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The Haunted Manor

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2002 7:23 pm
by Der-draigen
So.......Do y'all believe in ghosts? And, why do you believe, or why do you not? Or are you just a good skeptic, questioning and maybe doubting, but allowing for the possibility?

What do you think "ghosts" really are? Trapped energy waves? Spirits of the dead? Or simply too much beer? :D

Ever seen a ghost? Post your ghostly encounters here! (And er, no making fun of anyone's story, please :) )

*pulls a chair up to the fireplace in the Manor's parlor*

Sherry, anyone? ;)

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 6:20 am
by Mr Sleep
Originally posted by Der-draigen
So.......Do y'all believe in ghosts? And, why do you believe, or why do you not? Or are you just a good skeptic, questioning and maybe doubting, but allowing for the possibility?
No i don't believe in ghosts, purely because i have never really had any experience of a supernatural kind.

I would say that it is a possibility but i have never had any personal experiences :)

Oh and i would love a sherry :D

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:36 am
by Der-draigen
Thanks for contributing, Sleepy :D

*pours Sleepy a nice sherry and sits down to await the next visitor*

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:45 am
by Onyx
Well I haven't either had and kind of ghost experience, yet, but I do just love listening to stories that other people have to say, (either true or not). But I can't prove that there aren't any ghost around, the same way those who have seen ghosts, can't prove that their are. But who knows. It's a bit like religion. I believe in god, I say I feel it, but I can't prove it.

Onyx

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:45 am
by Onyx
Oh, can i have a sherry too?!? :)

Onyx

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 7:49 am
by Mr Sleep
Originally posted by Der-draigen
Thanks for contributing, Sleepy :D

*pours Sleepy a nice sherry and sits down to await the next visitor*
Thankyou DD, where in particular should i sit? :)

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 8:02 am
by Der-draigen
*pours Onyx a sherry*

Both of you can sit wherever you like. The fire is still blazing merrily in the hearth. :)

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 8:06 am
by Onyx
*Sit's down, has a look around and has a drink.*
So, do you have any ghost stories to share with us? :)

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 8:19 am
by Mr Sleep
So are you sitting comfortably

Thankyou DD for your hospitality, i shall take the comfy chair in the corner :)

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 8:37 am
by Aegis
Ghosts are nothing more than an uncooked potatoe, or bad piece of chicken.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 9:00 am
by Dottie
I live in a world were squares are square and circles doesnt exist.

Now, can i have a sherry too? :)

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 9:10 am
by C Elegans
I don't like sherry. And I don't belive in ghosts - it's a consequence of not believing in a transcendent world/dimension or transcendent beings.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 9:12 am
by Aegis
Originally posted by C Elegans
I don't like sherry. And I don't belive in ghosts - it's a consequence of not believing in a transcendent world/dimension or transcendent beings.
Then you haven't gotten drunk enough! :D

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 9:23 am
by Ned Flanders
I'm a tangible type of person

I've always been a hands on seeing is believing type. I enjoy reading about the supernatural hocus pocus and that's great if people think they've seen a ghost. But for me, I'll believe it when I'm face to face with a spirit. This probably also explains why I hated quantum mechanics in college; day 1-Erwin Schroedinger met Albert Hoffman for dinner and the next thing you know students everyone are integrating electron probability and distribution and pursuing quark.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 11:15 am
by frogus
the fumes of virtual liquor seeping from my PC are starting to cause permanent damage I suspect....anyway...mustn't loiter, this is bat country...

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 11:21 am
by Der-draigen
Originally posted by Onyx
*Sit's down, has a look around and has a drink.*
So, do you have any ghost stories to share with us? :)
*Ahem* :D

When I was very small I saw my great-grandmother sitting in our living room. Although she had been long dead.

