Do you believe in 'spirits'?

[Queen_Morpheus]

I had always been skeptical on this topic. It's not like I would stand in the middle of a crowd and announce that I believe in 'ghosts' or 'spirits', however, being someone who has to "see it to believe it", I know, first hand, NOW, that they are real.
I wouldn't necessarily call myself 'religious', though, and witnessing something that seems 'paranormal activity-like', makes me wonder about the spiritual part, or how religion would come into this scenario.

Let me share with you something that occurred some time ago, and even recently.
When I was young, like around eight or nine, in my mother's house, I had 'seen something' that looked like a silhouette, or 'shadow-like' figure, sometimes more than one, in our hallway, and in the corners of some of the rooms. It didn't do anything, except move around, very quick. It appeared to not have arms, though. I could make out the head, neck, shoulders and torso, but it would move quickly into an area where there it was lit (like where our lamp was, in the living room), and simply disappear.
I don't ever remember being scared of it. I may have seen this all my life, as far as I'm concerned. I almost seemed 'used to' the idea, or notion, that there was this 'being', this 'spiritual shadow' among us, and I didn't feel any fear towards it. Sometimes it felt awkward, only because if one of my friends or cousins came over and witnessed it, they never came back to my house.

My mother had claimed to have seen this 'spirit' for years, even when she was young, living in another house, as a child. So, to me as a child, it was almost 'normal' to know there was this 'floating thing' in the house, sometimes. It wasn't all the time, just occasionally, like about once or twice a month, or even less.

"Did you see that?" My mother would ask, in a whisper, while we were watching TV. It's evening and shadows are cast in our living room, but it's lit up enough from the one lamp we had, shining a vague light throughout the room.
"Uh-huh.... it's over there now!" I'd reply, watching this 'spirit' cross the living room, in front of the large window, and disappear into the light of the lamp.
"I seen a 'few' of them, earlier, in the dining room, by the window." Mother would whisper. I don't know why she whispered every time she had a sighting and reported it to me. My father was hardly around, so he never mentioned seeing something like this. Maybe that's the reason why he was never around .Who know's, right?

When my mother died, in 1993, the night she died, in the hospital, my husband and I spent the night in her house, in her bed. I felt terrible about the whole day, dwelling on my mother's death, and having these overwhelming questions about 'death', in general, on a spiritual level. I was told, by one person, that my mother was in 'Heaven'. Then I was told my mother was now a spirit, checking in on us. I was even told that when you die, that's it, there's nothing more; no afterlife, nothing. I wasn't religious back then, but I sure had a lot of questions on where my mother 'went'.

The first night my husband and I stayed in mother's house, it was an eerie feeling that settled over us. My hubby isn't a religious person, either, but later that night, when we were in bed, and all the lights were out, we laid there, in silence, for about twenty minutes before hearing the kitchen tap running for a few seconds, then it stopped. There was more silence, and an abrupt sound of someone walking down the stairs. I didn't know what to think, and looked over at my hubby, whose eyes were glued to staring at the ceiling. I didn't know if he heard what I just did, or if it was just me. Then he whispers, "Did you hear that?" Well, I'm not crazy or 'hearing things', which was a relief, but to know that we both heard something that was surreal, didn't make me any more confident that we made the right choice on staying at my mother's house.
The following few days after mother died, a whole variety of things happened in the house. The footsteps creeped me out, but that only happened a couple of times. The water running for a few seconds, really freaked me out. It was when I started seeing that shadowy figure, again, that brought back all those memories.

We brought in a catholic priest to cleanse the house. That didn't work. We brought in a Christian pastor, and his group, to cleanse the house, and one of the ladies who was in the group, started freaking out, while they were standing in a circle, downstairs where we were told that spirit was emerging from, and the woman left the house, not coming back.The pastor had said the house was cleansed but he wouldn't come back, either. Finally, I called a relative, who was practicing something like "Wicca" or some kind of "Universal Spiritualism" and she put glasses of water in all the rooms, washed the walls with rosebushes, and muttered prayers as she walked through the house. From that time, onward, we didn't have any more 'incidents'. Now, my son is telling me (his bedroom was the main room that was cleansed by the pastor, years earlier) that he seen a shadowy figure in his bedroom. I asked him what it looked like and he described 'my stalker of a ghost' to a tee!!
I told my son to simply acknowledge the spirit, and let it know that it's not welcome here, and ask it to leave. I wasn't sure where I got that from, but it eased my son's mind, and he tried it. He said he didn't want to find out if it worked, or start hearing this 'being' talk back, so he packed up all his stuff in his bedroom and moved upstairs. My oldest son has a bedroom downstairs, too, but he said he doesn't get bothered by anything. I'm not sure what this is, or why it's even happening. I wish I had more resources to use to get rid of these 'paranormal activities' in this house! (Yes, we still live in the same house!)

