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Cavegirl
Posts: 1572
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Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 01:16

hmm ok this might seem like a slightly odd topic.... but

do you believe in ghosts? why?

have you ever had what you would call a paranormal experience... seen a ghost, or heard one.. that kind of thing. why did you think it was a ghost or something paranormal and not just a hallucination?

on another board im on i have been seeing lots of "oh guess what happened at my school its sooo haunted" and "my spooky house" that kind of thing. and it got me thinking do people actually believe in ghosts and why. i personally dont, but i would like to know if other people actually do and why they didnt just put it down to "my mind playing tricks"

id love to turn this into a proper peice of sociological research- "social conditioning and peoples beliefs" but well... i dont have time or the resources at the moment.

still i would be interested to see what people have to say on the matter.

BelleBayard

Prancing Pony Moderator & Elf Laundry Mistress
Posts: 3151
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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 01:24

As a nurse in a hospital for over 30 years I firmly believe in ghosts. I have held the hands of dying patients and felt their spirits leave their bodies. If they have unresolved issues in life, they often linger there, disoriented and certain they must complete something left undone.

The eeriest one I remember was not a patient, but a nurse who had worked at that hospital (a very old one for this country, about 96 yrs old) for over 30 years on the night shift. Periodically, she would be seen in her old-fashioned white dress & cap uniform on the floor. When not actually seen, odd things would happen at night. Blood pressure machines would roll down the hall, doors would close, odd cold spots where no vents were... Creepy for some, but sad for me that even in death she couldn't rest.

Rarely have I ever felt a malignant spirit, rather only ones that have lost there way and remain either because habits have become so ingrained they can't let them go or because they have something they felt they needed to do before they passed on.

When I was younger and less acculturated to the belief in spirits (as in my childhood), I believe I actually saw ghosts of not only people, but animals as well. I have also felt the presence of those who have been in a place in the past, even now.

Perhaps this is what makes me feel that the Elves of Tolkien's ME existed here and may still exist in an unsubstantial way. Faded to the point we consider them a sort of ghost. Just my strange way of looking at things.

Fantasy_Elf

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 03:41

that was an eerie story BelleBayard...
well, I have no idea whether to believe this or not;
but about a year ago, I woke up early in the morning, to get ready for school, and I was really quiet, didn't have shoes on or anything, and I was in the kitchen, in a room right next to the kitchen we have a radio, so I was listening to the radio, and suddenly the stations went crazy and it wouldn't stop on any station, just kept changing it! I dropped something, that made a noise and then the radio stopped at a certain station, I believed it was a ghost, wasn't really scared of it, but the point is that if there really was a ghost there, at first, she didn't notice me, and when she heard the thing I dropped, hitting the floor, she got scared and left or something.
just made me think...

[Edited on 23/2/2003 by Fantasy_Elf]

Ainulindale

Last Homely Housekeeper
& Gallery Shirriff
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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 03:49

I suppose spirits do exist, but i have never noticed them.

Something strange hapened to me two years ago.

One night i felt terribly afriad and upset, and I couldn't sleep. I switched on all the lights at 1.00 am and I still felt scared. Then at about 1 something, the moblies on my wall started to sway back and forth and I felt dizzy. I realized that there was some sort of earthquake and I was so scared! Singapore never has earthquakes.

Next day in the papers I read that there had been an earthquake in Sumatra, and we in Singapore felt the tremors.

This meant that while the earthquake was going on in Indonesia, I could actually sense it though we didn't feel the tremors until later.

That freaked me out- I've read of animals and people who can 'sense' if something is wrong, like hurricanes, but it's frightening when it happens to you.

goldberry

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 02:22

I do definately believe in ghosts!I have had so many experiences through my entire life that you cannot convince me otherwise.
As recently as two nights ago,I watched a man standing in my hallway,I had felt his presence for several days before hand until at last he showed himself.In a house I lived in several years ago,there was a young boy about 12 years of age who would often follow me about and call me mum,my friends were so scared of that house,but he did not worry me.I have felt both good and bad spirits about me.One used to throw things about the room and I would Often feel pinned to my bed by a great weight on me.Others are quite friendly if not some what annoying at times.I have seen them,felt them heard them and often someone holds my hand,its weird!I could talk for hours about the things that have happened to me,if you want to know more k,just pm me

Quill

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 03:07

I do believe in ghosts. I don't believe they are the spirits of people who have died.

