[OT] Do you believe in ghosts?

[CWD]

Borrowing some D&D terminology because its a D&D board, I think ghosts are astral constructs involuntarily created upon the death of an individual with latent psionic ability.

That's not say I don't believe in souls - I do - I just don't think a disembodied human soul could manifest on the material plane. As to those who suggested that ghosts are really misidentified angels or demons - interesting concept - I'll have to mull that one over.

 

[Iku Rex]

No.

 

[RyanL]

Yes to the first question.
No to the second, but my entire immediate family would say yes.

 

[smetzger]

No I don't believe that dead peoples spirits can live on in our world. I do however, believe that a dead persons soul can visit our world temporarily.
No I havn't encountered any.

I do believe in demons, devils, and angels. I believe that these are responsible for many of the ghost stories.

Oh man I meant to edit the original and not post another one.

 

[MaxKaladin]

I don't disbelieve in ghosts and I've never seen one that I know of. I'm not ready to dismiss the possibility because I've never seen one, but I've never seen any proof either.

I do have a cousin who swears he has seen a ghost. I don't know if I really believe him as I wouldn't put it past him to make up such a story to try to 'put one over' on me. The story takes place when he was in his 20s and had moved out of his parents house but not yet married. He was renting a place with one of his friends as a roommate. Supposedly, he was taking a bath one day. He thought he was alone, so he left the door open at least part way. He claims to have seen a woman in the hallway walking past the open door. At the time, he thought it was just one of his roomates girlfriends, but when he got done she wasn't in the house. IIRC, the doors were locked and so forth so she would have had to have had a key to get in and the roommate swears he wasn't there nor did he give out a key. I think he might have had other incidents he mentioned, but these stories date back to the 70s and the telling back to the late 80s, so I may be mistaken.

 

[Henry]

I have never encountered a supernatural phenomenon, and as to whether I beleive in their existance, I cannot say conclusively that I do or do not.

My religion teaches me that that which is commonly thought of as a ghost (a spirit of a deceased individual) does not happen. However, all the accounts I see of ordinary people that experience non-empirical phenomena leads me to beleive that SOMETHING occurs which is beyond mere superstition or tricks of the human mind.

Is that noncommittal enough for you?

 

[Dr Midnight]

I've never seen a ghost, but I'm an imaginative coward, so I'm easily spooked. I worked in a building ( a large converted barn) that was VERY haunted. Noises all the time... on the second floor, you could clearly hear people walking on the first floor, and the roof. Things would bang.

My grandmother's house- a huge house that I could live in rent-free if I wanted to- is pretty damnably haunted. There's ALWAYS something behind me, there. The attic is the creepiest place I know of, period. I took some photos there, and "orbs" showed up in the pictures. (it was a digital camera- and they're notorious for catching dust particles that look like orbs) A face turned up in one of the photos, but it's a stretch of the imagination. "That... KINDA looks like a face..."

I had a friend who was welding something and claims a hand fell on his back. He turned and no one was there, but there was no mistaking that someone patted his back.

I knew someone who stayed in a relative's house once and woke in the middle of the night to see a man dressed like a Sioux standing at the edge of the bed staring down at him.

 

[Bob Aberton]

I don't believe in ghosts, but just in case, I've my crucifix right on my nightstand...

Or is a crucifix any use in a case like that?

 

[machine]

In a world where Freddie Prinze Jr. is engaged to hottie Sarah Michelle Gellar, the United States is advancing in the World Cup, and the Crocodile Hunter has his own movie, believing in ghosts is the most rational thing I can think of.

Dude!

That is so true! I laughed so loud at your post that my cowworkers wondered what I was up to.

Thanks for the laugh!

machine.

 

[Grifter86]

I don't no what to believe about ghosts, but two generations of my family have claimed to have had encounters with a "guardian angel" or something like that.

It starts with my grandfather, who was stationed in Africa fighting Rommel during World War II. He was on guard duty and had dozed off. The penalty for such an offense was quite significant - death. Suddenly, my grandfather feels a wet cloth placed upon his forehead. No one is around, but an officer-type walks by a few seconds later.

Evidently a similiar thing happened to him with a Nazi sniper or saboteur that was sneaking by.

Then, in the 70's, my father was teaching at Rockford in the theatre department. He's standing onstage and suddenly feels a cold, damp hand on his shoulder. He steps back as a lighting array falsl to the ground in front of him, an accident that would have surely killed him. Well, maybe.

I don't know what to think. It could just be spider-sense.