I don't know 'who' this spirit is, or what it wants. It's not knocking things over, or dragging chains, or making any noise. It's simply just 'there', in our presence, sometimes.

I never use to believe in things like that, but every time I experience it, my mind starts conjuring up surreal thoughts, ideas, and even more questions.

I have relatives who won't even walk into our house! I have cousins and friends who used to come over when I was a child, and ask me if our house was still 'haunted'. My reply is always, "No, our house isn't haunted. It's apparently being 'visited by something!" Hell, I don't know what else to say.

Sometimes I still see it. This spirit appears to be 'entertained' by us. It's always about 20 feet from me, in the corner of the room, or sometimes in front of the window. I am not afraid of it, but I am concerned about how others see this.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this?

[chadorama]

I don't believe in spirits - but I'm not opposed to actual evidence. Can you film the shadowy spirit and share the video? Or if it doesn't pick up on film, can I come visit your house? I don't want to be creepy, but I think this stuff is BS - so if it's not I wouldn't mind knowing the truth.

[Thinktank]

i don't believe in the kind of spirits that are 'just there' or 'making a noise'

my aunt said to me - YOUR HOUSE HAS AN EVIL SPIRIT. Nope. No such thing.
Forget about it. She's imagining it.

The kind of spirits I believe in are the one people work hard to get and the people 'earn' them.
You wanna be a greedy old miser that tries to cheat people out of their money when you're 80 years old?
Well - you get that spirit by cheating people throughout your life. You wanna have a lying spirit? Just
lie to everyone all the time, and you'll have that spirit.

Then you have to go to God, and find a way to get rid of those things.

[fluffy]

I'd like to think that life does extend beyond these bags of flesh that we dwell within, that something as ethereal as thought and feeling can exist without biological support. But the science is incomplete at the moment, to quote a movie line "...less like science, and more like science fiction." Still, absence of proof is not proof of absence, and there are an awful lot of anecdotal accounts of unexplainable occurrences. I like to stay open to the possibilities, life is much more interesting with a little mystery in it.

[hellomynameis]

Do you believe in spirits?

No.

The most sympathetic thing I can say about the belief in spirits is that it's mostly harmless.

Maybe it will one day be discovered that there is a hereto unknown force within us that extends beyond our death, some sort of 'spirit' like property, maybe.

Maybe I'll find out later today that there is no such thing as "today" and that I'm really ecotoplasm in a vat in a realm that can't be called a universe where the concept of time doesn't exist. Maybe I paid good money for this "trip".

Maybe.

However, I do believe to a high certainty that if something does lift off our body at the time of our death, it will be nothing like the spirits portrayed in the movies. We know that just about everything that makes up our 'being' is dependant on the brain. Alter the brain and you can wipe personality, recognitions, memory, etcetera, etc. Also, the evidence for spirits is at an all-time low (as methods for evidence collecting has greatly improved) and the understanding of modes of self/group deception and fakery (is that a word?) are at an all time high.

In my opinion there is no profit in believing in spirits beyond whatever pleasures and solace (and if you're a huckster, $$$) we could derive from any ol' mysterious idea.

[xjeepguy]

I believe in spirits , I am most fond of the well aged ones from Scotland .

[Mr. Personality]

I don't believe in spirits as such. But I do believe something is behind all the sightings and experiences out there. I chalk it up to science we don't understand yet.
Which could, theoretically, still turn out to be spirits as we think of them now, I just doubt it.

[hellomynameis]

I don't believe in spirits as such. But I do believe something is behind all the sightings and experiences out there. I chalk it up to science we don't understand yet.
Which could, theoretically, still turn out to be spirits as we think of them now, I just doubt it.

Why don't you chalk it up to human fallibility?

[Mr. Personality]

I don't believe in spirits as such. But I do believe something is behind all the sightings and experiences out there. I chalk it up to science we don't understand yet.
Which could, theoretically, still turn out to be spirits as we think of them now, I just doubt it.

