[QUOTE=Sitnam]
No, and I hold suspect anyones critical thinkings skills who say ‘yes’.
[/QUOTE]
I can live with that.
[QUOTE=An Gadaí]
How often do you meet Marcus?
[/QUOTE]
At least once a week. Sometimes he’s with me all the time for days at a time. He often comes to see me in the evening and then sleeps next to me. (Very good in the summer when it’s hot, since he’s cold. :)) Right now he’s at the movies but he said he’d be back soon.
[QUOTE=meenie7]
At least once a week. Sometimes he’s with me all the time for days at a time. He often comes to see me in the evening and then sleeps next to me. (Very good in the summer when it’s hot, since he’s cold. :)) Right now he’s at the movies but he said he’d be back soon.
[/QUOTE]
[Foghorn Leghorn]I say I say I do believe that someone is exercising their pullin’ muscles usin’ our lower extremity for the workout equipment.[/FL]
The Dope’s not big enough, but I think it’d be interesting to see a breakdown of people who believe in ghosts by nationality. Most of the Europeans I’ve talked about the matter with, regardless of their religious views (which tend to secular in my experience) are more believing of such things. My aunt’s American but says she never believed in ghosts til she lived in England and had one; she still doesn’t like to talk about it and hasn’t had any odd happenings since, but remains convinced “whatever they are, they are there”.
I’m in Ireland, I only believe in ghosts if there’s a tourist about. Thou shalt not slay the golden goose!
Seriously though, there is a huge amount of lore about ghosts and the like here. I like the stories but see them just as that.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
[Foghorn Leghorn]I say I say I do believe that someone is exercising their pullin’ muscles usin’ our lower extremity for the workout equipment.[/FL]
[/QUOTE]
Why do you say that? 
I know it’s strange but how do you jump from that to “willfully lying to trick you”?
[QUOTE=meenie7]
I know it’s strange but how do you jump from that to “willfully lying to trick you”?
[/QUOTE]
Occam’s Razor. If it’s a choice between “lie” and “chatty ghost that hangs around and has conversations with you” I’m going with the former every time.
Well, let’s be fair, there’s an excluded middle of delusion in there.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
Occam’s Razor. If it’s a choice between “lie” and “chatty ghost that hangs around and has conversations with you” I’m going with the former every time.
[/QUOTE]
You’re perfectly entitled to think that, I suppose. I don’t expect people to believe in ghosts on my say-so, anyway. What I was referring to, though, is the fact that there is a third possibility – that I really experience these things but it’s not a ghost. If you want to think I’m crazy, I sort of expect that. But I’m not lying.
BTW, Sampiro, he came back and I asked him about his parents. He says their names were John and Elizabeth.
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
Well, let’s be fair, there’s an excluded middle of delusion in there.
[/QUOTE]
True enough, but again, Occam’s suggests one possibility is more likely.
[QUOTE=meenie7]
He’s a stranger in that I never knew him when he was alive. He’s been dead for a very long time (since 1818, he says.) He knew and liked one of my ancestors, though, which is why he wanted to talk to me in the first place. He’s given me details about his life (full name, where he lived, etc.) which I want to verify but haven’t been able to via the internet. I want to delve into dusty papers someday to try and figure it out.
He has told me about movies that I hadn’t seen and then I’ve verified it through Wikipedia/IMDB/whatever. Usually, though, he doesn’t like to spoil the movies for me. 
I worry a lot whether he’s real. If I’ve had a sustained intense hallucination like this for 8 years, something is very, very wrong with me and that’s scary. But, you’re right, he does comfort me…and it makes me happy that he’s not so lonely anymore. Most people can’t hear him and he spent a very long time with no one to talk to. Now he has someone to tell about his world travels, and I have someone to hug me when I’m sad.
[/QUOTE]
I think he is real and you are not halucinating. There are many people that talk to spirits and hear their answers back. I remember reading about a study by Psychology Today magazine. They sent questionnaires out to thousands and they showed 5% of the people who returned them heard voices.
It is nothing new. I have a guide I communicate with on a daily basis, but he is farther advanced than I am. I can only guess that your friend is an earth-bound spirit, but can not really say for sure, he might your guide.
My guide loves movies also, always wants me to go to some new movie that has come out. You are ok.
