Why do people say ghosts only come out at night?

Or rather, why does it seem that ghosts only come out at night?

People aren't really scared during the daytime, ghost hunters usually hunt mainly during the night, and good videos are usually shot during the night, not really during the daytime.

I know of a few cases where daytime phenomena occurred, but the overwhelming majority took place at nighttime, after the sun was long below the horizon.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Good point.

I hear most real hauntings occur at all hours of the day and night but most TV shows that " Hunt " Ghosts all happen at night I guess it's better for ratings.

So that means that most of what we see in TV is bogus

Although there have been some pretty cool stuff shown on
Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters

reply to post by mf_luder


True ghost hunters seek to operate in the environment. There is a shimmer between dream and reality and these people get in between.

More sreiously, Ghosts are in your head and it is a question of psychology.

Originally posted by redled
reply to post by mf_luder

 

True ghost hunters seek to operate in the environment. There is a shimmer between dream and reality and these people get in between.

More sreiously, Ghosts are in your head and it is a question of psychology.

Seriously, I don't think ghosts are purely a matter of psychology at all. My one example of this is something that occurred a few days ago while I was getting ready to go to work. I had a box of kleenex sitting on a nightstand nearby in a room I was in. This box fell off of the nightstand once without me touching it at all. I picked it up, moved it to the center of the stand and kept doing what I was doing - without touching it. It fell off again. So - - still preoccupied w/ what I was doing, I set it on the stand again and moved down the hall to go grab a pen. When I came back, it had fallen off again.

I was alone in the room and did not interact with the box. I possess a small degree of what you could say is 'psychic' abilities which do NOT include psychokinesis or telekinesis.

The building I live in is said to be haunted and the other tenants - about 8 people or so have experienced similar events occurring over about an 8-9 month period. We are all sane and have been through pschological testing by the military.

Not to flame your response, but sorry brother - we're not all 'crazy'.

I was going to be cheeky and say it's because most good ghouls (punny) know the average Ghost Hunter doesn't have the right equipment to capture them...it's a very exclusive club.

Seriously though, I've often wondered that myself.

When my daughter saw a ghost when she little it was about dinner time and still light out, another time it was later in the evening. Only twice that I know of that she responded to "someone" that I could not see. She never did it prior and never did it after those two instances.

I think more commonly people believe that darkness is their element, when the world of the living is quiet.

I personally don't think it matters all that much...if they are there, time of day or light wouldn't really mean much to them.

Almost all the TV shows use elements of darkness to add effect and also it helps them in using certain equipment that produces better results. IRF cams, etc etc...

I assume that apparitions are energetic in nature and could possibly have a mild illumination associated with their presence. Their dull glow allows them to be visible at night, likewise they would be invisible during the day.

Perhaps we're always surrounded by apparitions - we just have to be in the right environment and in the right frame of mind to see them.

I wonder if there are many examples of activity during the day (excluding sightings), like sounds, changes in temperature, etc?

[edit on 12/11/08 by Evasius]

If they are around, they are around.
I don't think the time of day matters.

It's more about the daily distractions and stimulations like work, tv, traffic nouse etc, that keep the majority of people from even noticing.

It's only when things are quiet and dark that most people even begin to consider 'scary' things, like in the movies.

As far as ghost hunting goes, the dark and quiet make it more accurate for documenting paranormal occurrences, without external stimuli and noises to interfere with the accuracy of any evidence.

Thats the idea anyway.

Two reasons that 'ghost' or 'spirit' sightings are mainly observed at night:

Solar energy overpowers them making it difficult to 'appear' during the day.

Psychic static is stronger during the daytime when everyone is awake also making it difficult for them to 'appear' during the day. Most sightings are in the wee hours of the night after the majority are asleep, thus less psychic static.

Originally posted by mf_luder
Or rather, why does it seem that ghosts only come out at night?

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

They dont..

People are just scared of the dark and have overactive imaginations...

Then again.. I could be a ghost typing this..

Boo

Ret

Ghosts are active anytime of day or night. There is no real specific time. I have seen and experienced ghosts for most of my life. Day and night.

