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Why Do People Believe in Ghosts?
thantlantic ^

Posted on 09/05/2014 11:01:29 PM PDT by chessplayer

In June, Sheila Sillery-Walsh, a British tourist visiting the historic island-prison of Alcatraz in San Francisco, claimed that she captured an image of a ghost in a picture she snapped on her iPhone. In the frame of what was otherwise supposed to be a picture of an empty prison cell was a blurry black and white image of a woman. The story, which was printed in the British tabloid the Daily Mail, featured on the Bay Area's local KRON4 TV station and mocked by SFist, isn't the first time the Daily Mail has claimed that strange images have come up on smart devices.

Normally, a paranormal story wouldn’t catch my attention, but a few months before the story came out, a Spanish friend of mine named Laura showed me a weird image she found on her phone while I was traveling in Madrid. The photo, taken on her iPhone while on a trip to Ethiopia, shows a boy looking down at leaves he is holding in his hands. Seemingly superimposed onto the boy is another image of the boy, hands in a different position and eyes looking straight at the camera.

Laura was convinced she captured an image of a ghost.

Then a few weeks later I discovered an image of a man in the background of a photo I took with my own iPhone. The picture was taken in my apartment and the man, whom I can’t identify, was not actually in the apartment at the time.

Recent surveys have shown that a significant portion of the population believes in ghosts, leading some scholars to conclude that we are witnessing a revival of paranormal beliefs in Western society.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: afterlife; ghosts
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To: chessplayer

Britain seems to be ground zero for ghosts and hauntings with the U.S. a distant second. Are there French haunted houses on the tourist trail? Itailian? German? I wonder how much of it is cultural.


61 posted on 09/06/2014 4:57:00 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: Kirkwood

My children’s high school in Asheville was built on an Indian burial ground. I heard they dug up most of the graves and relocated them. Janitors who worked at the school at night told tales of hearing strange noises in the school when no one else was there. Don’t know if they really did or they just wanted to entertain the students and staff. But who doesn’t love a good ghost story?

Also, a graduate of the high school is somewhat famous now for his ghostly endeavors. His name is Joshua P. Warren.

“Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Joshua P. Warren has lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains his entire life, but traveled widely. At the age of 13, he wrote his first published book. Since then, he has had thirteen more books published, including the regional best-seller, Haunted Asheville, and How to Hunt Ghosts (released by Simon and Schuster), and is the president of his multimedia productions company, Shadowbox Enterprises, LLC. His articles have been published internationally, and he has been covered by such mainstream media as CNN, Fox News, Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living, Delta Sky, FATE, New Woman, The New York Times, FHM and Something About the Author; and made the cover of the science journal, Electric Space Craft. A winner of the University of North Carolina Thomas Wolfe Award for Fiction, he wrote columns for the Asheville Citizen-Times from 1992 to 1995. His first novel, The Evil in Asheville, was released in 2000.

An internationally-recognized expert on paranormal research, Warren was hired by the famous Grove Park Inn Resort to be the first person to officially investigate the Pink Lady apparition in 1995 (the same year he founded L.E.M.U.R. paranormal investigations, of which he is president). Warren also led the expedition that captured the first known footage of the elusive Brown Mountain Lights, eventually resulting in scientific breakthroughs, via experiments Warren led in the lab, that help explain most of the lights and many mysterious, natural plasmas (such as ball lightning) that occur around the world. His work has been praised by the Rhine Research Center, The North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (or NCCAT, for which he gives annual presentations) and numerous scholars such as New York Times best-selling author Dr. William R. Forstchen, Dr. William Roll, Dr. Andrew Nichols, and legendary researchers such as NASA engineer Charles A. Yost, Oak Ridge National Laboratory engineer David Hackett, and authors/researchers Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe.”

http://www.joshuapwarren.com/


62 posted on 09/06/2014 5:03:59 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: Durus

Because when you see one, it’s kind of hard to ignore.


63 posted on 09/06/2014 5:11:16 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Ebola: Death is a lagging indicator.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

And yet you believe that Christ rose from the dead.

Without personal proof or a test that is repeatable?


64 posted on 09/06/2014 5:14:14 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (Ebola: Death is a lagging indicator.)
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To: ChicagahAl

Amen, brother. Amen.


