Do You Believe in Ghosts?

[megocrazy]

Ghosts/Spirits however you want to define it. I definately believe they exist. UFO's also. I agree that we would be quite naive to think we are the only living beings in the galaxy and we aren't really all that far from being able to inhabit the moon if they really wanted to. I do believe once they break the need to worry about gravity(ie: launching a space vehicle from a low gravity location like the moon), that great strides will be taken in space travel, if they wish to. Many of the issues that they've had with the space shuttle missions deal directly with items needed to break the gravitational pull of the earth. Booster rockets would not be needed on a ship leaving from a low pull orbit, and the foam blocks that fall off regularly would not be an issue as they would not be needed if you were not reentering earth atmosphere. They will need to source a reusable form of energy, like solar would probably be the most logical as we can go anywhere we can see the sun and have power. That's a pretty big area to cover. Then we can go find all the aliens and take there cool saucers and fly around like the Jetson's do. Now that would be cool!

[Adam West]

I am also agnostic when it comes to ghosts.

The only real experience I had was in High School...my best friend had a sick mother who was dying from a rare illness. It wasn't unusual for me to fall asleep with the radio on, wake up in the middle of the night, turn it off and go back to sleep.

It happened one night but when I rolled over to turn the radio off, I saw a small shadow figure pull the cord from the wall...and I almost pooped my pants. The next morning, when I woke up, I looked over at the radio to see if I was just having a dream but the cord was pulled from the radio just as I saw. I also found out that my best friend's mother died that very night almost exactly at the same time I remember waking up to turn off the radio.

It's creepy but in retrospect, I was asleep and only half awake when I saw what happened. I could have just had a dream and it is possible that in my dream the radio was on but really wasn't. The only weird part of it all was that my friend's mother did really die at the same time I saw or dreamed what happened which might have just been mere coincidence.

[Vortigern99]

...if a race of beings were so advanced as to harness tremendous amounts of energy that they could actually compress space/time 4th dimensionally, then they could travel through this warped/bent realm at a conventional speed and arrive at their destination in a reasonable amount of time. It would sort of be like riding a wave on a surfboard.

Scientists have been looking at these implications for YEARS and have determined them to be scientifically FEASIBLE given the correct amount of energy and electro-magnetic control. It IS possible. However it is only un-likely at OUR current technological level of understanding.

I highly recommend the writtings of noted physicist and Columbia U instructor Jeanne Cavalos.

This is all very exciting speculation, and I look forward to reading Cavalos' conclusions. However, there is no evidence at hand that anything of the kind is actually going on -- no space/time compressor engines, no machines capable of harnessing tremendous amounts of electro-magnetic energy, not even parts to such machines that may be indentified as such. This is speculation, and it is exciting, but what you have here is a hypothesis that remains untested under the scientific method. Until evidence or results emerge that makes this hypothesis a theory, it will remain speculation.

[megocrazy]

Not if those extra-terrestrial beings were advanced enough to develop a form of propulsion that does NOT travel through space in a linear way.

Yes, the closest star IS two light years away traveling at the (scientifically accepted) impossible speed of light.

I have to agree. It's only impossible to imagine if you look at it from our side of the technological view. Suppose the "aliens" in question are 3000 years older than we are. How far advanced from today do you think we'll be in 3000 years? We can already send an unmanned ship several planets away. Not to mention the human race has pretty much delayed itself in advancing technologically for years. The almighty dollar has caused many to not look forward but soak as much profit out of something until it is exausted. In 1969 we put an electric car on the moon, yet after almost 40 years of technological advancement we still don't have one in use on our highways in any large capacity, and we're all paying $4 a gallon for fossil fuel. It could handle the terrain of the moon, but not our nice paved highways? We use solar energy to power satellites in space but still don't see the everyday items we use taking advantage of something that costs nothing to receive. If they could regulate sunshine and charge you for it, there would be a solar panel on every house in the world. I believe that a civilization that does not operate on a money scale, would be far more advanced in the same time span than one that does. Like us. $$ advances all aspects of our society. Wether it's industrial or technological business, the space race or the arms race, if it is done it's to make a dime or control power. A civilization based on a non profit idea, with no war between each other would probably be far more advanced than we are in the same amount of time. But again that seems impossible from our side of the view, because war and profit are all we've ever known.

[darklord1967]

Why should we conclude that what the Mayans, Mesopotamians and Columbian explorers saw were alien spacecraft?

