Do You Believe in Ghosts?

[Adam West]

Is it possible that the orbs are just picture development problems? I remember taking photography classes in High School and although we used black and white as a medium, sometimes the film would get a little messed up if it had the slightest exposure to light or sometimes the developing chemicals would give similar orb like appearances on the picture.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I can't say I'm very convinced by "orbs" in and of themselves. With what I and my family have experienced, I'm not in a positiion to discount them completely, but I think they are over-diagnosed as ghosts when they could be just random tricks of lighting and photography in many cases. A lot of the "ghost hunting" TV shows lead you to believe every dust speck that flies by the camera is an orb/ghost. That's why I like the TAPS guys on "Ghost Hunters". They try to find more quantitative evidence and dismiss much of what they find that others would use as proof.

Chris

[Bo8a_Fett]

When I used to work at Hampstead tube station myself and another member of staff...my supervisor...were closing up for the night...part of which included shutting off the old lifts.
This entailed going up to the machine room and physically throwing ye olde type circuit breakers to shut off the current (the entire machine room used to look like Frankensteins laboratory..lol). Anyway after shutting off the power and locking the circuit breakers in place..padlocked for saftey. we would shut off and lock all the other lift equipment such as the domes (they were man operated lifts with heavy set handles that you had to pull up to the top of the dome to operate the lift). We sat down to have a cup of tea before leaving and to our suprise we heard one of the lifts moving down towards the platform. We ran upstairs to find the main gates locked (as we'd left them) and No. 5 lift at the top landing with its doors open and the handle in the up position (difficult as its own wieght would make it fal back to the safe position). Further more when we went upstairs the circuit breakers were still padlocked in the off position...the lift had made 1 trip down and up...seemingly with no power!!!!
As an aside to this no 5 lift at Hampstead was where I met my missus and when they demolished it..I kept the wrought Iron ornamental grating as a keepsake of our first meeting.

[Manspider]

I know this is not really ghost-related...but when we were in highschool, my girlfriends and I used a Ouija Board and we solemnly swore to each other that we would not fool around with each other, that whatever it spelled out was what it wanted to spell out. So, we decided to see what it would do when one of us asked a question that had "no" as a definite answer, while the other person asked a question that had "yes" as a definite answer. After a few seconds, the thing started to spell this: S T O P....and then the clear plastic thing went around in circles--it was literally pulled out of our hands as it motioned itself in wide circles and flew off of the board. Needless to say, we did stop immediately. The Ouija Board is wrapped in newspapers in my mother's basement. We are afraid to throw it out in case it "reappears" in the house.

This experience is 100% ghost-related. I've researched the topic of Ouija Boards for many years, played with the Parker Bros. board as a kid, constructed homemade boards, written articles on the topic, and personally witnessed a case of "Ouija Possession." The talking oracle is not a toy and should not be taken lightly. In addition, it should never be used at parties when alcohol or drugs are being consumed. I don't even recommend storing one in your basement or attic. I've seen the planchette (pointer) move on its own without any fingers touching it. I've seen the planchette fly up in the air and shoot across the room. I've witnessed the pointer move so fast for minutes at a time that we needed a person to stand overhead and call out letters while someone else wrote them down. It moved quicker than two people could possibly move it as a hoax. After pages of letters, we would decipher the words and messages. I've read messages from spirits who spoke with obsolete words and no longer used expressions. And most frightenly, I saw a spirit enter the body of a close friend while "playing" with the Ouija. I saw his demeanor change, his facial expressions contort, and his attitude and behavior worsten. I was a participant in a semi-exorcism in which we successfully freed my friend.
Yes, the board was burned. Years went by before my fingers touched another board, and no, there is not one in my house at this time. Remember, the premise of the "Exorcist" is based on a true story. For those of you who don't remember the beginning of the movie, Linda Blair is communicating with a spirit via the Ouija Board. The Ouija served as a portal between two worlds. It was a door for the possession to occur. Jess, I'm glad you listened to your first messge: S-T-O-P. I do believe!!!

[jessica]

This experience is 100% ghost-related. I've researched the topic of Ouija Boards for many years, played with the Parker Bros. board as a kid, constructed homemade boards, written articles on the topic, and personally witnessed a case of "Ouija Possession." The talking oracle is not a toy and should not be taken lightly. In addition, it should never be used at parties when alcohol or drugs are being consumed. I don't even recommend storing one in your basement or attic. I've seen the planchette (pointer) move on its own without any fingers touching it. I've seen the planchette fly up in the air and shoot across the room. I've witnessed the pointer move so fast for minutes at a time that we needed a person to stand overhead and call out letters while someone else wrote them down. It moved quicker than two people could possibly move it as a hoax. After pages of letters, we would decipher the words and messages. I've read messages from spirits who spoke with obsolete words and no longer used expressions. And most frightenly, I saw a spirit enter the body of a close friend while "playing" with the Ouija. I saw his demeanor change, his facial expressions contort, and his attitude and behavior worsten. I was a participant in a semi-exorcism in which we successfully freed my friend.
Yes, the board was burned. Years went by before my fingers touched another board, and no, there is not one in my house at this time. Remember, the premise of the "Exorcist" is based on a true story. For those of you who don't remember the beginning of the movie, Linda Blair is communicating with a spirit via the Ouija Board. The Ouija served as a portal between two worlds. It was a door for the possession to occur. Jess, I'm glad you listened to your first messge: S-T-O-P. I do believe!!!

