Do you believe in ghosts?

The Foundation is committed to providing reliable information about paranormal claims. It both supports and conducts original research into such claims.

At JREF, we offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. The JREF does not involve itself in the testing procedure, other than helping to design the protocol and approving the conditions under which a test will take place. All tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant. In most cases, the applicant will be asked to perform a relatively simple preliminary test of the claim, which if successful, will be followed by the formal test. Preliminary tests are usually conducted by associates of the JREF at the site where the applicant lives. Upon success in the preliminary testing process, the "applicant" becomes a "claimant."

To date, no one has passed the preliminary tests.
The Link
 
This probably doesn't count as a ghost story, but years ago, I heard a loved one talking to me. It was as clear as if she was in the same room, but she was a thousand miles away. I remember looking at my watch. Later that day, learned she had died at precisely the same time I had heard her voice. I'm the most pragmatic, feet-on-the-ground person I know, but that was real and it creeped me out.
 
Anyone watch A Haunting on the Discovery channel? That show made me decide that I would never settle in a used house, or one that lies on a former graveyard site.
 
I was at a friend's house when we were still in high school playing Halo 2 with three other people when his stereo with a push in knob turned itself on and then proceeded to dial itself from one side to the other. We all stopped and looked at it for a second and then went about our business. He's told me other weird **** about that house, but this was the only time I experienced anything weird there.
 
I was flying home from my Grandmother's funeral with my Mother, Brother and Sister. My brother who was 11 or 12 at the time asked my mother if our grandmother was in heaven. She said yes and said she was watching over us.

So my brother looks up and says "Grandma, if you are watching us please give us a sign." A second later the oxygen mask above his head came down.
 
When I was about 10 yrs old my 5 yr old sister got sucked into the TV. This was after my toy clown attacked me and drug me under my bed.

this was nothing compared to the tree crashing through my window.
 
I believed in ghosts and the paranormal when I was a little boy. Now, though, no. I find it surprising that out of all people with ghosts out there, none of them has picked up the easy money to which Perham1 referred. Oh, I meant I was not surprised-- sorry.
 
I have known quite a few trustworthy people who have sworn that they have experienced something of a paranormal nature(my son for one). I do not believe they are lying, at least not all. However, I cannot bring myself to believe it until I see it, which I doubt will ever happen. I have come to the conclusion that there is something there, but it is not ghosts or departed spirits. I think whatever it is will be explained eventually, scientifically. Maybe a form of energy that we have yet to understand? (auras etc?) I just don't think everyone is lying.

Even though I don't consider myself a believer, I do love ghost stories for some reason, My younger brother has joined a ghost hunting group and I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say about it(perhaps talk my way into going on one?-seems like it would be dang interesting) My brother gave me this link to a nurses forum where they started to discuss the weird things that they have seen. I found this to be pretty interesting reading. Once again I don't think it is all BS (129 pages of stories)
The Link
 
TexEx88,

that link you provided gave me the chills, especially when i read the story about the lady who saw that black shape standing over the bed of her dying patient.

it reminded me of my roommate's (who is a very honest individual) own experience with a shadow figure, after a night of ghost hunting (he carried the voice recorder and asked questions, while i took pictures) at this old cemetery out in the boonies. though i never saw the figure, myself (i kept the lights on in my room and didn't allow myself to fall asleep until the sun came up), i felt its presence inside the house...and quite honestly, it was probably the worst feeling that i have ever felt in my life...its been 2 years since that episode last happened and it still gives me the creeps...of course, it was nothing compared to what my roommate went thru...even now, he still has trouble talking about that experience...you can easily see how uncomfortable it makes him feel, whenever you bring up the subject of that shadow figure...needless to say, we never went back to that damn cemetery ever again. lol not to mention that we took a year-long hiatus from ghost hunting, too...
 
txex88, nice link. There seems to be some very common themes in the sightings. Smell of sulfur when death is near, I've heard that before.

Scary stuff.
 
