does anyone out there believe that there are actually ghosts or spirits that haunt, or are present and actually communicate with the living?

for example, legends of houses that are haunted by the dead, or how about that guy who is on tv, i forgot his name, who claims that he talks with people's dead relatives....real or not?

and, yea, i have plenty of questions if you answer yes.

Why do you wonder?

i'm asking the questions. lol

i'll state why when i get an answer.

Yes I believe in spirits or ghosts or whatever you want to call them. I don't admit that to very many people because I don't want people to think I am crazy (although I have been called that a couple of times LOL). I am staying with my mother in an old farmhouse and we have one. My mom has seen her. I have felt her presense and heard her. She suppossedly hung herself from the stairway of this old home.

I went to a Move-on rally and met a man who says he talks to the dead. He was very impressive. He said to acknowledge them. They are trying to get you to hear them because there is something they want. He said they only reveal themselves to those who are more open and believe in them and that they are not there to harm anyone. They may have something they were unable to complete when they were of this world and are seeking somone to help them.

ok....let's assume that there are, in fact, spirits or people who can communicate with the dead.

what i'd like to know is why none of these spitits when talking with the living, has mentioned the presence of god? never once have i heard them talk about god or anything remotely close to that. but, they do, however, talk about some ring they had missing, or ask about some relative.

i would have thought that at least one of them by now, would have come back and said : "OH MYGOD>>>HE"S REAL!!" but none do. not even a mention of any pearly gates.

and, i'd like to know why they have clothes on when someone reportedly has seen one. did the clothes have a soul too? if that be the case, i sure wanna be wearing my best before i die. i mean, god forbid if i was wearing my painting clothes!! sheesh...eternity with jeans with holes and paint all over and a t-shirt that's fit to be thrown out.

anyways...i got side tracked....why never a mention of a 'god"??? not one has come back and said "be a catholic" or "be a jew" or "be a muslim"....

Couldn't resist with the question mga. lol Ok, maybe though none of these ghosts speak of God because none have made it to heaven OR hell yet. Maybe they are stuck in transition or something like that.

That is as good an explanation as any Nina.

For most of my life I didn't believe in ghost however, my mother died back in 1990. We sold her home to a large corporation who wished to use it for their guest house. After numerous and separate reports, from many corporate executives, of a grey haired lady coming into the bedroom in the middle of the night to stand at then end of the bed...well, I have become a "skeptical believer" in the spirit world.

ha...perhaps a good excuse, but even while in this "transitional" period, there has to be some sign...if any.

as for me, first, i don't believe in spirits or ghosts any more, nor do i believe in those who claim they speak to them.

for the billions of people who have died on this earth, what would determine that just a handful would come back??

I think more than a handful come back. I just think they are very particular who they reveal themselves to. I try NOT to believe. I don't WANT to. I don't WANT to see the one my mother has seen. I don't WANT to hear her either. It is freakin' scary. This guy that I met at the move-on thing told me to ask her what she wanted and be open with her. UH-UH No Way! I am afraid she would answer me! If she starts talking to me, I am committing myself to the mental ward.

I am not a person who goes around talking to ghosts. I am NOT looking for them and I am NOT talking to them. If our paths cross, that is all it is - a path crossing while the hair on my arms stand up.

OOOOOO.....This would make a good thread for October!

I can only tell you what I've experienced...I'm not saying I believe or not...but I do know that some houses and some pieces of property just make me feel creepy with goosebumps rising on my arms, and the hairs on the back of my neck start to stand up.

When I was in college back in the early 70s, I would drive every day past a house that sat up on a high hill among a stand of old oaks and hickorys. The house was visible for quite a few miles along my route to school. It was an old house, two story, darkly stained, and there was never any life about the place. Someone kept the yard mowed and the bushes trimmed but that was about it. No car, no lights, no window curtains....no life. As time went on, I began to notice that a feeling of sadness and foreboding would come over me when that house came into view. The feeling would quickly escalate into deep, dark, brooding depression. I had no reason to be depressed. I would be happy and carefree, then I would see that house in the distance, and a black cloud descended.

