Forums » Smalltalk » Ghosts: Real or Fake?

I was wondering the other day if anyone on RPR believed that ghosts are real, besides myself. Honestly, I believe they are real and I have however in countered a ghost before. I have watched many different ghost hunting and obervsations on TV, Animal Planet, The Haunting being the main one I watched. I would love to see what the rest of the friendly commuity of RPR have to say on this topic.

I'd like to say ghosts are real as well even though I have never encountered one. I do watch some ghost hunter shows but I stopped watching them after a while because I couldn't sleep for a fedw nights after watching a few episodes .

An interesting topic! I believe ghosts are real, I have felt the presence several times of spirit. I am not entirely sure that I buy into the whole ghost-detective type thing though. I fully expect that the reality shows are sensationalized garbage. (To each there own though, I do not mean to offend people who do watch them, just my personal opinion.) That being said, who knows what wonders the world can being us? If I saw some of that happening, perhaps I would change my tune.

I believe in them, I won't go into why as that'ss my own personal things but it is enough to see that I believe in them.

I am a skeptic and a believer. I think that 85% of all the things that happen to us that we perceive as ghosts and hauntings are actually scientifically explainable. Hallucinations and natural occurrences are common, and when frightened we perceive the things that happen around us different as well. If we want to believe ghosts are real we will somehow convince our minds to see things that aren't there.

Ghost hunter shows are entertainment and not real in most cases. They need things to happen or they have no show and the network loses money, so I bring a bag of salt every time I watch one of those.

That said, I've had some pretty intense experiences myself that I can't explain no matter how hard I try. I do believe that there's something going on, although I can't say for sure it's ghosts. It could be something else entirely. I'm open minded, but I am a skeptic first before a believer.

I'm a pretty solid believer in ghosts, but similar to what Sanne said, I'm of the opinion that some occurrences are really exaggerated into more than they actually are. But, I've had my own occurrences, such as waking up and finding a grown man standing over my bed, then watching him fade into nothingness, that I really can't put aside as a simple hallucination. It's a subject that fascinates me to no end, while the shows I can more or less do without.

Not particulary myself, and I believe the reality showes are all faked, then again I hate reality shows in general, but if they are real cool. If proven will be pleasently suprised.

Stimulate the part of the brain responsible for sense of self to cause feelings of dissociation and perception of an other. For improved results, supply low-frequency vibrations for fear response. Ghosts: reproducible.

Also, most photographic evidence is insects flying past the lense at very close distances.

Meanwhile, there's an actual body of water that vomits red balls of fire in to the sky for no discernable reason. Reality: consistently more creative than humans.

This statement applies to me as we'll.

Wow. It is good to hear everyone's opioins on this subject matter. As Sanne said, I believe in them but there are many possiblities that they are just my eyes playing tricks on me. I believe there is life after death, but that some don't get the chance to live it and are forced to stay here as ghosts and try to let others know of their stories. I know that some ghosts shows are nothing more but jokes to keep the money for the show. Ghost Advetures being one of them, I believe. But, to say in the least that some shows could be based on true stories but only fixed up to make scarier and more intresting. I know some people might disagree with me on this, but I am fine with that. Everyone has a right to be heard and there should not be something holding them back.

I went to roman catholic private school from pre-k to 8th grade. I've grown up with the idea of ghosts and sundry, so I've always had the notion that they were 'real' to an extent. That being said, I've always been an incredibly skeptic person. I'm a military brat, it's in our job description to be skeptical of just about everything lol. I actually kind of turned into one of those, 'ghosts don't exist' people for a while. That was up until I spent the night in one of the original St. Paul mansions that was renovated (nearly stripped down to the foundations and rebuilt using the original floor plans, and some salvaged materials, etc.) and opened up as a bed and breakfast. Let's just say, I am now a firm believe that for whatever reason, some people do not move on. lol

I'll just go with this:
To me, ghosts and other supernatural stuff are just real as god. Not at all, but still hoping they exist.

If you asked me if I believed in ghosts, I'd probably say no, just because ghost (to me) has a much more "human" connotation to it and I follow the Biblical belief of each person having only one life on earth thus, when they die, they can't come back to haunt anyone.

However, that doesn't mean I don't believe spiritual creatures don't exist. As it says in the Bible, there are Angels and Demons, and having had a couple of curious encounters in my past, I believe that if there are good forces (like angels) then there are equally bad forces (like demons). I try not to dwell on these topics however, since ultimately they have only as much influence over us as we let them.

I'm going to be honest here, and say that I'm absolutely no believer. I'm actually surprised to see that so many people who replied are, though. That has to mean something!

