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 timetowaste85 wrote:
Don't worry. Those of us who believe in a higher power or believe ghosts do exist don't want to hang out with you either. It would be a drag being told we're delusional all the time for believing there is more out there than just what we can see with our naked eye.

Man, it would be sweet as hell if ghosts were real. That would open up so many possibilities! Ghostbuster would be a real job!

Sad I can't be a Ghostbuster. :(

 CthulhuDawg wrote:
Scientists can recreate the experience of an "encounter" with spectres.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-switzerland-laboratory-ghosts-idUSKBN0NK1A020150429.

I was once working on a restoration project, large barn, originally built about 1827, rebuilt in the 1890s and then again in the 1990's. We had a team of Amish carpenters working on the beams we were replacing, and they were ancy because one of the older guys has previously rented the farm in question and claimed it was cursed.

I didn't believe him until I saw a guy get picked up and thrown off. By nothing. One moment he was up on the beam, next the back of his shirt puckered up like something had picked him up by it, and up he went and then over the side. 35 feet into piles of construction materials and hay.

He was lucky, and had some major bruises, but nothing major.

So, yeah, I believe in ghosts.

Story time, I used to live in a haunted house. Not like super dramatic stuff like in scary movies, just annoying stuff really.

Before we moved in, the previous owners told my parents the house liked children. Mildly creepy and they somehow knew my mom was pregnant even though she had only just found out herself.

When we moved in we kept the shoes in a rack by the door, but they kept ending up in the hall closet. My parents gave up and we just started putting all the shoes in the closet. They couldn't stay organized though, all the hangers and racks would just fall apart and the shoes would end up in a messy pile.

There would be humming at night. I remember feeling someone sit on my bed and hum me to sleep and being terrified because there was nobody there.

There were constantly footsteps in the upstairs when nobody was up there.

Stuff would randomly fly off the shelves across the room.

There would be random cold spots (which were great in the summer).

I'm sure there's a rational and scientific explanation but the ghost story is way better.

Oh and the people who moved in after us sold the house shortly there after claiming it was haunted. I guess they had a bunch of nick nacks fly off the mantle above the fireplace and the house "didn't like them".

They did not have children.

 Dreadwinter wrote:

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Don't worry. Those of us who believe in a higher power or believe ghosts do exist don't want to hang out with you either. It would be a drag being told we're delusional all the time for believing there is more out there than just what we can see with our naked eye.

Man, it would be sweet as hell if ghosts were real. That would open up so many possibilities! Ghostbuster would be a real job!

Sad I can't be a Ghostbuster. :(

Here you go! Three weeks and you can be a certified ghost removal specialist.

https://imaginespirit.com/detecting-and-releasing-spirit-attachments-course/

Problem is undoubtedly building a portfolio of satisfied customers. I'd recommend an insurance of exorcism policy, assuring your clients you'd be back if the ghost was not removed.

 BaronIveagh wrote:

 CthulhuDawg wrote:
Scientists can recreate the experience of an "encounter" with spectres.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-switzerland-laboratory-ghosts-idUSKBN0NK1A020150429.

I was once working on a restoration project, large barn, originally built about 1827, rebuilt in the 1890s and then again in the 1990's. We had a team of Amish carpenters working on the beams we were replacing, and they were ancy because one of the older guys has previously rented the farm in question and claimed it was cursed.

I didn't believe him until I saw a guy get picked up and thrown off. By nothing. One moment he was up on the beam, next the back of his shirt puckered up like something had picked him up by it, and up he went and then over the side. 35 feet into piles of construction materials and hay.

He was lucky, and had some major bruises, but nothing major.

So, yeah, I believe in ghosts.

I'm noticing a pattern. Only people who believe in crazy things, see crazy things. That makes sense.

 CthulhuDawg wrote:

I'm noticing a pattern. Only people who believe in crazy things, see crazy things. That makes sense.

Other way around. I saw something crazy, and then believed in crazy things.

Willing skeptic here, and I take the Fortean approach. Cover all the evidence, don't just look for the obvious. Keep an open mind. I'm not out to prove, but to disprove.

There's also the theory that we're hard wired for faith in a certain way. To boil it down to the simplest terms, it's an evolutionary advantage. When you're out in the night and you see something lumpy on the path, it pays to assume it's a threat - perhaps a Bear, and leave it be, going around or otherwise away. Because those that didn't make that assumption could've found it to be a bear after all, and didn't survive to tell the tale.

