Ghosts real or a figment of the imagination?

[freak_unique]

So seriously which of you do/ do not believe in ghosts and why? do you have a reason to back up your opinions as to whether they exist or not?
Sometimes they think its just a figment of the imagination but how can that be true when so many people have seen the same thing?
Opinions please :)

[RATTER15]

I think it purely figment of the imagination, and based on that lots of people have imaginations so lots of people see ghosts, tricks of the eye or of the mind, who knows?

[Eve]

I definitely believe in ghosts and this has been backed up through personal experience.

[bexste]

I definately beleive in spirits, but I think that a lot of the things on TV ect are fabricated or exaggerated, so if you have any reasonable level of intelligence after a while you begin to doubt the whole thing. I do believe though from personal experience.

[prattler]

many years ago my friend and i saw an 'apparition' at the same time.i still wonder if there's some other explanation.its not something i tell many people.I dont know many people who haven't had some sort of experience at least once..

[joko]

me and 3 others saw the legs of a ghost once, we were awake and outside.

however i think many of these stories that people believe start with " i was in bed and..." or "i was woken by..."

and that just takes away any belief of their story for me - you were dreaming!

[LazyGun]

Figment.

No convincing theory explaining their presence. No convincing evidence that a soul or spirit exists.
No convincing evidence that there is life after death.
No convincing documented credentialed investigation of a ghost.

[Noseyparker]

I definitely believe - I have had two experiences which I realised after the event were ghostly visitations. Also I was talking to my cat once like you do and I saw something scurry out of the corner of my eye and the cat also sensed it and ran towards it. There was nothing there.I think you can only have a positive opinion about ghosts if you have had a personal experience. it is difficult to convince - or even want to convince somebody who has not had the experience for themselves, understandably so.

[Thunderbird+]

At the risk of people pouring scorn on this, I must say yes I tend to believe.
Several experiences throughout my life have led me to this conclusion. I often think that it's forbiden knowlage,stuff we're not really suposed to know about for sure but we may resieve small clues from time to time and its up to the peson to make up their own mind.
Imagine for one moment that there was concrete evidence of the spirit living on after death, there would be suicides all over the place.
One experience that really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up was reading the post by Noseyparker, a very similar thing happened to me when i noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye, I can only discribe it as whiteish, as it was to far in my peripheral vision to focus on properly but I did see my dog looking quizically straight at it, if it was something living like a mouse etc he definately would have pounced on it. When I did look at the area more closely to see if something had fallen over, I could see nothing there what could have possibly moved on its own.

[RATTER15]

Whilst I don't believe in spirits etc, I did have a very strange experience early one morning whilst hunting years ago.
I was walking down a small path on the very edge of a field at about 2.am in total darkness with my son of about 13 years of age at the time, when all of a sudden, from directly in front of me came an almighty flash from the ground, almost like an explosion with no sound, I instantly stopped and said to my Son, did you see that, he replied, "I saw a big flash", so it wasn't just me!!
I shone my torch onto the area the flash came from and there was no sign of anything, and it was a very different light from my torch, much more intense and was on and off so quickly.

That really spooked me, but just because I cant explain what it was, it doesn't mean it wasn't a very natural phenomena.

[johnizere]

I'm with the believers...I too have had some experience of things happening around me, particularly in the last house I lived in. Strange goings on concerning my dog and the cats, creepy feelings around the house and so on. I won't bore you with the details.

[chicklin]

I'm definitely a believer after a creepy experience I had years ago. I was the manageress in a very old country hotel which had a nightclub next door. The only inside access from one to the other was through the kitchen via a very loud squeaky door. It was almost 1am and I was alone in the hotel, waiting for the nightclub to close so I could lock up and go to bed. The landlady was upstairs in bed feeling ill. I'd already checked no-one was in the hotel and had locked up. I sat on a stool in front of the dying fire in the huge old fireplace, facing the embers and with my back to the door....everywhere was quiet. The room was dark except for the glow from the fire and the carpark lights coming through the window. Then I became aware of the sound of someone walking very slowly behind me across the thick carpet towards me. I held my breath and listened to the steps rustling on the carpet. By this time I had decided it was the landlady who must have been feeling a bit better and was now creeping up on me with the intention of scaring me to death! So I waited until the steps came right up to my back then I turned around to say ' Ha! It's no good, I heard you miles away!!'.....only to have my words freeze in my throat as there was no-one there. And yet I'd just listened to the steps approach me for a good couple of minutes!

[freak_unique]

Cheers for all your answers im loving all your opinions and stories especially :) I guess i believe something must be there and maybe it is just the energy of someones soul living on? And that you can only see them if you are ready and do not fear seeing them?Im really not sure but after all the sightings there must be something especially when 2 people see the same?
Anyone care to argue or agree?

[RATTER15]

I think that it likely that two people will agree, if something strange happens, an odd noise, a flash of light, a chill wind will be experienced by both people but it doesn't mean that it is supernatural.
If I remember huge crowds saw some virgin Mary smile or something similar, but was proved to be mass hysteria, if you want to believe in something bad enough, you could well see it happen, its the mind playing tricks!!

[freak_unique]

Yep i understand where you are coming from. Its like, sometimes if we really want to see something we will pick up on the tinyest things that arent anything and project them into something supernatural. Do you believe in UFOs?

[RATTER15]

I believe in UFO in its true meaning, its difficult not to, it just mean unidentified flying object, so yes, there are lots of flying object that haven't been identified, space ships from another planet are a very different thing, I think it is highly likely that beings from another planet has visited us. I don't think they are among us now though, that is a little far fetched.

As for David Ike, he should be sectioned!!