65 posted on 09/06/2014 6:04:31 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Oratam
"Are there French haunted houses on the tourist trail? Itailian? German? I wonder how much of it is cultural."

In short, yes. Ghost stories and accounts of such transcend virtually all cultures.

66 posted on 09/06/2014 6:18:45 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Joe 6-pack; chessplayer

One of his pet theories was that just as some people seem to have flashes of precognitive insight (i.e. seeing events before they happen), others may have brief flashes of post-cognitive visions, or seeing events that unfolded in the past, which may account for some ghost sightings.


I heard a theory that claims in some instances events might be “recorded” and “played back” under the right circumstances.


67 posted on 09/06/2014 6:47:44 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: zot

An interesting, straight forward article.


68 posted on 09/06/2014 7:57:28 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: driftdiver

No they are not. There are demons, and people that dream of their relatives but there are not ghosts. The bible is quite clear that when you die your soul goes to heaven or hell. There is no getting around it.


69 posted on 09/06/2014 8:05:21 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: chessplayer

Because we’re afraid to die and we want to be special. Encounters with things that “survived” death in some way feeds both, it makes us special today and gives us hope that death is not the end tomorrow.


70 posted on 09/06/2014 8:11:04 AM PDT by discostu (We don't leave the ladies crying cause the story's sad.)
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To: chessplayer; Vermont Lt; Durus; 21twelve; Beowulf9; fidelis

Do I believe in Jesus? Yes, He is my Saviour. Do I believe in ghosts? I do not believe in them in a religious or worshiping sense, but I do think that they exist.

Here is an experience I had 20 years ago. I also discussed it with a former professor and priest at St. Joe sometime afterward. He said that he could not doubt the validity of my experience.

http://bswett.com/1995-11GoodCatholicGhosts.html


71 posted on 09/06/2014 8:11:53 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Scripture indicates that ghosts are “familiar spirits”. Demons who pretend to be people. Those who follow God are told not to have anything to do with them.


72 posted on 09/06/2014 8:14:11 AM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: DariusBane

Here is a somewhat similar case:

Yes, We Also Do Houses — A spiritual search-and-rescue mission in which a woman with no prior involvement in this work channeled a lost soul and experienced the reunion. (1992-08)

Read it at: http://www.bswett.com/1992-08YesWeDoHouses.html


73 posted on 09/06/2014 8:20:32 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: Veggie Todd
Yep, catchy tune -- I Want a New Drug
74 posted on 09/06/2014 9:12:18 AM PDT by mikrofon (Ghosts, Drugs ....makes sense ;)
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To: Tax-chick; NYer; Salvation; markomalley; Biggirl

See the links at my posts 71 and 73.

I mostly agree with your response of: My answer would be, “Not at all.”

My point of departure is that the experience has taught me, when I sensed that I was being influenced in a way not normal for me, is to Stop, connect to Jesus in prayer, Ask Him to cleanse me of any discarnates/ghosts that may have attached themselves to me.

thus the change, has been a deeper faith and dependence on Jesus.


75 posted on 09/06/2014 9:38:33 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: GreyFriar

Thanks for the ping.
I agree, this is an interesting, straight forward article.


76 posted on 09/06/2014 9:45:42 AM PDT by zot
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To: GreyFriar

Thank you for the links at your posts #71 and 73.


77 posted on 09/06/2014 9:49:50 AM PDT by zot
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To: GreyFriar

Fascinating - thanks for sharing that.

The experiences I have had are more like someone mentioned above, a sense that the past is present. Maybe it’s just a vivid imagination!


78 posted on 09/06/2014 9:52:52 AM PDT by Tax-chick (No power in the 'verse can stop me.)
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To: Durus
I would like to know how a Christian could believe in ghosts.

You don't believe in visitations by the Holy Ghost?

79 posted on 09/06/2014 9:55:30 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (ISIS has started up a slave trade in Iraq. Mission accomplshed, Barack, Mission accomplished.)
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To: fidelis

There’s a few things in that image I can’t identify. What are the two things in the lower *right* corner?


80 posted on 09/06/2014 10:02:02 AM PDT by PLMerite (Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
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