Go on then - who's seen a ghost ?

[661-Pete]

Human memory is a strange thing and can play tricks. Sometimes a long-forgotten memory reappears in a dream or hallucination, and you think it's something new to you. For example, you were once told or read about an 'orrible murder' in some haunted house in the past, and forgot all about it. Years later you re-visit the house and experience the long-forgotten memory in an hallucination. Then - you ask one of the locals and he thoughtfully 'refreshes' your memory about the 'orrible murder' - and here we are with a clear case of precognition!

At least, that's one rational way of looking at it.

Ghosts can be of people you have known in the past, who have since died. For instance, my father died in 1971. Sometimes I still have a dream with him in it, doing something anachronistic like browsing the internet or using a mobile phone. That's just a wrong association of memories that often happens in dreams. It doesn't mean my father has appeared in the present day 'as a ghost'...

 

[MossCommuter]

WOW! Amazing I should notice this post today...

I'm not a believer in ghosts and ghoulies but on the way home tonight on the unlit farm track stretch I slowed for an oncoming ped muttering to myself about his/her lack of hi viz and almost invisibility.

Few seconds later, ped is still as far away, so "OK", thinks I, "they're stood still" and I prepared for a confrontation with someone (don't ask me why, but I anticipated trouble).

More seconds passed and the ped must be on an unlit bike travelling my way cos I had not made any ground on them (OK, hairs on back on neck are now standing up, as I type).

Then they stopped, I was making ground on them at last but an instant later they were gone - vanished.

All of this took a few seconds and I'll admit to you an overwhelming bunch of emotions (I began to well up

). Then as I rationalised I thought about sharing my story with you but decided "nah, you deluded fool" but then I saw this thread and reconsidered.

I still don't think I saw a ghost, it was my eyes playing tricks but even now the memory is spooky and having a physical effect on me (chilling) but it just goes to show how our minds can play tricks.

 

[kyuss]

The thing that gets me about ghost sightings/stories is that the majority of them seem to be about some bloke/woman who died under suspicious circumstances in 17 hundred and something in some really old building that is now haunted by their spirit. Whoooooo! You rarely get any stories about some bloke who died in 1999 who's spirit now wanders the 2 bedroom Barratt home he once lived in, making cheese and ham toasties and a cup of tea. If that's what ghosts are meant to be then given the population rise over the past couple of hundred years and the much higher murder rate, then that scenario (and ghost sightings in general) would be much more plausible.

 

[just jim]

Good point. You don't hear of many neanderthal ghosts wandering around either. Maybe there's a time limit.

 

[jimboalee]

Been researching.

It is not possible to photograph a ghost.
Cameras and photographic film react to light at the usual visible frequencies, or photons.

Ghosts give off electromagnetic radiation that is HALF the frequency of visible light. The eye receives these frequencies and the brain attempts to interpret them.

The mind sees a 'part image' which looks translucent against the visible light being received at the same time.

This is why ghosts are more pronounced in dark surroundings where there is low ambient light to interfere.

Some people's brains are more willing to interpret the half frequency signals.

On the Motion film Ghostbusters, this effect was described by the use of a frequency detector and frequency manipulating goggles.

 

[jimboalee]

Good point. You don't hear of many neanderthal ghosts wandering around either. Maybe there's a time limit.

Neanderthals had no concept of God and religion. Their spirits dissapeared into nothingness.

Once a person has a consious awareness of God and religion, the spirit is trapped in an eternal 'heaven and hell' dichotomy.

This is whether the individual is atheist of devout worshipper, the merest acceptance of the existance or non existance of God condemns the individual to paradise in Heaven, or everlasting pain and damnation in Hell.

Ghosts and spirits are individuals who are still being tried for there deeds on Earth.

 

[661-Pete]

Ghosts give off electromagnetic radiation that is HALF the frequency of visible light. The eye receives these frequencies and the brain attempts to interpret them.

Good point.

Half the frequency of visible light takes you into the infrared. I have had my digital camera modified, so that it is more sensitive to infrared light (the light at which many astronomical objects radiate). Should I be focusing more of my attention on photographing ghosts rather than the skies, with my inherent advantage?

 

[Fnaar]

I think the definitive answers was given by The Jam, in the song "Ghosts":

Why are you frightened - can't you see that it's you
That ain't no ghost - it's a reflection of you

 

[CopperBrompton]

Half the frequency of visible light takes you into the infrared. I have had my digital camera modified, so that it is more sensitive to infrared light (the light at which many astronomical objects radiate). Should I be focusing more of my attention on photographing ghosts rather than the skies, with my inherent advantage?

Absolutely. And you'll know to get your camera ready when you detect the presence of ghosts by the sudden feeling of ghostly warmth.

 

[661-Pete]

Especially at our house in France, I reckon (right next to a church and graveyard). And I often get 'apparitions' when sitting out on a balmy summer's night, dozing off, waiting for the telescope to do its thing. I've heard strange rustlings and scrabblings in the undergrowth. I've had a sepulchral white figure run silently past me, appearing out of nowhere. Further examination revealed it to be the neighbour's dog, but you see what I mean!

Oh, and when we first bought the house we had some of the interior plasterwork stripped off, revealing the stonework beneath which had not seen the light of day for perhaps a century or more. Also revealed were three figure '6's painted on the stones. I wonder if they have any significance?

 

[CopperBrompton]

I have spirits in my kitchen. I've never tried photographing them, but I reckon the Lagavulin would come out ok.

 

[numbnuts]

Not so much of a ghost story, but a while back a friend died (old age) and a few days after that I was on a country lane with hedges both sides riding down a steep hill with a left hand bend at the bottom, now I usually get round this at 24 mph, as I approached I heard a voice in my head ........yeah OK...... Richi slow down, I did and just as I turned into the bend a deer ran straight across the road in front of me, my friend or my guardian angel ??

 

[Bird Brain]

No one has, because there aren't any!

Plus one billion.

It's all in the mind and wrist action.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Richi slow down, I did and just as I turned into the bend a deer ran straight across the road in front of me, my friend or my guardian angel ??

Just a friendly talking deer.

 

[jimboalee]

Just a friendly talking deer.

Doh! A deer... A f.........