Do You Believe That Ghosts/Apparitions Exist?

[Pope Joan]

I think ghosts and apparitions do exist, but that we should not interfere with them and should just let them be. Ghosthunting shows simply disrespect them and the dead.

RIght. It's like the nation of Israel; you have a right to exist, but I don't care to think about you just so long as you don't go around killing people.

[Kilobugya]

As always with such supernatural non-sense : not a single piece of reliable evidence, a claim that is totally incompatible with all known physics, it would utterly ridiculous to give it any serious consideration.

[San Marlindo]

I want to believe.

[Neanderthaland]

I want to believe.

That's a terrible approach to anything.

[Risottia]

I think ghosts and apparitions do exist, but that we should not interfere with them and should just let them be. Ghosthunting shows simply disrespect them and the dead.

RIght. It's like the nation of Israel; you have a right to exist, but I don't care to think about you just so long as you don't go around killing people.

And when they do go around killing people, who you gonna call?

I ain't afraid of no ghost.

[Desadrad]

I have actually developed a lot of phasmophobia (fear of ghosts) in the 2 months. So much so that when I have to shut the lights off, my heart goes about as fast as a formula 1 car. Keep in mind this is someone who's agnostic and hasn't believed in the paranormal for years. I don't know what to do. It also affects where I position myself (like on couches and stuff) so that I don't have to feel like a demon is breathing behind my back.

[Kilobugya]

I have actually developed a lot of phasmophobia (fear of ghosts) in the 2 months. So much so that when I have to shut the lights off, my heart goes about as fast as a formula 1 car. Keep in mind this is someone who's agnostic and hasn't believed in the paranormal for years. I don't know what to do. It also affects where I position myself (like on couches and stuff) so that I don't have to feel like a demon is breathing behind my back.

Seek medical help ? That's what someone should do when developing a phobia (or whatever, ghosts or spiders doesn't matter much at this point) that strongly affect their lives like it seems to do yours. Good luck with that problem.

[Alvecia]

Ghost stories are fun, but that's all they are, stories.

[Thermodolia]

Ghost stories are fun, but that's all they are, stories.

^This. It's pretty fun to freak your self out and I think ghost stories do that very well.

[The Foxes Swamp]

As always with such supernatural non-sense : not a single piece of reliable evidence, a claim that is totally incompatible with all known physics, it would utterly ridiculous to give it any serious consideration.

have you even looked? because harry martindale's vision of roman soldiers marching in 1953 through the cellar he was working in is pretty impressive.

[Kilobugya]

have you even looked? because harry martindale's vision of roman soldiers marching in 1953 through the cellar he was working in is pretty impressive.

Typically cherrypicking and positive bias - have a thousand madmen speak non-sense, and you'll find one where cherrypicking enough in the rambling it'll roughly match with whatever (alien abduction/reincarnation/ghosts/seeing the future/...) nonsense you want to justify. That's way, way below the required standards for what qualifies as scientific evidence. And for an extraordinary claim that contradicts all known physics, you need extraordinary evidence, not even mere standard evidence.

[Oceasia]

I hope so. It would make the world more interesting. I also want a ghost friend. But since I've never had any paranormal encounters, I'd say no.

[Krasny-Volny]

All supernatural phenomena and experiences are always considered baseless fairy tales until they happen to you.

The problem is, once they happen to you they become anecdotes that will not be taken seriously. You'll be inundated with requests and even demands to seek professional - often psychiatric - help because those who have not shared your experiences are naturally skeptical. Far easier to doubt your sanity than to doubt their own understanding of the laws of physics and nature.

Here's the thing: it's entirely possible for somebody to experience something seemingly metaphysical without it being anything wrong with their neurons or a mental health issue. The problem is not the person but something in nature affecting their senses in a very unusual manner.

Speaking as somebody who has experienced unexplainable phenomena.

And nope, consulting a psychiatrist and having a toxicology test done was not what solved the problem (although I did do both).

[Costa Fierro]

Of course. It may not be scientific, but hey, I love me a good paranormal Reddit thread.

[The Foxes Swamp]

have you even looked? because harry martindale's vision of roman soldiers marching in 1953 through the cellar he was working in is pretty impressive.

Typically cherrypicking and positive bias - have a thousand madmen speak non-sense, and you'll find one where cherrypicking enough in the rambling it'll roughly match with whatever (alien abduction/reincarnation/ghosts/seeing the future/...) nonsense you want to justify. That's way, way below the required standards for what qualifies as scientific evidence. And for an extraordinary claim that contradicts all known physics, you need extraordinary evidence, not even mere standard evidence.

so is that a no i havent looked?

[Kilobugya]

Far easier to doubt your sanity than to doubt their own understanding of the laws of physics and nature.

Well, yes, sure, far easier to doubt that some "bug" occurred in an incredibility complicated and very error-prone machinery (the human brain), something which we actually know happens regularly, rather than jumping to whatever explanation feels nice, even if it's completely incompatible with all known laws of physics which have been tested thousands upon thousands of time and never failed.

