Do you believe in ghosts

[Ratbeetle]

Bringing this thread back after a weird occurance last night.

It's been a year and a half since I started this thread. We're no longer in the same house, we've actually moved twice and now live 800 miles away from CO. Our daughter is 4 now and there has been zero weirdness around...until last night.

Our daughter comes into our room in the middle of the night quite often. And when she does Mom and dad don't tend to sleep too well, if you've shared a bed with a toddler you know why. So i toss and turn quite a bit. Last night was no different and once as I was trying to fall back asleep I heard the very distinctive tip tap of our oldest dog walking across the hardwood.

She is supposed to be kenneled at night because she tends to have an accident somewhere in the house if she is not. So I jump out of bed thinking I'm going catch her before she pees only when I get to the living room, both of our dogs are in their kennels. I just kind of stand there for a minute processing. The atmosphere felt off, not ominous or anything...just felt off. Both dogs are awake and alert but calm and quiet. I check that their kennel doors are latched and then head back to bed. On the way back checking the clock in the kitchen, 3:33am. I got back in bed and figure I must have dreamt hearing her. No big deal.

Then this morning at breakfast, my wife asks me why I jumped out of bed last night. I told her, "well it was weird, I thought I heard". She cuts me off and says "the dog tapping across the floor. Yeah, I heard it too. Thought I must have been dreaming".

I'm not gonna lie, it's a bit unsettling considering that I originally started this thread because we were hearing this same dog coming down the stairs when she really wasn't.

 

[Mike Islander]

Bringing this thread back after a weird occurance last night.

It's been a year and a half since I started this thread. We're no longer in the same house, we've actually moved twice and now live 800 miles away from CO. Our daughter is 4 now and there has been zero weirdness around...until last night.

Our daughter comes into our room in the middle of the night quite often. And when she does Mom and dad don't tend to sleep too well, if you've shared a bed with a toddler you know why. So i toss and turn quite a bit. Last night was no different and once as I was trying to fall back asleep I heard the very distinctive tip tap of our oldest dog walking across the hardwood.

She is supposed to be kenneled at night because she tends to have an accident somewhere in the house if she is not. So I jump out of bed thinking I'm going catch her before she pees only when I get to the living room, both of our dogs are in their kennels. I just kind of stand there for a minute processing. The atmosphere felt off, not ominous or anything...just felt off. Both dogs are awake and alert but calm and quiet. I check that their kennel doors are latched and then head back to bed. On the way back checking the clock in the kitchen, 3:33am. I got back in bed and figure I must have dreamt hearing her. No big deal.

Then this morning at breakfast, my wife asks me why I jumped out of bed last night. I told her, "well it was weird, I thought I heard". She cuts me off and says "the dog tapping across the floor. Yeah, I heard it too. Thought I must have been dreaming".

I'm not gonna lie, it's a bit unsettling considering that I originally started this thread because we were hearing this same dog coming down the stairs when she really wasn't.

This is how ghost stories get started. You both heard a noise that you didn't actually identify, while you were both waking from deep sleep. It sounded like dogs footsteps, but you actually have no idea. GHOSTS!

Or, it was just a noise that sounded like the dog walking on the floor. You were both tired. You literally don't know what made the noise. The "mystery" is "What sounds like a dog walking across a floor, when you know the dog is locked up?" And that's where it ends. Unless/until you learn more, everything you propose is a guess, and "ghosts" is the least supported by evidence. Maybe your oldest dog is capable of making a similar sound inside her kennel. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the dog.

This is how I personally approach events that happen that I don't understand and can't know what happened. "I don't know", without any added woo woo, is the most useful tool in this situation...for me.

 

[Ratbeetle]

This is how ghost stories get started. You both heard a noise that you didn't actually identify, while you were both waking from deep sleep. It sounded like dogs footsteps, but you actually have no idea. GHOSTS!

Or, it was just a noise that sounded like the dog walking on the floor. You were both tired. You literally don't know what made the noise. The "mystery" is "What sounds like a dog walking across a floor, when you know the dog is locked up?" And that's where it ends. Unless/until you learn more, everything you propose is a guess, and "ghosts" is the least supported by evidence. Maybe your oldest dog is capable of making a similar sound inside her kennel. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the dog.

This is how I personally approach events that happen that I don't understand and can't know what happened. "I don't know", without any added woo woo, is the most useful tool in this situation...for me.

