-12-2013 04:43PM

image.jpg

Here's one

Akrasia · 03-12-2013 04:59PM

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Personally wouldn't rule out ghosts as I can't know for sure - why are people so confident they definitely don't exist?

What is a ghost?

If you can answer me that question, I can tell you why it almost certainly doesn't exist

the problem with ghosts is like the problem with gods. The idea is so vague and wishy washy that people can claim to 'believe' in them without being answer the most basic questions about what they are.

If ghosts are souls that are stuck here on earth for some reason than they clearly don't exist because the 'soul' is not an actual thing. It's just a description that we give to human consciousness and human consciousness is an emergent property of the human brain and nervous system.
If the brain gets destroyed, (as tends to happen at death) there goes the 'soul'

Are ghosts simply 'apparitions'?
An apparition is something that is 'seen' but may not exist. It could be a construction of the human brain where due to a trick of the light or an over active imagination, our brain can create an image of something spooky that only exists as an idea in our head.
This is not supernatural, it is Pareidolia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

03-12-2013 05:12PM

Is there any evidence of ghosts? No, of course not.

diomed · 03-12-2013 05:16PM

Urban dictionary
ghost on skis

Someone who is completely and utterly useless; one whose existence is nonsensical or has no point.

I've worked with a few.

BBDBB · 03-12-2013 05:20PM

no, but I look I just did apparently

kieran. · 03-12-2013 05:23PM

I sat to the toilet this afternoon did a good solid number two.... but when I looked below and the was nothing to be seen !

A phantom poop....... AKA Ghostie

smcgiff · 03-12-2013 05:34PM

zippy84 wrote: »

In sleep paralysis during the transition between sleep and waking up hallucination happen as you can mix up reality and dreamed images together.. often resulting in seeing a figure beside the bed... called "Old Hag Syndrome".

This pretty much explains what my sister said she saw in my parents' house.

My dad, quite the rational man normally has also claimed to have seen a figure in the same house. He was awake, saw them at the end of a corridor, went downstairs, gathered his nerve and went back up to see if he could find them. He said he couldn't.

But, no - I've not seen nor do I believe in ghosts.

DazMarz · 03-12-2013 05:47PM

Had to be done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe93CLbHjxQ

Wibbs · 03-12-2013 06:11PM

Yep I've seen one. At a mates house when I was in my mid teens. His mum used to drop in to say hello to(Translation into Ma: check up on

) his mates so, one day I thought what I thought was his mum was doing just that, but it didn't look like her and I turned to him asking "who's that?" and when I looked back she was gone. His mum wasn't even in the house at the time. He was calm as you like(which he would be anyway) "oh that's the ghost". Eh wut? Apparently she was seen regularly by all the family(except his dad) and the occasional visiter. Weird electromagnetic stuff causing hallucinations? Who knows, but saw her I did and could have pointed her out in a lineup after.

One I heard was weird. I was working on the steering rack on my car at the time. Had it up on a jack and axlestands, all safe like. So there I am doing my spanner stuff, when I hear clear as day my grandmother calling me. Bit of a problem. She'd been dead fifteen years. So I thought "ah must be tired/ the angels are calling(as she used to say)", so ignored it as something on the wind. Then a second time really bloody clearly "*my name* come out from under the car". I though WTF? and got out and of course nobody there. I thought "jesus what was I drinkin last night(didn't even drink at the time)". Just about to get back under the car and the whole thing came sagging down. IT had rolled slightly forward and off one of the axle stands and the jack let go. Where my head and upper body had been was now filled with lower metal bits of car. To this day that gives me the shivers. MY subconscious spotted something was amiss and used the memory of my grandmother to make me listen? Sounds about right, but spoooooky.

03-12-2013 06:15PM

I've seen something as yet inexplicable.

But no, I don't believe in ghosts.

03-12-2013 06:29PM

El Guapo! wrote: »

I'll answer for everybody on the planet.

No.

Should have gone to SpecSavers.

Auldloon · 03-12-2013 06:30PM

Calibos wrote: »

I 'Resurrect' this previous post of mine when a Ghost thread comes up.

My level of belief in the supernatural was re-affirmed when I came down the stairs one night to the kitchen to get a drink. Through the window in the back door I saw the floating ghostly form of Jesus Christ or a spirit that looked like the traditional white blue eyed bearded man depiction of Jesus.

This apparition just confirmed what I already knew..................

......That the brain is an amazing organ but that it regularily gets things wrong and that even the most convincing visions are in all likelyhood....ahem...brainfarts.

If I was a believer in the supernatural and then saw this apparition, my likely reaction would have been fear and then I would have imediately ran off to tell someone. Mine would have become one of those countless anecdotes that you hear. ie. "I have a friend who said he saw a spirit and he is a straight up guy, he wouldn't lie about something like that, I have no reason not to believe his sincerity" etc etc. (I am a straight up guy and I wouldn't lie about something like this)

The difference is that I am not a believer and I know the illusions the brain is capable off. My first reaction was not fear and the wish to run straight off to tell someone. My reaction was WTF and immediate curiosity. ie. I know I am not really seeing what it looks like I am seeing.

