Do ghost's really exist?

That’s mostly a personal opinion. Some believe, some don’t. I personally don’t.

I always like to say those three little words that many find so hard to utter.

I don’t know. :-)

yes, there was one farting all night long in our bedroom.

There are some things that can not yet be explained. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a ghost. It’s all a matter of what you believe. There are many things and situations that I believe might have been ghosts. Like random noises in the house when I’m alone. Although that could be my paranoia, imagination, and mono phobia speaking. Let’s just put it this way they can’t be proven to exist but they also can’t be proven not to exist. No one knows for sure. It’s just a matter of what you believe.

There is no evidence that ghosts exists.

Most likely not.

But like @rock4ever wrote, there is no evidence that they don’t. And how do you explain strange noise’s, orb’s and things being strange in an environment that you know so intimately IE: home, work etc.

Of course not.

Would be cool if they did. :D

If you ask my kids who are obsessed with Ghost Adventures, they would tell you, yes there are ghosts. Ever since they’ve been watching that show there is a little girl with long hair and a white dress that lives in our computer room. And “scary eyes” peek out of the dryer. I personally don’t believe in ghosts though.

Although certain famous politicians disagree, the absence of evidence IS the evidence of absence. If ghosts existed we would expect some evidence of it.

@BeccaBoo What are orbs?

@roundsquare http://www.skepdic.com/orbs.html

@Rarebear Thanks.

@BeccaBoo That link has an explanation.
What kind of strange noises?
What do you mean by “things being strange?”

@josie You know, I personally wouldn’t go so far as to say “Of course not.” I would only say is that there has never been any solid verifiable evidence of ghosts, but I am open to the idea. I just need to see verifiable evidence.

I guess you will all find out when I pass away.

mwahahahahahahaha….......

@Rarebear Until you have the evidence, you are epistemologically entitled to say “of course not”

I’ve been creeped out by some pretty strange stuff in my life, and my father firmly believed his childhood home was haunted. I remember doors opening and closing on their own, and all kinds of stuff you see on TV. But I am hesitate to say that I believe in ghosts.

No. When you die you stay that way.

sorry. i know that’s very difficult for some folks to face. that’s why we have the idea of ghosts.

I think of my memories as ghosts, but other than that, I don’t believe in them. The dead are mellow folk, and ghosts obviously aren’t mellow. And it isn’t as if they have any power to accomplish anything fruitful.

@ddude1116 Interesting answer. I sometimes wonder if like, the idea of the ghost was created as a way to deal with tragedy, past memories, unresolved emotional conflict with peeps and nostalgia and stuff. And the fear of death of course, which is kinda ironic when you think about it.

@ddude1116 “The dead are mellow folk, ”

Unless there are ghosts (in the traditional sense of the word).

I believe. My grandmother had a ghost that lived in her house. I know… no one would believe it until they actually saw the things the ghost did and I witnessed a few things. Chairs moved when it was just me and my grandma alone in the house and the bed I was sleeping in was picked up and slammed down.

Depends on your reality of “real” is, I have briefly encountered a response lying in a college friends floor, to this day I say the f…r was playing with me. My buddy living in Lexington on the old Revolutionary road told me stories that still give me the creeps about living in that house. But he was a roadie for Aerosmith so I can dispel him quickly as delusional.

@Symbeline Initially, they were, it was just a part of the Afterlife beliefs. It wasn’t until the concept of the Demon came about that they were considered threatening.
@roundsquare Like a poltergeist..?

@ddude1116 Sure, something like that.

I was just pointing out that your statement was circular.

No such thing as ghosts—> dead are mellow—> no such things as ghosts.

I have trouble believing in them, but I have a relative who gets rid of ghosts who won’t leave a house. It’s fascinating to hear her talk about her experiences. I asked her how she could tell when the ghosts are gone. She said that the person who was bothered by them stopped having the signs that they were there (sounds, cold spots, noises, etc.) I asked how she gets them to leave and was told she talks to them. This is an educated, apparently normal person who tunes into a world I have never experienced and hesitate to believe in, but she’s very sincere about it all.

I don’t know if I believe that Ghosts or Spirits are people who have departed, but since I believe we all have a soul and can go onto another place than what would be the stretch to believe that some may get stuck here.
I probably would’ve had extreme doubts in their existance if it were not for two experiences that I had that made me believe in it. However, I believe in most cases it is bogus.
One time I had just layed down for a nap when I felt someones breath on my cheek and a childs voice call my name in a kind of giggly fashion. I thought it was my baby cousin come to play with me. I reached out to grab her and no one was there. (no I had not fallen asleep yet) It gave me the creeps I gave up the idea of napping.
Another time (long story so I will make it short), there use to be a even rythm tapping noise in the walls at the same time each day. A friend didn’t believe me when I told her. (nothing on the other side to make the noise. The noise traveled down the wall all the way to the end of the wall. I told my friend and she said it was probably pipes. It wasn’t till she stayed with me and heard it that she realized no pipe or animal could make that noise. But still she didn’t believe after the first night. The second night at exactly the same time we heard the noise start to travel down the wall again and she was looking a little pale. By then I was extremely annoyed and told this spirit or whatever that it was not invited and needed to either be quiet or go away. Half way through the tapping it dead stopped.
So got rid of the noise and my friend as well. She freaked out and left my house and would never enter my home again.
There is one more story but that one is really long. So I can’t say they definetly exist but there are things that are unexplainable that I probably won’t know for sure till I’m dead.
When I die, I’ll see if I can haunt fellow flutherites so you have your answer. :D

