# Do you believe in ghosts? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 19, 2013, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692 "2013-10-19T23:50:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/41 "2013-10-20T23:00:11Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > Things that go bump in the night are treated with derision, because those are the mediocre ones wandering aimlessly. The big guns need to be specifically invoked. There is an entire branch of Hindu religious tradition that is specifically aimed at the invoking/controlling/directing occult forces, and despite knowing nothing about the actual practices, I remain respectful of them. I’ll go ahead and say I treat both “types” with equal derision. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/42 "2013-10-20T23:06:33Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > It sounds more likely that your basement has a rodent problem than a ghost problem - or maybe rodent ghosts!?! My thoughts as well. Rodents tend to stir at about the same time every day. Now, the monster under your bed? That’s for realz! ---
**Author:** ![Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obnoxious_Hood_Ornament)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/43 "2013-10-21T12:46:23Z")
I had an acquaintance who insisted that “orbs” showing up in photos were proof of paranormal activity, and not just an annoying result of airborne particles behaving badly around flash photography. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/44 "2013-10-21T13:14:00Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I believe in gravity, duck-billed platypuses and that aliens probably exist somewhere in the Universe. > > I don’t believe in ghosts. > Because there’s just no evidence of them. > [@Aquadementia](#): > > Believing in gravity is really keeping you down. Well I’m a down-at-earth sort of person. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/45 "2013-10-21T16:07:39Z")
**Quote:** Alexander K. Sarvis, M.D. > [@](#): > > I believe in the ghosts that haunt the human mind ---
**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:** [October 21, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/46 "2013-10-21T16:10:20Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#): > > I didn’t until I learned that not only was my house built in the 1800s, but several people have died in it. Even those facts wouldn’t have shaken me were it not for the fact that my cat, who is otherwise a very quiet, very stoic cat, goes down to the basement every night at 9:05 and does a series of very mournful meows. According to my neighbor, one of the people who died in the house suffered a heart attack and died in the basement. My neighbor knew the woman personally. That’s not a cat making those meows! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/47 "2013-10-21T16:37:32Z")
I encounter a few ghosts every year… oddly near the end of October every time. That reminds me… I need to go out and buy some candy. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/48 "2013-10-21T16:37:40Z")
I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m afraid of them ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/49 "2013-10-21T16:57:47Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > I encounter a few ghosts every year… oddly near the end of October every time. > > That reminds me… I need to go out and buy some candy. To appease them?.. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/50 "2013-10-21T17:15:20Z")
I’ve read a couple of different accounts over the years where the people whose house is haunted, rather than pooping their pants in fright as would be expected, claimed to accept the ghost and not be frightened at all. Those are the ghost stories I find intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/51 "2013-10-21T17:20:02Z")
I don’t get it. Why would your cat care if somebody died there once? Why would the cat mourn that? I ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/52 "2013-10-21T17:29:26Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > To appease them?.. 🙂 Yes… otherwise they tend to leave eerie and cryptic messages of some sort on my windows with some ectoplasm substance that I can only describe as “soap like.” ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/53 "2013-10-21T18:55:13Z")
I want to believe, but I don’t. Give me some credible evidence or preferably first-hand experience. There are billions of dead people, at least one of them could show up at my house. In fact I live about 2 miles from a Civil War battlefield, and my home site is on the route the soldiers took to get to the battle, never saw a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/54 "2013-10-22T14:53:18Z")
Lots and lots of people die in hospitals. Does it follow then that if you released a bunch of cats into any hospital, they would be yowling mournfully at specific times throughout the day? ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/55 "2013-10-25T19:13:12Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > There is an entire branch of Hindu religious tradition that is specifically aimed at the invoking/controlling/directing occult forces, and despite knowing nothing about the actual practices, I remain respectful of them. > > So to answer the OP: Yes. Not because I have seen one, but because there are ways I know of that are said to be extremely effective at granting you all manners of occult powers, including the ability to summon ghosts and get stuff done by them. So the belief of religious people makes it true? If I beat my wife twice, does that make it any more right? ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toothpaste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@James\_Toothpaste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Toothpaste)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/56 "2013-10-25T19:20:52Z")
Not really. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/57 "2013-10-25T19:32:06Z")
> [@Turpentine](#): > > Lots and lots of people die in hospitals. Does it follow then that if you released a bunch of cats into any hospital, they would be yowling mournfully at specific times throughout the day? Any good hospital will fumigate for ghosts at least twice a week. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/58 "2013-10-25T23:02:01Z")
I eat ghosts’ brains. ---
**Author:** ![stoplight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@stoplight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stoplight)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/59 "2013-10-26T00:44:19Z")
I would rather be free from the burden of believing but that belief has been contradicted just enough to allow for anything is possible. ---
**Author:** ![ReBusEniGma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@ReBusEniGma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReBusEniGma)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692/60 "2013-10-28T21:38:44Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > To appease them?.. 🙂 Nope, I suspect to ‘a piece’ them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/671692.md?page=4)