It is possible that night time becomes such a 'focus' because in the dark one has to rely on the sense of 'hearing' more than sight. Night time things are much quieter. The normal daily active sounds are not commonly occuring. The house becomes quiet. The streets are quieter. The TV is not blaring. The washing machine is not on. No one is in the kitchen making noise. No one is talking. Everything is quiet. Wait a minute, what was that sound? A person can get carried away too. If they are psychologically preparing themselves. Expectation. A simple shift in temperature can cause a house to creak. A person can mistaken that for something else. Any normal sound can suddenly sound like something else. A person can freak themselves out and imagine all kinds of things. But just because this can happen, does not mean that that is always the case. In the dark, one can use fancy equipment to help out with their investigations. To help isolate certain phenomena. With respect to carrying out investigations, I prefer night time but also have conducted them during the day as well.

Reply to: Retzius

LOL

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not "scared of the dark."

As for overractive imaginations - check out my signature. Someone on this site apparently thinks I'm not a human..... my imagination is directed into a sci-fi story I'm working on. So.... we can't chalk it up to imagination.

Sorry.

EDIT because reply to button isn't working.

[edit on 13-11-2008 by mf_luder]

I agree, they do not come out at any specific time, it is just that people are more attuned to thinking about them in the dark, it is more effective on shows like Ghost hunters too.

A good friend is the caretaker at my family grave yard and I asked him this last decoration day. He told me that he sees full bodied apparitions during the day and that he would never want to go to the grave yard at night because of it. He was the one who told me people are just more open to seeing things at night and they have mental defences which block them during the day.

He is a very devout Christian and had never spoken of such things with anyone before, funny I was thinking of our conversation earlier tonight...

reply to post by mf_luder


That can be easily explained by a small, constant vibration being present in the table upon which the Kleenex rested. That could make it slowly move to the edge and eventually fall off.

People tend to attribute stuff they don't understand to phenomenon they think they do understand, hence people believing in psychic abilities and ghosts, all without evidence.

I'm not having a go, it's just what happens to people due to how our brains work. It's the basic human nature to need to know.

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


There is no evidence for psychic anything, so can you cite your sources for such a thing existing?

I'm not trying to be harsh, just to keep this discussion on the facts, namely assumptions many believers have made in order to explain away the complete lack of evidence of anything supernatural.

Hauntings happen all of the time (according to witnesses) not just at night
The history of 'spiritualism' goes back to the 1800s'. When it became very fashionable to hold seances, they were held in the dark as that added a sense of mystery and the unknown. This was very necessary for some of the 'mediums' that held these seances because it was necessary to be absolutely dark in the room for them to get away with some of their tricks. Most of the need to have darkness is theatrics. I think most ghost hunting at night is a holdover of that practice.
If you read up on historic accounts of hauntings, then you will find that many, if not most, reported hauntings by credible witnesses are during the day. This is because most people are awake during the day to actually observe the 'hauntings'.
I can't really see why ghosts would care either way.


.

Well, ghostly encounter can happen during the day with more poltergeist-like effects, but visual encounter seems to only happen at night for some reason...that's a good question!

First off, they never "come out". The spirits are always here, just on a different plane if you will.

I have many native american friends that keep to the "old ways" (traditions/culture) According to them (8 have told me this) and to my studies of mayans, incas, aztecs, and olmecs they all say pretty much the same thing.

In a nutshell....
There are two planes of existence. Our realm, and the spirit realm. There is a type of bond/link between these two realms that acts as a screen or a web. During the day, the web is tightly bound hindering all attempts to cross over one way or the other. At night, however, the web is very sparse. allowing the spirits to cross into our realm (common) and allowing us to slip into the spirit realm (oobe).

IMO they never really "come out" they cross over.

if you're a mischievous sprite, wouldn't you choose the night to scare people? also, at night is when we're home, relaxing ,and more prone to be aware of our surroundings.

reply to post by mf_luder



As Evasius stated in his post apparitions are energetic in nature and are generally easier to see at night and it's also true that everything slows down at night, things are more relaxed and your more susceptible to notice things, hear sounds etc.

I know first hand that ghost come out any time they please I seen one In the day time a little boy dressed in old world clothes he dissipated as I approached him the second was in the day as well a little girl I only saw her feet under the stall it was gruesome like decayed flesh I fainted when some one woke me I was still in shock I Ill so know demon can only come out in the dark