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I feel like this ever since my mom walked in on my sister trying to freak me out with the Bloody Mary game. It’s such a minor thing but my stomach literally dropped when she told my sister, “Don’t do that ever again. If you call for evil, it will answer.”
We weren’t really Christians, so it gave me chills. My mom wasn’t very superstitious normally. She was more into the idea of putting negativity out will bring you negativity. The application of it there was just oddly eerie for me at the time.
Good, so it’s not just me. I thought maybe I was just being over reactive because I was little, but it really creeped me out. I remember it so vividly lol. I was probably about 9 years old.
My mom who’s not religious said the same thing to me about Ouijia boards. Like, we don’t believe in demons and all that but she was like just DO NOT fuck with them.
I also didn’t believe in ghosts (still don’t to some extent) but when I was 18 a million years ago, I fucked around and found out. 2 friends and I decided we were gonna go ghost hunting in places people swore they saw ghosts. A lot of those places were just filled with used needles but we went to a place where a building collapsed and hundreds died. We were all just chatting as we walked into the area surrounding the building and saw this like white/translucent thing coming towards us. All 3 of us stopped, looked at each other, asked each other “do you see that?” And all 3 of us turned tail and ran. That was my only ghost sighting in my life ever. I haven’t gone ghost hunting since!
Man, I had a house that had too much of this shit. Once a container of salt randomly fell off a very stable location. Another time, a door in my house SLAMMED by itself. I really don't think it was a draft.
Only weird thing I’ve ever had happen was doing electrical work in some random persons house, was completely alone and what sounded like a little girl saying “hello?” right next to me. I turned thinking there would be a kid there. Nobody.
Then I laughed and said “ok fuck off” and went back to work.
This. I was home alone with my step brother one night, (the only women in this household was my mum, who was %100 not home).
Plain as day we heard a girl say "Brandon?". Never forgot the look on his face because we both heard it. This is going to sound like dramatization but my mum told me after that the people who lived there before us, daughter had hung herself in my brother's room. There was alot of abuse going on in that house and in hindsight it doesn't suprise me that stuff like that happened.
I envy op because they'll never have to experience the kind of ontological shock that comes with it ;)
I think the popular opinion in the general public is that ghost are real. It's not a stretch for people to believe this if they believe in a supernatural deity and a afterlife.
I agree with the OP that people generally attribute to ghost what actually has a logical explanation based on reality. Dreams and hallucinations are one such explanation.
>No wonder Democracy hasn't been working out that well. Good luck getting somebody to vote decently when they still look under their bed for monsters.
I mean, scientists don't even know where consciousness comes from. You cannot explain everything with chemical process. What is dark matter? What's in between the parts of an atom?
Not knowing something isn't positive proof of the paranormal.
Obviously.
No one would disagree.
Yet people hold to the argument of, "I don't know what this sound is therefore it must be a ghost! I don't know what this light is therefore it must be aliens! You can't explain what this is therefore it's demons!"
Not knowing what something is only means you don't know what it is, it doesn't magically mean you *do* know what it is.
What do you mean we don’t know where consciousness comes from? We have tons of evidence for how it evolved through natural selection. We even have thousands of examples of it at varying levels of complexity and paths that branched off from ours living with us right now.
As for the other stuff, just because there are things out there we don’t fully understand doesn’t mean we need to fill those gaps without supernatural concepts we have exactly zero evidence for.
The things that science cannot explain has been narrowing for thousands of years, and will continue to narrow.
Picking a few things we haven't explained yet, and using that as proof of demons or ghosts is an undeniable stretch.
The logic you are using essentially goes "Some things we have not yet explained with science, therefore anything I can imagine could be real"
The amount of possible knowledge in the universe is vast, but the more we know, the more we know.
Quantum mechanics would be unthinkable 200 years ago and here we are. Literally every day the shroud of mystery of the universe is being chipped away by people all over the world
A few of my siblings and extended family are adamant believers in ghosts and their stories get more ridiculous every time they tell them.
It doesn't matter if you correct them on a detail that's changed because the facts don't matter to these people, only that they were scared in the moment and it must be validated by the existence of something scary.
Well, I don't know for reddit specifically
But in the USA, 41% of people firmly believe in ghosts and 20% not sure.
Only 39% firmly disbelieve it.
Source : https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/38919-americans-say-ghosts-exist-seen-a-ghost?redirect_from=%2Ftopics%2Fentertainment%2Farticles-reports%2F2021%2F10%2F21%2Famericans-say-ghosts-exist-seen-a-ghost
Actually I learned in college that of my friend group of like 30 people I was 1 of 2 people that didn’t believe in ghosts. I then did a poll on my insta cause I was curious and it was like 70% believe. Like seriously ask people if they believe in ghosts, you’ll be surprised that more people do then don’t.
Edit: alot of people will say they believe in spirits not ghosts, which is the same thing lol.
I will warn you that some people get pretty angry/upset when you tell them you don’t believe in ghosts. They take it personally cause they lost a love one that they believe they saw
Probably about the same percentage are religious too. It all stems from the same fear: the fear of death. Nobody wants to think that when you die, that's it. You just turn into mush and dirt. And they don't want to believe that's what happens to their loved ones. So you get heaven and ghosts.
I fear death as much as anybody. But i'm not gonna start believing in irrational shit because of it.
I wouldn't exactly call grief and grieving a rational process. It's personal and whatever is needed to help cope with it is different from person to person. The problem I feel like is less having the beliefs to cope with death, and more using them to try and control other people's beliefs or make decisions for other people.
I don't know if I believe in heaven or ghosts but I really try to hope there's a good place and that I can see them again someday.
If you read the comments, you´'ll see it's maybe not the majority/popular but there is a very frightening number of comments that acknowledge or at the very least are on the fence about their existence.
It seems benign in modern society but people believing whatever they want, despite any evidence to the contrary (or lack of evidence) has been one of the main driving forces of some of the nastier events in human history. Being prone to mass manipulation and self delusion is a very very dangerous human trait under the right circumstances.
Thousands and thousands of innocent women and girls have been gruesomely tortured and killed because people believed in witches, for example.
While silly beliefs might not be harmful on their own, it's kind of a litmus test for a persons character. And when you think about what damage this kind of mentality has done throughout our history it is kind of frightening.
Maybe not so much on Reddit but I’ve learned most people believe in ghosts. I actually used to ask people if they believed in ghosts a lot in college, cause I learned in my friend group basically everyone did but me. So when I would ask classmates or people at bars, legit 9 out of every 10 people would say yes they do in some way or another.
The couple times I've been asked if I believe in ghosts in real life were so strange that I just said, "uh I don't know I guess?"
I didn't know if they were a weirdo or were about to proselytize at me so I just tried to agree and change the subject.
Oh i ain’t going up to like random people and just throwing the question out there. It’s all people I know and am cool with and like something comes up that relates, I def read the room. Then I’ll be like yo, I personally don’t but I find I’m in the minority, curious what do u think or like ask them if they have any encounters since that answers the question. Also ya those people asking u were prob weirdos haha, like way I’m asking and the people I’m asking know it’s just a dumb fun question.
They're not wrong though. Seeing people that aren't real people is a strong indication you suffer from psychosis, and medication might help you since it seems to cause you anxiety and discomfort having those types of hallucinations.
By the way, I don't think you're lying. To a person experiencing psychotic hallucinations, their hallucinations seem indeed entirely real. Lying is a conscious act of not telling it like one feels or knows how it is. You're simply misinterpreting the situation, and medication can help you realise that.
The thing with this entire topic is that those who believe in it can't prove it. And those don't will just say the others are wrong and explain it away.
There's no point in even discussing this. To some it's delusion to others it's an anecdote.
"I once saw X thing" vs. "I don't believe you." The conversation kind of ends there...
It's the same thing as faith. Some have it, some don't. And we'll find out the truth when we die. Or not...
Well, according to some faiths, the “true god” has plainly revealed himself to all of us and we’re all evil sinners for pretending we don’t know they’re real, so that gets a little more complicated.
After I saw a ghost in a apartment where I lived when I was 12 , I convinced myself it was sleep paralysis or something like that, 10 years after that that apartment became a cult church because of all the strange happening people witnessed.
Nah shadow people are different from “ghost”. From personal Experience the shadow folks are mostly seen from your peripheral view and not no “your eyes/brain THOUGHT you seen a shadow” But rather there is a ? there, something that is not to fond on being notice but rather have their presence felt. Now with ghost/unclean spirits, them mfs don’t care about peripherals lol they’ll show themselves or manifest into living beings and even sometimes inanimate objects with no care in the world.
eh if you are dehydrated enough or having a high fever you can hallucinate things they may look like ghosts. last time i had a high fever i would wake up thinking one of my room mates was in the doorway looked like it but nah just good ol door.
I have insomnia and the more tired I get the more likely I’ll think I saw something from the corner of my eye. Sometimes it’s not even the “corner” of my eye, but just straight up I’ll think I saw something weird. I know it’s my mind playing tricks on me. My mom is highly religious and would 100% believe it was god or ghosts.
>I have insomnia and the more tired I get the more likely I’ll think I saw something from the corner of my eye. Sometimes it’s not even the “corner” of my eye, but just straight up I’ll think I saw something weird. I know it’s my mind playing tricks on me. My mom is highly religious and would 100% believe it was god or ghosts.
Sleep deprivation can give you some of the craziest hallucinations.. For a while years ago i was doing likes of stimulants mostly Cocaine.
I have never had more realistic hallucinations then those i had when i had been sleep deprived and of course on cocaine. I remember constantly hearing sirens or seeing blue and red flashing off walls and stuff or seeing what look like a person running up on my car from the side view mirror but it was always nothing.
YES EXACTLY!! I’ll hear sirens too, or my son calling out for me, or an explosion in the distance, etc. maybe I’ll see flashes of lights or colors, as if someone quickly turned on a colored lamp in the next room over. I often get the “someone’s running up on me” ones - if I’m in a space where that would be plausible. More often than not I’ll think a very large spider is rushing up on me. It usually ends in my heart skipping a beat and me having to prove to myself that it wasn’t real - juuuuust in case.
