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By the way, oat and deadman, delusion doesn't imply crazy. Everybody here has probably suffered a delusion of some sort. All it means is that your mind has played a trick on you, and you've believed it. Take the spinning wheels illusion that was posted here a few days ago. Now, we all know that it's just an optical illusion, but if you truly believed the wheels were spinning somehow, that'd be a delusion. That's an oversimplification of course, but you get the idea.

Our perceptions are easily fooled, as that spinning wheel illusion shows. I find it interesting that you'd both rather believe that you had a close encounter with the undead (something that's incredibly improbable) than that your mind played a trick on you (much more likely).

Why does this bother me so much? Because there's an appalling lack of understanding of science and scientific principles these days. In such an advanced technological world, people need to know the difference between science and pseudoscience, and treat them accordingly. Testing for infrasound is science. Conducting experiments on sleep deprivation is science. Seeing a shape late at night and saying "I saw a ghost!" is not science, at least, not without further study.

It's a lot more fun to believe in ghosts than it is to believe that our perceptions are so easily fooled. One is a connection to mysticism and wonder. The other is an admission that the senses we rely on are fallible. Little kids have a lot of fun believing in Santa Claus, but as they grow older and the lack of empirical evidence becomes apparent, they stop believing. Funny how ghosts stick around, though.

There are more things in heaven and earth than are dealt with by your philosophy, Horatio.

Hehehehe

Naah.  I don't believe in that. 

take this slarty ghosts are real i do believe in them thank you oatmeal how could you say they are NOT real i mean how could you explain every thing that happens on the earth and you say they are not real all you people use science to prove that they are not real well screw science science isnt gonna help you when your scared or you see something and thats why i say ghosts are real. and all of you who have a explanation contact me my yahoo addres is bmm94 or bmm94@yahoo.com

iblieveinghosts wrote:

science isnt gonna help you when your scared or you see something

When you're in such situation, the way to cope with the fear is to imagine the ghost be a nude AND sexy AND hypersexed ghost (adjust its gender and fetishness to suit your preferences). Try that next time!

oatmeal wrote:

Hehehehe

Naah.  I don't believe in that. 

And for good reason apparently. Still not released.

So a double zombie?

Pauly: I think I explained my viewpoint on this matter pretty clearly two years ago when we had the discussion. If you want more, read the books that I linked to. But I have no intention of going into this again, so you can stop e-mailing me now.

Slarty wrote:

Pauly: I think I explained my viewpoint on this matter pretty clearly two years ago when we had the discussion. If you want more, read the books that I linked to. But I have no intention of going into this again, so you can stop e-mailing me now.

You have your own personal stalker now.

Well, those were some of the best, coolest posts I ever read...

I have a love/fear reletionship with ghost stories.

You can expect me to leave the light on for a few nights now...

Og wrote:

I have never seen evidence to affirm or deny existence of said phenomena.

Having said that, I will confess to leaning toward the liklihood of such existence.:

Same here.

When my oldest son was a tyke, we lived in an old Victorian house. Our dog used to bark happily at the open bathroom door or sometimes at my younger son's door when no one was in either room. Her tail would wag. Sometimes she would appear to be looking at a moving person whom I couldn't see. My oldest son claimed he saw a woman in a white dress go into his room a couple of times. "A nice lady," he called her.

Years later, I learned that a previous occupant, named Mary, a very, very nice mother of five, had had a heart attack and died in the bathtub there. The oldest neighbors on the block remembered her very warmly.

Last edited by debbiedowner (2005-07-25 10:18 am)

For those of you who need more "scientific proof" of ghosts, I'm sorry I didn't have a meter to register the atmosphere, or a camera to take pictures of "dancing" lights.  Next time I'll be sure to tell the ghost to hold still while I get some proof fro my disbelieving friends on mac-addict.

For those of you who do believe, please read on.

I was very close to my great grandfather, like best buddies.  He taught me to play pool, we went for ice cream, plaid card games, and just had a great time together.  One day he had a stroke, and a week later he died.  It was like loosing my best friend.  I wasn't there with him when he passed in the middle of the day, I was in school and mourned the loss of such a great guy.

One night I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up and read (I often did this to help me get to sleep, and I still do).  When I sat up in bed I looked at the door to the room (bed faced the door) there before me stood smiling, my greatgrandfater.  I was stunned.  My blood ran cold for a moment, then I remembered to breath.  I looked back and he was gone. 

After that I felt better about his passing and didn't miss him so much.  I felt like that was his way of saying "good bye" or "don't worry I'm fine". 

That is the only time I have ever seen a ghost.

Denali wrote:

For those of you who need more "scientific proof" of ghosts, I'm sorry I didn't have a meter to register the atmosphere, or a camera to take pictures of "dancing" lights.  Next time I'll be sure to tell the ghost to hold still while I get some proof fro my disbelieving friends on mac-addict.

For those of you who do believe, please read on.

I was very close to my great grandfather, like best buddies.  He taught me to play pool, we went for ice cream, plaid card games, and just had a great time together.  One day he had a stroke, and a week later he died.  It was like loosing my best friend.  I wasn't there with him when he passed in the middle of the day, I was in school and mourned the loss of such a great guy.

One night I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up and read (I often did this to help me get to sleep, and I still do).  When I sat up in bed I looked at the door to the room (bed faced the door) there before me stood smiling, my greatgrandfater.  I was stunned.  My blood ran cold for a moment, then I remembered to breath.  I looked back and he was gone. 

After that I felt better about his passing and didn't miss him so much.  I felt like that was his way of saying "good bye" or "don't worry I'm fine". 

That is the only time I have ever seen a ghost.

I can't tell you how many people I know have had a similar experience soon after a loved one passed on. Invariably, after the goodbye, the person did feel better.

I believe in something.  You can call it ghosts, residual, spirit, or whatever you choose.  I have had some "interesting" experiences myself, so it's hard not to believe in something, even if you don't know what that something is.