Exist?

I'm not an expert on this at all, I just believe in them because this world needs as much mystery and adventure as possible.

And c'mon, somebody besides just Joad (but of course you can too!) reply with something.

Lol, i think ghosts are real! Just for the fun of it, the excitement and the subject of interesting stories at night, ghosts existing is something I like to believe!

I believe in ghosts. Think about it. So many people, thousands, maybe millions of people, have seen strange things. You can explain it away as some natural phenonama or another, but you cannot deny a correlation.

There is this AM radio program on from I believe 1:00 to 5:00 in the morning Eastern Time called Coast to Coast. It's at WPRO (frequency is 630). Don't ask how I know about this, I'm not an insomniac, but it's a good show. It has a guest who talks about things that usually but do not always pertain to the supernatural, and how probabloe it is. Then people call in with relevant stories. Listening to these stories, you can't just think "Oh, all these people are making it up." or "It's just the Northern Lights." You simply can't.

Also, think about how much we know about the way things work. Now think of how much we don't know because we are not trying to learn. People long ago would not have believed in dinosaurs, but they existed (maybe, since we have no proof aside from bones). There is a lot more we could learn from the world if we but accepted that the unknown is not neccessarily false.

I don't see how people aren't trying to learn. There's research teams dedicated specifically for pretty much every idea that has ever been brought up. There are critics and there are supporters. You need both sides to fuel each other. There is tons more we could learn but to say we aren't trying? That's ridiculous.

But anyway, that's a moot point. Here, courtesy of Wikipedia to save myself some typing:

Critics of "eyewitness ghost sightings" suggest that limitations of human perception and ordinary physical explanations can account for such sightings; for example, air pressure changes in a home causing doors to slam, or lights from a passing car reflected through a window at night. Reports of ghosts "seen out of the corner of the eye" may be accounted for by the sensitivity of human peripheral vision, which can easily mislead, especially late at night, when the brain is tired and more likely to misinterpret sights and sounds. Similarly, pareidolia, an innate tendency to recognize human forms in random patterns, often causes people to believe they have seen ghosts. In addition, some feel human psychology plays a part in such sightings; a person's belief that a location is haunted may cause them to interpret mundane events as confirmation of haunting. [11]

External influences, such as sound waves are thought to be another cause of ghost sightings. Frequencies lower than 20 hertz are called infrasound and are normally inaudible, but British scientists Richard Lord and Richard Wiseman have concluded that infrasound can cause humans to feel a "presence" in the room, or unexplained feelings of anxiety or dread.[12] And Carbon monoxide poisoning, which can cause powerful auditory and visual hallucinations,[13]depression, and a generalized sensation of illness and dread, was recognized as a possible cause for "haunted houses" as early as 1921.

Some skeptics dispute popular explanations for the existence of ghosts, such as the perception that ghosts are produced from the victims of unsolved violent murders. They suggest that if the former is true, then the number of such murders (approximately 1 million over the course of the twentieth century in America alone) should produce overwhelming numbers of ghost sightings. They also argue that the traditional perception of ghosts wearing clothing is illogical given the supposed spiritual nature of ghosts, suggesting that the basis of what a ghost is said to look like and consist of is quite dependent on preconceptions made by society. Skeptics also cite a total lack of scientifically testable and verifiable evidence in favor of the existence of ghosts, despite centuries of interest in the subject.


So yes you can think that all those people are just making it up. I don't. But the point can be made.

Good point, but that WAS my point. People like to find explanations of things that happen that they fear or cannot explain. Although I do not doubt that these things are true, and that many sightings do have to do with perception, I've heard stories that deal with an actual manifestation. Whether or not that is true, I do not know. I also keep my mind open. Perhaps what we think of as the living dead is just another species of beings usually invisible to the human eye. Scientifically, it is not too farfetched that there can be things living (or not living) on Earth that we cannot see or hear except in certain circumstances. Maybe an alien colony, who knows? OK, now I have to look fo ra thread here on aliens, or make one if there is none already.

They didn't find an explanation because they fear or cannot explain it. Obviously they can explain it, or they wouldn't have an explanation that makes perfect sense. So no, I really don't think the point I made was the same point you made.

And you saying that you've heard stories isn't exactly a reinforced argument for whether or not they exist. According to skeptics, even seeing it isn't a reinforced argument for it, which is also believable, I see people fairly often when I go to turn around. They aren't there.

I meant in a more "Looking straight at it and maybe communicating with it" way rather than a "Well out of the corner of my eye I saw a thing and it might have been a ghost, or maybe it was a streetlamp" way.

Yeah I know exactly what you meant but I commented on that in the second post I made in this thread.

I think i'll sit back and watch this one, and maybe I'll post when I see something that interests me...

There's really nothing else going on.