why we need ghosts

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birch

Valued Senior Member
Because humans are already discovered territory and therefore not mysterious. They also have no superpowers.

Ghosts are very mysterious and they can do anything we can imagine.

Its actually good brain stretching exercise in creativity.
 
birch said:
Why we need ghosts
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I don't think that we literally need ghosts, but I will say that I personally like the idea of scientific anomalies.

By that I mean events that fall outside the scope of the current scientistic worldview.

The existence of non-conforming events would mean that we don't have all the answers yet, and that amazing discoveries still remain to be made.

I realize that the idea that such things are even possible is likely to be extremely controversial on Sciforums.

But I prefer to think that there's more to reality than we imagine, and very likely more to reality than we can imagine.
 
IMO, *ghosts* are extensions of the mirror neural network in some people. That's why ghosts are only experienced by a few people. They don't really exist, except in a mental associative sense, which can be triggered by circumstances in the MNN of some people.

Perhaps it is related to our ability (necessity) to dream scenes and people doing al kinds of strange things. If you come down to it, all dreams are ghostly, but we can experience the dream *as if we were there*. Perhaps living ghosts are a form of dreaming while awake.
 
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Write4U said:
Perhaps it is related to our ability (necessity) to dream scenes and people doing al kinds of strange things. If you come down to it, all dreams are ghostly, but we can experience the dream *as if we were there*. Perhaps living ghosts are a form of dreaming while awake.
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I never experience dreams "as if I was there".
The colours are significantly muted, often sepia, the sounds are muffled, the detail isn't there, scenes jump around too much and I often seem to be watching it in 3rd person, almost as if it's something on TV.
I am always aware in the back of my mind that it is a dream, but never quite enough to turn it into a lucid dream.
Which is why I enjoy dreaming: I know it is harmless escapism.

And no, I don't believe in ghosts.
Maybe there's a link. ;)
 
IMO dreams are side effects of the brain reorganizing memories, and testing new associations between memories. Most of that activity is done unconsciously, but some of it seems to require some sort of consciousness, and we experince that as dreams - that's why dreams can appear quite real (bases on real memories) but still very surreal because new associations between memory fragments are tested, associations which can be complete nonsense even, but to discover that, the brain must test them.

So dreams are twisted pictures of what our brain considers to be important memories, which either are tested to be linked with new memories, or other old memories, whcih might be related, or which should be related.

I'd not give too much about the colors of the dream. Unless the brain is actually trying to establish new associations about colors, the color of the memories is probaly very unimportant for the associuations which are tested there.

Ghosts, IMO there is too little evidence that they exists, but there is much we don't knwo yet, so, yeah, maybe there are ghots.

Do we need ghosts? I dar to definitely say no. I never saw a ghost in my life and I never interacted with one, and I can't imagien that my life would be any better with ghosts. So need - no, I don't need ghosts, and I see no reason why anyone would need ghosts.
 
birch said:
Because humans are already discovered territory and therefore not mysterious. They also have no superpowers.

Ghosts are very mysterious and they can do anything we can imagine.

Its actually good brain stretching exercise in creativity.
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Why ghosts in particular?
Have we not enough characters in mythology, folklore, religion and other superstitions, literature, comic books, computer games and movies to fill all the need for superpowers and mysteries that any species can digest in several lifetimes? (By that I mean: far too many.)
So what's the special thing about ghosts?
It's that they represent people who actually existed; a way of holding on to relationships. Wish- expression, though not fulfilment, unless you're willing to let go of sanity instead of a dead person.
 
Ghosts exist in many forms. Some are emotive imprints on the spin networks of the quantum vacuum. Others are intelligent shells or emanations or tulpas of consciousness. Others are transconstructual presences, like your mom in the kitchen when you're playing video games. But their superpowers are limited. There are reports of heavy desks being turned over and objects being teleported across spacetime. But they can't do anything. For that you will have to wait for the one million AD collective egregore of the human race. ;)

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Magical Realist said:
Ghosts exist in many forms. Some are temporal imprints on the spin networks of the quantum vacuum. Others are intelligent shells or emanations or tulpas of consciousness. Others are transconstructual presences, like your mom in the kitchen when you're playing video games. But their superpowers are limited. There are reports of heavy desks being turned over and objects being teleported across spacetime. But they can't do anything. For that you will have to wait for the one million AD collective egregore of the human race. ;)
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Well you can call a mirage a ghost also. Except it isn't.
mi·rage, NOUN
  1. an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of water in a desert or on a hot road caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air.
    synonyms:     optical illusion · hallucination · phantasmagoria ·
    [more]
    apparition · fantasy · chimera · vision · figment of the/one's imagination · phantasm
    • something that appears real or possible but is not in fact so:
      "the notion that the public is pro-business is a mirage"
ORIGIN
early 19th cent.: from French, from se mirer ‘be reflected,’ from Latin mirare ‘look at.’

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and
ghost, NOUN
  1. an apparition of a dead person that is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image:
    "the building is haunted by the ghost of a monk" ·
    "the ghosts of past deeds"
    synonyms:     specter · phantom · wraith · spirit · presence · apparition ·
    [more]
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We can throw in the term *phantom* also, but I think it is important to make a clear distinction between causalities. One has nothing to do with the other.
 
