Have you ever experienced ghost activity?

[Phoenix87x]

I am utterly fascinated by ghost stories. I don't know if I believe in them, I really don't know. So I was just curious what everyone thought on the subject.

Even in my own family. My regular uncle claims his house is haunted (as do his kids and girlfriend). My great uncle swears the house he had in his 30s was haunted and my entire family claims my great grandmother's house is haunted, but I have yet to ever experience anything to corroborate any of this.

So, have you ever experienced ghost activity and what's your story?

[jingle.boy]

Mostly smells and sounds.  Sometimes I/my wife catch like a shadow of movement out of the corner of our eye (and by "sometimes" I mean like once/year at best).  Doesn't need to be in our house.  After we had to put our dog (#2) down last year, for months I regularly felt/sensed that there was something behind me and dog #1 when we went for walks.

[Logain Ablar]

I don't really believe in ghosts myself, but like you I find this kind of thing interesting.

The thing that bothers me with these ghost hunting shows is, why do the ghosts never show up in the daytime? Why is it always in the dead of night in some spooky old house? I think probably human senses and imagination play into it as well. Like, if one sense is temporarily disabled (sight), do we overcompensate with the others, and fool our brains into imagining things that aren't there? Dunno..

Still, in these days of Google and instant information, it's pretty cool to think that there's stuff out there that still can't be explained.

[Stadler]

Yes.

Having said that, I think most of the "ghost activity" we see on TV is bogus.  I do think there is something to the idea in general though.

(Fun fact:   The Warrens - the couple at the heart of "The Conjuring" movies - used to come speak at my school when I was in middle school and elementary school.  We lived in the same town.)

[Zook]

No. My Fiancée has, but I don't believe her. I'm not saying she's lying, but I don't think what she claims to have seen is anything supernatural.

[AngelBack]

Well, I completely believe in a spiritual world with entities that are not bound by the laws our physical world.  And I believe these entities at times cross the plane to our world.  However, I dont believe in the Hollywood version of ghosts.

[MirrorMask]

No. My girlfriend has, but I don't believe her. I'm not saying she's lying, but I don't think what she claims to have seen is anything supernatural.

Well, you summed up my thoughts on the issue basically. There are many loons out there, but I believe there are as well many sincere people who truly experience something they can't explain, and they / we don't have the means to give a proper explanation.

I never really had ghost experiences, mainly a "UFO" one - and by UFO I mean the literal defition of the term, a flying object I couldn't identify.

Me and my cousin as kids saw it - it was mainly a normal looking plane, but with three lights - a central one, firm, and the lateral ones that were symmetrically going forward and back in relation to the main axis of the plane, the one where the fixed light was.

Of course I don't take it as a "proof" that it was an alien spaceship or whatever. But I still don't know what the hell that was, as mundane the explanation surely was.

[Tick]

Well, I completely believe in a spiritual world with entities that are not bound by the laws our physical world.  And I believe these entities at times cross the plane to our world.  However, I dont believe in the Hollywood version of ghosts.

What exactly is Hollywood's version?

Most people here know I saw a flying saucer up close and personal.

My mom experienced some supernatural stuff, as has my wife. I 100% believe them both.

I have personally never encountered the supernatural except to say I took pictures at night in the famed Union Cemetery in Easton Connecticut and to my shock when the film was developed one of the pictures caught an old man standing next to one of the trees. His face was clear as day. My wife was so freaked out she insisted we throw the pictures out as she did not want them in the house.

[bosk1]

Mostly just lens flares.

[Tick]

Mostly just lens flares.

Bosk, you son of a bitch

[bosk1]

Couldn't help myself.

[AngelBack]

Well, I completely believe in a spiritual world with entities that are not bound by the laws our physical world.  And I believe these entities at times cross the plane to our world.  However, I dont believe in the Hollywood version of ghosts.

What exactly is Hollywood's version?

Most people here know I saw a flying saucer up close and personal.

My mom experienced some supernatural stuff, as has my wife. I 100% believe them both.

I have personally never encountered the supernatural except to say I took pictures at night in the famed Union Cemetery in Easton Connecticut and to my shock when the film was developed one of the pictures caught an old man standing next to one of the trees. His face was clear as day. My wife was so freaked out she insisted we throw the pictures out as she did not want them in the house.

The malevolent spirit of a dead human with unfinished business here.  Wreaking havoc on those who wronged it in a previous life or on an unsuspecting group of folks.  But I guess there are other versions of "ghosts" like that Demi Moore movie or "Wonderful Life".  I believe if there are spirit beings they probably serve a greater purpose than revenge or getting closure in some way for a previous life.  A higher calling if you will.

[Chino]

The mind is extremely susceptible to hallucination.