Never said it was a ghost. I'm far from a beleiver and it's certainly possible that it was in my head but in the moment I was certain of what I heard.

When you have a dog for 10+ years you know the sounds that it does and doesn't make.

You've never had anything happen that made you scratch your head.

I'm skeptical but certainly don't have all the answers in this world. Maybe just a glitch in the matrix, ha.

 

[Mike Islander]

Never said it was a ghost. I'm far from a beleiver and it's certainly possible that it was in my head but in the moment I was certain of what I heard.

When you have a dog for 10+ years you know the sounds that it does and doesn't make.

You've never had anything happen that made you scratch your head.

I'm skeptical but certainly don't have all the answers in this world. Maybe just a glitch in the matrix, ha.

Got it. Yes, definitely had things make me scratch my head. Unless I learn can more, I default to "I don't know" and leave it at that. Well, not quite. I normally default to "It was more likely [fill in the blank with known possibilities]."

 

[49ereric]

Well do you? I've never been a believer in the supernatural type stuff but I'm not naive enough to think we have all the mysteries of the universe unravelled.

There's been some strange happenings around the ratbeetle house lately.

Say Spirits instead. Don’t think of it as supernatural. Not all will see or hear them but some will feel being watched.

 

[EddieNel]

@Ratbeetle i haven’t read though this thread but one quick question. When you had your first experience in your old house. Did you bring any furniture or anything that came from that house before you moved in with you to the new house? Sometimes energy is attached to objects and if you bring those objects with you. You bring that energy with you wherever you go.

Long story short. We bought a house that the owner had died in. For about a year he walked through the house and closed doors etc. Never felt threatened but tried for months to dismiss it but finally we couldn’t anymore. It finally went away when we gave away his old lazy boy recliner. Was a total skeptic before this happened. Now I’m a total believer.

 

[9.1]

"ghosts" is the least supported by evidence.

It's fully supported by the lack of evidence.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Someone, I believe it was astrologist Carl Sagan and a group of others started a fund which would pay who ever could show irrefutable proof that UFO's, ghost or other super natural happenings are real. To my knowledge the fund is still growing.

 

[hicountry1]

Absolutely.

I have a family member who is a medium.

 

[Mike Islander]

It's fully supported by the lack of evidence.

True. If there is absolutely no evidence, it must absolutely be true.

 

[49ereric]

Someone, I believe it was astrologist Carl Sagan and a group of others started a fund which would pay who ever could show irrefutable proof that UFO's, ghost or other super natural happenings are real. To my knowledge the fund is still growing.

Proof comes to the individual(s) not meant to be shared IMHO.
carl Sagen can seek his own proof if he desires.

 

[Mike Islander]

Someone, I believe it was astrologist Carl Sagan and a group of others started a fund which would pay who ever could show irrefutable proof that UFO's, ghost or other super natural happenings are real. To my knowledge the fund is still growing.

Million dollar challenge by The Amazing Randi, magician and lead debunker of bullshit for 50 years. It's interesting (natural) that those whose job it is to fool people are the least likely to believe unsupported woo.

 

[Mike Islander]

Proof comes to the individual(s) not meant to be shared IMHO.
carl Sagen can seek his own proof if he desires.

When you say that, what does it actually mean? I'm truly curious. Can you name an example of any mechanism of "proof" that can come to individuals that can't be proven for everyone?

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Yes.

Creepy experiences in the backcountry

My guess is that could be someone's gear stash? Might be a tent or stove or something in there? Could be. But usually they bury them deeper and cover them with branches so nobody would find them. It also could be a spring. I’ve seen where ranchers or outfitters would bury a barrel with a bunch...

www.rokslide.com

 

[EddieNel]

Someone, I believe it was astrologist Carl Sagan and a group of others started a fund which would pay who ever could show irrefutable proof that UFO's, ghost or other super natural happenings are real. To my knowledge the fund is still growing.

A guy offered Carl 1 million dollars to scientifically prove that he loved his mother. He couldn’t do it.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Oh just things that make you go hmmmm....this might be a bit long and rambling.

Since having our little girl a couple years ago, we would often hear odd noises on her baby monitor. It creeped my wife out but she's always been more impressionable than me. I just chalked it up to the house settling.

Been working from home quite a bit in the last year. So about a month ago, I was sitting at the kitchen table working and heard as plain as day our dog walking down the stairs. The dog is old and has a very distinct sound coming down the stairs. Kind of a thump thump sound. I look up at the stairs and don't see a dog...I glance in the living room and she's sound asleep in her bed. Odd. I told my wife about it later that night and she thinks I'm an idiot.

