Do you belive in ghosts?

[Techno Monster]

There was a show called Ghostly Encounters on today, and I though I would post this, so here it is. Do you believe in ghosts, yes or no? Why or why not? Or are you not certain if you believe or not?

[iJack]

i dont believe in the white, ghost that floats around, but i do believe in supernatural forces.

[george]

^Ditto

[Gender-Unknown]

it's all bullshit to me.

no such thing as ghosts

[Rutherford The Brave]

it's all bullshit to me.

no such thing as ghosts

Better watch what your saying. I believe is spirits and apparitions not ghosts. I'm a ghost hunter and a part of TAPS so Yes I guess you could say I believe.

[Underground_Network]

I'm not sure. I think its one of those things that is both incredibly hard to prove, yet incredibly hard to disprove as well. I can't say I believe in them, but I can't say I don't acknowledge the possibility that they do exist as well. I think the paranormal is reality, and that there is a lot out there that cannot be explained. Is it truly what we consider a "ghost"? Maybe, maybe not.

[Aηdy]

I don't care what other people think. I think that spirits are real and it's bloody amazing!

[robbiehay1]

im not telling you BS here i have seen a ghost, it was my great grandma.
she came and sat on my bed, it was strange

i later found out that she died in my bedroom *shudders*

[AutumnDae]

I do. I think people blow it way out of proportion sometimes, but I still do. I have yet to see one, but I would love to. Some people I know have, and they have said that they weren't afraid, they were too amazed to be afraid.

My cousin and her mom break into abandoned houses. I'm surprised that they haven't seen one yet.

My uncle has his mother in his house. It was her house before he got it, so that is probably why. I haven't seen her, but my mom and someone who used to live with him have. Maybe it's because I never met her. She died when I was 2 months old, and I never got the chance. He says there is also another woman. My mom has seen her too. They both say that it is the same *image* the same time. She walks down the hall, looks into a bedroom, looks over her shoulder (at you). You blink, she's gone already.

[Techno Monster]

Better watch what your saying. I believe is spirits and apparitions not ghosts. I'm a ghost hunter and a part of TAPS so Yes I guess you could say I believe.

TAPS!?!?! That is cool!

I haven't had any experiences or anything with spirits, so I really don't know what I believe, I guess I'm waiting for an answer.

[Zephyr]

Not the typical white things floating around,
But supernatural force, yes.
Logically I would say no,
But I grew up with a ghost in my house for the last 10 years.

My Proof

1) Our old dog Holly used to get in an offensive position, snarl and growl while staring at absolutely nothing. Other times she would act positively scared to death for no reason, curl up in a ball and stare out into the middle of the room into the air.

2) Sometimes it sounds like somebody is walking up the stairs or across the creeky upstairs floor when in reality everybody is gone except for myself or fast asleep.

3) Whenever I'm home alone, and in the dead of night, sometimes I hear this sad lullaby music playing... the same tune every time. My friend Katie has heard it before as well, so I'm not crazy.

I believe it to be the spirit of a lady who died in the upstairs closet some 30 years ago.

[MoveAlong]

^omfg that frickin scares the hell out of me:P

I don;t care really. Ghosts may be real, but they may not, and I haven't had any experiences. But the stories are chilling so that's fun. I'll vote "I don't know"

[LeRoy_Fan]

Due to things that I have personally experienced, and things I have heard from very level-headed people, I must say I believe in "ghosts"

I have not yet come to a personal conclusion on what ghosts are or are not, but all I can say is that I do believe that there is some force on this earth, whether it be good or evil, that lives (or, I guess dies...anyways) among us.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

I don't believe in this stuff one bit; still I'm glad that I'm the first owner of my house! So no one has died here yay! Of course, there could be a secret indian burial ground near here... my cat disappeared into the forest several years ago... who knows if some freaky Pet Sematary stuff might go down... sometimes dead is better! (ooooh!)

