Newsweek: Dead Zone (statistics on American belief of ghosts)

[E-Z-B]

Thought this would be an interesting topic since it's close to Halloween:

Oct. 16, 2006 issue - (snip) Americans have always seemed fascinated by the idea of communicating with spirits in another world. According to a recent study by the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, 20 percent of Americans believe that the living can communicate with the dead. In an online survey of 10,000 Beliefnet members, 77 percent said they'd felt the presence of a spirit, angel or dead soul.

Both the survey results and the TV statistics indicate that women are more likely to believe it's possible to interact with the spirit world. Forty-six percent of women surveyed believed that "the souls of the dead protect the living as spirit guides," compared with 27 percent of men. Women were also more likely than men to believe that "the dead can hear our prayers or intercede with God on our behalf."

Most interesting, people tend to view these spirits as protectors who may intervene to help in their daily lives. Forty-two percent in the Beliefnet survey said the souls protect the living by acting as guardian angels or spirit guides. Can you communicate with the dead only if you're a psychic—or a TV star? Thirty-six percent of Beliefnet poll respondents believed that talking to the dead is "something that everyone has potential for."

(snip)

All this interest in communicating with the dead comes despite the fact that Jews and Christians have prohibitions against it. The Bible says, "There shall not be found among you any one that consulteth a ghost or familiar spirit, or a necromancer" (Deut. 18:10). One respondent captured a common Christian view when he said the appearance of a loved one is "the Devil in disguise." These spirits are "simply a way to try to move us away from our close relationship with God."

(snip)


I for one believe in ghosts. Growing up near Gettysburg, PA, it's hard not to.

[mike_c]

1. OMFG-- it's the middle ages out there still....

Unbelievable.

[grytpype]

2. More people believe in ghosts than believe in Bush.

[silverweb]

3. Links are always appreciated at DU

Here you are: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15173461/site/newsweek/

:)

[E-Z-B]

20. Thanks! I thought of that as I was in my MBA class.

Too late, though. :hi:

[Poll_Blind]

4. I recommend Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted world: Science...

...as a candle in the darkness". I may have the title slightly off, but it's a fantastic...utterly fantasic book on why modern people still turn to mysticism.

PB

[stillcool]

5. actually...I do believe..

in something. My mom died when I was a year old, and as a result I've been walking around with death my entire life. I have learned from all the people that have died since, that no one ever truly dies..for they are as vivid and alive in me as they ever were. The earth changed as they walked their path, and will never be the same again. My 'thought world' or 'spirit world' and the ghosts that inhabit it are what I sometimes call peace.

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. To act as a medium and summon the spirits of the dead, as

the witch of Endor summoned the spirit of Samuel for Saul is indeed proscribed by the Roman Catholic Church, but the Communion of Saints, referred to in the Apostle's Creed means precisely the communion between the living and the dead through prayer. It is orthodox practice for Catholics to pray to canonised saints, the holy souls (deceased relatives, for example, who may already have been saints while they lived, though not canonised by the the Church), and to angels (pure spirits), asking them to intercede for themselves or for others with God. The cult of the Saints is a wonderful devotion, although it can lead to imbalances.

It's not normal for the spirit of the deceased person to appear, although it occurs. St John Bosco made a pact with a friend that if God allowed, whoever died first would appear to the other, and in the event, it was his friend. It is also possible, as happened on one occasion to St Theresa of Avila, that a saint will appear in a mysterious way, his/her presence strongly, unmistakably sensed, but not to the normal senses.

A person may be physically transported, as occurred to the Apostle, Philip, after he spoke with the eunuch royal official, and explained the scriptures to him; or he/she may be transported in spirit, as I think John was. On one occasion, Paul wasn't sure in which it was, that he was briefly carried up to heaven.

I knew a lad in the army who said that he shouted at the top of his voice when a ghost appeared during the night, but no-one heard him, and I had a similar though not identical experience. I needed help and needed it fast, but, being a Catholic, instead of just calling to Jesus for help, I hastily cast about in my mind whether to to pray to St Joseph Terror of Demons or St Michael the Archangel, so that in the end, I found had to just bellow "HELP"! Which fortunately came instantaneously. A scary experience, but I had to laugh at my dopiness. My wife certainly never heard a sound, and she's a very light sleeper.

The spirit of my my brother, who died in a car accident, once appeared very clearly to my sister in the middle of the night, not long after she'd had a major operation. He didn't say anything, but just looked at her for a while.

[KoKo]

8. Interesting post....thanks......n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

14. Pleasure.

Most of my life I've devoted a lot of my attention to the failings of the institutional Church and its historical complacency in my thinking, but what has been borne in upon me most strongly with the passing years is that, notwithstanding the sometimes monstrous failings and outrages in its history, thanks to the good guys and gals in that same Christian church, both lay-people and clergy, the store of accumulated wisdom, both of matters that are extremly practical in terms of our personal daily living, as well as of the harmonious ordering of society - AND of the most recondite supernatural arcana imaginable, is so immense that it really WOULD beggar belief. (At this point, no doubt, our atheist friends will chirp in "YOU SAID IT"!!!

