# bad dream or ghost? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 8, 2006, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549 "2006-11-08T14:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/21 "2006-11-08T22:21:50Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Why is there a need to? [/QUOTE] Agreed. Without anything else to go by, this isn’t really evidence of anything. There are too many psychological things that could make the OP only have these in one rooms, such as that’s where he expects to have these. Self-perpetuating, the more he has them there, the more he expects to have the hallucinations there. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/22 "2006-11-08T22:31:02Z")
Definitely a ghost. One scary mofo ghost, by the behavior pattern I’m seeing. I know these ectoplasmic bastards, and they’re tricky as Hell. I’m just the Exorcist for the job. I charge low-four-figures per hour, which is a steal at today’s rates. Call me, we’ll do business. ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/23 "2006-11-08T22:39:36Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] Why is there a need to? [/QUOTE] No, there is no _need_ to. How about just for interesting conversation? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/24 "2006-11-08T22:54:54Z")
[QUOTE=SP2263] No, there is no _need_ to. How about just for interesting conversation? [/QUOTE] OK. It just seems to me that explaining phenomena that require no explanation sort of comes under the heading of _Idle Speculation._ Or perhaps _Possible Plot Points for Fiction I Might Write_. But not anything that could help the OP. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/25 "2006-11-09T05:47:08Z")
I don’t know why people need to ascribe such phenomena to supernatural beings when the ways that our own brain can trick us is so fascinating on its own. ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/26 "2006-11-09T13:16:45Z")
Alien Abduction ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/27 "2006-11-09T14:22:43Z")
I’ve often been wakened by hearing my name called out. Very loudly at that. I didn’t know there was a name for it; I’ve always thought I was just insane. Thanks for the information. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/28 "2006-11-09T15:48:12Z")
I’ve woken from the sound of my _husband_ calling my name in an urgent-sounding voice. When he was no-where around. When it happens at night, while he’s gone fishing, even though I’m not superstitious at all, I have to call him to make sure he’s okay. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/29 "2006-11-09T16:50:42Z")
IANApsychologist, so take this with the appropriate amount of salt, but a repetitive dream (and I do think this is a dream, IMHO) usually means your subconscious is trying to tell you something or bring something important to the forefront. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/30 "2006-11-09T20:22:52Z")
It’s totally hypnopomic/gogic hallucinations/ sleep paralysis. Perhaps you are more relaxed in that room and get closer to sleep and/or sleep on your back more frequently there. I, also, get hallucinatory sleep paralysis like clockwork if I nap during the day but ONLY on my back and in my bedroom (which I why I nap on my side on the couch now). (I think I’m spending my 3000th post on this. So, damnit! It’s not a ghost! Sheesh!) ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/31 "2006-11-09T20:28:27Z")
It \*was \*a dream. :o :o \*If you know what I mean. :eek: \* ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/32 "2006-11-09T20:28:46Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] (I think I’m spending my 3000th post on this. So, damnit! It’s not a ghost! Sheesh!) [/QUOTE] I dunno…3000th post. Happenstance, or…something else? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/33 "2006-11-09T20:29:51Z")
To all you so-called skeptics who maliciously attack my Ghost-Busting profession: You’ll hear from my lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![shizaru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@shizaru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shizaru)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549/34 "2006-11-09T20:52:09Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] IANApsychologist, so take this with the appropriate amount of salt, but a repetitive dream (and I do think this is a dream, IMHO) usually means your subconscious is trying to tell you something or bring something important to the forefront. [/QUOTE] Hmmm…well to be honest I have issues. Lots of 'em. so many I don’t even know what they all are. My subconscious needs to get more specific. Nah, it’ll probably do wwhat it always does…let me get broadsided by something i couldn’t possibly have seen coming. 🙂 This just happened an hour ago: I got some Doonesbury compilations I’d ordered in the mail today. One book came with a CD containing strips from the beginning up to 1995. I loaded the software and was reading them, when I turned my chair around to pick a few things up off a table next to my desk. All of asudden I heard an “AHEM” in my left ear. Load. I swivelled around thinking Mrs. Shizaru was behind me, and she wasn’t. Startled I let out one of those Homer Shrieks…because I KNOW I heard the “AHEM”. My wife came running into the room and when I told her what happened she told me jokingly “Maybe a ghost is haunting you…but you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack so calm down!”. A few minutes later I looked at my monitor. If you stop clicking the little “next strip” icon, an animated Mike doonesbury steps into the monitor and says “AHEM”. I didn’t know that, but apparently what I heard was the animation through my speakers. :smack: (My back was turned before so I didn’t see the animation.). When my wife found out she laughed so hard I thought she was gonna have a heart attack. Man, I feel goofy. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-dream-or-ghost/379549.md?page=1)