The Paranormal

[Batman]

I think the concept of ghosts totally violates thermodynamics.

In order to see anything photons must strike the retina of the eye.

That type of light energy to chemical energy conversion is measurable.

Yet energy can't be created or destroyed.

Energy can't materialize and dematerialize again. It basically can't appear out of nowhere and dissapear again.

The other thing about ghosts is that they are never naked yet their soulless clothes seem to be able to move into the afterlife.

Why not more ghosts of objects then?

Why no ghosts of dinosaurs?

How come with all the availability of CCTV and cameras there are no quality videos that don't look like an attempt at a low budget movie?

[kensei]

Has anyone on here actually seen a ghost?

Amanda

Ok, here's my ghost story. In 1995 I had a friend named Marie who died in a car accident at the age of 31. I knew her from a religious group we belonged to. She was quite prolific in appearing to her loved ones after her death. The woman who was the head of our group said she felt an invisible kiss on her cheek while attending the viewing at the funeral home, and went on to claim several visits from Marie's apparition that involved full one-on-one conversations. For my part, I never saw her but on the night after she died I was lying face down in my bed awake and feeling sad when I suddenly felt ice cold fingers go down my back. I sat bolt upright and looked around, and of course nothing was there. I have an image of Marie standing there looking down at me being sad, and just touching me to say "Hey, cheer up, I'm all right."

But the best part is about Marie's younger sister Gina, who had moved far away to Alaska while the rest of us were all down in the mid-lower 48. Marie had worried about her being up there on her own. Gina lived in a rustic cabin. After Marie's death she reported seeing Marie sitting on top a pile of firewood looking lovingly down on her, and also that the sound of spectral fingernails could be heard tapping against the coffee cups hanging in her kitchen (Marie was a lover of double-strong coffee). There's more to that story, but it's an example of a ghost that could travel hundreds of miles at will to be close to her loved ones.

[pinkmoon]

Has anyone on here actually seen a ghost?

There have been a few sinister deaths in my house (the last one being fifty years before I bought it, might I add, my husband is NOT under the patio!!).
Every night we hear strange things and items get moved around in my study.
However, we've never actually seen anything.

Amanda

I saw a ghost in 1996 in the George hotel in Lichfield I awoke at 3 in the morning and there was a person sat on the chair which then walked towards the wardrobe and disappeared apparently the hotel has had a lot of ghost sightings over the years and Lichfield it self is meant to be a very haunted town.

[Robert]

I hope you didn't tell the ghost you were bored.

[pinkmoon]

What me bored never

[Graham]

I saw a ghost in 1996 in the George hotel in Lichfield I awoke at 3 in the morning and there was a person sat on the chair which then walked towards the wardrobe and disappeared apparently the hotel has had a lot of ghost sightings over the years and Lichfield it self is meant to be a very haunted town.

So the chair walked towards the wardrobe and disappeared? Wow! Did the ghost have to sit on the floor?

Yes, loads of spooks in Lichfield - which incidentally is a city, not a town.

Graham

[Amanda]

Mm...

So the chair walked towards the wardrobe and disappeared? Wow! Did the ghost have to sit on the floor?

Yes, loads of spooks in Lichfield - which incidentally is a city, not a town.

Graham

Bit below the belt Graham. I take it you're a sceptic?

Amanda

[Graham]

Bit below the belt Graham. I take it you're a sceptic?

Amanda

No, not a total sceptic, Amanda. It was just the way Pinkmoon's post read that prompted my pee-taking reply!

I don't think it's possible to be totally 100% sceptical about the paranormal, but even so I don't think we actually have any solid proof that ghosts exist. All the so-called ghost photos I've seen can be, and have been, dismissed as fakes, without exception. Even the celebrated Brown Lady of Rainham Hall and The Girl in The Wem Fire have been shown to be fake - in the former case possibly accidental, but not so in the latter. And these were two photos that believers used for years to 'prove' the existence of ghosts.

More puzzling to my mind is a friend of mine who lives in a cottage in a 200 year-old row. She's never actually seen or heard anything remotely spooky, but she finds it very difficult to stay alone for long in her own house, when her husband's out. She says that after about half an hour she needs to get out. More than once she's thought about getting a medium or even an exorcist to try and find out what's wrong. Is it her, or is it her house?

