Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Kentucky is supposed to be haunted. A few of my friends and I went there when I was in college, and though I didn't see any ghosts, the place itself was pretty creepy. I think what bothered me the most was finding out that tuberculosis patients afflicted with severe psychoses were kept on the same floor as the patients who were children.

A small village were a friend of mine has some.
-They have catacombs. Not much, but supposed to be haunted.
-There was years ago an unhappy boy who was friended with an elderly woman. When the woman died, he killed himself. It is said that sometimes he is seen walking towards the graveyard..
-And the occasional farmer at dawn that is a ghost.

rodgers37 wrote:Did you have you salt rounds ready?

Sam and Dean have taught me many useful things!

Cheesecat wrote:Ghosts don't exist.

I'd have said the same just over a year ago. I haven't got time to type it all now, but I'm not so sure anymore!

Cheesecat wrote:It's just your mind playing tricks on you.

Right...that somehow explains all of the possessions, manifestations, scratches, bruises, and other physical injuries and proof supposedly caused by all sorts of supernatural phenomenon over the course of recorded human history...

thenoobbomb wrote:
-There was years ago an unhappy boy who was friended with an elderly woman. When the woman died, he killed himself. It is said that sometimes he is seen walking towards the graveyard..
.

I think that was the original ending to Harold & Maude.

WARORK93 wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:It's just your mind playing tricks on you.

Right...that somehow explains all of the possessions, manifestations, scratches, bruises, and other physical injuries and proof supposedly caused by all sorts of supernatural phenomenon over the course of recorded human history...

Do any of these incidents you mention have proof to back up there claims? Also I'm not opposed to the idea of the existence of ghosts it's just I haven't seen any substantial evidence that might suggest that they do

in fact exist.

Cheesecat wrote:Do any of these incidents you mention have proof to back up there claims? Also I'm not opposed to the idea of the existence of ghosts it's just I haven't seen any substantial evidence that might suggest that they do

in fact exist.

There are indeed a lot of cases that have proof, the problem is that a lot of it is subjective or misunderstood or fake and this generally gives the supernatural a bad reputation...

I could go digging through the depths of the internet to try to find cases of supernatural forces impinging on the real world but I think it's far more effective just to say that ghosts are something you can't really discuss seriously with skeptics until they've experienced something like that themselves...

Hell I'm by no means an expert on the subject nor do I claim to know anything about the nature of the supernatural I'm just saying that there are too many cases reported by individuals and groups alike around the world through all ages of mankind to dispell them all by just saying "Your imagining things"

Cheesecat wrote:Ghosts don't exist.

Seconded. It's embellishments, poor memories, or a bunch of frat bro idiots that shake the camera a lot and go 'Oh man, did you hear that?! Something touched me!"

Speaking of poor memories, something did freak me out a couple of weeks ago while hunting. I had come down from my treestand and had made it a few yards down the hill I was on top of when I thought I saw a flashlight about 20-25 yards away, Thinking it was my father, I headed towards it, but found nothing. When I looked back down the hill, I saw my father (man, fluorescent orange is bright!) making his way along the road at the bottom towards our car.

Yeah agreed. Ghosts are in the mind, not physical reality. Basically, I reckon that ghosts are hallucinations

There are cases of mass hysteria, which can be caused fairly easily. However there are cases of possession and physical harm done to a person by something ethereal.

guyperson5 wrote:Basically, I reckon that ghosts are hallucinations

Probably.

But what causes hallucinations in someone with no history of visual, tactile, or auditory hallucinations?

Nerivant wrote:
But what causes hallucinations in someone with no history of visual, tactile, or auditory hallucinations?

For all our technology and information, we still don't entirely know how the brain works.

Hell, it could be some sort of freaky 'assassin's-creed-animus-bleeding-effect' for all we know.

Nerivant wrote:

guyperson5 wrote:Basically, I reckon that ghosts are hallucinations

Probably.

