Ghosts and coincedences

[Lumps]

Do you know what, repeatability is a bit of an essential requirement for something to be termed evidence.

The Amazing Randy spends his entire life pretty much going around looking for evidence of the paranormal. He offers $1m reward for anyone that can produce anything that he can't explain in conditions that rule out fakery.

No-ones ever managed to collect. Houdini did the same thing, spent half his time travelling around debunking frauds and shysters, whilst looking for any geniune evidence of "the unexplained".

I wouldn't call anyone a nutter for believing in this stuff, but for me it just speaks to the need some people have to believe in something else beyond the material. The same as religion, new age hippy dippy stuff and to some exent the UFO obsessives.

I don't have that need and, suprise suprise, I've never had any experience that I'd term paranormal.

Seances? Moving objects in semi-darkened rooms. I've seen too much Derren Brown to automatically think "oh that's ghosts then".

[yeo]

I used to work with a girl that was convinced she had the ghosts of some children sat at the top of her stairs that wanted to push her little Brother down the stairs.She was very matter of fact about it,if she was talking shit she was quite convincing.Think she lived in Marlborugh.

I also worked with a woman that just knew stuff that she couldnt possibly know and claimed that a voice popped into her head and told her these things.

When I was 6 or 7 we had our Dog put to sleep because it was ill and the next morning I went down stairs and it ran out of the Kitchen to greet me then dissappeared.

[janaage]

"I used to work with a girl that was convinced she had the ghosts of some children sat at the top of her stairs that wanted to push her little Brother down the stairs.She was very matter of fact about it,if she was talking shit she was quite convincing.Think she lived in Marlborugh."

I'm not sure if that's a common feeling, but I swear to God, that I used to have that exact same feeling when I was a young'un.  The ghosts at the top of the stairs wanting to push me down.  Fuck me that used to be scarey.  This is the first time I have ever mentioned this by the way.  100% serious post - honest.

[Rich Pullen]

My dad works in old folks homes and says he's seen former residents etc... He's a kook though

[Lumps]

It only ever seems to be people that believe in this sort of bollocks that see these things.

I think people that want to believe convince themselves of all sorts. The aunt of my Mrs swears that she once saw a man turn into a dog, and saw someone else grow a new leg. She's a born again type and thinks there are witchs and demons all over the place.

[janaage]

My old man, who's not into this kinda thing has seen a person walk straight through a 8 ft tall wire fence.  He's convinced that it must have been a ghost walking along in a time when there was no fence there.  Like I say though he's not into ghosts or the after life, bu the swears he saw it happen.

[STFCBird]

Who wants to come to sussex to play with my Ouija Board?

[Rich Pullen]

My old house when I was at Plymouth had a good few weird things going on. Including myself seeing, what I thought was my housemate, walking out of his room and walking upstairs... I went to talk to him but nobody was upstairs or in the house for that matter.

In the 2 years I lived there plenty of odd things happened.

[Lumps]

Who wants to come to sussex to play with my Ouija Board?

Is that some kind of obscure double entendre that I've not understood?

[STFCBird]

Is that some kind of obscure double entendre that I've not understood?

You can put your finger on my glass if you like and see what moves?

[Mexicano Rojo]

i think i fairly sane lumps and generally agree with most of your posts, i swear on my nephews life i saw a ghost when i was about 14 in a manor house in somerset, my friend was with me and he saw it too. I dont believe in god and this has bugged me as my belief system is totally at odds with what i saw that evening.

[Digglie]

My dad works in old folks homes and says he's seen former residents etc... He's a kook though

Cordon bleu?

[Lumps]

i think i fairly sane lumps and generally agree with most of your posts, i swear on my nephews life i saw a ghost when i was about 14 in a manor house in somerset, my friend was with me and he saw it too. I dont believe in god and this has bugged me as my belief system is totally at odds with what i saw that evening.

I think what everyone has got to remember is that our senses are not a direct link to the material world around us. Much of what we think we perceive is actually our brains metaphorically "filling in gaps". For example, we're only able to focus in a fairly narrow range of vision, but when we're moving about we don't perceive fuzzy out of focus images in our peripheral field. Our brain does a handy, "remember what that bit looks like and stick with that image" thing. As a result our sense can be pretty unreliable in terms of telling us what's actually out there.

It's REALLY bloody easy for us to see something that isn't there, especially in the dark, or when we're stressed or when things move fast. The scientific evidence is really clear, eye witness testimony is pretty shit evidence. So much so that courts are instructed that they should never convict on the basis of eye witness testimony alone.

It's really easy to see something that looks like a figure that is no such thing. I've seen the same hiker at the side of the A57 going across the Peaks back to Sheffield from where I'm working in Manc about 6 times. And each time I look again and realise it's an outlet pipe or drain or something. I've been drivng that route for a year now and I still forget and do a double take at it every now and again.

I know I'm being all rational about it but that's what I'm like. I was fairly clear in the thread about religion that I expected any belief to be subject to the same standards of evidence that any scientific theory had to stand up to, and for me the same rules apply to anything "supernatural".

Now I don't know what you're "ghost" sighting was like, if a headless cavalier rode down the stairs on his spectral steed and galloped off down the corridor shrieking then perhaps I'm completely wrong. But if what you're saying is that aged 14 you and a mate alone in an old manor house and probably in a fairly suggestible frame of mind glimpsed what you thougt was a ghostly figure, I'm just suggesting the possibility that you both may have got it wrong.

[BANGKOK RED]

You can put your finger on my glass if you like and see what moves?

Has sussex been neglecting your needs?

[BANGKOK RED]

I think what everyone has got to remember is that our senses are not a direct link to the material world around us. Much of what we think we perceive is actually our brains metaphorically "filling in gaps". For example, we're only able to focus in a fairly narrow range of vision, but when we're moving about we don't perceive fuzzy out of focus images in our peripheral field. Our brain does a handy, "remember what that bit looks like and stick with that image" thing. As a result our sense can be pretty unreliable in terms of telling us what's actually out there.

It's REALLY bloody easy for us to see something that isn't there, especially in the dark, or when we're stressed or when things move fast. The scientific evidence is really clear, eye witness testimony is pretty shit evidence. So much so that courts are instructed that they should never convict on the basis of eye witness testimony alone.

It's really easy to see something that looks like a figure that is no such thing. I've seen the same hiker at the side of the A57 going across the Peaks back to Sheffield from where I'm working in Manc about 6 times. And each time I look again and realise it's an outlet pipe or drain or something. I've been drivng that route for a year now and I still forget and do a double take at it every now and again.

I know I'm being all rational about it but that's what I'm like. I was fairly clear in the thread about religion that I expected any belief to be subject to the same standards of evidence that any scientific theory had to stand up to, and for me the same rules apply to anything "supernatural".

Now I don't know what you're "ghost" sighting was like, if a headless cavalier rode down the stairs on his spectral steed and galloped off down the corridor shrieking then perhaps I'm completely wrong. But if what you're saying is that aged 14 you and a mate alone in an old manor house and probably in a fairly suggestible frame of mind glimpsed what you thougt was a ghostly figure, I'm just suggesting the possibility that you both may have got it wrong.

You pose a very strong argument Lumps.

Would you like to be proved wrong?, and if so what would you consider to be proof?

Genuine question.