Far enough. My point is why should we automatically conclude that what they saw were automatically NOT alien craft, particularly when these ancient phenomenon were observed to be performing under intelligent control (Re: changing course, hovering etc.)

Ancient peoples also had stories of giants and dragons forming the world from their body parts, and heroes flying on winged sandals: should we credit these, too, as tales of extraterrestrial intervention in human affairs?

No we shouldn't. However, the difference is that these ancient anecdotes you describe have no modern scientifically observed equivalent. The phenomenon of ancient Extra-terrestrial visitation to this planet does.

Are all tales of gods and fantastic deeds actually stories of alien escapades in disguise -- or just some of them? Who decides which myths and legends are "really" about aliens visiting the earth, and which are the products of the human psyche searching for answers to the mysteries of creation and astronomical phenomena?

Well that's the point. We don't know if it is all or some. Therefore, I (and others who are like-minded) believe that it is wrong to simply label people crazy or hoaxsters simply because what they proport to have observed has not been scientifically confirmed.

I say again: History is full of people who were ridiculed in this way for their observations only to have time and science catch up to them and confirm the truth of their "fantastic" observations.

It seems to me that folklorists and mythologists have a far better understanding of these matters than UFO enthusiasts and paranormal researchers, and their conclusions do not bear out such imaginative speculations.

Here we shall have to agree to disagree.

As to modern accounts of alien abduction, I've read many. I've also exprerienced the state between dream and wakefulness, when one's limbs are paralyzed inside the dream but one can see the surrounding room in real life, and shades and figures of nightmare emerge from the otherwise real walls, shapes and shadows. This is a real physiological event, documented many times in sleep laboratories, which seizes the mind in the interim between dream and reality. It explains probably 90% of alien abduction stories. The other 10% or so is outright hoaxing, wild tales bent on attention and following in the mold of the stories that have come before it and that have been presented in the media.

This is YOUR theory and you're welcome to it. But it in NO WAY fully explains all the details of that phenomena (Re: Identical world-wide impants, and body markings, multiple-simultaneous witnesses), and it dismisses the vast number of scientifically-studied cases (Re; Betty and Barney Hill separately recounting their shared experience through hypnosis-regression therapy)

Furthermore you attribute virtually 100% of all abduction cases to your "earthly" explanations of sleep phenomena and hoaxes, leaving no room at all for even the possibility of anything else. Not even the scientific community that you hold in such high regard would do this. And thankfully, in the case of alien abductions, they have not. The phenomena HAS gotten scientific attention and study precisely because TOO many cases have been reported and documented that rule out the explanations you offer above.

Anecdotal evidence is not scientific evidence. You are welcome to accept it in your own search to grasp the world around you, but it cannot be accepted ina scientific study because it is prone to error, misapprehension and fraud.

Scientific "evidence" BEGINS first as "anecdotal" observations of mis-understood organisms or phenomena by average individuals which are then studied, learned from, and revealed within the scientific community by "trained professionals" .

The phenomena of extra-terrestrial visitation and human abduction fits all of these critera. It is just NOT readily accepted by some because of its continued "paranormal" status due mostly to stringent govenment denials.

But the fact remains MANY UFO researchers and investigators are respected SCIENTISTS in their own right.

Furthermore, "Trained professionals" have observed extra-terrestrial craft in our skies and oceans FOR YEARS. Policemen. Military, fighter, and commercial pilots. Professionals all. We trust them with so much. Yet we are ready to ridicule them and say that their collective eyes deceive them when they see and experience something that simply does not exist within our known technological capabilities. Do you think that an orbiting astronaut does NOT know the difference between a meteor skipping off the atmosphere of our planet and a SAUCER SHAPED craft the he has observed buzzing his own module at tremendous speed that then radically changing course (actual example)? Gimme a break.

Seems to me like you're only willing to accept the word of a trained professional so long as their observations and conclusions don't violate your own personal belief system.

[darklord1967]

This is all very exciting speculation, and I look forward to reading Cavalos' conclusions. However, there is no evidence at hand that anything of the kind is actually going on -- no space/time compressor engines, no machines capable of harnessing tremendous amounts of electro-magnetic energy, not even parts to such machines that may be indentified as such.

Um... actually you're wrong. There IS evidence. The tremendous amounts of electromagnetic residue and disturbance that have been measured at the locations of observed extra-terrestrial craft landing sites, plus the documented cases of electrical appliances ceasing all function (automobile engines, radio static, etc) indicate craft with powerful electro-magnetic propulsion systems. This is no different than the ceasing of all electrical appliances during an EM pulse from, say, the detonation of an atomic device.