But what causes hallucinations in someone with no history of visual, tactile, or auditory hallucinations?

could be the "matrix" slipping up. Its not just how the brain we don't know how works, but our physical reality as well. There's a reason blind people with their eyes intact still exhibit "blind sight", and it's remarkable to see blind rewire their brains to see through sound true, but there's something god-awfully strange one someone actually has an OBE (granted, without a first-hand account, these can't be taken seriously.

Hell, it could be some sort of freaky 'assassin's-creed-animus-bleeding-effect' for all we know.

could be the "matrix" slipping up.

I personally find it hilarious that people here prefer to believe in things that videogames and movies have suggested rather than believe that things can exist that humans just can't explain...

Cheesecat wrote:Ghosts don't exist.

thats not what my the internet said. If its on the INTERNET THEN IT MUST BE TRUE.

WARORK93 wrote:

Hell, it could be some sort of freaky 'assassin's-creed-animus-bleeding-effect' for all we know.

could be the "matrix" slipping up.

I personally find it hilarious that people here prefer to believe in things that videogames and movies have suggested rather than believe that things can exist that humans just can't explain...

Mm, yes, associating the fact that we mentioned things from video games and movies with meaning that we believe them to be true. I see your quite the skilled debater.

infinite_array wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:

Hell, it could be some sort of freaky 'assassin's-creed-animus-bleeding-effect' for all we know.

could be the "matrix" slipping up.

I personally find it hilarious that people here prefer to believe in things that videogames and movies have suggested rather than believe that things can exist that humans just can't explain...

Mm, yes, associating the fact that we mentioned things from video games and movies with meaning that we believe them to be true. I see your quite the skilled debater.

Trying so hard to be an adult and not talk about how he's not just skilled, but a master.... Wait, no, I blew it. Oh well....

grayshadow87 wrote:

infinite_array wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:

Hell, it could be some sort of freaky 'assassin's-creed-animus-bleeding-effect' for all we know.

could be the "matrix" slipping up.

I personally find it hilarious that people here prefer to believe in things that videogames and movies have suggested rather than believe that things can exist that humans just can't explain...

Mm, yes, associating the fact that we mentioned things from video games and movies with meaning that we believe them to be true. I see your quite the skilled debater.

Trying so hard to be an adult and not talk about how he's not just skilled, but a master.... Wait, no, I blew it. Oh well....

Like a ghost, you can see right through that.

Nerivant wrote:

guyperson5 wrote:Basically, I reckon that ghosts are hallucinations

Probably.

But what causes hallucinations in someone with no history of visual, tactile, or auditory hallucinations?

The motive of dwelling on someone that has passed away or convincing yourself that ghosts are real.

Cheesecat wrote:

WARORK93 wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:It's just your mind playing tricks on you.

Right...that somehow explains all of the possessions, manifestations, scratches, bruises, and other physical injuries and proof supposedly caused by all sorts of supernatural phenomenon over the course of recorded human history...

Do any of these incidents you mention have proof to back up there claims? Also I'm not opposed to the idea of the existence of ghosts it's just I haven't seen any substantial evidence that might suggest that they do

in fact exist.

Science and Supernatural do not integrate, Scientific techniques should not be used to disproove the paranormal.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

infinite_array wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:Ghosts don't exist.

Seconded. It's embellishments, poor memories, or a bunch of frat bro idiots that shake the camera a lot and go 'Oh man, did you hear that?! Something touched me!"

Speaking of poor memories, something did freak me out a couple of weeks ago while hunting. I had come down from my treestand and had made it a few yards down the hill I was on top of when I thought I saw a flashlight about 20-25 yards away, Thinking it was my father, I headed towards it, but found nothing. When I looked back down the hill, I saw my father (man, fluorescent orange is bright!) making his way along the road at the bottom towards our car.

There are fakes in everything. There alot of things in this world that science can not even explain.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

guyperson5 wrote:Yeah agreed. Ghosts are in the mind, not physical reality. Basically, I reckon that ghosts are hallucinations

Have you encountered one yourself or are you just a cynic who has had nothing to do outside of the mudane side of life.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

guyperson5 wrote:

Nerivant wrote:

guyperson5 wrote:Basically, I reckon that ghosts are hallucinations

Probably.

