Well put.
It is total boy cried wolf territory. Just look at the thread. We have gone from rational explanations being suggested to "Not this baloney again." And there is a reason why you alluded to that. Eventually, folks simply get fed up with same claim, same answer. Repeatedly.
This breathless credule attitude from OP wears thin every time, because the answer is the same every time. Who wants to waste their time asking for evidence of each and every case vomited forth? Simply ask have you any evidence at all for any of this anywhere?
Which will be immediately followed by other, different claims from other different places.
Poe? Troll? Whichever. Not worth any actual effort at this point.
Well we're all replying, page after page. I for one don't mind it. There was once a time when believers roamed here majestically, like wild elk in Scotland, long before Irn Bru wiped them all out.
The history of ghosts is intriguing, IMO. Humanity's love affair with the supernatural is eye-opening, even down to the very credible scientists who dabbled in it.
For instance, Newton was rather taken by the occult, an alchemist and a very religious man.
The zoologist and biologist, Carl Linnaeus, was particularly intrigued by the idea of mermaids.
Alfred Russell Wallace, good friend of Darwin, was a very keen spiritualist.
The list goes on...
Conan Doyle being a famous enthusiast of all things that go bump in the night, or more particularly, all things that go "sparkle" in the garden.
I find the subject of ghosts infinitely more interesting than the subject of Bigfoot, though I do enjoy a good chin-wag about the big hairy dunce from time to time. Ghosts are an ancient interest among us hoomans, Bigfoot, as we know it, is relatively recent.
I love the Victorian age, reading about what made them tick, learning more about how they functioned as a society and whatnot. They were very interested in the supernatural, be they believers or not. You don't have to believe in ghosts to be interested in them.
The problem these days is that the supernatural has gone from the campfires and the parlours of old houses to the dirge of the television and the internet, fodder like "Ghost Hunters" and other such vehicles for fast-food style scares devoid of any intelligence, quite literally a bunch of wet noodles running around in the dark, yelling.
Most people have lost touch with the age-old idea of sitting down and weaving a ghostly tale to a room full of wide-eyed listeners, and I, for one, find that sad.
Nothing was more entertaining to me as a kid than listening to my dad and uncles telling us scary stories in the dark, it's exactly the reason I was such a fan of Horror, and still am.
Nothing beats a good Horror film, or a novel, for me.
Like the beginning of
John Carpenter's the Fog, on the dark beach, beside the roaring campfire, an old man telling a tale about a ghost ship full of dead souls looking to exact revenge... Ghosts are a thrill, when given the chance. Very much worth the effort, IMO.