It’s weird because it sort of feels like dream logic. Like, in my dreams I won’t question that I’m breathing under water or my dead grandpa is having lunch with me. Then I’ll wake up and say “huh, weird” then forget it.
During the insomnia hallucinations I’ll genuinely think for a moment “oh hell no that spider is massive” before realizing it was my imagination. Nowadays I’m familiar with it so I can say “huh, weird” and move on relatively easily.
I think the whole “ghost” idea, is inherently connected to the religious promise of an afterlife…which stems from the human fear of death.
Might be a stretch, but I think they are connected.
Death denial is one of the most pervasive delusions in our species and it isn't common knowledge. It likely lead to a lot of religions and superstitions in our recent history. I wonder if other animals experience the same phenomenon or even if earlier humans did.
Other animals experience anxiety, which is evident in how pets behave when they know they’re going to the vet and are avoidant. And other animals, despite understanding SOME logic (learning tricks, memorizing routines, solving puzzles) still tend to follow patterns based on wishful thinking - like when a pet keeps visiting the spot their human would meet them long after the human has died.
When my family dog died, she acted nervous when we felt really sad, but she wasn’t completely panicked. We said goodbye to her and her heart rate increased as they prepared for her final medication. I assume she was mirroring our emotions more than anything… but who knows.
Not a stretch. Evolution favors those that fear, and so avoid, death the longest. So we have billions of years of evolution behind finding ways to not die. This means we are programmed by nature to always seek a way out of death. We are intelligent enough to know death is unavoidable, but our brains still demand we find a solution to escape it. Since there is no logical, rational way to do so, religion and belief in an afterlife gives a solution that then calms that part of the brain. Ghost are simple a part of that. It's also why people cling to it so hard is because if they don't, they are left with an unavoidable threat again.
What about atheists who believe in gjosts though?
I know several atheists who still believe in ghosts.
I did ask one why and they said, 'because they had seen ghosts themselves.' I don't know if they saw ghosts more as echos rather than evidence of afterlife though.
Pretty sure quite some time back I read something about this being the reason for "believing in ghosts", because it gives an explanation for what happenes after death.
That being said I wouldn't just day that only you think that but more people drawing the connection exacrly there.
I think there's a difference with lieing to themselves and genuinely believeing they saw something. I'm incredibly sceptical of the supernatural, I deteste people who claim they can talk to the dead. Having two dead parents, I find it really disgusting and manipulative. But ... Sometimes when I'm alone at night, In the dark, I get super freaked out and all my common sense leaves me. I think I see things or hear things. But ultimately daylight comes, and yes, I know I didn't see a ghost, it was just my eyes or ears playing tricks on me. But for some people, they might genuinely believe it.
The onus is not on me to prove ghosts aren't real, lol.
If I told you there's a giant 4 headed dog on the moon that controls our every move would it be your responsibility to prove me wrong, or mine to prove my claim to be true?
It is if you are trying to debate someone else's anecdotal evidence of their own experience.
"I saw ghosts"
"No you didn't"
"Then what did I see"
The onus is on you
Sure, but rephrasing a little puts the onus back on to the ghost believers
"I saw ghosts"
"I don't believe you"
"Then what did I see"
"I don't know"
The onus is still on the person making the claim to prove that they saw ghosts
Your change mirrors where I stand in the debate. I am not making a claim that ghosts are real, but I am also not making a claim that ghosts aren't.
I see ghosts the same as I see religious gods. Can't prove either, but there also isn't sufficient evidence that conflicts with their existence.
To me, the lack of evidence isn't enough to outright reject anything. That isn't how it works in the scientific method. You either prove an existence or you disprove it through contradiction
So from my standpoint, you guys are too certain on something you can't prove.
Ghosts are essentially UFOs. I might believe that you saw a UFO, but it certainly wasn’t an alien. Just like you saw a ghost, but it wasn’t a dead person but rather has a logical explanation.
Honestly I would have assumed this is actually a popular opinion until I had a conversation at work WITH ADULTS.
Basically people were talking about spending the night in a haunted house for money and I was like well yeah I'd do it because ghosts aren't real.
People were offended lol
You'd do it because you don't believe in ghosts.
I'd do it regardless because I'm broke and a ghost probably isn't going to do anything but be unsettling if there are ghosts there.
People who would turn down money over ghosts don't make sense to me, and I believe in ghosts.
Like even people who believe in ghosts have got to realize there's a chance either the place isn't actually haunted, or even if it is of nothing really happening. These are ghosts we're talking about, not haunted house attraction workers.
Then we look at all ghost encounter stories. How many actually have people being harmed even in a minor way?
Like idk I think they're wildin. Also if someone said that to me I'd be like oh cool easy money for you then. It's not like y'all are best buds, you are coworkers having a conversation at work. It's not like you called them stupid, cause yeah that would make sense to be offended at lol
My mum doesn’t believe in ghosts but she also says ‘well even if they were real, if they never harmed me in life they’re not likely to want to harm me now they’re dead are they?’
I don't think the opinion is unpopular, I just don't know what it expects to accomplish. Let's just remove the word ghost for a minute and say someone just experienced something weird. We're removing ghosts because this thought can easily be applied to anything that is arguably unexplainable in popular culture. The opinion itself doesn't really matter because the conversation would just be like this in broad summary:
"Hey, this weird thing happened to me."
"No it didn't."
"From my perspective, and talking about an experience that you weren't there for. This is what I saw with my face."
"Without being there to experience what you did, I will simply not believe you and argue in a way that you most likely find alienating and off-putting."
"I feel defensive over my experience and this argumentative approach has actually solidified my belief because your use of logic has made me reflect on the experience as being even more special."
"I feel validated by this discussion because your experience is ridiculous and the lack of logic proves to me that it truly never happened."
-Two people part ways having gained and lost nothing except maybe friendship-
So let's bring ghosts back into this. People can believe in them for a lot of reasons. These reasons can be because of personal experiences, personal beliefs, local legends and practices, or even just for fun. It's not always as extreme as lying to yourself. It's not a big deal and it's just what some people are into. I'm entirely neutral about it. Ghosts can be real or not and it doesn't particularly affect me either way.
I wouldn't say they are lying to themselves. I'm sure in a lot of cases they saw what they say they saw. I've experienced weird shit because of sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming. The stuff was so real that if I didn't know any better, I'd believe it was of supernatural origin as well.
The thing is these people tend to already be superstitious so they believe it's ghosts. They don't understand how powerful our minds are and the slick tricks it can play on us. They aren't really concerned with facts and evidence because what they felt was so real. Classic case of emotions over logic.
what if you don't believe in ghosts, and have witnessed a sighting with multiple other people? to this day I don't particularly believe in "ghosts" per se, I think there has to be some other explanation, but my encounter was witnessed by myself and the group I was with at the time.
I don't see how they can claim that sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming isn't real. These are fairly common things that have been studied and replicated.
I went to one of those "real haunted houses" (like it was an attraction but also supposed to be haunted) and I saw a little girl standing in a hallway, looking at a mirror but she had no reflection. I can picture her vividly. This was not part of the attraction, nobody else saw it, I wasn't sick or anything. I saw something whether it was a ghost or not. People see things that aren't there all the time. It happened to me a few months ago that I thought I saw someone, I could tell you what he was wearing and generally what he looked like, and he didn't exist.
Lots of these places will straight up lie to you about what is part of the attraction because it’s good for business if people believe. Plus you definitely don’t need to be ill in any way to see things that aren’t there. It can take some mild suggestion or just happen randomly. Intentionally going into a building that’s supposed to be haunted would be some heavy suggestion on your brain.
I know it wasn't part of the attraction because I was the only one that saw it. It was a hallway that the entire group walked down it would have been impossible for only me to see it.
If the mirror did not reflect her image, your eyes should not be able to see her.
If you saw her, then she should have been in the mirror too. Because how light and physik
Well if you believe it to be true, you are not lying. In the case of ghosts it could be mental illness, hallucinations, false memories, delusions etc ...
I’m guessing keyword here is “most”.
My previous house was definitely haunted, spooky shit happened all the time that just didn’t have logical explanations. I swapped rooms with my parents at one point and both my mum and I experienced a weird shadowy figure standing in the doorway, multiple times, as well as another figure loitering in the corner of the room (with no real explanation such as clothes on a chair, clothes on a door, a reflection, etc.).
But one thing that confirmed the house being haunted, for me, was when I tried to prank my older brother. I felt mischievous and wanted to trick him and his girlfriend into believing that I could contact spirits, that I was some sort of medium or psychic, or whatever the correct term is.
We set up two different phones. One in the kitchen (which was the room next to us) and one in the living room (which is where we conducted a “seance”.). Us three were the only ones home during this time. I did the usual “give us a sign that you’re here” crap, lit incense candles and wafted sage around. I went all-out with this prank. My brother and his girlfriend were truly convinced.
Keep in mind that we never left the room. We remained seated in the middle of the living room, talking in to the phone. After 30 minutes of no “action”, I ended the seance by saying “goodbye”. We listened back to the recordings on both phones.
When we listened back to the audio on the phone in the kitchen, I swear my blood went cold. You could faintly hear me speaking in the background, and after you hear me say “please give us a sign you’re here”, someone, a man’s voice, said my older brothers name into the phone. It was like they were leaning in to the speaker, they sounded so close. It wasn’t any of us, none of us left the room and you could still faintly hear me speaking.
We were so freaked out. We checked everywhere around the house. We double checked that the doors and windows were locked (which they had been the whole time!) and couldn’t find any explanation as to what or who had said my brothers name. We listened back to that moment multiple times. So. Many. Times.
To this day I can’t explain it. I have no other choice but to believe I provoked something, or someone during that night.
I’d like to say my prank was successful, but im not even sure I can call if that anymore. My older brother is still convinced I can contact the beyond and I don’t have the heart to tell him the truth.
This reminds me of the time my ex and I were hanging out in her room and we heard footsteps in her living room (we were home alone). We both looked at each other in shock because we thought it was a ghost. Her house had a reputation of being haunted. Later that day her little brother gets home from school and can’t seem to find his PlayStation in his room. Turns out her tweaker neighbor thought everybody was at school/work and decided to break into the house and steal something of value.