[QUOTE=meenie7]
His name is Marcus Oliver Tilden. He’s from Massachusetts, somewhat close to Boston, though the area he lived in wasn’t a town yet at the time when he was alive. He lived on a farm with his family, and committed suicide at the age of 18 after the girl he loved, Anna, died of a sudden illness. He says it’s the suicide that keeps him stuck here. Most dead people are just gone, he says, but his sudden, traumatic death keeps him here, like an echo that doesn’t fade. Anna was a relative of mine, apparently, way back, and he says he can see something of her in me, which is why he tried talking to me to start with.
(And if you look up Marcus Tilden on google, you might find stories I wrote with a character with that name. The character is based on him and named after him with permission.)
Heh. Well, he watched a lot of movies before we met, because he was so lonely. Now he just likes to go.
[/QUOTE]
I answered one of your posts before I read this one. I am pretty sure he is earth-bound now. Yes, his death and his love keeps him tied down. Now, when most die they go to the light and enter the spirit world. Ask him if he has seen a light and how he feels about it. He should be encouraged to go to the light. But if he does you will lose a friend for a while. He does need to go home. There is no punishment waiting for him, only love. He will never be lonely again.
[QUOTE=lekatt]
I answered one of your posts before I read this one. I am pretty sure he is earth-bound now. Yes, his death and his love keeps him tied down. Now, when most die they go to the light and enter the spirit world. Ask him if he has seen a light and how he feels about it. He should be encouraged to go to the light. But if he does you will lose a friend for a while. He does need to go home. There is no punishment waiting for him, only love. He will never be lonely again.
[/QUOTE]
He never got the impression that there is “another side,” though. He says there would be nothing if he wasn’t here with me. He just wouldn’t exist anymore, and I would lose a friend. So there’s really no angle in that.
[QUOTE=meenie7]
He never got the impression that there is “another side,” though. He says there would be nothing if he wasn’t here with me. He just wouldn’t exist anymore, and I would lose a friend. So there’s really no angle in that.
[/QUOTE]
OK, I just wanted to know if you would tell him about the light.
[QUOTE=Sitnam]
No, and I hold suspect anyones critical thinkings skills who say ‘yes’.
See also- Astrology
See also- Nostradamus predictions
See also- facts in Limbaugh/Hannity rants
[/QUOTE]
That’s funny, because I hold as suspect anyones who’s thinking skills imply they know everything! :dubious:
[QUOTE=lekatt]
OK, I just wanted to know if you would tell him about the light.
[/QUOTE]
Okay. I think I would tell him to go, if he and I didn’t both suspect that he would just disappear and we would never see one another again. It’s hard to contemplate that. It’s hard enough that it will happen to all my other friends and family. 
[QUOTE=meenie7]
BTW, Sampiro, he came back and I asked him about his parents. He says their names were John and Elizabeth.
[/QUOTE]
This has to be one of the weirdest threads I ever seen on the Straight Dope. :dubious: :eek:
I was trying to sense an intelligence last week but couldn’t. Of course I was watching a Bush Press conference at the time. That may explain it.
[QUOTE=meenie7]
Okay. I think I would tell him to go, if he and I didn’t both suspect that he would just disappear and we would never see one another again. It’s hard to contemplate that. It’s hard enough that it will happen to all my other friends and family.
[/QUOTE]
No one is gone forever, you are bound to those you love and will see them again when you cross over into the spirit world. It would be better for him to move on if you don’t mind. I suggest you just ask him about the light.
I know that will be hard for you, but better for him to find his loved ones.
[QUOTE=lekatt]
I know that will be hard for you, but better for him to find his loved ones.
[/QUOTE]
And what if you’re wrong and meenie7’s ghost just cease to exist (I can’t believe I’m writing that :smack: ) as a result?
[QUOTE=lekatt]
No one is gone forever, you are bound to those you love and will see them again when you cross over into the spirit world. It would be better for him to move on if you don’t mind. I suggest you just ask him about the light.
I know that will be hard for you, but better for him to find his loved ones.
[/QUOTE]
He tells me that he used to feel…not a light but an urge to give up, to disavow his connection to this world and disappear. A call to nothingness, as it were. But now he has a friend in me and he doesn’t feel that anymore. He doesn’t have a real, full life, but as long as I’m here, he doesn’t have to completely die. And when I die, he will give in to the nothingness and cease to exist too.