The "why?" part is a little too difficult to explain, really...

merrysmaiden

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 04:07

I have no idea...
Sometimes I think it is my mind playing tricks on me...
Other times, I just don't know.
I am very easily persuaded either way.

pipsqueak

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 04:11

I am a christian, so this'll be a christian answer, just to warn you...all in my religion, not what I am pressing on you. But the trinity, the father, son, and holy....ghost. Also known as the holy spirit, so what a ghost is is a spirit. While I don't believe in haunted houses or zombies, I do believe that there is a lot more to this world than the physical. Angels, demons, but not really spirits...IMO they go to one place or the other, but I don't think they stay on earth..angels and demons do, however.I think ghosts/spirits of people do not linger here, though.

This is a subject I find fascinating...I believe there is a lot more to this world than we can comprhend.As for ghosts...I don't believe....IMO, you're dead, your spirit leaves this earth. (there is something about the spirit leaving the body...I have never seen a dead person and hope not too, but I think that, should you look at them...they would be "missing")

(this is all in my veiwpoint, if your religion or opinion differs on it, please don't get upset or anything)

Dolenaglar

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 04:56

Not to be offensive or anything; on the contrary, Pipsqueak. I have never met a Christian before who believed in the astral plane. I find that very interesting...

Vulkhan

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 05:07

I believe in ghosts.. BECAUSE THEY COME TO ME!! AHHH! No seriously though, I have seen them and heard them. I have seen a ghost of my sister, an orb, and a bunch of polterysts or however you spell it. The weirdest things were from the poltergysts, one time a magnet flew across my room and hit the wall. And just yesterday, the 2 doors of my room were opening and closing really fast but there was nobody there.

Oh my god, my ghosts scare me!!

Linwe

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 05:08

I believe. completely. I have had too many things happen to me to chalk them all up to my mind.. and most of them there were others with me..

My first and most terrifying encounter hapened when I was 12. My friends and I use to get together and go to the local cemetary and crash parties at the house behind it. It was horrifying and too long to tell, but there were many times after that of things that happened. We eventually became use to it and would go there and sleep all night.
But one such time, in a house I lived in shortly after that. A man was killed in a car accident. The wife died in the house a few months later. Their daughter continued to live there with her grandmother, until she dies, in the house. She moved next door, with her aunt and uncle. Well I hated the house from day one. my dad tok me upstairs to show me what was to be the room my sister andI were to share, and it was blue, fine. but the calander on the wall was opened upto the month I was born, ok.. but the calander was from the year I was born too.. the month and year the lady died in the house.. and it was a horse calander. That was it. I wanted nothing to do with the room after that.. but dad and mom insisted that there were no such things. One night my sister and I both sat up in bed at the same time. A dark figure moved form one side of the room to the other. It stood at the foot of my bed for a moment and then was gone. I almost cried. I asked my sister if she had seen it and she was crying. That was it for me.

Then one night, I was out with friends. My mom was sitting in the familyroom, in front of the woodstove reading. (She told me about this later) She saw me come down the stairs out of the corner of her eye. I went and walked behind her, she even felt my hand on her shoulder. Then "I" went into the dining room and sat at the table, drawing. Well it wasn't me. i wasn't there. She forgot though and got up to come in and see what I was doing. There was no one there. She went and sat on the couch next to my dad and closed the french doors that divided the room. She was scared. I went next door when she told me this and got a picture from the girl of what her mom looked like.. Well she looked like me. so much in fact i dropped the photo. I was relieved when we moved out.

Anyways there are so many more occurances to write. But if you want to chat about them I am more than willing.

WoodlandGuard

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 05:14

Well, I live right nest to a cemetary. If you look out my bedroom window you see tombstones. So I kinda have to believe in ghost.

