I don't think it's people believing in ghosts as much as having unexplained things happening to them.
I think people are bit too quick assume that everything can be proven and/or explained. Modern technology and science is incredible, but I don't necessarily think its infallible. Look at dreams, people have been having them since the dawn of time and we've done myriads of sleep studies and brain map imaging, but people still don't completely understand them or why they happen in the way they do. I think its entirely possible that the brain functions in a way, or on a level, that we can process but can't readily access or understand. Now this is completely heresay and admittedly half cooked, but for discussion/arguments sake, what if ghosts or whatnot, operate on barely visible wavelength. It would explain the fleeting nature of their visibility or presence, and also why some animals seem particularly agitated by their supposed presence, when humans can't tell anything. How one goes from their corporal self to some sort of high frequency, low visibility wavelength, fuck if i know. I dont have a firm belief in anything of this nature explicitly, but I will say that I firmly believe there is plenty of stuff we don't know and/or understand just yet. Also, Ke$ha said she had sex with a ghost, so they HAVE to be real.
Despite living in a 'haunted house' and experincing some really weird, inexplainable stuff, I'm still a skeptic. I believe there are things out there that science can't yet explain, but I don't believe in ghosts. That said, if I experienced any of this shit, I might be singing a different tune. <a class="postlink" href="http://altereddimensions.net/2013/harrisville-haunting-perron-warren-family-conjuring-movie" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://altereddimensions.net/2013/harri ... ring-movie</a>
The house was well known to be haunted. It was written about in Haunted Wisconsin. The house was a 19th century mansion and was split up into 4 apartments. I lived in one of the upstairs apartments and my girlfriend at the time lived in one of the downstairs apartments. I never saw anything in my apartment but we experienced weird stuff quite frequently in her apartment. One night, we were in her bedroom and we heard very loud footsteps walk past the bedroom door, into the bathroom, and then heard the bathroom door slam. I went out to look and the bathroom door was wide open. All of her roomates were gone and no one else was in the apartment. Another time, we were in her bedroom studying. We took a break for whatever reason and I set my pencil on her desk. It was one of those old, yellow #2 pencils with the ridges on the side. When we came back from the break, we both stopped dead in our tracks and watched as the pencil with flat sides rolled itself back and forth about two feet each way, repeatedly across her desk for what seemed to be about 30 seconds. There were other things, but those are the two that I remember most vividly. Her roommates had seen some other weird stuff, but I didn't experience it first hand.
Lusty's comment is the kind of thing that gives me pause. What the hell are the rest of the details, man? You can't leave that hanging. Was he actually hovering or jumping 4 feet with each spasm? You can fake a haunting, you can lie about what you see, hucksters do it a lot. You cannot fake a dude levitating on a bed. I am a hard, hard skeptic. Most hauntings are chalked up to plays of atmosphere, building material, acoustics and sound, heightened awareness, the air conditioner. The stories my friends swear by I brush off for these very reasons. Again, mother fucker is FLOATING.
Being a believer and reading this thread has caused my hair to rise. While with the POS ex, we lived in what was his Aunts house after she had relocated to Hawaii. There were some weird things that happened in that house. Most of it was harmless like lights turning on by them selves and stuff; they seemed to occur in the kitchen more often than elsewhere but the two that stand out the most I'll share. I was in the kitchen and had set something on the counter (can't remember what it was). When I turned back around to pick it up, it was gone. I searched and searched for I don't know how long but it was a while. Later that same day when I went into the kitchen there it was on the counter where I had left it. I was the only one home at the time. The second and by far the most scariest happened one night. The ex was snoring away so I decided to go upstairs with my dog and sleep in the spare bed. I fell asleep but was woken up when the dog jumped off the bed and began pacing around it. I shrugged it off and laid back down. It was at that point I heard my name faint at first then louder but not loud loud. It freaked me the fuck out. I bolted out of bed and down the stairs faster than I've ever moved, with my dog close behind. There was no wind, no storm and nothing running in the house that could make me think I'd heard what I did. I never went up those stairs again for the duration we lived in the house after that night. Ever. Even typing this has got me feeling that fear again but not as bad obviously. I do believe in this stuff. All of it. I'm a big puss when it comes to scary/gory stuff, even movies. The ads running for the new Carrie movie scare the shit out of me. If I watch anything like that I have nightmares and have to break out the nightlight. It's that bad.
I don't know how you're a skeptic after that shit. You don't have to believe it was specifically the ghost of Old Man Warbucks who owned the mansion, but shit. I had friends who lived in a haunted dorm on campus and they had things like books FLY off the shelf. Not fall and spook them, but fly off across the room and land on their bed. Oh or the glass of water that froze on a desk...in April when it was 60 degrees outside.
My mom swears that my grandmother, who passed away in May of 2007, constantly visits her overnight by moving around the toiletries in her bathroom. But I am still a skeptic of ghosts and evil spirits, just because I have never had an encounter myself. I am not sure if any of you has ever watched Paranormal Witness, on the Syfy channel, but it can be pretty interesting. Some of the stories that they recount sound exaggerated or made up, but some of them have also made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The one story that stands out to me is the one on Don Decker, who could supposedly make it rain when he was being haunted by his grandfather. He allegedly underwent an exorcism that made the haunting and the rain stop. The thing that made his story stand out is that it is one of the few paranormal stories that I have heard where all of the witnesses seem credible. The owners of the house where Decker stayed when it happened and the police who were called to the scene all seemed like normal, credible people. The only one who would not have been at all believable by themselves was Decker himself. That episode and a few others are on Netflix. I have also experienced the sleep paralysis thing once or twice, and yeah, it's some scary shit. EDIT: Double post, sorry.