Graham

[Amanda]

Interesting....

No, not a total sceptic, Amanda. It was just the way Pinkmoon's post read that prompted my pee-taking reply!

I don't think it's possible to be totally 100% sceptical about the paranormal, but even so I don't think we actually have any solid proof that ghosts exist. All the so-called ghost photos I've seen can be, and have been, dismissed as fakes, without exception. Even the celebrated Brown Lady of Rainham Hall and The Girl in The Wem Fire have been shown to be fake - in the former case possibly accidental, but not so in the latter. And these were two photos that believers used for years to 'prove' the existence of ghosts.

More puzzling to my mind is a friend of mine who lives in a cottage in a 200 year-old row. She's never actually seen or heard anything remotely spooky, but she finds it very difficult to stay alone for long in her own house, when her husband's out. She says that after about half an hour she needs to get out. More than once she's thought about getting a medium or even an exorcist to try and find out what's wrong. Is it her, or is it her house?

Graham

Hi Graham,
Could be either or neither couldn't it? It's actually very similar to what happened in my house some years ago. I went to live overseas for a few years and rented my house out to friends. After six months of being here, my friend called and said they wanted to move out as her husband was too scared to go upstairs when he was alone in the house. They never went in to detail but I did think it very odd. House or husband issue?
I've had two clairvoyants here & both felt that the problems stem from spirits in my study.
Amanda

[Robert]

One possible explanation that's been advanced for feelings of unease, is infra-sound. This might possibly produce illusions though I don't think it can explain everything.

[Graham]

One possible explanation that's been advanced for feelings of unease, is infra-sound. This might possibly produce illusions though I don't think it can explain everything.

A chap I worked with many years ago was heavily into "stone recordings", as I think they're called - in which, it's claimed, the actual fabric of a building can 'record' sounds, including conversations, that have occurred in it. He actually claimed to have 'played back' some of these 'recordings', but what a surprise - he never let me listen to the tapes he claimed to have made. I think in the case of my friend, she could well be of a very nervous disposition, and simply dislikes being on her own.

Amanda, I've got spirits in my study, too - mostly 40% proof.

Graham

[Ausgirl]

I am both a believer, because I have had little choice other than to be one, and a fairly skeptical skeptic.

I dislike bullshit. I really do, and there's just so much of it, when it comes to the supernatural. I've seen fakes faking it obviously and unapologetically, and gosh all sorts of borderline criminal and delusional stuff in my time. I can't blame Randi and his followers for being so bitter about it all, it really is disgusting.

But some of it isn't fake. For much of my life, I've seen dead people and other peculiar stuff, have had precognitive dreams/visions that have twice saved a life (though these could also be put down to telepathy, the point is, they saved lives), had minor precognitive 'flashes' too accurate for mere coincidence, and all sorts.

Before anyone gets to accusing me of boasting, I'm not. That's just how I have lived, more or less, and to a lesser extent live now. It's not a huge deal to me other than being a part of who I am. I don't care if anyone believes me, not one bit. It's my life, and I know what's what. The end.

It does irk the hell out of me that people can get so very nasty, in their skepticism. Unless a person's actions or beliefs impact another in some detrimental way, there's no call for nastiness, none at all.

It's like me, calling somebody without a shred of supernatural sense "stunted" or "retarded" and meaning it. I would not dream of it. We each have our foci in life. As someone firmly entrenched in both the supernatural -and- logical realms, I'm very open to discussion and questions, including skepticism, have at it.

But if you're going to be rude and dismissive or otherwise pissy, I'll flat out ignore you.

[Scorpio]

I dont believe a belief in the supernatural has anything to with intelligence.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Graves and many other highly regarded persons had faith in supernatural explanations.

[Wickerman]

I have yet to see anything trustworthy associated with the paranormal.
On the other hand, my inlaws, including my wife, are totally sold on the subject.

[Scorpio]

I have yet to see anything trustworthy associated with the paranormal.
On the other hand, my inlaws, including my wife, are totally sold on the subject.

The Validity of evidence gathered by paranormal investigators is the real problem, as far as i'm concerned.