Gaming World Forums

General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: Death Gulp on January 27, 2008, 02:38:48 am

Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Death Gulp on January 27, 2008, 02:38:48 am
             I don't know about you guys, that is, if you believe in ghosts or not. Personally, I try to keep an open mind on the subject. Some videos on the internet for example, are clearly fakes, but then there are others that make me personally question if they exist. Then there are personal experiences.

            A few summers ago, when i was 12 or 13,  I was out to see my grandparents. They lived in a small outport community, it had only a small population, only a little more than 700 people. Anyway, there was an old house there, which my grandmother had told me not to go to, no one lived there, its falling apart, it might not be safe, etc. etc. The house was beautiful on the outside, old and falling apart, yes, but i liked it. It had an old Widow's Walk on the roof, and was like 3 stories high (attic included i'm guessing) and had an ocean view over the harbour (well all the houses did) Obviously i wanted to check it out after she had said that, so one day I went. It was old, and pretty crappy on the inside (to my disappointment) It was clear that no one had been there in a long time. Eventually I left, been there done that.

             That night I was telling my cousin who lived there about it, and she had said she has been there a few times and we should go back. So that night we did, with just a flashlight. We wanted to get to the widows walk on the roof, my cousin said it was "cool" so w/e, we had a plan. Upon entering the house I seen this picture on the wall of a women,(i didnt notice it earlier that day) who i am guessing had lived there. As i was checking the picture out my cousin said she'd heard noises upstairs. We thought some other kids in the town had gotten here (apparently it was quite the drug spot. lol. ) before us, so we went up. Nothing there. We still wanted to get to the roof, so we climbed the ladder thing to the attic, and when we got up in the attic, it was like a hall, with at the end of it a french door kinda thing, and outside was the widows walk. We seen a women standing outside the on the walk, back on to us. We were still inside the house this point, walking towards the door, confused. as soon as we were like 10 feet from the door, the figure turned, and looked at us through the glass in the door. it was a women. We FROZE where we were standing. She then turned back around and jumped off the widows walk from the roof. We BOOT it from the houses, and upon leaving I glanced at the picture again, and that was the lady, the one in the picture was the women we had just seen. We ran out of the house and back to my grandparents, where we got a scolding for being at the house. I have never  gone back.

        I later was told by my grandma that that women had jumped off the widows walk, as her husband drowned at sea, making her a widow. (Hence the name, widows walk). She killed herself, and we had witnessed her do it, again.

       So do you guys believe in ghosts? And have you had any experiences?


PS - I know this probably isn't a "new" topic, but I am new here and havent read through all the old ones
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: pburn on January 27, 2008, 02:47:28 am
I've been terrified of ghosts ever since I was really young. I believe in them.

I'm not so sure if I've actually seen any or not, but yeah, sorry no experiences.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Fatboys #4 on January 27, 2008, 02:53:44 am
I thought I had seen some when I was a kid, but that can all be accounted for in a youth's wild imagination. So I discredit things I may have once believed to be ghosts. I haven't seen any since then and I don't think I will. I've seen some of these ghost hunter shows getting all excited about OMG ORBS! or other weird shit happening. But it's tv and all that shit just seems to entertain and keep you watching their show.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: GZ on January 27, 2008, 04:10:49 am
(http://www.drule.net/junk/spooks.png)
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Frankie on January 27, 2008, 04:15:54 am
Bullshit GZ, that looks photoshopped.

You disappoint me.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: SEimagery on January 27, 2008, 04:19:39 am
I have a story.

It happened to my friend.

He was jogging outside his highschool, around this abandoned old house called Plum Grove from the Antietam War. There was a woman dressed in old clothes standing on the porch and yelled at my friend to come here and help her lift something. My friend thinking its just a reinactment, runs over to the house and she lets him in. He only went into the very front, and she comes back and says I have something to show you. She hands him a picture, a pitcure from the Antietam War, and in the picture is a family. Upon closer observation, he sees this woman in the picture. He then takes off running out of the house and home lmao. He actully kept the picture, i've seen it, its pretty damn creepy looking.

I believe in spirits, but not in ghosts..like I believe when you die, you go to heaven or hell. These spiritual encounters are most likely of the devil himself in my opinion.

I have a few more stories that are scary as fuck, i'll type em up later.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Reaverbot on January 27, 2008, 04:24:55 am
When I was a little kid, there was this little boy who wouldn't stop following me in the mall one day, but I was a little kid so I didn't get annoyed by it or whatever, I'd turn around and make faces at him and he'd make faces back, and we'd kind of just have fun with each other in the time expanse of 20 minutes or however long he was following me. The entire time he was maybe 10-15 feet behind me. I looked at him, he was still that same distance, I glance ahead of me at my mom for maybe 5 seconds then look back, and the boy is an EXTREMELY far distance away from me standing next to a bathroom door at the far end of the store. Me and my mom walked away, but we came back later and he was still standing there, but then he went inside, and I told my mom I was going to the bathroom, and I went inside and the boy wasn't inside. And there was no other exit. I was a little kid so I didn't really think anything of it, but now when I think about it, it just seems odd. I'm not saying the boy was a ghost, I guess, because I WAS a little kid and maybe I just don't remember properly. But I doubt that's the case, I clearly remember feeling very confused. I might not have thoroughly checked the bathroom, but it was a really small bathroom...
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Marcus on January 27, 2008, 04:33:36 am
wtf is this belief in the unseen i am reading.

ghosts are scientifically impossible and i base this on no research whatsoever.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Pepoke on January 27, 2008, 04:54:33 am
I dont have and experience with ghost, but I have a friend who told a story about when he was little. He was in his bed, and in the corner of his room, he saw a little girl he didnt know. He covered his head with his blankets because he was scared, and he removed his blanket from his face, and the girl was about 1 foot away from him.
His dad works in this kind of stuff, exorcisms, driving spirits out of houses, etc.

Im kinda sketchy on the whole spirits thing, im going to have to do more reasearch and ask more questions.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ciel on January 27, 2008, 05:35:39 am
ghosts i have seen them. i have seen them a lot and i will tell you what - they dont scare me one bit
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Fire Mage on January 27, 2008, 05:40:37 am
Bullshit GZ, that looks photoshopped.

You disappoint me.
welcome to the world of not knowing what gz posted
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Marcus on January 27, 2008, 05:45:52 am
GZ's photo is actually pretty accurate except ghosts don't have reflections so it's an obvious shoop.

i know.  i've dealt with ghosts.  i'm a ghost buster.  busting ghosts is... what i do.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Mama Luigi on January 27, 2008, 07:11:59 am
Ghosts aren't real. They aren't.

