Ghosts

[lurganblue]

Was going to suggest it would be an interesting one to have a poll about, until I saw there's already one there. Have you all voted? Would be interesting to know the split between believers/non-believers.

I would suggest a third option of not sure

Get off the fence!!

Seeing is believing!

I'd go along with that, and to date I havent seen anything of note.  I'm open to be convinced though and I do love a good ghost story/film.

[brokencrossbar1]

Why do people always see hooded figures, or a woman all in white? Why is it never an EMO kid,a milkman, or an old punk rocker?

Because they all go straight to hell when they die.
 

I know...fecking milkmen are the spawn of the devil!

[tbrick18]

Why do people always see hooded figures, or a woman all in white? Why is it never an EMO kid,a milkman, or an old punk rocker?

Because they all go straight to hell when they die.
 

I know...fecking milkmen are the spawn of the devil!

Yep - sneaking about on their silent milk floats so you can't hear them coming. Always up to no good.
They're right up there with EV drivers.

[ONeill]

Relative of mine worked in a hospital for years and you would not believe the stories.

People dying and shit

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

Relative of mine worked in a hospital for years and you would not believe the stories.

People dying and shit

Indeed, I would not believe that.

[ONeill]

There are no ghosts. There are no spirits.

In this age of every buckin thing recorded these ethereal hoors would be exposed.

Everything can be explained.

[Duine Inteacht Eile]

There was a crazy story in Belfast a couple of years ago about a Spar owner entering an employee's house while she was working to go through her knicker drawer and pleasure himself.
She had noticed things like her duvet being untidy when she came home and "assumed it was a ghost". Set up a camera and caught him.

Anyway, "assumed it was a ghost"...wtf? Crazy and all as that story is, "assumed it was a ghost" is as bad as it gets.

[ONeill]

I, 100%, don't believe in ghosts but as I've the time today to tell the story below, I will.

Around 12 years ago myself and my lady were staying in a well known Dublin hotel that I only learned after our stay has a history of ghost(s).

I was in bed (likely asleep) when a paralysing fear the like of which I had never experienced before or since came over me. Someone was in the room. Try as I might, my body would not move but seemingly I was at least semi conscious as I could feel my heart absolutely pounding with fear. The paralysis persisted for what seemed like an eternity. On reflection now I think I was probably dreaming or in some state of semi consciousness - but in my mind's eye I could clearly see a hooded / cloaked figure moving in the room - but particularly just inside the door of the room. I don't know whether I went back into a deep sleep at that point but the 'event' definitely ended for me and all was well. 

Until the following.

Later that same night the girlfriend, who would sometimes talk in her sleep, woke or at least partially woke me. She was in a full on state of panic (but as I know now also probably asleep) - claiming someone was in our room. This time I was more awake but again teetering on the edge of consciousness. Having had my own experience on the same night, my heart obviously immediately started doing somersaults - but instead of me reacting to her claim I softly scolded her back to sleep by telling her not to be silly. That was totally contrary to what I was feeling and for the second time I was completely paralysed with fear.

The second 'event' passed as well and all was fine.

When we woke the next morning our respective 'dreams' were all we could talk about. It was obvious that no-one had physically been in the room but both of us 'saw' the same cloaked / hooded figure loitering in the room and both visions were in dreams / semi consciousness. I could see now that my mind's eye view of the figure standing in the doorway couldn't have been the case as the door wasn't visible from the bed  - but both of us (we don't take drugs, little alcohol) were convinced that someone / something wearing a hooded cloak had been in the room.

The sense of fear that I experienced that night has never left me and I tried to explain it to several people until months later I was recounting the whole incident to an old aunt. Straight away she considered we'd be in the presence of a ghost.

That all said, I don't believe in ghosts - and neither should you. Laugh at me, ridicule me all you like but I wish that none of you experience the level of fear we did that night.







   

Both of you had sleep paralysis on the same night. Can happen.

I have it about 6 times a year. Usually due to 2 things: over-tired and sleeping on back.

[quit yo jibbajabba]

Why do people always see hooded figures, or a woman all in white? Why is it never an EMO kid,a milkman, or an old punk rocker?

Because they all go straight to hell when they die.
 

I know...fecking milkmen are the spawn of the devil!