One time we found blood on the walls in my room. We checked all the animals and everybody to make sure nobody was bleeding, and no one was. But the blood was everywhere and we kept finding it. Then one day it just stopped. I still have no idea why.

Heres one that happened at my school, we have this legend thats been going aroud forever bout "Juan". Juan was a 5th grader that died swimming at the local pool, he went to our school and now he haunts it. Well my friend has locker #69 and a the begining of the year it would slam on her fingers and scratch her. We added another page to the Juan legend, #69 was his locker.

(I have tons more from school that I can't pull out of my head right now, when i ask my friends to remind me of them I'll put them up.)

The weirdest thing that happens almost everyday is that you can like hear them "singing" its a really really weird highpitched relaxed sound. Its creepy and comforting at the same time.

If you think I need mental help say "I"!

[Edited on 24/2/2003 by WoodlandGuard]

Syriana

Queen Of Rain
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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 23, 2003 11:35

Well,I do believe in ghosts (or spirits,call them as you will) but I don´t have any eerie stories to tell.

Just that a few years ago one of my friends had a birthday party on Halloween´s eve.And on midnight we decided to see if we could contact a ghost.We had contact with someone and she turned out to be a guardian of one of the people there...

Parmadur

The Happy Pariah
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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 24, 2003 04:21

Do I believe in ghosts/spirits? Oh, absolutely! I considered their existence before, but never truly believed in them until a few months ago.

There are some railroad tracks that run by a small town outside of the city I live in and several years back, there was an accident involving a train and a school bus full of kids. All of the children and the bus driver were killed instantly - no survivors.
Since then, it's been rumored that if you drive up there and park your car on the tracks, the spirits of the kids (and the bus driver) will push your car off of it.

I was always pretty skeptical of this, but then some people decided to go out there and try it out. They covered the car with salt/powder and parked in neutral on the tracks. Next thing you know, the vehicle (an SUV, even) was moving on its own! It wasn't the driver fooling around, either: her feet were copmletely away from the pedals and her hands weren't touching anything. When it stopped and everyone got out, the car was covered with handprints (that was the purpose of the salt/powder): a bunch of children, and a pair of adult hands.

Very creepy, but very sweet.

[Edited on 2/24/03 by Parmadur]

Orca

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 24, 2003 07:43

(while reading this thread I just had to get up and switch the light on. XD;; I'm such a wimp!)

I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts exactly, but there's gotta be something there. I mean, I think that they might exist. I can't prove they do, but I can't prove they don't either.

I don't remember if I've had any specific experiences, but in my primary school some kids were mucking round with a Ouji board and the glass broke on its own... that was freaky, I remember that, and the next day where they'd been playing there was the shape of a coffin drawn on the floor. THAT part might have been drawn by someone, but I saw it so it was definitely there. ^^; Freaky.

Sometimes I really get the feeling that someone's watching me (I have that feeling right now actually... it's freaking me out a bit), and sometimes I can smell the perfume of my nana, who died when I was 12... it's weird. Not scary, I suppose it's quite comforting in a way.

I'm really not sure. I'm interested in hearing people's stories though.

~Witch_Queen_of_Angmar~

Queen of the Dark Nine
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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 24, 2003 08:06

I think I do belive in ghosts. I don't go around thinking "I think someone is watching.." or "isn't that something moving?" kinda thing, but at the same time, we live in a huge world with a lot of undiscovered secrets (I'm sure), and why wouldn't one of those secrets be ghosts?
What i mean is that it's all too big to be just us, I think. (It's like the universe; I don't think that the Earth is the *only* planet in the entire universe that have creatures living on it..)
I could continue on forever about this subject and other subjects related (where do the ghosts come from (if they excist), why do some become ghosts and not others, etc etc.. Ok, I'll stop!

)

goldberry

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 24, 2003 11:26

Vulkhan I have seen the orbs too! I have often watched them "dance" about the room.One time I waved my arm through them and asked my husband if he could see them he could'nt.They are supposed to be "lesser" energies and this is their way of showing themselves.

