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Again, I should probably come back to this later, but I have had encounters with what I've believed to be ghosts.

When I was four or five years old, I wandered into the kitchen one weekend morning because I heard water running. I thought my mum was probably up and making breakfast, but when I entered the kitchen, I saw a woman with long hair crying as she washed the dishes. She was gone in an instant and no one ever saw her again.

My senior year of high school, I was invited to a Halloween party by a girl in my English class. Her house was way out in the middle of nowhere, and everyone knew the area where she lived used to be sacred Native American ground. Despite this, they foolishly decided to play with a Ouija board. Josh and I went outside with a few other people who didn't want to be near it.

That night and for about a week after, I saw everyone I knew with his eyes gauged out, with the exception of Josh, my Japanese teacher, and our Japanese exchange student. My only assumption for their intactness is that they were either Buddhist, as is the case with my teacher and student, or agnostic, as is the case with Josh.

One of my friends who practiced with Ouija boards and the like used it at my house and claimed that the "Lion" as he was called was gone. She used it to talk to a small boy who had starved to death, and he said that he wouldn't have come out if that spirit was still around. To this day, we don't know what he was, but I imagine he was some angry spirit or demon.

Also, my alarm clock back home used to always go off at 3AM. No matter what I did, it always sounded for a minute, even if I turned it off or unplugged it. After a few days of this, I left it unplugged, and it still happened. There were no batteries in it, and it happened nearly every day for a year.

I feel that it merits mention that I left, not out of discomfort but disappointment. I was unfamiliar with how a Ouija board user looked and was more accustomed to the child's sleep-over method than the fast, direct, jerky movements used by the girl who was in front of it. Rather than continue what seemed to me, an ill-executed farce.

By even presenting this theory, you are acknowledging the religion of the presenter, in this case Catholicism. Believing in this theory of his is no different than believing that a crucifix will protect you from ghosts.
In any case, Sara, speaking from within the rules of most occultists, I would have to say that it sounds more like a demon than a ghost. Of course for me this is purely hypothetical and academic.


Tammy, I'm sure that you think intentionally misspelling words like "is" is terribly cute, but this is a serious conversation about intellectual and philosophical concepts. I request that you either take it more seriously (which generally discourages not only misspellings, but also one-sentence answers) or perhaps to not participate in these particular types of discussions.

As for me, I cannot say, with certainty that I have ever had any sort of ghostly encounter. The closest thing that comes to mind is a time when, at the very heights of suggestibility, when conducting a sort of investigation of my own, I thought I heard a voice in the living room say "Dad...Dad" where my father was sleeping in the next room. At the time I believe that the TV was off. If not then the volume, voice, and clarity were all wrong. In any case it was not the television. It sounded a bit like my brother, but it seemed far, far too close and I was certain that he was asleep and I would have heard him come down.
In fact, it was probably nothing. The house was new and we were it's first occupants. I don't believe that anyone died during construction, either, least of all any children.

As for believing in ghosts, I can't say that I do, having had no strong encounter of my own. Psychic activity is a different matter, however, as I have strong reason to believe in it (I don't mean to be mysterious; see my most recent post in the philosophy section for more on that particular matter). While the type and scope of psychic activity is nothing like it is in the movies, I have seen evidence of psychicly exerted pressure (to extremely light degrees) in person, before my very eyes. It was severely light, with presure that would be insufficient to lift a feather. Seeing as psychic phenomenon and ghostly activity are related, however, it gives me hope that ghosts may exist.
I hope that they exist because it provides hope that there may indeed be an afterlife, providing an escape from the oblivion that is likely to otherwise await beyond the grave.
Of course it is possible that ghosts could exist without there being an afterlife. Perhaps ghostly persistence is the only escape from oblivion. Conversely, perhaps the consciousness has already been granted oblivion and the activity is produced by a sort of psychic imprint or non-sentient by-product.

Whell. I don't know if I believe in ghosts. There is something. Demons, spirits, angels, ghosts.. I dunno. But something is around.

When we lived in Archie, we lived in a huge old house. We heard s**t all the time. Everyone did. One night, me and Matt were watching t.v. The cat started looking all weird, like scared. She was staring at our steps. We heard something, so we paused the t.v. We heard loud noises upstairs, like someone stomping. But the only other people there were his parents who were asleep downstairs.

Another night in Archie loud sounds woke up Barb. Sonny woke up too. Barb said something about how loud we were being and told Sonny she was gonna go tell us to quiet down. He heard the noises too.. but told Barb not to worry about telling us to be quiet.. we were at work.

My sister lives in an old house as well. Before she was born, we lived there. I had to sleep in a doll room. It was the scariest f%$*ing thing in my life. I hated those dolls. And I would hear hit constantly. One night my cousin had stayed with us. She swears she saw a girl walking down the hallway, with blond curly hair. My sister has hair like that, but she wasn't born yet.

My sister is ten now, past the point of imaginary things. She doesn't believe in Santa or any of that. But one day Kathy heard her talking in her room. She went in to find Darrien in the closet. She claims a man was in there with her. Weeks later Kathy had out a photo album, and there was a picture of my great grandpa. Darrien pointed to it. She asked her why she didn't believe her about the guy when she had a picture of him. She was actually irritated. Like, "Are you crazy? Saying I made that guy up when you have a picture of him?" But of course my great grandpa is dead.

Kathy send my sister to a therapist for that. I honestly think that's wrong of her. My sister has a bad enough time as it is..

But I believe in something.. I haven't seen a ghost but I know what I've heard with my own ears. And I know my cat wasn't crazy either.

I agree with you there. Dolls, especially porcelain and those Japanese ball-joint dolls, are really creepy.