Who here believes in ghosts?

[Old Troop]

A number of years ago I found my mother dead in her house. She had clearly been dead for several days.
To save the family greater pain, the ME and I agreed that she had died the day I found her. We had a closed casket ceremony. My nephew came up to me during the rite and said "Grandma didn't die on Monday, she died last Friday. I was in my room and she appeared and said I'm going now".

[HipChick]

1. Í believe..

[lunatica]

2. My brother whipered my name in my ear a week after he died

I was with a bunch of friends and we were talking animatedly about something and laughing. My brother called my name very close to my left ear. I felt my hair move with his breath and the warmth of it. I turned to respond before I remembered that he was dead. I'll never forget that. My grief came back like a kick in the stomach.

I also 'felt' him die. I felt as if something was being pulled out of my body and I knew he was dying that very minute just down the hall in the intensive care unit. I couldn't stop the sensation and I broke down in the waiting room.

I never believe or don't believe what I don't know enough about. But that happened. I don't need to 'believe'.

[FarLeftRage]

3. I do...

There are just too many instances in my life to make be believe otherwise.

[havocmom]

10. Yep.

Just about all the females in my family have lots of experiences.

When my brother told me he was going insane and told me why he thought so, I cracked up laughing. Evidently it is not just the wimmins in the clan, but he never knew about our experiences so he was really freaked by his when they started to happen.

[RadicalTexan]

16. Why, oh, why, is it always women?

As a woman, I find this infuriating.

Women are just people, and have no more "intuition" than men. Maybe, for various reasons including the eons of history during which we've been raped and abused, we just listen to it more.

[lost-in-nj]

20. ....

:shrug:

what on earth is that supposed to mean???


and no one said anything about "Womens intuition"....


lost

[Tuesday Afternoon]

23. This OP is by a man. n/t

[havocmom]

30. do some reading on differences of brain structures, male v female

pay attention to differences in the corpus callosum. In females and homosexual males, it is said to be much larger.

It is the structure which facilitates better communication between left and right hemispheres. Sooooo, maybe females and some males just have better chatter between the halves of the brain, which might just help make better use of available information?

Anyway, old radical humanist, and women's equality advocate that I am, reading over the years has taught me there are differences. Differences are neither good nor bad. They just are.

[emilyg]

4. I do.

[libodem]

5. I do

Woo Woo.

[one_voice]

6. I do..

and I have proof...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x9366930

[Skip Intro]

7. whoops

meant to reply to main thread, sorry...

[Skip Intro]

8. Yep...

[gimama]

9. no doubt, here

although I call 'em Spirits.

[MiddleFingerMom]

11. When my older brother MiddleFingerTom died, young and unexpectedly...

.
...it hit all of us HARD, but MiddleFingerMomMom hardest of all
(if that's not stating the obvious).
.
One night shortly after, she was lying in bed and he walked into
the room, dressed in a white gown, sat down in her rocking chair
and told her that he was just fine... that he was alright and she
could relax and not take it so hard.
.
The rational side of me says that she NEEDED to hear that and
her mind manufactured it for her. Equally possible for me is that
she, out of all of us, needed that most, and that maybe he was
given an opportunity to visit one of us -- and chose the one who
needed him most. He was that kind of person.
.
Many years later, when her body had been shutting down over a
couple of days in hospice, and the caretakers figured her to have
perhaps hours, perhaps minutes left... at the worst time she was
unconscious and laboring a little to breathe. I got to hold her and
told her that she could let go -- that all us kids were fine and she
had done a wonderful job with and for us and that it was time for
her to stop worrying and pass on to join her greatly-missed loved
ones who had passed before her (her belief in the afterlife). I felt
she could hear me... and I like to think that it helped ease her
passage.
.
I think I was just reiterating my older brother's message to her --
this time from THIS side.
.

