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Do you believe in ghosts and other related phenomena?

12467

Posts

  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited April 2009
    I have genuine bigfoot remains in my cooler. Give me $10,000 and you can have them and prove to the world bigfoot exists.

    Oh yeah, what happened to that guy that claimed to have a bigfoot corpse some months ago? Guess he never came through with that.

    Echo on
  • Dunadan019Dunadan019 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Echo wrote: »
    I have genuine bigfoot remains in my cooler. Give me $10,000 and you can have them and prove to the world bigfoot exists.

    Oh yeah, what happened to that guy that claimed to have a bigfoot corpse some months ago? Guess he never came through with that.

    it was a bigfoot costume that they rented from a halloween store.

    also, who doesn't want to believe in ghosts? if i could be a ghost right now, i would be... free to mess with people, fly and go through objects? hell yeah!

    Dunadan019 on
  • KenninatorKenninator Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Teslan26 wrote: »
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    Teslan26 wrote: »
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    Teslan26 wrote: »
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    Kenninator wrote: »
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    zerg rush wrote: »
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    And this is why quantitative measures like EM readers and thermal imaging and such are important to transforming the debate from "guys, I totally saw a ghost!" "No you didn't!" to something that can be scietifically analyzed and is verifiable.

    It's a joke to call that scientific or verifiable. If someone ever says "guys, I totally met a ghost, and he'll be visiting the lab at 12:30 tomorrow so we can take measurements and record him ghosting things" then I'll believe in ghosts. Otherwise it's people looking at the weather and saying spirits cause it.

    So are you saying neutron stars don't exist because we can't get one to come into the lab and do neutron star stuff?

    That's not a good analogy at all.

    Old, rickety houses (or even most houses. for that matter) have drafts and cold spots and hot spots. Electromagnetic fields can be caused by the ground below the house or power lines.

    Which is why you need to try and isolate such causes, do statistical analysis, correlate these quantitative results to personal experiences, and so forth.

    But, as has been said before, the people working in this field are generally untrustworthy and un-respected. The whole bunch are tarred with this brush. Therefore it is simply implausible to expect anyone to accept this phenomena as proven unless, quite literally, it is done under labaratory conditions with respected scientists.

    Which is why we need someone serious to take it seriously enough to do a proper study. That this is unlikely to happen any time soon is dissapointing.

    I agree, to an extent. Except there is a glaring issue:

    If 3 well renowned physicists went and tested rigourously in labratory conditions, 5 hotspots, and determined no evidence for Ghosts...

    The people who believed before would continue to do so. By its very nature the paranormal doctrine is designed to survive being 'disproven'. Who would waste their time in such a fools errand?

    The experiment I proposed earlier would satisfy my own personal standards, one way or the other.

    Also, I think there is something to find even if it's not ghosts in any way, shape, or form. For example, the fact that EM waves can give you everything from headaches to hallucinations in pretty interesting, and poses some real questions to biologists and neuroscientists. And this is something that we would get data on in the process of such an investigation.

    It might satisy you - but the majority of believers would claim that the equipment interfered, or it was set up to show what it wanted, or... etc.

    I'd love to see it done too, however.

    Unfortunately, that's what happens when you try to prove or disprove something like this. They've never needed any good evidence to believe in it in the first place.

    Kenninator on
  • MikeManMikeMan Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    There's no ghosts.

    Oh noes I just said the controversial.

    There's no Santa Claus either. Whodathunkit.

    MikeMan on
  • Local H JayLocal H Jay Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    ghosts aren't even scary so if they're real it's all good

    now aliens, that is fucking terrifying. sometimes i can't sleep alone simply because i fear that some small grey freak will come into my room, cut me open, and leave things behind all while i watch in silent horror

    the x-files and unsolved mysteries fucked my childhood

    Local H Jay on
  • electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Aliens will be crysallids on a terror mission.

    electricitylikesme on
  • HalfmexHalfmex I mock your value system You also appear foolish in the eyes of othersRegistered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Duffel wrote: »
    I think there's two main reasons people believe in ghosts.

    The first reason is the obvious one - people who have had some sort of experience they perceived to be supernatural that they have to deal with mentally. They've either got to tell themselves that they saw/heard/perceived something weird, or that they're delusional. Most people don't want to believe the latter, obviously, since it implies they're not mentally sound, so they'll usually go with the former.

