Ghosts

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

Ghosts are just wishful thinking. People want to believe anything but the truth

people want to believe in anything but the truth when the truth is scary
some people don't believe in ghosts because if ghosts exist, then those stories about knife-wielding ghosts carving words into people's stomachs might actually true and this is a scary thought
but if you say that there are no ghosts at all, then knife-wielding ghosts are merely a combination of self-mutilation and halucination and this is more believeable partially because (for some people) this is somehow a lot less scary than the idea of ghosts being hostile

 

[Gallowmere]

I have woke up with scratches all over my back, does this mean ghosts are in my house?

 

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

I have woke up with scratches all over my back, does this mean ghosts are in my house?

no, if you'd actually researched ghost carvings you'd know that they only carve you when you're awake enough to realize that you're not being cut by a person. Ghosts aren't stupid or frivolous, when they carve doors or make a TV turn on-and-off semi-rapidly, they're trying to announce their presence to the humans that are in the house/hotel/sunken boats etc etc etc

 

[Silver Incubus]

Ghosts are just wishful thinking. People want to believe anything but the truth: that we die and rot, nothing else.

My theory on the images people see (and call "ghosts") is that our actions in this life get embedded in the atmosphere somehow. At certain points, for whatever reason, we see these embedded images of the past. But the images are just repeats of the past, no interaction, no connection.

Just my two cents.

I see that as very possible for the nature of some ghosts, but some of them do interact and change. Now for rotting in the ground, yeah, that happens too, but there is a part of you that stay's aware, of what is going on. If you were to weigh a person who has just died they immediately lose 21 grams. This was under a scientific investigation at some university I think.

 

[derek]

I see that as very possible for the nature of some ghosts, but some of them do interact and change. Now for rotting in the ground, yeah, that happens too, but there is a part of you that stay's aware, of what is going on. If you were to weigh a person who has just died they immediately lose 21 grams. This was under a scientific investigation at some university I think.

Also a theme for the movie "21 Grams" (rather unsuprisingly!).

I'm still to see anything in this thread but conjecture. So I remain unconvinced.

 

[Crimson Velvet]

I see that as very possible for the nature of some ghosts, but some of them do interact and change. Now for rotting in the ground, yeah, that happens too, but there is a part of you that stay's aware, of what is going on. If you were to weigh a person who has just died they immediately lose 21 grams. This was under a scientific investigation at some university I think.

Dr. Duncan MacDougall, who in the early 1900s sought to measure the weight purportedly lost by a human body when the soul departed the body upon death. MacDougall weighed dying patients in an attempt to prove that the soul was material and measurable. These experiments are widely considered to have had little if any scientific merit, and although MacDougall's results varied considerably from 21 grams, for some people this figure has become synonymous with the measure of a soul's weight.

...

 

[Impudent]

There have been reports of ghosts cutting people? I did not know this.

 

[Impudent]

Don't bodies release certain gases after dying? This would account for lost weight.

 

[LORD_RED_DRAGON]

Don't bodies release certain gases after dying? This would account for lost weight.

some people have a "death rattle" when they die, this is the lungs colapsing themselves to a point of not being re-fillable (ie some corpses have lungs that are already un-transplantable on the instant of death) but this doesn't always happen, and when it does happen though, this weight can be measured seperately from the "soul-weight" if the person is on an artificial resperator and the other gasses don't get released till the body starts decomposing

 

[Impudent]

Ah, I see.

 

[Neith]

I've heard that the military has practiced with astral projection and the police have claimed they can use it to track criminals, but I think they are bluffing. There could be a lot of practical uses for this by snoopers for the establishment, but it would be a well known fact of life if it could be routinely used like that. For some reason it isn't being used like that. Is that reason because it is too hard to do, or is it because it is nonsense?
If someone was dying and they decided to do astral projection, could they become a ghost like that?

There are methods to obtain this which apparently work, such as breathing techniques and so on. At least with things like this you can at least try it yourself to find out if it works. There are books and websites which tell you of techniques that are tried and tested (apparently). Also, it is not possible to become a ghost if your body dies and you are doing this, you simply die. But i suppose beliefs on this are dependent on what the mind is.

 

[Dushan S]

I've heard that the military has practiced with astral projection and the police have claimed they can use it to track criminals, but I think they are bluffing. There could be a lot of practical uses for this by snoopers for the establishment, but it would be a well known fact of life if it could be routinely used like that. For some reason it isn't being used like that. Is that reason because it is too hard to do, or is it because it is nonsense?
If someone was dying and they decided to do astral projection, could they become a ghost like that?

Not sure about Police, really. If you think about USA army, yes they were and probably are working on researching Astral Projection, and it is known that SSSR was extensively researching all kinds of ESP methods, Astral Projection and even some stuff you could call occult. Possibility to get new technologies that could make you superior is far above more important for army than oportunism or acceptance from scientific minds. If it works - it just works, that is enough. There are some book aroumd concerning that matter, if you want to search, although most of them are in "conspiracy theory" genre, so usefulness may vary.