[murielm99]

12. I do. n/t

[abq e streeter]

13. I was an "agnostic" until 2 events happened a few hours apart about 15 years ago

that just could not possibly be coincidences nor explained any other way. If just one; either one, had happened, I could have ascribed it to imagination or something, but not both on the same night ( another person saw something in my house hours later, and I had not given him the slightest hint anything weird had happened earlier in the evening) So now, yes, I do.
Then , about 6 years ago, one of my best friends was killed in a dirt bike crash. The night before the funeral I had a "visitation" of sorts and a few weeks later found out that a mutual friend (who is a fireman, and one tough SOB who is not given to flights of fancy concerning the "supernatural" ) had "visitations" too.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. No.

Bigfoot told me it's all a load of bullshit.

[RadicalTexan]

15. I always say, "No, I haven't seen a ghost, and neither have you."

So, no, I don't believe in ghosts.

However, I do believe people really believe they have seen ghosts. However, I think it makes more sense to attribute these (almost always very spurious, private, and intensely personal) claims to hallucinations, waking dreams, and/or psychosomatic wish-fulfillment.

However however, I would not rule out absolutely the possibility of something like ghosts existing in some scientifically explainable form. My reason for this caveat comes from the fact that my great great grandparents would've though a radio was magic, because radio waves are invisible. Yet they exist. So there may well be other forms of energy or matter that currently exist beyond our capabilities of detection, including resonances from other people, dead or living.

But - I think, in general, that ghost sightings are delusional.

$0.02

[Frank Cannon]

19. That's how I feel about it, as well

I think that ghost phenomena are real in the sense that they represent some sort of psychological thing that we don't fully understand, but I don't think they are "the spirits of dead people".

A lot of ghost experiences can probably be attributed to infrasound, or sound below the frequency threshold of hearing.

[Betty88]

21. Fine you may not have but don't tell me I did not

because I have, several times, and no I was not asleep or on drugs. There may very well be a way to explain what I saw and who I spoke to. However I saw what I saw and Grandpa says hi.

[Flying Dream Blues]

29. Yes, I know you must always say it because you've said it here before.

And you need to understand, it isn't nice to tell me what I did or didn't see. Believe what you want, but there's no reason to be so rude about it.

[Old Troop]

34. Well, the strange thing is that my nephew didn't know she had

died until the "visitation" and she hadn't been sick.

[raccoon]

44. I think so too--if you tell me you saw a ghost, maybe you believe you saw it.

Things have happened in my life that seemed unexplainable at the time; later on I realized there was an explanation.

I think it's amazing the way that sometimes we can believe certain things just because we very much want to believe them.

[MorningGlow]

49. Believe what you want

But don't tell other people what they've seen or not seen. You aren't them, you haven't seen through their eyes or had their experiences, so you have no way of knowing.

I agree with your second point, however.

[tblue]

17. I don't know if I do. But this is giving me chills.

I think I'd be scared out of my wits if I had a visitation. I could be wrong, but the thought gives me the willies. I have heard numerous people claim to have experienced ghosts, and who am I to say they imagined it?

[AllenVanAllen]

18. I believe in the fun kind.

[TK421]

35. If there is a ghost like that in your house....GET THE FUCK OUT!!!!

poor Jo Beth Williams...

[AllenVanAllen]

39. If there were ghosts like that in my house

I'd know who to call.

[Old Troop]

50. That isn't Casper, is it?

[bearfan454]

22. Without a doubt

My dad died 4 years ago in his house in Sun City Fla. My Mom moved here with us and then wanted to return to their house in Fla a year later. When we sold his car as the people were driving it away his picture flew off the mantle 4 feet across the living room. Me, Mrs bearfan, and my Mom were in the kitchen. We all looked and i just said Oh well Dad's here. I guess he's pissed we sold his car. We didn't get scared or anything like that. But there is no way that could happen if he wasn't there.