Just wanted to add this.What about scents? I often smell perfume,cigar smoke or food of some sort .Does anyone else experience this? sounds weird,but the scents are quite strong and there is usually no one else around when this happens

[Edited on 28/2/2003 by goldberry]

Dawn-maiden

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 26, 2003 08:20

(while reading this thread I just had to get up and switch the light on.

I had to get up while reading this and close the door of a closet behind me! I felt that there may be something watching me...

I have never seen a ghost and am not sure if I believe in them, but a girl I know saw something like a ball of light moving around her room soon after her father died...

~Ascarantwen_the_Elf~

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 26, 2003 01:25

I've always been fascinated by the paranormal.

Once, I was reading in the hallway in front of the stairs (don't ask), and from the corner of my eye, I see something dancing up the stairs. It was this white glowing orb that went right up to me, then quickly dissapeared into the wall beside my head. I'm not sure if it was a ghost, or a guardian Angel.

When I was 11, I used to sleep in a room with no windows, and the door would be left open only a small bit. Which ment there was only a lining of light coming in. One night I woke up to find a man standing there. I thought it was my dad, so I called out for him but got no answer. I was staring at it for 10 mins, until I shut my eyes to make it go away.

I have this fake ouiji board that I don't really believe in, it's just for fun. But last year I had it out of the box in the computer room just lying there. For a week I did not feel well in the room. Like there was something watching me. That's when I figured it might be the board and I put it away. It worked.

I usually feel something sit on my bed, but I brush it off. That's the key! Don't let it get to you.

Usually, Ghosts are only seen from the corner of your eyes and not upfront. A lot of times it's our mind playing with us.

Here's something interesting. One night 3 years ago, I woke up, or thought I woke up, to find that I couldn't move. But in front of me there was an orb, glowing intensely. I tried not to freak out, and closed my eyes. I found this to be a sort of outer body experience, and not a ghost or spirit.

Zoe

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 26, 2003 02:13

Funny, I was just having a conversation about this with someone the other day. I lived in a Victorian farmhouse, that was almost 100 years old, for just over 11 years. Some odd things used to happen, like all four people living there repeatedly waking up after having simultaneous nightmares, the outline of a skull appearing in waterstains on the wall, crop circles in the field, etc. My mother used to see the outline of a man out of the corner of her eye when she was at the barn (the barn was old too). We both also had a strong images when we were in the south end of the hayloft that someone had hung themself there. We learned that a farmer had died at that end, supposedly slipping and falling, but since we had those mental images appear we think he killed himself. When we were moving out of the house things got really haywire. I was the first to move to the new house but I went back to help one day and it was WEIRD. My mother was having nightmares every night and sensing things moving through the house and was completely on edge. I was so cranky with this entity that I wanted to tell it off but since I had no idea how powerful it was, I decided not to risk it. Maybe it was mad at us for blasting it with Christian radio stations for all those years.

Some people don't believe in the supernatural but being someone who is sensitive to "vibes" off of things and having had run-ins with some other hostile entities, I don't really have any choice. It's just part of reality (and a fairly annoying part at that.)

Anyhow, I'm in a non-antique house now and it's quite nice.

Furry-footed_Nerf_Herder

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 26, 2003 05:00

Truthfully, I was very skeptical about the whole moving objects thing for a very long time. That was until I went to volunteer at a hospital.

The eeriest one I remember was not a patient, but a nurse who had worked at that hospital (a very old one for this country, about 96 yrs old) for over 30 years on the night shift. Periodically, she would be seen in her old-fashioned white dress & cap uniform on the floor. When not actually seen, odd things would happen at night. Blood pressure machines would roll down the hall, doors would close, odd cold spots where no vents were...

