I was wondering what people thought about ghosts. A lot of people believe in them, and a lot of people don't.

Do you believe in ghosts?

If so, why, and what do you think they are?

If not, why not?

Finally, please let's not get too religious with this discussion, as that's the sort of thing that tends to start flame wars.

i am undecided on if ghosts exist, the idea frightens me but the science behind it and say poltergeists is impossible in my opinion.

I am a scientist, and believe there is a proper explanation for everything. Ghosts are nonsense.

I believe we are reincarnated how and when we please after we die. For instance, I could be reincarnated as will smith 30 years ago.

I do not believe in ghosts, as I do not believe in miracles. There is an explanation for everything, whether we know it or not.

No, I have no reason to believe in ghosts. There is a reasonable explanation for everything. Unfortunately I know people who hold seances and the such. The poor misguided fools.

I believe I can be scared shitless by something that isn't there.

DarkHyth:
I am a scientist, and believe there is a proper explanation for everything. Ghosts are nonsense.

They don't necessarily have to be a spiritual phenomena, though. It could be that they are explainable by science, we just haven't learnt enough about the world yet to understand them.

I believe, as you do, that there is a proper explanation for everything. However, I have also encountered 'ghosts'. In my family home, we would hear footsteps on the stairs at night (not expanding wood, as you are wanting to say, or creaking floorboards, but solid obvious footsteps). The strangest thing about them was that they came not from the direction of our staircase, but from the location of the old staircase in the house, the new one's mirror opposite.

In addition to this, when in bed, my sister once woke to find a young boy sitting on the end of her bed. She called out to my mother, saying that there was a boy in her room. Mum said she had been dreaming, but she insisted that she had been awake and seen this. She was so adamant, we all believed her.

We looked into the history of our house, asked after previous residents, and discovered that when the previous owners had moved the staircase, they had found a toy-cupboard underneath, unused for ages. We looked into things further, and discovered that a boy who had lived in the house (the toys were his) had died in tragic circumstances. While playing in the village church-yard, he had tripped and fallen on a grave-spike, later dying from his injuries.

It is my belief that something of this boy remains in our house. We have never felt threatened or alarmed by the presence. I do not know anything further than that.

A friend of mine, who lived in an old farmhouse in Derbyshire, had her own ghost encounter. When in a downstairs room, she smelt the strong odour of pipe-smoke, fresh as if someone was smoking in the room. She looked in surrounding rooms, and even outside, but the odour faded as she left a certain corner of the room. After looking outside, she returned to the room, but found no trace of the smell. This happened several times before she finally decided to look into it. It turned out that a long-term previous resident, Fred, had spent his evenings by the fire in that room, smoking his pipe. He had died in the house, and subsequent residents had reported the strong smell of pipe-smoke in that room sometimes, and the fact that it never lingered. I myself smelt the odour once, when I was staying in that room, and asked her about it, which is how I heard about these incidents.

Over the years, I have met many people have mentioned similar stories to me, strange occurrences that seem to link to past events they were unaware of. After two encounters of my own, I tend to be inclined to believe them.

Ghosts, UFO's, Religion....

Mankind got a little bored & decided to amuse itself.

I voted "undecided", because ghosts have been neither proven nor disproven to me. I do try to keep an open mind - if you look in the "unexplained phenomena" thread, you can read about a recent unexplained event I've experienced, and my friends and family have told me stories of their own. I just don't know what to think...

Well theres electricity in your body and its gotta go somewhere after you die, hence ghost

But I voted undecided because there are alot of flaws in arguments both for and against ghost

my view is that everything is non-existent until proved to be otherwise

No. No, until further notice. By further notice, I mean that a ghost comes up to me and says, "Yo, sup? I'm a ghost."

i vote yes just to piss poeple off i dont particulary believe because i really havent had any encounters

The idea is kind of stupid.