[Camazotz]

White, round, floating ghosts that say, "BOO!"...No
Spirits, apparitions of the dead...Yes

I have no experiences with spirits, but Im sure they are real.

[ssgliberty]

i dont believe in the white, ghost that floats around, but i do believe in supernatural forces.
same here:D:)

[Stark]

I don't believe in ghosts exactly, but I do believe there is some sort of an afterlife.

[Lumo]

I do belive in ghosts. I've had too many experiances not to :)

[ThatCanadianGuy]

The imagination is a wonderful thing, and that's all I think any of this is. Not one shred of plausibility whatsoever.

[Zan0ra]

I belive in lost supernatural spirt's yes....

[jrob11]

I swear ive seen someone out the corner o my eye, but when i turn theres no one there. so, yeah. i belive in them.

[Requin]

I'm not sure.
I think they do in some way, but not in the way people think.
I can't explain it. I don't beleive in some of the things Derick Acorah does but it's good TV

[LeRoy_Fan]

I'm not sure.
I think they do in some way, but not in the way people think.
I can't explain it. I don't beleive in some of the things Derick Acorah does but it's good TV


*I feel a slander coming on*

Derick Acorah is a fraud and a liar. It's been proven through many tests that you can look up on youtube.

*ok, it has passed...*:rolleyes:

[skhuaban]

I think unexplained things occasionally happen, but as to the white ghost that can kill you no.

[Dolphus Raymond]

I think that, most of the time, when people are convinced that they've seen/heard things, it's nothing supernatural. It's usually their imagination, or a mis-interpretation of the mind, or some other very earthly thing. No one wants to think they've seen something that isn't really there. But it happens all the time. Just consider déjÃ* vu. How often have you been convinced that something definitely did happen, but it didn't? Or, how often have you heard your name/a sound that wasn't there? Have a memory that turned out to be a dream, or just illusory in general? Experiences like these can be more vivid, too. It doesn't make someone crazy--just a normal human.

That all having been said, I accept the possibility that there is some kind of paranormal. I doubt it takes the form we expect it to, if it does in fact exist, but I really have no way of knowing. I'm just really skeptical of attributing the "weird" to supernatural automatically.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

The human brain was designed to assign human or "living" traits to inanimate objects. For example, when you stub your toe on the leg of a table, don't you sometimes curse out the table (i.e. you fucking table! You mean't to do that!) even though it really isn't the table's fault, it isn't alive. We just do this as a way of deferring the blame.

However, at night (and we primates are decidedly NOT nocturnal) the dark can "scare" us. You see a shadow, and all of a sudden in your mind you produce images of a crazed serial killer stalking down the hall.

There is not a shred of proof to suggest that "ghosts" are any more than tricks of the human mind. If you really WANT to see a ghost, then your mind will "make you see one" that seems so real to you (in your imagination) that you think it's actually there.

For more on this, I recommend watching Penn & Teller's Bullshit! Episode where they refute paranomal things. You could find it on youtube I'm sure.

Also, Richard Dawkin's book "The God Delusion" has a section early on that explains these sort of things, and why humans evolved over time to associate inanimate objects with living things.

[The Batman]

When you cursing out the table you know that the table isn't real. How can you explain people describing a deceased person whom they never met before or even seen a picture of.

[Dolphus Raymond]

When you cursing out the table you know that the table isn't real.

You logically know that it isn't real, but the point is that the human mind is made to "anthropomorphize" inanimate objects. If our minds weren't made to, we wouldn't get angry at inanimate objects. We do.

It seems like a peripheral point, but it isn't. It shows a fundamental part of how we process information. We try to fit phenomena beyond our control to things we already know and understand, or at least are comfortable with. Our pagan ancestors did it--the sun and the seasons were conscious beings. They didn't know better, so they fit the natural world in with what they knew. We still do that today. We are our great-great(x10) grandparents' children.

