A friend of mine was struck and killed by a car when we were both seniors in high school. Years later, I dreamed that she and I met for lunch in a cafe overlooking the ocean. In the dream, I was very surprised to see her because I knew that she was dead, yet at the same time happy and accepting of the situation. I woke up feeling very peaceful. I don’t believe in the afterlife- I think it was my subconcious finally come to terms with her death.
We frequently smell pine sol at our house. My stepdaughter’s late mother loved to clean with pine sol, and nobody in our household uses the stuff.
Also, once in a chatroom a perfect stranger delivered a message to me for my daughter from her mother. It was bizarre. DD has a fairly unusual name and she mentioned her by name, asked if anyone had a relative with that name, described her mother’s appearance (I have plenty of photos of her in my house so I knew who she was describing) and then delivered the message.
It was a run of the mill ‘don’t worry about me, I’m fine, I’m watching over you, I’m sorry I left you the way I did’ sort of thing, but if you knew the backstory it would make sense. The fact that she came up with the name and the description was kind of freaky.
You’re joking, right? Dead is dead, people.
A dear friend died in a car accident a few years ago, and a week later I dreamed that she and I were standing around chatting with some friends when I suddenly turned to her and say hey wait, aren’t you dead? And she laughed her amazing laugh and said I know, isn’t that something?
I don’t think so.
I don’t believe in a fluffy cloud afterlife, but I’m not so sure people don’t hang around after death. The pine sol thing freaks me out when it keeps happening and several people have smelled it so I know I’m not having some kind of aural hallucination.
We bought a brand new house and we’ve lived in it for several years now, so there is very little likelihood of someone else leaving pine sol residue behind, nor would residue explain a sudden strong odor like we experience.
It’s just plain bizarre.
So, not believing in “a fluffy cloud afterlife” is supposed to make that more rational a belief?
What is there to “hang around after death”?
I’ve had dreams about dead people come back to life, sure. I’ve had lots of things happen in my dreams; sadly, dreams are not reality.
Outside of such hallucinations? No, of course not. C’mon, this is the Straight Dope; there’s no such thing as ghosts.
dunno. But I sure as hell can’t explain this weird shit any other way. 
I never claimed it was rational.
No and neither has anyone else. We are supposed to be here to fight ignorance, not spread it.
I can offer several explanations, all of which are more likely than ghosts.
Hit me.
If you can explain it and I can get rid of the pine sol smell I’ll be eternally grateful.
Eternally, you say? Mwuh huh huh huh!
Only when I was on some serious pain meds.
In 05 I had a serious operation and came close to not making it. While in recovery I kept telling my mom that Dad was here to visit. Mom would patiently remind me that Dad had passed. I would say: I know, but he’s over there in the corner with some friends.
The only odd thing about *this *hallucination was that it was persistent. Others that I have had during recovery would go away once I fell asleep. However this hallucination persisted even as I faded in and out of sleep. I would sleep, I would wake up and tell Mom that Dad was here watching me, she would explain that he had passed and I would smile and say I know.
No doubt morphine is to blame, but it is still nice to think that Dad keeps an eye on me.
I’m surprised that it took DtC this long to shit in the thread.
I don’t believe in any type of afterlife, fluffy cloud or otherwise, and frankly I think I’m a little glad as this means that I won’t be spending eternity on my knees scrubbing someone else’s floor with Pine-Sol. I mean, that just does not sound like a good time to me.
In my first house, the living room would smell like the former owner’s perfume every afternoon, late-ish. Kinda wierd and spooky, and cool at the same time.
A drunk and stoned driver ran his pickup truck through the picture window, and the carpet was changed when the house was repaired. No more perfume smell.
The correlation with the lateness of the afternoon was the sunlight would hit the floor, releasing what was trapped in the carpeting. We never did attribute it to anything supernatural, except to make jokes about it.
As to visitations, I would encounter deceased relatives in dreams, who would say they’ve come back from the beyond to check on me. I’d give them the personal news of the day, and wake up with the sense of a pleasant encounter.
MsWhatsit, maybe you’ll be like the woman in the PineSol commercial who lounges in her satin-covered bed while that hunk does your floors. 
That would work,* if *it were the same house.
Well I didn’t say I could come up with THE explanation, only explanations that are more likely than a g-g-g-ghost!
All of the following are more likely than disembodied, magical spirits for why you say you think you smell Pine-sol:
- You are making it all up.
- You are imagining things.
- You have a neurological disorder which causes you to detect phantom smells.
- You have something in your house that smells like pine oil (wood in the floors, perhaps).
- You have something outside that smells like pine-oil (pine trees, perhaps).
- Someone in your house is using Pine-Sol without your knowledge.
Numbers 4 and 5 are the most likely – there is something inside or outside the house that smells like pine and reminds you of Pine-Sol.
As to the internet psychic giving a cold reading to the room – come on. What did she really tell you other than to randomly throw out a name and then give a generic “message?”
Yup. I’ve got to agree. I’ve got a fair amount of respect for Dio, but the question here is not “is there solid evidence for the afterlife”, it’s “do you have anecdotes that suggest freaky post death stuff”.
Plus it’s in MPSIMS where it belongs.