[LibDemAlways]

24. I'm not sure I believe in ghosts, but in some sort of life force that

remains. At my dad's funeral the priest was giving a homily and saying, "Your loved one will always be with you." At that very moment a berry plant next to the altar started to shake and let loose a bunch of berries. The priest was startled and joked, "See what I mean. He's letting you know." The next day I was standing in the hallway of my house and felt a hand on my back. I turned around and there was nothing there. So, yeah, I think sometimes the deceased are trying to communicate with us mere mortals though I've never seen a dead person in any sort of physical form.

[jotsy]

25. The world is full of a spirited energy, I say some of it bound to be formerly human.

My mother died in the summer of '93, some days in quiet moments, I'll hear her shouting my name from far away like when I was a kid off frolicking, but close enough to hear the extended echo of a call home.

[laylah]

26. I do not believe they are ghosts...

I believe they are Guardian Angels.

My first night here in Il, after 29 yrs in Colorado, I was sitting on my back patio, having a "WTF have I done" moment. I clearly heard and SMELLED my dad, as he put his hand on my shoulder and said "Everthing is going to be okay, baby". I know it was him because nobody else smelled like daddy nor would have said those familiar words.

[Phentex]

27. I do although I have never seen one...

I have had the odd experiences that can't be explained but I have never seen a ghost.

[mnhtnbb]

28. I'm a believer. No stories to tell, but I'm convinced there is an energy that survives

the death of our bodies and makes 'visitations' possible.

[raccoon]

56. Then do the deceased person's clothes also have energy that survives the person's death?

Otherwise wouldn't all ghosts be naked? (I have to credit that to somebody else, but don't recall where I read it.)

[Schema Thing]

31. Not me.

If you see or hear something that isn't "there", then you "saw" it or "heard" it from within. That shouldn't surprise you, if you know what your brain is capable of.



And since we know it is common for humans to "see" and "hear" things that really, demonstrably, are not "there", then why should we assign more difficult explanations than brain farts when it happens to us or someone we know (and therefor think aren't crazy - we never think ourselves or our friends crazy or capable of brain mis-steps; it's always the homeless guy, or the lady with too many cats - it's as if we think holding a job and a drivers license is the definition of sanity).


That's right, I said it- you're all fucking insane ;)

[Iggo]

32. Oh, whats up!

:fistbump:

[azmouse]

33. Not me.

[TK421]

36. I honestly do not know what to believe...there have been too many hoaxes

by people who claim to have haunted houses, and they only want publicity-money for people looking into it...I would like to believe I will see my loved ones again who have passed, but I also haven't seen anything that would make me think there is an afterlife...

Part of me says that is wishful thinking...when you die, nobody wants to believe that is the end of it all, but I won't dismiss the possibility, either

truth is...there is not ONE person on the face of this planet that knows for certain...not a goddamn one; as far as religions go, it is conjecture

[Mojambo]

37. Nope. n/t

[noel711]

38. In most cases, if the deceased hasn't been found in days...

the local coroner simply confirms that the TOD/DOD
is the day the deceased was discovered.

If there'd been too much decomposition, it makes it difficult
to determine the particulars.
Televisions shows, like CSI, give us the idea that we can figure
anything out, but in most cases, it's difficult,
and very hard on the survivors.

The rational part of me says: no way to 'ghosts.'
But I've heard too many deathbed stories to totally
disregard anything in this life.

[Sugarcoated]

40. I'm not sure

I've never seen one myself, but I've heard enough people's experiences to feel it's possible, and I would never tell another, or presume to know, what they did or didn't see or experience.

[BreweryYardRat]

41. I don't rule it out, but I prefer to look for a logical explanation first.

Think of me as semi-agnostic on the idea.

[Blue-Jay]

42. Nope. No ghosts, gods, or ass-probing aliens.

[Dr Morbius]

43. Oh, I DO believe in ghosts! I do, I do, I DO BELIEVE IN GHOSTS!

I'll believe in anything you say if there's a steady paycheck in it.

[TreasonousBastard]

45. I've seen enough strange things happening so I can't say...

there are no ghosts, but I suspect there's a rational explanation behind most of them that no one has come up with yet.