    Also, it's been pretty rare for me to meet someone who 100% "believes in ghosts", even if they think they've encountered one. Most of those people (once again, in my experience) will qualify it with things to the effect of "ever since then I've wondered if there really are ghosts".

    The second reason I think people believe in ghosts is strictly because it can be fun to contemplate. People enjoy getting scared, and ghost stories can be extremely scary. They're a lot scarier if those involved in the telling and hearing of those stories believe that they're true. That's why even bad horror movies command much higher prices at the box office than they deserve if they're "based on a true story". Ghost stories are one of the world's oldest forms of oral tradition; even if our descendants are cruising around in Mass Effect-esque starships and colonizing other planets, they'll probably still be telling ghost stories.
    Also, people want to believe in ghosts because if ghosts were ever scientifically proven to exist, boom, there's confirmation of the afterlife. There's confirmation that you'll see your dead friends and relatives again. There's confirmation that you go on, as a person, and ultimately the fear of death itself diminishes.

    Halfmex on
  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Initial disclaimer: I am a physicist. I am also a romantic (in the traditional sense, not the flowers-and-candy sense).

    I believe in paranormal phenomenon up to the point that they are parts of the natural universe which lack a sufficient scientific explanation and are outside the scope of normal experience. Things that are straight-up supernatural I reject out of hand from personal bias because I don't believe that any strictly supernatural force or entity would be capable of direct supernatural interaction with our world (being as it would, by definition, have to reside in some manner outside of the natural universe and could not interact with the universe except through purely natural means without violating local laws of reality).

    I really Want to believe in psychic abilities. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence and a little bit of suggestive hard evidence. The rational scientist part of my mind says, "Gimme proof or shut up" but the romantic part says, "Dude, we still haven't even found the Higgs... why can't the brain actively select between statistical configurations of the surrounding universe?". So I dunno. As another poster said, it's probably my inner child still clinging to The Awesome.

    Ghosts as manifestations of our eternal, religious soul I'm going to give a categorical no. Ghosts of the poltergeist variety (uncontrolled telekinetic manifestations) I'd go so far as to give a squinty shrug and an, "Eeeeehhhh". Ghosts as a sort of mental projection of unconsciously observed factors, some of which may be due to a physical but not measurable with current technology 'residue' left behind by other people...maybe.

    Our senses are a lot sharper than we usually give them credit for and our sensory abilities are probably more wide-ranging than we generally consider. That together with the brain's massive powers of pattern recognition make 'haunted house syndrome' seem pretty reasonable. As cliche and pop-mystic as it sounds, humans Do have an electromagnetic field as a result of the electrochemical nature of our nervous system. Said field is clearly dependent on our thought processes, as demonstrated by human/computer interfaces. I don't think it's completely beyond reason to say that profound, prolonged emotional states could actually leave a sort of magnetic imprinting on a place. If you wipe a weak magnetic across a surface enough times it will eventually flip some of the spin magnetic moments of the molecules in the material. You interface an existing magnetic field with the electron transport chain in your nervous system and whala, you get 'psychic resonance'.

    All of the above relies on a few assumptions that are a bit of a stretch, like the ability to detect extremely subtle magnetic field variations. I don't think it's completely out of the realm of possibility... we have evolved to read the states of our fellow humans as accurately as possible on as little data as possible in order to enhance our societal grouping tendencies. If people weakly emit magnetic signatures for certain strong moods, especially negative ones, it would be evolutionarily beneficial if we developed a means of picking up on that. Such a signature field would be very nearly undetectable with typical Hall sensors and would only get picked up by our natural field sensors because it is similar to what we expect to feel from another human, so the pattern-recognition super-computer in our heads sifts it out of the noise. Put that together with some cultural expectations, some deep-rooted human magical thinking, and some peer pressure/suggestion and you get ghost sightings.

    All of that said, I think 98% of ghost stories are BS. I also think that all of the pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo that shows up in TV shows and books about the subject does more harm than good. It dazzles the rubes who would be equally dazzled by an explanation about crystal power and makes anyone with half a clue turn off their ears and stop listening. The employ of "EM readers" that I've seen is complete hooey. They're generally Hall effect magnetic field detectors which, for proper use, require calibration and a steady hand in one location. Waving them around in the air and calling a shift of a few microTesla a psychic indicator is just ignorant. Yeah, sure, it might mean something... or it could be part of the 30 microTesla variation from point to point in the Earth's magnetic field. Or a radio signal, buried power line, a big chunk of metal, etc. Thermal imaging is nearly as bad and don't even get me started on EVP.

