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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

HWY THE FUCK AREN'T YOU GUYS TAKING THIS TOPIC SERIOUSLY

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



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 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.

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.

Time is a dimension.

no, time and space are their own dimension, time itself is not a spatial dimension.

semantics ahoy.