Tell me about ghosts.

[Mdcastle]

I was watching the show "Ghost Hunters" just because they were doing a place I visited the old Missouri Penetentiary. Of course they found some suspicous stuff (as well as finding EMF by a fusebox!), but they told the guy in charge, the former assistant warden who led the tour I was on, that there were definate paranormal activity but they didn't seem particularly evil.

On other episodes of the show, do they say "My god, you have a very evil spirit, you'd better move away // burn the place down // call a priest in for an excorcism. How would they tell if it was evil spirit or good spirit, and if there were evil spirits, wouldn't an old prison, complete with an execution chamber, be a logical place for them to haunt, instead of good / neutral spirits being there?

I know Stephen King was writing fiction, but might he have been on to something with the idea that building absorb good and bad stuff that has gone on, then reradiate them that sensitive individuals perceive as hanutings. Ever gone into a place and felt it was a "good" or "bad" place. Or maybe even the different feel an old building has as opposed to a new building, it's aura, is part of this. Or is the aura completely just the result of our visual senses and nothing supernatural about it.

Why is it that most hauntings are interesting / old places, as opposed to a random office building or strip mall?

Can you reconcile the traditional concept of ghosts with biblical christianity. Maybe hauntings are angels and demons interacting with our world, but couldn't the view that they are spirits of dead people be OK? Is there anything in the bible that says souls go immediately to heaven or hell, as opposed to sometimes sticking around a while and saying "boo"?

[runner pat]

There's no such thing.

[Siam Sam]

There's no such thing, and nothing that does or does not appear in a work of fiction like the bible will change that.

[Zebra]

This recent thread had some info from recent discoveries about ghosts.

[Princhester]

Originally Posted by Mdcastleman

How would they tell if it was evil spirit or good spirit...

They don't "tell", they MSI*

Why is it that most hauntings are interesting / old places, as opposed to a random office building or strip mall?

It's part of the gothic fictional tradition. Just like how after movies etc started featuring "aliens" in the shape known as "greys", that's what people started to report seeing. Fiction goes through fashions.

*"Make Shit Up"

[Der Trihs]

There's no s-s-such t-t-thing as g-g-ghosts!

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Princhester

MSI*

*"Make Shit Up"

[For You]

I took a picture of this tree one night and the camera revealed that all the air was filled with these glowing white spheres ...

[Mangetout]

If there are such things as ghosts, they're never featured on these atrocious low-budget 'ghost hunter' TV shows. As far as I can tell, those consist entirely of stupid, excitable people bumbling around in the dark, stupidly and excitably and:

• Knocking things over, then screaming "something moved!"
• Observing that cold air feels cold
• Being ignorant of the properties of their camera equipment, particularly with respect to illuminated, out-of-focus dust motes and condensation on the lens.

About the best thing that can be said of these shows is that they are consistent.

As far as reconciling the Bible with ghosts... you know there's at least one ghost described in the Bible? - in 1 Samuel 28, Saul instructs a witch to summon the Ghost of Samuel, and so she does, and Samuel appears (and is pissed off about being disturbed).

[Princhester]

Originally Posted by Mangetout

A ghost did that. I typed MSU.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Princhester

A ghost did that. I typed MSU.

Something MOVED!

[Loach]

Booooo

[Czarcasm]

Originally Posted by For You

I took a picture of this tree one night and the camera revealed that all the air was filled with these glowing white spheres ...

A good lens cleaner will take car of that problem.

[FairyChatMom]

Originally Posted by For You

I took a picture of this tree one night and the camera revealed that all the air was filled with these glowing white spheres ...

My sister went on a "ghost tour" somewhere, and had similar spheres in her photos... ooooooooooooo!! I guess that means my basement is haunted, because when we were doing some sheetrock work down there, I took some pictures and it had white spheres also! Silly me - I thought it was dust floating in the air...

[Mangetout]

Orbs.

Big, sweaty orbs.

[ralph124c]

I guess the most amazing thing about ghosts is that they are so rare..and if they are in fact the spirits of the dead, they ought to be more common today. The fact is, billions of people have lived and died on this planet-there ought to be jillions of ghosts. Ghost stories appear in every culture, yet we never see a good photo of one.
I'm puzzled.

[Munch]

I dunno, guys - this video seems pretty legit. (Don't worry - it's not a scary pop-up scream video.)

[interface2x]

Originally Posted by Munch

I dunno, guys - this video seems pretty legit. (Don't worry - it's not a scary pop-up scream video.)

I've seen thousands of ghost videos over the years and, to this day, this video is the only one I can't debunk. It's chilling.

[Bakhesh]

Skeptics will denounce anything, even when they can see the evidence with their own eyes.

I once found a dead baby ghost at the side of the road, but when I showed it to my skeptic friends, they claimed it was just a handkerchief

[Coustralee]

i would have gotten away with it if it wasnt for you meddling kids

[Morgenstern]

Originally Posted by runner pat

There's no such thing.

Apparently you've never seen Ghostbusters.

[bartleby]

Originally Posted by Mdcastleman

I know Stephen King was writing fiction,

You mean when he isn't writing about pedophilia?

[Trinopus]

“Everytime a child says 'I don't believe in ghosts,' there's a a little ghost somewhere that falls down dead.”

[bup]

Originally Posted by Mdcastleman

Why is it that most hauntings are interesting / old places, as opposed to a random office building or strip mall?

Because in interesting / old places people are already scared, and so more likely to attribute any creak or groan to a ghost.

[JackieLikesVariety]

Originally Posted by Munch

I dunno, guys - this video seems pretty legit. (Don't worry - it's not a scary pop-up scream video.)

you can tell it's a real ghost because of the creepy music. also, it make me say "sheet"

[Corcaigh]

When I was a teenager I lived in a house that was built on what used to be farmland, the farmhouse was still there, at the entrance to the new modern housing estate. This was in the days when people knew who their neighbours were and all that. I knew that the house was occupied by a middle-aged couple and their 20something daughter.

One afternoon while walking passed the house I saw someone in the kitchen and waved. As I continued to walk passed the house it dawned on me that there were no cars outside the house (it was in the crook of an L on the road, so you got a 360 view of the house as you walked passed it). So there was no one home.

Not only was there no one home, I'm pretty sure none of the occupants were a tall, thin man who wears a frock coat.

Plenty of people have dismissed what I saw, but I'm not the only person who says they saw a similarly dressed tall, thin man in the house when passing. The daughter's former boyfriend admitted that one night when he was in the house he turned around to see what he called a "Victorian doctor" standing in the doorway.