As for space-time compression, abductee accounts (which you largely dismiss) are rife with accounts of craft that are tiny on the outside but ENORMOUS on the inside. There are accounts of observed craft that literally appear to stretch and change shape as they accelerate at tremendous velocities and simply vanish into "pockets of empty air".

This is speculation, and it is exciting, but what you have here is a hypothesis that remains untested under the scientific method. Until evidence or results emerge that makes this hypothesis a theory, it will remain speculation.

Wrong again. Scientific calculations and EXPERIMENTS are already underway with tachyons and sub-atomic particles that travel at incredible velocities. They have been observed SCIENTIFIALLY to "vanish" from one occupied point in space and time and INSTANTANEOUSLY (relative to themselves) appearing in another space at a different point in time (usually moments later).

Scientific experiments have also been conducted regarding the compression of space-time through electromagnetic forces.

It is scientifically understood that the Earth itself contains inherent pockets of concentrated electromagnetic energy at key locations. These "hot-spots" are often areas of enormous numbers of documented paranormal phenomenon cases. One such location is the area known as the "Bermuda Triangle". The violent, random electromagnetic storms that crop up over that body of water have wreaked havoc on planes and ships for years.

And cases of electromagnetic windows (wormholes) randomly opening up and revealing different spaces or time periods beyond are rare and unpredictable by they have occurred.

[toys2cool]

Just finished watching that Ghost haunting show on the discovery channel,man that's good stuff

[Manspider]

Without a doubt I believe in ghosts. I've had multiple personal experiences which are scientifically unexplainable. For all the skeptics... you will always be skeptical. No shared story will ever change your mind... you will always come-up with an explanation to discredit the paranormal incident. That's okay, though. I learned a long time ago not to waste my time and energy trying to turn a non-believer into a believer. The skeptic will never see because "Believing Is Seeing." "Seeing Is Not Believing."

[toys2cool]

I just keep my stories to myself,people look at you like a liar or like if you're crazy

[Hector]

I did go through some ghost experiences as a kid in Mexico.

Mind you, I never saw anything, it was all unexplained noises.

We lived in this huge old Spanish house, the ones that have that open patio right in the middle of the house (with all the rooms surrounding it).

These are the things I experienced:

1. Someone or something dragging its feet on the floor.
2. Two hard knocks on the ceiling of my bedroom every night at around 1am (without fail).
3. My dog will also hear these noises and react accordingly (usually by barking).
4. I had nightmares of my entire family being butchered by this unknown force, my dad, mother, and sister, would be cut into pieces. This was an almost every night event.
5. I was a sleepwalker during my five year stay at that house.
6. The house had two backyards separated by this tall wall. We had various farm animals, chickens, goats, rabbits, turkeys, etc... Well, there was this stall where the goats simply refused to go into. They were terrified. Needthless to say, we never forced the goats to stay there anymore.
7. My parents will hear stuff too. My dad told me he and my mom used to hear someone/something, drag the kitchen table and chairs around (I never did though), so he would grab his shotgun and investigate, he never saw anything, but he would hear these noises on a frequent basis.
8. I would also hear this extreme church bell ringing inside my room, the sound would be so loud that I would cover my ears, it was painful to hear (interestingly enough, my dog was unware of this particular sound).
9. I would always sleep with my covers over my head, I was always scared living in that house, and I was so glad the day we moved.
10. My sister is the only member of the family who never heard a bloody thing, lucky her, lol.

...and yes, I'm agnostic (so was my father).

[Blackkryptonite]

This has been a subject I've become increasingly curious about over the past year. I have no doubt that there is life after death, as my Christian faith teaches me. But on the other hand my very rational science based train of thought wants to believe in spirits or ghost or hauntings or whatever you want to call them but I've yet to have a "one on one" encounter that makes me a believer and to be honest I really want this personal proof. I'm somewhat fascinated by EVP's and would very much like to run some test on my own with a digital recorder in a place that is known to be haunted so i can see for myself. And if there are such things are hauntings or spirits (non-demon) then why/how are they here after their bodies have passed? I believe that everything can be explained through science including anything that we might consider super natural and I think with such a widespread focus on the paranormal these days that it's just a matter of time before we start understanding a little more about the subject.

[Vortigern99]

... My point is why should we automatically conclude that what they saw were automatically NOT alien craft, particularly when these ancient phenomenon were observed to be performing under intelligent control (Re: changing course, hovering etc.)