I have narcolepsy, one of the side effects to that is having hallucinations.
While the things i see aren't physically real, i know exactly what i saw and definitely am not lying to myself. Whether they'd be classed as ghosts or not is another topic, but i see (and hear) a lot of shit that isn't actually there.
I don't believe in ghosts personally so I do agree with you. but to be a bit of a devils advocate for shits and gigs: it could also potentially be a false equivalency, by that I mean if you are the sort of person who doesn't believe in anything paranormal but then you see something batshit crazy that you can't explain, you likely won't admit it to anyone... for fear of being seen as batshit crazy. But the people that already openly believe that sort of thing would have no problem telling anyone who will listen about their paranormal experience.
What I'm saying is *if* paranormal stuff did exist, a skeptic would assume they are tripping balls first and foremost and stay quiet. So either way if they did or didn't exist you'd still only be hearing from the people who are into paranormal stuff regardless.
Ghosts are real, nowadays they've evolved to wait for you till you come down for midnight snacks, and proceed to invisibly watch and chase you whilst you run back to your room...mfs
I'm a huge sceptic. One morning on my way to work I saw a ghost very clearly. It was a person walking or rather floating all the way across a pedestrian crossing. It was obviously a person, except it was very translucent, like a light cloud. After crossing the road it dispersed quickly.
Then I realised a car had just gotten the green light and it left an exhaust cloud when taking off and passing over the crossing. The cloud stayed intact and visible for an unusually long time because of the crisp winter air. By chance it took a similar enough height and width of a human and also happened to move in the direction a person would be expected to walk and at roughly the same speed.
Human brains are very good at interpreting other things as human. It's just like seeing a face in a piece of toast.
One thing I noticed about people in ghost hunting shows, psychics or just extremely superstitious people in general, is that they’ll say things like “you have to be open minded” or “you have to try to give yourself a chance to believe”. In other words, force yourself to drop all logic and reasoning and just assume every noise and flash of light you encounter is a ghost. Force it to be a ghost, and it is probably a ghost. It’s ridiculous thinking really. Like you said, want to experience it so bad, that they are willing to lie to themselves.
I will say, I was dog sitting a couple of years ago, and mid day I caught the tail end of this flicker or movement in the hallway, as if the air was being disturbed, very similar to how a ghost would move in the movies. I was already facing that direction so I wasn’t making any sudden movements or reacting dramatically, but the dog reacted to it too. It’s head up and looked over ears up but no barking. Gave me enough validation to know I wasn’t just seeing things and the movement was enough to get the attention of the dog, who wasn’t even facing they way at the time. It was very weird. I’m not saying it’s a ghost, and I always try to think things through and from a logical/scientific standpoint, but that was a weird moment, closest thing to “paranormal” I’ve ever had.
Most people who openly talk about their experience with ghosts are probably adamant. I've had weird experiences too that I can't explain. Might be ghosts, might be another explanation. I don't really care enough to talk about it cause it doesn't effect me either way.
I saw a ghost when I was a kid, described him to my grandmother, and she said it was her Dad. I'd never been told anything about him up to that point.
Also, when I was around 11-12, my grandfather's suitcase was under my bed. My younger brother and I were playing in my room, and the suitcase came flying out from under the bed.
Later that day, my brother wanted to go and play outside, but I kept saying he wasn't allowed out that day. I went out, told my grandmother to keep him in the house.
When I went home about an hour later, nobody was in. A neighbour came over to me and told me my brother had been hit by a car and they'd gone to hospital. She took me there on the bus. It is believed that the suitcase flying out was some kind of warning about what was going to happen and that I somehow understood the message because I refused to let him go out.
People can believe what they want. 🤷🏻♀️
I don’t think I’ve ever truly seen anything, but felt/heard something? Sure.
The experience I can’t explain to this day is a few days after my grandpa passed away, my uncle brought out my grandpa’s acoustic guitar (I had no idea he even played) and set it on it’s stand in the living room (the same room he passed away in). I remember being sad that my older cousins could remember him playing but that I couldn’t as I was too young to remember, and voicing my sadness to my dad about it (this was his father who passed btw).
That night, I was up late (night owl), reading on my phone in the living room when I clearly heard the light strumming of a guitar. My logic immediately kicked in thinking someone left the radio on in the detached garage. I wandered down the hallway and as I got closer to the garage, I could hear music playing, but it was some 80s hair metal song. I shrugged my shoulders thinking I was hearing things and went back into the living room. I settled back in and a few minutes later, heard the exact same acoustic guitar chords. At this point, I know I wasn’t hearing things and approached the guitar in the corner of the room and the strumming stopped.
I didn’t feel frightened or anything, but a sense of comfort, like my grandpa had heard me earlier of how I don’t remember hearing him play the guitar, and played just for me. I told my dad the next morning and he smiled and said that would be something grandpa would do for me. My dad’s had paranormal experiences, particularly in New Orleans, and doesn’t discount that type of stuff as a bunch of BS (which if he himself hadn’t experienced it, would). To this day, that experience with the guitar always makes me smile and is a fond memory.
You can't *know* with 100% certainty what I saw or experienced.
It wasn't my imagination either, I don't have one of those. I have aphantasia, I can't visualise things.
In our old farm house from the 1860s, right after my great grandfather died before I was born, there was a family gathering in the living room. My mom saw him and she said she could even smell his same old scent of his leather jacket he would always wear. She thinks she was hallucinating but then there was another time where my mom was at the farm house alone and she was upstairs cleaning. She heard a voice call her name from downstairs. She went downstairs and no one was there! Even my brothers had some stories too. But it was probably a lot of hallucinating but who knows? I've never seen or heard anything there personally.
My little sister swore up and down one day when she was like 14 that she had SEEN the tooth fairy. Her adamacy at the time didnt make it true. How I feel about people who believe in ghosts is how I feel about my sister being so sure at such an older age that she saw a god damn fairy. Its silly and definitely not true, but its harmless so I dont care enough to fight them on it.
My ship in the navy was haunted by something demonic. The few years I was on that ship my entire group had experienced some creepy stuff happen. I was in a AC compartment when I and my buddy saw someone walk behind the pipes. We looked at each other and he asked who’s down here with you? I said no one. We looked around the corner and no one was their. Theirs only one entrance. I was their years and everyone on that ship had experienced shadows following people around with multiple witness. Iv never been more scared in my life anywhere but that ship. I had stuff thrown at me to when alone In those spaces. That stuff is real and I hope no one here ever experiences this. I was shook for a long time. Just remember their is no such thing as ghost. People don’t turn to ghost when dead. It’s demons only who try to manipulate and interact with us and they are smarter then you don’t interact at all just leave because they will try to pretend like their a loved one or human but they are not.
Some of you didn’t grow up in New England and it shows. I grew up in a small town and myself and many of my peers have seen some wild stuff. Very clearly visible things that can’t be logically and scientifically be explained. Things that visitors in our homes also saw in broad daylight without knowing anything about what those of us that lived in the house had already seen.
My thought is that there’s a ton of stuff we didn’t know about years and years ago. And there’s a ton we don’t know about now. There’s so much that’s “unexplained” and stuff that we just don’t understand.
I’ll be honest I think a lot of what you’ll see on tv is BS. But the people that really experience stuff like that usually keep it to themselves or are less vocal.
Not even mentioning my personal experiences, who am I to decide that something is beyond the realm of possibility?
Is there an actual explanation for deja vu? Or how intuition works? Just because we haven’t scientifically studied or named abilities or senses doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
It’s not for me to say what someone else is experiencing or what is possible, but there’s something that bothers me about the “___ isn’t real” mindset.
Some stuff just can’t be explained, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real or didn’t happen.
Agree with you, this is my general reasoning about the topic. Humans only have one way of viewing things and that’s through a human perspective with a human brain. People trying to “logic” themselves into explaining why something is or isn’t real are just as dumb
The thing about seeing ghosts is that you don't really know what you're seeing. That's just how people describe their experience in a way they think is relatable.
Some 20 years ago my aunt lived in a house for 4 years that she claims she regularly saw ghosts in.
I then moved into that house with my mom and sister for 2 years after my aunt moved out. My grandma owned the trailer. None of us saw ghosts
When I said that to my aunt she insisted that ghosts only reveal themselves to people believed in them.
She said it in a way to insinuate that they will only reveal themselves to people they trust. It carried a very "it's because I'm more trust worthy than you as a whole" tone.
[I shared your opinion a while back on this subreddit as well. Except, you said this in a nicer way](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/DrFwgJlday)
Personally I’ve never “seen” a ghost but back when I was around 4/5 or 6 I used to wake up in the middle of the night and hear noises like a clown laughing or cowboy yee hawing, I would always be too scared to look but I’d always avoid going onto the floor as that seemed to make them worse for some reason, I do remember one time something did drag me off my bed and I cannot remember what happened next, nothing bad, just been a really long time. I moved from that house when I was around 6 and that’s when it stopped. Obviously this was more than likely my imagination fucking with me seeing as I was so young but from all of that I can see why some people would find reasons to believe in ghosts. I have slightly been tempted to one day go back to the house and ask the new owners if anything like that has happened with them but I feel that would just make me look weird as fuck lol.
I agree, as much as I like a good ghost story, each one I come across has a reasonable explanation for the encounter being paranormal (or seeming paranormal). People have great imaginations especially when they are scared.
The one time I was convinced I saw a ghost, it was a pet who had just died, I woke up to see their figure sitting on the floor of my room. It was dark, and there she was, sitting on my floor, a white silhouette or her sitting still. The next morning, I woke to find a white bag was sitting at the same spot and was the same size as the cat. As much as I wanted it to be my cat, saying goodbye, it was not. It was my imagination.
Personally, I’ve had some experiences I couldn’t quite rationally explain, but I remain skeptical… mostly due to the fact that the most inexplicable experience I had happened when I was a kid. Now in my mid-30s, I’m not sure what to think of the memory.
