Do you believe in ghosts?

[johnson1010]

It's very interesting to me that ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are only interested in those that believe ahead of time.

Those of us who want evidence are too closed minded! Well, i can tell you that it doesn't matter a whit whether or not you want to believe in electromagnetism. It will interact with you just the same. Gravity doesn't mind if you think the earth is flat. The strong nuclear force couldn't care less if most of it's radiation is wasted on un-inhabited, un-appreciating planets which don't believe in nuclear interactions at all.

Real phenomena don't care about your preferences. They are there to be found and they will assert themselves on your life regardless of your feelings toward them.

[Interbane]

Stuff happened to me, stuff happened around me, stuff happened while others watched, so I am not making it up and I am not crazy.

You've deductively eliminated the possibilities of this "stuff", right? All the other normal causes from hallucinations to odd phenomena. That's the most overlooked. Odd phenomena. I remember watching a show where the right vibration kicked in the "fear" response within people. It's as though it short circuits our brain. A vibration that can be caused by common household machinery - dishwasher, hvac, etc.

Of course, there is likely an endless list of what odd phenomena could possibly affect you. Things you can't even think of. Which is the rub. Unless you rule out the alternative possibilities, your conclusion that you interact with ghosts must be a fallacy, argumentum ad ignorantiam.

The fallacy is basically the same as saying "what else could this have possibly been?!?!" Strange stuff happens naturally. Freakishly strange stuff that seems impossible. I haven't yet met a person who has investigated their own beliefs enough to rule out the argument from ignorance. We humans are notoriously terrible at arriving at truthful conclusions.

[johnson1010]

The fallacy is basically the same as saying "what else could this have possibly been?!?!"

Exactly.

And what people don't realize is the answer to that question is literally thousands of other things. All of them being based in the real world of things we know can and do happen, each therefore far more likely than something we have never seen.

We can replicate those other things, such as sleep paralysis, and generate the same effect in people, but we've never found a ghost, even when all the conditions are right.

Try this on for size. The next time something strange happens and you think, "It has to be a ghost". Go through this process:

It couldn't have been a dream because: Then come up with a good reason.
It couldn't have been a halucinaiton because: Come up with a good reason.
It couldn;t have been sleep paralysis because: come up with a good reason.
keep going.

there are hundreds and thousands of other explanations which don't depend on ghosts.

[Interbane]

That's a good idea. There should be a list of 1,000 questions that need to be answered first, of all known oddities and abnormalities.

Then combinations of the oddities and abnormalities. Then make it into a sticky thread. The layman doesn't realize the obligation to epistemic due diligence that's required to reach justified conclusions. It takes effort.

[Taylor]

no one really believes the other guys ghost story, just their own.

[johnson1010]

Am i being closed minded?

Or is it the believer who is closed minded for allowing only ONE possible explanation for something that confuses them? ONLY a ghost will suffice, or ONLY mental projections or ONLY god. I can see a dozen real-world explanations for your every magical delusion.

Is my mind closed, or open to the myriad possibilities?

[Katrina Rose]

Wow! A lot of interest and various beliefs about ghosts. My neighbor believes all ghosts are demons. Curious to see what everyone here thinks on this subject. I believe they were once human and that we should be respectful, and they are not in the slightest bit a demon. However, demons do exist and so do other elements of evil. Let me know if you believe all ghosts are demons.