It's totally illogical.

The argument is typically that when you die, you turn into a ghost. That in and of itself isn't so far of a stretch, but then we have the fact that hundreds upon hundreds of people claim to see spirits, ghosts, demons, what have you. All of these things proceed to scare the shit out of people.

Com'on people. I think at least just 1 person out of the trillions of people who have died on this planet would be willing to - instead of acting weird and scaring the shit out of everyone - come forward and be like, "yeah, um... we do exist." This has never happened though. Why? Because they don't exist.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Randy Moist on January 27, 2008, 07:17:34 am
Being a Psy, I'm quite attuned to the ghastly dimension and the our cousins the Ghosts. It is a known factoid among my fellow Psy's that Ghosts not only exist but also roam among us! We often use the powers of Psy and ESP to breach the '3rd wall' and open channels with these lost souls.

I remember the first time I connected with a ghost spirit. We Psy's have the power of transferal energy communication, a depleting but rewarding method we employ to contact these haunts. By harnessing our psy power we can gain control of the ghasts and use them for our Psy bidding. I guess you could say ghosts are our tools.

Ghosts are nothing to be scared of, they are something to value. Perhaps they too are a part of evolution.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Doktormartini on January 27, 2008, 07:31:34 am
I don't believe in ghosts because I don't believe in spirits.  My mom is really interested in them.

Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: ase on January 27, 2008, 08:07:18 am
i am a huge ghost buster in-the-making. i have never actually busted a ghost but i hope to do so one day. I am always on the lookout for weird things and once in a while you can just FEEL it in the air, you know....... like you get this shiver while you're alone in the living room and then it passes on

well here is my favorite website for ghost hunters like me: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/WeirdUSA/images.html
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: George W. Bush on January 27, 2008, 08:07:55 am
I personally think that ghost exis......... Wait i was about to make a statement that isn't true. They dint exist never have never will. I mean when I was a kid like 2-5 i use to have nightmares about odd things like priests, gobblins, and as weird as it sounds the earth, I mean come on do you honestly think that with 100's of people dieing every day that not more people say they see Ghosts, If they were real we'd know by now.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ghost_Aspergers on January 27, 2008, 08:25:29 am
Man... this reminded me of the topic on goblins I've been meaning to make.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ciel on January 27, 2008, 08:29:13 am
I mean come on do you honestly think that with 100's of people dieing every day that not more people say they see Ghosts, If they were real we'd know by now.

you must realize that ghosts operate outside the rules of human logic i mean come on that is ghosts 101
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: dada on January 27, 2008, 08:49:14 am
If you think you believe in ghosts, that's fine. We're not going to put you in a mental institution. But please just don't talk about it too often.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Grin Tree on January 27, 2008, 09:17:55 am
I don't believe in ghosts, but I have a friend who is adamant about the existence of apparitions and the like.  It's kind of funny, because he is otherwise a logical/scientific thinker, he just claims to have seen ghosts on more than one occasion, and apparently has other witnesses. 

The good thing is that he doesn't talk about it at all unless someone asks, because he knows people would dismiss it as hogwash.  I certainly do.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: AdderallApocalypse on January 27, 2008, 09:23:39 am
I'm usually a person that bases my claims on facts of science, logic, etcetera. That is why I don't believe completely in ghosts. I don't believe there is actually any irrefutable proof of ghosts. Disregarding that, I hear about them all the time, and believe I have even seen a few. However, I think that "ghosts" have some kind of scientific reason for their existance, which means that the entities we refer to as ghosts are something else that is more logical/reasonable.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ruzu on January 27, 2008, 10:41:44 am
Not sure if this is true but i have two memories with "Possible" ghost stories.

1st one i was really young.

I ived a couple of blocks from my grandma and when i walk to her house i pass an old house that was maybe safe to go in. I've been told that there was once a child there, who burned his cat alive and then etc etc happend they moved away. The freaky part is i went to that house one day out of curiosity(which is going to be my death) and inside i see a cat burning and on fire. I mean like fire all over it and black charred bones intact showing it's bone structure.(At this time i've never ever seen a bone structure). I didn't go in the house and i started to walk away i turned back for a second and the cat followed me out to the street point(I was across the street) and their it was just staring at me yawning. I left and went home, i went back the next day and the next it never came back.

2nd one wasn't too long ago, it was before i moved to texas(like 2yrs).

So i was walking down the road past this house, i walked one of my friends home she was sick. It was night also, i walked past this house in perfect condition. I stopped infront of the house and looked at the front door, and this transparent young lady was their smoking a cig at first glance i couldn't tell she was transparent because i needed glasses at that time. She walked up to me and waved at me then passed right by me, stunned for a bit then i turned around and she was gone. She was their the next night she looked sad that night, i snuck out again the next night and she wasn't their anymore.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ihateyou on January 27, 2008, 11:29:03 am
I dont have and experience with ghost, but I have a friend who told a story about when he was little. He was in his bed, and in the corner of his room, he saw a little girl he didnt know. He covered his head with his blankets because he was scared, and he removed his blanket from his face, and the girl was about 1 foot away from him.
His dad works in this kind of stuff, exorcisms, driving spirits out of houses, etc.

Im kinda sketchy on the whole spirits thing, im going to have to do more reasearch and ask more questions.

There's a scientific explanation for that, and it can even be replicated in a lab.
Basically, it happens when you're brain is still partly asleep.
People who have this happen to them usually lose control of most of their body, but can still look around and such as the human body shuts down much of it's motor skills when you sleep to stop you from acting out your dreams and hurting yourself (night terrors).
When your brain is still not fully conscious, or fully asleep, you can see all kinds of weird shit, though many claim to see an old woman dressed in black that stands over them until they blink or look away.
Unlike lucid dreams, people swear that these things actually happened as they feel awake and they appear to be happening in the real world.

There's a lot of the paranormal that's got scientific explanations as a number of things can make you thing "oh shit ghosts!", such as variations in sonics, heat and air pressure, which can be caused by things like magnetic field variations.
I'm not saying that there's no way that they can't exist as I like to be open minded, but it's like how I do believe in alien life, but not in little green bug eyed Martians who fly across the galaxy in flying saucers to anal probe people and mutilate cows...
Many of the encounters can be put down to something more mundane (orbs are usually just dust and general crap catching light and showing up as something that looks more otherworldly).
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: jamie on January 27, 2008, 01:25:47 pm
Oh now fuck you. Did you not, read my post just above yours? Leave the ghosts alone man. No-one is busting ghosts when I'm around. They're the most beautiful beings. You don't even know man.

You ghost-hugging types make me want to physically throw up.

