Investigation of ghosts

Discussion in 'Pseudoscience Archive' started by Rogue, Oct 15, 1999.

  1. Rogue Registered Member

    Messages:
    22
    For a couple of years now, my grandmother has made claims of poltergeists and other apparitions in her house.

    At first, she would talk about things like rushes of air moving past her, pictures falling off walls, and plants being knocked off tables. As time went on, there was a story about a lady dressed in early 20th century clothes, looking at pictures on her wall. The lady was looking at the pictures, and when my grandmother approached her, she disappeared though the curtains. Not long after that my grandmother awoke one night and a little girl with flowers in her hair was at the foot of the bed, looking at her. These were typical of most reports of apparitions, semi-transparent figures who seemed to float and vanish into thin air. At the time I totally believed her, while the rest of the family just kind of laughed.

    About a year ago, she told me that "the ghosts were back." She really hesitated to even tell me what she had seen, she was truly afraid. She talked about waking up and seeing the curtains sort of "blowing", like the window was open, and apparitions floating in through them. She said they really weren't blowing though, just more like an illusion of it. Her story got really creepy when she talked about this huge shadow, cast from a dim nightlight below a table that she leaves on overnight. She said the shadow was "evil", and would bulge and move around the ceiling. It would "eat" these other apparitions, and they would try to escape it.

    This is when I began to question the validity of the experiences, and began to investigate more deeply. My mom had told me that she takes a lot of medication each day, and was probably hallucinating. I checked the list of medications, read the labels, backs of the boxes, checking for drug interaction precautions. There was some indication that mixing the drugs could cause hallucinations. But what really got me about the whole thing was how much it sounded like an acid trip, or hallucinations of schitzophrenics, both caused by effects on one's dopamine receptors. I beefed up a little on the subject, and currently my theory is that she is, in fact, hallucinating due to drug interaction.

    Where this doesn't make sense is her earlier reports of things falling off walls and feeling things move past her. She didn't hallucinate having to clean up a plant that fell off the table.

    I'd love to hear some thoughts.
     
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  3. truestory Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,122
    My thoughts are that it sounds like the incidents might have had two different causes.

    For example: I do not take any medication, have no history of mental illness, have 20/20 vision, normal hearing and what is considered to be an above average intelligence and I have experienced some phenomena similar to, but not exactly like, those your grandmother experienced in her earlier years. I also know a number of other people, mostly women, who have had similar experiences throughout their lifetime.
     
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  5. H-kon Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    312
    I can tell you about something that happened to me last night.

    Well. Before i went to bed, i watered my plant which is on the other side of the room. So i went to bed, and woke up this morning, there was dirt everywhere on the carpet, on the table and the whole place loooked like a mess.

    There had been no persons on my room during the night, my plant is on the other side of the room of my Window, and the windows was closed.

    Now.. I have no idea what happened..
     
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  7. faerieshaman killer of terrorists Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    241
    H-Kon reminds of a time where we awoke in our new apartment last year and found the furniture upside down neatly placed,a 50lb bag of dogfood moved from the kitchen to the front door,and 2 baskets of tupperware moved from the kitchen to the front door. The door was still locked,we'd had nothing alcolholic to drink lol, and our chow also slept right through it without waking us up. Some things are better left unknown i suppose.

    ------------------
    Eric Cooper
     
  8. Dave Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    292
    Eric,
    Your lifes experiences are nothing short of amazing!

    kind regards,
    Dave.
     
  9. Vanja Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    105
    faerieshaman-Someone was playing a joke or you're pulling our collective leg.
     
  10. faerieshaman killer of terrorists Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    241
    OK how can someone play a joke when all doors are locked and we have a chow that won't let anyone else in anyway.As far playing a collective joke....dont think so..if you dont believe in poltergeist,spirits,etc then just say so,doesnt hurt my feelings as its your choice but it does get on my nerves when accuse me of pulling a joke cause what i say happens i dont ask it to it just does.

    ------------------
    Eric Cooper
     
  11. Vanja Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    105
    I never said that I don't believe.
     
  12. Linda Registered Member

    Messages:
    2
    I once lived in a house for a few months in which "strange" things happened. We were warned before moving in by former renters that the place had a history of "haunting", but we did not believe in such things. We were told that at a certain time of day a picture would appear on the dining room wall. There was a clean space in the paint there but I never saw the picture. It was summer time when we lived there and I had cousins visiting (I was 15) and we had the upstairs all to ourselves. The only drawback was that it was not furnished and had no electric so we used candles. The upstairs was divided into two rooms with a door at each end. We always slept on the floor in the room near the stairway and often heard noises in the other room (but did not feel the need nor desire to check on them). One night, though we heard noises downstairs and when we checked, all the lights were turned on and all of the water was running in the faucets (sinks, bathtubs, etc.). We woke everyone up to ask if they had turned everything on and all of course thought we were crazy. Several such things happened that summer. Our young, healthy dog died mysteriously while we lived there and we soon moved from this house. I write this only to let you know that these things happen. Who knows why? It doesn't hurt anyone, it's just makes life a bit more interesting.
     