Thanks, cool story... although the logical side of me tends to believe that since he was "frozen" in fear, that this was some type of waking dream or sleep paralysis.
 
i was in a presentation for my best friend's final mechanical engineering design project at UT for his Masters and it was at a local elementary school in town. the nature of the design involved a special deal for handicapped (mentally and physically) children to bowl with. at any rate, i was looking around the room at all of the children and seeing what was wrong with them (very easy to do just by looking at them).....

except one girl had nothing obvious wrong with her. she was physically just fine and she appeared completely fine mentally. but then (and this is where i am going to lose some of you!)...i felt the Holy Spirit tell me that she was possessed.....yes, i said possessed. which was VERY strange for several reasons. first of all, nothing about her seemed possessed at all. she was quite cute and probably around 13 years of age. this was a bright sunny day in austin texas (a school off of 48th and burnet by the omlettry to be exact!). well, i didn't at ALL trust my ability to hear God on such a specific matter, but i began to pray. VERY VERY VERY softly, so that if you were sitting right next to me in a perfectly quiet room with no one else around, you would not be able to make out what i was saying. you would POSSIBLY hear some "s" sounds and some "t" sounds but certainly not words. well here i was in this VERY loud cafeteria with mentally handicapped children making loud moaning sounds and moving chairs etc etc....

at any rate, i began to speak out truths about the person of Christ because i believe that is a VERY powerful thing to do in the spiritual realm, but only very quietly as i said. this girl begans to freak out and starts hitting herself and looking back at me frantically. she even begins to bite her fist and growl at me.

i become completely shocked but don't show it in the slightest. in fact, i would gently wave at her and smile trying desperately to diffuse this situation. at one point she turns so i see just her profile and says "i heard that." which was weird because all i was doing was praying very quietly under my breath with my mouth covered with both hands (if you can picture this). she then turns the other direction so i see her profile again and says "i am moving!" and she does. all the while looking at me and not happy AT ALL with me. i continue to pray and she continues to hit herself violently, scream out and sometimes turn back to look at me angrily while biting her fist. it was like i was the only person in the entire room.

now, those of you are Christians will want to know that i was telling God "please please please don't make me deal with this here in public! I don't want to God! I will if you require it of me, but can't i run into her outside or in the hall when there aren't 100 + people present?" etc etc. in other words, this was terrifying me and i didn't want some sort of "spiritual" confrontation with someone when i knew that many in the room would think i was crazy.

long story short, a woman social worker came over and removed the girl from the room. i continued to hear her screaming out in the back room (sounded like something from the exorcist or something, but not QUITE as extreme.)......finally, she came out and looked me right in the eyes (i felt confident this was more than just the girl) with a very smug and self-satisfied look. i felt sick for not dealing with it, but it changed the way i looked at the world because suddenly the spirit world was very real to me. to this day i am more sensitive to those types of phenomena than before......
 
When I was 20 I walked into a liquor store and said (with glowing red eyes)- 'give me a keg of beer.....and these'. Clerk didnt buy it. God love Teen Wolf.

In all seriousness, for a few years we lived in Walton-on-Thames Surrey (just outside of London) in a 17th century stable that had been converted into a house. Main house was a couple hundred yards up the road.

So my Aunt and Uncle come and visit from Texas and long story short, in the middle of the second night my Aunt can't sleep because of jet lag and decides to get up and get some water. The house is very spread out (it is like the shape of a big U) so there are vey distinct sections to the house. My Aunt walks into the living room and sees what appears to be a woman sitting on the couch crying. She calls out my moms name (thinking it must be her, but why would she be up in the middle of the night) but there is no acknowledgement. She calls my moms name again and starts walking towards her and the "woman" vanishes.

At about this time I guess my parents heard talking (they are light sleepers and sleep with the door open) and my mom walks around the corner from their bedroom and turns the living room light on to find my Aunt totally freaked the F out.

The next morning at breakfast my Aunt tells the whole family the story and Mom then explains to my brother and I that they were told by the realtor the house was supposedly haunted but because they didn't think ghosts were real, they thought nothing of it and leased the house anyway.

The trippy part of it: when my parents asked the realtor what the "haunting" supposedly was, they were told a woman had been seen throughout different parts of the house and she always appeared to be crying. Yo!

So my dad decides to do research on the property and come to find out, the wealthy family who owned the land and lived in the house up the road (hundreds of years ago) lost a son to a disease and the barn was apparently his favorite place to play.

Though I didn't experience it mysel, I have believed in ghosts ever since.
 
BDog....is there some good reason for not believing these stories that we should know about?
 
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