Are Ghosts Really Hallucinations?

I bet a Study would reveal... every Ghost sighting reported/admitted by an Adult... that Adult had a childhood 'imaginary friend' seen only by themselves, and 'real' in every sense as the invisible companion could talk & play just like a real life classmate would

a neural pathway was created to see, feel, react with these invisible friends...and the pathway remains there, but likely unused, except in rare instances where the programmed neural pathway is activated by Stimulation or 6th sense activity

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: stonerwilliam

I have an idea many of these incidents really do happen in the mind. It's just not clear what the stimulus is. If it was something external, it might also unsettle animals in the area. Part of the reasoning there is based on experiences and reading and also the notable absence of video footage.

I can recall a study done years ago that found Electrical appliances with a certain frequency got the finger pointed at them and reading about sailors in submarines who found that spanners etc left near engines were vanishing but it still does not explain milk being thrown across my kitchen doors opening by themselves the only thing that i could see those events have in common in my life is they all happened near water a river was maybe 60 m away the first time 2nd had a stream 10 m away but it all stopped when i told it to F off

a reply to: Kandinsky

"Ghosts".. are as real as you and I. But, they exist in their own dimensions. Hallucinations is not anywhere near a correct definition. Once in awhile...these dimensions have a "bleed-through" and we see through that veil so to speak.

As a sensitive...Ive had so many...and continue to have encounters over 50 years...that I need no further convincing, and have frequent sightings...If for the only reason being sensitive to such things as people, positives, negatives, good and bad auras, places and objects.

Sometimes, one just gets a glimpse when conditions are right. Others, do not share my opinion Im sure.

a reply to: mysterioustranger

I guess we all interpret our experiences in life through different filters. It's all good if you have your convictions in the existence of ghosts.

It's all about suspended judgement until I can rule out other explanations. Despite that, I could swap some stories from personal experience or those of friends and family.

I keep sitting on the fence where splinters are a given and the view is better

a reply to: Kandinsky

You're welcome as always - It was an interesting night. Took quite a few people by surprise when I told them I could sense said entities (almost 90% of the people that went on my night grew up on the Syfy-set of paranormal shows). They didn't believe that one could actually tell where the spirits were without a device!

But on the subject of hallucinations - your mind can start to create "garbage" when they fill your heads with ideas prior - and not all hallucinations are strictly visual, either - Same night, one of the investigators had us do an EVP session, where we would have the spirit repeat back a word or phrase. The first two rounds only produced garbage, till a skeptic told an entity to say "Jesus Christ" (we all backed away from him just in case). When the investigator played the session, everyone heard a clear "NO!". Now, she had us all listen to the recording individually. We all heard a clear, resounding "NO!", but the investigator claimed she heard "and get the **** out!" on the tape as well. I heard nothing of the sort, as did those that were skeptics. All the ones that have never been on a haunt heard it.

Same people also thought spirits were moving the glowsticks. Funny how all that stuff that "moved" only did so when it was pitch black and those objects were the only source of light (add in caffeinated, jumpy, sleep deprived people late at night and you get the picture).

a reply to: Kandinsky

I’ve thought about your post a lot, I’ve read it through twice and several times in part. I hope that you are feeling okay after your accident.

Otherwise.

I had an artist friend, many years ago, that had this technique of somehow taking B&W negatives and making sheets of stained-glass windows from them and then from that she would fashion lamp shades. When the lamp was turned on you could see all of the images in the panes.

You mention the brightness and the sunshine so many times, and it’s a prominent feature of your story. I happen to enjoy painless “optical migraines” sometimes, so the brightness and sunshine features of your story ring and bell for me, but I wouldn’t know how to connect it to your story otherwise than to maybe be able to grok it a bit on a physical/sensory level.

So, I don’t know. I am left thinking that maybe it is a confluence of the sunshine, and place, and your mind and a certain state-of-being that collapses all three right at the time. Like maybe the light shines through your eye and allows you to see through a negative that has been left behind of some previous event. Just right at that time.

I can’t help but shake the feeling that the location must have something to do with it.

Anyway, rambling post, thanks for hanging in there, and thanks much for sharing your story.

a reply to: Kandinsky

If the are hallucinations they must be damned good. I saw my dad after he died. My brother heard him very clearly call his name.

a reply to: Kandinsky

I had hoped to edit this post but ran out of time:

Me:

I can’t help but shake the feeling that the location must have something to do with it.

What I really mean by location is the physical, architectural space, the location geographically, you and your brain and history, the time of year, the rare occurrence of the sun. All of it.

I'm trippin'

a reply to: Kandinsky

Yes, we do, right? There are many forms of what we see or think we are seeing. Reality, Fantasy, Ghosts, Spirits, Shadow People, Hallucinations, Entities...all exist in a different reality...exposed to some on occasion, and on others...never.

Ive had enough spirit visitations and sightings throughout my life...that Im convinced we see at times...those things which are hidden. It happens.