    The problem with science and the paranormal is that once it's been experimentally verified and studied it stops being paranormal. Einstein called quantum mechanics spooky. People in ancient cultures considered lodestone (natural magnets) to have strange, mystical abilities (which, unfortunately, some people still seem to ascribe to magnets...). Go back far enough and damn near everything had supernatural significance because we had no better explanations. Even if ghosts turned out to really be the spirits of the lingering dead, within a generation or so calling up your dead grandfather for a chat would just be a part of everyday experience, not especially more exciting than the microwave or the TV. Probably less-so than the TV.

    CptHamilton on
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  • Lionhart617Lionhart617 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    There is one God, and many angels. Fallen angels are called demons. Angels and demons can take any shape they wish. There is a hierarchy of angels biased on how powerful God created them. This is what I believe, no more and no less.

    There is also a Santa Claus.

    Lionhart617 on
  • ViolentChemistryViolentChemistry __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    There is one God, and many angels. Fallen angels are called demons. Angels and demons can take any shape they wish. There is a hierarchy of angels biased on how powerful God created them. This is what I believe, no more and no less.

    There is also a Santa Claus.

    Not since he was killed by a jet in 1963, no. Nor has there been a Krampus since the Pope cast him into Purgatory during Vatican II. But your boys seem to have inadvertantly released him from his chains.

    ViolentChemistry on
  • HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    All of that said, I think 98% of ghost stories are BS. I also think that all of the pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo that shows up in TV shows and books about the subject does more harm than good. It dazzles the rubes who would be equally dazzled by an explanation about crystal power and makes anyone with half a clue turn off their ears and stop listening. The employ of "EM readers" that I've seen is complete hooey. They're generally Hall effect magnetic field detectors which, for proper use, require calibration and a steady hand in one location. Waving them around in the air and calling a shift of a few microTesla a psychic indicator is just ignorant. Yeah, sure, it might mean something... or it could be part of the 30 microTesla variation from point to point in the Earth's magnetic field. Or a radio signal, buried power line, a big chunk of metal, etc.

    This is one of the few things Ghost Hunters seems to get right actually. They usually try and trace EMF readings to a source, like pipes or metal supports in walls or leaking power boxes and such. And then they tell the homeowner to insulate whatever it is because it can be the cause of weird feelings and the like.

    On the other hand, they now have that thing that they try to use to talk to ghosts and I have no idea how that thing is supposed to work exactly.

    HamHamJ on
    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
  • Ghost314Ghost314 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    HamHamJ wrote: »
    On the other hand, they now have that thing that they try to use to talk to ghosts and I have no idea how that thing is supposed to work exactly.

    I think you're talking about the K-2 meter. It's another kind of EMF detector. The problem with it is, cell phone signals etc. can set it off. Someone in another room could easily be making it light up in response to questions. The fact that it can so easily be used to hoax is a good reason not to use it at all, especially if TAPS wants to maintain any semblance of objectivity.

    My kids and I watch(ed) Ghost Hunters for a long time. I say watch(ed) because my kids are now so bored by it that they'd rather watch just about anything else. Almost nothing happens, and usually about 95% is either explainable or so mundane as to not be interesting.

    That being said, I have seen 9-10 things on the show over the past 3 years that are pretty hard to explain away, unless the whole thing is a fraud. Which it could certainly be.

    Ghost314 on
    Life is a highway -- I want to ride it -- and comment on it ironically -- all night long.
  • Teslan26Teslan26 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I really Want to believe in psychic abilities. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence and a little bit of suggestive hard evidence. The rational scientist part of my mind says, "Gimme proof or shut up"

    Derren Brown totally decided my opinion upon that subject. He clearly states that he is not a psychic - but by God he knows all the tricks and has clearly shown to me that psychics are frauds. He is honest about the source of his 'tricks'.

    Teslan26 on
  • Ghost314Ghost314 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Halfmex wrote: »
    ... people want to believe in ghosts because if ghosts were ever scientifically proven to exist, boom, there's confirmation of the afterlife. There's confirmation that you'll see your dead friends and relatives again. There's confirmation that you go on, as a person, and ultimately the fear of death itself diminishes.

    I think a lot of people THINK proof of the existence of ghosts would also verify life after death, but the one doesn't necessarily follow from the other. It's possible that we leave behind "something" when we die, a kind of psychic or perhaps even energetic "shadow," but that doesn't mean that our consciousness survives. A ghost isn't necessarily the spirit of a human being. It might be more like the psychic equivalent of an odor.

