Ghosts

I grew up in a house that had a lot of paranormal stuff going on, so I'm used to it. I know it sounds strange, but I feel that I'm sensitive to this kind of thing, so my family and I have seen/heard lots of stuff over the years, both in my old house and out in other places.

The house I grew up in was built in 1964, but before that it was on farm land that had a hug fire devastate the land. Before the farm was here, it was part of a Revolutionary War-era fort, so people have been pounding around on the property for centuries. Also, by coincidence, it's situated next to a graveyard. We've had guests tell us they have seen people walk up the stairs and through walls! We had a few really strange instances here over the years. One involved us asking whatever's here to turn on lights and it would on command. We would ask it questions, and it would turn the lamp on or off. Another thing that happens is that family members will hear each other calling them by name, but the family member calling them will either be out or in some cases right next to them! One time, my dad and I heard my mother calling us from upstairs, and she heard me calling her from upstairs. We were all in the basement family room standing talking around our bar, right in front of each other!!!

Outside of my house, one the strangest things that I've witnessed happened in Hull, MA while going to visit my grandmother one winter night. Hull is a town located on a peninsula, and is hopping in the summer and very dead in the winter. My uncle lives right on the ocean there in a huge beautiful old stucco 3-story house that has had some interesting owners, including turn of the century entrepreneurs as well as people that later ran a boarding house out of it. My grandmother lived with him there, and at the time, my cousins were away at college and my uncle was away in Italy visiting friends, so my sister and I were heading over there to bring dinner to my grandmother one night and spend some time with her. We turned down their street, and my sister and I see this woman in a white flowing summer dress and giant white hat, like something you would see on a rich woman in a movie based around the turn of the century. As we got closer to her, she started to sprint. My sister and I then see her take a turn into my uncle's driveway and into the back yard, so we floor it, pull in, and get out to look for this woman. The back yard that she ran into was fenced in and there was fresh snow on the ground. There were NO footsteps in the snow and no evidence of the woman being there at all!!! Years later, we were there at a summer BBQ, and we were talking with our now-adult cousins and many of their friends. We got on the subject of ghost stories. You wouldn't believe how many of them saw that same "lady in white" wandering around the property over the years.

I have many more of these stories, but I'll quit while I'm ahead here....

Dr. Hess wrote: You guys know there's drugs to fix that stuff, right?

Is that how YOU make the voices go away? We all have out vices.

I don't have any cool ghost stories, but I've enjoyed reading all yours. One thing that strikes me as interesting, is just how numerous these kind of "sightings" are amongst a group of (relatively ) well-adjusted people. Meaning, it's hard to be a skeptic.

N Sperlo wrote: In the paranormal field, there are names for these. The first type if event is called residual because there is no intelligence behind them. These can't move things. They can be seen, smelled, and heard. Its like watching a video. You can't interact. The belief is that objects, primarily rock can absorb energy and release it. Its a scientific event.

The Claridge here in Atlantic City has one of those. During the war, it was used as a military hospital, On one of the upper floors, a nurse still makes her rounds

In reply to mad_machine:

Limestone is one if those stones that is said to hold energy. Saint Louis is built on limestone and that explains a lot of the residual stuff.

At first I would assume what you mention is residual, but that doesn't mean a spirit doesn't actually attempt to continue their job after death. Either could be the case.

In reply to N Sperlo:

You mentioned that rocks can absorb and release energy, and just now how limestone can hold it. You said it was a scientific event, which seems to me to imply that its a real thing that can be tested, but I couldn't find any scientific evidence backing up that claim, other than sites with URLs that have paranormal activity or something like that. So I dont really want to take those sources as fact, maybe if I saw it in a journal.

Do you have any scientific proof for that, or is it more of just a untestable theory?

I've always thought that residual hauntings are echoes of some energy - something that's out of phase in some way that makes it hard to detect or some such. Having been through school to a BS in chemistry, I don't have much problem believing that there are forms or particular oscillations of energy that we don't know about or look for...yet. Before the Curies, radiation would have sounded crazy. Science has by no means found everything or explained everything, although I'd lay money on the fact we have a majority of the world down pretty well.

I've always thought that perhaps residuals were some sort of bleed-through on the time line - that some specific event was energetic enough to create a burst in some different quantum state that was enough to punch through. Kind of like an over boosted radio staion being heard in static-y fashion on the nearby channels. Given some of the quantum experiments' results recently, maybe that's not so far fetched.