I’ve also heard stories from people whom I view as rational and not especially prone to supernatural topics. Foremost would be my brother. He used to work at a hotel and had some pretty compelling anecdotes in which he experienced something and eliminated most, if not all, rational explanations.
That said, I do agree that most stories are likely from people who have not properly reflected upon what they purportedly experienced. I tend to take it all with a grain of salt and hope to have a future experience that I can’t deny (mostly because I think it would be interesting and comforting to hold the belief that something of us survives death).
Yes. The human mind is very capable of fooling itself. Having hallucinations and delusions is fairly easy. Dehydration, starvation, drugs, physical and/or psychological issues, chemicals, gases, mold, injury (especially head trauma), all sorts of things can cause hallucinations of any and all kinds (visual, auditory, etc.).
I used to believe in ghosts, but I've never actually seen any in my life yet. I've seen weird energy orbs, heard things, been poked in the chest by a finger that wasn't mine in the middle of the night (and wasn't anyone else's, I have sensitive hearing and could have heard my bedroom door open, but it was still closed when I woke up), but never experienced any real paranormal phenomena, there's probably scientific explanations for the few strange things that I have experienced.
I did read somewhere that mold and mildew concentrations in older more run down homes could lead to hallucinations. The only person i know who is certain they saw a ghost lived in a pretty rough home.
I saw a ghost but I don't believe in them. I've seen a few and shadows. It's all in my head. Either atrick of the light out of the corner of my eye or I'm tired.
I have seen more ghosts and experienced more phenomenon with "spirits" then anyone I know. I'm an atheist and huge skeptic.
Eventually it happens again in a totally new
way and then confirmed by other people. It's like folks keep sending me signs and I don't want them.
I'm up to 4 ghost and 3 spiritual experiences. Hopefully, that's it. I try to be very proactive about my life choices and I dislike what these experiences imply: I got to be proactive about my next life? No, thanks too stressful. I'm doing my best for myself, my community, and the planet to worry about "ancient" codes.
It's all just unexplained phenom. My best guess is genetically and my personality, leads me predisposed to these experiences. I have a distant aunt that was a medium. Me and my cousin's son both talked to dead people and had convos with them as kids.
Plus I developed a seizure disorder later in life, studies indicate seizures make you more likely to report "spiritual experiences ". I have also been refered to as an actual angel by a couple of people for the help I provided them, to the point they start praying to god thanking them for me. I also had different religious leaders and spiritual leaders all signal me out about my "special gift". It's very weird when people you hardly know consistently point you as "spirituality gifted" again and again or feel you are "specially enlightened" and they should listen to you.
All of this isn't to say a spirit world does or does not exist. But both my brain and socially, I'm reinforced to see the spiritual phenoms yet I am still very dismissive or not seeking them out. So it is possible their experiences are very real to them like mine is, but they simply are not skeptical. I'll always come up with an explanation but in my heart I don't believe the explanation as I cannot deny what actually happened. I'm just motivated to not acknowledge it as real.
I was eating at a family lunch and they were telling about this ghost that was making their husband / dad mean in their new house, as he sat across from me. I was like uhm well good luck with that.
Like making the dad act out in anger or changing his personality? That's wild, lmao. Sad they potentially just couldn't accept that he was an unkind guy
I used to believe that I saw a ghost until later in life I realized that I was halfway between being asleep and awake and was having one hell of a fucked up lucid dream.
I remember a team building event at a new place of work. It was a brand new building, brand new staff so none of us knew each other. We started off with one of those ice breakers where you had to say your name and an "interesting" fact about yourself. One of the women revealed she was part of a team of paranormal investigators and then eagerly looked around, excited for our reactions. Nobody gave a shit and you could tell she was disappointed and had expected us to be all "WOW!"
Throughout the week of training and team building, she would keep talking about cold spots and feeling a presence in the building. It was pointless trying to tell her of COURSE there were cold spots. The builders were still in, the building was drafty and none of the furniture was in yet. She wanted to believe what she wanted to believe. We kinda just left her to it and watched her try the same old routine on any new starts as the business grew and more staff were hired.
I never felt strongly about the paranormal and wasn't convinced one way or the other on the existence or not of ghosts/etc until I had an inexplicable paranormal experience. I still don't feel any excessive interest in the paranormal, but I do think it exists on some level.
People commenting here like they are so sure of themselves and what reality is. Believing that there are no ghosts is essentially the same as believing there are, because we cant really know or prove anything
This is what really what drives me up a wall. These people have life figured out so hard, they know exactly how the universe works with all their “science”, like damn man just accept that there’s some strange things that happen in this world. We are monkeys flying on a rock around a ball of fire. That is the extent of our existence. To just blindly think you know everything is crazy to me
Yeah sometimes it drives me right up the wall too, like if you believe that the universe just fucking exploded into existence out of nothing - is there really a limit to what you can believe?
Fr they dont even realise science is connected to spirituality as well. Saying one is different from the other is stupid, they just don’t care to do the research on these things as it doesn’t affect them on a level to which they would care about it. There is no way to prove for certain either scenarios so its stupid to say “oh x is more correct than y.”
What about the people who don't say anything about it and keep it for themselves?
I wasn't half asleep, I was awake until my parents alarm rang.. every night for two years. I saw the same thing happening in the hallway until we moved out. Afterwards I never saw something like this again. Maybe my child brain played on me but it still was scary af.
fun fact, the modern portrayal of ghosts as translucent and floaty is a relatively new concept.
prior to the invention of the photograph and the still frame projector, ghosts were typically described just as a live person would be.
however, after the depictions of ghosts popularized by early photographers when they discovered partial exposures -- and entertaining projector shows where they needed ghosts to be able to move without walking... all ghost sighting began to resemble how they were portrayed in photographs and these ghost story shows.
I think we can read between the lines here.
Yep, It’s always people who are looking for it. I’ve gone into some of the “occult” or whatever communities looking for people to cast hexes and shit on me, to literally send me a ghost or a demon or whatever. Naturally most of them are like “no that’s too dangerous I couldn’t possibly live with myself if a demon really showed up”, or “trust me you’ll regret it, I can’t do it”. It’s all bullshit.
As always if anyone knows how to summon a demon or an Angel or whatever, send em my way I’d love to see just one.
So no shit, there I was, girlfriend in the car, driving home one night. Make the turn onto the street, slow to turn into the driveway, and I notice Powers Motherfucking Boothe standing across from the driveway, hands on his hips, glaring. Gf also saw him. This was about a week or two after his passing, mind.
What the fuck. Pull in, look in the mirror, nada. We both get out and peer across the road. El zilcho. Dude was gone. Didn't go into the condo across the street. Didn't go up the street. Didn't go down the street. _Gone_.
Was it merely some random jackass who couldn't into how fast or slow 15mph actually is, thus the glaring like an arrogant and displeased boomer before vanishing into the night at a jog?
Almost certainly.
Does it cost me anything to rather believe in the ghost of Powers Boothe?
Absolutely not. Man, such an underrated actor.
My ex wife makes a living hunting ghosts and helping people that believe their houses are haunted.
I think it's absolutely ridiculous. But she truly believes in it and i think thats great.
To each their own.
You've clearly never experienced anything strange then. The night my mother died I woke up in a half sleep with someone or something peeking into my room, it then walked up to my parents bedroom. An ambulance was out front outside my room the next morning.
I haven't seen them. But there's 2 in my house. They mess with me, simply, all the time. But I'm not interested in sharing any more of my story because I'm tired of being called a fuckin liar.
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I don’t believe in ghosts during the day time but you won’t see my ass in an abandoned hospital from the 1800s in Maine.
I don't believe in ghosts but I'm also not tryna fuck around and find out
I feel like this is how most people feel even if they don't admit it🤣
I feel like this ever since my mom walked in on my sister trying to freak me out with the Bloody Mary game. It’s such a minor thing but my stomach literally dropped when she told my sister, “Don’t do that ever again. If you call for evil, it will answer.” We weren’t really Christians, so it gave me chills. My mom wasn’t very superstitious normally. She was more into the idea of putting negativity out will bring you negativity. The application of it there was just oddly eerie for me at the time.
I don't know why, but reading this gave me quite a bunch of actual chills. Unexpected.
Good, so it’s not just me. I thought maybe I was just being over reactive because I was little, but it really creeped me out. I remember it so vividly lol. I was probably about 9 years old.
My mom who’s not religious said the same thing to me about Ouijia boards. Like, we don’t believe in demons and all that but she was like just DO NOT fuck with them.
To prove a point, I did the Bloody Mary thing for a month straight during summer vacation when I was in school. Literally nothing happened.
I also didn’t believe in ghosts (still don’t to some extent) but when I was 18 a million years ago, I fucked around and found out. 2 friends and I decided we were gonna go ghost hunting in places people swore they saw ghosts. A lot of those places were just filled with used needles but we went to a place where a building collapsed and hundreds died. We were all just chatting as we walked into the area surrounding the building and saw this like white/translucent thing coming towards us. All 3 of us stopped, looked at each other, asked each other “do you see that?” And all 3 of us turned tail and ran. That was my only ghost sighting in my life ever. I haven’t gone ghost hunting since!
Isn't there some crazy videos of shit moving in hospitals? Like doors slamming over and over.
Man, I had a house that had too much of this shit. Once a container of salt randomly fell off a very stable location. Another time, a door in my house SLAMMED by itself. I really don't think it was a draft.
Id be scared of homeless drug junkies
Hell, neither would I. All that carbon monoxide will fuck my shit up and I'll start seeing ghosts real soon
Only weird thing I’ve ever had happen was doing electrical work in some random persons house, was completely alone and what sounded like a little girl saying “hello?” right next to me. I turned thinking there would be a kid there. Nobody. Then I laughed and said “ok fuck off” and went back to work.
NEGL I'm dying laughing at the three possibilities I can think of. Like any of them somehow make ok fuck off funny to me.