This is about Pat Mustard isn't it

[whitey]

I don't know if I believe in ghosts but I believe we definitely get signs from the departed

One of my clients had a teenage son who got killed in an ATV accident. Before his death, the kids grandfather had entered his name into a drawing where first prize was a new ATV. The (now deceased) kid won the ATV-the winning ticket number was the date he died and the last 6 digits on the VIN were the kids DOB

I have a cousin who lost a 5 year old to brain cancer. She absolutely loved acorns-to the point there are acorns actually engraved on her headstone....it was her symbol. 4 hours after she passed away I had to drive to Connecticut from Boston. On the journey I let a car merge ahead of me.....it had a personalized license plate-ACORN

[Substandard]

Interesting topic.  Used to be big into ghost stories and 'true' ghost stories as a kid.  It's a bit like religion, or even an offshoot of religious belief, but I'm happy to accept that ghosts are real/ plausible/ likely, while still plodding along through daily life without it impinging overly on how I go about life.

I absolutely believe there is some kind of reconnection in a different frequency after life.  Physics dictates that energy cannot be created or destroyed,  but transformed into another iteration.  Heaven won't be lolling around on a cloud listening to harps all day, but some form of image or construction was necessary as a framework as religions evolved.  I think the capacity for spirituality exists in everyone- why are there so many parallels between many religions which developed across the world at a time when they all, or at least many of them, were independent of each other?
I'm not overly religious,  but at the same time, if I did have kids, I'd bring them to mass, and do the sacraments,  and all that.  I'd pray with them morning and evening,  but once they'd get to young adult or thereabouts,  if they decide they want to stop themselves,  then fair enough,  it would be their choice.  I always think when I read or hear someone proclaiming that they won't be indoctrinating their children, fine, but are you not blocking off avenues for the children to explore or develop their own spirituality?  I always have to smile to myself when the more vocal insist that they or their kids won't be mere sheep in a cult- no, you're still a sheep, just in a different herd.  Without wishing to get into a religion good/ religion bad debate, I've often wondered about a potential correlation in the decline in prayer/ religion, and increases in anxiety/ depression/ mental wellbeing issues.  I'd imagine, say, in my grandparents time, there was a lot of resilience through prayer, because prayer was outsourcing problems or worries,  and so becoming a crutch.  Religion may well be the opium of the masses, but in that respect alone, it works enough for me.
And whenever I go to a funeral, and either offer or accept condolences- is it just purely a polite social construction to help us bypass a difficult emotional interaction?  I was at a funeral recently of a very good friend's wife.  Early 40s, two young kids still in primary school.  Anyone who is adamant there is no God, no religion,  no afterlife, that once you die, that's it, you just decay and rot.  How can you be so absolutely sure?  Plenty of the stories and examples given already in this thread can be interpreted in many ways, can be accepted or rejected on many grounds.  We can't be definitive or absolute either way.  Which is why I tend towards the idea that our life-force,  or soul, or whatever,  transforms to a different frequency,  and that now and again,  people in this life, for whatever reason or circumstances,  can very briefly be tuned to a connection with this frequency (or frequencies), and this results in a supernatural experience.
Your heavens and hells would correspond to positive and negative energies.  Asking if one believes in ghosts or not leads to another question,  does good and evil actually exist, or are they just perception?  Whenever I'm at Shakespeare's tragedies,  I give the example of a glass of water.  On its own,  it's clear, but if you add just a spoonful of ribena,  it circulates through the water, and stains it all.  I think there's far more good in the world, but just a small amount of evil can taint a lot. 
Are there ghosts?  Yes, I think so.
Is there an afterlife?  I think so, but I've no idea what it might be like.
Do I think I'll be reunited with deceased family and friends?  I think that energies will combine again.  I'm not sure will it be like being in a pub having a laugh with my best friend,  or will it be sitting by the fireplace listening to stories from my grandparents like it was when I was a kid, but it will be something.
Do I think I'm on this world to try to be good, and in my own arse in pockets way, to be a force for good?  Yes, I absolutely believe this.  I'm no superhero,  nor a biblical prophet.  But I try my bit, every day, down to nodding at strangers or saluting cars I meet whether I know them or not (I live out in the sticks, so this is normal enough, it wouldn't really work in urban traffic!!). 
I'm here because I'm part of something an awful lot bigger,  so I have to try to make things or think things as good as I can.

I'll be awful pissed off if I find out eventually that I'm nothing more than a programmed NPC in a computer generated simulation...

[Jell 0 Biafra]

I remember years ago, I had an incredibly  vivid dream where my grandfather died.

I woke up filled with a sense of dread.

 I picked up the phone and called his number. My gran answered, her voice a little cracked and dry. Is me granda there, I asked.