Look, I'm not saying all ghosts are terrible people - but do you really want to take the chance? You're lying in bed, having a good time alone then BAM it's "woooo i mean no harm" - Ha, yeah right, you bodiless freakazoid. Ghosts aren't people - they're animals. But then again I bet you're probably vegan.

Anyway, some of the ghost stories in this thread really worry me. Sounds like some of you have had Band IV or maybe even V Ghost Encounters. Now, personally I run into Band V and above on a daily basis - but I'm a professional. Some of you guys may not know how to throw down when all the chips are on the table. I suggest investing in a Spectrometer for a start - this will give you an accurate reading of the spirit levels in any room. Also, you'll need to have a means of defending yourself. I suggest a Banshee 500 series - This thing can banish, exorcise and circumsise if you really want it to. Heh. Just kiddin. But let's get serious - this is some serious weaponry right here. Luckily for us solids, though,  it's useless against physical matter.

Happy Hunting.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Frankie on January 27, 2008, 02:03:23 pm
There's a scientific explanation for that, and it can even be replicated in a lab.
Basically, it happens when you're brain is still partly asleep.
People who have this happen to them usually lose control of most of their body, but can still look around and such as the human body shuts down much of it's motor skills when you sleep to stop you from acting out your dreams and hurting yourself (night terrors).
When your brain is still not fully conscious, or fully asleep, you can see all kinds of weird shit, though many claim to see an old woman dressed in black that stands over them until they blink or look away.
Unlike lucid dreams, people swear that these things actually happened as they feel awake and they appear to be happening in the real world.
Yah, thats "sleep paralysis, Its more frequent than most people think, it happens once to about 1 out of 4 people, usually in their teenage years, but for some very unlucky people, it happens once, and then happens again and again. Some people see a pale face right in front of them, like a skull or something like that, others see large spiders dangling in front of their face. I read somewhere that this might be part of what caused myths about vampires and the like (a huge collection of different things created these myths, apparently). I read on a website dedicated to night terrors and sleep paralysis many horror stories, like a woman that dreamed the ceiling was coming down to crush her, suddenly snapped out of sleep paralysis and almost jumped out a window.

But yeah basically, you start dreaming seamlessly with being awake and you hallucinate "over" what you already see, hear and even smell around you. Happened to me when I was 14 or so, it really shocked me back then. I saw one of the most common ones, a huge white face right in front of mine with large bug eyes. The most common one though is the "old hag": it usually starts with a feeling of pressure on the sleeper's stomach. It makes him panic, and then he tries to move, but realizes he cant (because of sleep paralysis).

Lots of stories of alien abductions stories come from that, and lots of other things in popular culture. Like these weird ghosts you see in harry potter that steals souls, and one of the creatures in the Supernatural TV series was inspired off the "old hag", and theres also a few movies, like that one with like, the tooth fairy or something that kills anyone who enters darkness? Kidnaps children at night? Cant remember the name of that movie. I think it came out around 2000.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ravey on January 27, 2008, 02:24:31 pm
What's with all this talk about ghosts? get real everyone because they aren't going to. University study shows that ghosts haven't even been invented... Unless you can present decisive evidence don't bother.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Arnold on January 27, 2008, 02:33:35 pm
I believe in ghost, why not? There's tons of evidence of people seeing ghost out there. But first of all think about it like this? Do you HONESTLY BELIEVE that when you die, you just dissapear? I'm having a hard time believing that. I think after we die we turn into spirits and go to the spirit world, heaven, whatever you want to call it(Hell in itself is fictional and is a man made idea). I think ghosts are basically spirits who died, but have something left on Earth they have to finish. I mean really, that's what most cases of ghosts are about... The person died and they have something unfinished. Now, it's easy to just pawn it off like EVERY OTHER PERSON and say "Ghost aren't real", but really man, before you say that, do some RESEARCH, you might learn something. Heck, I even overheard some kids at my school talking about how they had a strange experience with a Ouija board once. There's even some evidence of ghost in the bible. But yeah, I believe in ghosts, there's just too much proof out there that they exist.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: bonzi_buddy on January 27, 2008, 04:49:22 pm
Do you HONESTLY BELIEVE that when you die, you just dissapear?
Yes. I honestly belive that when i die, i ultimately die. I rot and vanish. We are no different to let's say, animal's or even bacterias. And according to our belief's THEY don't go to heaven, right? It's only human's right or w/e.


Also that's pretty interesting Frankie, i've never heard about that.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Fatboys #4 on January 27, 2008, 06:04:29 pm
I believe in ghost, why not? There's tons of evidence of people seeing ghost out there. But first of all think about it like this? Do you HONESTLY BELIEVE that when you die, you just dissapear? I'm having a hard time believing that.  There's even some evidence of ghost in the bible. But yeah, I believe in ghosts, there's just too much proof out there that they exist.

You will believe what you want to believe. Although there have been well accepted theories in the past that were once known to be true which we now know as false (world being flat, universe revolving around earth), we must accept the theory that offers the best explanation than all of the others. Currently, that would mean that ghosts do no exist as there is really NO PROOF that they do. What you see on television shows (OMG ORBS! OMG UNEXPLAINED THERMAL SHIT) isn't concrete enough to say that there are ghost. At best it leads to an unexplained phenomenon. And how smart does it make someone would look when their argument looks like this:

1. I saw something that I couldn't identify
2. It looked like a "ghost"
3. Therefore, the thing I couldn't identify was a "ghost".

I can admit to hearing tons of weird fucking stories, but does that necessarily mean that it is the cause of ghosts?
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Death Gulp on January 27, 2008, 06:09:58 pm
Actually I read somewhere, I can't remember where right now, a possible explanation for ghosts. You see them because of something to do with the 4th dimension, which is duration or time. Like where you are now compared to where you were 1 minute ago. Something to do with that being twisted or something.
I dont say I believe that theory so much though.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Kaempfer on January 27, 2008, 06:15:19 pm
Once, when I was walking home, I saw a shadow move really fast from one hedge to a hedge across the street in front of me. Like, ridiculous fast. Faster than animals could move! I thought it was a ghost or something! But then later, being a reasonable person, I thought about it long and hard and decided it was probably just a shadow being cast at a weird angle by a light source I didn't quite understand (because I don't know everything).