And the veil is thinning between this world and the next every day.

a reply to: fossilera

But on the subject of hallucinations - your mind can start to create "garbage" when they fill your heads with ideas prior - and not all hallucinations are strictly visual, either

Did you listen to the Radiolab show? It's all about what you're saying there. It's something believers and skeptics should listen to; some believers can trick themselves and some skeptics can dismiss things without due consideration. You'll smile and nod at aspects of the show. The human, emotional side applies to all sides and fascinates me.

a reply to: Dan00

Nice to see ya

So, I don’t know. I am left thinking that maybe it is a confluence of the sunshine, and place, and your mind and a certain state-of-being that collapses all three right at the time. Like maybe the light shines through your eye and allows you to see through a negative that has been left behind of some previous event. Just right at that time.

It's certainly an attractive possibility although a brain scan would allay some material concerns...

I can’t help but shake the feeling that the location must have something to do with it. [...]What I really mean by location is the physical, architectural space, the location geographically, you and your brain and history, the time of year, the rare occurrence of the sun. All of it.

It does seem thematic where reported 'hauntings' are concerned. There are so many millions of buildings; what makes a tiny sub-set of them into 'haunted' places? I know Doc Wiseman has explored ideas of standing infrasound waves and someone else considered a form of piezoelectrical energy prompting visions. In some ways our place has narrative push through the folklore it's accrued down the decades; this will generate stories in the long-term. Could it be all the factors have to come together and synchronise at the point when the 'right' person happens to be in the right place?

Darned if I know!

a reply to: mysterioustranger

Ive had enough spirit visitations and sightings throughout my life...that Im convinced we see at times...those things which are hidden. It happens.

I'm not convinced quite yet and have experienced a few things. Have you got a favourite anecdote to sparkle up the thread?

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: Kandinsky

If the are hallucinations they must be damned good. I saw my dad after he died. My brother heard him very clearly call his name.

This is what I'm wondering. We know hallucinations occur so how do we tell one from another? That's not to dismiss your experience; I mean in the wider world. How do we know we've seen a ghost and not a hallucination?

I find grief hallucinations and 'crisis visions' fascinating. Sure, some make sense and sound imaginary and then there are others that suggest something else entirely.

(wendigo got my vote )

a reply to: Kandinsky

Well,

I'm going to just sort of gush stupidly here, but:

I swear. I have come to the conclusion that all of our technology emulates our biological processes. Alot of them? We haven't catalogued, or even discovered.

I really think that the strong sunlight gave you a privileged view of some small historical event. Something totally unimportant if not for the fact that it was frozen somehow by happenstance, waiting for the right conditions.

I'm really looking for the absolutley magickal in the entirely mundane; I think they both happen at the same time on rare occurences.

I'm beginning to think that our buildings and the way that we design their interior structure (yes, interior design) might form some sort of crystalline construction; that's how paranoid I have become. I am suspicious at all times about how we might haunt oursleves.



P.S. Oh also: There is the Love that we imbue these spaces with.

I think that contributes somehow.

Well at my mothers house when I lived there I saw swirly wave like smoke in the floating in the middle of the room and not drifting off on a number of occasions in the year 1990 and my mate witnessed it when he slept over on a mattress one night and told me about seeing it in the middle of night when we had breakfast.
But even a stranger and in truth it should be more publlic then just a few people in the street who know but the neighbours 2 doors done from my mothers house were having a kitchen renovation in 2004 and one day the couple had just got back from shopping in the afternoon when the husband heard a scream in the kitchen and it was his wife who told that there was a small bald man in old fashioned overalls working away on a saw and then dissappeared ?.

"But on the subject of hallucinations - your mind can start to create "garbage" when they fill your heads with ideas prior - and not all hallucinations are strictly visual"

- having studied psychology a bit, it's amazing how our brains manage to go from raw sensory data to our unitary perception of reality. It's mostly a process of reduction; taking huge amounts of input, and filtering out the 'noise'. Not everyone filters as much information (autistic people for example). Not everyone filters the information properly (all kinds of weird perceptual disorders out there, both trauma induced and genetic).
But, the brain also fills in lots of missing information (which is why you're not aware of the blind spots on your retinas).
Not making a specific point here, just noting that our perceptions have a lot more to do with our mental software than the hardware (eyes, ears, etc), and there is a high degree of variation among people on the 'software' side of things (again due to both nature and nurture).
And just to muddle things more, our expectations can heavily influence what we do or do not notice (look up the basketball/gorilla suit experiment). Practically, this means I am somewhat more skeptical of claims of paranormal activity by those actively looking for it, and less skeptical of people who seem to experience it out of the blue, or in spite of their disbelief.



