Yes...there is at least one at a tennis club that we clean in the mornings. We hear whispering, squeaking sneakers, and once I heard a tennis ball bouncing behind me. We were the only ones there.
This post was edited by Element 99 at October 21, 2017 5:45 PM MDT
Yes I lived with a ghost for a few months in a room I rented in Halifax NS. Nothing visible but district sound of footsteps during the evenings. I had thought of trying to speak to it but thought would be foolish talking to thin air or if there was a reply would be very scary. Landlady informed me the ghost began making its appearance a few years ago after a guy committed suicide in the room. I think ghostly things can exist as a residual effect of the deceased person.
Yes. There has been a ghost living in our house for the entire time we have been there. 28 years. It walks up and down the hallway were our bedrooms are, and knocks on the wall. This happens even when there is only one of us in the house. My late husband, my son and daughter and myself, have all heard it. It was a little unsettling at first, but now its just annoying because this usually happens very late at night when everyone is trying to sleep.
From my discussions with them it seems that Christians not only believe in a ghost they actually claim to HAVE one. They call it the Holy Ghost. They say that it speaks to them, guides them and helps them see scripture in a different way to those who don't have the Holy Ghost. I haven't figured out yet how the Holy Ghost manages to convince them that a verse or passage in their scripture means the opposite of what it actually says.
No, I don't, but I am aware people have experienced unsettling events. I don't say, "Oh no you didn't because there no ghosts", in the religious or spiritual sense.
Rather, I would be interested in what they saw, heard or felt, and what its real explanation may be - it could be something genuinely physical and external to them, or it could be some odd, minor but alarming physical or mental effect.
For an example of the last. consider one of the most frightening occurrences, a theme in many "ghost stories", that of feeling being weighted or pressed down in bed for a brief but terrifying few moments. I have heard the explanation, and though I can't remember it, do know that yes, the feeling is real but no, the external pressure is not real, let alone anything supernatural. It is one of those peculiar but harmless bursts of brain activity most of us experience at some time or other when dropping off to sleep.
A more common form of such a burst, and one I have felt a few times, is that of suddenly falling - at least, feeling you are falling. Another is a sudden, violent twitch, almost a convulsion. Usually these also occur as we are going to sleep.
Pet owners will have observed sleeping cats and dogs will sometimes suddenly twitch strongly - a quite different move from the more routine "tossing and turning" that redistributes the self-imposed loads on the sleeping animal's (including human) body.
I wonder if so-called "out-of-body" experiences are really much the same thing: we know more or less what we look like so it seems perfectly feasible to have a minor but rather unsettling episode of apparently inhabiting a strange parallel version looking at our real, corporeal version in bed - when actually, no we aren't. The experience is real but the experienced event is imagined; its cause is purely internal and akin to the dream, the twitch or to the pressing or falling feeling.
The definition of a ghost is: an apparition of a dead person that is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image. The bible says at ecclesiastes 9:5,10 "for the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going." Therefore I don't believe a ghost to be a dead person who now exists in spirit form.
Curious that passage, for although I don't believe in gods or ghosts, a common thread to all known religions that have come, survive or died out is the promise of some sort of "after-life" as a spirit. It served, and still serves, to lessen the fear of death and comfort the bereaved, but that verse alone basically says death is final.
You are right when you write that a common thread of false religion is the belief that the soul survives death. Thus the belief that the dead are wondering about, and can return in spirit form. Many claim to have had encounters with these spirits. If, however the bible states that the dead know of nothing, the spirits appearing before others are in fact evil creatures that at one time enjoyed God's favor until they joined the most evil and malignant spirit in existence. Their sole purpose is to misguide mankind using one of the most powerful tools used; this being false religion. (Matthew 24:5) However, the bible assures it's readers of a hope to one day see those that have succumbed to one of man's worst enemies, death. The very faithful servant job asked "if a man dies, can he live again? I will wait all the days of my compulsory service until my relief comes. You will call and I will answer you. You will long for the work of your hands." (Jobs 14:14,15; John 5:28,29))
This post was edited by Autumnleaves at October 25, 2017 1:02 PM MDT