I am posting this in pseudoscience for obvious reasons...I don't believe in ghosts. The problem is, I have had an "experience", or whatever paranormal nutjobs call it. See, when a skeptic like me actually comes face-to-face with a "ghost", the skeptic gets a little confused. The story? I served on a nuclear submarine. There was always this rumor that there was a ghost in engineering, in a certain compartment. That rumor came from the fact that our sub was built by "scabs" when the union at Electric Boat went on strike. And this "scab" worker, an old man, for some reason committed suicide by hanging in this specific compartment. Makes for a great tall tale or sea story, right? And that is all I thought it was, until myself, and one of my old "shipmates", also a skeptic of nutjobbery, ran into this undead fella one night on watch. I am not even sure it was night time where we were, but it was night time in the USA, and so it was for the watch. It was the normal crazy horse crap...it got really cold, and we saw this ghost, and he screamed at us "Get Out" or some such thing. I remember being scared out of my skin and running for maneuvering. I swear, I refuse to believe in ghosts...but what the heck else could something like that be? For years I have wondered this, but people either say it was my imagination (which makes no sense, since I wasn't exactly keen on the ghost thing at the time) or the nutjobs who say it was the ghost of the guy who hung himself. I understand the whole bio-feedback thing...but what causes this when a skeptic like me comes to face to face with some really weird crap like this? I refuse to believe it was a ghost...that is just a stupid idea. What causes random occurrences or hallucinations like this? And how can such a hallucination occur to two individuals at the same time? Figured I'd throw this one out there on this shiny new (for me) forum. I have yet to get an answer that wasn't either soaked in stupid, or dripping with sarcasm on other forums.
I too am a sceptic and have "met" a ghost, seen UFOs (UAPs!) and been "psychic" for a period. 1) the mind does weird things occasionally. 2) you were "primed" by the stories. 3) you're human and human minds are all subject to the same stories/ tropes/ basics therefore what you "saw" would be "fitted" to accommodate this background. Regardless of what it really was. Plus, of course, the more you go over it in your mind the more you reinforce the "stereotype" of what it was - i.e. even if, thirty seconds afterwards you didn't remember it as you do now, the story will gradually change to fit the typical ghost sighting (involuntarily of course - I'm not accusing you of deliberately altering things). This would also help with with multiple people seeing it - the mind fits things into familiar patterns* and would tend to make the stories converge. I file such things under "weird shit requiring further investigation" with an additional tag of "wow! Doesn't my psyche do some strange things at odd moments". * Not that ghosts are familiar of course, but the human shape is, and vocal interaction etc.
Yeah, this is all pretty much the way I look at it. WSRFI's...I likes it! But is it ok to admit I am afraid to further investigate it? Just let it be...sometimes, just let it be.
Afraid to investigate further? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Shit you're talking to a guy that ran a mile over an extremely muddy field, climbed a six-foot fence and got lost in the undergrowth at 11 o'clock on a (very cold) November night all alone trying to get a better look at one of the "UFOs". Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Standardised answer "Ghosts don't exist", but obviously Dywyddyr hits the nail on the head with the pre-emptive story creating a subconscious bias. There is also a small likelihood that certain "Powers that be" like to screw around with people and use the stories as a cover. After all can you imagine that you suffer from the anxiety of having a ghost onboard and get forced into a panic, it's one way to potentially force a submarine to the surface or generate unwelcome hysteria amongst the crew. Obviously I can't point any fingers at the "Classified" section.
It's ridiculously unlikely that two people could ever share a hallucination like the one you've described. In fact if both of you are certain of the particulars of what you saw I'd feel confident in saying that it's impossible. It follows then, assuming that the other person involved isn't lying, that you both witnessed something real. Some questions: How were you able to determine with absolute certainty that it wasn't a hoax perpetrated by other crew members who wanted to keep the stories alive? Consider the possibly that there might have been a lot more planning behind it than you would expect. People have been known to go to extraordinary lengths to pull off a convincing hoax. Why didn't you guys investigate immediately? I would have gone straight back into the engineering compartment pretty much as soon as I had left (if I had left in the first place which I probably wouldn't have) to confirm what I thought I had just seen. Surely you guys knew everyone aboard and it would have been prudent to confirm the presence of a possible intruder/stowaway (as unlikely as that might be on a submarine).
I have the same problem too, because an aunt of ours recently died. I was alone caring for her her last few weeks. My cousin actually saw her in her room, whilst I could only smell her in mine. It happened simultaneously, in different places (In my house, and my cousin's), about an hour before the hospital called and she was pronounced officially 'expired'. The smell thing made things a bit stranger than if I had actually seen her. There's no way air currents could have carried her particular scent to my room - there simply was no connection, and she had never been in my room. There was a thread about old people smell some time ago - she had a version of that. Anyway there was her smell at the foot of my bed all night. Next day it was gone. Suddenly I started praying again - just for her soul. My cousin had a slightly crazier experience, and I can't believe she's lying. She doesn't have a reason to lie, so I don't understand. I've been imagining myself being a non-Christian who just goes to church to pray for her soul. Can I do it? Doesn't make sense but I actually think I might end up like that.
No, I mean, end up with a split in my beliefs - not believing in ghosts/spirits/souls but going to church to pray for someone's soul.
I'd say that you are contradicting yourself if you do that. You say one thing " no soul" but want to "pray" for someone else's, that's just being a hypocrite. You either do or don't and stick to one or the other and don't be trying to play both sides at the same time you'll just end up confused.
My homes has always been haunted by ghosts. That's why people are afraid to come and visit me. It's an energy that freaks the shit out of almost everyone. Or it's just me. I don't know. As for the praying for someone elses soul, I agree with cosmic, and would like to add that it's abusive to imagine that you have the right even.
Maybe it is your pit bull that runs loose in your yard! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Given the human brain's proclivity for fooling itself(and thus you) I highly doubt that your ghost sighting has any bearing on reality. You certainly experienced it, of that I have no doubt, but the question is whether or not your experience has an external or internal cause, and I lean towards an internal cause. Given that some seventy thousand people in Brazil(or was it Peru? I don't remember at the moment) say, with important details being identical, that they saw the sun "fall" out of the sky and hover in their town square(something we can positively say didn't happen because nobody else observed such a phenomenon, and it would be noticed), I wouldn't rule out shared hallucination so quickly. We know that human brains all work in similar ways, and we know that human brains constantly edit, create, and delete memories. Given these facts it's safe to say that mass hallucinations and shared delusions, down to inconsequential details, are far from impossible and may even be likely under the right circumstances. Beyond that though, you have to ask yourself which possibility is most likely, that a hitherto unknown phenomenon which would require rewriting most of science was witnessed, or that two people just happened to share a similar hallucination at the same time. I can tell you exactly which on my money's on.