Fast forward a week or so, we had put our daughter to bed and are sitting on the couch watching tv. Thump thump coming down the stairs. My wife looks at the stairs and then over to our sleeping dog and then over to me with wide eyes. I just bust up laughing and say "told you." We sit there a few minutes and then hear some creaking and popping on the baby monitor. Being slightly creeped out, I get up and look at the monitor just in time to see a weird streak move across and our daughter who has been sound asleep starts tossing and turning. At that point, I had enough and hustled up stairs and parked my ass in her rocking chair for an hour while she slept.

Since that night my daughter who is 2 and half mind you has now mentioned ghosts in the spare bedroom and told my wife "grandma" was in her room. We don't use "grandma" we have other names for the grandmothers...

Just a couple nights ago we were all upstairs in my daughter's room having quiet time before bed. We were sitting around her blanket and she was handing out books. She hands one to daddy, then mommy then she places one next to my wife and says "one for grandma."

That brings us to last night. It was a long day, so when we put our daughter to bed we decided to lay in bed and read. Daughter's room is across the hall from ours and we had the light on so our bedroom door was closed. She had a hard time going to sleep last night and was rustling in her bed, it sounded like someone touched our doorknob and my wife said "oh no she's up." But when she looked at the monitor, my daughter was still snuggled in her covers. I get up and go check on her. She's sleeping fine so I turn around to leave her room and stop, her closet door is slid open about 6". No big deal except when my wife was getting my daughter ready for bed, I specifically picked up her dirty clothes and placed them in the clothes basket in the closet and CLOSED THE DOOR.

We'll see what tonight brings but I'm about to burn the house down. Kidding, kinda.

I've never personally experienced anything supernatural, but I have a buddy who lives in PA, in a house that's well over 100 years old, and he (and his wife), have stuff happen almost nightly. They acquired the house several years ago as an inheritance from his wife's grandmother, and there was never an issue until they did a remodel and added an addition about a year or so ago. After that, all hell broke loose. Frequent sound of footsteps walking around upstairs and in the attic, coming home after work, or getting up in the morning before leaving for work, and finding all the lights on in the house and all the cupboard doors open in the kitchen, and lately coming home to find all the windows in the house open, that were previously locked from the inside. Once, while in the middle of the remodel there was a push broom propped up against the wall in the kitchen and they were sitting on the couch in the living room watching tv, the broom fell over on the floor, than slid across the floor into the living room where they were seated. This guy is a no BS type of person, and I truly believe what he says. He also invited me over to spend the night, the next time I'm down in PA, if I'd like to witness some stuff for myself. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'm going to take him up on that offer.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

A guy offered Carl 1 million dollars to scientifically prove that he loved his mother. He couldn’t do it.

Feelings and emotions are just that. Show me an actual photo of, Bigfoot, an alien space craft or a ghost. Neve happened, never will.

 

[Mike Islander]

A guy offered Carl 1 million dollars to scientifically prove that he loved his mother. He couldn’t do it.

Hmmm, just like not one single person could win the million dollars by showing any ability of ESP, dowsing, contacting the dead, moving things with their minds, etc., etc.

The big difference is that all of these things can actually be tested. And they all failed miserably. The sad part was that many of these poor people (and those they duped, knowingly or not) really believed what they claimed. They were just pitifully inept at reasoning skills, lacked skepticism, and had powerful self-deception skills.

What's hilarious is that it is really, really simple to test most of these claims. These folks had no interest in learning how to test themselves, ignored the misses, and remembered the hits.

For me personally, I would like to know whether what I believe is really true or not. I don't take pleasure in believing things I don't know or can't know.

I can personally "know" if I love someone. But I can't personally know if someone can read my mind or bend spoons without cheating unless they are tested. And when they are tested, they fail miserably, every time.

 

[bdg848]

The DOG is the Ghost!!!!! She can pass right through the kennel wires!

 

[Campcreek12]

Not a believer. Seems odd that ghosts are never somebody that died two weeks ago, must be a waiting list to come back to the living and make doors ajar. I wish a ghost would make me a sandwich or wash my car. I know one thing, if the afterlife is wondering around moving peoples' cereal boxes and creaking floorboards to get your kicks, that sucks. But you never know I guess, there are some noncrazy people who claim to see some weird stuff.