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Write4U said:
Well you can call a mirage a ghost also. Except it isn't.
and
We can throw in the term *phantom* also, but I think it is important to make a clear distinction between causalities. One has nothing to do with the other.
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I don't think a ghost is a mirage. Mirages have more to do with light and its distortion by heat waves. Ghosts don't appear in those conditions.
 
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http://listverse.com/2014/05/05/10-creepy-tales-of-interdimensional-travel/

According to Albert Einstein, there are four dimensions, three of space and one of time, with the special property of the ability to bend light. Stephen Hawking furthered this theory by questioning the possibility of many more dimensions existing in the realm of our universe. However, according to Hawking, matter and light are confined to the “membrane” of the dimension, making interdimensional travel impossible. Because space-time has the ability to bend light, however, there exists the possibility that we can see the shadows of people and even galaxies from other dimensions in our own, and they ours.

Supposed encounters with these “shadow people” are common in North America. One tale describes a woman’s meeting with the mysterious entities as a little girl while living in Dorchester, Massachusetts during the mid-1990s. During her first night sleeping in a new room, she claims to have seen a tall and unnatural shadow on the wall. To her surprise, the shadow stepped off the wall and glided around the room, wearing what appeared to be glasses. She saw three more of these shadow people near her closet. She eventually realized a large shadow was slowly enveloping the entire room, leaving her in pitch darkness before she leaped from her bed to take comfort in her grandparents’ room. She believes that what she encountered that night were dimensional travelers, who most likely saw her as a shadow person.
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Jeeves said:
Why ghosts in particular?
Have we not enough characters in mythology, folklore, religion and other superstitions, literature, comic books, computer games and movies to fill all the need for superpowers and mysteries that any species can digest in several lifetimes? (By that I mean: far too many.)
So what's the special thing about ghosts?
It's that they represent people who actually existed; a way of holding on to relationships. Wish- expression, though not fulfilment, unless you're willing to let go of sanity instead of a dead person.
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Do you ever wonder why we can create all these things that dont exist? What i mean by that is it does exist or is real on some level of our consciousness either by dynamics or metaphor. Creation comes in many forms, doesn't it? Why do we have this constant need to create and purge? Nature is always creating in one form or another. For good or ill.

Take, for instance, dracula by bram stoker. How in the heck could anyone think of such a mythic being? There are no undead people who suck the blood of the living. but hold on. There are people who predate on others and its not always literal or obvious. There are those who are toxic or draining who feed off the energy of others. The modern term is psychic vampirism. Do you know there are people who do this to get extra energy to even help them become successful at anothers expense? All is not as it seems in the world. The transactions taking place are not all in visible form such as cash.

What makes people think we cant or even unconsciously create ghosts? That we cant project our thoughts and feelings to create living entities? We know by experience that we not only affect others by thought but also energetically. Havent you ever detected 'vibes' around people and surroundings? What makes people think its impossible that at times it may be extremely strong and we emit thoughts positive or negative so strongly, it can act as a force or shadow. A living entity or refuse of ourselves from the darkest, vilest, evil aspects that would be termed demons to the light, good or higher consciousness we would term angels. Sometimes we get to see all that is hidden inside of our multilayered beings and surroundings with the masks we wear or surface identity as we go about our daily lives. Sometimes pieces of us break off and get absorbed by the environment or vice versa. Sometimes another can steal a piece of your soul or its given. Its energy. We are giving off things constantly to our environment as much as we absorb and are affected by it, much of it unseen. Sometimes we may see it in literal symbolic form.

We dont just act on a literal level and only affected on that level. There is more going on that we call reality beyond that is visible. Sometimes, it becomes visible.

I think ghosts can be due to several reasons. It could be people who have passed, beings from another dimension and also just a chip off the old block. A segment or piece of life force broken off from a living being. What shape it takes and its nature would have a lot to do with who it came from. Demon, angel or just benign. It comes from us. We are its creator. Our shadow selves, for better or worse.
 
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We do mentally create pseudo-living states of being, they're called Tulpas.
Tulpa also translated as "magical emanation", "conjured thing" and "phantom" is a concept in mysticism of a being or object which is created through sheer spiritual or mental discipline alone. It is defined in Indian Buddhist texts as any unreal, illusory or mind created apparition.
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Tulpa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa
 
birch said:
Do you ever wonder why we can create all these things that dont exist?
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We can't. All our fictions are based on things we have actually seen or heard of, that we than recombine and exaggerate.
What i mean by that is it does exist or is real on some level of our consciousness either by dynamics or metaphor.
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Yes, and so? Metaphors are just another interpretation of the real, as are stories and pictures.
Creation comes in many forms, doesn't it? Why do we have this constant need to create and purge?
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Big brain hates not being in control.
Nature is always creating in one form or another. For good or ill.
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Yes... Or, more accurately, modifying what already exists. Ghosts are not included in this category.

What makes people think we cant or even unconsciously create ghosts?
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You may, but that is something that exists only in your head and doesn't bother other people.


I think the entertainment industry has a lot to answer for.
 
birch said:
why we need ghosts
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In America, 7.4 billion dollars was projected to have been spent on Halloween alone in 2014. Certainly not all of that revolves around ghosts, but the concept along with haunted houses is one of the fundamental elements of the Fright Economy which would be glaringly noticed if absent. Along with that yearly expectation of a disco-tinted Party City commercial becoming the "It's A Wonderful Life" regularity of its October niche.
 
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