Paranormal research is seldom taken on by "respectable" institutions - most in-depth theoretical research is funded through the universities, which get money from industry, government, and personal donors. These donors are seldom interested in researching what a lot of the public thinks of as "dubious science", and anyone wealthy enough to fund serious research is labelled as dubious and not respectable. It's kind of a catch 22.

My $.02 anyway

Trans_Maro wrote: Paranormal stuff doesn't prove the existence of God anymore than it disproves it.

The problem is that we humans are imaginative pattern matching machines and our brains are full of obsolete software. We tend to see and hear things that aren't there. Especially when we're freaked out to begin with.

Am I wrong that there is a strong, human tendency to attribute things we can't explain to the supernatural? I know several people who really WANT there to be ghosts hanging about, and psychic powers, and magic crystals that sharpen razor blades. They are the folks who point out that many apparently supernatural things were eventually explained by science. They are also the folks who STILL believe Uri Geller could bend spoons without touching them.

Don't ever apologize for being a skeptic. That's just someone who likes a little evidence before he believes the unlikely. His opposite number is the credulous guy who will believe anything.

I have a few...

My old house in Alabama had something in there that would mess with me. It would tap me on the shoulder at dinner, it would turn my radio up or down (even with it unplugged and no batteries in it, it would still play music), rattle my closet doors, etc. Nothing really bad, it just liked to mess with me. I was at home alone one night when my mom went to the store and I heard a crash in my brother's room. I went in there to investigate and found one of his toy trains in pieces next to the wall and a mark where it hit it. Pretty crazy.

A couple of years ago my friend passed away in April. We went to the funeral and everything up in PA. Came back home to TX and the wife and I were at home and I was tooling around on teh interwebz. I hear my wife say, "Whoa!" from across the room. I turned around and asked her what was up. She said she had just seen a man in jeans and a red shirt standing in the living room. I said, "It'd be weird if Justin was burried in a red shirt." We looked at each other and I called his mom. I asked her the question and she said, "We burried him in his favorite red flannel and blue jeans. The clothes he was most comfortable in. Why?" When I told her what happened, she couldn't believe it.

Ultraclyde, The first day of chemistry graduate school, they tell you "You know all that stuff we taught you in undergraduate school? Well, it's wrong. It's a good working model, but that's just not how it is."

Nothing wrong with being a skeptic. I certainly am a skeptic in most areas. OK, all areas. But, keep an open mind. Remember McBeth, or Horatio in particular.

Here's one from me that I forgot about. Our friend, Cosmo, passed. She had a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) from an aneurism. She knew it was coming. Days before it happened, she told her husband that he had to keep all the kids and animals together if she passed, etc. There was quite a collection of both. We were living in Texas and went to her funeral in Iowa. Dropped everything and went. Anyway, one year later, exactly, from the time she finally died in the hospital (it takes a few days from a SAH usually), we were in a different house in Texas (moved for medical school) and I walked past the TV/VCR area, everything off, and the VCR starts cycling the carriage. Up/down, up/down, etc., over and over again. Pushing buttons did nothing. I unplugged it and it stopped. Plugged it in again later and it was fine. We figure Cos was saying "Hi." Hey Cos.

fritzsch wrote: In reply to N Sperlo: Do you have any scientific proof for that, or is it more of just a untestable theory?

It's something that is theoretical and scientists are working on it. I'm not asking you to take it as fact. Paranormal investigations are done of theory with scientific devices. Otherwise they wouldn't be "paranormal."

Conquest351 wrote: A couple of years ago my friend passed away in April. We went to the funeral and everything up in PA. Came back home to TX and the wife and I were at home and I was tooling around on teh interwebz. I hear my wife say, "Whoa!" from across the room. I turned around and asked her what was up. She said she had just seen a man in jeans and a red shirt standing in the living room. I said, "It'd be weird if Justin was burried in a red shirt." We looked at each other and I called his mom. I asked her the question and she said, "We burried him in his favorite red flannel and blue jeans. The clothes he was most comfortable in. Why?" When I told her what happened, she couldn't believe it.

This is one of the most common types of stories I've heard. The normal response from a medium is that the spirit will remain to say goodbye before they go wherever it is to go. Usually they come in dreams, but sometimes these stores come about.

I had a friend where felt ah hand grab her neck when she was taking a photo. Adjusting contrast in the photo shows an arm extending to her neck as if a hand was grabbing her. The cuff links matched those her father was buried in.

N Sperlo wrote: This is one of the most common types of stories I've heard. The normal response from a medium is that the spirit will remain to say goodbye before they go wherever it is to go. Usually they come in dreams...