    Ultimately, belief in life after death has to be based on more (or less, depending on how you look at it) than ghosts or mediums.

    Ghost314 on
    Life is a highway -- I want to ride it -- and comment on it ironically -- all night long.
  • ResRes __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    There is one God, and many angels. Fallen angels are called demons. Angels and demons can take any shape they wish. There is a hierarchy of angels biased on how powerful God created them. This is what I believe, no more and no less.

    There is also a Santa Claus.

    Gon' bag me an easter bunny this year.

    Gon' get me onea these babies so's I'll be ready.

    Res on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • HamHamJHamHamJ Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Ghost314: Yeah, I'm talking about the K-2 meter. The first time they used it was pretty impressive, because they got stuff that looked like answers and then they seemed to get the "ghost" to make a cold spot on command.

    Of course, then it turned out that the footage from the thermal camera had been photoshopped to changed the numbers it showed. So yeah...

    Res wrote: »
    There is one God, and many angels. Fallen angels are called demons. Angels and demons can take any shape they wish. There is a hierarchy of angels biased on how powerful God created them. This is what I believe, no more and no less.

    There is also a Santa Claus.

    Gon' bag me an easter bunny this year.

    Gon' get me onea these babies so's I'll be ready.

    How the fuck do you patent a piece of metal that is curved on one end?

    HamHamJ on
    While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
  • ObsObs __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2009
    It's a pretty ingenious idea though.

    Wake up in the middle of the night

    "Oh look, a robber."

    *BLAM*

    Obs on
  • CervetusCervetus Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Ghosts have to be real, because *I* certainly didn't put that horse porn on my desk.

    Cervetus on
  • Teslan26Teslan26 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Cervetus wrote: »
    Ghosts have to be real, because *I* certainly didn't put that horse porn on my desk.

    That was Mossad. They're behind you btw.

    Teslan26 on
  • RichyRichy Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Cervetus wrote: »
    Ghosts have to be real, because *I* certainly didn't put that horse porn on my desk.
    Man, that exact same problem happened to m--someone else I know.

    Damn ghosts.

    Richy on
    sig.gif
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I thought of this thread at 5:30am this morning because for a split second, I thought I might have had a ghostly encounter.. For about 3s.. I'll explain:

    I was having a dream where I was checking into a hotel for a weekly stay and for some reason the hotel had me in 4 different rooms for each of the 4 nights I was staying there. They also, for some reason, gave me all 4 room keys in advance. So I go to what I thought was my room for the first night and laid down on the bed.

    Coincidentally enough, my "dream self" was in the same position as my real self, with my leg slightly off the bed. Well, my dream self heard the hotel room door open and I thought to myself "Crap I've got the wrong room", when suddenly the person who was rightfully entitled to the room poked me in the foot.

    Now, this is where I wake up with the sensation that I've been poked in the foot. And for about 3s I forget the dream. I'm just waking up in a weird state but the sensation of being poked in the foot is still there. Finally I remembered what I was just dreaming and settled down. Of course at this point I'm wide awake.

    So I wonder if situations like that are a leading cause of "ghosts bothering people in their sleep". The state that we're in, between sleep and waking is very deceptive. If I hadn't remembered my dream (and I rarely remember dreams), I probably would've been freaked out and started looking for ghosts or monsters under my bed until I settled down.

    saint2e on
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  • MagicPrimeMagicPrime FiresideWizard Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    saint2e wrote: »
    I thought of this thread at 5:30am this morning because for a split second, I thought I might have had a ghostly encounter.. For about 3s.. I'll explain:

    I was having a dream where I was checking into a hotel for a weekly stay and for some reason the hotel had me in 4 different rooms for each of the 4 nights I was staying there. They also, for some reason, gave me all 4 room keys in advance. So I go to what I thought was my room for the first night and laid down on the bed.

    Coincidentally enough, my "dream self" was in the same position as my real self, with my leg slightly off the bed. Well, my dream self heard the hotel room door open and I thought to myself "Crap I've got the wrong room", when suddenly the person who was rightfully entitled to the room poked me in the foot.

    Now, this is where I wake up with the sensation that I've been poked in the foot. And for about 3s I forget the dream. I'm just waking up in a weird state but the sensation of being poked in the foot is still there. Finally I remembered what I was just dreaming and settled down. Of course at this point I'm wide awake.