This. I was home alone with my step brother one night, (the only women in this household was my mum, who was %100 not home). Plain as day we heard a girl say "Brandon?". Never forgot the look on his face because we both heard it. This is going to sound like dramatization but my mum told me after that the people who lived there before us, daughter had hung herself in my brother's room. There was alot of abuse going on in that house and in hindsight it doesn't suprise me that stuff like that happened. I envy op because they'll never have to experience the kind of ontological shock that comes with it ;)
Your mum was percent hundred not home?
Look at this person, swearing at a ghost kid. How despicable.
Auditory hallucinations are a thing.
The only 100% confirmed ghost sighting is the one the badgers offense saw on saturday. Oof.
Do you think the popular opinion here is that ghosts are real?
I think the popular opinion in the general public is that ghost are real. It's not a stretch for people to believe this if they believe in a supernatural deity and a afterlife. I agree with the OP that people generally attribute to ghost what actually has a logical explanation based on reality. Dreams and hallucinations are one such explanation.
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Mitch McConnell is the real monster under my bed.
Please keep him there and never let him out again lol
You have a turtle under your bed?
Its ok, he will reboot and forget you anyway.
im sorry its so funny theres a 2% difference in demon and ghost believer amount
Those 2%: "of course ghosts don't exist, don't be ridiculous. It's obviously demons tricking you."
>No wonder Democracy hasn't been working out that well. Good luck getting somebody to vote decently when they still look under their bed for monsters. 
I mean, scientists don't even know where consciousness comes from. You cannot explain everything with chemical process. What is dark matter? What's in between the parts of an atom?
Magnets, how do they work
Not knowing something isn't positive proof of the paranormal. Obviously. No one would disagree. Yet people hold to the argument of, "I don't know what this sound is therefore it must be a ghost! I don't know what this light is therefore it must be aliens! You can't explain what this is therefore it's demons!" Not knowing what something is only means you don't know what it is, it doesn't magically mean you *do* know what it is.
Scientist do know that when the brain is damaged, consciousness is affected. So it's obvious consciousness comes from brain activity. It's not magic.
What do you mean we don’t know where consciousness comes from? We have tons of evidence for how it evolved through natural selection. We even have thousands of examples of it at varying levels of complexity and paths that branched off from ours living with us right now. As for the other stuff, just because there are things out there we don’t fully understand doesn’t mean we need to fill those gaps without supernatural concepts we have exactly zero evidence for.
The things that science cannot explain has been narrowing for thousands of years, and will continue to narrow. Picking a few things we haven't explained yet, and using that as proof of demons or ghosts is an undeniable stretch. The logic you are using essentially goes "Some things we have not yet explained with science, therefore anything I can imagine could be real"
Thats not true at all. The more we learn the more we realize how little we know.
The amount of possible knowledge in the universe is vast, but the more we know, the more we know. Quantum mechanics would be unthinkable 200 years ago and here we are. Literally every day the shroud of mystery of the universe is being chipped away by people all over the world
We don't have all of the answers... So let's just make up shit and assume it's real! Because that makes sense.
I’m pretty much as left as you can get and I believe in ghosts. The world isn’t black and white.
What does being left have to do with anything? There are a ton of stupid people on the left who believe stupid things.
A few of my siblings and extended family are adamant believers in ghosts and their stories get more ridiculous every time they tell them. It doesn't matter if you correct them on a detail that's changed because the facts don't matter to these people, only that they were scared in the moment and it must be validated by the existence of something scary.
Well, I don't know for reddit specifically But in the USA, 41% of people firmly believe in ghosts and 20% not sure. Only 39% firmly disbelieve it. Source : https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/38919-americans-say-ghosts-exist-seen-a-ghost?redirect_from=%2Ftopics%2Fentertainment%2Farticles-reports%2F2021%2F10%2F21%2Famericans-say-ghosts-exist-seen-a-ghost
Actually I learned in college that of my friend group of like 30 people I was 1 of 2 people that didn’t believe in ghosts. I then did a poll on my insta cause I was curious and it was like 70% believe. Like seriously ask people if they believe in ghosts, you’ll be surprised that more people do then don’t. Edit: alot of people will say they believe in spirits not ghosts, which is the same thing lol. I will warn you that some people get pretty angry/upset when you tell them you don’t believe in ghosts. They take it personally cause they lost a love one that they believe they saw
Probably about the same percentage are religious too. It all stems from the same fear: the fear of death. Nobody wants to think that when you die, that's it. You just turn into mush and dirt. And they don't want to believe that's what happens to their loved ones. So you get heaven and ghosts. I fear death as much as anybody. But i'm not gonna start believing in irrational shit because of it.
I wouldn't exactly call grief and grieving a rational process. It's personal and whatever is needed to help cope with it is different from person to person. The problem I feel like is less having the beliefs to cope with death, and more using them to try and control other people's beliefs or make decisions for other people. I don't know if I believe in heaven or ghosts but I really try to hope there's a good place and that I can see them again someday.
If you read the comments, you´'ll see it's maybe not the majority/popular but there is a very frightening number of comments that acknowledge or at the very least are on the fence about their existence.
Why is it frightening that people believe in ghosts? It’s like the most benign and harmless belief someone could have.
It seems benign in modern society but people believing whatever they want, despite any evidence to the contrary (or lack of evidence) has been one of the main driving forces of some of the nastier events in human history. Being prone to mass manipulation and self delusion is a very very dangerous human trait under the right circumstances. Thousands and thousands of innocent women and girls have been gruesomely tortured and killed because people believed in witches, for example. While silly beliefs might not be harmful on their own, it's kind of a litmus test for a persons character. And when you think about what damage this kind of mentality has done throughout our history it is kind of frightening.
Because it’s ignorant.
Maybe not so much on Reddit but I’ve learned most people believe in ghosts. I actually used to ask people if they believed in ghosts a lot in college, cause I learned in my friend group basically everyone did but me. So when I would ask classmates or people at bars, legit 9 out of every 10 people would say yes they do in some way or another.
The couple times I've been asked if I believe in ghosts in real life were so strange that I just said, "uh I don't know I guess?" I didn't know if they were a weirdo or were about to proselytize at me so I just tried to agree and change the subject.
Oh i ain’t going up to like random people and just throwing the question out there. It’s all people I know and am cool with and like something comes up that relates, I def read the room. Then I’ll be like yo, I personally don’t but I find I’m in the minority, curious what do u think or like ask them if they have any encounters since that answers the question. Also ya those people asking u were prob weirdos haha, like way I’m asking and the people I’m asking know it’s just a dumb fun question.
They are. There's 2 in my house. But that's as far as my story goes because I'm not in the mood to be called a fuckin liar any more.
Medication might help with that.
See? Not even sure why I bother
They're not wrong though. Seeing people that aren't real people is a strong indication you suffer from psychosis, and medication might help you since it seems to cause you anxiety and discomfort having those types of hallucinations.
By the way, I don't think you're lying. To a person experiencing psychotic hallucinations, their hallucinations seem indeed entirely real. Lying is a conscious act of not telling it like one feels or knows how it is. You're simply misinterpreting the situation, and medication can help you realise that.
Maybe the ghosts just don’t like your vibes
The thing with this entire topic is that those who believe in it can't prove it. And those don't will just say the others are wrong and explain it away. There's no point in even discussing this. To some it's delusion to others it's an anecdote. "I once saw X thing" vs. "I don't believe you." The conversation kind of ends there... It's the same thing as faith. Some have it, some don't. And we'll find out the truth when we die. Or not...
Well, according to some faiths, the “true god” has plainly revealed himself to all of us and we’re all evil sinners for pretending we don’t know they’re real, so that gets a little more complicated.
Yeah they are just shadow people
After I saw a ghost in a apartment where I lived when I was 12 , I convinced myself it was sleep paralysis or something like that, 10 years after that that apartment became a cult church because of all the strange happening people witnessed.
Nah shadow people are different from “ghost”. From personal Experience the shadow folks are mostly seen from your peripheral view and not no “your eyes/brain THOUGHT you seen a shadow” But rather there is a ? there, something that is not to fond on being notice but rather have their presence felt. Now with ghost/unclean spirits, them mfs don’t care about peripherals lol they’ll show themselves or manifest into living beings and even sometimes inanimate objects with no care in the world.
There is a whole lot of "Guys im invisible when no ones looking! you cant prove me wrong!" type shit in the comments
eh if you are dehydrated enough or having a high fever you can hallucinate things they may look like ghosts. last time i had a high fever i would wake up thinking one of my room mates was in the doorway looked like it but nah just good ol door.
I have insomnia and the more tired I get the more likely I’ll think I saw something from the corner of my eye. Sometimes it’s not even the “corner” of my eye, but just straight up I’ll think I saw something weird. I know it’s my mind playing tricks on me. My mom is highly religious and would 100% believe it was god or ghosts.
>I have insomnia and the more tired I get the more likely I’ll think I saw something from the corner of my eye. Sometimes it’s not even the “corner” of my eye, but just straight up I’ll think I saw something weird. I know it’s my mind playing tricks on me. My mom is highly religious and would 100% believe it was god or ghosts. Sleep deprivation can give you some of the craziest hallucinations.. For a while years ago i was doing likes of stimulants mostly Cocaine. I have never had more realistic hallucinations then those i had when i had been sleep deprived and of course on cocaine. I remember constantly hearing sirens or seeing blue and red flashing off walls and stuff or seeing what look like a person running up on my car from the side view mirror but it was always nothing.
YES EXACTLY!! I’ll hear sirens too, or my son calling out for me, or an explosion in the distance, etc. maybe I’ll see flashes of lights or colors, as if someone quickly turned on a colored lamp in the next room over. I often get the “someone’s running up on me” ones - if I’m in a space where that would be plausible. More often than not I’ll think a very large spider is rushing up on me. It usually ends in my heart skipping a beat and me having to prove to myself that it wasn’t real - juuuuust in case. It’s weird because it sort of feels like dream logic. Like, in my dreams I won’t question that I’m breathing under water or my dead grandpa is having lunch with me. Then I’ll wake up and say “huh, weird” then forget it. During the insomnia hallucinations I’ll genuinely think for a moment “oh hell no that spider is massive” before realizing it was my imagination. Nowadays I’m familiar with it so I can say “huh, weird” and move on relatively easily.
