I’m personally interested in this sort of phenomena but I think it is very difficult to study. They are kind of like tornadoes, which are also tough to bring into a lab and you have to be in the right place at the right time to study them up close. I do believe in tornadoes though.
Well, here’s a story I never expected to relate on this board. I must premise it by noting that I do not believe in ghosts, nor do I disbelieve in ghosts. I do believe, however, that there are things happening which we do not understand. I have no idea what the explanations are; could be incorporeal beings, could be telekinesis, could be aspects of electromagnetism, could be group hallucination; whatever.
In the late 1960s, my mother and stepfather purchased an old (built in the late 1800s?) house in a small town near a state forest, to use as a base for winter sports. The house was empty most of the time, since we just went up there on certain weekends, and so they did not hook up a telephone. Instead, they arranged with a local deputy sheriff with whom they had become acquainted to be contacted through his office if an emergency arose. The deputy also kept an eye on the house when we were not there. However, they bought the house fully furnished, and there was a telephone on a desk in the living room.
A short time after they bought the house, my mother and her mother and father went up to the house for a week to fix it up. They repainted and wallpapered all the rooms on the second floor, and performed a number of maintenance tasks. One day, my mom and grandfather went to the hardware store, and when they got back, my grandmother told my mom that someone had been trying to get ahold of her. Mom asked if the deputy had been by, and a confusing discussion ensued until my grandmother specified that the telephone kept ringing but nobody was there when she answered it. “Mom,” said my mom, “that phone doesn’t work. Look, the cord doesn’t even go to the wall.” The telephone cord had been cut about two feet away from the phone, and just dangled along the back of the desk.
Well, the phantom phone calls were just the beginning. When they were upstairs my folks started hearing the sound of the kitchen chairs being dragged across the floor; when they were downstairs, they could hear footsteps above. Things got moved. My grandparents’ dog would go into a tizz at something on the stairway.
In the upstairs bathroom was an old, wooden medicine cabinet on the wall over the sink, and above the sink was a light sconce. The medicine cabinet door swung up to open, and was closed with a hook latch. Anyway, while preparing the room for new wallpaper, my mom had a terrible time getting the cabinet and sconce off. She struggled and swore, but finally got them down. After wallpapering, she then had an equally terrible time getting them reinstalled. After finally putting the fixture and cabinet back in place, she latched the cabinet door and said something like, “There, you S.O.B.” and left the room. She took a couple of steps out the door and heard a loud bang and the explosion of glass. She went back in the bathroom and the medicine cabinet door had come unlatched, and was still swinging slightly. It had apparently swung up to strike and shatter the light bulb in the fixture above.
So, my folks asked the deputy about the occurrences, and he told them that he had been repeatedly called out to the house by the neighbors when we were not there because they kept seeing lights on upstairs and the shadow of someone walking about. But, even though he had a key and inspected, he never found anyone.
My bedroom was at the top of the stairs, and my bed was against the wall which was shared with my parents’ bedroom. One morning, I was lazing about when a knocking started on the wall beside me. I thought it was my stepfather, trying to get me up. I tried to ignore it, but it persisted. Finally, I did the da-da-da-da-da of the first phrase of “shave and a haircut” and he answered, da-da, “two bits.” I said, “all right,” and got up. I went out to the hall and down the stairs. As I descended the stairs, I saw the silhouette of a person going out the front door and to the left. I also heard the door shut. However, the person did not pass by the adjacent window. It was early, and we almost never used the front door, so I went to the door and looked out. Nobody there, in any direction. And the deadbolt on the door was locked tight. I went to the kitchen, and to my surprise, the entire family was sitting at the kitchen table. “Who was just here?” I asked. Nobody, I was told. “But somebody just went out the front door. Who?” Nobody, they all said. “But you heard the door shut just now, didn’t you?” Well, yes, now that you mention it, everybody did hear the door. But it’s locked, too…? So then I asked my stepdad, “Was that you upstairs knocking on the wall?” NO -nobody has been upstairs. We are all here
After we’d had the house for a while, the oddities stopped. But then, my folks decided to sell, and things started up again. New to the itinerary was a fine dust which coated every pot and pan in the kitchen every day. We looked everywhere for a crack in the wall, a furnace problem and everything else we could think of, but ended up just having to wash everything every morning until the house sold.