But what causes hallucinations in someone with no history of visual, tactile, or auditory hallucinations?

The motive of dwelling on someone that has passed away or convincing yourself that ghosts are real.

That is most utterly incorrect. As a Shaman I can tell you, Supernatural creatures such as Ghosts do exist.

Before I tell my story, I would like to say that I am a sceptic. I don't tend to believe in ghosts or the supernatural. However I did see something very creepy which I can't rightly explain. I don't expect many people will believe this story. I know I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, and it was so creepy that I would rather it wasn't true. However I will tell you what I saw, as I saw it, and you can make your own mind up.

I was very young and lived with my grandparents at the time. Though it was a long time ago, I remember it very clearly. I had been upstairs playing, which wasn't unusual, and I had just left my room to go downstairs. But as I stepped out onto the landing, something emerged from a room at the back of the house, and came towards me down the landing.

It was somewhat transparent, like you would imagine a ghost to be, but it wasn't white and glowing like in films. It was more grey and shadowy. Whatever it was though, it wasn't human. It was sort of like a demonic looking wild cat, but it walked on its hind legs like a man. It was about 3 foot tall I guess, and the way it moved was just as creepy as the way it looked.

It stopped half way along the landing, blocking the stairs, and just stood there snarling at me and baring its claws. This wasn't something I saw out of the corner of my eye, or a trick of the light. This was a very real apparition, that appeared in broad daylight and was very threatening.

I guess I should have been more scared. I know I would absolutely sh*t myself if I saw it today. But I was very young and didn't really know what to think, so I just stood there staring at it. Eventually I decided to make a break for it, so I lunged quickly and slipped past it and down the stairs. I tried to tell my grandmother about it, but she was busy, and unfortunately being a kid, no one takes you very seriously.

This wasn't the last time I would see it though. Every so often it would show up again, always in the same place, and always when I was alone. I remember one time my grandmother shouting for me to come downstairs. I stepped out onto the landing and out it came too. But then she came to the bottom of the stairs and shouted again, and it backed off, and disappeared back into the room at the other end of the landing. I kept telling people about it but no one ever believed me. One time I convinced my cousin to come up onto the landing with me to prove it, but nothing happened. I started to feel like it was just playing with me, only ever presenting itself to me when I was alone because it knew no one would ever believe me.

The last time I saw it was shortly before we moved house. I had only ever seen it before during the day, and always on the landing. But this time was different. It was night time, and it came into my room and attacked me in my bed. Though it was actually surprisingly weak. I was able to overpower it, and I pushed it quite forcefully into the gap between my bed and the wall. Then it was gone. I was too scared to look under the bed to see if it was still there. The next morning I got my grandmother to look with me, but obviously there was nothing. She just assumed it had been a bad dream of course. It didn't come back any more. Shortly after that we moved house, and I have never seen anything even remotely like it since.

Given how real it was, and the fact that I touched it. The only rational (none supernatural) explanation I can think of is that it was some kind of vivid hallucination. But that doesn't really sit very well with me, as it seems almost as far fetched as the supernatural explanation. Why would someone randomly have a hyper vivid hallucinations of exactly the same thing repeatedly, in the same place. But then never have hallucinations anywhere else, or ever again in their life? Obviously the fact that I was young and I was the only person who saw it, casts doubt on my story. But I know what I saw, I can still see it in my memory now as clear as day, and it creeps me out.

However I am not the only person to have suggested the house might be haunted. My grandmother told me that one time long before I was born, when my mother was a teenager. She had been baby sitting my uncle, and was just putting him to bed, when he suddenly asked "who is that woman standing at the bottom of the bed". She couldn't see it, but my grandmother said she had been terrified. She also told me that a family friend had stayed over one night, and the next day he had exclaimed that there was a ghost in the house. Though I'm not sure what specifically happened to him.