  13. cybersokkie Registered Member

    Messages:
    1
    Hi,

    I think it maybe also two different things. What at first happened is probable a poltergeist? The second time when your grandmother takes medicine she uses her early experience in her hallucination.
    Quit stranges that the poltergeist disappeares after a while? Did you ever ask her what she thinks happened?
    (i'am sorry if my writing is not the best English or American it's been i while.)
     
  14. Deadwood Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    386
    I have one explanation of what some of problems might occur. Sleepwalking. You just can't leave this one out of the equation. I've seen my little brother sleep walk all the time. You can tell because when you ask him a question or what the hell he's doing, he just looks you straight in the eye and says ' heeer', well that happens most of the time except on this occasion I'll tell you about. I'll tell you of one instance. It was like 12:30 at night, and he came walking into my room, I had the light off. He went to my desk and started fiddling around with papers.

    I asked him 'what are you doing? He said ' don't worry. I asked him the exact same thing again and he replied the same answer. we did this one more time, until I told him to turn on the light. He turned the light walked 2 metres, then just suddenly went straight back like lightning and turned it off. He then went back to my desk and started fiddling around with papers again. So I said, what are you doing?

    He replied again ' don't worry'.
    So then I said ' well, if you aren't going to tell me you can get out of my room, go on piss off'

    so he started walking quickly out of my room and on the way out he said ' shut the f**k up'

    I asked him that morning if he came into my room and he had no recollection of it. I find it rather amusing how I got sweared at by a sleep walker. I reckon not many other people can claim being swore at by someone sleep wakling.

    Well that was just one instance, so you can't rule out someone sleep walking then going back to their room.
     
  15. Friplle Registered Member

    Messages:
    5
    My house is supposedly haunted. Here's my story.

    I rent, and when we moved in, the landlady warned us about the house being haunted. She used to live there, and she sayd she experienced a lot of the 'classical' haunting stuff - knocks on the door when there was nobody there (interior doors, not the front or back door), lights turning on and off, cold spots. Once she says a stack of books appeared in the middle of the livingroom floor. My husband and i don't beleive in ghosts, so we didn't worry about it.

    The house is pretty old, built between 1910-1920, I was told. One day I was out in front of the house doing yardwork and this old lady walked up to me. She said she grew up in the house, and asked if she could go inside and look around. She was this tiny old lady, and very sweet, so I said yes. I took her around, room to room. She pointed out rooms that were add-ons, and told me some neat stuff about what the town used to be like. I invited her to stay awhile, she was very interesting. I went to go make coffee, and left her in the livingroom.

    I could hear her talking, and thought "oh, how cute, she's talking to herself". I walked into the room, and she asked me how long the "other people" had lived there. I thought she meant my husband or soemthing, but no, she meant the "other people". I didn't know what she meant, so I kept asking her. She said that people call them ghosts, but they're not, they're just people. She said that when she was a kid, she had 'other people' playmates - they would talk to her and play games, but she was the only one who could see them. She said that right now, there was an old man and a young girl in the room, and she wanted to know when they had moved in, and if I knew anything about the 'people' she used to know. She started asking the air in front of her if they knew anything about the 'people' she used to know. She started saying things like "now, don't get angry, she can't hear you" - she told me they had been talking to me and were getting annoyed that I wouldn't talk to them. She encouraged me to talk to them, so I said something like "i'm sorry, I can't see you, or hear you. You're welcome to stay and share the house with us, though." Right then, behind me, a whole row of family photoes fell over on the mantle. I was looking straight at the old lady, so I know she didn't do it. There was no windy day, no cat, nothing. She looked shocked, and said that the man had knocked them over because he was mad. I started to apologize to the invisible man for making him mad, but the old lady said he was gone.

    Eventually, the old lady had to leave. I told my husband about the visit, and the picutres and stuff when he got home from working. He laughed at me, and walked out of the room. The door slammed behind him. He came back in and asked me why I had slammed the door. Of course, I hadn't. He still thinks I'm playing a trick on him, but I'm not. I've never seen the old lady again, I didn't get her phone number or something because I was so shooke up. I told my landlady and she said she wasn't suprised, that kind of stuff happened all the time.

    Is that a ghost, or a poltergiest? Do you guys think this is real? I don't think I'm crazy, but maybe somehow this lady was playing a trick on me? I was watching her so carefully though, she really looked shocked when the pictures fell over. What would she gain from the trick?
     

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