[Tick]

The mind is extremely susceptible to hallucination.

For sure. That's why even the most renowned (legitimate) paranormal investigators do the research they do before coming to a conclusion.

Of coarse the other thing is, the supernatural is big business and makes shit tons on money so there is a lot of prefabricated phony bullshit out there on all the ghost hunter shows, and all the dramatization paranormal  shows as well.

That doesn't mean that everything is fake, but he tends to make a lot of folks it is.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Mostly just lens flares.

My parents say they have seen ghosts in the home I grew up in, but in 14 years of living there, I never once experienced anything of the sort.  And I hope that I do not.

[BlobVanDam]

My mother believed our previous house was haunted, as did apparently someone else who lived there before us. I never witnessed anything, but given that the house was old as shit and was demolished soon after we moved out suggests to me that any "ghost" activity was likely due to the shitty state of the house and possibly rodents.

I don't believe any of that stuff. It's only human nature to want to understand and explain what we experience, and certain reasons are much easier and convenient to accept when we lack the understanding or knowledge to recognize the truth of the matter. It's been happening since the dawn of man, and will continue until we die out (probably due to the apes conquering us, and they'll outlaw the pursuit of truth because it will uncover the ugly truth that humans once ruled the planet). The human mind is basically a gooey piece of shit that can't be trusted for shit.

Also, it was definitely lens flares.

[Prog Snob]

I started a thread like this not too long ago.

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=45854.msg2093990#msg2093990

I definitely believe in ghosts and supernatural occurrences. I've had a few experiences myself, including a few with a Ouija Board. I am, or was, a practicing demonolater and my first time using the board to call on a demon was more intense of an experience than I was expecting. I wrote out what I remembered of it and put it away for safekeeping.

Besides those with the Ouija Board I had a few other instances where there was definitely something in a room with me or touching me. I could feel the pressure of something and it wasn't just my imagination.

[TioJorge]

I think it's a fantastic point of entertainment and a really great facet of human imagination.

Nope.

As a child I'd have told you I absolutely had experienced them. As an adult who has experienced actual terror and horror from the real world...ghosts are a nice getaway.

[lonestar]

Mostly just lens flares.

Bosk, you son of a bitch

First thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.


I actually work in a hotel that is noted for ghost encounters, one by Tim Duncan that made papers nationwide, but even after thirteen years there, I have yet to come across anything spooky. I did name my ghost pepper chili sauce after the room that he saw it in though, for a while we had the Room 442 sauce.

[DebraKadabra]

Well, I completely believe in a spiritual world with entities that are not bound by the laws our physical world.  And I believe these entities at times cross the plane to our world.  However, I dont believe in the Hollywood version of ghosts.

Pretty much this.

[Prog Snob]

Well, I completely believe in a spiritual world with entities that are not bound by the laws our physical world.  And I believe these entities at times cross the plane to our world.  However, I dont believe in the Hollywood version of ghosts.

Pretty much this.

The Hollywood version of anything is questionable.

[Stadler]

Well, I completely believe in a spiritual world with entities that are not bound by the laws our physical world.  And I believe these entities at times cross the plane to our world.  However, I dont believe in the Hollywood version of ghosts.

Pretty much this.

The Hollywood version of anything is questionable.

Except Margot Robbie.

[cramx3]

I feel like I'm on the borderline. I lived in an apartment with my x for a few years.  She would always say there was a ghost or spirit or something there.  One night I woke up and looked over at her and her eyes were wide open staring at the ceiling.  I thought it was weird but fell back asleep.  She told me the next morning she felt like a ghost was hovering over her during the night.  I essentially kept all my personal feelings about this to myself and always said there was no ghost.  However, I very often would hear things in our kitchen late at night.  I never told her any of that because I didn't want to freak her out any more.  It was all pretty much a non issue so I didn't want to feed into it and make it a problem for our living situation.  But I couldn't help but think that I did experience a few things that I found to be odd, almost always around 3am (I used to work till midnight in those days so being up late while she was sleeping was normal).

I'm pretty glad that I have not experienced anything odd in my current living situation.

[Podaar]

No.

But when I was 22 I dated a woman who I swear had a prehensile clitoris. It would have been really spooky if it didn't feel so goddamned good.

[Mr. Beale]

There was one summer I worked at a place that had a kitchen/dining area that I often felt like I was being watched or kept thinking I saw something in the corner of my eye, only to find no one was there. It was only after working there for a couple months that I found out that that was a common thing in that room and that some people thought it was haunted. Was it actually something supernatural or was there just something funky about the layout of that room? I liked reading about spooks as a kid but I'm pretty skeptical that there's spirits that have nothing better to do than hang around buildings. Still, I've never been completely closed to the idea that there's something more to some paranormal happenings than just wild imagination.