And the same goes with ghosts and spirits etc. When those little hairs on the back of your hair standup, and you feel creeped out, we feel the need to flee.

Doesn't mean they're not real, but an interesting theory all the same. No idea if it's widely accepted or fringe though.

 BaronIveagh wrote:

 CthulhuDawg wrote:

I'm noticing a pattern. Only people who believe in crazy things, see crazy things. That makes sense.

Other way around. I saw something crazy, and then believed in crazy things.

Or you were crazy before and now it's being made manifest.

 CthulhuDawg wrote:


Or you were crazy before and now it's being made manifest.

While mass hallucination is a thing, let's turn to Occam's Razor: either A) a construction crew all lost their minds and hallucinated the same ting at the same time, or, B) something unusual happened that said people saw. Which would seem more likely?

 BaronIveagh wrote:

 CthulhuDawg wrote:


Or you were crazy before and now it's being made manifest.

While mass hallucination is a thing, let's turn to Occam's Razor: either A) a construction crew all lost their minds and hallucinated the same ting at the same time, or, B) something unusual happened that said people saw. Which would seem more likely?

B. Something unusual happened that you couldn't explain, because you had a bad view of the situation, so GHOSTS!

 Dreadwinter wrote:

B. Something unusual happened that you couldn't explain, because you had a bad view of the situation, so GHOSTS!

No, I had a pretty good view, that was the problem. If I'd had a bad view, I'd have figured he lost his balance and fell. But it was creepy to watch a man get picked up by his shirt and tossed over the side by something I could not see. It was a nice bright day, barely a cloud in the sky.

Can't we just leave the real/not real, believe/not believe aside for this thread and all just enjoy some spooky ghost stories?

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
Can't we just leave the real/not real, believe/not believe aside for this thread and all just enjoy some spooky ghost stories?

Yes! I need some spooks!

My buddy had a story, made all the more interesting because he's never been one to exaggerate.

He said when young he was at a youth Christian camp for a week. The pastor's kid was his age and in attendance and had smuggled in a Ouija board. They had played with it one night when one of the counselors discovered them and insisted they destroy it. Ashamedly, they broke it in two and tossed it into a 55 gallon drum that was being used as a fire pit. As they turned away he said they all heard the most hideous, deafening scream coming from the drum. I don't think anyone slept that night.

If you want a story...

My brother in law says he saw this one, so here goes.

Camp Hansen is pretty haunted, supposedly, but Gate 3 it got so bad they closed that gate. The most common thing to happen there is a marine walks up, and asks a MP on guard duty if he's got a light. He'd ask each guy in turn, and walk off if no one has a lighter. If you light his cig for him though, he vanishes once the cigarette is lit. Apparently when the JSDF took over, things got a little scarier, reports of him in bloodstained fatigues, just staring at them began to surface and men would not remain at the gate past dark, leading to the gate's closure.

Or so they say. A couple of guys have tried to look into this one, but been given the run around about why the gate is closed. AFAIK only Zweibrücken AFB ever officially closed a building due to 'Unknown, strange events' right on the paperwork.

Awesome thread! Always thought of myself as a skeptic but also open to the possibility of something......"More" out there. Not everything can have a 100% scientific explanation. I'm personally really into cryptozoology, the study and research of unknown creatures, ie; lake monsters and sasquatch. Wearing a sasquatch shirt right now that my girlfriend got for me down in Savannah, GA. Always love the potential of unknown creatures lurking.....I mean....Look at our oceans! We know more about the galaxy than we do about our oceans here on Earth.

My family moved into a house about 20 years ago. On the land was the first ever house in the area, a little tin and stone shack with a water basin out the front. We used it to store stuff. We tried using it as a gaming room but it was really cold inside and I was pretty sure it was infested with spiders.

The first night we were living there, we had the front door open. My brother and I were sitting near it, I had my back to it and he was facing it, and I was closest. My mum was sleeping and my dad was on the bog. It was at the other end of the house, a good 10 meters.

Suddenly, I heard a little girl giggle. Right behind me, at the door. My brothers face drained, he went white. Every hair on my body stood on end. After staring at each other, he said 'you heard that right? Right at the front door?'. A few minutes later my dad walked back in the room and said 'That was weird, I heard a girl giggling outside the bathroom window'.

Took a while to get to sleep that night.

While living in the house, I'd often see a person out of the corner of my eye walk into my brothers bedroom. When I went to have a talk to my brother, the room was empty.

