I don’t, though I had a bizarre experience last night. I suppose the experience has made me at least willing to entertain the possibility. Heh. Ambivalent, eh?
So how about you, fellow Dopers? Do you believe in Ghosts?
BOO! :eek:
I’m an aghostic.
Man, that almost mad me wet my pants…
I just apply the test of how good the evidence is.
So I believe in gravity, microwaves and the Internet. (Plus there are probably aliens somewhere in the Universe - we just haven’t met them yet.)
Although it would be interesting, there is no reason for me to believe in ghosts, psychic powers or any God.
I don’t believe in ghosts in the traditional explanation of the word. I don’t believe in anything “spiritual”. However, I’ve had a few things happen to me that are conventionally inexplicable, so I’m more willing than most of the arch-skeptics on the SDMB to admit that there are a few phenomena that really aren’t properly explained, Occam’s Razor notwithstanding. FWIW, I believe what you describe in the other thread as described, but can offer no explanation.
I even exposed one of my experiences to the scrutiny of the board, and found the proposed physical explanations to be outlandish in the extreme, though probably not as outlandish as it having been a ghost that caused it.
I even once came up with an idea of a grading system for such experiences. Zero points for only you, 1 point for every extra person who saw it, subtract 1 for every year that has passed since the incident, add two for every piece of independent physical evidence, etc. Such a scheme would therefore only allow a very few of the reported phenomena for examination. But then I got distracted and did something else…
Yes I do. As for your experiance , I also believe that not everything has a scientific explanation.
I have not had any visual experiences with ghosts, but there are too many occurences that can’t be so easily explained away. There were a couple times when I definitely “felt” something.
I do believe that there can be a sort of human residue left behind.
And I simply think that there are different ways of communicating. I found jjimm’s “I wish he’d get up and go sit in a different seat” post fascinating.
No.
I’ve had some really weird shit happen to me, similar to the linked thread, however, I do not for a moment believe it was “ghosts”. I believe it was something I could not explain, but I believe that a logical explanation exists, even if I never figure it out. So, though it is a mystery to me, or I don’t necessarily have the mental capacity to “get it”, it does not mean a perfectly logical explanation does not exist.
Otherwise, I’d believe that my cat gargles.
No, I most certainly do not. I hope that it means they will leave me alone from now on.
I have found my thread inviting scrutiny of something that I once observed. Except now I see I didn’t invite scrutiny, but I got it anyway, as a bonus. Turns out it was nanomice. 
As a postscript to that thread, after I wrote that, I emailed my ex asking her “can you remember something unusual that happened one night in Mallow?” and with no further prompting for details, she replied describing exactly what I reported in that thread.
I’m quite a skeptical person but have had some very odd happenings in this old house that I bought last year that have made me (slightly) reconsider my position. I’ll share if anyone is interested . . .
Please do share. I’m interested.
I have never heard anything like a coherent definition of the word, “ghost.” If you’re talking about some sort of surviving, disembodied personality then the notion is clearly impossible and absurd. You had a weird experience but it has a natural explanation. Everything does.
Nope, but I like them. For me, nothing beats a good horror story/movie.
As to real ghosts, or psychic residues, or all the rest of that, I don’t believe in it. I think people are very suggestible and easily creeped out (including me, BTW). Add a few odd noises or lights, and all of a sudden one is imagining spirits from beyond. But there’s nothing there. It’d be cool if there were, though.
I usually answer these kinds of questions with “I’m open to the possiblity.”
But no, I guess at the core of me, no.
I don’t believe in ghosts - but I’m curious… after all, I’m fairly skeptical and I would say not everything has a scientific explanation.
That’s different of course, from saying that there are things that cannot have a scientific explanation. I wouldn’t say that.
Explain how a person lying in a bed can be hit in the face with a blanket that had been on the floor while nothing was in the room to pick the blanket up off the floor.
Okay . . . all tempered with a disclaimer that I really am a skeptic :
First, the setting: My house’s deed basically says “old” – date of construction is unknown. I think it’s about 1890 or so. The house is about 3ksqft, with a basement and two living stories, with hardwood floors on the staircase and second floor.
When partner and I first moved in I would see a lot of “black floaties” and quick movements of something dark when I walked through certain rooms. I was semi-aware of it and became very aware when one day partner said “you know, when I walk through the music and dining room, I see these black shapes . . .”
Another odd occurrence happened this past winter. I put my tea kettle on to boil and came upstairs to wake up SO. When I went back to the kitchen, SO’s first name was written in the steam on the inside of the kitchen window. We were the only people in the house.
When downstairs, we occasionally hear footsteps pacing back and forth upstairs and several times it has sounded as if the steps started downstairs. When this footstep noises happen the dogs will stand up and watch the ceiling with rapt attention.
The most disturbing incident, however, circulated around some loud knocking on the interior walls of the family room. It started last August and would occur early in the morning when I was in the room having morning coffee. It was a very distinct and loud rapping that would come in “threes” and ceased the day before a tragic, unexpected death in the family occurred in September.
I do know that we have something raccoon-ish residing in the attic and that old houses settle and have odd shadows and noises. It’s also true that as we have settled into this place and are coming to terms with some really big losses and changes (and having less screaming fights from the stress) that there have been fewer weird events and noises.
So, those are my stories and here is my disclaimer face: :dubious:
You mean souls of the dead that haunt the living, right?
No.
And it’d be the kewlest thing EVAR if the ghosts would stop rattling chains where no one but the believers-in-ghosts can hear them, but I’m not holding my breath for that. Nor am I when I drive past the cemetery. Sorry, dead folks.
Seconding the request for more details.
I’ve had several paranormal experiences throughout my life, most of which I have managed to explain away one way or another. But there are a handful of things I’ve seen or heard that I can’t explain rationally. Plus, I take into consideration the experiences of a few of my trusted friends and family members, some of whom have experienced the same sort of things I have. So I’m definitely a believer.