I stopped dead in my tracks and studied this vision of a bearded robed man in the back yard out through the window in the back door. I knew this was likely an instance of the brain taking some visual clues in the murky light and jumping to the wrong conclusion and filling in the gaps incorrrectly when 'drawing' what it guessed I was seeing on my visual cortex. This type of thing has an evolutionary basis. In the dim light around the Plieostecene campfire and the eye/brain detects a shape moving in the bushes nearby, its better for the brain (and its transport mechanism - Your Body!) to be safe than sorry and draw a sabretooth tiger on the visual cortex and make you jump, than guess its just an interplay of light and shadow with a branch of the bush. Better to make you jump by mistake 9 times out of 10 than not make you jump that 1 time it really is a sabretooth tiger.

I knew this was one of those instances. I studied the apparition for a few moments and then it clicked what it was and the apparition collapsed. It was something like the reflection of the towel on the chair beside me in the window of the back door superimposed over something hanging on the gate out in the yard. ONce I knew what it was I was able to make the apparition re-appear and disappear at will. Think of it like that popular illusion of the candlestick and the to faces looking at each other. One can switch their brain from percieving the candlestick or two faces and switch between the perception of them at will.

I smiled and went back to bed. Like I said, what if I was a believer and didn't pause to study the vision and immediately ran off and told the story with complete sincerity to others. This would be just another one of those supernatural anecdotes.

Everyone experiences this kind of brainfart its just that when it happens in daylight and the thing your brain draws on your visual cortex is an everyday object, one doesn't think they saw the ghost of a big rat, one just laughs to ones self that they thought they saw a big rat for a second. For some reason a lot of people don't seem to connect the dots and realise that this is the exact same normal nuerological perceptual brainfart thing that happens when they think they have seen a ghost later in the day

The rat example was me walking out the back door and seeing a big rat run past me which made me jump. A split second later my brain copped on to its mistake. I was looking down as I walked out the door, just as my mother walked past to the utility room. She was wearing beige slacks that camoflaged her legs against the beige floor tiles, In that split second my brain only percieved her disembodied brown shoes zipping past along the ground. My brain made a split second guess and drew a rat on my visual cortex. I jumped, my perspective changed and I saw the rest of my mother in my peripheral visual. The illusion collapsed and the rat disappearred. The exact same type of thing as My Vision of Jesus.

The exact same thing as the ghostly figure on the dark lane ahead disappearing before my eyes. It was just my brain redrawing the bush branch and shadow/light interplay from its human shape into its real shape....a bush branch and a shadow. It wasn't a disappearing fecking spirit of a middle ages soldier from a historical battle in the 16th century haunting the area around the old battlefield etc etc

About 30 years ago I seen something that I've never been able to explain or forget. It's never sat well with me because I like to see myself as someone who doesn't see unexplained stuff. Your explanation is the best I've seen and I'm happy to go with it so thanks for that.

Wacker The Attacker · 03-12-2013 06:31PM

I saw Ryan Tubridy.

Does that count?

Hello_MrFox · 03-12-2013 06:33PM

There used to be ghost in my house. He would open the fridge and drink the milk at night time and leave to fridge door open. Apparently they like milk.

ScumLord · 03-12-2013 06:41PM

I grew up beside an old disused graveyard, we used to go in there on halloween playing ouija board, some of the tomb style one we could get into and take bones out of, one time the dog came back with a part of a skull.

If anyone was going to be haunted it's going to be me after disegrating peoples graves but nothing so far.

Wibbs wrote: »

when I hear clear as day my grandmother calling me. Bit of a problem. She'd been dead fifteen years. So I thought "ah must be tired/ the angels are calling(as she used to say)", so ignored it as something on the wind.

I've had something similar but it's happen in the early morning before I'm fully awake. Every so often I'll hear my father's voice calling as if he was trying to get my lazy ass out of bed for school. It sounds like he's right outside the door and it jumps me out of bed. It happen before and after he died so he couldn't have been a ghost the first few times I heard it.

Maybe you were half asleep and mistook the sound of the jack starting to slip for someone calling you. Either way your brain knew to get out of there.

03-12-2013 06:53PM

zippy84 wrote: »

In sleep paralysis during the transition between sleep and waking up hallucination happen as you can mix up reality and dreamed images together.. often resulting in seeing a figure beside the bed... called "Old Hag Syndrome".

This has happened me 2 or 3 times, and although at the time, I knew what was going on it was still pretty freaky being that I'm still half asleep, even if I looked away and back the image was still there. Could take about 10 seconds for the image to disappear.

Maybe this could account for so many people thinking they see ghosts at night or in the bedroom??

I get sleep paralysis. Its awful. Very frightening. You are glued to the bed, you want to get up, but this invisable force keeps you locked down. Menacing

My son gets it as well funnily enough.

dd972 · 03-12-2013 07:18PM

Never seen one, don't believe in them,

.......still don't want to see one though ! :P

greedygoblin · 03-12-2013 09:59PM

Jake1 wrote: »

I get sleep paralysis. Its awful. Very frightening. You are glued to the bed, you want to get up, but this invisable force keeps you locked down. Menacing

Yep, I've experienced this once as well. It's real scary while it's going on. In my case I felt there was a threatening 'presence' alongside the bed. The only thing I could do was to open and close my eyes. It's that feeling of helplessness which was the worst.

The human brain really is still a mystery. And despite the progress being made all the time in neuroscience, it's going to take a lot more research to even begin to understand it.

Have you ever seen a ghost?

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