 -Loki- wrote:
My family moved into a house about 20 years ago. On the land was the first ever house in the area, a little tin and stone shack with a water basin out the front. We used it to store stuff. We tried using it as a gaming room but it was really cold inside and I was pretty sure it was infested with spiders.

The first night we were living there, we had the front door open. My brother and I were sitting near it, I had my back to it and he was facing it, and I was closest. My mum was sleeping and my dad was on the bog. It was at the other end of the house, a good 10 meters.

Suddenly, I heard a little girl giggle. Right behind me, at the door. My brothers face drained, he went white. Every hair on my body stood on end. After staring at each other, he said 'you heard that right? Right at the front door?'. A few minutes later my dad walked back in the room and said 'That was weird, I heard a girl giggling outside the bathroom window'.

Took a while to get to sleep that night.

While living in the house, I'd often see a person out of the corner of my eye walk into my brothers bedroom. When I went to have a talk to my brother, the room was empty.

damn, that's good stuff.

Nothing supernatural for me, but I am not complaining.

I worked security at Excalibur which is in one of the most haunted buildings in Chicago and there is a lot of weird stuff that happens there and I've experienced some of it. There's an old timey bartender that is dressed in a bartenders outfit from the 20-30s, most of the staff has seen him after hours standing behind the bar and cleaning glasses. He will often speak to the managers saying Hi Boss! if they are walking through the room but he doesn't tend to speak to the other staff there. There's also a little girl in a dress that runs around the place and moves things to tease the staff, I've encountered both.

I saw the bartender a couple times while we were closing up, we're used to seeing the other bartenders cleaning and we're usually in the middle of doing stuff so at first glance you tend to walk right past him thinking it's just another staff member then realize his outfit isn't right do a double take, turn around and he's gone. The little girl I heard in the narrow hallway that runs to the bathrooms I was walking down the hall and I heard the clip clop of a girl's hard dress shoes skipping on the hardwood coming up right behind me and a little girls voice humming. I turned to look and the was nothing there but the sound of her voice and skipping went right past me and down the hall absolutely nothing there in either direction and I called over one of the other bouncers to come upstairs and make sure nobody came back through the hallway while I checked both bathrooms. Nobody was in either one and none of the windows open to the outside so nobody could have gone out that way, being a 21+ nightclub there's no way we'd let kids in to begin with. It was super, super creepy. I only heard her that one time and never saw her but other employees have a lot of times.

Sometimes the beer taps would turn on at night when nobody was in the building and the manager opening in the morning would come in to find a massive flood behind the bar, we even went so far as to secure the tap handles with bungee cords but somehow they'd be removed and it'd flood again so we had to disconnect all the kegs in the basement each night which was a giant pain. There was even video footage of them moving like they were being pulled but nobody was there. There'd also be flickering lights in the building that were caught on the security cameras after hours when nobody was in there and all the lights were off, we had tons of video footage of stuff like bottles and chairs moving on their own and the revolving door turning as if somebody had gone through it then it'd stop. It was not a place I'd like to be in without other people around.

Ive never experienced a ghost story/supernatural encounter myself. I wouldn't say I believe in 'ghosts' specifically because that quantifies things and assigns them a definite meaning that I dont feel we've really figured out. Maybe there are ghosts, maybe ghosts are a part of it, maybe ghosts are just us trying to explain what we dont understand. But I firmly believe that there is more to existence, the 'soul', than we know. I say this because I have a scientific perspective, not in spite of one. The biggest question for me is "IF the supernatural does exist but currently lies outside of established science, what would I expect to see in terms of human response?'

I've heard theories that ghosts are possibly echos of energy or time fragments, under normal circumstances we are not typically able to see into the 4th dimension (time) but in theory it flows alongside our perceived reality, there may be rare instances where we might be able to sense portions of that due to oddities in gravity or magnetic fields etc. If that theory is correct it's entirely possible that experiencing a ghost might be a witnessing somebody from a past point in time sort of like an after image left on a partially developed piece of film. It could well be that it's a form of energy or time distortion that we aren't currently capable of detecting, might not be supernatural at all but just something we currently can't quantify as we haven't developed the proper research techniques yet.

The house I grew up in has had only had two owners the original builder (a small german man and he is the reason there are pieces of my scalp in the ceilings of the basement) and my parents. It was originally a one story house and my parents decided to build a second story. When I am home alone late at night I could hear walking around on the second floor and the dogs were with my on the first floor. So we always joked it was the original owner walking around upstairs checking out the work.

