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View Poll Results: who believes in ghosts
no freakin way 37 52.11%
maybe 8 11.27%
possibly 13 18.31%
yes, there is ghosts 9 12.68%
i have proof!!! 4 5.63%
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believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 05:00 AM   #1
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believe in ghosts

what the heck!
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 07:13 AM   #2
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Re: believe in ghosts

People may think I'm cuckoo, but I do think there may be such things as "spirits" . In February 2002, I began sleeping in another bedroom of my house. On 2 different occasions, the lightweight folding screen divider in the room (next to the bed) fell on top of me while I was sleeping. Both times, it was 4:00 am in the morning when this happened. A few days after that, I was in the kitchen washing dishes; when I turned to place the "just washed" dish on another section of the kitchen counter, I couldn't move or pivot my foot because there was something there. But when I looked down, I saw nothing. Before I bought the house, the elderly man who sold it to me said that his wife had died suddenly and unexpectedly in the kitchen, and his teenage son had died (natural causes) while mowing the lawn in the backyard. Maybe their spirits are still lingering around the house? Needless to say, I don't sleep in that bedroom anymore. Thankfully, I haven't experienced any further unexplained happenings in my home.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 07:50 AM   #3
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Re: believe in ghosts


I don't think "believing in ghosts" and "sensing spirit (s)" are the same thing, but that's just me.

I quite clearly remember a month in my 20's when two extraordinary things (to me) happened. On a lazy summer afternoon, I was daydreaming all of a sudden of my dead grandmother, who I'm named after, feeling her SOOOO present and with me. Then got up to grab a book (I have thousands) and out drops the prayer card I got at her funeral liturgy. It was an anniversary (9th) of her death.......

Later that month a small character made of seashells, a figurine of a woman, fell from my shelf. It had been given to me, through my mother, by a very old nun who people said was a mystic. "Make sure you give this to Kate", she said, over and over. My mother, when she gave it to me, said the nun had nothing in her room but had insisted I have something of hers. I had not seen or communicated with that nun since second grade. For some reason, and it was joyful, I knew my nun friend had died when the figurine fell. (And no, I don't ever recall any experience like it.) And sure enough, hours later my mother called with the sad news that sister had died earlier. (I know, Mom.)

One month in my life. My hunch is it happens more than we know.

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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 08:13 AM   #4
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Re: believe in ghosts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Toejam
People may think I'm cuckoo, but I do think there may be such things as "spirits" . In February 2002, I began sleeping in another bedroom of my house. On 2 different occasions, the lightweight folding screen divider in the room (next to the bed) fell on top of me while I was sleeping. Both times, it was 4:00 am in the morning when this happened. A few days after that, I was in the kitchen washing dishes; when I turned to place the "just washed" dish on another section of the kitchen counter, I couldn't move or pivot my foot because there was something there. But when I looked down, I saw nothing. Before I bought the house, the elderly man who sold it to me said that his wife had died suddenly and unexpectedly in the kitchen, and his teenage son had died (natural causes) while mowing the lawn in the backyard. Maybe their spirits are still lingering around the house? Needless to say, I don't sleep in that bedroom anymore. Thankfully, I haven't experienced any further unexplained happenings in my home.
I am a rational person, a scientist and agnostic. I did not see any reason to believe in spirits until moving to New Orleans. Spirits do seem to exist here, at least for a brief time after death. I have strongly sensed their presence three times.

One time that I sensed the presence of spirits, that I will tell you about, was when Frank and I drove through St. Bernard parish shortly after Katrina to secure his father's fishing camp. We were some of the first to get down there after Katrina; it was essentially deserted and extremely difficult to get there due to all the destruction. As we drove past one particular place, I felt an extremely strong sense of many people in panic, fear, and confusion, feeling lost, deserted, and hysterically frightened, silently shrieking. I started to feel weepy and told Frank over and over that "Nobody could have survived here, every single person here died".

I tried to focus on silently letting them know that they had died and that they had no more need for terror, but there were so many of them and they were totally hysterical. I couldn't get through to these spirits. After we proceeded south a couple of miles further into areas of even greater devastation, the immediacy of the feelings receded but naturally I still felt deeply bereaved and saddened.

Later I pursued this online because I knew something markedly strange had happened and wanted an explanation. I discovered that these sensations and feelings had happened as we passed the exact location of St. Rita's nursing home, where many elderly people had been left behind and drowned in the storm. I did not even know that there was any nursing home anywhere in the area prior to my online research. By a month after the storm, when we returned, the cacaphony of spirits was silent. I presume they found their way.

Now maybe that was just me being freaked out - - heaven knows, I am not immune to that and the situation was already terribly stressful even without this occurring. But the fact that the one location where this happened, in the entire Parish (=county), was within a few hundred feet of the location where so many people died has caused me to question my skepticism about spirits.