I believe that there is a yet to be determined reasonable, scientific explanation for these unexplained experiences. Perhaps there are some strange energy related type events or something. Again, if I had a ghost walk up and punch me in the face, I might sing a different tune.
Spoilered for length. Spoiler First: Several years ago, when I was about 18, I was at my aunt and uncle's house for the weekend and was sleeping in their guest room. In the room, there was a small armchair placed under the window that sat fairly close to the bed, facing it. I don't know what woke me, but as I awoke I realized I was in a bit of pain and cold. Looking down I saw that the covers had been laid back off me, which is why I was cold, and my body was tensed up as if I was laboriously trying to hold myself ramrod straight while laying down, hence the slight pain. I relaxed, glanced to my left, and saw some dude sitting in the chair under the window. He was shadowed by the moonlight coming in, so all I could see of him was his silhouette. Still, I knew it was a man, he was dressed in a long coat, a top hat, and a walking stick was in his left hand, which was draped over the left arm of the chair. He had his right elbow on the right arm of the chair, resting his chin in his hand and appeared to be just looking at me. The whole scene was as though he'd laid back my covers and just sat there watching me sleep. I flicked my eyes across the room to gauge the distance between me and the light switch and if I could make it in one lunge. I could. I looked back at the dude and he was gone. I jumped out of bed, turned on the light, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing in the chair, no "cold" feeling, I wasn't disoriented, nothing other than the covers that were clearly laid back and not rumpled as though I'd pushed them off in my sleep. I had a very difficult time falling back asleep. I suppose I could have been in some sort of waking dream? I don't know to this day, but I remember it vividly and it certainly didn't feel like I was dreaming. I mentioned it at breakfast the next morning, saying that I could have sworn I saw a guy sitting in that chair in the room last night. My aunt said she wasn't surprised, as she and my uncle had seen a lot of strange stuff over the years at that house, but nothing that would seem malicious. They had the house built, so it wasn't some old "haunted" place with a sordid past, and I’ve stayed there several times over the years since, and haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Odd. Second: This happened around 15 or so years ago, and I had been married to my first wife for about a month when this took place. I was heading from Duluth, MN to Minneapolis for the week as I was still working down there. It had snowed a lot the night before but the plows had been out sanding and salting so, although there was no snow on the freeway, it was still a wet slushy mess. I was out of windshield washer fluid so I stopped off at a gas station to buy more. As I was pouring it into the reservoir I splashed some on my hand. It was damn cold so I shook my hand to get the liquid off, and while doing so my wedding ring flew off my finger. Balls. The parking lot of the station still hadn't been plowed out yet from the heavy snowfall the night before. Double Balls. Plus, this had been my father's wedding ring, which my mom saved for me after he died (when I was about 2 years old), and which my wife thought would be wonderful for me to wear. Well shitfuckcockballs. So I panic a little and start to look for it. I can't find it so I panic a little more, go into the station to explain my situation and ask for a broom and shovel. With those I continue my search. I still don't find it. After I looked for the better part of an hour, I had to get going or I was going to be very late for work. To say I felt defeated would be an understatement. I told the station attendant what the ring looked like, but we both knew that after they were plowed out, it would (at best) be part of a huge snow bank. I walked back toward my car as heartsick as I'd ever been, and said quietly something along the lines of "Alright old man...if you're up there watching out for me, then tell me where your damn ring is, because I can't stay to look anymore and will have to leave without it." I walked a few more steps and then everything got a little fuzzy. I honestly remember this next part as though it was something that happened while I was drunk. I stopped walking, turned almost exactly 90 degrees, walked into the parking lot about 15 yards or so towards the gas pumps (I was parked on the side of the station), looked down and saw a little trail in the snow about 2 inches long, and about as wide as...a ring. Then my head was suddenly clear. I reached down into the snow and there was my ring. Just like that. Did my subconscious mind somehow know the placement of my hand and the trajectory of the ring as it flew off my finger, and then lead me to it in a time of stress? OR...Did the spirit of my dead father take over my body and lead me exactly where I needed to go in order to find his ring, like I asked? I’m sure we'll never know... *cue spooky music* I've had other strange experiences, but I feel pretty confident they could be explained away by nerves, wind, blah blah blah. These are the only two that I really have no explanation for.
As I said, I believe there are logical explanations for all of this stuff but then something like this comes along. I really don't see how this video could possibly be faked.
That is spooky, right there. Reminds me of the Ghost In A Jar auction on eBay, 10 years ago. I remember laughing so hard. The auction itself gained attention, and was kinda funny, but all the spinoff auctions are what had me laughing. There was Ghost In A Bar, Ghost In A Ghost Jar, Toast In A Jar and so on. I think people even sold Ghost In A Jar T-shirts. archived page from eBay I think since then, people continue to auction off a Ghost In A Jar several times a year.