My personal theory on ghosts:

I think ghosts may well be the spirits of the dead. Stuck in this plane of ecistence because of the usual reasons -- guilt, unfinished business, etc.; or perhaps as a kind of purgatorial experience before going on to the next world. However, I think this type of ghost is very rare. The vast majority -- I'd say, around 90% or so, to be generous -- is more than likely a residual energy type of thing. Leftovers from impressions made upon the atmosphere or material objects, by the energy of certain events or persons.

I believe this to be especially true of EVP -- Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Clear voices that turn up unexpectedly on tape recordings, and purported to be the voices of the dead. I think it more likely that these "voices" are really sounds (of real human voices) that have traveled through the atmosphere, become distorted, and turn up in certain places where and when conditions are right. But they may not be audible to the normal human hearing range, although sometimes they are. That's when you hear a disembodied voice in your house :eek:

But there are so many sound waves, radio waves, microwaves, etc. etc., that are beyond our direct daily experience, I don't think it difficult to believe that sounds or even images could bounce around for a while before coming into our range of hearing and/or vision. When that happens, people cry "ghost".

Of course I'm not a scientist so this is just my theory that's been developed through bits and pieces of info :)

Thoughts?.......

P.S. Sherry for all who want it. Mineral water for those who don't :D

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 11:24 am
by fable
I keep an open but skeptical mind towards ghosts. There are certainly odd phenomena that can't be explained, and they may be ghosts on some occasions; but if that's the case, we're still left with an object and a name, and without a clear understanding. It may be the soul of a departed person, or something else entirely; maybe it's just two temporal spaces overlapping, with "ghosting" effects. It may be the result of someone who's alive, and doing something inside themselves without realizing it, that produces external results. It could be all of the above, and none of the above. And in some instances, it's definitely a hoax, or due to perfectly common causes.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 11:31 am
by Craig
No sherry please...

I've never seen ghosts, I don't believe and don't not believe in them but, even if i don't see them they might not have come to be, or they could be all around us looking exactly like us so they don't stand out and they don't know they are dead, or they are temprel(sp) overlaps where people who are from the past exist on to time frames, or they could be our fears or hopes.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:33 pm
by CM
Ok believe in ghosts as being the spirit of a dead person no.
But in Islam we believe there are two kinds of beings in this world.
Man and jinns (djinns in BG2).
The jinns are creatures of fire and exist on the same plane as us.
However we can not see the openly unless the wish so.
They take the form of animals mainly cats.

Dogs in muslim countries are seen as dirty and unislamic - due to culture and not religion.

So do i believe in other beings that can be described as ghosts?
Yes ie. jinns.
Do i believe there is a lot we don't understand and weird stuff happening.
Yes.

Do i believe in Bigfoot, Nessie etc.
Not sure, but i do not disbelieve.

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2002 4:41 pm
by Der-draigen
I was also thinking of craig's idea, a time-overlap kind of thing, but he beat me to posting it ;) Yeah, I think maybe when we see what we think is a ghost, wearing old-style clothing and looking kind of fuzzy or transparent, we may actually be seeing a "real" person in a past time who has overlapped somehow into our time. Same goes for the EVP that I mentioned. (See "Time Travel" thread too, lots of theories on how time can be traversed.) This might explain why sometimes communication is poor, or the other person ("ghost") doesn't notice the observer, or "help" messages coming through. Poor person might be stuck in some time-warp and trying to get home.

Hey...There was a thread on "disappearing people" a while back as well (I think that was yours, fable). What if these people who vanish without a trace, become stuck in a time-warp as well? And appear in past or future planes? Know what I mean? So you've got a constant going back and forth of people getting stuck in these time warps and showing up as "ghosts" in other time periods.....Wow, weird thought :eek:

Then again, that wouldn't explain why people see loved ones at the moment of death, after death for missed goodbyes, etc. There are many documented cases of this type of experience as well...

@CM -- that is interesting, and also helps to explain a lot about my own cat :D

Can you tell us a little more about what it is the djinn do? Are they malicious, like demons? Benevolent like angels, or kind of neutral? :)