Because the ancients believed deities powered and motivated the celestial bodies, as with Apollo dragging the sun across the sky in his fiery chariot. You may choose if you like to take these instances of the mythic imagination as indicative of ancient astronauts, but it is not evidence in the scientific sense of observed and quantifiable phenomena.

... the difference is that these ancient anecdotes you describe have no modern scientifically observed equivalent. The phenomenon of ancient Extra-terrestrial visitation to this planet does.

It certainly does not. There is no scientifically observed instance of a phenomenon that is objectively quantifiable as an alien visitation. All we have are tons and tons of anecdotal "evidence", which can be erroneous or fabricated, and some video and photographic evidence, which can be explained in a multitude of other, terrestrial ways (such as secret experimental military craft) before reaching out for the unlikely and fantastical explanation of alien visitation. All terrestrial possibilities must be exhausted before appealing to the as-yet unproven and unscientific hypothesis of alien visitation. Otherwise any statement made by any person anywhere could be taken as valid and credible, which is a dangerous state of mind in which to exist.

... Well that's the point. We don't know if it is all or some. Therefore, I (and others who are like-minded) believe that it is wrong to simply label people crazy or hoaxsters simply because what they proport to have observed has not been scientifically confirmed.

For the record, I'm not labelling anyone "crazy", and as I said the percentage of hoaxsters (meaning willing perpetrators of fraud) is very small. What remains is human misapprehension of unknown phenomena, and basic human error in terms of memory, perception, and an understanding of physics and astronomy.

... I say again: History is full of people who were ridiculed in this way for their observations only to have time and science catch up to them and confirm the truth of their "fantastic" observations.

I'm not ridiculing anyone. And if what you're purporting is true, then time and the efforts of human technological advancement will exonerate you and all proponents of alien visitation. In the meantime, I and others of a skeptical (meaning "fact-discerning", not "fact-dismissive") mindset will continue to challenge unproven assertions according to the scientific method and Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit (which basically means critical thinking, freedom from bias, and the injunction that there be independent validation of a concept before it's accepted as truthful).

... [Sleep paralysis] is YOUR theory and you're welcome to it. But it in NO WAY fully explains all the details of that phenomena (Re: Identical world-wide impants, and body markings, multiple-simultaneous witnesses), and it dismisses the vast number of scientifically-studied cases (Re; Betty and Barney Hill separately recounting their shared experience through hypnosis-regression therapy)

Well, sleep paralysis isn't really "my" theory; I've read about it, experienced it myself, spoken with others who have experienced it, and it happens to fit the exact criteria for every alien abduction story I've ever read or heard about. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis:

Sleep paralysis is a common condition characterized by transient partial or total paralysis of skeletal muscles and areflexia that occurs upon awakening from sleep or less often while falling asleep. Stimuli such as touch or sound may terminate the episode, which usually has a duration of seconds to minutes. This condition may occur in normal subjects or be associated with narcolepsy, cataplexy, and hypnagogic hallucinations. ... The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful, or dream-like, objects may appear in the room alongside one's normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as a theory for alien abductions and ghostly encounters.

... Furthermore you attribute virtually 100% of all abduction cases to your "earthly" explanations of sleep phenomena and hoaxes, leaving no room at all for even the possibility of anything else. Not even the scientific community that you hold in such high regard would do this. And thankfully, in the case of alien abductions, they have not. The phenomena HAS gotten scientific attention and study precisely because TOO many cases have been reported and documented that rule out the explanations you offer above.

You speak of the "Scientific community" as though they are of one mind on the matter. Some investigators believe sleep paralysis is the best explanation for all abductions and other spirit-visitations, others offer a variety of rationales for such pheomena. I am certainly not qualified to state with 100% certainty that sleep paralysis accounts for every non-hoax instance of visitation/abduction. Possibly there are others, but again sleep paralysis fits all the criteria for every such encounter I've ever read, seen or heard about. I'd like to request from you a link to an article which explains these cases you cite that "rule out" sleep paralysis and hoaxing.

... Scientific "evidence" BEGINS first as "anecdotal" observations of mis-understood organisms or phenomena by average individuals which are then studied, learned from, and revealed within the scientific community by "trained professionals" .

Certainly observed phenomena are the spark that leads to an application of the scientific method, that is, forming a hypothesis, testing it and re-testing it with a control experiment to eventually produce a theory. But the anecdotes of UFO sightings, abductions and other visitations are only anecdotes; there is, and can be in such instances, no follow up beyond the hypothetical: no testing, no re-testing, no controls and no development of a theory based on further observed and quantified phenomena. Thus such stories cannot be considered constructive or explanatory toward a scientifically sound conclusion.