I have never seen a spirit or ghost, and have never seen anything move due to one. A spirit that I sensed in one the other two cases was the former owner of my house. She seemed to be temporarily confused and had returned to familiar surroundings, after a sudden violent death. In the other case, the spirit stayed until he was sure his nephew was happy and nicely settled into his home that he left to the nephew. In both cases, the spirits were gone within about a year.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 08:31 AM   #5
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Re: believe in ghosts

Quote:
Originally Posted by Want2retire
I am a rational person, a scientist and agnostic. I did not see any reason to believe in spirits until moving to New Orleans.
Right. 1974 - 2005.

heh heh heh - maybe? Skip the famous Vampire writer though. Come to think of it - whenever camping around Mt. St. Helens - always had campfire tails of 'Bigfoot'.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 08:39 AM   #6
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Re: believe in ghosts

Quote:
Originally Posted by unclemick2
Right. 1974 - 2005.

heh heh heh - maybe? Skip the famous Vampire writer though. Come to think of it - whenever camping around Mt. St. Helens - always had campfire tails of 'Bigfoot'.
Haven't ever read any Anne Rice, though a friend knew her many years ago and isn't impressed. Sounds like you have read her books and don't like them, so maybe I didn't miss anything. Did you ever encounter Bigfoot up there?
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 09:08 AM   #7
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Re: believe in ghosts

I believe in ghosts as much as I believe:

1) that the government is looking out for what is best for me!

2) that ALL taxes will be eliminated and gov't will operate on donations only!

3) that keeping all of my money under my mattress is the BEST investment!

4) that I'll truly miss my j*b when I ER!

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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 09:58 AM   #8
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Re: believe in ghosts

Several years back there was a large convention of swamis, fakirs, mystics & the like. At one point the leader on the podium asked for a show of hands on how many believed in ghosts and there was a sea of hands. Then he asked how many had seen a ghost and only a few hands went up. Then he asked how many have had sex with a ghost
t and if the far back one hand waived vigorously So he call the fellow up to the stage through the large crowd. He appeared to be a fine Indian gentleman with an unpronounceable name and thick accent. He asked so tell me about the ghost and the fellow replies ""Oh, you are saying ghost?" Verrry Sorry, thought you said goat".
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 10:19 AM   #9
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Re: believe in ghosts

This isn't a ghost story, but rather something interesting that happened to me that has made me think twice about it. Several years ago my sister passed away suddenly. I called my husband (who was out golfing with his friend) to ask him to come home and be with me.

Several months later, I was out golfing with my husband and his same friend. At one point on the course, I commented that I had suddenly gotten a feeling of de ja vue. My husband's friend looked at me with a strange look on his face - then proceeded to tell me that we were standing at the exact spot where he and my DH had been when I called to tell him of my sister's passing.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 10:51 AM   #10
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Re: believe in ghosts

I've only heard ghost stories from my parents. As our old house, my brother used to hear voices under the floor. My parents always told him it was just 'the pipes' but they knew damn well that there were no pipes under the house.

The motion detector would go off when nobody was around.

After leaving the house to go somewhere (say the grocery store), they would come back and a door would be either unlocked and/or opened (even if they locked it).

We had a detached garage and one time my mom looked in through the window and saw the image of a man hanging over a well.

Years later, my brother's best friend's father looked up the history of the property and found that in the 1800's a man was hung on the property for gambling debts.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 11:05 AM   #11
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Re: believe in ghosts

When Uncle Sam sent our family to the Philippines, I was in the Boy Scouts. One of our trips was to the old WWII battlefield of Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. We set up our camp on Bottomside. Since our Scout Master was a Marine, we were organized into watches. I drew the short end of the stick and got the one that started at 4 am.

The sun came up and I enjoyed a nice sunrise. I noticed a woman, all dressed in white standing in the middle of Bottomside, which is a very big field. At first, I thought that she was one of the vendors who sold soft drinks near the pier but the white outfit threw me. I looked back and she was still standing there motionless. I looked away then looked back a second later and she had vanished. I looked around from her but the field was flat and there was nowhere she could have run or hid behind.

The interesting thing was that a few years later, I found a book about Corregidor. In it there is a chapter discussing the ghosts of the place. She was one of the ghosts that the author had encountered too, the author named her Mida and figured that she was one of the nurses that had been killed during the battle.

Needless to say, this makes me believe in ghosts.

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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 11:06 AM   #12
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Re: believe in ghosts

I've seen enough things I can't explain to say there might be ghosts. Until I see definite proof, I have to say I seen too many things I can't explain.

One of the more mundane. In my current house all of the windows were closed. The only door that was open was the one going to the garage, and I was entering it. As I passed the refrigerator I smelled fresh cigarette smoke, like someone had walked passed with a lit cigarette. It hadn't come from outside, I had just walked out and came back in. There was nobody outside and nobody else in my house. I couldn't and still can't explain where the smell came from, but that is not enough for me to say there was a spirit. It was just weird.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 11:11 AM   #13
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Re: believe in ghosts

If the afterlife entails floating around and annoying family members and strangers who happen to live in my house at will, I feel freaking cheated! I'd rather believe in just resting in peace, thank you very much. Close your eyes, take your last breath and that's it.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 03:36 PM   #14
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Re: believe in ghosts

I'm holding a lit flashlight under my chin....