    So I wonder if situations like that are a leading cause of "ghosts bothering people in their sleep". The state that we're in, between sleep and waking is very deceptive. If I hadn't remembered my dream (and I rarely remember dreams), I probably would've been freaked out and started looking for ghosts or monsters under my bed until I settled down.

    Nah, that was just yourself awakening as a Mage.

    but seriously -

    Lucid dreams are more than likely the cause of any paranormal encounter that begins with, "I was laying in bed..."

    MagicPrime on
    BNet • magicprime#1430 | PSN/Steam • MagicPrime | Origin • FireSideWizard
    Critical Failures - Havenhold CampaignAugust St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
  • DuffelDuffel jacobkosh Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Well, that's not technically a "lucid dream", which is a dream that you realize is a dream and that you can control. There's ways to train yourself to do lucid dreams, supposedly - the first being to realize in the dream that it is a dream - but I've never been able to do it. Everytime I realize "Hey, this is a dream," I wake up.

    Also, folklorists usually draw a distinction between what S2e described and "ghost" encounters. Interestingly, most cultures do, too. In antiquity, and later Christian western Europe, they were known as succubi/incubi, and were thought to be malevolent entities that raped people in their sleep. In other regions they were known as a "hag". In the modern US, "alien abductions" usually fit under this category. Most of them are surprisingly culturally specific - IE, if you believe in hags you'll probably see a hag, if you believe in aliens you'll probably see an alien.

    One truly frightening variation is known among the Hmong people from Southeast Asia. Hmong believe these things can actually kill you, and surprisingly it is not uncommon to find Hmong who have apparently died for no reason whatsoever in their sleep.

    Duffel on
  • Dunadan019Dunadan019 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Duffel wrote: »
    Well, that's not technically a "lucid dream", which is a dream that you realize is a dream and that you can control. There's ways to train yourself to do lucid dreams, supposedly - the first being to realize in the dream that it is a dream - but I've never been able to do it. Everytime I realize "Hey, this is a dream," I wake up.

    Also, folklorists usually draw a distinction between what S2e described and "ghost" encounters. Interestingly, most cultures do, too. In antiquity, and later Christian western Europe, they were known as succubi/incubi, and were thought to be malevolent entities that raped people in their sleep. In other regions they were known as a "hag". In the modern US, "alien abductions" usually fit under this category. Most of them are surprisingly culturally specific - IE, if you believe in hags you'll probably see a hag, if you believe in aliens you'll probably see an alien.

    One truly frightening variation is known among the Hmong people from Southeast Asia. Hmong believe these things can actually kill you, and surprisingly it is not uncommon to find Hmong who have apparently died for no reason whatsoever in their sleep.

    i thought that succubi/incubi was how the church explained wet dreams or dreams about sex...

    as in, 'dreaming about sex leads to a succubi taking your soul to hell where you will go when you die'.

    Dunadan019 on
  • Robos A Go GoRobos A Go Go Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I once had a waking dream about ghost deer galloping around my room that caused me to bolt out of my bed and out of my room. A moment later I realized how stupid the idea of ghost deer truly is and recovered myself, but perhaps it wouldn't have been so easy if I'd dreamt about the spectral form of an 18th century murder victim instead.

    Robos A Go Go on
  • DuffelDuffel jacobkosh Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Dunadan019 wrote: »
    i thought that succubi/incubi was how the church explained wet dreams or dreams about sex...

    as in, 'dreaming about sex leads to a succubi taking your soul to hell where you will go when you die'.
    That was part of the concept later, but I'm pretty sure succubi/incubi predate the Church.

    Duffel on
  • Ghost314Ghost314 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    saint2e wrote: »
    ... when suddenly the person who was rightfully entitled to the room poked me in the foot.

    Now, this is where I wake up with the sensation that I've been poked in the foot. And for about 3s I forget the dream. I'm just waking up in a weird state but the sensation of being poked in the foot is still there. Finally I remembered what I was just dreaming and settled down. Of course at this point I'm wide awake.

    So I wonder if situations like that are a leading cause of "ghosts bothering people in their sleep". The state that we're in, between sleep and waking is very deceptive. If I hadn't remembered my dream (and I rarely remember dreams), I probably would've been freaked out and started looking for ghosts or monsters under my bed until I settled down.

    So what caused the sensation of being poked in the foot? I find that often, external stimuli will make their way into my dreams as part of the dream narrative.