My grandmother called all of her daughters the same night about 1 week after she passed away. All 4 of them received the same call, and called each other in the morning. I remember my mom answering the phone with "Did you get a call too?"

In reply to mtn:

I've always liked the phone ones. I hear of them, but not as often. Very cool.

I've heard of the "phone calls from the dead" phenomena. Weird.

My best friend died years ago. He was regularly in my dreams, sometimes incredibly vividly. I still figure it was just my own brain. Frankly, it would be nice if he could drop by and let me know he is at peace now.

In reply to Otto Maddox:

The dreams become vivid when someone wants to get your attention. Look into those and try to pick them apart piece by piece. You may find a hidden message.

Conquest351 wrote: ...it would turn my radio up or down (even with it unplugged and no batteries in it, it would still play music... "It'd be weird if Justin was burried in a red shirt." We looked at each other and I called his mom. I asked her the question and she said, "We burried him in his favorite red flannel and blue jeans. The clothes he was most comfortable in. Why?" When I told her what happened, she couldn't believe it.

Why didn't you get a video of the radio playing music with no batteries in it? That would have been cool.

N Sperlo wrote: ...I had a friend where felt ah hand grab her neck when she was taking a photo. Adjusting contrast in the photo shows an arm extending to her neck as if a hand was grabbing her. The cuff links matched those her father was buried in.

Can we see the picture?

Why is it that ghosts appear wearing the clothes they were buried in and not the clothes they died in? It seems like the ghost would be created when the person died not when the body was buried. Can they change their clothes if they want to? You'd think the woman in white from several posts back would change into a jogging suit if she's going to be running around the yard. Also, why are they clothed at all? The clothes are not part of the person. If they died in bed, why are they not also dragging around the bed for eternity? I'm not trying to make these questions sound like a joke, but the explanations that people give (a brief burst of energy created the ghost) don't mesh with a lot of the stories.

And yes, if you posted pictures or videos I'd claim they were photoshopped.

Keep the ghost stories coming though, I do enjoy reading them. Anyone been to the prison that Shawshank Redemption was filmed in? It's supposed to be extremely haunted and they offer tours. It's somewhere in Ohio, I think. I've wanted to go for a while just have never made it.

Bob

In reply to Schmidlap:

I would love to get a hold of that picture. Actually, it was shopped, but to adjust contrast, brightness, and add noise to bring out edges. I have had some interesting photos, but lost them when a computer crashed.

A spirit will show itself in whatever form it wants. It could streak the quad if it wants...
(The jacket he was buried in was his favorite apparently.)

I look at pictures skeptically, so some groups get pissed off, but there are some interesting ones out there.

Not a ghost story, but related. I am the thermographer in the company I work for, so any phone calls with questions on thermal imaging, infrared, or the like get sent to me. One day a gentleman called to ask about buying an infrared camera. We don’t sell them directly, but perform inspections on customer sites with a thermal imager. I told him that we could put him in contact with a couple of people who sell cameras and imagers. I then asked him about the specific application, as there are many different types and it does make a difference. There are cameras that can detect in the near infrared range, and there are imagers in the far infrared range. Some imagers are designed to see through flames, some to detect specific gas leaks. The model I use is more general purpose, and is used primarily for inspecting electrical switchgear.

He hemmed and hawed, said it was for a personal project, kind of off the wall. I told him that I was pretty off the wall at times, and to just tell me what he was going to hunt.

“Paranormal Investigations” was the answer. He wanted to check out some local hauntings, and document what he found.

As far as I know, I’ve never seen a ghost. I have seen some odd things I couldn’t explain, and a few people I believe have had odd encounters. I’m open-minded enough not to laugh, ridicule, or dismiss without specific information on that issue. I discussed the situation with him, explaining what the imagers can and can’t do, and told him that I wasn’t sure what kind of radiation we would be trying to detect, thermal properties of ectoplasm, etc. A quick Google confirmed that there is little data and a lot of garbage on the subject.

We talked a while more, as I explained some general information about using imagers, the infrared/thermal issues I had noted with the “Ghost Hunter” type shows, and the fact that I’d love to see anything he actually recorded.

I did not offer my services in operating the equipment on-site. I don’t seek out ghosts.

I passed his contact information on to the right person. That was a fun phone call in itself!

In reply to slantvaliant:

Their pretty common for the shows to have. The most impressive evidence I've seen came from a UV camera. Nothing small groups like mine could afford.