Sorry,  she said... I'm afraid you missed him...

He's off playing  bowls, should be back in an hour and a half or so...

[Look-Up!]

Interesting topic.  Used to be big into ghost stories and 'true' ghost stories as a kid.  It's a bit like religion, or even an offshoot of religious belief, but I'm happy to accept that ghosts are real/ plausible/ likely, while still plodding along through daily life without it impinging overly on how I go about life.

I absolutely believe there is some kind of reconnection in a different frequency after life.  Physics dictates that energy cannot be created or destroyed,  but transformed into another iteration.  Heaven won't be lolling around on a cloud listening to harps all day, but some form of image or construction was necessary as a framework as religions evolved.  I think the capacity for spirituality exists in everyone- why are there so many parallels between many religions which developed across the world at a time when they all, or at least many of them, were independent of each other?
I'm not overly religious,  but at the same time, if I did have kids, I'd bring them to mass, and do the sacraments,  and all that.  I'd pray with them morning and evening,  but once they'd get to young adult or thereabouts,  if they decide they want to stop themselves,  then fair enough,  it would be their choice.  I always think when I read or hear someone proclaiming that they won't be indoctrinating their children, fine, but are you not blocking off avenues for the children to explore or develop their own spirituality?  I always have to smile to myself when the more vocal insist that they or their kids won't be mere sheep in a cult- no, you're still a sheep, just in a different herd.  Without wishing to get into a religion good/ religion bad debate, I've often wondered about a potential correlation in the decline in prayer/ religion, and increases in anxiety/ depression/ mental wellbeing issues.  I'd imagine, say, in my grandparents time, there was a lot of resilience through prayer, because prayer was outsourcing problems or worries,  and so becoming a crutch.  Religion may well be the opium of the masses, but in that respect alone, it works enough for me.
And whenever I go to a funeral, and either offer or accept condolences- is it just purely a polite social construction to help us bypass a difficult emotional interaction?  I was at a funeral recently of a very good friend's wife.  Early 40s, two young kids still in primary school.  Anyone who is adamant there is no God, no religion,  no afterlife, that once you die, that's it, you just decay and rot.  How can you be so absolutely sure?  Plenty of the stories and examples given already in this thread can be interpreted in many ways, can be accepted or rejected on many grounds.  We can't be definitive or absolute either way.  Which is why I tend towards the idea that our life-force,  or soul, or whatever,  transforms to a different frequency,  and that now and again,  people in this life, for whatever reason or circumstances,  can very briefly be tuned to a connection with this frequency (or frequencies), and this results in a supernatural experience.
Your heavens and hells would correspond to positive and negative energies.  Asking if one believes in ghosts or not leads to another question,  does good and evil actually exist, or are they just perception?  Whenever I'm at Shakespeare's tragedies,  I give the example of a glass of water.  On its own,  it's clear, but if you add just a spoonful of ribena,  it circulates through the water, and stains it all.  I think there's far more good in the world, but just a small amount of evil can taint a lot. 
Are there ghosts?  Yes, I think so.
Is there an afterlife?  I think so, but I've no idea what it might be like.
Do I think I'll be reunited with deceased family and friends?  I think that energies will combine again.  I'm not sure will it be like being in a pub having a laugh with my best friend,  or will it be sitting by the fireplace listening to stories from my grandparents like it was when I was a kid, but it will be something.
Do I think I'm on this world to try to be good, and in my own arse in pockets way, to be a force for good?  Yes, I absolutely believe this.  I'm no superhero,  nor a biblical prophet.  But I try my bit, every day, down to nodding at strangers or saluting cars I meet whether I know them or not (I live out in the sticks, so this is normal enough, it wouldn't really work in urban traffic!!). 
I'm here because I'm part of something an awful lot bigger,  so I have to try to make things or think things as good as I can.

I'll be awful pissed off if I find out eventually that I'm nothing more than a programmed NPC in a computer generated simulation...

Enjoyed that read.

[marty34]

Interesting topic.  Used to be big into ghost stories and 'true' ghost stories as a kid.  It's a bit like religion, or even an offshoot of religious belief, but I'm happy to accept that ghosts are real/ plausible/ likely, while still plodding along through daily life without it impinging overly on how I go about life.

