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How do we explain ghosts?

Nessie, could you please respond to my post about my dog and the collar? Too me, it is a good example of how our senses mislead us at times. In crime, eye witness description of the offender is the least reliable. Our minds fill in detail often not credible. Six people will describe the subject as blond, brunet, black. They all saw the same person.

It makes sense that other senses would react in the same manner.
 
wasapi said:
Nessie, could you please respond to my post about my dog and the collar? Too me, it is a good example of how our senses mislead us at times. In crime, eye witness description of the offender is the least reliable. Our minds fill in detail often not credible. Six people will describe the subject as blond, brunet, black. They all saw the same person.

It makes sense that other senses would react in the same manner.
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You beat me to it! I was going to comment on the unreliability of eye witness testimony as seen in the legal world.

I gave evidence as a witness to an assault many years ago and realised afterwards I was in error on some detail post trial. My recollection was influenced by discussion with others after the event, and I blended others observations with my own. Entirely without intention.
 
Thor 2 said:
You beat me to it! I was going to comment on the unreliability of eye witness testimony as seen in the legal world.

I gave evidence as a witness to an assault many years ago and realised afterwards I was in error on some detail post trial. My recollection was influenced by discussion with others after the event, and I blended others observations with my own. Entirely without intention.
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Yes! This^

The more a colorful event is re-told the farther it can drift from the facts of that event. This is ESPECIALLY TRUE with ghost stories since they make a person feel unique...and yes I'm suggesting there is a psychological component to why people cling to the idea that they saw a real ghost instead of trying to understand why and how they saw it.

We see this with conspiracy theory witnesses who change their initial account to match the popular version of the event or refuse to admit their perspective was handicapped.
 
Gilbert Syndrome said:
Don't "ghosts" repeat themselves, though? They supposedly do the same things over and over again in the locations they're said to haunt.
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Depends. Some stories say this about ghosts, other stories say different things. This is part of the problem - ghosts are not a single describable phenomenon. Every story is different.
 
Every challenge the paranormal experts will have to do something. Credibility is hard to keep in that business.

I have seen:

Lump it into a regular class, stretching the definition a bit

Create a new class of event but make no special note it's new, just SOP.

Refer to a colleague that is a demon/black magic/whatever expert that won't make you look ignorant.

And there you go, gloss over the rough edges and holes and it's perfectly defined. Then tell the viewer that as always, the best opinion is theirs.

If I as a mechanic worked on your car with those standards I would have no work.

I believe the paranormal field gives scammer and the like a perfect platform to pay rent and not really do anything for society in the process. It appears to pay well too.
 
Thanks to TV and Youtube credibility is mostly impossible for paranormal investigators. Their only benefit has been to prove the skeptic's theory that the phenomenon is all in the head. I've given up complaining about their inept investigation procedures which are camera-friendly yet 100% counter-productive toward discovering anything of value. They've brought snake-oil into the 21st century with a host of black boxes promising to capture and verify the presence of entities and allowing you to speak with the dead. Forget the fact that there is NO INDEPENDENT WAY TO TEST ANY OF THESE PRODUCTS, they make for good TV.

In the 1980's there were no Shadow People and no investigator would claim a place was haunted by a demon because - if you believe in them - that's not how they work, and they're rare. Today it's all shadow people and demons all the time. This crap is inconsistent with the methodical work done by the few University Parapsychology departments in the US and Europe (these departments never proved anything BTW, and have almost all melted away). Say what you want about the University level programs at least they kept their feet on the ground and applied the scientific method to the question.

Today it's easy to track the influence TV ghost hunting shows and Youtube has had on the things believers claim to see, so in a backhanded way they're ultimately putting themselves out of work. Maybe it's a good thing.:rolleyes:
 
alfaniner said:
I entered a room to find a rocking chair moving by itself. I even had time to get out my phone, start up the app, and video record it. It was about 30 seconds before it stopped.

Turns out, the cat sleeping it had been startled when I walked in, and its leap set the chair in motion.
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I don't have a cat, but...

I often hear sounds such as a bell ringing or someone whispering in my ear just before I wake up. Once I heard a cat meowing, which is impossible because I don't have a cat. It seemed so real though that I got up and looked around the house. Not finding anything I figured it was just another imaginary sound and went back to the bedroom - then I saw the poo. Poor thing must have wandered into the house when the back door was open and got trapped inside. The meowing was it asking to be let out!
 
It should be mentioned that in all of the world's history of ghost hunting, no ghost hunter has ever successfully hunted a ghost.
 
Cris said:
Are ghosts and spirits the same thing? or is there a difference?
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Same thing. All imaginary. Think otherwise? Then off you go and provide evidence for either. And don't do the NDE crapfest. Had one and it is utterly banal. Don't waste my time with that nuttery.
 
Cris said:
Are ghosts and spirits the same thing? or is there a difference?
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What abaddon said. But even if you grant that they exist at all, whether they are the same or different depends very much on who you ask. Because they are not real, everyone is free to make up their own definitions, and they do.
 
arthwollipot said:
It should be mentioned that in all of the world's history of ghost hunting, no ghost hunter has ever successfully hunted a ghost.
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Nope.

Never collected anything conclusive proving they exist. I saw and heard a lot of wild stuff but I was almost always able to find a normal explanation either on the spot or through later research and reading of non-woo material.
 
Cris said:
Are ghosts and spirits the same thing? or is there a difference?
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Technically a ghost is a paranormal being who was once a living human being.

A spirit can be a ghost but can also be what the Woo Dictionary calls: An Elemental being. A non-corporeal entity like a fairy or leprechaun or harpy or demon. These were never human.

Neither exist.
 
abaddon said:
Yes. We have an actual one here as a member of long standing. So what?
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I feel the need to mention, just in case someone is missing the context, that abaddon is referring to this fine fellow:

Axxman300 said:
Nope.

Never collected anything conclusive proving they exist. I saw and heard a lot of wild stuff but I was almost always able to find a normal explanation either on the spot or through later research and reading of non-woo material.
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