They are real in some people’s neural networks. We can actually measure action potentials which are generated by special types of voltage-gated ion channels embedded in a cell’s plasma membrane.

@Pandora “When I die, I’ll see if I can haunt fellow flutherites so you have your answer”

Appreciated. If you do haunt me, please say “pancakes and bacon with syrup” so I know its you.

@mattbrowne Are you basically saying its an illusion made by our neural networks? I.e. that the explanation comes from within our skull as opposed to outside it?

Yes.

Exactly.

Not only do I not believe in ghosts, but I would go as far as to say that I believe ghosts don’t exist.

Find me a haunted skeptic and i may change my mind.

@poisonedantidote Haven’t you seen Ghost Adventures?!

@mattbrowne That would probably explain people seeing transparent images that look like those who have passed away… but what people’s claims of things moving at random?

@josie I don’t agree. I don’t have any evidence that String Theory exists, but I don’t say, “Of course not” if someone asks me if I believe in String Theory.

That said, I see your point. However, I tend to get a lot more mileage when I’m more deferential by saying, “I see no evidence,” rather than, “Of course not”. I’m that way unless it’s something dangerous, like treating cancer with homeopathy.

@josie @Rarebear It really depends on if you would expect to see evidence. If aliens exist, we wouldn’t expect to see evidence of them because of the huge distance between planets, etc… But if ghosts exist, we would expect to see evidence of their existence (at least for a particular type of ghost…).

@roundsquare Exactly.

@roundsquare I will try to remember that. LOL
@mattbrowne Possibly true. But how do you explain someone hearing the same thing I heard. And after weeks of of hearing this sound it stop at exactly the same time I asked it to stop? Never returning. Ah, maybe I mind melded with my friend and the guy who grabbed me.
I don’t think everything can be explained away so easily.
I once had an illusion when I was extremely sleep deprived after caring for my son who had colic for 3 months. I couldn’t get 1 hour of straight sleep, for the first 3 weeks and in an effort for my brain to shut down I was hallucinating that my son was in front of me sleeping and all was good. At the time of the hallucination it was real. But after my husband woke me fully I realized it was not real. I could see my husband who was in the room and he said I was acting weird. He asked me where the baby was and I said he was right in my arms asleep. I remember seeing him the baby and him asking me. When he shook me and asked me where was our son, I snapped out of it and suddenly realized my arms where empty. I knew full well I was hallucinating when I snapped out of it. And never once did my husband see the kid in my arms because I was thinking it. (needless to say he was asleep in his bed and I finally got some much needed rest)

@Rarebear how can you expect people to believe if everyone here is as sceptical about this subject as you. Now I am a firm believer in “seeing is believing” but there are too many things that happen not just to me personally but to others out there that quite simply can not be explained, and when spoken about to others, get hush hush or poo pooed by people who have never had an experience or just want to put a scientific explanation onto everything. This idea that there must be an afterlife and ghosts existing along with the stories has been going on for hundreds or years. I admit a lot of the stories will be fabricated and hyped up for the drama effect, but the experiences that people have are real and the feelings the experience at the time are real. How do you explain 2 people hearing, seeing and feeling the same thing at the same time? I would love to be proved wrong on this subject but i think there are too many questions and experiences that people have to be ignored.
As for the aliens, well lets keep them out of this subject for now and stick to one planet at a time.

@Pandora aaaahhh sleep deprivation does play wonderful tricks on our mind, however that was a one off dream. What about the recurring one’s that people have, where they have conversation’s with loved one’s that have passed over and they happen more than once? Or the time’s when they are alone and they hear a voice they do not recognize calling a name or making a noise. Or being touched by something that can not be explained? Does this mean we are all crazy and sleep deprived?

@BeccaBoo I am not a believer in “seeing is believing”. Just ask any magician—that’s how they make their living.

@Rarebear Magic is an illusion performed by tricksters. What about if there is no trickster about and you still see the illusion?

Ghost does exist, I have seen some ghosts in my school, and they don’t bother me, really.

@BeccaBoo You got the word “illusion” exactly correct. Your eyes and brain are not infallible.

…what school?

@Pandora – But how do I explain someone hearing the same thing you heard. And after weeks of of hearing this sound it stop at exactly the same time you asked it to stop?

A common root cause of strange noises is bad plumbing. Which gets fixed eventually.