A "ghost" story.

Ivan Seeking

Note that the word "ghost" is in quotes to emphasize the fact that I am making no claims beyond telling the story as it was told to me. The telekinesis thread reminded me of this. I hadn't thought of this in many, many years.

When I was a kid, my best friend who lived next door was about three years older than me. So, one summner evening when I was about ten, my then thirteen year old neighbor, Gordon, was home alone as was often the case. Just before dark I remember Gordon knocking frantically on our front door asking to be let in. He was clearly shaken by something - maybe just his own imagination but so goes the story. He swore that while he sitting in his room, their piano in the living room started playing by itself. At first he thought that it must be a rat or something, but he said it started playing real music! He refused to go home until his parents returned and hour or so later.

This story is easy enough to dismiss. A thirteen year old's imagination can run wild at times. Still, one detail makes this story a little more interesting. Through friends I remained connected to that neighborhood for over twenty years. About twelve years after this episode my best friend still lived in that house - a different best friend named George. George's girlfriend, Robin, moved in with George one day, and Robin and I soon became friends. One day Robin was sitting home alone when she claims the ghost of a woman appeared to her in the living room. As long as Robin lived there she swore that on occasion she would see this ghost. She even claimed to know its name. AFAIK, Robin was not otherwise inlclined to have such beliefs. It was the only account of anything like that she ever told me.

zoobyshoe

A guy I met here in San Diego told me this one a few years ago.

Near where he lived as a kid was an abandoned house where kids told each other not to go because it was haunted by the spirit of the last resident who had hung himself from a hook in a beam in the ceiling.

They used to go there once in a while anyway to look into the window at the hook, which was, apparently, actually there.

He told me that he, and a friend of his, decided to go look at the hook one day, but when they looked in the window they were horrified to see an electric vaccuum cleaner being pushed around the floor, with no one visible pushing it. They ran away as fast as possible.

When he told me the story he was about 24, and I guess he was about ten when it happened. He was quite emotional when he told it, and I am convinced he believes he saw what he reported he saw.

Tom McCurdy

Ghost Stories-- Lol physics who can prove or disprove gods existance believing in ghosts. not that I believe either of you two actaully believe that there was a ghost but things can happen that tricks the imagination. A. I have heard musics from no source before, I didn't think it was a ghost- mere mental concentration. I have somewhat replicated my experience a few times, however I was under extreme circumstances the first time i heard the music. So the body may react in ways that are not well known in extreme situations. Also after you tell a story to someone... ie someone saw a ghost here before... the brain is more likely to make you belive something is from a ghost. Say you have a dream about a ghost-- could be real in thought becasue of the explantion you have heard. I may one day be convinced of the existance of god or that he doesn't exist but it will take me a hell of a lot more before I believe in ghost... ie about 8 beers.

None the less your stories were entertaining.

Ivan Seeking

What is a ghost?

Maybe you assume too much here. In other words, Whether one is a skeptic or a true believer, I think it is easy to let new-age "theories" or even traditional spiritual beliefs interfere with objectivity. Really, I neither accept or reject these stories. I have no evidence either way. I have no evidence to suggest that either one of them was hallucinating or lying, nor do I have any evidence to suggest that either one of them saw or heard anything at all.

As for entertainment, that's one of the best uses for ghost stories that I know of.

One note: I am sure that Robin never knew about Gordon. I was the only person around who would have even known about that isolated event. If anything I would rather assume that Robin was predisposed to such beliefs but that she never shared that with me.

Bariyon

Tom McCurdy,

Control yourself, no-one except you has made the link between ghosts and god.

I myself have had physical contact with a "ghost", so I accept that they exist, and even interact with matter in its more common state, but I take it no further. It has not affected my belief systems to any great extent.

Evo

I, myself, have had unexplainable things happen in the house I currently live in. I make no claims as to what they are, but they have been observed by quite a few, and I never told anyone about what was happening for fear of being thought a flake. My oldest daughter moved out and refuses to ever set foot in the house again. She had some very disturbing encounters from when we first moved in.

Things have quieted down the past two years, but the previous 8 years were pretty eventful.

Ghosts, no, something unexplainable, yes.