Here's the thing: it's entirely possible for somebody to experience something seemingly metaphysical without it being anything wrong with their neurons or a mental health issue. The problem is not the person but something in nature affecting their senses in a very unusual manner.

There is things "wrong" with the neurons of every humans. The brain is _not_ 100% accurate, even among the healthiest individuals. And that it went even less accurate, temporarily, for you isn't that surprising, and it doesn't necessarily mean you've a mental health issue (that would be the case if it repeatedly turned out to be less accurate, not once). But that doesn't mean either you can throw the laws of physics to the trash and start postulating whatever nonsense you like.

Speaking as somebody who has experienced unexplainable phenomena.

There is nothing which is "unexplainable". There are things which are currently unexplained, because the universe (and the human brain in particular) are so complicated that even if we do master the first principles (ie, the fundamental laws of physics) we can't always track all consequences. We don't have perfect knowledge of each particle position and speed, and even if we did (ignoring quantum issues) we clearly don't have the computational capabilities to compute the fundamental laws of physics on the ~10^27 (10000000000000000000000000000, or a billion of billions of billions) particles that makes a human brain. But again that doesn't allow you to jump to "supernatural !" claims.

[Jumalariik]

have you even looked? because harry martindale's vision of roman soldiers marching in 1953 through the cellar he was working in is pretty impressive.

Typically cherrypicking and positive bias - have a thousand madmen speak non-sense, and you'll find one where cherrypicking enough in the rambling it'll roughly match with whatever (alien abduction/reincarnation/ghosts/seeing the future/...) nonsense you want to justify. That's way, way below the required standards for what qualifies as scientific evidence. And for an extraordinary claim that contradicts all known physics, you need extraordinary evidence, not even mere standard evidence.

Is science the only way of measuring reality?

[Krasny-Volny]

Far easier to doubt your sanity than to doubt their own understanding of the laws of physics and nature.

Well, yes, sure, far easier to doubt that some "bug" occurred in an incredibility complicated and very error-prone machinery (the human brain), something which we actually know happens regularly, rather than jumping to whatever explanation feels nice, even if it's completely incompatible with all known laws of physics which have been tested thousands upon thousands of time and never failed.

Here's the thing: it's entirely possible for somebody to experience something seemingly metaphysical without it being anything wrong with their neurons or a mental health issue. The problem is not the person but something in nature affecting their senses in a very unusual manner.

There is things "wrong" with the neurons of every humans. The brain is _not_ 100% accurate, even among the healthiest individuals. And that it went even less accurate, temporarily, for you isn't that surprising, and it doesn't necessarily mean you've a mental health issue (that would be the case if it repeatedly turned out to be less accurate, not once). But that doesn't mean either you can throw the laws of physics to the trash and start postulating whatever nonsense you like.

Speaking as somebody who has experienced unexplainable phenomena.

There is nothing which is "unexplainable". There are things which are currently unexplained, because the universe (and the human brain in particular) are so complicated that even if we do master the first principles (ie, the fundamental laws of physics) we can't always track all consequences. We don't have perfect knowledge of each particle position and speed, and even if we did (ignoring quantum issues) we clearly don't have the computational capabilities to compute the fundamental laws of physics on the ~10^27 (10000000000000000000000000000, or a billion of billions of billions) particles that makes a human brain. But again that doesn't allow you to jump to "supernatural !" claims.

Have you never considered the possibility that the phenomena in question may be the result of an external factor as opposed to an internal one that may be so easily chalked up to a fault of the brain's chemistry?

If, for instance, a large group of people in one setting claim to experience the same phenomena, is it not likelier that they're all being exposed to a single external factor in their environment, rather than suffering the same specific neurological abnormality?

[Mattopilos]

Typically cherrypicking and positive bias - have a thousand madmen speak non-sense, and you'll find one where cherrypicking enough in the rambling it'll roughly match with whatever (alien abduction/reincarnation/ghosts/seeing the future/...) nonsense you want to justify. That's way, way below the required standards for what qualifies as scientific evidence. And for an extraordinary claim that contradicts all known physics, you need extraordinary evidence, not even mere standard evidence.

Is science the only way of measuring reality?

Pretty much, unless you can suggest a what to measure the un-material.

[Kilobugya]

Typically cherrypicking and positive bias - have a thousand madmen speak non-sense, and you'll find one where cherrypicking enough in the rambling it'll roughly match with whatever (alien abduction/reincarnation/ghosts/seeing the future/...) nonsense you want to justify. That's way, way below the required standards for what qualifies as scientific evidence. And for an extraordinary claim that contradicts all known physics, you need extraordinary evidence, not even mere standard evidence.

Is science the only way of measuring reality?

Yes. Science _purpose_ is measuring and understanding reality, building an extensive, coherent and accurate map of it. That's what science IS. And the scientific method, the way we do science, while it of course can be improved (like all human activity, it's not flawless) is the only method we found, in our so many thousand years of trying, that can give us such an accurate map, instead of all the broken, so widely inaccurate maps that they don't correspond with reality we had before science. And there are reasons for that, reasons rooted deeply into the laws of probabilities (which are more adamant that carbon nanofibers, you can't ever escape them, like all mathematical laws) and into our nature of flawed humans, brains being the product of chaotic evolution, incredibly powerful, but yet very error-prone and ridden with so many cognitive biases.