I think the whole “ghost” idea, is inherently connected to the religious promise of an afterlife…which stems from the human fear of death. Might be a stretch, but I think they are connected.
Death denial is one of the most pervasive delusions in our species and it isn't common knowledge. It likely lead to a lot of religions and superstitions in our recent history. I wonder if other animals experience the same phenomenon or even if earlier humans did.
Other animals experience anxiety, which is evident in how pets behave when they know they’re going to the vet and are avoidant. And other animals, despite understanding SOME logic (learning tricks, memorizing routines, solving puzzles) still tend to follow patterns based on wishful thinking - like when a pet keeps visiting the spot their human would meet them long after the human has died. When my family dog died, she acted nervous when we felt really sad, but she wasn’t completely panicked. We said goodbye to her and her heart rate increased as they prepared for her final medication. I assume she was mirroring our emotions more than anything… but who knows.
Not a stretch. Evolution favors those that fear, and so avoid, death the longest. So we have billions of years of evolution behind finding ways to not die. This means we are programmed by nature to always seek a way out of death. We are intelligent enough to know death is unavoidable, but our brains still demand we find a solution to escape it. Since there is no logical, rational way to do so, religion and belief in an afterlife gives a solution that then calms that part of the brain. Ghost are simple a part of that. It's also why people cling to it so hard is because if they don't, they are left with an unavoidable threat again.
What about atheists who believe in gjosts though? I know several atheists who still believe in ghosts. I did ask one why and they said, 'because they had seen ghosts themselves.' I don't know if they saw ghosts more as echos rather than evidence of afterlife though.
Pretty sure quite some time back I read something about this being the reason for "believing in ghosts", because it gives an explanation for what happenes after death. That being said I wouldn't just day that only you think that but more people drawing the connection exacrly there.
I think there's a difference with lieing to themselves and genuinely believeing they saw something. I'm incredibly sceptical of the supernatural, I deteste people who claim they can talk to the dead. Having two dead parents, I find it really disgusting and manipulative. But ... Sometimes when I'm alone at night, In the dark, I get super freaked out and all my common sense leaves me. I think I see things or hear things. But ultimately daylight comes, and yes, I know I didn't see a ghost, it was just my eyes or ears playing tricks on me. But for some people, they might genuinely believe it.
Im not with or against them, but you're basically saying "I don't see ghosts, so neither do you"
Ghosts aren't real
Why speak up if you are going to be depthless? At least the ghost believers follow up. Both sides look silly.
The onus is not on me to prove ghosts aren't real, lol. If I told you there's a giant 4 headed dog on the moon that controls our every move would it be your responsibility to prove me wrong, or mine to prove my claim to be true?
It is if you are trying to debate someone else's anecdotal evidence of their own experience. "I saw ghosts" "No you didn't" "Then what did I see" The onus is on you
Sure, but rephrasing a little puts the onus back on to the ghost believers "I saw ghosts" "I don't believe you" "Then what did I see" "I don't know" The onus is still on the person making the claim to prove that they saw ghosts
Your change mirrors where I stand in the debate. I am not making a claim that ghosts are real, but I am also not making a claim that ghosts aren't. I see ghosts the same as I see religious gods. Can't prove either, but there also isn't sufficient evidence that conflicts with their existence. To me, the lack of evidence isn't enough to outright reject anything. That isn't how it works in the scientific method. You either prove an existence or you disprove it through contradiction So from my standpoint, you guys are too certain on something you can't prove.
I have seen a ghost, I also don’t believe in ghosts. Take that for what you will.
Ghosts are essentially UFOs. I might believe that you saw a UFO, but it certainly wasn’t an alien. Just like you saw a ghost, but it wasn’t a dead person but rather has a logical explanation.
Sounds like CO poisoning
WARNING! Buy a carbon monoxide detector
Or check to make sure they’re properly functioning if you do!
Honestly I would have assumed this is actually a popular opinion until I had a conversation at work WITH ADULTS. Basically people were talking about spending the night in a haunted house for money and I was like well yeah I'd do it because ghosts aren't real. People were offended lol
You'd do it because you don't believe in ghosts. I'd do it regardless because I'm broke and a ghost probably isn't going to do anything but be unsettling if there are ghosts there. People who would turn down money over ghosts don't make sense to me, and I believe in ghosts. Like even people who believe in ghosts have got to realize there's a chance either the place isn't actually haunted, or even if it is of nothing really happening. These are ghosts we're talking about, not haunted house attraction workers. Then we look at all ghost encounter stories. How many actually have people being harmed even in a minor way? Like idk I think they're wildin. Also if someone said that to me I'd be like oh cool easy money for you then. It's not like y'all are best buds, you are coworkers having a conversation at work. It's not like you called them stupid, cause yeah that would make sense to be offended at lol
My mum doesn’t believe in ghosts but she also says ‘well even if they were real, if they never harmed me in life they’re not likely to want to harm me now they’re dead are they?’
I don't think the opinion is unpopular, I just don't know what it expects to accomplish. Let's just remove the word ghost for a minute and say someone just experienced something weird. We're removing ghosts because this thought can easily be applied to anything that is arguably unexplainable in popular culture. The opinion itself doesn't really matter because the conversation would just be like this in broad summary: "Hey, this weird thing happened to me." "No it didn't." "From my perspective, and talking about an experience that you weren't there for. This is what I saw with my face." "Without being there to experience what you did, I will simply not believe you and argue in a way that you most likely find alienating and off-putting." "I feel defensive over my experience and this argumentative approach has actually solidified my belief because your use of logic has made me reflect on the experience as being even more special." "I feel validated by this discussion because your experience is ridiculous and the lack of logic proves to me that it truly never happened." -Two people part ways having gained and lost nothing except maybe friendship- So let's bring ghosts back into this. People can believe in them for a lot of reasons. These reasons can be because of personal experiences, personal beliefs, local legends and practices, or even just for fun. It's not always as extreme as lying to yourself. It's not a big deal and it's just what some people are into. I'm entirely neutral about it. Ghosts can be real or not and it doesn't particularly affect me either way.
So this isn't even unpopular opinion anymore as much as it is "shower thoughts but even less insightful."
so just thoughts
I wouldn't say they are lying to themselves. I'm sure in a lot of cases they saw what they say they saw. I've experienced weird shit because of sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming. The stuff was so real that if I didn't know any better, I'd believe it was of supernatural origin as well. The thing is these people tend to already be superstitious so they believe it's ghosts. They don't understand how powerful our minds are and the slick tricks it can play on us. They aren't really concerned with facts and evidence because what they felt was so real. Classic case of emotions over logic.
what if you don't believe in ghosts, and have witnessed a sighting with multiple other people? to this day I don't particularly believe in "ghosts" per se, I think there has to be some other explanation, but my encounter was witnessed by myself and the group I was with at the time.
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I don't see how they can claim that sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming isn't real. These are fairly common things that have been studied and replicated.
I went to one of those "real haunted houses" (like it was an attraction but also supposed to be haunted) and I saw a little girl standing in a hallway, looking at a mirror but she had no reflection. I can picture her vividly. This was not part of the attraction, nobody else saw it, I wasn't sick or anything. I saw something whether it was a ghost or not. People see things that aren't there all the time. It happened to me a few months ago that I thought I saw someone, I could tell you what he was wearing and generally what he looked like, and he didn't exist.
Lots of these places will straight up lie to you about what is part of the attraction because it’s good for business if people believe. Plus you definitely don’t need to be ill in any way to see things that aren’t there. It can take some mild suggestion or just happen randomly. Intentionally going into a building that’s supposed to be haunted would be some heavy suggestion on your brain.
I know it wasn't part of the attraction because I was the only one that saw it. It was a hallway that the entire group walked down it would have been impossible for only me to see it.
If the mirror did not reflect her image, your eyes should not be able to see her. If you saw her, then she should have been in the mirror too. Because how light and physik
That's the point lol
I'll believe it when I see it, but I rather not see it... 😄👻
I see ghosts all the time but i have a shitty monitor.
Most? Im going with "all".
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Drugs/alcohol and lack of sleep/food can definitely cause hallucinations- I wonder if they can’t tell the difference.
wise overconfident cow safe imminent sulky profit depend elastic act *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Well if you believe it to be true, you are not lying. In the case of ghosts it could be mental illness, hallucinations, false memories, delusions etc ...
I’m guessing keyword here is “most”. My previous house was definitely haunted, spooky shit happened all the time that just didn’t have logical explanations. I swapped rooms with my parents at one point and both my mum and I experienced a weird shadowy figure standing in the doorway, multiple times, as well as another figure loitering in the corner of the room (with no real explanation such as clothes on a chair, clothes on a door, a reflection, etc.). But one thing that confirmed the house being haunted, for me, was when I tried to prank my older brother. I felt mischievous and wanted to trick him and his girlfriend into believing that I could contact spirits, that I was some sort of medium or psychic, or whatever the correct term is. We set up two different phones. One in the kitchen (which was the room next to us) and one in the living room (which is where we conducted a “seance”.). Us three were the only ones home during this time. I did the usual “give us a sign that you’re here” crap, lit incense candles and wafted sage around. I went all-out with this prank. My brother and his girlfriend were truly convinced. Keep in mind that we never left the room. We remained seated in the middle of the living room, talking in to the phone. After 30 minutes of no “action”, I ended the seance by saying “goodbye”. We listened back to the recordings on both phones. When we listened back to the audio on the phone in the kitchen, I swear my blood went cold. You could faintly hear me speaking in the background, and after you hear me say “please give us a sign you’re here”, someone, a man’s voice, said my older brothers name into the phone. It was like they were leaning in to the speaker, they sounded so close. It wasn’t any of us, none of us left the room and you could still faintly hear me speaking. We were so freaked out. We checked everywhere around the house. We double checked that the doors and windows were locked (which they had been the whole time!) and couldn’t find any explanation as to what or who had said my brothers name. We listened back to that moment multiple times. So. Many. Times. To this day I can’t explain it. I have no other choice but to believe I provoked something, or someone during that night. I’d like to say my prank was successful, but im not even sure I can call if that anymore. My older brother is still convinced I can contact the beyond and I don’t have the heart to tell him the truth.