For those of you who don't know, Belle Bayard is my real life mom. I was volenteering at the same hospital that she was working at when I first encountered unexplainable moving objects. I had stayed behind after my shift and spent the night with my mom on her ward. She worked the night shift. But first, lets go back a little. I started volenteering at the hospital a few months earlier, and you only volenteered during the day,the last shift leaving at eight pm. The hospital was originally only 2 floors, the first was kind of a sub level. Okay, well anyway, the first floor was where the cafeteria was and also there was the PT ward there. There was a long hallway after getting out of the elevator and I always felt a bit uneasy in the hallway, which is not usual for me. I always felt like there was someone behind me, but I blamed it on me playing mind tricks on myself. Then there was the empty ward that was getting redone, you had to go through it to get to the ICU and it always gave me the "creeps." That was all stuff that I could put off.

Then there was the time that I and another volenteer were waiting outside of a patients room for the nurse to get the patient into the wheelchair. We were standing in front of the door for the supply closet and suddenly it was like someone was tugging hard at the hand from the inside, not turning the handle, just pulling on. Thinking that maybe someone was stuck inside I opened the door. There was no one there, so I went in side to see if there was another door or maybe a vent that was causing it or something. I looked around, no vent, no door, no person. Weird.

Okay, now back to the night that I spent with my mom. So basically I was just gonna be a little helper all night. First weird thing: I was giving a patient their food for the evening and was exiting the room when suddenly the blood pressure machine that was no where near anyone in the room went slamming against the trash can. I put it off again as just an odd occurance and there had to be some reason for it. Later that night I was sitting at the nursing desk, there was a blood pressure machine plugged into the wall in the hallway across from me. I was working in a puzzle book when I saw the pump moving out of the corner of my eye. I glanced up and watched it move slowly down the hall until it reached the end of the cord when it jerked. I went and put the pump back agianst the wall. A few minutes later the pump went rolling down the hall again, in the opposite direction as before. I looked at one of the nurses at the desk and asked "Did you just see that?" She said yes, but said that it happened all the time at all of the plugs. It was a little freaky to say the least.

rinquellewen

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 28, 2003 05:33

(while reading this thread I just had to get up and switch the light on.

I had to get up while reading this and close the door of a closet behind me! I felt that there may be something watching me...

ooo..me too, just reading this thread is friggin' creepy...

Me being a christian I don't really believe in supernaturel spirits or those that died, their souls still lingering and what not on earth...BUT i do believe very much in demons...I believe in pocessions and exorcissms (spelling?) and what not... I am like pipsqueak i believe you either go to one place or the other after you die...but angels and demons are very real IMO

In fact I even know a friend of mine said he was doing his daily morning routine when all of a sudden, his toothbrush and toothpaste and even his shaver began being thrown across the room...It continued this and what was really scarey was the shaver was aiming at his throat...*shudder*

pipsqueak

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 28, 2003 05:59

(like the sig

that was a good movie)

Yeah, my belief exactly. In fact, demons and angels...I had no idea how REAL they were until my youth pastor started talking. If you've ever seen the matrix...well, demons are a lot like the ones there...they can take control of a body. There are a lot of stories of that in the Bible. Angels, I don't think take OTHER bodies, I think they have their own? ...hm...well, whatever it is, it's fascinating. I've never had an "encounter" with anything...some girls claimed to see a ghost last summer camp, but I don't...uh...really believe thirteen year olds...

However....demons do scare me. >< I was listening to my youth pastor going O_O;; but there's a lot more to this world than the physical.

Lady~Culin

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 28, 2003 07:03

I think that demons are real. I watch alot of those TV shows with all that jazz on it. Spooky stuff. But, what really scares me, is that my computer kind of "wakes up" during the night, y'know? It clicks on and off alot. Freeky.

Emerita

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 28, 2003 07:31

I feel the same as BelleBayard. I too, have been in nursing for over 30 years and have had many to die in my arms. You definitely can sense a presence that goes right through you. A great peace that fills the room; especially after great suffering. I haven't had the experience of actually seeing a ghost of unknown origion that supposedly is haunting a place but I certainly can't discount them. I also haven't seen a UFO, but I definitely believe that they are out there.

iarfalaswen

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 28, 2003 09:09

I feel the same as BelleBayard. I too, have been in nursing for over 30 years and have had many to die in my arms.