"It does seem thematic where reported 'hauntings' are concerned. There are so many millions of buildings; what makes a tiny sub-set of them into 'haunted' places? I know Doc Wiseman has explored ideas of standing infrasound waves and someone else considered a form of piezoelectrical energy prompting visions. In some ways our place has narrative push through the folklore it's accrued down the decades; this will generate stories in the long-term. Could it be all the factors have to come together and synchronise at the point when the 'right' person happens to be in the right place? "

I'm skeptical of electromagnetic explanation, since our brains basically float in a faraday cage made of cerebrospinal fluid. It takes a lot of directed energy to penetrate that cage. It can be done with transcranial magnetic stimulation (tms) devices (look up Persinger's 'god helmet') but again, at power levels that would greatly exceed what is being picked up on the emf meters of paranormal investigators (of course our heart and intestinal tract also have a LOT of nuerons without the same emf shielding).
Sound as an explanation does intrusive me though. I think we are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved with acoustic technology (purring of cats can stimulate healing, acoustic levitation, resonant frequencies, the incredibly precise acoustic engineering of ancient megaliths resulting in some interesting phenomena...)

a reply to: ApisM

Send me a PM if you want some guidance on how to quote replies and post links. It's easy when you get the hang of it.

Sound as an explanation does intrusive intrigue me though. I think we are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved with acoustic technology (purring of cats can stimulate healing, acoustic levitation, resonant frequencies, the incredibly precise acoustic engineering of ancient megaliths resulting in some interesting phenomena...)

The reason I mentioned infrasound was because of a study into a 'haunted' cellar where they tested the location for infrasound. It was prompted by a lab where staff were reporting eerie experiences and standing waves of infrasound were shown to be triggers.

The study didn't find any easy answers and has stayed in my memory as something that could explain a lot of odd experiences. Read it here - Something in the Cellar (pdf).

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: ApisM

Send me a PM if you want some guidance on how to quote replies and post links. It's easy when you get the hang of it.

Sound as an explanation does intrusive intrigue me though. I think we are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved with acoustic technology (purring of cats can stimulate healing, acoustic levitation, resonant frequencies, the incredibly precise acoustic engineering of ancient megaliths resulting in some interesting phenomena...)

The reason I mentioned infrasound was because of a study into a 'haunted' cellar where they tested the location for infrasound. It was prompted by a lab where staff were reporting eerie experiences and standing waves of infrasound were shown to be triggers.

The study didn't find any easy answers and has stayed in my memory as something that could explain a lot of odd experiences. Read it here - Something in the Cellar (pdf).

But what about seeing something as well.

I think that ghost's are a creation of ones mind. If it weren't ,,every entity ( spirit ) that's ever died. we'd see it. Even animal and dinosaurs and any other animal or being that's died. People that see loved ones. There will to not let them go registers something in there mind, and most of the time, they see there loved one as they were in there casket. Ghost that others see. These , I believe are the minds as well. If you long to see one.And the mind over time creates the mind to see one, like a hologram

a reply to: Kali4neya

Doesn't explain what me and my friend saw.

I do think that certain places can be haunted. I lived in a very old cottage for a few years and had a number of experiences, many of which I have talked about here (sorry can't go looking for them, just had cataract surgery and for some reason ATS really hurts my eyes right now, so am currently in rock star mode...wearing dark sunglasses in the house

Most of these experiences were auditory, hearing footsteps, bangs etc and some very physical in that, myself and others would be hyper aware of a presence...one mate freaked out so much in the garden once, he all but vaulted the fence, and was convinced that something had him by the neck...that was a weird one, I felt nothing that day, also I hadn't told him about any of the experiences in the house, so he wasn't acting on any assumptions about the place.

There were many sceptics among my friends and family, who when something would happen would initially try to dismiss it, for example an old piece of furniture I owned, and had taken round many places I lived in with no issues at all, suddenly seemed to become a focus for whatever was going on and would make loud banging noises, at which point, on a totally, calm still day, would say, oh it must have been a draught, when that was just not possible, one friend meticulously examined the cabinet once, and just ended up even more confused, because he just couldn't work out, why it had made such a noise, and ended up saying to me...What the heck is it? Well I don't know lol

Eventually left when one night the footsteps stamping up and down the hallway had me convinced that there was actually a real person in the house, there wasn't though, all doors and windows closed and locked as they had been when I went to bed and in the morning I asked my then 10 yr old daughter if she had heard anything at all and she replied, Yes, that man was in my room again...Arrggghh

So, I'm not convinced it is hallucinations, so many people heard the things I did over the years I stayed there, and without any prompting, I initially didn't say anything about my experiences as I didn;t want to look like a nutter lol but many strange and weird things did happen in that house, that I have never felt anywhere else...the only bumps in the night that I hear now are people passing by from the nearby town centre after a night at the club and a few drinks, which somehow makes them want to kick over the large street bin outside my house..now that's a whole other phenomena that probably needs looking into as it is the most irrational thing to do...see large bin...must kick it over..show that bin who's boss

I'd like to lean to the possibltie of ghost being real even though never seen one, and had a few odd sensations of touch. I.e like some thing walking over your leg in bed before i pass out.

Ive thought that most haunting, or something along of curses are imposed emotions or memories of material objects that the ghost was obessed with when alive. Like jewellery to a house. Hole in that guess is how could they interact with objects that were places after their time.

I've heard lot paranormal stuff happens when some kind of change or to a state of change happening to the surroundings. Thing is these reactions of changes differs from elevation, like going up a step or a different angle of seeing light, to reading a book or believes.