Do you believe in ghosts?

[missy]

jsluder - your grandfather's stories are commonly called "haints" back up in the hills.

When my father was dying (confined to his bed at home from cancer, but totally cognizant in his mind), the night before he passed, he told my mom "I know this is going to sound weird, but I can see through the walls of the room". Later that evening, he told her that he could see outlines of people standing around the room. During the night, my mom (who had taken to sleeping in my old room so that my dad didn't think he was disturbing her) said she distinctly heard him say "What are you doing here? You've been dead for so many years?"
He died the next morning, in between when a neighbor came in to sit with him and my mom came home from work at lunch. We feel he was dying the night before, but choose to wait until he was alone in the house to do so.

The following was told to me by my ex - I wasn't home at the time:
My oldest was about a year and a half old (and a VERY precocious talker) and asked "who's the man on the roof?". Ex asked him to explain, and Nate said "the man has a white shirt and jeans on". Ex didn't see anyone, but my dad HAD done work on that roof and Nate described my dad's usual work attire - white t-shirt and blue jeans (Dad died when I was 4 1/2 months pregnant with Nate). There was a picture of my dad in the house, but he wasn't dressed as described by Nate.

[amar]

jsluder - your grandfather's stories are commonly called "haints" back up in the hills.

When my father was dying (confined to his bed at home from cancer, but totally cognizant in his mind), the night before he passed, he told my mom "I know this is going to sound weird, but I can see through the walls of the room".

[missy]

ROTFLMAO!!!

Amar - my dad (as I wrote earlier) was a "ham" (amatuer radio operator) and you wouldn't believe the amount of electronic crap he had stored down in our basement. I'm sure, given time, he could have made something just like that!!!!

[jsluder]

jsluder - your grandfather's stories are commonly called "haints" back up in the hills.

Yep. I grew up in northeastern Tennessee, and we visited my grandparents in NC quite often. Haint stories were fairly common among my grandparents' and parents' generations, but you don't hear many new ones now.

[Tyler]

jsluder - your grandfather's stories are commonly called "haints" back up in the hills.

Yep. I grew up in northeastern Tennessee, and we visited my grandparents in NC quite often. Haint stories were fairly common among my grandparents' and parents' generations, but you don't hear many new ones now.

It's so interesting to study the local mythology...
The greatest part is that stories have to start somewhere, and if they are not entirely fiction they have a portion of truth.

[GaryKelly]

Oh, and my father gave a lift to the Bluebell Hill ghost when he was stationed at Chatham. He saw the attractive young lady 'hitchhiking' in the rain, he presumed, and gave her a lift in his Austin 1100 (my mother still twitches an eyebrow in his direction when he tells the story). She didn't speak, but he was chatting away, telling her he was heading for the dockyard. Turned around to look at her wondering why she wasn't speaking and of course she wasn't there. Apparently he nearly lost control of the car thinking she'd 'fallen out' or something. Drove to the nearest phone-box, called the police, and spent the best part of 30 minutes running up and down the road looking for her until the police arrived and told him "it had happened before" and not to worry about it.

.

Are you kidding Gary? That's such an urban legend. Maybe your dad was...how's that go... taking the Micky?

Nope. I was about 7 or 8 at the time and remember him getting home in a right state. He's a complete atheist, and has a great deal of trouble reconciling his experience with his belief that 'once you're dead, you're dead.' Something my mum delights in reminding him from time to time. Doesn't really matter whether we believe him (and I do, he's always been a quiet, serious dood), he knows it happened.

That's the trouble with ghost 'stories' I think; it's too easy to dismiss them, and folks don't like to look like nutters by telling them. Funny though, so many people can believe in 'god' in one form another (not to mention the resurrection of Christ, and the Holy Spirit et al) but when it comes to 'do you believe in ghosts' that's just too much!

Wonder why so many religions have exorcism rituals?

[dubhlinn]

I'm not saying I believe...but then again a lot of serious minded folk have stories to tell that they swear are true...there is never smoke without fire.

Slan,
D.

[Whistling Pops]

Funny though, so many people can believe in 'god' in one form another (not to mention the resurrection of Christ, and the Holy Spirit et al) but when it comes to 'do you believe in ghosts' that's just too much!
Wonder why so many religions have exorcism rituals?

It is BECAUSE some people believe in God that they don't believe in ghosts. And some religious people don't believe in exercisms.

[Sunnywindo]

Um... yes.


Okay, this will probably sound crazy (what else is new ) but here's my personal take on it.

I think there are "ghosts" and that there are different kinds of "ghosts". I believe there are the spirits of our dead relations and such, who are basically good and sometimes are involved in helping out the living here. Then there are evil spirits that just like to mess with people. There may be even more to it than that, but that's at least two catagories for which I have reason to believe exist.

For example....