Another time I was taking a piss in an outhouse and I looked down and I saw a face in the bowl and I thought it was a ghost. Like, I seriously though there was a ghost in the toilet. I screamed and ran away (I was a little kid) and I was terrified. Looking back, however, I am 100% certain it was my fucking reflection in the water and I am an idiot.

edit: Time is isn't it's own dimension as it is completely relative to the decay rate of whatever atomic material it is based against.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Arnold on January 27, 2008, 06:15:41 pm
No proof? You don't know that because you've clearly not researched the topic. Or you'd know there's tons of "proof" out there. There are several convincing stories out there written by people who have actually seen ghost. There's even stories where things happen that only a ghost could do. And do you honestly believe out of the millions of stories of people claiming to see ghost, that none of them are true? Yes, I suppose those milllions of people where just seeing things huh. Let's put it this way, in our world, things don't just move on their own, you want to put science in here, then you'd know that it's impossible for something to move on it's own. But people have claimed to have seen this. There are even several articles about people claiming to have seen ghosts or strange things. And another thing with Science is, how the hell could science proof the existence of ghosts? That's beyond me.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Fatboys #4 on January 27, 2008, 06:26:56 pm
So because of ghost stories passed down from generation to generation, we're more inclined to tag anything we can't explain to the word ghost. And who cares if lots of people write stories (CONVINCING ONES TOO LOL) about ghosts. It doesn't take a whole lot to write a story and have millions of gullible people buy into that. That's the problem with people nowadays. They believe everything and anything they want to hear and because they don't take the time to question it because it reaffirms their beliefs; they simply don't.

As I said before, I'm not saying that one theory is correct or that one is wrong, but that we have to accept the one that makes the best logical sense right now until a better one comes along.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Kaworu on January 27, 2008, 06:37:52 pm
No proof? You don't know that because you've clearly not researched the topic. Or you'd know there's tons of "proof" out there. There are several convincing stories out there written by people who have actually seen ghost. There's even stories where things happen that only a ghost could do. And do you honestly believe out of the millions of stories of people claiming to see ghost, that none of them are true? Yes, I suppose those milllions of people where just seeing things huh. Let's put it this way, in our world, things don't just move on their own, you want to put science in here, then you'd know that it's impossible for something to move on it's own. But people have claimed to have seen this. There are even several articles about people claiming to have seen ghosts or strange things. And another thing with Science is, how the hell could science proof the existence of ghosts? That's beyond me.
There is actually no proof, and all "ghost research" is bullshit "science" usually made up by the people who "research" ghosts. The EVIDENCE (HARD FACT!) for many ghost advocates is a group fo beardy men walk into a ghost-zone and say "oh did you feel that... I felt a tingle!". A lot of ghost visions and experiences, can someone please buy me a Kaworu nagisa statue ( http://animenewsi.com/index.php?itemid=10341&catid=245) it is very cute and I really want it, that have been researched by real intillectuals (not large bearded men who dress only in black) tends to show that it is more to do with our subconcious. Subconcious is great, it allows us to move things without realising we're moving them (such as how Ouija boards work), and it allows us to see things that may not be there.
A story isn't proof, it is an account, based on that person's perspective. Like how alien abductions generally target the lowest of people (seriously... if aliens are so cool why do they only want retards? The same kinda nuts who think that jews are ruling the world from a secret shadow government on the moon), desperate for attention. They experience a sleep disorder and because they want something to happen in their lives, they see it as an abduction.
Let's be honest if ghosts were a murder trial and the murderer told you his story which went against everyone elses (even the witnesses), you're saying that you'd believe him?
sorry but O. J Simpson isn't a ghost yet.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: UPRC on January 27, 2008, 06:54:30 pm
HWY THE FUCK AREN'T YOU GUYS TAKING THIS TOPIC SERIOUSLY

I mean ghosts, COME ON GUYS. This is important shit stop messing around.  :fogetangry:



On a serious note, I've had strange things happen to me, but I'm older and smarter now, so I am not paranoid and do not attribute weird happenings to ghosts.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Fatboys #4 on January 27, 2008, 06:57:24 pm
I don't know of a way to prove ghosts, but there's a guy James Randi who has a million dollar challenge to anyone who claims to have psychic powers and can talk to the dead to come and take his challenge and prove that they're talking to the dead.

He was on some talk show with one of these psychics (some old woman) and she said she'd take the challenge, but she has yet to get back to him and she's still on that same stupid fucking show.

http://www.randi.org/research/index.html

With science (yes science!) they could prove that not only are they talking to the dead, but that there is the existence of a soul.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: dada on January 27, 2008, 07:19:07 pm
edit: Time is isn't it's own dimension as it is completely relative to the decay rate of whatever atomic material it is based against.
Time is a dimension (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime).
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Feldschlacht IV on January 27, 2008, 07:24:00 pm
I don't really believe in ghosts myself, but for everyone looking for proof, it's silly to expect to get it handed to you, simply on the basis that most paranormal things exist above the realm of human logic and the ability to be explained by human minds. I'm not a big believer in paranormal activity, but I'm also not foolish to believe that everything that exists can be explained away by our relatively pathetic human brain/logic and our equally faulty science.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Artis Leon Ivey Jr on January 27, 2008, 07:27:58 pm
Time is a dimension (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime).
no, time and space are their own dimension, time itself is not a spatial dimension.

semantics ahoy.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Vellfire on January 27, 2008, 07:50:49 pm
I haven't seen a ghost, but my university is apparently cursed by a botany professor who didn't like the university's president (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafinesque) so who knows I might see a ghost CATALOGING PLANTS some day.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Arnold on January 27, 2008, 08:03:37 pm
In the end, you either believe it or you don't believe it. Heck, disbelieving in the supernatural in our society is cmmon and most people wouldn't even be convinced if they SAW a ghost, because they were raised to believe "ghost" and "UFO's" and all that shit were just fiction.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Fatboys #4 on January 27, 2008, 08:36:17 pm
In the end, you either believe it or you don't believe it. Heck, disbelieving in the supernatural in our society is cmmon and most people wouldn't even be convinced if they SAW a ghost, because they were raised to believe "ghost" and "UFO's" and all that shit were just fiction.

Quite the contrary, I was actually raised to believe that these things exist. Has it ever crossed your mind that there mind be a valid point for NOT believing in these claims? Or have you not matured enough yet to question your own beliefs with thorough research and other valid and well credited counter-claims? I'll grant you the honor of saying I used a fallacy as an argument to my first question, but the other question is.....
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: the_bub_from_the_pit on January 27, 2008, 09:10:20 pm
No proof? You don't know that because you've clearly not researched the topic. Or you'd know there's tons of "proof" out there.

Since you're the all-knowing ghosts specialist, instead of being a douche and telling us this, why don't you provide some of the evidence? That would certainly make you seem far more credible (although I really doubt it).