[Ħ]

Nothing. My mom says she once turned on the sink and all this thick dark liquid came out. She turned off the sink, looked up, looked down, turned the sink on again, but only water came out this time. I guess I don't have any reason to disbelieve her story, although it could easily have been a hallucination, so I suspend judgment.

[Adami]

Nothing. My mom says she once turned on the sink and all this thick dark liquid came out. She turned off the sink, looked up, looked down, turned the sink on again, but only water came out this time. I guess I don't have any reason to disbelieve her story, although it could easily have been a hallucination, so I suspend judgment.

Could have been bad pipes. Those things happen.

Now if it happened in the bath tub and tried to grab you as a baby.....

[cramx3]

Yea, that's normal if the water line had been turned off to your house for maintenance or something.

[JLa]

.

[lucky7]

The night before my Dad passed (in 92) I saw my Nan, who had passed five years earlier, it was over in ten seconds. I was 16 at the time, ran out and told my Mum who was still up (dad had gone to bed already), she told me go back to bed, thinking I must have dreamt it, the next morning Dad was gone sometime during the night, he was 46, had not been sick, he passed from cardiomyopathy, we found out months later.

Years later, about 18 years to be exact, I was living in an old house, I woke up in the middle of the night, to see a lady standing in my bedroom door, my rush to turn on the bedside light meant I took my eyes off her, in that time gone. Later I realized I could see her plain as day in a white dress with blonde hair, in the dark...

Both experiences were very quick, not longer than about 10-15 seconds each, felt like eternity at the time.
I understand people's scepticism, but even I could not have predicted my Dad passing, hell of a coincidence.

[Phoenix87x]

As a kid, I was always fascinated with ouija boards, but my grandmother was like "Hell no"

Anyone ever mess around with one as a kid or adult. And if so, did you ever get any interesting results?

[ChuckSteak]

Nope, and even if I had witnessed something completely unnatural, I wouldn't immediately call it "ghost activity". How can you name something that you don't understand yourself? Didn't primitive people call rain an act of god? Or thunder means that the gods are angry? It's the same thing with "ghost activity".

[Stadler]

As a kid, I was always fascinated with ouija boards, but my grandmother was like "Hell no"

Anyone ever mess around with one as a kid or adult. And if so, did you ever get any interesting results?

I remember being in high school, and at a party at a friend's house.  Quick stereotype:  a good guy, he was not the brightest bulb on the tree, he was a hard-drinking Irish Catholic from Philly, and all that comes with it (superstitious, temper, ready to fight, etc...).   One of our girl friends was there.  I took her to the prom (as friends), but my friend and her had something on and off; they were trouble together - she was an instigator and he fell for it every single time.

Anyway, a Ouiji board came out.  He said no way, not in my house.   She said why not, it'll be fun, he said no, finally agreeing to having it in the dining room.  I never went in there, didn't partake at all, but about half an hour later, she comes running out white as a ghost, something about her grandmother, blah blah blah.  My friend is half in the bag, and falls for it again (not the 'grandmother thing' but letting the girl talk him into coming into the dining room).   Again, about a half an hour later, there is shouting and crashing, and he's throwing the board across the room screaming "not in my house! not in my house!"... to this day I don't know what he saw/heard in that session, but it freaked him out for a LONG time whatever it was.   Maybe the others in the room were fucking with him, I don't know but it was SOMETHING, and he never spoke about it again.   I asked the girl a couple times, and all she would say was she wasn't playing any games and if he wanted to tell me he will.   

[Stadler]

I don't know if it's "ghost activity" or not, but I saw Theresa Caputo ("The Long Island Medium") last week and it was fascinating.   Most of her gig is schtick, but there was enough there that was "how did she DO that?" that it's something to think about.   

[MirrorMask]

Quick stereotype:  a good guy, he was not the brightest bulb on the tree, he was a hard-drinking Irish Catholic from Philly, and all that comes with it (superstitious, temper, ready to fight, etc...).

[...]

Again, about a half an hour later, there is shouting and crashing, and he's throwing the board across the room screaming "not in my house! not in my house!"... to this day I don't know what he saw/heard in that session, but it freaked him out for a LONG time whatever it was. 

Well, not to be so quick to pass judgement on situations and persons I don't know, but.... I would assume he was suggestible.

I would never play with that thing however. I listen to Dio's advice, namely the song Too Late from Dehumanizer. My approach to this stuff is "If it's all fake, what's the point of doing it, and if there's something there - and by "Something" I don't mean ghosts or spirits, but the still vastly unknown way one of the most complex machines in the entire world, the human brain, works - why taking the risk to awaken something that isn't even there, but our brain could react to?