    One perspective is certainly to assume that the sensation was internally generated. Then it can be explained away. Another would be to assume that it was an external stimulus, and the question becomes, "Is there any rational (and likely) explanation for this?"

    I bring this up because I've had dreams where external stimuli intruded, and there was really no plausible explanation for them. In other words, the "sound" or "sensation" suddenly and somewhat randomly entered the dream, usually waking me up. It can be unsettling. I once heard, distinctly, three loud, evenly spaced knocks on the outside wall of my bedroom, which is on the second story of the house. There are no tree branches or anything else near to cause such a sound. I actually got up and went outside to see what the heck was going on.

    Ghost314 on
    Life is a highway -- I want to ride it -- and comment on it ironically -- all night long.
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    MagicPrime wrote: »
    saint2e wrote: »
    I thought of this thread at 5:30am this morning because for a split second, I thought I might have had a ghostly encounter.. For about 3s.. I'll explain:

    I was having a dream where I was checking into a hotel for a weekly stay and for some reason the hotel had me in 4 different rooms for each of the 4 nights I was staying there. They also, for some reason, gave me all 4 room keys in advance. So I go to what I thought was my room for the first night and laid down on the bed.

    Coincidentally enough, my "dream self" was in the same position as my real self, with my leg slightly off the bed. Well, my dream self heard the hotel room door open and I thought to myself "Crap I've got the wrong room", when suddenly the person who was rightfully entitled to the room poked me in the foot.

    Now, this is where I wake up with the sensation that I've been poked in the foot. And for about 3s I forget the dream. I'm just waking up in a weird state but the sensation of being poked in the foot is still there. Finally I remembered what I was just dreaming and settled down. Of course at this point I'm wide awake.

    So I wonder if situations like that are a leading cause of "ghosts bothering people in their sleep". The state that we're in, between sleep and waking is very deceptive. If I hadn't remembered my dream (and I rarely remember dreams), I probably would've been freaked out and started looking for ghosts or monsters under my bed until I settled down.

    Nah, that was just yourself awakening as a Mage.

    but seriously -

    Lucid dreams are more than likely the cause of any paranormal encounter that begins with, "I was laying in bed..."

    That's not a lucid dream. That's a night terror or sleep paralysis.

    DasUberEdward on
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  • MikeManMikeMan Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    i get hells of hallucinations, auditory and visual, when i'm really sleepy and trying to get to sleep

    the fan on the ceiling will melt, the pillow next to me will float around

    one time i woke up and i saw, very clearly, two kids looking in my window with a bright light behind them. they were standing and looking at me.

    my room is on the second floor and there is no way to stand outside my window

    MikeMan on
  • WotanAnubisWotanAnubis Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    MikeMan wrote: »
    one time i woke up and i saw, very clearly, two kids looking in my window with a bright light behind them. they were standing and looking at me.

    my room is on the second floor and there is no way to stand outside my window
    It's obvious what happened, then.

    You were visited by vampires. :P

    WotanAnubis on
  • MikeManMikeMan Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    MikeMan wrote: »
    one time i woke up and i saw, very clearly, two kids looking in my window with a bright light behind them. they were standing and looking at me.

    my room is on the second floor and there is no way to stand outside my window
    It's obvious what happened, then.

    You were visited by vampires. :P
    PAUL REUBENS

    MikeMan on
  • BamaBama Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    MikeMan wrote: »
    i get hells of hallucinations, auditory and visual, when i'm really sleepy and trying to get to sleep

    the fan on the ceiling will melt, the pillow next to me will float around

    one time i woke up and i saw, very clearly, two kids looking in my window with a bright light behind them. they were standing and looking at me.

    my room is on the second floor and there is no way to stand outside my window
    stilts

    Bama on
  • Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    MikeMan wrote: »
    i get hells of hallucinations, auditory and visual, when i'm really sleepy and trying to get to sleep

    the fan on the ceiling will melt, the pillow next to me will float around

    one time i woke up and i saw, very clearly, two kids looking in my window with a bright light behind them. they were standing and looking at me.

    my room is on the second floor and there is no way to stand outside my window

    if you're not dreaming/hallucinating, it's stilts.

    or vampires.

    or vampires on stilts.