Recently I passed the house, and noticed that it was being renovated. It was fenced off, and all the windows had been taken out, and it looked empty. I was half tempted to sneak in and have a look around, but I thought better of it.

Cheers to those sceptics above, I hope one day you see something to change your mind like I did!

To my story then. This happened in October last year, when I was 17, so I know it was no overactive imagination.

I was taking my dog out for a walk round some woods near my house. It was a walk I had done hundreds of times on my own, and have done a fair few since. It was an ordinary day, clouded over as per usual in Lochaber. I was walking with the dog off the lead just in front of me through the woods, just before a point where we normally stop to play fetch, when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Thinking it was a deer, I put the dog on the leash, and turned to have a look. What I saw was definately not a deer. It was human-shaped, definately bipedal, and was a dark green. When I turned to face it it swiftly moved behind a raised piece of ground that used to be an old cart road through the woods. Thinking it might be someone afraid of the dog I called out, but there was no reply. I walked with the dog towards where it had been, but he started dragging at the leash and trying to pull away, so I went back to the path and tied him to a tree. I went to investigate myself, and there was nothing, no sign of anything passing through, and there wasn't enought thime for someone to move so far away that they couldn't be seen.

I finished the walk, slightly freaked out and went home. I spoke to my mum about it, and took her to the spot where it happened and we tried to figure out what happened. We couldn't explain it. I didn't tell anyone else, as I knew I'd probably be mocked and my mother has told me that she told noone else either.

Now the weird bit. The next weekend my brother was home from uni and took the dog out on the same walk, oblivious to what had happened to me. Exactly the same thing happened to him, at exactly the same place. He did the same as me and told my mum, and she told me. We compared notes, and they were to similar to be coincidence. We were both highly sceptical of ghosts before, but now we aren't so sure.

I still have no idea what happened, but I can't find any rational explanation.

Another thought for the discussion is this: Energy cannot be created or destroyed. This is a scientific fact. So then, where then does the energy from the human soul go when you die? Perhaps it can have an effect on the world that we know?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

pinoypower wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:Ghosts don't exist.

thats not what my the internet said. If its on the INTERNET THEN IT MUST BE TRUE.

The internet also says ghosts don't exist, and the internet is very contradictory.

rockerbikie wrote:
That is most utterly incorrect. As a Shaman I can tell you, Supernatural creatures such as Ghosts do exist.

Elemental, Enhancement, or Restoration?

infinite_array wrote:

rockerbikie wrote:
That is most utterly incorrect. As a Shaman I can tell you, Supernatural creatures such as Ghosts do exist.

Elemental, Enhancement, or Restoration?

Dual wield restoration and a sword.

infinite_array wrote:

rockerbikie wrote:
That is most utterly incorrect. As a Shaman I can tell you, Supernatural creatures such as Ghosts do exist.

Elemental, Enhancement, or Restoration?

Here thee website: http://www.northernshamanism.org/general/welcome.html I am a Northern Pagan Shaman.

grayshadow87 wrote:

infinite_array wrote:Mm, yes, associating the fact that we mentioned things from video games and movies with meaning that we believe them to be true. I see your quite the skilled debater.

Trying so hard to be an adult and not talk about how he's not just skilled, but a master.... Wait, no, I blew it. Oh well....

Perhaps I worded it wrong...

You both used the words "could be" which means the two things you mentioned you have at least thought a possibility...

My statement wasn't meant in insult but I still think it funny that people who refute things like ghosts turn around and give credence to the possibility that our reality is shaped by concepts that have been suggested in poular entertainment media...

I'm not a believer at all, although I fully believe people sometimes see weird stuff. But seeing a strange light in the sky doesn't make it an alien, just as a strange light along the ground doesn't mean a ghost or supernatural entity.