As I understand it, the house was sold for use as a half-way house for a mental facility. I’ve always wondered whether the weirdnesses continued and if they had an effect on the patients.
Zebra, this was not one of your better posts. :eek:
Science can detect tornadoes. We have film, wind measurements, damage caused by their passing and even a scientific theory of what causes them.
You can go out and see one for yourself (isn’t there a bit of the US called Tornado Alley?).
Nobody has EVER produced ANY physical evidence of any ghost, nor of any ghostly actions.
I agree it’s incredibly difficult to study the inside of tornadoes, but they do exist (unlike ghosts).
Zebra, this was not one of your better posts. :eek:
Science can detect tornadoes. We have film, wind measurements, damage caused by their passing and even a scientific theory of what causes them.
You can go out and see one for yourself (isn’t there a bit of the US called Tornado Alley?).
Nobody has EVER produced ANY physical evidence of any ghost, nor of any ghostly actions.
I agree it’s incredibly difficult to study the inside of tornadoes, but they do exist (unlike ghosts).
Now there’s a funny thing - I definitely posted only once.
But Occam’s Razor tells me it’s more likely that the system (or me) made a mistake, rather than a ghost decided to prove it’s existence by double posting me…
Well, read the account above where a fixture was broken or of furniture being moved. The ability to detect tornadoes is a recent scientific ability. The ability to actually predict tornadoes is very recent. Plus we only have this ability because teams and teams of well funded scientist went after the problem. I don’t think we need the goverment to plant down several million but some study in places like Sparteyes place would be nice.
BTW the study I watched on TV didn’t tell me several things I wanted to know. Specifically about the temperature change. Like what were the temperatures? What was the temp outside? Did it go back? The drop occured in a earthen basement of an old fort late at night. So if the room warmed up during the day a unseen ventilation could easily explain the change if it changed to the outside temp.
But like I said they didn’t tell us the numbers.
Hang on! We’ve had physical evidence of storms for centuries. Tornadoes are just a specific version.
I’ve seen programs of a couple of guys. One drives, one has the video camera. They provide evidence of tornadoes, without any funding.
OK, tornado forecasting is indeed a specialist art with satellite pictures and all sorts of expensive equipment. But the existence of tornadoes is easy to document.
By contrast all the ‘evidence’ for ghosts is anecdotal. People wake up and see a face at the window… they think they hear noises in an empty house…
The problem here (get the tact ready!) is that people are not terribly good as eye-witnesses. Look at descriptions of criminals given to the police.
Let’s have some physical evidence.
Well no, they usually don’t. Remember the network probably won’t pay for a programme that investigates something and finds no supporting evidence. But a programme that leaves people wondering - why, you can make a sequel!
I rarely post, but I follow the message board all the
time… I just have to add in what used to happen in my
bedroom, back in the house I lived in for seven years.
When we moved into this house, I chose my bedroom because
in one bedroom, I just didn’t feel right. I was
uncomfortable, a bit fidgety, but didn’t know why. A few
years later, I had too much stuff for the one room, and
moved into the larger bedroom.
I had lots of trouble sleeping half-way decently in that
room. I would hear basslines and muted voices behind the
wall (The wall between my room and the disused garage),
I would see flickerings of shadows out of the corner of my
eye, while at the computer. Every now and then, I would get
the feeling that I was /very/ unwelcome in that room, and
even ran out of the room screaming and in a panic.
The window over the head of my bed faced out into an empty
backyard. Every now and then, at something like five in the
morning, the whole window would shake in the frame. It was
always sudden, like someone had slammed head-on into the
window. If I looked back, the frame was shaking.
Finally had my fears confirmed when I had a friend over for
the night. We were watching a movie, when he looked over to
my computer and bolted out of the room. I looked over and saw a black circle on the wall, at about head-level, and
I bolted behind him.
My dad would hear banging in my closet at two in the
morning. He would come to check on me, and I would be
lying in bed. I had very frequent dreams of hundreds of
people, standing outside my window, staring in on me. I had dreams about a glowing red light in the field behind our
house. It happened every night, from the time I moved in
to that room, to the day I moved out of the house.
The least strange thing that ever happened was while I had
the house to myself for two weeks. Every night, when I
would come home from work, the TV in my room was on and
cranked up loud, but I guess that can be attributed to a
cheap TV, too.