For the few miles that I could see that old house, looming up there, I actually felt as though I had no reason to continue to school, no reason to feel hope for a future in education, no reason to smile, to laugh, or to look forward to anything....until I got out of sight of that house. Then, it was as though the sun came back out. The sad, depressed feeling lifted, and I drove on to school, feeling a bit dazed and really spooked! What was going on? Why did the sight of that old house have that effect on me?

I asked a few questions of the librarian, and she said the house had belonged to a widow who had hanged herself there back in the early 60s. The librarian went on to tell me that the woman had suffered from serious bouts of deep depression after her husband had left her for a younger woman. The house now belonged to her son, who kept the place neat, but refused to live in the house or to sell it. I asked my history professer, who lived in the same general area, if he ever noticed the house and if he felt peculiar when he was within sight of it. He told me quite solemnly that he did all he could not to look at it, because he felt a deep sadness whenever he did.

Well, I soon found an alternate route to school that did not bring me into contact with that house. Many years later, I heard that it had burned down. Arson was suspected.

Whether or not that house was haunted, I cannot say. I cannot determine that the feelings of deep depression that I experienced as long as I was within sight of the house had anything to do with the poor woman who had hanged herself. It's just weird as shit and I've never forgotten the creepy, awful, sick feeling of hopelessness that used to assail me as long as that house was within my range of vision.

Shudder, shudder...I hadn't thought of that experience in years!

Catherine

I didnt belive in ghost either for a long time. Well I can tell you that I HAVE been touched by one and I have seen more than one. I do have one who lives with me. Yeah thats right WITH me. Im not going to force the issue. She respects me and I respect here. Call me crazy I dont care, I know shes here, I know when shes near me, my daughter has seen her, I have smelled her, its pretty crazy sometimes but you reach a state where you're not scared anymore. So yes, I do believe NOW!

Ok, now this is funny. I'm NOT trying to start a fight here. I really hope that you believe me. I just think that this is funny.

We have one atheist who staying true to his calling does not believe in trapped spirits/ghosts.

We have two more who do not beleive in a higher power, but do believe in trapped spirits/ghosts.

We have (I'm assuming 3, I'm sure about sadie, not sure about nina and republicae) who are believers in a higher power, and in trapped spirits/ghosts

And we have one (myself) believer in a higher power that does not believe in trapped spirits/ghosts.

Just thought it funny. Lol, please dont yell at me.

Peace out

Maybe one does not have anything to do with the other.

It all about personal experiences. I know someone who is an atheist who did not believe in trapped spirits/ghosts until he worked in a building as a night watchman. He was warned the place was haunted. He just laughed. A couple experiences changed his mind overnight. He doesn't work there anymore, but he now believes in ghosts and he is still an atheist.

so, CE, what conclusion have you come to? lol

i think ghosts and spirits are only what the person believes them to be..in their mind. i would find it hard to think there were spirits when i don't even believe in a "god" floating around somewhere.

now, if anyone can tell me where i can go to actually see a real ghost, i'd be more than happy to take a look.

however, here's an interesting twist: when i was younger....about 20 years old, a friend's mother taught my girlfriend about calling up spirits and how to actually raise a card table. you would sit 3 people at a card table with just your finger tips on it..lightly...leaving the north end open...supposedly this is where spirits enter from...and chant softly "rise, table rise"....really.....and the table would rise from the north side.

now, i witnessed this numerous times, so i had to join in to see what it was all about. and every time i did, that damn table would rise. you could ask simple questions with a yes/ no answer and the table would lift or drop accordingly.

ok...trying to figure out how this worked....group hypnosis? no, because non-participants also saw it rise. did this work like a ouija board? maybe....

we did this table thing for many months because it was kinda interesting...but there had to be a logical explanation, at the time i just didn't understand what it was. but, people began to get scared of the table lifting, and interest dropped off.

ok...first, this only worked with a light folding card table, second, one side was left "open", so that when three people were "chanting" they would eventually be pressing down hard enough to force the table to rise, even when you thought you were pressing lightly, you were not. and as for the table answering questions....it all depended on what answer you wanted.

it was entertaining at the time, but as i look back on it now....what a bunch of dummies we were LOL