[Kilobugya]

Have you never considered the possibility that the phenomena in question may be the result of an external factor as opposed to an internal one that may be so easily chalked up to a fault of the brain's chemistry?

If, for instance, a large group of people in one setting claim to experience the same phenomena, is it not likelier that they're all being exposed to a single external factor in their environment, rather than suffering the same specific neurological abnormality?

Depends of the phenomena, but sure it can be caused by an external factor - typical UFO sighting might be caused by a (hard to predict, due to the high level of complexity of Earth atmosphere) meteorological effect, or by a military craft trial, or by many other causes.

When only one person is affected, the most likely cause (due to the high complication and how error-prone the human brain is) is internal, but it can be external. That doesn't make it unexplainable, at worst currently unexplained, and that doesn't allow you to emit whatever hypothesis you like, and who cares if it breaks all known laws of physics.

[Rebellious Itorofu Islands]

And nope, consulting a psychiatrist and having a toxicology test done was not what solved the problem (although I did do both).

Tell us!

[Krasny-Volny]

And nope, consulting a psychiatrist and having a toxicology test done was not what solved the problem (although I did do both).

Tell us!

I posted a thread about this some months ago, entitled "telepathy real?". It concerned a phenomenon whereby I was hearing the voices of my neighbors in my head, and they likewise claimed to be hearing my thoughts whenever I saw them.

I sought assistance from my family physician, but the blood tests came back clean. In fact, the doctor said I had very healthy blood, save for a slight Vitamin D deficiency. They coudn't help me detox anything because there was nothing to detox. He was also a psychiatrist, so I was able to get him to explain to me a few things from the mental health perspective (I knew voices were typically associated with schizophrenia). I had no past history of medical illness, not even something mild like ADHD, however, and exhibited no other symptoms of schizophrenia. He did say I was "uptight" and should "probably be sleeping more". His advice was basically I needed to relax.

Of course, I couldn't relax as long as the phenomenon was ongoing... that's exactly why I seemed tense and highly strung. I took multiple walks around the neighborhood and realized that everybody had tinfoil over their windows (like the conspiracy nut cases). I spoke to people living in houses behind my apartment complex and learned that the same thing had been happening to them. In fact every building within a ten block radius of my apartment had tinfoil and/or a metal grate over all the windows facing west.

My conclusion was there was a localized sound effect common to that neighborhood causing auditory hallucinations. I recalled reading about how people experienced intense hallucinations when exposed to infrasound, and determined I was probably witnessing something similar. I noticed, for instance, that I could only hear the voices when I was in my apartment, not when I was at work or out shopping. This meant whatever it was fell under a geographic restriction. The fact that people depended on tinfoil or giant sheets of aluminum also confirmed to me they were looking to deflect a sound frequency.

My solution? I moved. Needless to say, the voices stopped. Haven't experienced the same effect before or since.

[Alvecia]

Tell us!

I posted a thread about this some months ago, entitled "telepathy real?". It concerned a phenomenon whereby I was hearing the voices of my neighbors in my head, and they likewise claimed to be hearing my thoughts whenever I saw them.

I sought assistance from my family physician, but the blood tests came back clean. In fact, the doctor said I had very healthy blood, save for a slight Vitamin D deficiency. They coudn't help me detox anything because there was nothing to detox. He was also a psychiatrist, so I was able to get him to explain to me a few things from the mental health perspective (I knew voices were typically associated with schizophrenia). I had no past history of medical illness, not even something mild like ADHD, however, and exhibited no other symptoms of schizophrenia. He did say I was "uptight" and should "probably be sleeping more". His advice was basically I needed to relax.

Of course, I couldn't relax as long as the phenomenon was ongoing... that's exactly why I seemed tense and highly strung. I took multiple walks around the neighborhood and realized that everybody had tinfoil over their windows (like the conspiracy nut cases). I spoke to people living in houses behind my apartment complex and learned that the same thing had been happening to them. In fact every building within a ten block radius of my apartment had tinfoil and/or a metal grate over all the windows facing west.

My conclusion was there was a localized sound effect common to that neighborhood causing auditory hallucinations. I recalled reading about how people experienced intense hallucinations when exposed to infrasound, and determined I was probably witnessing something similar. I noticed, for instance, that I could only hear the voices when I was in my apartment, not when I was at work or out shopping. This meant whatever it was fell under a geographic restriction. The fact that people depended on tinfoil or giant sheets of aluminum also confirmed to me they were looking to deflect a sound frequency.

My solution? I moved. Needless to say, the voices stopped. Haven't experienced the same effect before or since.

This kind of stuff is fascinating.

[Hladgos]

I think it's possible to be so Irish that one's skin is so white it's transparent