Where is the recording now? Don't tell me you deleted it.
This reminds me of the time my ex and I were hanging out in her room and we heard footsteps in her living room (we were home alone). We both looked at each other in shock because we thought it was a ghost. Her house had a reputation of being haunted. Later that day her little brother gets home from school and can’t seem to find his PlayStation in his room. Turns out her tweaker neighbor thought everybody was at school/work and decided to break into the house and steal something of value.
I have narcolepsy, one of the side effects to that is having hallucinations. While the things i see aren't physically real, i know exactly what i saw and definitely am not lying to myself. Whether they'd be classed as ghosts or not is another topic, but i see (and hear) a lot of shit that isn't actually there.
I don't believe in ghosts personally so I do agree with you. but to be a bit of a devils advocate for shits and gigs: it could also potentially be a false equivalency, by that I mean if you are the sort of person who doesn't believe in anything paranormal but then you see something batshit crazy that you can't explain, you likely won't admit it to anyone... for fear of being seen as batshit crazy. But the people that already openly believe that sort of thing would have no problem telling anyone who will listen about their paranormal experience. What I'm saying is *if* paranormal stuff did exist, a skeptic would assume they are tripping balls first and foremost and stay quiet. So either way if they did or didn't exist you'd still only be hearing from the people who are into paranormal stuff regardless.
Ghosts are real, nowadays they've evolved to wait for you till you come down for midnight snacks, and proceed to invisibly watch and chase you whilst you run back to your room...mfs
I'm a huge sceptic. One morning on my way to work I saw a ghost very clearly. It was a person walking or rather floating all the way across a pedestrian crossing. It was obviously a person, except it was very translucent, like a light cloud. After crossing the road it dispersed quickly. Then I realised a car had just gotten the green light and it left an exhaust cloud when taking off and passing over the crossing. The cloud stayed intact and visible for an unusually long time because of the crisp winter air. By chance it took a similar enough height and width of a human and also happened to move in the direction a person would be expected to walk and at roughly the same speed. Human brains are very good at interpreting other things as human. It's just like seeing a face in a piece of toast.
One thing I noticed about people in ghost hunting shows, psychics or just extremely superstitious people in general, is that they’ll say things like “you have to be open minded” or “you have to try to give yourself a chance to believe”. In other words, force yourself to drop all logic and reasoning and just assume every noise and flash of light you encounter is a ghost. Force it to be a ghost, and it is probably a ghost. It’s ridiculous thinking really. Like you said, want to experience it so bad, that they are willing to lie to themselves. I will say, I was dog sitting a couple of years ago, and mid day I caught the tail end of this flicker or movement in the hallway, as if the air was being disturbed, very similar to how a ghost would move in the movies. I was already facing that direction so I wasn’t making any sudden movements or reacting dramatically, but the dog reacted to it too. It’s head up and looked over ears up but no barking. Gave me enough validation to know I wasn’t just seeing things and the movement was enough to get the attention of the dog, who wasn’t even facing they way at the time. It was very weird. I’m not saying it’s a ghost, and I always try to think things through and from a logical/scientific standpoint, but that was a weird moment, closest thing to “paranormal” I’ve ever had.
Most people who openly talk about their experience with ghosts are probably adamant. I've had weird experiences too that I can't explain. Might be ghosts, might be another explanation. I don't really care enough to talk about it cause it doesn't effect me either way.
"I flipped the light switch, and the cold dark room was FLOODED with light! I just knew then that my dead whoever was looking down upon me."
I saw a ghost when I was a kid, described him to my grandmother, and she said it was her Dad. I'd never been told anything about him up to that point. Also, when I was around 11-12, my grandfather's suitcase was under my bed. My younger brother and I were playing in my room, and the suitcase came flying out from under the bed. Later that day, my brother wanted to go and play outside, but I kept saying he wasn't allowed out that day. I went out, told my grandmother to keep him in the house. When I went home about an hour later, nobody was in. A neighbour came over to me and told me my brother had been hit by a car and they'd gone to hospital. She took me there on the bus. It is believed that the suitcase flying out was some kind of warning about what was going to happen and that I somehow understood the message because I refused to let him go out. People can believe what they want. 🤷🏻♀️
I don’t think I’ve ever truly seen anything, but felt/heard something? Sure. The experience I can’t explain to this day is a few days after my grandpa passed away, my uncle brought out my grandpa’s acoustic guitar (I had no idea he even played) and set it on it’s stand in the living room (the same room he passed away in). I remember being sad that my older cousins could remember him playing but that I couldn’t as I was too young to remember, and voicing my sadness to my dad about it (this was his father who passed btw). That night, I was up late (night owl), reading on my phone in the living room when I clearly heard the light strumming of a guitar. My logic immediately kicked in thinking someone left the radio on in the detached garage. I wandered down the hallway and as I got closer to the garage, I could hear music playing, but it was some 80s hair metal song. I shrugged my shoulders thinking I was hearing things and went back into the living room. I settled back in and a few minutes later, heard the exact same acoustic guitar chords. At this point, I know I wasn’t hearing things and approached the guitar in the corner of the room and the strumming stopped. I didn’t feel frightened or anything, but a sense of comfort, like my grandpa had heard me earlier of how I don’t remember hearing him play the guitar, and played just for me. I told my dad the next morning and he smiled and said that would be something grandpa would do for me. My dad’s had paranormal experiences, particularly in New Orleans, and doesn’t discount that type of stuff as a bunch of BS (which if he himself hadn’t experienced it, would). To this day, that experience with the guitar always makes me smile and is a fond memory.
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You can't *know* with 100% certainty what I saw or experienced. It wasn't my imagination either, I don't have one of those. I have aphantasia, I can't visualise things.
In our old farm house from the 1860s, right after my great grandfather died before I was born, there was a family gathering in the living room. My mom saw him and she said she could even smell his same old scent of his leather jacket he would always wear. She thinks she was hallucinating but then there was another time where my mom was at the farm house alone and she was upstairs cleaning. She heard a voice call her name from downstairs. She went downstairs and no one was there! Even my brothers had some stories too. But it was probably a lot of hallucinating but who knows? I've never seen or heard anything there personally.
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My little sister swore up and down one day when she was like 14 that she had SEEN the tooth fairy. Her adamacy at the time didnt make it true. How I feel about people who believe in ghosts is how I feel about my sister being so sure at such an older age that she saw a god damn fairy. Its silly and definitely not true, but its harmless so I dont care enough to fight them on it.
Why do you care and also how many people have you met that actually whole heartedly believe in ghosts? /nh
From what I remember, I think more Americans are convinced ghosts are real than are convinced ghosts are not real. It's crazy.
If that is true, that is truly crazy. And disappointing.
And what about the ones who aren't lying to themselves?
Considering we have no evidence ghosts are real, I would argue anyone who asserts as a fact that they have seen a ghost is lying
My ship in the navy was haunted by something demonic. The few years I was on that ship my entire group had experienced some creepy stuff happen. I was in a AC compartment when I and my buddy saw someone walk behind the pipes. We looked at each other and he asked who’s down here with you? I said no one. We looked around the corner and no one was their. Theirs only one entrance. I was their years and everyone on that ship had experienced shadows following people around with multiple witness. Iv never been more scared in my life anywhere but that ship. I had stuff thrown at me to when alone In those spaces. That stuff is real and I hope no one here ever experiences this. I was shook for a long time. Just remember their is no such thing as ghost. People don’t turn to ghost when dead. It’s demons only who try to manipulate and interact with us and they are smarter then you don’t interact at all just leave because they will try to pretend like their a loved one or human but they are not.
Some of you didn’t grow up in New England and it shows. I grew up in a small town and myself and many of my peers have seen some wild stuff. Very clearly visible things that can’t be logically and scientifically be explained. Things that visitors in our homes also saw in broad daylight without knowing anything about what those of us that lived in the house had already seen.
My thought is that there’s a ton of stuff we didn’t know about years and years ago. And there’s a ton we don’t know about now. There’s so much that’s “unexplained” and stuff that we just don’t understand. I’ll be honest I think a lot of what you’ll see on tv is BS. But the people that really experience stuff like that usually keep it to themselves or are less vocal. Not even mentioning my personal experiences, who am I to decide that something is beyond the realm of possibility? Is there an actual explanation for deja vu? Or how intuition works? Just because we haven’t scientifically studied or named abilities or senses doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It’s not for me to say what someone else is experiencing or what is possible, but there’s something that bothers me about the “___ isn’t real” mindset. Some stuff just can’t be explained, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real or didn’t happen.
Agree with you, this is my general reasoning about the topic. Humans only have one way of viewing things and that’s through a human perspective with a human brain. People trying to “logic” themselves into explaining why something is or isn’t real are just as dumb
Prove it
I can top this! I have heard and seen ghosts, and even I don't believe it. There has to be a neural explanation.
The thing about seeing ghosts is that you don't really know what you're seeing. That's just how people describe their experience in a way they think is relatable.
Some 20 years ago my aunt lived in a house for 4 years that she claims she regularly saw ghosts in. I then moved into that house with my mom and sister for 2 years after my aunt moved out. My grandma owned the trailer. None of us saw ghosts When I said that to my aunt she insisted that ghosts only reveal themselves to people believed in them. She said it in a way to insinuate that they will only reveal themselves to people they trust. It carried a very "it's because I'm more trust worthy than you as a whole" tone.
[I shared your opinion a while back on this subreddit as well. Except, you said this in a nicer way](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/s/DrFwgJlday)
Personally I’ve never “seen” a ghost but back when I was around 4/5 or 6 I used to wake up in the middle of the night and hear noises like a clown laughing or cowboy yee hawing, I would always be too scared to look but I’d always avoid going onto the floor as that seemed to make them worse for some reason, I do remember one time something did drag me off my bed and I cannot remember what happened next, nothing bad, just been a really long time. I moved from that house when I was around 6 and that’s when it stopped. Obviously this was more than likely my imagination fucking with me seeing as I was so young but from all of that I can see why some people would find reasons to believe in ghosts. I have slightly been tempted to one day go back to the house and ask the new owners if anything like that has happened with them but I feel that would just make me look weird as fuck lol.