[mucifer]

7. People who are near death often talk to or have vivid dreams about

dead relatives. I am a hospice nurse and I have seen this.

I personally do believe in ghosts. I don't think it's very scary. I've talked to people from different cultures who feel protected by and connected to a dead relative.

People should be openminded.

[KoKo]

9. Agree...there's so much more left to be discovered....let's keep our

minds open. Karl Sagan had his view...but his view is not he Be All and End All of the "Human Experience."

There's more out there to be discovered every day.

Thanks for your post.

[Ravenseye]

23. Well keep it in perspective

Carl Sagan didn't believe in ghosts. There is no scientific evidence, ever, anywhere, that establishes their existance as fact, and don't think people haven't been trying to get some. Science isn't trying to limit discovery and the expansion of knowledge, far from it. It's doing just that.

The view isn't that of the be all end of all the human experience, but one of rationally observing the world around us and reacting to it, instead of believing in things to which there is no proof or evidence.

[E-Z-B]

21. Yes, I accept it as something "ordinary", and not something associated

with "horror". You accept it and move on. You live your life, and that's all there is to it.

[SoCalDem]

10. It's because some people just cannot accept the fact that they

are just organisms like every other lliving thing on the planet.. There is a life cycle, and when you're done..you're done.

The brain somehow convinces us that we are "special", and of course there has to be an everlasting quality to OUR lives..

religion figured this out ages ago.. Convince people that you alone have the cpacity to translate or ease the transmission into the "other life" and you can become very rich and powerful:evilgrin:

[mucifer]

11. The people I have met who feel connected and guided by dead

relatives are neither rich nor powerful. I can't say I know for sure ghosts and spirits do exist, but they are there in so many cultures.American Indians who believe in these ideas are neither rich nor powerful. Just because the ideas are not western doesn't make them wrong. I'm also saying that no one can no for sure about the spiritual world til we are gone.

[SoCalDem]

12. Maybe not rich, but the Shaman or Medicine man or Spirit leader

in tribes was a powerful person :)

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. There is part-Maori lady in this country, the UK, who is the grand-

daughter of a Maori "medicine man", so to speak. She discovered that she had healing powers, and attributed it to this family connection.

Apparently, she was consulted by a young speedway rider, who was due to ride in the World Championship in about 10 days, I think, but he had recently broken his arm in race. The doctors who treated him at the hospital told him it was not possible for the breaks to heal within such a brief interval.

She did whatever does, and his arm cured in time for him to race. He was, incidentally, either the world champion before, after, or both. When the hospital doctors saw the x-rays after the bones had healed they were astonished, repeating that it was not possible.

I managed to make contact with the lady to ask if she could cure a friend of ours - actually, I can't remember the details - but she said that she had too many serious family problems of her own, so unfortunately, she couldn't take it on.

[Ravenseye]

22. You know what i find interesting about 'faith' healers?

That there are always anecdotal stories with no attributation about some sort of 'miracle' cure, yet whenever they're actually tested and studied there has never been found to be any sort of scientifcally measurable difference between going to a spiritual healer, going to a fake spiritual healer, or doing nothing.

It's bogus. Any type of 'faith' healing is completely bogus and they're ripping people off. If they turned you away maybe they felt you weren't a good mark.

[Joe Chi Minh]

26. You live in a fantasy world, my friend. In a minority of a squillionth,

but you know better than the vast majorty of mankind, past and present.

Einstein put it very well when he observed that not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. In terms of knowledge, science doesn't rise to anywhere near even the level of an infant's picture book.

[Ravenseye]

28. Right. I'm the one in the fantasy world.

I give no credence to 'faith' healers who can't prove their abilities in a controlled experiment, and you do, yet I'm in the fantasy world. Have fun. Remember to not use anti-biotics next time you have a severe infection, and drink your herbal tea as opposed to going to the hospital and getting your broken bone set.

I don't claim that it's not possible that there are people who can heal in ways not currently understood, i'm just saying that none have ever been able to prove it. You're the one believing in something without proof.

[magellan]

13. My sister and I had an experience that made us believers

We were in our early twenties and it was shortly after my mother died. I was awakened early one morning by the sound of what I thought was an animal crying outside. It seemed to be all around me, but my bed was right under the window. I checked the clock - it was 6:30 - and fell back to sleep.

After I got to work that morning my sister called me, wanting to know if I'd heard anything funny that morning. I told her my experience and she freaked. She was up at 6:30, just finishing getting ready for work in the bathroom down the hall from my bedroom, and swore she heard our mother call her name. She went out into the hallway and looked towards my bedroom, saw I wasn't up yet, so decided to wait till we got to work to call me.

It was at that point I identified the sound I'd heard. My mother had been in a vegetative state for 18 months before her death. In that condition she made reflexive sounds...like crying moans.

I don't believe in god, but I do believe in ghosts.

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, magellan - as if... if I were

you I'd make an exception, pretend you do believe and pray that God gives rest, happiness and peace to her soul.

In the words of Judas Machabeus, the great Jewish warrior chief, "It is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins" (2 Mach. 12, 46).

