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Thats a big jump with no supporting evidence. There is NO evidence of a "spirit" existing in the body and parting after death.
More likely it would be a recording of sorts left in the environment, perhaps only translatable though the human brain (in other words a hallucination produced from the right environmental stimuli). Maybe it's crossing parrallel unverses along the lines of M Theory. Maybe it's random ELF waves messing with brain functions. Maybe it's caused by model glue fumes in enclosed spaces.
It may look like the dead wandering the world and I can see why most people jump to that conclusion, but if you honestly look at the phenomenon from a truly open, impartial perspective, you can see that wouldn't necessarily be the most logical possiblity. The existence of ghosts does NOT equal the existence of an afterlife, just a bigger and more complicated world than we previously assumed.
well to me its alot easier to beleive that it is a living entity,rather than all the above,they just seem too far fetched and actually more unlikly,but thats just me!!!,if it was all them scientific things then science would have proved it already imo
and magically managed to control our minds?????,you beleive that but you wont beleive peoples experiences
The power of suggestion isn't magic but I get your point - and other intriguing stories are coming out here too. Yours is unique in that a group experienced it but there are cases of mass hallucinations throughout recorded history. I'm acting a bit the devil's advocate here (taking the skeptical approach) so please don't take me as condescending toward your experiences. I have had my own experiences as well.
Well if 70% or so believe in an afterlife, why is it so crazy 50% believe in ghosts?
Good point. I guess the burr in my saddle is people believing wild stories about ghosts/demons (whatever) moving ouija boards and rearranging furniture and generally going around trying to disturb people. I mean, even if you do believe in an afterlife - to believe that afterlife people or demons/angel people/invisible aliens are literally here hitchin' rides and stuff when the facts don't really pan out seems odd to me.
It seems that all this "paranormal" activity goes on within us - not outside of us but it seems that superstition causes us (some of us at least) to see them going on literally outside of us, that is, outside our minds.
Yet I understand we could get real philosophical and theorize that all dimensions are intertwined and it doesn't matter if we perceive them within or without. But in a practical, everyday "age of reason" setting - can't we conclude that most of this supposed supernatural activity is happening within the human psyche?
It's just like before space travel people pictured God literally up in the sky or way off on some planet. After space travel and nothing observable out there they began to realize that God is within us, that is, in our consciousness and not a literal being flying around in space somewhere. So in this case I believe science helped understand God better and helped us become less superstitious about signs in the sky and that sort of thing.
Last edited by firstborn888; 02-05-2011 at 12:11 AM..
The power of suggestion isn't magic but I get your point - and other intriguing stories are coming out here too. Yours is unique in that a group experienced it but there are cases of mass hallucinations throughout recorded history. I'm acting a bit the devil's advocate here (taking the skeptical approach) so please don't take me as condescending toward your experiences. I have had my own experiences as well.
Now, as a Catholic we are told NOT to engage in superstition and to avoid it. We are taught to be skeptical of anything supernatural that we may or may not witness, and only assume it to be so after all other possibilities have been exhausted. If I thought my home was haunted and I called a priest, he would bless the house and investigate to see if there is anything supernatural going on, probably calling in a specialist of sorts to determine if it is haunted, or if we're all just nuts (which may be the case)
So personally, although I believe in ghosts as being highly possible, I do not know if they exist, and during the occasional eerie or questionably supernatural occurrence do not assume that to automatically be the case (such an event would include the time we went back in time about two minuets while driving down Clinton Rd. in Northern NJ We're not sure if it was supernatural, some kind of electromagnetic abnormality, or some kind of combination of the two)
Also, I feel that when it comes to the issue of the supernatural, science gets a little bit arrogant as if it has all the answers. It doesn't have all the answers, and that's why we don't know if ghosts exist. We can choose to believe or not to believe, but we do not know. Since we don't have any solid evidence one way or the other, we cannot make a definitive conclusion about the existence of ghosts no more than we can about the existence of God (or gods).
Now, as a Catholic we are told NOT to engage in superstition and to avoid it. We are taught to be skeptical of anything supernatural that we may or may not witness, and only assume it to be so after all other possibilities have been exhausted. If I thought my home was haunted and I called a priest, he would bless the house and investigate to see if there is anything supernatural going on, probably calling in a specialist of sorts to determine if it is haunted, or if we're all just nuts (which may be the case)
So personally, although I believe in ghosts as being highly possible, I do not know if they exist, and during the occasional eerie or questionably supernatural occurrence do not assume that to automatically be the case (such an event would include the time we went back in time about two minuets while driving down Clinton Rd. in Northern NJ We're not sure if it was supernatural, some kind of electromagnetic abnormality, or some kind of combination of the two)
Also, I feel that when it comes to the issue of the supernatural, science gets a little bit arrogant as if it has all the answers. It doesn't have all the answers, and that's why we don't know if ghosts exist. We can choose to believe or not to believe, but we do not know. Since we don't have any solid evidence one way or the other, we cannot make a definitive conclusion about the existence of ghosts no more than we can about the existence of God (or gods).
Almost a decade ago I bought a large 115 year old Victorian house with three floors, 6 bedrooms, and two staircases. It also has fireplaces and stained glass windows. I couldn't move in right away because a group of college students were living there with a long term lease.
When the student's lease expired and they left, the house was totally empty but I was not ready to move in yet. Instead, my favorite uncle - who just ended a relationship with his girlfriend in Miami and needed a place to live - agreed to move into the house until the movers can move my things a few weeks later. So Uncle flew up to Philly from Miami and he and I bought him a bed to sleep in ... the only piece of furniture in the whole house. To give credit where it is due, the students left the place immaculately clean.
When I was ready to move in, I drove Uncle to the airport so he could settle some business in Miami and gather his things so he move permanently in the old Victorian "manor." On the way to the airport Uncle said to me "You know, that house is really creepy at night. Downright scary."
The movers brought all my furniture, the painters and carpenters were at work, etc., etc. and I finally settled into my big "white elephant." One night I turned off the light and went to bed, but I heard a noise. It sounded like footsteps going down the main winding staircase. I called out "Is anybody there?!" - No answer. It happened the next night, and the next one after that. I thought there was an intruder in the house. I kept something like a baseball bat next to my bed. It was always heavy footsteps going down the stairs ... never climbing up. I did not see anything.
When Uncle returned from Miami I asked him why he found the house "creepy" ... His reply: "Every night I heard these footsteps coming down the main staircase!!!"
A few weeks later I examined a pretty little hand-made "mobile" hanging in front of an upstairs hall closet (some of the students were art students) - you see I had to change a battery on a smoke detector nearby - and written on this hanging ornament someone wrote ''Spirits! Please be a peace! Do not torment us that now live in this house!".
We haven't heard the noises since, and I left the little hanging work of art because I think it is pretty. I don't believe in ghosts. I think old houses just are creaky and make noises.
I've heard this statistic bandied about lately and really, I was a bit surprised.
Are we really still that superstitious?
I'd like to think not.
The evidence points to things that exist in a supernatural state. However the mistake is to believe they are ghost. The reality is, they are the Biblical demons, pretending to be something other than what they are.
There is a huge difference in people believing in ghost and spirits of dead loved ones.Huge difference in spirits than actually seeing ghost in the shaddows as we see on TV shows partrayed.
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Is my house haunted?