So, basically: The human mind, on every level, tries to "fill in" what it cannot process/understand. At a basic level, that causes false memories, hearing your name when it wasn't said, noticing patterns that aren't there. On a more extreme level, it can cause déjÃ* vu, hallucinations, and total belief in events/experiences that never actually happened.

I'm not saying that this makes any experience invalid. I'm just saying, the human mind is complicated and not objective. So, people should approach strange noises/weird memories/etc. with lots of skepticism. A lot of people think, that can't be true, if I feel things that aren't there I'd be crazy, so it must have been paranormal. But, obviously, at least some of them are not paranormal.

So, the question then begins how we determine which are and aren't. Maybe science has no answer for that. It's possible our current science, or science generally, is not equipped to understand everything. But by the answers it has, there's really no proof of the existence of the paranormal.

How can you explain people describing a deceased person whom they never met before or even seen a picture of.

What do you mean? Depends on the situation. Cold-reading, among other things. Could you give me an example?

[The Batman]

I was watching a tv show and a little girl pointed out the picture of a man who's been dead for since before she was born and called him out by name. Later on they took her to the graveyard where he was buried and she went right to his grade even though she can't read. The story wasn't made up or anything.

[Neverender]

well of course i do. id like to become a ghost right now and take out my fury on those i hate. i suppose id be a poltiergeist

[LeRoy_Fan]

I was watching a tv show and a little girl pointed out the picture of a man who's been dead for since before she was born and called him out by name. Later on they took her to the graveyard where he was buried and she went right to his grade even though she can't read. The story wasn't made up or anything.

To me, that is just screaming "STAGED".

Just sayin'...

[Sugaree]

I believe in the same thing that Greg does. I believe in spirits and apparitions not ghosts.

[Whisper]

Theres no evidence of them
But I honestly don't know

I know that neither energy nor matter can be destroyed or created
only changed

So what makes us...us
The neurological connections in the brain?
The electricity that courses through them?
both?

Is one required for the other to continue on?

I don't know
I do know I've been in rooms and places where I've felt REALLY weird
Where every alarm bell, every instinct was telling me to GTFO because something was there
I couldn't see it
But I could feel it

[Shpadoinkle]

Ghosts exist in the human mind and that's all, even though I don't believe in such things I'm still scared of stuff like that just because I can't get those horrible pictures out of my head sometimes. ><

[Antares]

Darn it, I accidentally said I am not sure instead of yes. Yes, I do believe in ghosts. hasn't anyone ever seen Most Haunted. Damn thats some scary schtuff.

[theOperaGhost]

I agree with Kodie. I'm really not sure, there's been times like Kodie described where you "feel" like there is something there, but you can't see anything or something like that. I think there are spirits and apparitions. Not really "ghosts" but it's all how people view ghosts, I guess.

[Rutherford The Brave]

Theres no evidence of them
But I honestly don't know

I know that neither energy nor matter can be destroyed or created
only changed

So what makes us...us
The neurological connections in the brain?
The electricity that courses through them?
both?

Is one required for the other to continue on?

I don't know
I do know I've been in rooms and places where I've felt REALLY weird
Where every alarm bell, every instinct was telling me to GTFO because something was there
I couldn't see it
But I could feel it

Kodie I do have plenty of evidence supporting the paranormal. its unexplained, but nonetheless it is evidence.

Ghosts exist in the human mind and that's all, even though I don't believe in such things I'm still scared of stuff like that just because I can't get those horrible pictures out of my head sometimes. ><

No the exist outside of the human mind. My evidence supports what I'm saying because I have been in houses alone and have had responses to my questions. No tampering to.

[Sugaree]

Darn it, I accidentally said I am not sure instead of yes. Yes, I do believe in ghosts. hasn't anyone ever seen Most Haunted. Damn thats some scary schtuff.

I think that the stories are true but I think most of it is really just staged. I watch Ghost Hunters because that's a lot better. TAPS is always a great investigator.

Besides, that lady on Most Haunted talks too much that I can't hear a thing when she supposedly hears something.