... The phenomena of extra-terrestrial visitation and human abduction fits all of these critera. It is just NOT readily accepted by some because of its continued "paranormal" status due mostly to stringent govenment denials.

It does no such thing. I might poilitely suggest you read up on the scientific method, on critical thinking, on independent validation and on logical analysis of facts, because your belief that "extra-terrestrial visitation and human abduction fits" scientific criteria is inaccurate and shows a misunderstanding of the principles of science.

... But the fact remains MANY UFO researchers and investigators are respected SCIENTISTS in their own right.

This is true, and as human beings they are as prone to error and bias as anyone else in the world. That is why there is a worldwide scientific community represented by peer-reviewed publications, and constant challenging of new theories, hypotheses and conclusions. And so far as I am aware, none of the paranormal researchers you cite, nor any of their peer-reviewed articles, has been accepted as valid by the worldwide scientific community.

... Furthermore, "Trained professionals" have observed extra-terrestrial craft in our skies and oceans FOR YEARS. Policemen. Military, fighter, and commercial pilots. Professionals all. We trust them with so much. Yet we are ready to ridicule them and say that their collective eyes deceive them when they see and experience something that simply does not exist within our known technological capabilities. Do you think that an orbiting astronaut does NOT know the difference between a meteor skipping off the atmosphere of our planet and a SAUCER SHAPED craft the he has observed buzzing his own module at tremendous speed that then radically changing course (actual example)? Gimme a break.

Once more, I'm not ridiculing anyone. Experimental terrestrial aircraft, with flights conducted in secrecy by the military, are almost all that is required to explain such sightings. The rest might be false memory, hallucinations, and dream-state pheomena. Until there is hard evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft, we cannot accept the anecdotes of any person as correct and valid, regardless of their rank or social standing. Otherwise we open the doors to credulity and the acceptance of any fantastic story by anyone who would care to deceive us, for whatever purpose they might indulge. Stories are not quantifiable phenomena, and do not serve as evidence toward a conclusive scientific theory.

... Seems to me like you're only willing to accept the word of a trained professional so long as their observations and conclusions don't violate your own personal belief system.

Not at all. I'm ready and willing to accept alien visitation. I would like to see some evidence of it. But I will not allow that bias to color my perception of the facts, or to dilute the logic and accountability of the scientific method.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

I don't really know what I believe when it comes to ghosts. A part of me tends to be more stubborn about believing it but honestly I've had some unexplained things occur in my house, especially when I was younger. It'd be much too long and involved to explain it all here, but alot of it was never really easily explained. What made things more interesting was later on when I was a young adult and my dad remarried, my young stepbrother experienced some of the same things while staying here at my house. The things he saw and described were very very similar to what I'd seen and experienced as a kid in this house. But, there's no way he was just being a copycat or anything, because I'd never told him nor my parents about any of this stuff prior.

My wife and I currently live in the same house that I grew up in. We have a roommate who lives downstairs now (where a majority of the weird incidents occurred years ago) and every once in a while he tells me about something strange happening......televisions being turned on or off on their own, things being moved that noone here claims to have touched, etc. Other than that, though, not much happens anymore as compared to when I was younger.

[jessica]

I do believe in ghosts, but fortunately, have never encountered any. I would be too creeped out. I think the house we moved from had a ghost although I never saw anything strange except for that occasional movement/blur of a figure that when you turn to focus is gone. My mom though was terrified of spending the night there, and after the one incident in the bedroom refused to sleep in that room--she always stayed in the living room or slept in another room. She said she was sleeping and woke up because she felt somebody was staring at her and there was a dark figure hovering/bending down looking at her. She said it was of a man but the features were indistinct.

Luckily the place where we live now does not give me any strange sensations nor does it have the unexplained loud pops in the ceiling that would wake me up in the middle of the night.

I think I have photographed blobs of light and I am attaching these. These orbs of light showed up in some but not all of the photographs for the party we had that evening. I have never seen these orbs of light or streaks appear anywhere on any photographs I have ever taken--yet that night there were so many captured. I am always scanning photographs for any signs of these orbs or streaks from what I have seen on tv, and to me these look like orbs.

What do you guys think?

[Mikey]

I think those blobs of light are a reflection of the camera flash on the camera lens from the foil serving container.
Just a guess