Also, saying THE BIBLE!! has ghost evidence in it isn't credible (since, well, a lot of us are atheists and the fact that many people agree many parts of the Bible are "metaphors".)
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: AdderallApocalypse on January 27, 2008, 09:36:50 pm
Also, saying THE BIBLE!! has ghost evidence in it isn't credible (since, well, a lot of us are atheists and the fact that many people agree many parts of the Bible are "metaphors".)
Hey, this isn't right. The bible says it, so it MUST be true! /sarcasm
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: SEimagery on January 27, 2008, 09:45:26 pm
My exgirlfriend had a horrifying encounter. When she was eight years old, she would see a shadow of someone in her room. She would wake up at night, realizing that something was molesting her. She told her dad, and the whole family moved the next day.

She told me they got a exorcist to go through the house or something the next day, but they still moved.

I would explain this strange encounter as it being a demon. Being a spiritual person, i believe Satan himself has demons on this earth wether we know it or not. Somethings are just effed up.
I don't believe it was some old pervert who died, and haunts the house.


Another story. My friend Alison. When she was around 15, she became a christian. She would read her bible at night and pray. She said for two weeks, she was troubled by a "spirit"...just listen.
One night she was walkin outside, around her house. She was about 50 feet from her home, walking towards it. She turned around and saw the dark outling of a figure about 30 feet from her.
She turned around and kept walking. She turned again and the figure was about 5 feet from her...she ran inside and told her parents. They didn't know what to think.

The next night, she was woken in the middle of the night. She went downstairs to get a drink, and she swears that by the blinds the figure was staring at her. She fell down and started crying uncontrollably. Her parents ran downstairs and consoled her. She says her father walked around the house with a bible in hand, repeating "This is a Godly home, you have no business here".

She hasn't seen it since...
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Kaempfer on January 28, 2008, 01:38:01 am
Dada: OK.

Quote
Another story. My friend Alison. When she was around 15, she became a christian. She would read her bible at night and pray. She said for two weeks, she was troubled by a "spirit"...just listen.
One night she was walkin outside, around her house. She was about 50 feet from her home, walking towards it. She turned around and saw the dark outling of a figure about 30 feet from her.
She turned around and kept walking. She turned again and the figure was about 5 feet from her...she ran inside and told her parents. They didn't know what to think.

The next night, she was woken in the middle of the night. She went downstairs to get a drink, and she swears that by the blinds the figure was staring at her. She fell down and started crying uncontrollably. Her parents ran downstairs and consoled her. She says her father walked around the house with a bible in hand, repeating "This is a Godly home, you have no business here".

She hasn't seen it since...

This is absolutely priceless. Could it not be that it was just some creepy guy who was lurking about and then left? I mean, that is pretty awful, but there is nothing at all supernatural about it.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: SEimagery on January 28, 2008, 02:36:05 am
Priceless?

I dont find anything priceless about it...she's not an idiot, she wouldn't confuse this thing with someone. If you want, i'll have her type exactly what she saw, it was a dark figure, not some cloaked man =/

I would argue my points further, but they would just get shot down, I don't think many go by the Bible here.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Artis Leon Ivey Jr on January 28, 2008, 02:40:12 am
please have her type exactly what she saw.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: AdderallApocalypse on January 28, 2008, 02:59:48 am
I would argue my points further, but they would just get shot down, I don't think many go by the Bible here.
The bible is such a bad book as far as I am concerned. It is chop full with so many irrationalities. Noah's ark, a spiritual god impregnating a virgin to give birth to Jesus, creation of the earth and cosmos by a god, etcetera. In my eyes, religion takes too simplistic of an approach to explain an ever complicated universe. Anyways, back to ghosts. Ok, they do fascinate me. A lot of things do, mainly the unexplainable because they pique my interest and curiousity. There are some things that make me think regarding their existance. For example, if they are a human illusion, then why do they appear in certain places? If a ghost-skeptic family were to move into a house, unknowing of it's past, then why would they see the ghosts? Maybe their is some kind of energy in the air that causes this, if so then why is it manifested into a human form? The more haunted areas tend to have a more brutal past as well. I'm not trying to argue and side with their resistance neccessarily, but those things have always made me wonder.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Vellfire on January 28, 2008, 03:03:13 am
Wait a second you flat out said "the bible sucks because it's so irrational" and then said "yeah there might be ghosts though"

I mean I don't believe the bible either but seriously
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Cray on January 28, 2008, 03:05:42 am
actually what I found laughable is that many people that don't believe in ghosts because they're irrational, believe in god and the bible, I mean how is that even logic?
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: AdderallApocalypse on January 28, 2008, 03:11:40 am
Wait a second you flat out said "the bible sucks because it's so irrational" and then said "yeah there might be ghosts though"

I mean I don't believe the bible either but seriously
There MIGHT be, that's it, but again I am pretty sure they aren't in the way as what we think, so quite possibly not. What we interpret as "ghosts", I'm sure, have a good scientific explanation to them. Besides that, the bible is a whole lot worse. It takes bullshit to a new level, and people by the masses believe in it.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ragnar on January 28, 2008, 03:22:37 am
There MIGHT be, that's it, but again I am pretty sure they aren't in the way as what we think, so quite possibly not. What we interpret as "ghosts", I'm sure, have a good scientific explanation to them. Besides that, the bible is a whole lot worse. It takes bullshit to a new level, and people by the masses believe in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound#The_Ghost_in_the_Machine

this is kind of cool and would explain things
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: pburn on January 28, 2008, 03:26:11 am
This sleep paralysis thing is REALLY FUCKING SCARING ME man. It probably hasn't happened to me but I am REALLY FUCKING scared of this kinda stuff and just hearing shit has made me piss my pants when I was younger.

I can't have that happen to me come on.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: AdderallApocalypse on January 28, 2008, 03:28:11 am
That is pretty interesting ragnar. The more I hear about this stuff, the more skeptical I become. My whole family believes in ghosts, except me, well I am a lot more skeptical and like to rationalize it more. My whole family is also Christian(I am the only atheist). I don't know if that is relevent, though.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ragnar on January 28, 2008, 03:32:46 am
Actually the whole article is pretty interesting

I wonder if there are any infrasound generators out there, you know, to see if it makes things creepier for no reason. It's hard to tell because it's always used with stuff like LUSTMORD that's freaky to begin with
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Artis Leon Ivey Jr on January 28, 2008, 03:44:07 am
oh I have terrible sleep paralysis almost every night.

it's horrible I eventually just lucid dream to break out of it but no one can hear me and I know I'm dreaming but I want nothing more than to wake up. I imagine it's what hell is like.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ragnar on January 28, 2008, 03:51:37 am
I used to have some scary-ass dreams

Imagine anything by somebody (I think that was their name) on The Friend Society but in graphic detail

somebody was the guy who made TANG'D!! btw
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: goldenratio on January 28, 2008, 04:13:37 am
guys enough with the bullshit theory i wanna hear more ghost stories!!!
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Lainge on January 28, 2008, 04:18:12 am
While going vegan (and raw) has improved my health and calmness greatly
Snap!
But really, this is kinda gay. Unless I see it, I don't believe, there you go.