Frankly, I'd be more willing to believe in the supernatural if the "parapsychologists" and such didn't feed everyone a steady diet of pseudoscience, camera tricks and lies. Heck, I'm more likely to believe some of the stuff shared here (although not the OP's, I'm afraid) than even one second of those ridiculous ghost hunter shows. I believe that some of you think you saw something...the "something just touched my shoulder!" dorks on the other hand are just the worst kind of charlatans.

Having experienced sleep paralysis and the side effects it causes, I find it interesting that so many ghost experiences (but not all, I recognize) take place during sleep hours. Applying Occam's Razor suggests to me that many of these cases are something dream/brain-related and not supernatural.

gorgon wrote:I'm not a believer at all, although I fully believe people sometimes see weird stuff. But seeing a strange light in the sky doesn't make it an alien, just as a strange light along the ground doesn't mean a ghost or supernatural entity.

Frankly, I'd be more willing to believe in the supernatural if the "parapsychologists" and such didn't feed everyone a steady diet of pseudoscience, camera tricks and lies. Heck, I'm more likely to believe some of the stuff shared here (although not the OP's, I'm afraid) than even one second of those ridiculous ghost hunter shows. I believe that some of you think you saw something...the "something just touched my shoulder!" dorks on the other hand are just the worst kind of charlatans..

I would have gone with this as well, if it had just been me on my own I probably just would have thought that I was seeing things, but the fact that my dog got upset and flat out refused to go over there makes me think that there must have been something weird going on.

My ghost story is pretty boring. I was tripping balls on LSD and I walked into a basement and saw a shadow that I'm totally sure wasn't me, and I got a funny feeling, so it must have been a ghost.

/ghosts aren't real. I've gotten feelings from certain places, but I don't attribute that feeling to any 'being'. I just admit that it's a feeling I can't exactly explain. Sort of like how when you stare into the sun a certain way, you sneeze. I don't know how the hell that works, but I know it isn't magic.

I used to believe in the supernatural when I was religious. Since then I haven't seen a single thing I couldn't explain, and I think there's good reason for that. That aside, I had a couple of "demonic" occurrences just to add them to the thread.

I remember being in kindergarten and being terribly afraid of the dark. Being forcefed that invisible beings are waging war for your soul 24/7, turns out, can cause some psychological trauma and I was scared of the dark for a long while. I was laying on my side in bed and I felt something tap me on the shoulder, two quick thuds. I turned around and saw a face and hands of a... thing. It's eyes were kinda sorta reptilian, glowing orange and it had sharp teeth with this sort of swirling red/blackmouth that I felt like led to some sort of abyss or darkness. It's skin was green and very slimey, but it was a spirit so it was both there and possible to be described physically, but also not and transparent or hollow. I don't know how better to describe that. It's feeling was that of pure menace in it's truest form. It's eyes, it's grin, it was there to feth with me and I could tell. I locked eyes with it unable to look away, managed a massive gulp of air and screamed nonstop for a good minute or two. I sort of remember starting to scream, then everything goes black, then next thing I remember my mom and brother are in the room trying to get me to calm down. A few nights before that I'd had an extremely disturbing dream with the same feeling of menace which involved a unicorn saying something in a deep voice, can't remember what but it was authoritative (like god speaking), then a rainbow growing around it and it began madly howling like a wolf and I felt this immense power from it. It was standing hoof-deep in water that seamed to stretch out infinitely. Woke up screaming from that too. I attribute them to overactive imagination, weird sleepness and emotionally tumultuous living conditions as a youngling.

Other than that, there was a hallway at a church I used to attend that everyone felt weird in at night. During one service the lights went out and a bunch of people claimed to see spirits that looked like native American people everywhere, and the whole room instantly began praying regardless and supposedly there was a flash of bright light and they were gone then everyone got super happy. This sounds kinda racist to me now, but the church was over an indian graveyard. I can't really give any credit to their spirituality now as I've experienced everything I experienced then with drugs and more, which tells me it's all in my head to begin with (though I may be wrong, who *really* knows).

Curious to hear OP's interpretation if any, through PM if necessary.