# Who believes in ghosts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 13, 2001, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017 "2001-11-13T00:20:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e68b1a/32.png) [@mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmm.forbidden_doughnut)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/1 "2001-11-13T00:20:29Z")
I realize I should have asked this about 10 days ago…would have made a good Hallowe’en topic. The reason I ask is this: I live in a rather old house (one of the oldest in town) which, in Oklahoma, isn’t that old by east-coast standards but it’s old to us, nonetheless. 80+ years. Anyways, from time to time, things happen around here which seem to be unexplainable. Mr. Doughnut doesn’t seem too concerned about them but, being who I am, they make me say “hmmm…” For example: our very first night here, I was taking a bath and heard a noise come from the kitchen. Says I, “Mr. Doughnut, is that you?” Says he (from the bedroom at the other side of the house), “Is _what_ me?” So, after my bath, I walk into the kitchen and find the refrigerator and freezer doors wide open. hmmmmm… Another example: the grandfather clock will, from time to time, make a noise that’s not a chime, more like running your fingers along a harp’s string. Kind of a bbbbrrringg… Mr. Doughnut says, “Must be the kitties rubbing against it.” Now, I’ve never, in 7 years, heard my kitties make this noise by rubbing against ANYTHING. So, one day, I’m walking about 20 feet away and it makes the chimey noise. ALL BY ITSELF! Again, hmmmmm… BTW, we bought the house from my in-laws, hubby grew up here. Father Doughnut (which is not his priestly name) agrees that the house makes noises. Brother Doughnut agrees that one is not quite alone here. My Beloved Mr. Doughnut thinks I’m bonkers. So, anyone else here ever live in a “haunted” house? Believe in ghosts? Got any good first-hand ghost stories to tell? I anxiously await… mmm… ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/2 "2001-11-13T00:33:40Z")
Welcome to the board! Um, houses creak. If a ghost can open a door, how come we can never detect them? I guess you can put me down as a man who requires evidence to believe in things. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/3 "2001-11-13T01:02:29Z")
I don’t. But I think it would be a more interesting world if they did exist. ---
**Author:** ![Hemlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Hemlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hemlock)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/4 "2001-11-13T01:18:53Z")
They “exist” in your head, if you let them. An obvious question: why the heck would the spirit of a dead person want to open the refrigerator? And why yours? And how could it? And - now we think about it - do such spirits exist anyway? I have heard very clear and vivid voices in deserted places at night, and I have woken to see a figure up close drawing away from me and scurrying away. 100% audible/visible, and totally believable. But also 100% in my head, owing to sleep deprivation. Hallucinations. I can see why people believe in ghosts, but I wish they’d look for rational explanations for phenomena before falling back on mysticism and nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e68b1a/32.png) [@mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmm.forbidden_doughnut)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/5 "2001-11-13T02:00:36Z")
I guess I don’t really believe that my house has ghosts, it’s just kind of fun to think about. I’m not entirely sure if I do or don’t believe in ghosts but I agree with Johnny, the world would be an even more interesting place. mmm… ---
**Author:** ![\_your\_name\_here](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/919ad9/32.png) [@\_your\_name\_here](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_your_name_here)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/6 "2001-11-13T02:39:31Z")
Course I do, my dear Doughnut. I’ll relate to you the one night which scared the poop outta me. I was spending the night at a friends house. We were to sleep in his attic, since that was the only place there was room for us both to fit. When I arrived at his house I didn’t like it, especially when I got his attic, I was nervous. To keep it short, the temperature enjoyed changing. There were cold pockets, of humanish size wandering though the room. Later, the themperature drastically changed in brief periods of time. I mean, sweating to shivering in 30 seconds. Then we saw orbs. Then we left. I saw more orbs. I have yet to return to the attic, or the house. I’m off to find my blankie now. ---
**Author:** ![IMWOMANHERE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/57b2e6/32.png) [@IMWOMANHERE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IMWOMANHERE)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/7 "2001-11-13T07:24:22Z")
Yes.I believe. Cold spots. Lights turned on. Dishes rattled.And we didn’t have mice or rats. My husband finally yelled ‘you are DEAD! GO TOWARD THE LIGHT!’ And I’ll be damned…it stopped! And if you tell people about stuff that really DOES happen. They think you have gone off the deep end. Until it happens to you… ---