Except aliens, you'd just have to be completely ignorant to think they are fake. Come on, there has to be another planet somewhere in a location like earth is (far enough from the sun but close enough too).

and stuff....
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Death Gulp on January 28, 2008, 01:48:15 pm
Quote
On a serious note, I've had strange things happen to me, but I'm older and smarter now, so I am not paranoid and do not attribute weird happenings to ghosts.

I do agree with this

 EDIT:        would you guys consider believing in ghosts compared to believing  say, The Chupacabra, or Aliens, a totally different catagory? So to speak.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ragnar on January 28, 2008, 02:13:34 pm
I believe in ESPERS
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Trujin on January 28, 2008, 02:31:39 pm
Well, it's funny that you mentioned this in this topic. But I just went to the haunted house in my little village. They say it's haunted and that some druglords lived there. I don't know the true story behind this. But this nice home is sealed shut.  And nobody lives there anymore.

Let me find a link:

"We gaan terug naar de Westerduinlaan en lopen rechtdoor naar de Wilhelminastraat. Rechts op de hoek verrijst het ‘spookhuis van Monster’. Het is niet voor te stellen dat het heerlijke huis met het schitterende rieten dak een spook herbergt, maar de verhalen doen je de rillingen over de rug lopen. Nachtelijke geluiden, wc’s die worden doorgetrokken, de verschijning van een oude vrouw op een bed. Ze hebben in elk geval twee kopers na korte tijd uit het huis verjaagd. Het is overigens weer bewoond door mensen die in hun vorige huis ook al ‘spoken’ hadden en daarmee uitstekend kunnen leven.

English: We go back to the Westerduinlaan and walk straight ahead to the Wilhelminastraat. At the rightcorner the "haunted house of Monster (my village name)" appears. It's hard to imagen that this lovely house with a beautifull hai roof is the home of a ghost, but the stories will shiffer you. Noices over nighttime, toilets that are being flushed, the appearence of an old lady on the bed. They have spooked 2 buyers in a short time, they left. Though, people still live there, they said that their last home also had ghost and that they could live in it properly.

Anyways, still a bit weird that everything is timbered shut at the moment :p.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Fatboys #4 on January 28, 2008, 04:34:14 pm
Yeah, The Ghost in the Machine would explain why we see ghosts, but it wouldn't explain why cameras picked them up as well. (Assuming any of those millions of pictures are in fact real)
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: AdderallApocalypse on January 28, 2008, 07:12:10 pm
Yeah, The Ghost in the Machine would explain why we see ghosts, but it wouldn't explain why cameras picked them up as well. (Assuming any of those millions of pictures are in fact real)
It also wouldn't really explain the things that happen due to ghosts. For instance, seemingly unexplainable physical oddities, such as water faucets turning off/on by themself, the turning off/on of lights, etcetera. However, this is probably due to the oldness of said place, but it seems sort of strange how these things seem to collaborate to make a place "haunted", so to speak. I'm sure these ghostly inquiries will lead to scientific explanations, and over time will assert the reasons why people perceive places as being haunted.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ihateyou on January 28, 2008, 08:45:22 pm
oh I have terrible sleep paralysis almost every night.

it's horrible I eventually just lucid dream to break out of it but no one can hear me and I know I'm dreaming but I want nothing more than to wake up. I imagine it's what hell is like.
I used to when I was younger, but I was haunted by gnomes... Garden fucking gnomes!
For some reason, the idea of those fuckers coming to life and attacking me was scary when I was younger, and the fact that I couldn't call for help only made it worse.
I've only once had a night terror, which was basically me being chased around the house by a horde of angry giant crabs, which was just a little bit unusual...

I'm not joking by the way :[

Quote
would you guys consider believing in ghosts compared to believing  say, The Chupacabra, or Aliens, a totally different catagory? So to speak.
Many people believe in alien life.
There's a very high probability that life has or will evolve on another planet, just not how we usually perceive it.
Humans tend to think up alien life forms which are either humanoids, or which resemble something like a dog or a bird.
Chances are that we'd not find anything similar to what we imagine alien life to be like as any alien life forms would evolve to suite their home planet, which would probably differ in gravity, atmosphere, chemical composition, star type, orbit, flora and fauna.
There's no set in stone universal law that says that any sentient species must have two legs, two arms and a head, or that they have to be carbon based.
So no, I wouldn't lump belief in life outside of Earth in with belief in the souls of the dead making people shit themselves or the belief in some psychotic midget vampire with a grudge against livestock (which is probably just Grindie anyway).
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: tuxedo marx on January 28, 2008, 08:49:45 pm
SPOOKS!
hahahahah that topic!

the only ghosts I believe in are the fluffy white kind
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Pugwash on January 28, 2008, 09:08:38 pm
The only "paranormal" experience I've ever had was a pretty mediocre/stereotypical one by all accounts.

A good while back when I was wee, my friend Nicola and I were dared to walk down our track (I live in the country) and along the road to a bridge about 1/4 mile away in the dark

it was helluva foggy outside and as we continued along my friend turned to me and said. "Hey look a manie!" She pointed over to a nearby field and at first I couldn't really make anything out, but gradually a black shape disappeared into the fog.
And at the time this scared the ABSOLUTE shit out of me, my friend thinking nothing of it.

I dunno, pretty lame really but it's stuck with me and I really can't explain it.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Kaempfer on January 29, 2008, 04:23:09 am
Fog is fucking SCARY. Me and my ex were driving up to my cottage once and there was this thick band of fog up ahead of us. A car drove in (on a perfectly straight highway (a straight stretch of highway 7 in Ontario) in front of us, and then we went in. As we approached it, it honestly looked like the road just ended. I was scared we were driving into a dead end, even though I've been on that stretch of road countless times. It didn't look like fog, it looked like the road literally ended there. Anyways, we forged through while bracing for impact (or something) and then when we got to the other side, the other car... Wasn't there anymore. It was only maybe a hundred metres in front of us, in the middle of the night, and it's lights were nowhere to be seen. It was scary.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: thejackyl on January 31, 2008, 03:17:53 pm
I believe I've seen ghosts before, and I think I can even sense when they are close.  However, I can't speak with them.

