How do we explain ghosts?

[Axxman300]

Thank you very much, I will look at these. Its reassuring to see that you are someone who has done their homework, being a ghost hunter and seeing it all as BS. It's true if ghosts were real they would be everywhere, why the mystery around them, surely they would be everywhere and not at the end of your bed at night.

I don't think of it as BS. I think of it as a transient mental issue of perception caused by a number of background factors. Sure, we can all have a laugh or two here, but what about when the school bus driver gets a bunch of kids killed because he thought he saw someone run out into the street in front of him? The reason I keep working is that someday someone who knows what they're doing can pick up where I leave off to develop a solid theory.

Here's an enlightening experiment.

Park near the entrance of your local supermarket or large store (Target/Walmart) and point a camera at the front door for five minutes. Take mental notes of all the people coming and going. Pick a couple who stand out. When you get home write down descriptions of everyone you saw and then watch your recording to see how solid your memory actually is. In my case there is almost always someone I didn't see and someone I forgot. The people I do remember are often remembered differently than the appear in the recording.

This is a basic perception experiment. It just shows that you're human.

 

[abaddon]

Another ghost story.

But that is all you have. Stories.

 

[xterra]

Because psychics claim to be able to talk to the dead and have mentioned that there is a god

If psychics claim to be able to talk to the dead and have mentioned the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Yuipkghg the Ultimate Creator of the Universe, do you believe they exist?



What about Indian (from India) mystics who talk to the dead, and mention Shiva or Kali? Do you believe in the existence of Shiva or Kali?




I can talk to the dead, by the way. I occasionally talk to my mother who has been dead since 1987. She hasn't answered me.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Because psychics claim to be able to talk to the dead and have mentioned that there is a god

The important word is highlighted. Claiming anything is easy.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

I just think it's spooky how two police officers saw the same person, that cannot be trickery of the mind therefore

You don't know that they did, all you know is that someone is saying they did, that is not enough to draw any conclusion from.

Nessie could be lying, telling a tall tale not meant to be taken seriously, embellishing or mistaken (no offence to Nessie who I personally would consider an honest poster, but on th' interwebs you should never discount these possibilities)
The person that told Nessie could have been lying, telling a tall tale not meant to be taken seriously, embellishing or mistaken

You don't know how many people were between the original incident, if there was one, and the person who told Nessie, any one of them could have made up or embellished the story.

Even right at the beginning you don't know what the officers themselves did or didn't claim to see in their own words and how much they said independently, whether they talked about it first, if the person who spoke to them and got the story guided or encouraged them.

Stories grow in the telling, it's a natural process and the world is full of impossible stories that happened to a friend of a friend.

 

[arthwollipot]

Another ghost story.

A minister of the Church of Scotland (and at one time Moderator of the General Assembly, so head of the church) arrives late at night at a country house hotel, the day before the start of a conference. Staff offer him a snack and he is taken to the old library, an impressive room with floor to ceiling bookcases and an open fire.

He finds a book to read and settles at the fire. He then sees a lady, who he thinks is bringing him his snack, but instead she is pointing at a book that is out of her reach. He gets it for her, turns but she is not there. She is now at the fireplace, pointing into the fire.

The minister has the overwhelming urge to throw the book into the fire and he does so. The lady vanishes and a member of hotel staff walks in with his snack. The minister is horrified that he has just thrown a book into the fire and he does not know what to say, until the hotel staff member simply asks, "was it her?".

Is there any reason to believe that this isn't a complete fabrication?

 

[wasapi]

So, I'm curious. Are you supposed to visually see a ghost, or are some invisible? Who and why would one decide to be seen, or heard, or to just be there and hang out? Can anyone see/hear them, or do only certain receptive people, or people with a certain power, have the ability?

 

[Matthew Ellard]

Another ghost story.

A minister of the Church of Scotland (and at one time Moderator of the General Assembly, so head of the church) arrives late at night at a country house hotel, the day before the start of a conference. Staff offer him a snack and he is taken to the old library, an impressive room with floor to ceiling bookcases and an open fire.

He finds a book to read and settles at the fire. He then sees a lady, who he thinks is bringing him his snack, but instead she is pointing at a book that is out of her reach. He gets it for her, turns but she is not there. She is now at the fireplace, pointing into the fire.

The minister has the overwhelming urge to throw the book into the fire and he does so. The lady vanishes and a member of hotel staff walks in with his snack. The minister is horrified that he has just thrown a book into the fire and he does not know what to say, until the hotel staff member simply asks, "was it her?".

Plot Hole
If the minister throws the "cursed book" into the fire and thus it is destroyed then how in hell did the maid see this happen before? The previous person would have also destroyed the same book.

 

[8enotto]

His position as head of the church may be being used to bolster his credibility. But a lady just popping into his room and choosing a book didn't raise an eyebrow?

Then he felt obligated to destroy that book at her suggestion. Not a cursed book per se but one the book hating girl chose.
Odd story, leaves a lot for the reader to fill in the blanks.

 

[arthwollipot]

His position as head of the church may be being used to bolster his credibility. But a lady just popping into his room and choosing a book didn't raise an eyebrow?

Then he felt obligated to destroy that book at her suggestion. Not a cursed book per se but one the book hating girl chose.
Odd story, leaves a lot for the reader to fill in the blanks.

Yeah, there are a lot of reasons to believe that this particular story is fiction. The clergyman is not named, nor is the time period established, so it is impossible to research. The location is not named. He experiences an "overwhelming urge" which is extremely convenient for the story, but is otherwise unexplained.