Another time was more of a general feeling than an actual haunting. I recently came back from Germany and of course there was the obligatory concentration camp visits and I did tour the inside of the medical facility and the hanging/execution area and at another I went inside the crematorium and at both places I felt immense senses of dread and wanting to leave the buildings right away. I personally attributed it to the large amounts of people that died or were disposed of in those areas and maybe I was feeling the collective anger despair and hopelessness of the dead. True or not it was eerie

I was high on acid and the hair on my legs turned into black worms and started crawling all over me.

 Cheesecat wrote:
I was high on acid and the hair on my legs turned into black worms and started crawling all over me.

And this is why we can't have nice things.

 djones520 wrote:
I was in the house alone, preparing to leave. I turned the kitchen light off as I'm walking out. I get to the door, across the room, and the light turns back on.

I went back and checked, and the switch was back up.

Similar story here. Happened when I was a kid. Was also alone in the house, home from school at about 4PM. After being home for 30 minutes or so, hear the alarm clock go off in my parents' bedroom upstairs. So I went up and switched it off. At the exact moment I switched it off, a clock radio alarm downstairs in the laundry room went off. I went down and switched it off. Neither the alarm clock or the clock radio had been set to ring at the times they did. I decided to go outside and play until my parents came home.

As far as belief in ghosts goes, I have been a doctrinaire skeptic for most of my life. But this worldview does share in common with the true believer mentality an ironclad pre-commitment to a certain self-justifying worldview. I suppose as I have gotten older, I have just gotten more comfortable with the notion of mystery.

So in full disclosure I have been a believer in ghosts since a young age. The property my parents built their house on belonged to a friend of mine whose grandmother passed away in a fire there before my dad purchased the property and we had several unexplainable things happen such as objects moving etc, none of which were malicious.

The oddest thing to happen to me though that pretty much sealed the deal as far as belief goes happened while I was in the Navy, on watch in a secure building.

To set the scene, the building was the training building full of classes and such in Groton, CT. When the building was closed there were only 2 people in the building: the Petty Officer of the Deck (PooD) and the Rover. The building was several stories tall and only had one entrance that wasn't locked and for emergency use only, and this is where the PooD was stationed, while the rover walked each floor on the hour, checking the emergency exits on the ground floor and making sure nobody somehow snuck in the building.

This night I had the evening shift that covered when the building closed until midnight (all balls as we called it ) so part of my duty was to ensure that the building was empty and check all the classrooms etc. I did this and early in the evening it was the 2 watchmen and the janitor. The janitor finished up his work and left. On my next rove around the building, on the 6th floor as soon as I came out of the stairwell door I noticed that the gear closet door (janitor closet) was open and there was a mop caddy sitting in the middle of the hallway. I didn't think anything of it and figured the janitor had just forgot to put it away, and so I moved it back into the closet, secured the door, and went about my business, advising the PooD to log it when I returned that I secured that door.

An hour later, on my next rove, when I got to the 6th floor stairwell landing, I could see through the little door window that the hallway light was off now. I was a bit concerned about this but the switch was right by the door so I turned it back on. When I turned to start my walk down the hallway I noticed that the mop caddy was back in the middle of the hallway again and the gear closet door was open, again. This sends off alarm bells because the PooD and myself are the only people in the building. I radio down to the PooD and ask if anyone has come in or if the janitor returned while I was walking the other floors (I started at the bottom and went up) and he told me nobody had come in. I radio'd back my findings and advised that I was going to check all the classrooms again to make sure nobody had stayed in a class after closing. I start at the class right next to the closet and work my way around (the floors were a big square with the classrooms in the middle) and when I come back around the corner after checking the last one, the mop caddy is gone and the door is closed again. At this point I am pretty much freaked out and open the closet door and its sitting there, but in a different spot than I had put it.

I radio down to the PooD to contact the Officer of the Watch (OoW) and to advise that we may have someone in the building. I get back down to the PooD and a few minutes later the OoW shows up and I explain what's going on. He kind of laughs and says that they have had these things happen in this building a few times in the past but we should still check it out and do a search. So we go back up to the 6th floor, and this time there wasn't a mop caddy, but one of the chairs from the classroom had found its way into the hallway, facing the stairwell door. I was questioning WTF was going on at this point but he just laughed again and said he would call in a section of the watch that wasn't on duty at that time and we would search the building but that this happens every couple of months and no one is ever found, that it must have been my lucky night to get to experience it.

So he goes off and gathers a few of the watch section that isn't on watch and we all search the building, don't find anyone and by this point I turn my watch over to the next Rover. I asked him the next day if he saw anything like what I did but nothing eventful happened.