I don't believe Machabees is part of the Protestant Bible, but the concept of an intermediate state, where the children of light do penance in some manner, before being able to look upon God's extraordinary goodness in Heaven, has apparently been adopted by some Protestant churches.

[magellan]

19. I appreciate the intent of your post, KCDM

This happened a long time ago and our relationship was difficult, to say the least. But I have, in my own way, prayed for just that...in my more forgiving moments.

:hug: and thanks.

[Joe Chi Minh]

27. Not at all. I suspected you had.

[Vidar]

25. I've had three similiar experiences--nothing "scientifically"

irrefutable, but enough for me to believe.

[eallen]

16. It's tempting to wish for a "realist" political party....

Let those who believe in ghosts, gods, ghouls and things that go bump in the night wreak their nonsense with the religious right or the karmic left. The problem is that these beliefs are as tenacious as their objects are ephemeral. It is a bit scary that that results in elected leaders who believe in these things, in presidents in charge of nuclear arsenals who take their instruction from mythical prophets and avatars, in people forming environmental policy who believe that some great spirit also guards the land, in people forming science policy who believe in ghosts, auras, and assorted nonsense, etc.

I don't know a solution for it though.

[Horse with no Name]

17. I believe that there is a force

that we don't understand completely. There have been psychics that solve crimes.
I'm reluctant to call them ghosts, but I think it is out there.

[E-Z-B]

24. Got some stories of mine that I posted on CAG awhile back

1) The only thing I can remember was when I was a kid: something used to pull my hair EVERY night in the middle of the night. I told my mom about it, but it kept happening. Finally one night I reached back and pulled, only to find some white hand. My mom said that when I told her I saw someone dressed as a "clown" in my bedroom, she finally went to see a local psychic. The psychic told her it was a young boy who died on my bed during the colonial period from some illness who was simply trying to "play" with me.
The boy was dressed in clothes from the era, hence why I though he looked like a clown. She told her to open a window in my bedroom and tell the boy to leave, to go to the light. After that, the hair-pulling stopped.
I still remember the nuisance to this day.

2) My mother told me that when she was a child, her brother was killed when he crossed the road to get the mail by another car. A few days later, she was in bed and saw a pair of white legs at the foot of her bed. The next night, the legs were to the side. The next night it was on the other side. The fourth night, she looked around the room, and didn't see the legs. She then looked straight up in the air and saw them floating above her. Finally, on the fifth night, they were floating in the center of her. Over those five nights, the legs make a "cross" over her.

3) My uncle years ago used to live in this old house. He used to go down in the middle of the night to get a drink every now and then. One time, as he left the kitchen and started to head back upstairs, he heard a noise in the kitchen. When he went back downstairs, all the chairs were stacked on top of the table.

The other story with this uncle was that when he would drive, he would occassionally see someone sitting in the backseat of his car. All he could say was "well, would you like to know where we're going today??"

4) I also have a cousin who bought a house a couple years ago. He rented out a room to a friend, and his friend hung up an old confederate flag somewhere in the house (don't ask). Shortly after that, strange stuff would happen, like both, my cousin and his roommate, would watch an ashtray on the coffee table move around. There was also something else that was more freaky, but it seems to have slipped my mind. But when they took down the flag, all the weird stuff stopped.

5) I went on a ghost tour in St. Augustine in 2005, the country's oldest city. Using my new Canon SD200 camera, I proceeded to take as many pictures as I could during the ghost tour.

The second-to-last stop during the tour was at the historic gates to the city. I believe the original wall burned down years ago, leaving only the stone gates. The tour guide told us that in the 1500s, there was a young girl named "Elizabeth" who would stand at the gates, waving to the ships arriving at the city. When they would dock, she would ask them "where are you from, what exotic goods did you bring?!" Yellow fever struck the small town, wiping out something like half of the town, including Elizabeth and her entire family. Today, on some nights around 2am or so, passing cars will see a young girl dressed in a nightgown, waving to the cars driving by. People will see this young girl, and call 9-1-1 for being concerned about a young girl by herself in the middle of the night on the streets. The St. Augustine police are used to these calls (the tour guide said they've had 8 calls like this so far). The police will park their car a block down, get out, and walk over to the gates. Sure enough, they see this little girl waving to the cars. As they walk closer to her, she vanishes.

After the story, the crowd began walking to main street to the next stop on the tour. I was last, so I stopped, and took this picture of the gates, then hurried to catch up with my wife. Two days ago, I downloaded the images to my computer. I found nothing remarkable with any of the pictures except this one. The left gate looked a bit odd to me. Either the stone wall is colored randomly producing a strange image, or there's something more. If you've adjusted the brightness & contrast, you'll see what looks to be a girl in a nightgown. I can make out her hair, shoulders, and even arms & hands.

Original:



Modified version by adjusting the brightness/contrast ONLY:




Someone sent me this link. Try looking up your state to see what reported ghost sitings are in your neighborhood:

http://theshadowlands.net/places/

If you want to increase your chances of seeing one, try buying an old house.