Zooby, this is one of the reasons I was so intrigued with low frequency. I live near an electric power complex and have high power lines nearby and was wondering if that could explain some of the weird occurences.

zoobyshoe

Yeah, it would have been better had you spilled the beans about this in that thread, because the power plant may very well be the cause, but not due to any infrasound. You would probably get much more from reading about the studies of Dr. Michael Persinger.

Depending on the size of the power plant the EM fields in the vicinity can be startling. My dad once told me about driving past a power plant with some fluorescent light bulbs he'd just bought and how they flickered on.

I don't have any Persinger links handy. Alot of google links lead to lists of the papers he has written, and he seems to have written about 4 million. It is probably more fruitful to look for articles about him. (The article I first read about him was very good, but isn't online. It's in the Dec '88 issue of Omni Magazine if your local library had a good backlog of old magazines to read or photocopy.)

-Zooby

Math Is Hard

In the apartment I live in now, a previous tenant hung himself. Happily, it has been very peaceful here. I also lived in an apartment that had burned and been rebuilt. That tenant also died in the fire. Again, no incidents - nothing unusual.
I did work in an office building next to a cemetary for a while and strange things happened all the time - to everyone! I had to work alone some times on nights and weekends and it could get really creepy. The lights in the office were always flipping on and off by themselves so I'd announce, "OK, I get it, you're trying to let me know you're here. Now knock it off please, I need to work." And then things would usually settle down.

zoobyshoe

Lights flicking on and off? Sounds like the ha'nt of Thomas Edison trying to rewire the system back to D.C.

Evo

I'll have to look those up.

Now that the weird stuff seems to have stopped, it is not so urgent. I still want to find a rational explanation though. It would be nice to have my older daughter be able to come inside the house. She will stand outside and talk to me, but that's all. My younger daughter just accepted it, but was still a bit scared.

Nothing weird happens anymore. Go figure.

Math Is Hard

I used to read about Poltergeist phenomena being associated with teenagers in the house. Something about their "mental energy" causing psycho-kinetic disturbances. The conclusions were based on a high number of reported poltergeist cases coming from homes with teenagers. This was a long time ago, though, when I read this, so I am sure its been shown to be complete B.S. by now.

Evo

Actually, that has been something I've considered. The intense periods of activity coincided, I found out later, with periods in which my younger daughter confessed to being quite upset.

It was the thread on telepathy that made me wonder if her angst, coupled with the power lines may have been a cause.

I know this sounds bizarre, but too many unexplainable things happened. Like when a sleeping cat was picked up and flung sideways several feet into a fan. I actually saw that one. Of course that could have a natural explanation. The cat was unharmed. It was quite startled though.

Perhaps it was dreaming and lept sideways across the room. It just made my hair stand up on end.

Math Is Hard

I guess it's nothing to dismiss given that there quite a few cultures on our planet who sincerely believe that directed emotion is a powerful weapon. Strong, non-directed emotion, following that logic, could be viewed as the equivalent of a grenade blasting in random directions.
This new data about the power lines and low frequency is quite intriguing. You just can't help but wonder if there is some connection...
I, too, have witnessed bizarre flying cat phenomena but the cause was always observable.

Evo

LOL.

Well, that cat *is* insane. So anything is likely.

jimmy p

We are supposed to have a ghost in our house. Apparently its the old man who lived in our house first. He didnt like the changes and moved all my dad's tools around. If he put a tool down, then looked away, then it would be gone, and we wouldnt find it for a couple of days and it would be on the side or something.

Either that or mum disagreed with dad's plans

zoobyshoe

Unsolved Mysteries or some such show, discussed a case of apparent poltergeist activity where a teenage girl was present in the home. They referenced the book and film Carrie and said this is much more associated with teenage girls than boys. A link to hormones was hypothesized.

Objects being flung around, levitated, and spontaneously broken are reported.

The mother in the Unsolved Mysteries case reported one incident that stood out in my mind as a red flag: in the kitchen there was a carton of eggs lying open on the table. She saw one of the eggs float up into the air, glide over to the refridgrator, and enter the refrigerator by passing, magically right through the refrigerator door.

That stood out because it diverged from the supposed mechanism of an unseen spirit moving things around, and entered the much more surreal world of dynamics you find in common visual hallucinations.

JohnDubYa

So I guess the egg was a ghost of a chicken that died mysteriously?

I think they call this incident a "bad trip."