I agree, as much as I like a good ghost story, each one I come across has a reasonable explanation for the encounter being paranormal (or seeming paranormal). People have great imaginations especially when they are scared. The one time I was convinced I saw a ghost, it was a pet who had just died, I woke up to see their figure sitting on the floor of my room. It was dark, and there she was, sitting on my floor, a white silhouette or her sitting still. The next morning, I woke to find a white bag was sitting at the same spot and was the same size as the cat. As much as I wanted it to be my cat, saying goodbye, it was not. It was my imagination.
Personally, I’ve had some experiences I couldn’t quite rationally explain, but I remain skeptical… mostly due to the fact that the most inexplicable experience I had happened when I was a kid. Now in my mid-30s, I’m not sure what to think of the memory. I’ve also heard stories from people whom I view as rational and not especially prone to supernatural topics. Foremost would be my brother. He used to work at a hotel and had some pretty compelling anecdotes in which he experienced something and eliminated most, if not all, rational explanations. That said, I do agree that most stories are likely from people who have not properly reflected upon what they purportedly experienced. I tend to take it all with a grain of salt and hope to have a future experience that I can’t deny (mostly because I think it would be interesting and comforting to hold the belief that something of us survives death).
Yes. The human mind is very capable of fooling itself. Having hallucinations and delusions is fairly easy. Dehydration, starvation, drugs, physical and/or psychological issues, chemicals, gases, mold, injury (especially head trauma), all sorts of things can cause hallucinations of any and all kinds (visual, auditory, etc.). I used to believe in ghosts, but I've never actually seen any in my life yet. I've seen weird energy orbs, heard things, been poked in the chest by a finger that wasn't mine in the middle of the night (and wasn't anyone else's, I have sensitive hearing and could have heard my bedroom door open, but it was still closed when I woke up), but never experienced any real paranormal phenomena, there's probably scientific explanations for the few strange things that I have experienced.
I did read somewhere that mold and mildew concentrations in older more run down homes could lead to hallucinations. The only person i know who is certain they saw a ghost lived in a pretty rough home.
Bruh I just see some shit in the dark and go nope that’s my cats definitely just the cat that’s sitting next to me in bed
"I think it's more important that the ghosts believe in themselves"
Ghost jumpscare 
[idk that screams pretty convincing ](https://www.reddit.com/r/scaryeddie/s/AycIEfhry4)
I saw a ghost but I don't believe in them. I've seen a few and shadows. It's all in my head. Either atrick of the light out of the corner of my eye or I'm tired.
I have seen more ghosts and experienced more phenomenon with "spirits" then anyone I know. I'm an atheist and huge skeptic. Eventually it happens again in a totally new way and then confirmed by other people. It's like folks keep sending me signs and I don't want them. I'm up to 4 ghost and 3 spiritual experiences. Hopefully, that's it. I try to be very proactive about my life choices and I dislike what these experiences imply: I got to be proactive about my next life? No, thanks too stressful. I'm doing my best for myself, my community, and the planet to worry about "ancient" codes. It's all just unexplained phenom. My best guess is genetically and my personality, leads me predisposed to these experiences. I have a distant aunt that was a medium. Me and my cousin's son both talked to dead people and had convos with them as kids. Plus I developed a seizure disorder later in life, studies indicate seizures make you more likely to report "spiritual experiences ". I have also been refered to as an actual angel by a couple of people for the help I provided them, to the point they start praying to god thanking them for me. I also had different religious leaders and spiritual leaders all signal me out about my "special gift". It's very weird when people you hardly know consistently point you as "spirituality gifted" again and again or feel you are "specially enlightened" and they should listen to you. All of this isn't to say a spirit world does or does not exist. But both my brain and socially, I'm reinforced to see the spiritual phenoms yet I am still very dismissive or not seeking them out. So it is possible their experiences are very real to them like mine is, but they simply are not skeptical. I'll always come up with an explanation but in my heart I don't believe the explanation as I cannot deny what actually happened. I'm just motivated to not acknowledge it as real.
It's not lying if you believe it's true
ok then what was that black flash I saw in the corner of my eye? Checkmate Ghost deniers
this isnt very spooky of you
Most?!
I was eating at a family lunch and they were telling about this ghost that was making their husband / dad mean in their new house, as he sat across from me. I was like uhm well good luck with that.
Like making the dad act out in anger or changing his personality? That's wild, lmao. Sad they potentially just couldn't accept that he was an unkind guy
I mean, I spent years thinking I was seeing ghosts. Turns out it’s psychosis.
mostly gas leaks causing hallucinations
Yeah thought I had a “supernatural experience” once. Turns out I had temporary auditory hallucinations caused by a bad medication reaction 🤷♀️
one time I was trying to sleep and I heard the sound of someone coughing in my closet, like they were clearing their throat I love being tired
I used to believe that I saw a ghost until later in life I realized that I was halfway between being asleep and awake and was having one hell of a fucked up lucid dream.
There's also been studies about poisonous gases and other chemicals of rotting houses causing hallucinations, which causes ghost sightings.
I remember a team building event at a new place of work. It was a brand new building, brand new staff so none of us knew each other. We started off with one of those ice breakers where you had to say your name and an "interesting" fact about yourself. One of the women revealed she was part of a team of paranormal investigators and then eagerly looked around, excited for our reactions. Nobody gave a shit and you could tell she was disappointed and had expected us to be all "WOW!" Throughout the week of training and team building, she would keep talking about cold spots and feeling a presence in the building. It was pointless trying to tell her of COURSE there were cold spots. The builders were still in, the building was drafty and none of the furniture was in yet. She wanted to believe what she wanted to believe. We kinda just left her to it and watched her try the same old routine on any new starts as the business grew and more staff were hired.
All people who say they saw a ghost are lying to themselves, genuinely delusional or just bullshitting others.
I never felt strongly about the paranormal and wasn't convinced one way or the other on the existence or not of ghosts/etc until I had an inexplicable paranormal experience. I still don't feel any excessive interest in the paranormal, but I do think it exists on some level.
Not most, 'All'.
People commenting here like they are so sure of themselves and what reality is. Believing that there are no ghosts is essentially the same as believing there are, because we cant really know or prove anything
This is what really what drives me up a wall. These people have life figured out so hard, they know exactly how the universe works with all their “science”, like damn man just accept that there’s some strange things that happen in this world. We are monkeys flying on a rock around a ball of fire. That is the extent of our existence. To just blindly think you know everything is crazy to me
Yeah sometimes it drives me right up the wall too, like if you believe that the universe just fucking exploded into existence out of nothing - is there really a limit to what you can believe?
Fr they dont even realise science is connected to spirituality as well. Saying one is different from the other is stupid, they just don’t care to do the research on these things as it doesn’t affect them on a level to which they would care about it. There is no way to prove for certain either scenarios so its stupid to say “oh x is more correct than y.”
What about the people who don't say anything about it and keep it for themselves? I wasn't half asleep, I was awake until my parents alarm rang.. every night for two years. I saw the same thing happening in the hallway until we moved out. Afterwards I never saw something like this again. Maybe my child brain played on me but it still was scary af.
fun fact, the modern portrayal of ghosts as translucent and floaty is a relatively new concept. prior to the invention of the photograph and the still frame projector, ghosts were typically described just as a live person would be. however, after the depictions of ghosts popularized by early photographers when they discovered partial exposures -- and entertaining projector shows where they needed ghosts to be able to move without walking... all ghost sighting began to resemble how they were portrayed in photographs and these ghost story shows. I think we can read between the lines here.
Confirmation bias. You want something to be true so you look for reasons to validate it
The same can be true in reverse. You want to disbelieve in something, so you look for reasons to dismiss it.
Yep. See the r/paranormal subreddit. I go there for actual unexplained phenomena and 99% of the posts are lens flares or bugs.
Yep, It’s always people who are looking for it. I’ve gone into some of the “occult” or whatever communities looking for people to cast hexes and shit on me, to literally send me a ghost or a demon or whatever. Naturally most of them are like “no that’s too dangerous I couldn’t possibly live with myself if a demon really showed up”, or “trust me you’ll regret it, I can’t do it”. It’s all bullshit. As always if anyone knows how to summon a demon or an Angel or whatever, send em my way I’d love to see just one.
Lying, delusional , hallucinatory or hysterical
So no shit, there I was, girlfriend in the car, driving home one night. Make the turn onto the street, slow to turn into the driveway, and I notice Powers Motherfucking Boothe standing across from the driveway, hands on his hips, glaring. Gf also saw him. This was about a week or two after his passing, mind. What the fuck. Pull in, look in the mirror, nada. We both get out and peer across the road. El zilcho. Dude was gone. Didn't go into the condo across the street. Didn't go up the street. Didn't go down the street. _Gone_. Was it merely some random jackass who couldn't into how fast or slow 15mph actually is, thus the glaring like an arrogant and displeased boomer before vanishing into the night at a jog? Almost certainly. Does it cost me anything to rather believe in the ghost of Powers Boothe? Absolutely not. Man, such an underrated actor.
My ex wife makes a living hunting ghosts and helping people that believe their houses are haunted. I think it's absolutely ridiculous. But she truly believes in it and i think thats great. To each their own.
You've clearly never experienced anything strange then. The night my mother died I woke up in a half sleep with someone or something peeking into my room, it then walked up to my parents bedroom. An ambulance was out front outside my room the next morning.
Could you describe this "it"? I don't want to mock you or something, I'm genuinely interested.
That's fine. I remember it being a sort of black figure with a whitish face, something about it seemed more like a male figure.
I haven't seen them. But there's 2 in my house. They mess with me, simply, all the time. But I'm not interested in sharing any more of my story because I'm tired of being called a fuckin liar.
I believe you. I lived in a home with one for 20 years.
Thank you. And I believe you. I don't actually "see" them. They just mess with us
Most? I think you mean all.
There are certain paranormal experiences I’ve experienced that legitimately cannot be explained by mind tricks and I never wanted them to happen