I have held the hands of dying patients and felt their spirits leave their bodies.

Wow

i'm in awe. You are so brave!
You're all so brave! I believe in spirits/ghosts whatever you want to call them. I think there has to be more to life than just what we see. It's hard to explain, but does anyones else understand where i'm coming from? :dizzy:

Luv
:heart:*iar*:heart:

shenarwin

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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 28, 2003 06:28

Do I believe in Ghosts? You bet, I have actually seen one, and it scard the hell out of me.

Tanlaithwen

Orange Juice Fanatic
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RE: Ghosts?
on: February 28, 2003 11:58

Ghosts? Well, my initial reaction to the question "Do you believe in ghosts?" is "Yes." However, when I think about it, I don't know why I believe in them. I've never seen a ghost, and when I think about it I don't see how it is possible that they exist either. But yet I still say "yes" immediately to the question, without even thinking. Which I suppose says something in itself.

Our school has a ghost story. People have "claimed" to see this ghost, but nobody can agree on the story and nobody can agree on the correct way to make her appear. But the two things that everybody agree on are her name - "The White Lady," (Original, huh!

) and where she appears: "Whiteladies Corridor" (which is probably where the name came from). Some people think that she was a patient in a hospital (which is now the school) who died and she wears her white patient's robe and clatters bedpans around

However our school made a play about it called "Who Killed Molly Hackridge?" (made up name, of course) and because it was about the ever-popular ghost it was probably one of our the best selling plays (especially with us students

). That theory was that she was a school teacher (I won't go through the whole story) who got trapped in a cupboard and was left there to die. In the play she could play the piano, which incorporated yet another theory - that the piano she played on is trapped in the walls of Whiteladies Corridor with her body behind it

I even tried one of the ways of getting her to appear (3 years ago, BTW

) - running down the corridor, banging on the walls shouting "White Lady, White Lady!" Didn't work. And I even did prefect duty in there with my friends for months - we never saw a thing.

Emerita

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RE: Ghosts?
on: March 01, 2003 03:33

If any of you love ghost stories, go to the Library or Barnes and Noble and get "the Ghosts of the Carolinas" It is a great book and those are the stories I was raised on. We vacationed at the coast of Myrtle Beach S.C. and my Dad used to tell them to us....

sepdet

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RE: Ghosts?
on: March 01, 2003 04:32

My girlfriend's an anthropologist, working on her PhD, and one of the things she's interested in studying is the ghost culture. Ghost stories tell you so much about the culture of a people. They do vary by region!

She's done papers on ghost stories, oral tradition, the way they keep popping up. There's certain standard ones that recur in variant forms; a few are unique.

I'm undecided.

(She did actually have her first bona-fide? ghost a few weeks ago, as a matter of fact. Staying at a friend's house, and hearing someone walking up the stairs into her room when everyone was asleep, having all the linens from a cupboard scattered around the room. The friend claimed this is common.)

My ghost stories.

OUIJA board. Silly, silly game. I do not seriously believe it can do anything to you: it was too obviously picking up things from our subconscious, which would explain the ghost of Merlin who was stuck in the crystal cave but bored stiff and wanting a Harley Davidson.

All our "encounters" were like that: obviously one of us was subconsciously feeding things to the board. But when we got a couple of idiot frat boys from Des Moines, Idaho, who couldn't spell and were cruising for babes, I was more dubious. They were so dreadfully prosaic and boring. Not at ALL the sort of wild stuff we normally got. Could either of us be so mundane as to come up with that? What wasted imaginations!

There's a few well-known ghosts at Bryn Mawr College. I've known someone who saw M.Carey Thomas, the school founder, supposedly before she'd heard the legend. Not exactly spooky; she usually appears to be late to a meeting (although admittedly since the college was founded in the 1800s, the Victorian clothing she wears might be considered creepy).