The main reason why I don't believe in ghosts has been said before. Most cases can be scientifically explained. The small number which can't be explained doesn't really convince me. I'm the type of person who has to experience these things for myself before I can truly believe them, and I haven't so far. This is also the main reason why I can't see myself turning to any kind of religion. I haven't experienced any sort of connection to anything that isn't from this world.

This doesn't mean that the possibility of ghosts existing is completely false. It's possible they're out there, but until that gets proven, I'm going to stay skeptic on the matter.


I'm glad this topic got posted, it's been a while since I gave my opinion on something via a board.

I generally find that practically all supernatural claims (ghosts or otherwise) are either bogus (especially television that can show us no conclusive studies or evidence) or have perfectly reasonable explanations - be they physical, mental, chemical, etc. We're wildly imaginative creatures subject to all kinds of hallucination and reinterpretation. This is our nature. It's also our nature to tell stories and construct unreal things to try and explain what we don't know - plus, it's just fun!

However, I am open to the idea. I'm even fascinated by the possibility. There's a certain level of consistency when it comes to some oddities throughout human culture. What makes for a 'ghost' shows a lot of reoccurring traits and we maintain these fascinations today. The skeptical side of me says perhaps because they appeal so much to our inner sense of philosophy; we love vampires, zombies, ghosts, and likewise religion because of a fascination with death - the biggest mystery of all! Then again, there's a part of me that wants there to be more than just metaphor and wonders if we're not recognizing a piece of a puzzle.

While I'd love for there to be such a thing as a 'ghost', that kind of verifiable discovery could answer a lot of questions, you have to define what the hell one is first. Who says they're spiritual when ghosts hunters run around using equipment intended to read very specific and scientific patterns like energy disruption, heat being sucked out of a room, etc? Is this what you'd expect from a spiritual essence from a religious point of view?

Is a ghost an actual 'spirit' left behind? What's a spirit or soul? How do you define that? How can you prove that there even is such a thing, much less its specific traits and how it interacts with the real world? Is a ghost just an imprint someone left behind, perhaps some sort of energy caught between planes of existence? How about no more than a faded memory that, for whatever unknown factors, certain people have been able to glimpse into? It could be any or none of these things.

Assuming that there really is such a thing and people aren't just full of it / were in an altered state of mind when they "saw" a ghost / just being the storytellers they are, we honestly know nothing about "ghosts". Which makes it very hard to search for them - much less show that they really do exist.

We have a lot of crap to sift through without honest evidence or the ability to repeat an experience - sure is fascinating how often haunted locations cease to be haunted the instant they become publicized. The bulk of claims are of the 'personal experience' variety and that doesn't do much for the rest of us. Sure, there have been some weird things in my experience that I can't entirely explain, but that doesn't mean it had to be anything supernatural.

Really, we lack any kind of verified data at all - just a lot of very questionable recordings. If anything serious really ever was caught in a way that it could be researched further, there would be a ghost hunter out there with a serious science prize. I'll wait patiently for that time.

In the mean time, ghosts are about as reasonable to believe in as the invisible blue platypus behind my refrigerator.

Joining the "without details" crowd, I will say that while I was a non-believer, I have had experiences where I have harmed, been harmed, and protected others from harm, for denizens of the spiritual world.

Non-believer 1000%.

I am a non-believer, and this is funny because I actually have lived in a house once where I slept in what was basically the basement, although it is a special kind of house that is common in certain parts of Belgium. In this place I did often get eerie feelings for no reason, heard things in the night that seemed to be in my room, or getting that feeling of a presence being near me.

I have however once read an article about how ghosts work, scientific reasonings behind why someone would get the haunted feeling, and thinking back on that place it was just perfect to simulate those factors. Thus with that in the back of my mind I've faded mostly into a non-believer.

Although just as I am not a complete atheist, I do like the idea of there being amazing things in this world we haven't fully discovered yet. There's also lessons and creative ideas to be found in those myths and stories.

So in the end while I may not believe in ghosts, I sure can see what the appeal is, and as a great fan of fantasy fiction it will always continue to interest me.

A lot of electrical outlets that generate a certain amount of electromagnetic fields (or some similar technical mumbo jumbo) can cause these feelings. There's also a difference in pressure, sometimes subtle drafts and similar conditions that put you on edge because they trigger natural survival instincts. Feelings of 'being watched' or 'someone's here with me' are mostly just from the environment and increased mental stimuli rather than anything dead and haunting. Is that consistent with what you read up on?

I believe they are fake. I'm open to the possibility, but I'm a pretty big doubter.