**Author:** ![whatmove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecc23a/32.png) [@whatmove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatmove)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/8 "2001-11-13T09:12:11Z")
Although I can’t convince my rational self permanently that they exist, it’s pretty hard to deny their existence while they’re around. ---
**Author:** ![Ferggie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Ferggie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferggie)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/9 "2001-11-13T10:20:14Z")
\I _do_ believe in ghosts! I do, I do, I do!\ And before long here I’m going to have to turn out the lights and (attempt to) go to sleep. _Why_ do I open these threads late at night when I know better? Anyway… We (mostly my Mom) experienced a number of strange things in this one house we lived at when I was 9-14 years old. Things, mostly hairbrushes, would go missing and turn up in totally bizarre places, like behind books on a bookshelf. Reference books and such nobody had touched since we moved in. One night, Mom came into my room, waking me up, and asked if I’d been handling money. No, why? She’d heard something that sounded like change being dropped on the tile floor. And it had been coming from my room. Thanks so much, Mom, I know I’ll sleep well now. The house had an extra bedroom, which we used for storage and where Dad kept his plants in winter. Right next to my room. All three of us kids had bad feelings about that room. In fact I would not go down that segment of the hall without the light on. We took in a stray cat once for a few weeks. It didn’t like that end of the house either. Eventually I started seeing “something.” Imagine seeing heat waves inside a house. That’s what it looked like. I named it Fred. Somehow giving it a name made it seem less scary. Fred had an innocuous “feel” about it, like all it wanted was to be acknowledged. The back bedroom seemed much more sinister. I’m getting the creeps just thinking about it now, and I haven’t been there in 10 years. Laugh if you want. I can only say this is what we experienced. I make no claims to know what caused these incidents. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/10 "2001-11-13T11:36:36Z")
Ghosts? Its possible, but have you considered other things? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . like underpants gnomes! It was breaktime, they were hungry, of course they opened your fridge. Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/11 "2001-11-13T12:23:04Z")
**forbidden doughnut** , what you describe is technically a _poltergeist_, a subset of ghosts. Here’s a question to ask yourself without getting into the physical possiblities of ghosts and spirits though. Why would these things want to hang around? I mean, they’re generally attributed with extraordinary powers and talents. Why would they simply hang around one place playing low-grade pranks? If they indeed exist, they _must_ have far more interesting things to do than see what kind of mold is growing in your fridge. And on a moderatorial note, I’m considering moving this thread to GD. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/12 "2001-11-13T12:48:30Z")
I’ll be damned…I was going to post this exact thread last week. I wasn’t really a believer until recently…I’ll post my story when I get back in the office this afternoon. Spooked the every living poop out of me. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/13 "2001-11-13T13:05:02Z")
Count me amongst the believers. I don’t know why they do what they do, and I’m not even positive about what “they” are…but I’ve seen and heard too much to deny it. ~karol ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/14 "2001-11-13T14:07:46Z")
First hand accounts in numerous locations from Civil War soldiers at Fort Linclon near Point Lookout State Park to gentleman killed and still living in his house to catching voices on tape recorders to Poltergeists bothering a 9 year old boy; there’s something to this. Buy me a few beers to loosen my lips and I’ll regale you. ---
**Author:** ![Kiki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kiki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiki)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/15 "2001-11-13T14:21:37Z")
I’m a firm believer in ghosts. I’ve had too much freaky shit happen that can’t be explained. I’ve posted my stories in similiar threads so I’ll just share a couple of them here. We moved to a house when I was 12 that was occuppied by the dead lady that lived there before us. Our cupboards used to open and shut all the time, my radio used to turn on by itself, stairs creaked, and my room (the room the woman died in) was always cold. My SO and I just moved into a different house last month and our cupboards bang open and shut early in the morning and our curtain in the bathroom moves all by itself. There isn’t a vent on that side of the bathroom and the windows are sealed tight so _something_ is moving that curtain. My daughter (4 years old) has said very strange things to us since we’ve lived in this house. “Mommy, I need some milk for my ghost friend.” “What ghost friend?” I asked. “That one right there.” she says, pointing to the empty spot on the couch. We were eating dinner one night and my daughter got very quiet and kept flinching and when I asked her what she was doing she said, “He’s poking me.” “Who’s poking you?” I asked. “I don’t know… he’s poking me in the arm.” she said. Very creepy. I’ve considered doing what some of our friends have told us and putting a candle in the middle of the table and my SO and I holding hands and saying, “You’ve passed on. It’s time to go to the light.” Suppossedly that will make them go away. I know lots of people with ghost stories. If there was only one person who saw/heard strange things I would probably dismiss it but when you have 5-6 people who see/hear the same stuff while living in the same house you have to begin to wonder. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/16 "2001-11-13T14:49:22Z")