I ran into something odd in that building too: it's one of the oldest, built like a castle like everything else there on the principle that Gothic (Oxford-style) architecture is conducive to learning. I was sneaking in a back way to the Cloisters, where the offices for the classics professors are around the outside, so as to slip an all-nighter paper under the door. Only the mergency lighting was on: exit signs and such. It was about 4? AM? and I passed a tall person in the hall standing with head bowed looking down, hands clasped in front of her. I couldn'tt really see her very well in the dark. It was cold in that spot, but then, there was a door to the cloisters there, and ancient buildings are drafty. I spoke to her and she didn't move or seem to notice I was there. And then she wasn't there, and I felt like she was, but could no longer see even the hint of the person.

After writing this up in the public diary the next day (a bit like a bboard, in the days before they existed- we all had handles), someone said, "Oh, that's Emmy Noether." They knew this because of the location. The first woman ever to get a PhD in math got it at Bryn Mawr in the 1800s. Unfortunately (rumor has it) she didn't really like Bryn mawr or school that much, and never came back. Except somehow an urn with her ashes were found in the Classics Library when they were renovating. They buried her in the closters up against the wall. I knew the stone, once someone reminded me: there's a curious flagstone marked E. N. I had no idea what it meant before.
It just gave me the impression of unhappiness. I hope ghosts aren't real, because if they are, she's not happy about where she was buried.

My other ghost is my cat.
I miss him so very badly. He was a door-darter, and in southern California, Mr. Coyote is faster than Mr. Cat. Malcolm got out and though I searched most nights for weeks I wasn't in time; a neighbor reported when he was caught and killed. I have never gotten over the guilt.

Last year the day before Hallowe'en one of my co-moderators called me up to say, "SEP. I just saw Malcolm!!!" and I was a little nonplussed, to put it mildly, since she'd never met him or me. She explained about this little black cat meeting her and looking so hard at her, and she said she was told to tell me 'Everything's going to be okay.'

Within 24 hours, while doing laundry in the apartment complex, I failed to shut my door properly, and the exact same thing happened: except it didn't. I had adopted two strays from a shelter at once, and I still had his sibling. But she got out.

I cannot tell you the horror of losing a second one, knowing it's your fault. It's like a child. But he had told me everything would be all right. I searched and searched, and finally found her.

About a month ago another friend I've been comforting long distance told me that Malcolm had stopped by, someone who's never seen him. I was getting a little jealous.

And I've seen him once. With me, it's probably wishful thinking. But these other people-- it's bizarre that people who've never laid eyes on malcolm could describe some of his odd personality quirks so well!

Iarlachien

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RE: Ghosts?
on: March 01, 2003 06:57

If any of you love ghost stories, go to the Library or Barnes and Noble and get "the Ghosts of the Carolinas" It is a great book and those are the stories I was raised on. We vacationed at the coast of Myrtle Beach S.C. and my Dad used to tell them to us....

::jumps up and down madly, waving arms:: That's where I live! That's where I live! I live about half an hour from Myrtle Beach, and this area is so full of ghost stories that it's insane. This area was nothing but rice plantations during the Civil War and before that. Each old plantation has at least two ghost stories surrounding it.
I think the two most well-known ghost stories are about Alice and the Grey Man.
Alice was the daughter of a plantation owner, but she fell in love with a man of lesser social standing. Her mother and brother sent her off to boarding school in Charleston. Alice's love had given her a ring, which she wore on a ribbon around her neck.
While Alice was at school, she contracted a deadly fever. Her brother brought her back to their home in Murrels Inlet, and discovered the ring around her neck. Her brother, in anger, threw the ring into a nearby creek. Alice then died of her fever.
You can still see her grave today. My family and I went to visit it once. They say that if you place a ring on top of her grave, and then circle it thirteen times that the ring will disappear and then reappear later where you least expect it to, as if Alice took the ring and then realized that it wasn't her own. I haven't tried this yet, but one day my friends and I are planning on going on a ghost hunt in Georgetown.

Now for the Grey Man. Encounters with the Grey Man have been reported before every major hurricane in the past 100 years. He will show up on Pawleys Island beach to warn the residents. Those who listen to him and flee have found their houses intact after the storm. Whenever there's a hurricane brewing in the Caribbean or wherever, the locals always joke nervously about how they hope they don't see the Grey Man.