I AM SOOOOOOO FREAKED OUT! I wonder if that's why my mom HATES to go to the basement of her house--she says she feels creeped out down there...I don't know how to get it out of her house...Thank you for this information!! I only pray I am brave enough to get it out of her house now.

[toys2cool]

I AM SOOOOOOO FREAKED OUT! I wonder if that's why my mom HATES to go to the basement of her house--she says she feels creeped out down there...I don't know how to get it out of her house...Thank you for this information!! I only pray I am brave enough to get it out of her house now.

wow,I too believe in the Ouija Board,my grand mother was always using it.It use to freak the hell out of me.I remember someone in the neighborhood calling the police on my grandmother for animal abuse,knowing that she didn't abuse them(she'd just take in all the abused animals from the neighborhood,that people would leave on her doorstep) they thought it was her doing and she ended up getting arrested at almost 70 years old for something that she didn't do,she could'nt even hurt a fly.But w/e she started asking ??'s on the board and the person told her it was the guy across the street...She asked if there was something she should do? it said NO and didn't answer again.The next day the guy died of a heart attack,call it what you want but I don't mess with that crap

[jessica]

Is it possible that the orbs are just picture development problems? I remember taking photography classes in High School and although we used black and white as a medium, sometimes the film would get a little messed up if it had the slightest exposure to light or sometimes the developing chemicals would give similar orb like appearances on the picture.

Maybe. It's all digital and the pictures I have taken with this camera have never had those orbs before the party. And I haven't seen any orbs anymore with my newer shots.

[toys2cool]

Maybe. It's all digital and the pictures I have taken with this camera have never had those orbs before the party. And I haven't seen any orbs anymore with my newer shots.

yeah that would freak me out a bit

[RG]

Maybe. It's all digital and the pictures I have taken with this camera have never had those orbs before the party. And I haven't seen any orbs anymore with my newer shots.

I have never seen any "orbs" in any kind of pictures except digital ... so I'm thinking it's something about the electronics that distort light etc., and not really any ghosts.

In my picture I took at the grave yard, I saw the "orbs" with my own eyes when the camera flash, flashed ... I have a strong felling that it could have been moisture in the air and light reflecting off of that. it wasn't raining, but there was very high humidity ... until I see a floating head ... I'm not too worried about orb ghosts. Still kind of fun to have something show up ... even if it's nothing more than a bad image lol

[Vortigern99]

I would like to politely point out to those offering photographs as evidence of ghostly phenomena that a camera is a mechanical device which allows light to come in through an aperture in the lens. Any additional places through which light might enter -- say a pinhole break in the camera casing, invisible to the naked eye -- will allow additional light to enter and be captured in the image-making materials (silver oxide or pixels of information), spoiling the image. Also, minute dust particles -- once again, invisible to the naked eye -- floating before the lens will appear magnified and luminous under the flash of the camera, or from the light source in the area photographed. I might suggest that these technical malfunctions be considered and exhausted before the appeal to a supernatural explanation is made.

[jwyblejr]

I once had what I call a "black shadow ball" go across my living room wall. This was Christmas Eve a few years back. It was the wrong color to be from a car's headlights. It wasn't from a person walking outside. You'd have to be at least seven feet tall to make it where it was on the wall. Throw in the fact my Christmas tree was in front of the wall the shadow went across. To this day I can't explain what it was and I'm a pretty big skeptic of this sort of thing.

[johnmiic]

I haven't given ghosts much thought actually. I am more a Bigfoot guy. I don't know if this was Ghost related but my family used to live in my Grandma's house for a few years. She and my Mom fought a lot due to their personalities. I don't usually visit her grave or anything. One night I was assleep in my room at her house long after she passed away and I had the feling that someone was pushing down on my arms-shaking me in the bed to wake me up. I can say I was definately shaking up and down. It did wake me up. Whatever it was, I was not ready to face any possible ghosts that night-especially if it was my Grandmother angry at me for not visiting her in grave. So pulled the covers over my head in case I opened my eyes I didn't want to see what the hell it was shaking me awake.

My brother is a bit of a loner and has harbored resentment towards everyone in the family. Since my Mom died 6 years ago he told me he has seen strange things in his room. he said he often sees a depression on the top of his bed like someone was or is sitting there. The most astounding thing he said he witnessed was he caught the tail end of a smoky mass of something leaving the room through the corner of the celing. It was like a cloud thing just rising and drifitng out thru the top corner. I told him he should take pictures of his room even if it looks quiet and nothing seems to be happening but so far he has not done anything about it.

[Vortigern99]

I find this thread to be a fascinating repository of paranormal experiences, and I'd like to thank everyone for contributing. I am a skeptic (in the sense of "fact-discerning" as opposed to "fact-dismissive"), but at heart, like Agent Scully, I want to believe -- or rather, I want to know. If there is any evidence for any paranormal event, I would certainly like to see it. In fact, I await it with great eagerness.

[Bizarro Amy]

I love talking about ghost stories. I'm getting chills from reading this thread. But as much as I'd like to believe, I can't. I have never experienced anything that logically indicated the existence of ghosts or anything else mentioned here. I've done some travelling in Europe, through castles, battlefields, etc, and if I was going to see anything, you'd think I'd see it there. One of the places I visited was a concentration camp called Mauthausen. I was freaked out from what I knew had happened where I was walking, but I did not see/hear any ghosts. I've also spent a lot of time at the Gettysburg battlefield, and although my father-in-law has ghost stories out the wazoo, I have yet to find any real ones.

[Bo8a_Fett]

BOO!!!!