**Moderator’s Scary Bedsheet On:** After conferring with the other SD Staff Phantoms, we’re gonna continue this discussion in Great Debates. Most topics on the paranormal probably belong there anyway. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/17 "2001-11-13T15:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rachelle \* > **My daughter (4 years old) has said very strange things to us since we’ve lived in this house. “Mommy, I need some milk for my ghost friend.” “What ghost friend?” I asked. “That one right there.” she says, pointing to the empty spot on the couch.** A _4-year-old child_ with an _invisible playmate_?? Who ever _heard_ of such a thing?! It _must_ have been a ghost! Hey, if ghosts are composed of some kind of energy (as they must be, if they’re opening doors and operating major home appliances :rolleyes: ), why are they always cold? You guys ever hear of energy other energy-producing or -using apparatus whose net effect is cold? (Anyone who says “refrigerator” or “air conditioner” is first going to be smacked, then forced to place their hands on the heat exchanging coils.) ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/18 "2001-11-13T15:47:37Z")
[Angelica voice] Oh, _honestly_, **PL** , don’t you _babies_ know _anything_? It’s called [ectoplasm.](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/6581/ectoplasm.html) > [@](#): > > …atoms have the quantum statistical value of fermions. That is, unlike photons, which are instead bosons, they are limited in number as well as limited to the number which may simultaneously occupy a particular quantum state. Popular physics works inform us that while the number of fermions in the universe is fixed, the number of bosons in not, hence bosons such as photons may be produced in such vast numbers as evidenced by the light which issues from light bulbs, whereas fermions such as electrons are not so easy to come by. > > Superfluids have been demonstrated by such material as supercooled helium isotopes, which demonstrate unusual and notably reversed physical behavior, in that they flow more freely the more confined the space they are travelling. Such stark inversion of physical properties is highly characteristic of the concepts, philosophies, and phenomena of magick. > > While temperature obviously plays a role in this effect, some accounts attribute this to a quantum statistical shift that occurs because of the element being an isotope; they say therefore that this property pertains to these atoms being bosons instead of fermions. > > While changes in the number of atoms due to this process is as critical a point as where mediums are obtaining matter for materializations, since it is frequently reported not to be made by such a “magical” process as the number of fermions in question ceasing to be limited, but borrowed from the bodies of participants in seances. > > What is likely, at least is that the ability for this “matter” to pass so freely in or out or through the form of the medium, is that it possesses this superfluid property. While supercold temperatures are not involved, the many accounts of ectoplasm being cold or clammy to the touch, as well as other thermal phenomena associated with the paranormal come readily to mind. See? :rolleyes: I have to explain _everything_ to you babies… [/Angelica voice] ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/19 "2001-11-13T15:50:41Z")
PLD: > [@](#): > > Hey, if ghosts are composed of some kind of energy (as they must be, if they’re opening doors and operating major home appliances ), why are they always cold? You guys ever hear of energy other energy-producing or -using apparatus whose net effect is cold? [Ghostbuster hat on] Well technically, that phenomenom proves the existance of ghosts. You see, your average poltergeist exists in the ethereal plane. When it manifests in the material plane it requires energy, which it absorbs in the form of heat from the proximity of its manifestation on the earthly plane. The heat given off from the energy expended manifests on the ethereal plane. The net effect is that ghosts are instruments of entropy, removing the energy they need to operate from the material plane, and expelling the waste heat in the ethereal plane. In this way you might consider the operation of a poltergeist to be exactly like an air conditioner. It removes heat from one area (material plane, and expells it into another (ethereal plane.) [Ghostbuster hat off] ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017/20 "2001-11-13T16:14:33Z")
Ah, so this ethereal plane, then . . . being there must be like standing in a concrete blockhouse full of spinning generators in the middle of July. Unless there’s _another_ plane that sends _its_ ghosts to the ethereal plane, thereby creating cold spots, and a plane above that that sends _its_ ghosts . . . [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-believes-in-ghosts/93017.md?page=2)