Geez, there's thousands more ghost stories I could tell just from my county. ::holds up 'Ghosts of Georgetown' and 'More Ghosts of Georgetown'::

Iarlachien

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Posts: 97
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RE: Ghosts?
on: March 01, 2003 07:08

I think my church is haunted. The building is over 200 years old, and a very scary place. I don't really know why I think it's haunted, I just do. It's a big, dark building that makes lots of frightening noises.

About five or so years ago, a friend and I snuck away from the childrens' program that always met on Wednesday nights. We decided to climb to the top of the belltower that was no longer used. To get to the belltower, you have to go through the dark sanctuary first. This was terrifying in itself. A big podium stands in front of the belltower door, I guess to keep little kids from getting up there.

Once we entered the door, we found a black spiral staircase that was covered in a sheet of dust. I went halfway up the stairs before chickening out. It wasn't because I was scared of ghosts or anything, I was just terrified of heights and the stairs were rather rickety. My friend reluctantly gave up the idea of going to the top of the belltower and we made our way back down.

We in the middle of moving the podium to its original spot in front of the door when we heard footsteps coming from the belltower. We panicked and ran. There couldn't have been anyone up there. The podium had been blocking the door, and there hadn't been any footprints in the dust.

About one year ago, two other friends and I decided to try the belltower again in daylight. We made it all the way up and found a pew in a little room where a bell ringer could have sat and listened to the church service. The only strange thing was that the room was painted blood red. It was... odd.

Cavegirl
Posts: 1572
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RE: Ghosts?
on: March 01, 2003 07:18

She's done papers on ghost stories, oral tradition, the way they keep popping up. There's certain standard ones that recur in variant forms; a few are unique.

wow thats fantastic... man i wish i was still doing sociology. i got to do one large peice of research about teenage girls and the groups they form in school... but ghosts and why poeple believe them, tradition and things would have been my next one. she doesnt happen to have any of her essays on the web does she?

im really suprised the amount of poeple who seem to genuinely believe in ghosts... im feeling rather outnumbered

im enjoying reading them though- despite not believeing in them im still a sucker for a good ghost story.

Emerita

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Posts: 58
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RE: Ghosts?
on: March 01, 2003 07:40

larlachien.....We camped for years at Lakewood campgrounds. In fact we were the first campers there....then we bought 2 beach houses in Garden City.....I was a regular at the Grand Strand Pavilion, when it was very small. I can still smell all of the food cooking on the boardwalk. The house we rented in Myrtle Beach was one block from the Pavilion. It has been replaced by a condo building.......had some great memories there.

The Greyman was my favorite. My great aunt saw him when Hurricane Caroline came through Pawley's Island. Thinking about all these ghosts makes me homesick for the Carolina coast......I may be due for a visit.....

Firebird

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RE: Ghosts?
on: March 01, 2003 01:46

"Do you believe in ghosts?"
I don't need to. I know they exist. Now you lot get to be the first to hear of my experiences, most of which I've never told anyone else about because no one I know believes in them. It still scares me to think about some of my experiences today.

I have heard ghost walking up stairs towards me, I have seen pools of blood that literally were not there 5 minutes before, I have felt cool spots for now reason, there are houses where I always feel watched, heard someone breathing when I was alone, and worse.
On one occasion I saw a boy about 10 years old who was dressed all in blue. When I realised I was the only one who could see him, I got a feeling so strong it was almost words that the boy was sorry to me but, he was just lonely, he couldn't find the rest of his family. After he vanished, and I stopped shaking, I asked the owner of the house (I was on one of those history tours and the house was one of the oldest in the area) if the house was supposed to be haunted, she said that yes, over the years people had seen a young boy who died of unknown causes just a few months after the rest of his family died of pnemonia. Since then, as soon as I enter a room, I sense (though don't see) the ghosts and can feel their emotions.

Ghosts are there, but they rarely mean us any harm, I've only once felt threatened by them. "There are more things on Heaven and Earth..."

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