Whenever I'm in a room that's haunted, I get a strange chill.  Even in the middle of the summer, I'll get goosebumps, and just get really really cold.

I remember after my grandma died, I couldn't step into her room.  (I had to help my gramps clean his house, while he was in the hospital getting surgery), however after HE died, I never felt her presence.

Also when I worked at McDonald's, one of my manager's sons drowned, and sometimes when she would work, stuff would knock itself on the floor, and other stuff like that.  And when it would happen, I would say "dammit Michael" (manager's son's name).  Though I try not to say it within earshot of the manager.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ragnar on January 31, 2008, 07:57:15 pm
hahahahah that topic!

the only ghosts I believe in are the fluffy white kind

When I was young I thought the Pillsbury Doughboy was a ghost so whenever the commercials came on I'd shit my pants :(

to this day I can still remember that horrible stink *shivers*
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Dale Gobbler on January 31, 2008, 08:24:21 pm
One of my friends totally believes in ghosts. One day she told me that she saw this show on TV and it had orbs and stuff and she was so excited. I told her that she apparently didn't see the last bit of the show, because they debunked everything they brought up. It was one of the National Geographic shows. She's also into like Ghost Hunters and crap.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: dada on January 31, 2008, 08:31:48 pm
no, time and space are their own dimension, time itself is not a spatial dimension.

semantics ahoy.
Time and space are essentially the same. Thus, time is a dimension.

I can do that too!!!

(But you're right, I shouldn't call it "time", I should really be calling it "spacetime".)
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Void on February 14, 2008, 05:50:18 am
Yeah I believe in ghosts, and in shinigami and hollows too.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Summoner on February 14, 2008, 06:16:07 am
i am a huge ghost buster in-the-making. i have never actually busted a ghost but i hope to do so one day. I am always on the lookout for weird things and once in a while you can just FEEL it in the air, you know....... like you get this shiver while you're alone in the living room and then it passes on

well here is my favorite website for ghost hunters like me: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/WeirdUSA/images.html

hahahahahaha, orbs, hahahahahaha

also I like how they mistake putting a finger over the lense for black smudge ghost.

hahahahahaha :fogetlaugh:
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: dada on February 14, 2008, 07:11:10 am

This is actually Aerogel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel), a special low-density material.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Arcan on February 15, 2008, 03:26:32 pm
I can't believe people buy into this ghost crap. Someone was saying earlier that if you can believe in a certain religion, then why can't you believe in ghosts? I believe that they might be the same. In church, if something happens that you can't explain, they call that a miracle. Ghosts are just the same way. We don't get to decide what we believe because of the influence of other people. For example, every one of those stories that people posted happens in a setting that we could consider "scary" (old run down house, nighttime, fog). These are the things that we normally associate with ghosts. If you people were really open-minded then you wouldn't just be trying to portray ghosts like you have only seen on TV. You are trying to explain something that needs no explaining. Back then people were seeing things like werewolfs and vampires and that stuff really scared them. Today we see ghosts that commit suicide by jumping off buildings. Tomorrow could be completely something new. Should ghosts be able to evolve through time to suit our idea of "scary"?

How can the idea of something absurd like ghosts even exist? We have no clear proof that they are even real but some people choose to believe in them. Is not religion the same way? We believe because so many others do. If ghosts were real and they are out to get us, how come in the history of ghosts, a person has never been harmed during their experience. When you realize this, does it make you wonder why ghosts even exist? Is their only purpose to go around and scare people? Does the idea of pointless scaring with no harm to the person remind you of something? uhhh.... DUH, how about dreams? I hope you people that believe in ghosts and consider yourself open-minded because of that realize you are really stubborn unless you consider both sides of the argument equally plausible and you are willing to look at each statement without bias.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: kentona on February 16, 2008, 04:31:43 pm
Has anyone else here mentioned or heard of infrasound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound)?  I haven't read any of this thread and am too lazy to check.

Quote
Infrasound is sound with a frequency too low to be heard by the human ear....
Infrasound has been known to cause feelings of awe or fear in humans.[9] Since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel vaguely that supernatural events are taking place.

Quote
Infrasound may be produced by wind, by some types of earthquakes, by ocean waves, and by such things as avalanches, volcanoes, and meteors.* Elephants have the ability to emit infrasound that can be detected at a distance of 2 km. Even tigers emit infrasound.
Even some of the massive pipe organs in cathedrals can produce infrasound, which can aid in the false perception of the supernatural.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Arcan on February 16, 2008, 06:03:20 pm
I think we have enough proof that ghosts don't exist
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Tatsujinken on February 16, 2008, 06:39:00 pm
This was a poll taken on the Everybody Votes Channel for the Wii.

(http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/46307/wiieverybodyvotesghosts.PNG)

My prediction was wrong. :( I honestly didn't think that many people believed in ghosts.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Death Gulp on February 17, 2008, 02:38:27 am
Quote
My prediction was wrong. :( I honestly didn't think that many people believed in ghosts.

actually i thought you're prediction would be right, even though i do believe in them myself. My whole family does, and it probably has something to do with how i was raised?
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: goat on February 17, 2008, 03:50:53 am
Yah, thats "sleep paralysis, Its more frequent than most people think, it happens once to about 1 out of 4 people, usually in their teenage years, but for some very unlucky people, it happens once, and then happens again and again. Some people see a pale face right in front of them, like a skull or something like that, others see large spiders dangling in front of their face. I read somewhere that this might be part of what caused myths about vampires and the like (a huge collection of different things created these myths, apparently). I read on a website dedicated to night terrors and sleep paralysis many horror stories, like a woman that dreamed the ceiling was coming down to crush her, suddenly snapped out of sleep paralysis and almost jumped out a window.

But yeah basically, you start dreaming seamlessly with being awake and you hallucinate "over" what you already see, hear and even smell around you. Happened to me when I was 14 or so, it really shocked me back then. I saw one of the most common ones, a huge white face right in front of mine with large bug eyes. The most common one though is the "old hag": it usually starts with a feeling of pressure on the sleeper's stomach. It makes him panic, and then he tries to move, but realizes he cant (because of sleep paralysis).

Lots of stories of alien abductions stories come from that, and lots of other things in popular culture. Like these weird ghosts you see in harry potter that steals souls, and one of the creatures in the Supernatural TV series was inspired off the "old hag", and theres also a few movies, like that one with like, the tooth fairy or something that kills anyone who enters darkness? Kidnaps children at night? Cant remember the name of that movie. I think it came out around 2000.

