# Atheists, Have you ever had a visitation or sign from a deceased person post mortem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 18, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626 "2010-06-18T00:42:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/21 "2010-06-18T10:16:52Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > People can believe in a god or gods without believing in an afterlife, or in an afterlife and no gods. There’s no intrinsic connection between the two. Yes there is. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/22 "2010-06-18T13:14:03Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Well, apparently I don’t. > > But in my mind, if someone doesn’t believe in a God, then they don’t believe in an afterlife, and therefore they wouldn’t accept any implication of a visitation from the dead. I think that most atheists in the states are _probably_ like this, but certainly not all are. I actually had a discussion with an atheist (on another board) who thought that he was a ‘real’ vampire, with additional internal organs to boot. He had the ‘ability’ to drain ‘psi’ and all that. We were talking about religion and God and he said he didn’t believe in any of that because it was silly and “obviously” untrue. … :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/23 "2010-06-18T13:15:10Z")
As to the question: No, I haven’t had any visitation or sign from a deceased person post mortem. In fact, I haven’t even had any dreams involving dead relatives…I find that kind of odd… ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/24 "2010-06-18T14:56:12Z")
Does it count if someone left a body on your doorstep? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/25 "2010-06-18T14:58:46Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Do you know what an Atheist is? > [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Yes, do you? OK, but do you know what the word “deceased” means? Because I don’t think it means what you think it means. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/26 "2010-06-20T02:57:59Z")
No, I haven’t. If I had, I’d head for the doctor’s office stat. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/27 "2010-06-20T03:08:48Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > [QUOTE=Der Trihs] > People can believe in a god or gods without believing in an afterlife, or in an afterlife and no gods. There’s no intrinsic connection between the two. Yes there is. [/QUOTE] Oh? so you are saying that if people believe in gods they are compelled to believe in an afterlife? Are people who believe in in afterlife compelled to believe in gods? You can’t even imagine a religion that holds that there is an afterlife but no superior beings, just us? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/28 "2010-06-20T15:31:29Z")
The closest I get is having dreams about the dead person after someone close to me dies. No, none of them predict death unless I knew they were close to death already, and no, I’ve never been informed of a death via dream. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/29 "2010-06-20T17:18:40Z")
I see dead people (at open casket funerals). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/30 "2010-06-20T17:36:14Z")
Ghosts only like people who believe in them, it seems. They shun the rest, such as myself. Back in the day, when I rented a two-bedroom teakwood house all for myself up North in the 1980s – for US$40 a month – the locals asked whether I wasn’t afraid of ghosts. Especially back then, it was rare for Thais to live alone unless they absolutely had to for some reason. I said no, ghosts were afraid of me. They laughed nervously at that answer, but it must have been true, as I never saw any. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/31 "2010-06-20T17:37:28Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/32 "2010-06-20T19:59:55Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Oh? so you are saying that if people believe in gods they are compelled to believe in an afterlife? Are people who believe in in afterlife compelled to believe in gods? You can’t even imagine a religion that holds that there is an afterlife but no superior beings, just us? We’re not talking about theists. We’re talking about atheists. The amount of atheist who believe in ghosts but no god is so small, it’s not even worth mentioning. So yes, I’m saying: 99.99% of atheist rarely believe things that don’t fall with in the the physical laws of the known universe. Technically you are right though. If I may analogize what you are saying: “Lots of people can eat a cookie and not want a glass of milk. And lots of people can drink milk and not want a cookie.” All I’m saying; the _paradigm_ is “Milk and cookies go great together.” ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/33 "2010-06-23T22:55:06Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Quote: > > Originally Posted by j66 > > Figure that one out. > > He or she is mistaken, gullible or lying. > > That was easy. 😃 So is eating candy instead of your vegetables; that doesn’t make it right. S/he may have experienced something neither us has; like Post traumatic stress syndrome, depression, migraines, or any one of a number of things that a lot of people don’t really believe exist. S/he may have experienced something beyond current scientific understanding - like an infection before Lister, or the relief of a headache or swelling from drinking willow bark tea, or having the temerity to die when the veins were opened when s/he was ill - probably from an infectious disease before Boylston. Or s/he may just have experienced something contrary to someone’s else world view, such as sexual attraction to one of the same gender. Do I believe in ghosts? No, not really. But I could be wrong. I have a bachelor’s degree in a [hard] science; I learned about lots of mistaken beliefs that were once doctrine; I’ve seen hard theories disproved in my life time; I do not understand the second most obvious force in my existence, gravity. I am convinced that conception is not the nurturing of the male’s homunculus in the female’s womb. I am convinced that illness is not caused by an imbalance in the four humours. I am convinced that the universe is not centered on the earth. I am not convinced that there is not such thing as ghosts, primarily because of the smug and arrogant tone of those who insist that there is not. Whenever you are moved to sneer at those whose experiences challenge your world view, image a map, a parchment map, an illuminated parchment map, with the inscription - _ **Here be dragons** _ ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/34 "2010-06-24T00:32:21Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > Does it count if someone left a body on your doorstep? Not if you live in New Jersey. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/35 "2010-06-25T14:17:56Z")
I have never seen a ghost but I (apparently) have taken a lot of pictures with ghosts in them. The little orbs and lights (lens flare?) and odd shadows that show up from time to time. I have been assured by several people that ghosts like me and are around me all the time so they show up in pictures I take. My laughter has yet to presuade them otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/36 "2010-06-25T15:50:18Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/37 "2010-06-25T16:06:02Z")
Nope. And I’ve been drunk enough that I could have used alcohol as an excuse if it had happened. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/38 "2010-06-25T16:07:56Z")
Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/39 "2010-06-25T16:09:26Z")
God, everybody at my office is a staunch atheist who nonetheless firmly believes in the presence of ghosts. To me this is a contradiction (where do the spirits come from, if not a God?) but whatever. I had a ‘visitation’ from my mother a couple of nights ago. I had a wonderful dream of her. It was only a dream, but I can totally see how others might take it to mean she is ‘well and doing great beyond the veil’. Bollocks. We burned her up and all we have left is memories. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626/40 "2010-06-25T16:13:27Z")
Not really. One time I was masturbating in a cemetery outhouse and heard someone clear their throat. When I looked around, no one was there. That’s as close as it’s ever gotten. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-have-you-ever-had-a-visitation-or-sign-from-a-deceased-person-post-mortem/543626.md?page=3)