[theOperaGhost]

Most Haunted isn't very good. I like it, but I've only ever seen one thing questionable happen. I did like the most haunted from the Penitentiary in Philadelphia though.

[The Batman]

My grandmother told me that she see's spirits in fact she saw her fiance's mother and late wife. She's never seen a picture of his mother and when she described her it was exactly on the spot. Also she told me that she sees her late husband but he never comes close to her. I do believe in the spiritual and supernatural because to me it doesn't make since that we die and nothing happens.

[ssgliberty]

i do

[trn19]

Is this question even serious? Well, no, I don't believe in ghosts.

[Rutherford The Brave]

Is this question even serious? Well, no, I don't believe in ghosts.

Yes it is serious seeing as there is evidence supporting such activity. Don't make assumptions based on what you do not know.

[BlackenedSilver]

I do believe in spirits roaming the earth because they have unfinished business when they die... and also in dark spirits that are out to hurt you. Because recently I have felt something or someone following me..

[Rutherford The Brave]

I do believe in spirits roaming the earth because they have unfinished business when they die... and also in dark spirits that are out to hurt you. Because recently I have felt something or someone following me..

Well, you do have a point. But the stand point from TAPS is that spirits are attached to something, like a memory they are imprinted to thing. Such as houses, beds, dressers, chairs. Its all scientifically backed up by the evidence that the TAPS family collects. We dont just go into a house and based on pre assumptions say the place is haunter. We barely even say places are haunted. In the hundreds of place I've investigated, I only said two were haunted, the Balch House in Beverly and the Salem Witch mesuem in Salem.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

There is no such thing; everything you "think" is a spirit (oooh scary) is just a figment of your imagination; a projection of your mind. TAPS is in no way scientifically accurate, or even recognized by the rest of the scientific community. Science has everything to do with the natural world, the supernatural is not commented on by science, so whatever shady "proof" TAPS may have hasn't been peer reviewed or published anywhere besides their own magazine (and maybe others like it). If you really WANT to believe in hauntings, then that's exactly what you're going to experience when you go to a place that people say is "haunted".

There are no such things as "spirit imprints" since there is no such thing as a spirit. You die, the electrical signals in your brain cease.... and you rot in the ground. Not very glamourous, but that's how it is. Nothing get's "left behind" for people to measure with fake "scientific" machines. If any of it were real then we could pick it up on REAL instruments.

You become fertilizer. Sorry for the bad news :cool:

[Rutherford The Brave]

There is no such thing; everything you "think" is a spirit (oooh scary) is just a figment of your imagination; a projection of your mind. TAPS is in no way scientifically accurate, or even recognized by the rest of the scientific community. Science has everything to do with the natural world, the supernatural is not commented on by science, so whatever shady "proof" TAPS may have hasn't been peer reviewed or published anywhere besides their own magazine (and maybe others like it). If you really WANT to believe in hauntings, then that's exactly what you're going to experience when you go to a place that people say is "haunted".

There are no such things as "spirit imprints" since there is no such thing as a spirit. You die, the electrical signals in your brain cease.... and you rot in the ground. Not very glamourous, but that's how it is. Nothing get's "left behind" for people to measure with fake "scientific" machines. If any of it were real then we could pick it up on REAL instruments.

You become fertilizer. Sorry for the bad news :cool:

How can you say that though? Your just making assumptions and stating your biast opinions. I have evidence and TAPS has evidence that things happen becuase of paranormal reasons. I would also love to hear where your getting your information from, cause I'm just going to think that your rambling on. Come up with evidence that supports your arguement before you state your opinion and make assumptions.

