RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I would have believed it more completely if I ever see one. However, I do believe there's something we can't see or hear (another dimension), and if anything that exists in those dimensions is called a "ghost", then I certainly can entertain that possibility.

I believe in the One and Only Holy Ghost. There are no other ghosts.

Let us wait for the scientific proof, oh ye learned members of the RIA. Many scientists have set up all kinds of equipment to detect ghosts and nothing. The only thing we have for proof is the testimony of various "eye witnesses." Of course eye witnesses have seen Elvis also.

I believe there are evil spirits and pure spirits but the dead do not come back unless it's a miracle.

Let's just say I'm a skeptic. When I was a kid, my friend's grandmother, a tough, often profane, Italian woman from Paterson, NJ, used to tell us ghost stories when I stayed overnight at his house that she swore were real. She took a bus on Market Street one time, bumped into a silent guy with a tall hat who annoyed her by not moving aside as she came down the aisle, and later she asked the bus driver about the annoying passenger. Of course, the passenger was suddenly nowhere to be seen, and the driver said, "That guy you're describing died a year or 2 ago." Another time, she was living with one of her husbands in a small house in West Paterson along the Passaic River, and one Christmas, a group of juvenile ghosts went rampaging through her house, giggling and pulling down the decorations and the Christmas tree as they went. She ran after them, yelling, "You little bastids...if I get my hands on you..." but, of course, they disappeared like a wisp of smoke before she could catch up to them. As kids, my friend and I ate this stuff up. I turned out to be the only friend of her grandson's that she could stand (she'd often curse other people out right to their faces) and, as I got older, I'd join her occasionally for a cup of coffee and she'd still tell me these ghost stories. Of course, as she got older, they became more elaborate and/or incoherent. When I was about 18 or 19, she told me one I'd never heard before involving a ghostly pig. When I asked my friend about it, he sneered and said, "Look, she just saw The Amityville Horror at the movies. She sees a movie or TV show and adds something from it to these fantasies of hers. Don't you know that about her by now?" "Ah, yeah, sure," I responded, and didn't bring up the subject again. Like I've said before, I like to try and keep an open-mind about things in life, but when it comes to ghosts, I do have my doubts. Then again, you probably won't catch me walking through a cemetery by myself at night anytime soon either. God forbid I should catch sight of that ghostly pig or the silent guy from Paterson with the tall hat!

One said my name one time.

UPDATE: People think that's funny? I was eight and it scared the crap out of me! Furhtermore, if it was a prank by my brother he would have admitted to it by now, so I know it was REAL! The dead spoke to numbah!

Ghosts are wicked angels deceiving us to believe in the second instant life after death. Our great, great, grandfathers are soil profiles, and they are not communicating with us. Another satan's decpetion to divert our attentions to believe him. Be wise, when confronting the devil, and his deceptive ways. No dead people come back as ghosts.

They've knocked over some of my stuff when I was younger.

I believe in spirits but, seriously doubt they are who they sometimes pretend to be. There are many things going on beyond this plane of existance - including spiritual battles and who knows what else. Something making contact with you is one thing - attempting to diddle around with things we can't hope to understand can be spiritually dangerous. It is something that both fascinates and puts the fear of God in me.

Nah. . .manifestations of people's neurotic tendencies. . .

I do, not that I want to, but I do. I have experienced something of a sort, which I don't necessarily want to deliberate, but it was very weird and very freightning.

Have seen and heard them first hand. Lived in a 12th centry castle in France...all kinds of parties going on there. It was a castle built by a ruler for his mistress so all the guards had to do was party. I also have experienced them other places. Either that or my mind is playing heavy tricks on me.

Since my house was built on the remnants of a former Native American burial ground, I have reason to believe that my house is haunted. Speaking of, what's the strange rattling noise coming from my kitchen?

I have never seen one, I have never met anyone who has seen one (as far as I know) But I believe in them. If there was a holy ghost, there can be human ghosts. I don't see why not. As a mater of fact, there is a government funded document that lists buildings or areas that are haunted. The one's I know of that are on it are; The Whaley house in San Diego, CA, and Gettysburg, PA.

If I actually killed an innocent person, the ghost might get me later on in life. I haven't killed anybody and not one ghost has haunted me. But you never know, they might exist. ... I heard that the ghost of Abe Lincoln still lives in the White House. This world works in mysterious ways sometimes.

Considering that chairs in my kitchen have moved on their own, fans and radios have been turned off, and the window that my grnadmother always tapped on (before she died) makes tapping noises during the night--I'd say, yes.

I have to believe.....so that when I die, I can visit!! (and haunt the evil people!)

I'm reading a book right now all about hauntings...it's very interesting. According to the author ghosts are earthbound spirits, that is, they can't move to a higher plane above earth's atmosphere. This may be because they're afraid of going to hell, they feel like they have unfinished business, their death was too sudden and traumatic, or because a loved one's grief about them is binding them here. People with some degree of psychic sensitivity are more likely to see or sense a presence than people with none whatsoever. Strong negative emotions like anger and fear can also allow ghosts to manifest themselves. Evidently ghosts can be convinced to leave for a higher plane by psychics (usually), when they know that there's no hell to worry about or that everything's okay on earth or whatever.

Seeing is believing, if not neccesarily knowing. I saw a ghost, or something. Whatever it was, it wasn't normal. I think it's telling that people who've never seen anything paranormal are so sure that there's no such thing as paranormal. Imagination? Maybe. However, if you categorically deny the possibility of the paranormal than you've probably never experienced it and you probably have NO imagination.

I think it's a definite possibility, but it's kind of depressing that The Other Side is so dull that ghosts have to come back here.

Nope, no way, uh-uh. Ghosts are fiction. They don't watch us in the shower, or manipulate household objects, or perform any other activity. There are many plausible explanations for 'ghostly' behaviour that don't rely on the machinations of ethereal spirits wandering the earth in torment.

although i have never seen one, I do think there is the possibility of ghosts. I cannot prove that there are ghosts, but I have not seen anyone who can really prove there are not either.