Lot of red flags.

 

[kellyb]

Plot Hole
If the minister throws the "cursed book" into the fire and thus it is destroyed then how in hell did the maid see this happen before? The previous person would have also destroyed the same book.

No, the previous person could have destroyed a different book.

The ghost might hate all books in general and want to see them all burned, for all we know. Or maybe she just hates certain genres, and is trying to purge the library of romance novels, or hoity-toity literary fiction. Or maybe it's just a certain author she hates, and she was working on getting rid of everything written by Jack London.

 

[arthwollipot]

Plot Hole
If the minister throws the "cursed book" into the fire and thus it is destroyed then how in hell did the maid see this happen before? The previous person would have also destroyed the same book.

As an aspiring writer of fiction I can see several ways to close that loophole. Perhaps the woman was killed by the book's curse, and after death is bound to prevent that happening to anyone else. By consigning the book to the fire, the clergyman has allowed her purpose to be fulfilled and she can now move on to her designated afterlife.

 

[kellyb]

As an aspiring writer of fiction I can see several ways to close that loophole. Perhaps the woman was killed by the book's curse, and after death is bound to prevent that happening to anyone else. By consigning the book to the fire, the clergyman has allowed her purpose to be fulfilled and she can now move on to her designated afterlife.

I see it as implicit in the story that the ghost lady has gotten at least one other person to throw a book (and it would have had to have been a different book) in the fire before.

 

[Matthew Ellard]

Plot Hole in Ghost Story

No, the previous person could have destroyed a different book.

For entertainment purposes only
1) Why would a ghost be pointing at random books?
2) If random books were being burnt why would the maid say "It was her"

The ghost might hate all books in general and want to see them all burned, for all we know.

Then why only point at one book and not make a grand sweeping gesture at an entire shelf?

 

[Matthew Ellard]

As an aspiring writer of fiction I can see several ways to close that loophole. Perhaps the woman was killed by the book's curse, and after death is bound to prevent that happening to anyone else. By consigning the book to the fire, the clergyman has allowed her purpose to be fulfilled and she can now move on to her designated afterlife.

for entertainment purposes only
What KellyB said.......the maid had to have seen someone, before the minister did it, burn the same book, to know it was the ghost woman.

 

[Matthew Ellard]

Plot Hole in Ghost Story

Yeah, there are a lot of reasons to believe that this particular story is fiction.

The ghost woman was unable to pick up the book herself as she was a mere non-physical apparition......yet she still had physical rods & cones in the back of her eyes to be able to receive photons and read book spines.

I could drive a truck through the plot holes in this ghost story.

 

[arthwollipot]

for entertainment purposes only
What KellyB said.......the maid had to have seen someone, before the minister did it, burn the same book, to know it was the ghost woman.

Not necessarily. The clergyman might have been the first person to actually burn the book. Other people might have seen the ghost and not had the "overwhelming urge" to throw the book into the fire. They may have got frightened, dropped the book (which was later replaced by a helpful librarian) and fled the room. They may have felt the "overwhelming urge" but been able to resist it. All of them could later have told other people about their experiences, which is how the hotel staff member - presumably one of many who know the story - heard about it.

 

[kellyb]

For entertainment purposes only
1) Why would a ghost be pointing at random books?
2) If random books were being burnt why would the maid say "It was her"

Then why only point at one book and not make a grand sweeping gesture at an entire shelf?

1) Maybe it was random, or maybe she was moving on to the next priority book on her literary hit list?

2) Because there's some female ghost who regularly gets guests to throw a book in the fire there, and the maid was wondering if said ghost made an appearance while she, the maid, was making the snack.

3) Maybe she tried that before, and the grand sweeping gesture just results in confusion for the guests. They never actually pick up a book. They just stand there going "Yep! It really is a great library! Lotta books in here!" and maybe she doesn't have enough apparition-time to go into a full game of charades to pantomime the directive to burn all the books?

 

[Matthew Ellard]

Plot Hole in Ghost Story

Not necessarily. The clergyman might have been the first person to actually burn the book. Other people might have seen the ghost and not had the "overwhelming urge" to throw the book into the fire. They may have got frightened, dropped the book (which was later replaced by a helpful librarian) and fled the room. They may have felt the "overwhelming urge" but been able to resist it. All of them could later have told other people about their experiences, which is how the hotel staff member - presumably one of many who know the story - heard about it.

For entertainment purposes only
Hang on....why do we need the book at all. Couldn't previous ghost victims simply complain to reception......."By the way there is a female ghost upstairs in the library who is annoyingly pointing at books all night. I want a discount on my room bill"

 

[kellyb]

Not necessarily. The clergyman might have been the first person to actually burn the book. Other people might have seen the ghost and not had the "overwhelming urge" to throw the book into the fire. They may have got frightened, dropped the book (which was later replaced by a helpful librarian) and fled the room. They may have felt the "overwhelming urge" but been able to resist it. All of them could later have told other people about their experiences, which is how the hotel staff member - presumably one of many who know the story - heard about it.

That's possible, too.

I'm more partial to the theory, though, that the ghost was ruthlessly bullied as a child by Rudyard Kipling, and having recently read Marie Condo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing", realizes that all those Kipling books in her space most certainly do not "spark joy" and absolutely must go, so she attempts to enlist the assistance of anyone who comes in the library in their destruction.