I absolutely believe there is some kind of reconnection in a different frequency after life.  Physics dictates that energy cannot be created or destroyed,  but transformed into another iteration.  Heaven won't be lolling around on a cloud listening to harps all day, but some form of image or construction was necessary as a framework as religions evolved.  I think the capacity for spirituality exists in everyone- why are there so many parallels between many religions which developed across the world at a time when they all, or at least many of them, were independent of each other?
I'm not overly religious,  but at the same time, if I did have kids, I'd bring them to mass, and do the sacraments,  and all that.  I'd pray with them morning and evening,  but once they'd get to young adult or thereabouts,  if they decide they want to stop themselves,  then fair enough,  it would be their choice.  I always think when I read or hear someone proclaiming that they won't be indoctrinating their children, fine, but are you not blocking off avenues for the children to explore or develop their own spirituality?  I always have to smile to myself when the more vocal insist that they or their kids won't be mere sheep in a cult- no, you're still a sheep, just in a different herd.  Without wishing to get into a religion good/ religion bad debate, I've often wondered about a potential correlation in the decline in prayer/ religion, and increases in anxiety/ depression/ mental wellbeing issues.  I'd imagine, say, in my grandparents time, there was a lot of resilience through prayer, because prayer was outsourcing problems or worries,  and so becoming a crutch.  Religion may well be the opium of the masses, but in that respect alone, it works enough for me.
And whenever I go to a funeral, and either offer or accept condolences- is it just purely a polite social construction to help us bypass a difficult emotional interaction?  I was at a funeral recently of a very good friend's wife.  Early 40s, two young kids still in primary school.  Anyone who is adamant there is no God, no religion,  no afterlife, that once you die, that's it, you just decay and rot.  How can you be so absolutely sure?  Plenty of the stories and examples given already in this thread can be interpreted in many ways, can be accepted or rejected on many grounds.  We can't be definitive or absolute either way.  Which is why I tend towards the idea that our life-force,  or soul, or whatever,  transforms to a different frequency,  and that now and again,  people in this life, for whatever reason or circumstances,  can very briefly be tuned to a connection with this frequency (or frequencies), and this results in a supernatural experience.
Your heavens and hells would correspond to positive and negative energies.  Asking if one believes in ghosts or not leads to another question,  does good and evil actually exist, or are they just perception?  Whenever I'm at Shakespeare's tragedies,  I give the example of a glass of water.  On its own,  it's clear, but if you add just a spoonful of ribena,  it circulates through the water, and stains it all.  I think there's far more good in the world, but just a small amount of evil can taint a lot. 
Are there ghosts?  Yes, I think so.
Is there an afterlife?  I think so, but I've no idea what it might be like.
Do I think I'll be reunited with deceased family and friends?  I think that energies will combine again.  I'm not sure will it be like being in a pub having a laugh with my best friend,  or will it be sitting by the fireplace listening to stories from my grandparents like it was when I was a kid, but it will be something.
Do I think I'm on this world to try to be good, and in my own arse in pockets way, to be a force for good?  Yes, I absolutely believe this.  I'm no superhero,  nor a biblical prophet.  But I try my bit, every day, down to nodding at strangers or saluting cars I meet whether I know them or not (I live out in the sticks, so this is normal enough, it wouldn't really work in urban traffic!!). 
I'm here because I'm part of something an awful lot bigger,  so I have to try to make things or think things as good as I can.

I'll be awful pissed off if I find out eventually that I'm nothing more than a programmed NPC in a computer generated simulation...

Enjoyed that read.

100%.

A great and interesting read.

[AustinPowers]

@Look-up - you raised a  good point with  religion drop off and anxiety rise. Might be something  in that

I'm not  religious. I  might only be at mass less than 5 times a year, for funerals, anniversaries etc. But I do miss the serenity  of churches.  In a strange way , I sort of admire those with  a strong faith , as it might bring a lot of peace , calmness  to their lives. Those quiet moments  during the day or in  mass , where they sit with their thoughts/prayers in silence.  Mindfulness is a buzz word these days , but these yoga retreats/meditation, off grid  holidays or whatever has in  effect filled the hole where  religion once was.  Mass/prayer  was a lot of people's mindfulness previously

Anywhere different I go , or on holiday , I always try to  pop into a church. Some of it for the architecture and beauty of the building, but  also just to take a  few moments  to just sit in silence with my thoughts. Take stock , mull  over a  few thoughts. Clear the mind. It does help  the mind and body to relax and  think about yourself, other people and about what's important. I definitely don't do that enough in daily life  as modern life can  be hectic. So I suppose church and religion  still has its place in modern life for a lot of people

Anyway, back to ghosts.........