[Underground_Network]

The thing with the paranormal and with ghosts and even UFOs and aliens is that its equally as hard to prove as it is to disprove. I could claim there is a creature somewhere in the universe with 5 legs, 5 arms, 7 eyes, and 10 testicles, and no one could disprove it, but no one could prove it either. Ghosts may or may not exist. Its one of those things where it's hard to find 'solid' proof [both literally and figuratively], and thus its hard for many to except that they exist, or even that they may exist. To some its not a question of whether they exist, its how to prove they exist, to others its the question of whether they exist and whether there is a way to effectively prove to most, including the majority of the scientific community, that ghosts are real, and to some other people its not the question of whether they exist or not, its how to disprove their existence. I say ghosts might be real, but they might not be. Its something we may just never know. I don't think we're going to 'collect' any more evidence than we currently have that ghosts are real [or are not real], at least not within the next couple decades.

[tombstonequeen]

Yup and I get the lovely pleasure in seeing them. -_- I see this one, she is old in a black dress and creepy as hell. I hate it when I'm in the living room at night.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

No matter the truth; ghosts exist outside the realm of science, so TAPS can't keep pretending to be "scientific" ghostbusters. Science doesn't address the supernatural or paranormal. So call it what you like, but there is no chance you'll ever proof it within the boundaries of science... just "feelings" and "sightings" that are more often than not disproven... and quite quickly.... for lack of scientific evidence :D

[The Batman]

Actually TAPS doesn't try and prove hauntings, they try and disprove them. They use science to debunk the weird noises and strange sites. When they do have things they can't disprove that's when they say that it might be a spirit.

[theOperaGhost]

No matter the truth; ghosts exist outside the realm of science, so TAPS can't keep pretending to be "scientific" ghostbusters. Science doesn't address the supernatural or paranormal. So call it what you like, but there is no chance you'll ever proof it within the boundaries of science... just "feelings" and "sightings" that are more often than not disproven... and quite quickly.... for lack of scientific evidence :D

There isn't conclusive scientific evidence proving that they don't exist either. Nothing in science is conclusive. Science can only be conclusive if there isn't a single counter example. However, that is impossible to find out, because that would take infinite experimentation. And obviously infinite experimentation is impossible.

[Brazdar]

I belive there might be souls that clutch at this world and can't or don't want to move on and I belive feelings and strong emotions can be left behind by the one who felt them.

In the backyard of the art universtity, from my town, are some abandoned barracks, I went there with my friend and we entered in one of those barracks, outside was noisy, the usual street throng, but inside the barrack was quiet and still, although the doors and the windows where opened, my friend got a little scared and insisted to get out, I returned later to that barrack and I found a military berret that wasn't there when we've been there earlier. Oh and this was in midsummer, outside where 35 degrees celsius and in the barrack was chilly, our hands and noses got cold.

[henry827]

Better watch what your saying. I believe is spirits and apparitions not ghosts. I'm a ghost hunter and a part of TAPS so Yes I guess you could say I believe.
in warwick RI i live right near there

[ThatCanadianGuy]

There isn't conclusive scientific evidence proving that they don't exist either. Nothing in science is conclusive. Science can only be conclusive if there isn't a single counter example. However, that is impossible to find out, because that would take infinite experimentation. And obviously infinite experimentation is impossible.

With that same train of logic... I could say that the flying spaghetti monster lives on the dark side of the moon. I can't prove it.... but you can't disprove it either! So obiously he exists. Now does that make any sense? And as far as TAPS goes, if they're just trying to disprove hauntings... let me save them the trouble and say.... okay. NONE of them are hauntings! That was easy! They also have the same problem; as soon as ANYTHING happens that they can't readily explain.... ghosts MUST have done it! Does that make ANY sense at all? Obviously not.

My dishwasher makes strange noises when its doing the wash cycle. I don't know exactly what's causing the noise....... so it must obviously be a dishwashing ghost in there :lol:

[theOperaGhost]

With that same train of logic... I could say that the flying spaghetti monster lives on the dark side of the moon. I can't prove it.... but you can't disprove it either! So obiously he exists. Now does that make any sense? And as far as TAPS goes, if they're just trying to disprove hauntings... let me save them the trouble and say.... okay. NONE of them are hauntings! That was easy! They also have the same problem; as soon as ANYTHING happens that they can't readily explain.... ghosts MUST have done it! Does that make ANY sense at all? Obviously not.