When my mother-in-law was a baby (she's old enough to my my grandma) her father died, leaving just her mom and her siblings. They lived in this old fashioned cabin sort of house in a very rural farming/ranching area. (No phone, no electricity, etc.) One night (as an older girl) she was roused from her sleep by voices, her mother's and a man's voice and she barely had time to wonder who on earth would be visiting this time of night when her mother came in and woke everyone up saying to hurry quick, she needed help. Her mother instructed them all in barracading/securing the door and windows. They had barely finished when a rowdey group of men approached the house. They were armed (rifles) and were rather drunk. The men demanded to be let in then pounded hard on the door when there was no answer (the door would have gave if they hadn't baracaded/secured it tight). The family lay low to the floor near the center of the home not making a sound while the drunken men pounded a bit more shouting threats, shooting off their rifles and breaking a few windows. Then, for some reason, the men just gave up and left. The children asked how their mother had known to get them all to barricade the doors and such and she told them that their father had appeared to her and warned her to do so.

That falls into the first catagory of what some might call "ghosts", a deceased relative helping out the living, in this case, in a very direct and obvious way. For an example of the second catagory (evil spirits messing with people)....

When my hubby and I were newish married, we lived in this older apartment and both of us worked. I was working late one evening and came home to find every light on in the house, the TV blasting loud, and a rather shaken hubby. Apparently, he'd been watching TV and fell asleep. He was woke by the buzzing of the light on our nearby fish aquarium (he's really paticular about odd noises when he's sleeping) which he thought was strange because he didn't remember it being on before. So he reached over, turned if off, and tried to go back to sleep. A bit later, he became aware of the noise again, he rolled over and the light was back on. Confused and annoyed, thinking it was a short in the wires or something he flipped the switch on it a bit and it turned off and then he lay back down. The third time it happend he was really irritated, turned it off and bent down to unplug it only to find that nothing was plugged in to begin with. He didn't try to go back to sleep after that and I arrived home shortly after it happend. That was one of several unexplainable, creepy things that happend in that apartment... we moved as soon as our lease was up.

I have other reasons and experiences to believe in such things, but it would take up too much time to type them all and some of it's a little too personal for here.

On the other hand, I think many claims of "hauntings" are manipulated for reasons of profit or attention and never really happend or were greatly exaggarated.

But when something happens to you or to someone credible whom you know personally, well... that's hard to shake.


Sara

[SteveShaw]

Funny though, so many people can believe in 'god' in one form another (not to mention the resurrection of Christ, and the Holy Spirit et al) but when it comes to 'do you believe in ghosts' that's just too much!
Wonder why so many religions have exorcism rituals?

It is BECAUSE some people believe in God that they don't believe in ghosts. And some religious people don't believe in exercisms.

I don't believe in ghosts, and, what's more, I'm an atheist thank God.

Steve

[anniemcu]

i do... though I cannot define them... I have actually seen one.

[Walden]

I maybe believe in the existence of the Spook Light. I know people who've seen it. But mostly I don't believe in spooks.


A news photo of the Spook Light, by the Oklahoma-Missouri border.

[scarhand]

i DO believe in ghosts, that they are all around us, sometimes assisting us unbeknownst to us and sometimes we are aware of them, and sometimes just watching. mostly they are loved ones and friends. i believe their world is our world only on a different level or plane and that they have work to do so they mostly go about it, whatever it is. my gram did not believe in ghosts: she knew of their existence. ditto for banshee and tuatha de danann (sp?) you could not logic her out of it: she knew. i guess i spent enough time growing up around her that some of that rubbed off on me.


best picture yet walden!

[lilymaid]

I think there are spirits. I don't know about people running round down here after they're dead, though. I wouldn't want to.

I come from an odd family, in which the older ladies take the existence of ghosts as more or less a given. My mother recalls shortly after an uncle of hers died, she heard a noise in the kitchen at night, and later asked her mother about it. She replied matter-of-factly that it had been her dead brother.

I definitely believe in spirits. (It sort of goes with my religious beliefs, even.) I think some places seem to have a sort of spiritual presence to them, as well.

As a child, I lived in an old, old farmhouse. There was a wing of it I found terrifying. I remember when I had to pass through it, I ran through the hallway, because there was just a terribly wrong feeling about it. I never knew any of the grownups felt the same way, but I later found my parents had tried putting my crib there for awhile when I was a baby. They said they'd felt uneasy and not been able to sleep, knowing I was there. People heard strange sounds in there, too.

Another room I was frightened of was my brother's basement. I didn't know why, really, it just scared me. Later, I found the previous occupant of the house had hung himself there.

I think there are lots of weird things we don't understand. They mightn't be ghosts, but either it is something or there are more crazy people in this world than I'd rather believe there were.

[Walden]

I think there are lots of weird things we don't understand. They mightn't be ghosts, but either it is something or there are more crazy people in this world than I'd rather believe there were.

I think there are more crazy people in this world than I'd rather believe there were.