It was the weirdest thing and freaked me out pretty good, there was no way in, or out of this building without either setting off an alarm or going past the PooD. Secondly, nobody could be hiding in the classrooms as the classrooms were secured by deadbolts that could be opened only by key, from the inside or out (basically if you were locked in the classroom you weren't getting out) and each room is checked when the building closes. After talking with the OoW it was just a thing that happened there, nobody had ever been able to figure out why.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
I once read a post where Frazzled said he liked cats.

This is the most unbelievable post in this thread; I don't believe it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dreadwinter wrote:
I find it harder to believe that a ghost is running around pulling off peoples socks.

Maybe it wasn't a ghost but a skeleton hiding about. I've even heard that there is a skeleton hiding inside all of us but I imagine that is just an old wives tale to frighten us.

Skeletons are a very real threat. Do you have barrels laying about? No doubt at least half of them house skeletons waiting to pop out when the barrel is searched/smashed. The others are full of coins and odd accoutrements/potions. Probably put there by the skeletons to encourage barrel searching shenanigans.

Not that I am prejudiced against skeletons, mind you. Some of my best friends are skeletons.

The oddest thing to happen to me though that pretty much sealed the deal as far as belief goes happened while I was in the Navy, on watch in a secure building.

I was in the Navy also, and those midnight to 4:00 a.m. sounding and security watches were unnerving sometimes to say the least. One story I have from that time was when I first started training for the throttleman watch. I was on an old gator with the 1200 lb steam plant, so there were all kinds of creaking and knocking noises coming from just about everywhere. In the back of the upper level of the engine room there was an escape ladder with watertight doors and hatches, going up to the first deck of the ship. The hatches can stay open most of the time, but the door leading to the ladder well was supposed to be closed and tight at all times while underway. The upper level watch always had the door open, and when I questioned him on it, he said "whoever is in there get pissed when you close it on him." He goes on to say that if the door is closed, you can hear knocking from inside the ladder well, only on the opposite side of the well itself. Basically the only thing on that side of the well is a ballast tank, and then the hull, and then water; so the knocking sound comes from inside the tank. Open the door and it stops.

There's probably a logical explanation for it, but plenty of guys believed there was a spirit or ghost in the well or ballast tank that was knocking to get out until you opened the door. The ship was commissioned in 1970, and saw its share of action at the end of Viet Nam, and was also involved in the evacuations. We all knew people died on board that ship during its history, but details were always sketchy. There were also 2 suicides for sure, but neither took place in the starboard engine room.

 jmurph wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
I once read a post where Frazzled said he liked cats.

This is the most unbelievable post in this thread; I don't believe it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dreadwinter wrote:
I find it harder to believe that a ghost is running around pulling off peoples socks.

Maybe it wasn't a ghost but a skeleton hiding about. I've even heard that there is a skeleton hiding inside all of us but I imagine that is just an old wives tale to frighten us.

Skeletons are a very real threat. Do you have barrels laying about? No doubt at least half of them house skeletons waiting to pop out when the barrel is searched/smashed. The others are full of coins and odd accoutrements/potions. Probably put there by the skeletons to encourage barrel searching shenanigans.

Not that I am prejudiced against skeletons, mind you. Some of my best friends are skeletons.

Those of you amused by this mix of witty banter and dire warning may be interested in this article. Also, remember- inside every human is a skeleton just waiting to break out. http://www.somethingawful.com/news/diablo-skeleton-barrel/

Got a night light thrown at me at my old house when I was about 8 or 9. I was the only child there that night, and the only one upstairs.

The same house I had an episode where I woke up and turned to face the window where one of those old tin farm light fixtures was immediately outside, and a bulky male shape, neither fat nor overly muscular, very farm hand sort of build with curly hair, was lurching at me with a hatchet in his hand. I start scooting back and am about to scream when the figure passes through me. Now, since this incident I have had more than a few instances of current running through my body, and that is about the best way to describe how it felt.

I lived in a duplex with a girlfriend (ex, now) and the microwave would occasionally come on unprompted, as well as the computer coming out of sleep or screen saver mode while no one was moving in the house.

When I was in Baghdad I got my picture take at the base of the Cross Sabers monument. This monument uses helmets from soldiers on both sides of the Iran-Iraq war who died in battle as part of the monument. Two pics were taken, a second or two apart. One is fine, minus some dust reflecting. The second has a steam like mist rising from the helmets.