My dishwasher makes strange noises when its doing the wash cycle. I don't know exactly what's causing the noise....... so it must obviously be a dishwashing ghost in there :lol:

For all we know, FSM could be real. So could God. There isn't scientific evidence against the realness of either. They are both theories, just like everything in science. Gravity is a theory. For all we know the FSM's noodly appendages really are holding us down on the face of the earth and that is why the population continues to get taller. As the population increases, there are fewer noodly appendages to go around, so the population gets taller. It is all just theory, not fact.

[Zazu]

I don't really like most of the big ghost hunting programs like TAPS. I think they take stuff whhheeyyyyy over the top. Also most of the UK ghost hunting programs, i.e. Most Haunted, either seem to say that the slightest noise MUST be a ghost or they fake stuff.

I personally believe in ghosts. I've captured what I believe to be paranormal pictures / video clips from an old abandoned WWII airfield near my house. I've been up there lots of times and I have only captured stuff which I class as unexplainable about 5 percent of the time, so I'm not one to jump to conclusions about things.

I don't believe that there is a 'greater' being as such than us humans, I just believe there is something else on a different plane / dimension to us, no greater no wiser but at the same time no less intelligent.

And another thing which bugs me is how people say "you can use scientific evidence to prove that ghosts exist". Let's take a step back here. Ghosts / spirits are believed to be 'paranormal', they are something which are beyond our knowledge, they are not of this world. So science can NOT be used to prove that ghosts exist (seeing as we are not on the plane / dimension of spirits), it can be used as means to capture evidence of them, no more. Sometimes there is a correlation in between what is captured and logic, but this still isn't proof.

[Underground_Network]

The thing is, its a lot harder to disprove things than it is to prove them. People can come up with 'evidence' that something exists, but it's much harder, and in some cases near impossible for people to come up with 'evidence' that something doesn't exist. How do you prove something isn't there if it well, just isn't there? You can see something and then its there, thus its real. But if you don't see it, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Thus we can never definitively say ghosts are not real, no matter what, though we can continue to say they are real, and in a sense eventually prove that they are real, if they are real. The thing is, we can never prove that they don't exist, we only have the option of proving that they do exist, so if they don't, well we'll keep investigating them forever it seems...

[ThatCanadianGuy]

For all we know, FSM could be real. So could God. There isn't scientific evidence against the realness of either. They are both theories, just like everything in science. Gravity is a theory. For all we know the FSM's noodly appendages really are holding us down on the face of the earth and that is why the population continues to get taller. As the population increases, there are fewer noodly appendages to go around, so the population gets taller. It is all just theory, not fact.

Unfortunately.... no. Theories are based on evidence and fact. Basically they serve to explain the evidence we see. And.... the only evidence we see is.... zilch. Nothing. Which makes a "theory" like ghosts wholly unfounded. Give me ANY real peer-reviewed and verified evidence and I will readily concede that ghosts exists. Unfortunately you will NEVER find such proof.

[The Batman]

Why don't you give me proof to believe that ghosts don't exist and that it is all fabricated inside our minds? Cause you'll NEVER find such proof. See it goes both ways.

[Rutherford The Brave]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU9XmYqAIB0 Peer-reviewed by all the TAPS family and a group of skeptics. Nuff' said.

[The Batman]

Hey bro allow me to embed it nU9XmYqAIB0.

[jaja]

Yes Im Believe In Ghosts I Remember When I Was 4 I Was Laying On The Couch And My Mom Was On The Other Couch Talking On The Phone Then In The Corner Of The Wall By Our Door SomeOne Called My Name And Asked Me To Come To Them I Think It Was My Moms Mom Cuz Her Picture Was Hanging Almost Right Above The Area