My kids and I live in an apartment building. Though hardly decrepit, the place is a little old — 50 years or so, I would guess. Occasionally one hears sounds which are certainly, to my mind, caused by entirely material agents, and likewise some of the motion sensor-controlled lights will activate without obvious cause. Some of my neighbors claim that there is a ghost in one of the apartments. I have both heard this claim from them directly and had it repeated by my kids. When it is one of the younger Rhymers, I go into as much detail as 7- & 6-year-old minds can understand in debunking it (Resulting in their familiarity with the concept of Occam’s Razor a lot younger than one might expect). When it some random neighbor, adult or child, I just ignore it. In my 20s or 30s, I would have felt obliged to fight ignorance on this matter, but no longer.
I just had a conversation with the kids on this subject. And now I am wondering how much effort my fellow Dopers would put into debunking ghost claims made by either other people’s children or adults.
Typically, I put very little effort into countering such claims. It depends primarily on how badly the other party wishes to discuss the matter with me. If the “ghost” encounter is mentioned as nothing more than an off-hand anecdote then I’ll let it drop without much comment. If they press me specifically for my thought (“Alpha, this is what I saw. Please tell me what you think.”), I’ll reply with something like “I’m pretty skeptical of such reported phenomena. If you really want to know what I think then we’ll discuss this but if you’re not interested in my interpretation of your experience, lets just drop it.” Only after they agree to this will I even consider entering this minefield.
Most of the time, it’s just not worth the headache and drama.
If it’s going to affect me personally - like someone trying to convince on of my kids that there’s a ghost, I’ll push back. But otherwise, trying to educate idiots isn’t in my job description.
You’ll never change the mind of a true believer, be it ghosts, psychics, religion, horoscope, politics… so no, I wouldn’t even try. I’d probably reply “Yeah, that’s weird” and try to change the subject.
Or I’d relate my spooky story. The old engineering building aboard NAS Jacksonville was the original chow hall from during WWII. I was working alone one night (it was my turn to do second shift support) and sitting at my desk, I suddenly smelled cinnamon! Had the ghostly bakers returned??
Well, no, it was the pack of Trident gum in my top desk drawer, which happened to be ever-so-slightly open. :smack: It took about 5 minutes to figure it out.
I never bother, since I enjoy the stories even if I don’t believe them, and in a lot of cases believing what they do brings people comfort. Same reason why I don’t dump on someone’s religion, nor would I want mine dumped on to my face.
I am also 50, and I would consider a 50-year-old apartment building old. Not necessarily a personal home. Also, my stepdaughter & baby sister both assure me that I am old.
The last time a stranger started talking about woo, I chuckled, shook my head, and walked away. I’d go through more effort with an acquaintance but do not waste my time with foolish strangers.
(1) I figure that some of the people who talk about ghosts don’t really, deep-down believe in them, but they make-believe because it makes their world more interesting or fun. Kind of like how you might go to see a magician perform, and instead of spending the whole show trying to “debunk” him, just suspend your disbelief and pretend he’s really doing magic.
(2) While a “ghostly” phenomenon may have a natural explanation, unless I know what that explanation is, or at least provide a reasonable guess, there’s absolutely no point in me speaking up just to say something like “There’s no such thing as ghosts!”
However, I might try “debunking ghost claims” if they were seriously interfering with someone, making them refuse to go somewhere or do something they really needed to do.
The sister I live with loves to watch all the paranormal TV shows. I think she kinda sorta believed a little bit. But I constantly ragged on them while she was watching – you get to do that when you’re the big sister – and now she mostly just watches them for entertainment. I’ve gotten her trained to see how she was being misled, and now she can spot if for herself.
As I said I have sister privilege here, but I wouldn’t do it to a stranger’s face. I’d mock them behind their back, though, and think they were very silly people.
Everyone I’ve known as an adult that told me a paranormal story has believed it so vehemently that there’d be no point in trying to change their minds. They’ve already dug their heels in.
If it’s a group of adults talking, let them have their fun. I doubt most of them actually believe, it’s just fun to swap stories.
I enjoy them. “Haunted” used to be one of my favorite daytime shows before I cut the cable.
