How long do ghosts live?

Until a kid that can see them helps them with some unfinished business.

First off, the obvious answer: ghosts don’t exist.

Now moving on to stories about ghosts. As some people have noted, one idea is that ghosts are tied to this world by some unresolved issue. They will remain here until that issue is resolved.

Another idea is that ghosts are tied to this world by memories. A ghost will exist as long as living people remember the person. Once the person is no longer remembered in the living world, then the ghost will fade away. This theory explains why famous people can linger around as ghosts for centuries while the average person only gets to be a ghost for a few decades.

Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to kanicbird Johnson for stating what needed to be said. I am particularly glad that these lovely Dopers are here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic psychic gibberish, it expressed the courage little seen in this day and age. -with apologies to Mel Brooks

Now that we’ve resolved that one, can someone answer - do ghosts see each other? Do they see humans? If not, what do they do all day? And night?

Must be incredibly lonely. A literal hell-on-earth, trapped in a location, unable to interact with anyone, and unable to escape. Not even death offers a respite from the torture. And, from the sound of it, doomed to repeat certain actions over and over, without any semblance of free will. Are ghosts’ minds restricted somehow? Do they not have full cognition?

Ghosts are not an area of scientific research, even if certain people claim “expertise” on them.

When you can cite a peer-reviewed analysis that provides a plausible mechanism for the existence of ghosts, get back to me. :slight_smile:

It’s a trick question!

They don’t live. The real question should be “How long do they dead?”

Also, can they take off their ghost-clothes and can those clothes exist independently of the owner?

I’m curious why screws working themselves loose on an object moved regularly is something in need of a supernatural explanation. I would suggest Loctite or a similar product as a solution to this entirely mechanical issue.

The objective consensus is that ghosts don’t exist. Anything that would have an opinion on how longs ghosts live isn’t research, it’s woo.

Also, that’s a pretty damn boring afterlife isn’t it? I mean, you’re a disembodied spirit, capable of interacting with the physical world, and all you can think of to do is fucking loosen screws?

Don’t dead. Open inside.

How long does a ghost live?
It depends, has the ghost stopped beating his wife?

I think it’s like when those astronauts on the moon jumped in the air.

This one time, at Ghost camp…

No.

A little empathy, please? Imagine being a disembodied consciousness whose senses are no longer linked to meaty organs, nor to whatever analogs might exist in the afterlife. You can no longer interact with or experience the world as you did when you were alive, and what you do have is ill-suited for the physical world you still inhabit. Loosening a couple screws and effecting even miniscule physical contact with others is probably a huge accomplishment. Besides, maybe he has gotten up to other stuff, but I can’t blame the doorknob screws on the cats. Maybe I should?

Empathy is for the living.

Every time you yawn a ghost puts his penis in your mouth.

You’re welcome.

Can the cats see your ghost?

Since ghosts leave no identifying evidence, how do your experts know it’s the same ghost that’s been sighted since 1170? Maybe a ghost lives only for a century. Maybe it’s a different ghost every time. Maybe it’s assembled strips of 50 different ghosts. Maybe ghosts have schedules and sick days.

You don’t get to use science, like string theory, in an argument like this. Every scientist in the world capable of doing the math can look at string theory and come up with the same results when the same data is plugged in. That’s what science means.

Woo starts with picking out one possible answer and sticking with it no matter what. If two people see something in the same building they assume it’s the same ghost, not two different ghosts, or a ghost and an illusion, or two not ghosts, or anything else that the imagination can think up. Why? That answer is more fun. Serious discussion ends there.