BUT: It would be totally possible for the human mind to construct hallucinations. They could hallucinate people they've seen that are dead, and call them ghosts. These, however, are not ghosts. They are hallucinations. It would even be possible to construct people we haven't seen because humans have a knowledge of the structure of people. These would probably not reflect existent people, though.

I vote No on ghosts, Yes on hallucinations.

are demons considered ghosts?

Whether or not they exist, ghost hunter shows are all scams, the "hunters" are usually using cheap equipment that merely looks and sounds cool, and using it wrong." At best they detect a cold spot and if that means ghost then my house is the most haunted house in the world in winder, but standing next to the radiator rids the house of ghosts.

I don't believe in them personally because i don't believe in a soul or an afterlife. There may be an aspect to death that we have yet to measure or there may be a creature as yet undiscovered that is made from gas and lingers in old houses and my cliff tops. But if they can't be measured, then it doesn't exist.

And before you say "dark matter" and sit back looking smug. we can measure that, we know it exists, we just don't know what its made of.

I agree with vdgmprgrmr: every single anecdotal story of ghosts or similar apparitions can be explained as hallucinations - sometimes involving more than one sensory system (ie. auditary hallucinations) - it has been found in a study of 13000 people that 39% of them experience halucinations - 29% of these occuring during the daytime.

Short answer: no.
Long answer: NO! STFU!

I personaly dont care.

Ivoryagent:
If I see a ghost, I'd kill em.

Ba-doom, tish.

I shout a resounding 'Nope' to the theory of ghosts. They are a scientific impossibility, and all claims of them have been debunked. Tricks of the light exist; ghosts, on the other hand, do not.

DarkHyth:
I am a scientist, and believe there is a proper explanation for everything. Ghosts are nonsense.

Batman is a scientist!

Calmaveth:
I agree with vdgmprgrmr: every single anecdotal story of ghosts or similar apparitions can be explained as hallucinations - sometimes involving more than one sensory system (ie. auditary hallucinations) - it has been found in a study of 13000 people that 39% of them experience halucinations - 29% of these occuring during the daytime.

Did you know that 87% of all statistics are made up on the spot? True story!

Honestly I don't believe in ghosts... but like an episode of the X-Files... I want to believe.

I think death is the end. Besides, what matter would ghosts take on?

There is no scientific evidence for ghosts. There is no scientific evidence for a soul. Ergo - There are no ghosts.

Anything that appears to be a ghost can be explained in logical means. Seeing a ghost - an illusion caused by high frequency vibration effecting the iris. Sounds - Animals etc.

Plus all videos of ghosts could be easily faked as well. Until I see evidence of these spirits, my answer will remain no.

I could believe in 'em... Just the other night I caught a flash of movement from the corner of my eye, though I haven't been getting much sleep lately. By the way, if you are a scientist and think that because you are, that makes you right, you must have cheated your way through school. I'm no Einstein but I do know for sure that we don't know everything about the world and there are many unexplained occurrences people go through daily.

I really really really hope they do. Reality would be so bleak and boring without them.

I direct you all this way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPTDHEeLI0A
Thats the first part, there are 10 altogther
Those from the UK and are over 21 are probably already aware of this (I was 8 when it aired originally- didn't sleep that night.)

I think they exist...I mean, stuff has moved in my room before when I was the only one in it...so I mean, I guess this exist...I have no reason not to

Unles you count my friend and his computer chair tellin u he wants to toss your salad...nvm.

I don't believe in ghosts, but if they existed, mystical being like that aren't going to be caught on fucking cameras or some shit like that.

Just saying....

Yeah, I do believe in ghosts. I didn't use to, because I needed proof to believe in that sort of thing...but then I got all the proof I needed when all kinds of weird stuff started to happen at my mom's house. I can't -not- believe now. Things moving on their own, stuff thrown around...there's really no way to explain it. I've been lucky enough to have others witness these things as well, so I know it's not just in my imagination.