Do Ghosts Really Exist?

[Bracket]

I found this interesting article online. It tells of a paranormal study conducting experiments on people who are expecting a haunting. They created a fictional ghost named Philip, along with a backstory, and attempted to see if anyone would come into contact with a spirit named Philip, and they did. This really brings the existance of ghosts into question.

http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghosthunt...-ghost.htm

[CareTaker]

A lot of people tend to be very impressionable, hence the power of suggestion. I have read similar studies in other ares (not paranormal) which had pretty much the same results. In fact medical studies using placebos have also showed similar results.

I dont think it discredits the existence of ghosts. But I am biased because I have had some personal encounters.

[UglyNRude]

Its easy to create ghosts, you just plant the seed and people's minds do the rest.

Now does this explain all paranormal? I don't think so but it explains most.

If people are told they are going to a haunted house, and a story of being touched or seeing a certain apparition in a certain area people will experience what you plant in their head.

This is what happens during Seances, Ouija board sessions, Ghost tours and so much more.

If you read about say example Moundsville prison, you will see where most of the deaths occurred, where previous ghost tours experienced activity. Now refresh your mind with an hour tour before you go ghost hunting. They tell you cells people have claimed to be touched in.

You listen to people and these are the areas they will have had the same experience. Its because the seed was planted.

This doesn't work on everyone as some minds are more skeptical. But if you aren't then chances are you will experience something.

[CareTaker]

(08-17-2009 12:06 AM)UglyNRude Wrote:  Its easy to create ghosts, you just plant the seed and people's minds do the rest.

Now does this explain all paranormal? I don't think so but it explains most......

I agree with that. Just tell some kids a few ghost stories around a camp fire and watch how many of them see ghosts before the night is over.

[scarygirl67]

I'm not skeptical, but I never, ever see ghosts when I am looking in these haunted places. It is only, and I mean only when I am not looking for them that I see them.

I agree with the power of suggestion, but like Caretaker, I am biased that ghosts do exist because I have had personal experiences. I also had parents who searched for answers, and even they were never completely satisfied with the natural explanations....not for everything anyway.

I went exploring, (no...that's not the right word...I was trespassing) in an abandoned children's home once that had many ghost stories surrounding it. I didn't actually see a ghost, but a chair shot across the room....enough to make me get out of there quick! And of course, I am convinced in my own mind that it was a ghost. That is the closest I have come to finding something paranormal in a place I was actually looking for it.

The other times....all I know is I saw what I saw. I wasn't looking for it, and it was there.

But the study itself was very interesting, and I do agree that the power of suggestion is a strong one...and the person who is seeing what has been suggested to them, I am sure, is convinced what they are seeing is real.

[UglyNRude]

http://www.assap.org/newsite/htmlfiles/S...plied.html

This page .... or pages explain lots of what people perceive to be paranormal.

[scarygirl67]

I've glanced over a bit, and I've bookmarked the page....

It's a lot to read. I must say though, that I have always appreciated the respect you show people who believe their experiences to be true, UNR. You show the evidence you have accumulated to help people see every side to an experience and to possibly find an answer that applies to them.

Nothing has convinced me ghosts aren't real yet, but I have learned so much more with each challenge you bring. Now, off to do some reading!

[Pitch Potter]

I haven't truly made up my mind on the spirits of the dead. But since I do believe in the spirit realm, angels and demons, I sometime think that we are being tricked by demons who want us to believe something that isn't. Now, I have seen things too and have related them here. But was I seeing the action of a dead person's spirit or that of a demon impersonator?

Also, angels are about and maybe sometimes they are mistaken for the spirit of the dead.

[CareTaker]

I absolutely believe that ghosts are real, but just what they are I am not so sure of. Are they some type of remnant from a person who has died? Are they just some form of energy we dont understand? Something else altogether? Who knows and even then who's to say that all "ghosts" are the same thing?

I believe firmly that 'things' such as demons, ghost, angels, and poltergeists exist. I also have little doubt that in many so-called paranormal encounters there is a plausable explanation for what was going on. Not everything that goes bump in the night is paranormal, but the paranormal does go bump in the night!

[Pitch Potter]

You know CT, I am really torn on this subject. I know what the Bible tells me about the state of the dead, that they are asleep and know nothing. Yet, I am reading the Book of Enoch which was left out of the Bible and it allows for a holding place for the spirits of the dead. That they are conscious. So, this really confuses me as a Christian.