(But then there are those others...)

[Courtesy Flush]

46. Date of death is usually determined like that.

The official date of death is the day that the person is declared dead. They don't make guesses about the actual date. Who knows what kind of complications that could cause.

I've known two people (one was my sister) who were found several days after death. Both had an official date of death set according to the date they were found.

[snooper2]

47. Anybody who believes in god

nt

[MorningGlow]

48. Yes; I've run into quite a few

The same thing happened with my grandmother, BTW--a few days after she died, she appeared to my mom and said she was all right. My mom was freaked out, but I thought it was very reassuring.

[applegrove]

51. I don't believe in ghosts at all.

[Decoy of Fenris]

52. Yes and no.

When I was around ten or eleven, I woke up to the feeling of someone sitting on my bed. I rolled over, and saw that it was my father. I tilted my head curiously, and upon my utterance of his name, he raised one hand and rested it atop his head. Grasping his own hair, he lifted his head off of his shoulders and held it out at me.

Now, being the impressionable (but comparatively innocent) young scamp that I was, I promptly screamed my head off, and the apparition vanished. My father was still very much alive, although grumpy at being roused from his bed to check on me.

To this day, I firmly believe that my old man will die of decapitation, and that I had a vision of the future there in my bed. While I'm aware that this wouldn't qualify as a "Ghost", I can't help but feel that there is something exceedingly "supernatural" about it, as I don't often dream unless it's about future occurrences. It doesn't help that often, I feel as if I'm being watched, and that there's something lurking just beyond my vision, at the corners of my eyes.

[davsand]

53. Yep, sure do.

I watched a guy walk out of a wall, across a locked sun porch, and then out through another wall--and I was stone sober standing there making pancakes and sausage for my family! He was an older guy wearing a hunting cap (the kind with the flaps) and a red plaid shirt. Looked kinda embarrassed, nodded at me, and kept on walking. We were staying in a guest house across the state--over on the Mississippi River.

I had a really odd thing happen later, however, that seriously creeped me out about this whole incident. I work in a government office and people come thru there ALL the time. I'm sitting in my office working with this man, and I asked his address. When he gave it to me, it was in that same small town where we'd stayed in that guest house. I made a comment about we'd actually vacationed in that area one summer and talked about going to the drive in theater and going across the river to see all the Mark Twain stuff.

The guy asked me where we'd stayed and I told him we'd rented a guest house in that town. He responds by asking "Which ONE--the big yellow vic?" I say yes, we had stayed in that vic and the guy gets kinda jazzed up and asks "Did ya see the ghosts?" I don't let on, I simply say, "You have a local haunted house?" The guy then goes off on this long story about the man that lived there, the son that killed himself in the upstairs, and the fact that the old man died in that house too. I heard all about the fact that nobody local would buy that house because people been seeing strange stuff there for years, and that it was a guest house now because the people that bought it just could not live there.

According to him, the old man has been seen both in and outside the house...



Laura

[LanternWaste]

54. I don't pretend to know one way or the other...

I don't pretend to know one way or the other as "There are more things in Heaven and Earth than dreamt of in your philosophies..." I imagine though it would be both quite terrifying and quite comforting at the same time.


But I'll certainly never minimize or ridicule someone who believes one way or the other as there are so many other people who are far more qualified to petulantly sneer at the beliefs of others than am I...

[Fire Walk With Me]

55. That depends upon your definition of "living" and "dead".

Ooga Smooga Booga Wooga.

[Patiod]

57. I had a horrible dream shortly after my mother died

We didn't get along very well.

I dreamt that I saw her in a store, and approached her, but as soon as she recognized me she turned into a wolf-headed creature that began snarling and growling at me.

I was so freaked out that I called my SO.

"Were you sleeping with Frankie?" (Frankie is my mother's elderly, cranky dachshund)

"Yes"

"What does Frankie do when you move around in bed?"

"He snarls and growls"

Which was pretty reassuring.

That's my closest encounter with the afterlife.