    Evil Multifarious on
  • DmanDman Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    There are no ghosts.
    Your sensory organs are not infallible.
    Neither is your brain.
    Can you even be sure you're not insane? :rotate:
    It was Vampires
    On stilts

    Dman on
  • truck-a-saurastruck-a-sauras Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Duffel wrote: »
    Well, that's not technically a "lucid dream", which is a dream that you realize is a dream and that you can control. There's ways to train yourself to do lucid dreams, supposedly - the first being to realize in the dream that it is a dream - but I've never been able to do it. Everytime I realize "Hey, this is a dream," I wake up.

    Also, folklorists usually draw a distinction between what S2e described and "ghost" encounters. Interestingly, most cultures do, too. In antiquity, and later Christian western Europe, they were known as succubi/incubi, and were thought to be malevolent entities that raped people in their sleep. In other regions they were known as a "hag". In the modern US, "alien abductions" usually fit under this category. Most of them are surprisingly culturally specific - IE, if you believe in hags you'll probably see a hag, if you believe in aliens you'll probably see an alien.

    One truly frightening variation is known among the Hmong people from Southeast Asia. Hmong believe these things can actually kill you, and surprisingly it is not uncommon to find Hmong who have apparently died for no reason whatsoever in their sleep.

    Another variation, Popobawa likes to go downtown if you know what I mean.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popobawa

    Edit: Popobawa is too fun to say, Po PO BaaaaaWAAAAAAA!

    truck-a-sauras on
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  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Vampires on stilts? The very idea terrifies me to the bone. And not the :winky: one.

    urahonky on
  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I've had external stimuli enter my dreams before. One time I was dreaming about playing in my living room and I heard my alarm clock go off in my room. I went to go shut it off and it wouldn't shut off. Then I realized I was dreaming and it was my actual alarm clock. I promptly woke up.

    I'm fairly sure that my rude awakening this morning wasn't due to external stimuli, as it was something that occurred in the dream because my mind expected it. It's hard to describe...

    Have you ever had a moment in a dream where you think to yourself, "aww crap, <something> is gonna happen now..." and sure enough the next thing that happened in your dream was <something>? Pretty sure that's what happened to me.

    Don't get me wrong, I love watching Ghost Hunters and some of the stuff they find, if unedited and truthful, is pretty amazing, but I highly doubt the existence of ghosts. Mostly because if they did exist, I would never sleep again.

    saint2e on
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  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    I really want the concept of ghosts to be real, because I love the feeling of being scared. But really I can't ever find any evidence to back it up that can change my mind.

    And I do have a lot of external stuff go into my dreams. Kinda why I like to watch zombie movies before I go to bed and leave the movie playing. Makes for some interesting dreams.

    urahonky on
  • Local H JayLocal H Jay Registered User regular
    edited April 2009

    Another variation, Popobawa likes to go downtown if you know what I mean.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popobawa

    Edit: Popobawa is too fun to say, Po PO BaaaaaWAAAAAAA!

    the fact that something like this even happens still is amazing.
    a serial rapist is running around sodomizing everybody and they blame it on manbatpenis
    also like the blurb in the wiki about wether or not popobawa is apolitical.

    Local H Jay on
  • Ghost314Ghost314 Registered User regular
    edited April 2009
    Dman wrote: »
    There are no ghosts.
    Your sensory organs are not infallible.
    Neither is your brain.
    Can you even be sure you're not insane?

    I myself, after years of pondering such things, reading about it and talking about it to people, I do believe that we're surrounded by millions of spiritual creatures and some day we may know more about it. I would say the great majority of Jews do not accept this. They have an illusion that Judaism is a rationalist religion. But being completely religious and rational don't go together."

    That's a quote from Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jewish Nobel Prize Winner in Literature.

    He's right. And we all intuitively know it, and are in collective denial.

    Right now you and I are completely surrounded by swarms of entities. If we knew how to detect them, we could, but we currently lack the technology.

    Before you refute this, consider that not that long ago, "invisible" energy that causes cancer or can be used to convey information was totally unknown and probably would have been laughed off by most respectable scientists. Likewise with "invisible" organisms that cause disease. "How ridiculous! Everyone knows disease is caused by an imbalance in the humours."

    But now we have electromagnetism and microbes. Who knows what we'll have in 50 years?

    Until the scientific basis is developed and the accompanying technology invented, all we have for the so-called "supernatural" (there is no such thing) is anecdotal evidence which is laughed off by those who don't want to believe because it might rock their world.

    Ghost314 on
    Life is a highway -- I want to ride it -- and comment on it ironically -- all night long.
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