This happened to me a few times in my early teens. I would wake up (or THOUGHT I woke up) and see strange visions in my room. The visions would be incredibly similar to my previous dreams so I passed it off as my imagination. I believe its perfectly feasible that someone could see things like this while wide awake. I hate how some people don't even question it, they just automatically think GHOST. The human mind can be very convincing, as dreams have shown us.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Vellfire on February 18, 2008, 02:18:16 pm

This is actually Aerogel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel), a special low-density material.

This is way, way cooler than any ghost (hint:  useful)
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: cowardknower on February 18, 2008, 04:02:20 pm
yeah i am looking at that.  i want to build my house out of aerogel.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Ragnar on February 18, 2008, 05:29:40 pm
Has anyone else here mentioned or heard of infrasound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound)?

Yes

Although I hadn't heard about the pipe organ thing before, that's interesting

Also Psychoskull did your dreams look like this


I think I remember having dreams where I was waking up in the morning but I couldn't move - and I remember having all sorts of false awakenings, can't remember if some monster popped out to let me know I was still asleep though. I think I might've had a dream where the walls were closing in though

Either way I had some WEIRD dreams growing up, some of them were scary but others were kind of grim and bizarre without being nightmares per se - I consider it a nightmare when you're scared during the dream or something loud happens and you wake up scared shitless

But yeah there's lots of weird shit, like fairies/pixies/changelings might be based on this http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/magazine/08sociability-t.html

Go to page 2, it has an example of how someone with the condition would speak which is kind of interesting

Oh there's this too - http://migraine.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/lifting-lights-and-little-people/

I figured most of our mythological stuff was a bunch of weirdos on mushrooms making it up but it's interesting to read about this sort of stuff


Edit: I used the word INTERESTING way too much in this post

Edit: NYTimes.com might not let you see the article, I think you get like 5 or 10 freebies before it tells you to pay them money though (the bastages)
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Frankie on February 19, 2008, 11:05:41 am
Nah, it was more like a large monochromic white visage that appeared over everything, and moved along with my head. Not smoky or hazy, something very clear. It was there for just a moment and disappeared. Pretty freaky.

I don't know if "false awakenings" are the same thing though. But I wouldn't know, my own episode happened right before I slept, not when I woke up.
But from the stories I read, those that happen after waking up often let you get up and walk around along with the dream. Like there was a story of a woman who woke up to see large cockroaches everywhere around her. She got up screaming, and they were still all there. She gets out of the bed and runs to the bathroom to get water on her face, trying not to touch any of the creepy things, and when shes back from the bathroom they're gone.
A false awakening sounds more like a tricky nightmare that starts in your bed, in which you just assume you're not sleeping anymore. Like, in the nightmare, you get up, walk around, be scared, but when you wake up you're back in your bed. So at least thats some sort of reality check or something. Like, you know that none of it happened.

I think I found a website about these things, but i'm not sure I like the site, it looks creepy, the terms they use are a little... "out theeere"
http://www.trionica.com/

Also apparently I made a mistake in my early post: sleep paralysis in itself is quite frequent, but sleep paralysis with visual hallucinations is pretty rare.

I know none of these things "disprove" ghosts at all (Its not like the non-existence of anything can be proved anyway), but at the very least it shows you don't need to have schizophrenia for your mind to have a pretty strong hold on what you experience.
Title: holy shit ghosts
Post by: Brad on February 21, 2008, 10:09:27 am
Yah, thats "sleep paralysis, Its more frequent than most people think, it happens once to about 1 out of 4 people, usually in their teenage years, but for some very unlucky people, it happens once, and then happens again and again. Some people see a pale face right in front of them, like a skull or something like that, others see large spiders dangling in front of their face. I read somewhere that this might be part of what caused myths about vampires and the like (a huge collection of different things created these myths, apparently). I read on a website dedicated to night terrors and sleep paralysis many horror stories, like a woman that dreamed the ceiling was coming down to crush her, suddenly snapped out of sleep paralysis and almost jumped out a window.

But yeah basically, you start dreaming seamlessly with being awake and you hallucinate "over" what you already see, hear and even smell around you. Happened to me when I was 14 or so, it really shocked me back then. I saw one of the most common ones, a huge white face right in front of mine with large bug eyes. The most common one though is the "old hag": it usually starts with a feeling of pressure on the sleeper's stomach. It makes him panic, and then he tries to move, but realizes he cant (because of sleep paralysis).

Lots of stories of alien abductions stories come from that, and lots of other things in popular culture. Like these weird ghosts you see in harry potter that steals souls, and one of the creatures in the Supernatural TV series was inspired off the "old hag", and theres also a few movies, like that one with like, the tooth fairy or something that kills anyone who enters darkness? Kidnaps children at night? Cant remember the name of that movie. I think it came out around 2000.

Man, I can go into sleep paralysis almost anytime i want now. At first it happened to me a few times when I was a youngin', the first I remember when I was about 5ish or something. I was laying in bed and the feeling slowly crept in on me somehow. I was so fucking terrified of the feeling of not being able to move at all, and a creepy mummy-looking guy was floating right above me with his arms stretched out slowly falling down on me. At the time of course I thought it was a ghost and didn't realize what it was until about 13 when I finally seen this shit on tv.


The other memory I have was when I was 8 and visited my Aunt in Toronto. I was sleeping in my little cousin's room, and I was having trouble sleeping. Then the feeling kicked in again, this time I heard creepy as fuck music playing in my head and I looked at the side of my bed and seen a fucking dummy with an evil grin walking around. It suddenly stopped and didn't know what the fuck just happened. By then I was able to think rationally, and I knew it was my imagination. Then later in the night I was facing my cousin's bed, and the feeling came in fast. I was just staring at her bed, and it suddenly lifted itself up on an angle and went from being straight up, then back to the floor. I slept with my mom for the rest of the vacation.

But nowadays, ever since about 14 it seems like this happens to me a whole lot. No more visual hallucinations but often sound hallucinations. And when it happens I'm not scared anymore even though fear seems to arise from it anyways, so I try to prolong the experience to try and induce hallucinations and a lucid dream. When I keep it up for a while it seems like my heart rate goes up rapidly and my chest starts to hurt like it's about to explode, kinda like a bad weed high, so I stop. Then there's that stage where it seems like it keeps coming up whether I like it or not, so I lay on my back and try to lucid dream (which I seem to be naturally good at, but almost every time my excitement ruins the experience..)

Pretty much all it seems like for it to happen is try be trying to fall asleep, be in that tired stage, but being semi-conscious the whole time. Some trippy shit happens.

-edit-

Just read on the site; "Some ASP experiencers fear they are suffocating, or maybe dying, due to the pressure of a crushing weight on them, usually in the chest region."

That sure as hell what happens to me a lot.