Why don't you chalk it up to human fallibility?

Because I'm not so self-righteous as to think it's completely impossible.

[hellomynameis]

Why don't you chalk it up to human fallibility?

Because I'm not so self-righteous as to think it's completely impossible.

Dunno what self-righteousness has to do with it but are you saying it's better to give credence to something (however vague that something and/or the credence is) than to doubt it? Is doubt a self-righteous act?

I guess I'm trying to understand, in a world where we have to deal with true and false things on a daily basis, why unsolved mysteries get chalked up to being something real in the universe? Science in your case.

I would argue that that mode of thinking has a very bad track record.

[Mr. Personality]

Here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to quote your last post and then my first post. I will bold some parts to make it easier to see where you went wrong there.

Dunno what self-righteousness has to do with it but are you saying it's better to give credence to something (however vague that something and/or the credence is) than to doubt it? Is doubt a self-righteous act?

I guess I'm trying to understand, in a world where we have to deal with true and false things on a daily basis, why unsolved mysteries get chalked up to being something real in the universe? Science in your case.

I would argue that that mode of thinking has a very bad track record.

I don't believe in spirits as such. But I do believe something is behind all the sightings and experiences out there. I chalk it up to science we don't understand yet.
Which could, theoretically, still turn out to be spirits as we think of them now, I just doubt it.

See?

Also, I would argue that line of thinking leads to discovery.

[hellomynameis]

Here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to quote your last post and then my first post. I will bold some parts to make it easier to see where you went wrong there.

Dunno what self-righteousness has to do with it but are you saying it's better to give credence to something (however vague that something and/or the credence is) than to doubt it? Is doubt a self-righteous act?

I guess I'm trying to understand, in a world where we have to deal with true and false things on a daily basis, why unsolved mysteries get chalked up to being something real in the universe? Science in your case.

I would argue that that mode of thinking has a very bad track record.

I don't believe in spirits as such. But I do believe something is behind all the sightings and experiences out there. I chalk it up to science we don't understand yet.
Which could, theoretically, still turn out to be spirits as we think of them now, I just doubt it.

See?

Also, I would argue that line of thinking leads to discovery.

You think I missed your point and I think you missed mine.

I don't believe in spirits as such. But I do believe something is behind all the sightings and experiences out there. I chalk it up to science we don't understand yet.
Which could, theoretically, still turn out to be spirits as we think of them now,I just doubt it.

The highlighted portion is what I was referring to.
I've interpreted your last sentence to mean that you doubt "Spirits are as we think of them now", not that you doubt the existence of spirits.
I've also interpreted, "I chalk it up to science we don't understand yet." to mean something greater than fallibility as we have no small understanding of that already.

Also, I very much agree with you about thinking and discoveries. Don't think anyone has advocated for the subject of spirits and other mysteries to be seen as a taboo subject for science to investigate.

Please set me straight if I haven't taken the meaning of your messages correctly.

Kind of tempted to pull a Jim Dixon on you :sillygrin:

[Mr. Personality]

I doubt spirits are what we think of them as, but I won't say it's impossible I'm wrong.
When I say science we don't understand yet, I mean something along the lines of:
Thousands of years ago when the Earth shook, it meant God was angry.
Now it means plates are moving.
It doesn't mean the Earth didn't shake, it just means the explanation is different and more accurate.

I won't deny people saw what they saw, though I'm certain more than a few are tricks of the eyes/mind. I doubt they actually saw a spirit, but they witnessed something (and who knows, maybe one day it will actually prove to be spirits as we think of them now). Or we may never find anything out and have this conversation forever.

[hellomynameis]

I doubt spirits are what we think of them as, but I won't say it's impossible I'm wrong.
When I say science we don't understand yet, I mean something along the lines of:
Thousands of years ago when the Earth shook, it meant God was angry.
Now it means plates are moving.
It doesn't mean the Earth didn't shake, it just means the explanation is different and more accurate.

I won't deny people saw what they saw, though I'm certain more than a few are tricks of the eyes/mind. I doubt they actually saw a spirit, but they witnessed something (and who knows, maybe one day it will actually prove to be spirits as we think of them now). Or we may never find anything out and have this conversation forever.

AHhhhhhhh, thanks for the clarity.

[normaM]

I believe :)