Woooooooo!
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 04:25 PM   #15
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Re: believe in ghosts

This isn't really a ghost story as much as a very strange series of events, but it spooked the heck out of me then and I still wonder about this.....

I swear that every word of the following story is true:

My mom was always worried when I traveled alone on business and insisted that I carry a St. Christopher's medal with me (St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, for you non-Catholic readers.) Mom was also a real dog lover. And, my mom had the most beautiful hazel eyes I've ever seen -- very distinctive in their coloration.

Mom died very suddenly in April, 1993 -- massive heart failure, no advance warnings. Two weeks later, I had to travel to Dallas/Ft. Worth for a business convention -- but my heart was very heavy. On day three of the trip, several of my colleagues convinced me to attend one of the evening social events of the convention...a visit to Billy Bob's -- the worlds largest honky-tonk at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. I went, but it did little to lighten my mood until I saw a dog inside the bar. My colleague said she thought the dog was watching me and I just laughed. (By the way, I was stone cold sober ... not even one drink in me.)

A little later, I was on the other side of Billy Bob's -- which if you haven't been there, is a huge space -- and saw this same dog standing a little ways from me. I thought "how odd that they allow dogs inside the bar." With that, the dog started to wag its tail and came up to me -- now before you think "this woman's nuts," let me assure you that I have a SOBER witness to the following:

I started to pet the dog's head and noticed that she had the most beautiful hazel eyes I've ever seen on a dog. In fact, I mentioned to my colleague that this dog's eyes actually reminded me of my mom's eyes. While I was petting the dog's head I noted that she had on a collar with a tag on it -- I picked up the dog tag and saw that it was a St. Christopher's medal -- I said "how strange is this? I've never seen a religious medal on a dog's collar". Then I turned over the tag and on the reverse side was engraved: "My name is Sophie."

My mom's name was Sophie.

I burst out in tears -- which did cause folks around me to kind of move away -- but even moreso when I looked at the dog and said loud enough for every one to hear: "Mom?? You came back as a dog....in a honky-tonk??!! In Texas Mom!!"

I finally calmed down and asked my colleague to keep an eye on the dog while I went to the nearest bartender to find out if he knew anything about this dog. The bartender said it was the strangest thing; the dog just showed up about three days before and hung around every night, but wouldn't allow anyone to touch it and toward the end of the evening the dog seemed to disappear each day. I turned back to my colleague and saw the dog was gone -- my colleague said that when I went to the bar, the dog wouldn't come to anyone else and just seemed to disappear in the crowd.

I must say that this strange event gave me tremendous comfort as if it was an opportunity to see my mom one last time. But when I finally get over to the other side -- none too soon, I hope -- I definitely have some questions about this whole thing!

I swear this is a true story!

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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 06:00 PM   #16
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Re: believe in ghosts

" I burst out in tears -- which did cause folks around me to kind of move away -- but even moreso when I looked at the dog and said loud enough for every one to hear: "Mom?? You came back as a dog....in a honky-tonk??!! In Texas Mom!!"
"

What a delightful story. I think there's a movie in there.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 06:18 PM   #17
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Re: believe in ghosts

No creo en fantasmas, pero sí existe!

A joke my spanish lit professor used to tell at least once a week.

(I don't believe in ghosts, but they exist!)
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-17-2007, 08:04 PM   #18
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Re: believe in ghosts

Quote:
Originally Posted by justin
No creo en fantasmas, pero sí existe!

A joke my spanish lit professor used to tell at least once a week.

(I don't believe in ghosts, but they exist!)
My old boss used to say that she didn't believe in voodoo when she was in the States but did when she went home to visit Jamaica.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-18-2007, 01:08 AM   #19
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Re: believe in ghosts

I'm glad to see that others have had some experience with the paranormal. Enjoyed reading them all. Especially Achiever51's story - all the details about that dog (in connection with your mother) couldn't be just coincidence. That was very eerie, but also very touching.

A common thread running through all these stories seems to relate to the untimely, unexpected, sudden, or tragic deaths of people whose spirits might seem to linger for awhile at the location where they died. After the experiences I had in my home, I spoke to some of the workers at the nursing home where my father resided after his stroke. Two of the late-night kitchen/laundry workers there said they had seen the ghost of one of the deceased nursing home residents. They said they would see the "ghost" as a real person for just a fleeting moment, but that the apparation would quickly disappear. Like Want2Retire, after my experiences, I also began researching information on this subject and found several articles stating that it is not uncommon for "ghosts" or apparitions of deceased people to be found at places where deaths are common, such as nursing homes or hospitals.
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Re: believe in ghosts
Old 03-18-2007, 11:05 AM   #20
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Re: believe in ghosts

Saw a movie made from an Ann Rice book - so so B grade. Never saw a Sasquatch(Bigfoot) in all my years in the PacNW.

Knew one woman who swore by ghosts - Spanish ones in Moss Point, Ms in their house as a teenager growing up.

heh heh heh - never say never. Right? Maybe? , 8)
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