Ghosts/Paranormal - Are you a Believer or Non-Believer??

I believe in reincarnation too. I think we learn too much too quickly for it to be a first lesson if you know what I mean. I'm also pretty sure that everyone here who has/young kids or little brothers/sisters will have tales of being freaked out by the toddler suddenly saying/doing something that is far more characteristic of an adult, and then they just carry on oblivious while everyone else is sat there with cold shivers running down their spines.

To give one example, a few years ago my wife sadly lost her dad. As we were all gathered in her parents' home, and people were starting to get pretty stressed over the mundane and tedious formalities of sorting everything else, our little nephew, who wasn't even 2 years old at the time, and only had a handful of words in his vocabulary, was sort in one of the arm chairs just chilling out and watching with interest as the grown ups stressed. And then, I tell no lie, he sighed, and then said calmly and clear as a bell for all to hear, "it'll all be alright" and just sat their with a calm smile on his face.

That's not exactly evidence of anything, but given that this happened at a time the nephew had only just mastered saying mammy and daddy, it was a bit strange.

On another note, not reincarnation related but spooky none the less. A few months ago my step dad passed away after being ill for a number of months. Before becoming ill he and my son had become so close that my step dad earned the honorary title of grandad. I've never believed that death is black and white. I don't believe that you're alive one minute and dead the next (when illness gets you I mean). I believe that the soul starts to drift while the flesh is still technically alive, but clearly knackered beyond repair. As was the case in the last few days of my step dad. One night the wife and I were awoken by the sound of our son chattering. We went to check and there he was, stood up in his cot, reaching out at nothing, and randomly chuckling while staring at a specific point of thin air. After a minute or so his mood changed, and he started beckoning something (in thin air) to come back. Then as suddenly as this had started, it stopped. He curled back up and was fast asleep.

A few hours later I got the phone call I was expecting, and I wasn't in the least bit surprised.

 

That wasn't Dave, that was me Armandii

 

Sorry, you've lost me there. A Jam jar? Not me, I don't think.

EDIT: Ah, I just saw Zig's post.

 

I believe to an extent. I have had a few experiences over the years, shortly after the death of a close family member and after the death of family pet, but one seriously scary event as a child, which eventually made my parents move house. (well from what we understand, although they won't own up to that being the reason)

However, you don't hear of any bad things happening, so i don't really know what to believe and what is in your own head and don't think we should be scared.

One thing i do believe, is that 'spirits' can be around after death for a short time, as my cat and Grandad did come to say goodbye to me - there was no other reason for what happened and my Grandad visited many members of my family, mam, aunties, uncles, nieces and cousins in exactly the same way, so we all know he said his goodbyes.

 

There are some people that will tell you they have concrete scientific evidence. I've met such people (did some freelance work for some charlatans once).

With extremely basic knowledge of electronics, and an even more basic knowledge of physics in general, they had built a basic inductive loop device. They had observed quite correctly that when a person walked close to this instrument, you got a distinct positive reading on their ammeter.

They were also able to show that they got a similar signal, albeit weaker, in certain 'haunted' buildings, which they believe is conclusive proof that a ghost had walked closed to their device. The signal would usually coincide with a sudden cold chill and a movement of some curtains or a door.

Unfortunately their limited understanding of physics made it impossible for them to see the flaw in their logic. Inductive sensors of the type they had made are quite sensitive, and when made very crudely (as this one was) they also feature a fairly long length of wire. When following instructions off the t'internet, what they had been led to believe they were measuring was a change in inductive impedence, which in fact was true. What they hadn't figured was that resistive impedence also comes into play, and has an almost identical effect on the signal. As their crude sensor was not temperature regulated in any way, and was in fact little more than a length of wire with an oscillating current running through it, a sudden change in temperature would change the resistance of said wire by a very small but measurable amount, so while they may well have had a positive signal, it is more likely that the coincidence of the cold chill at the same time as a signal on their sensor was not a coincidence at all, but was in fact their sensor quite correctly detecting the sudden temperature change that happened because somebody opened a door.

 

:D Point being that we have to look for some other reason to account for the loss/gain of weight on the original kilo. I'm assuming they don't know which one has lost or gained.

Science is failing them at the moment because it cannot be quantified by current methods.

But they have observed something nevertheless.

Just the same way that the stories can't be backed up by current understanding.

But they were observations that have been witnessed by many people.

Just because we have no way of measuring these events at the moment doesn't make them unreal, just un measurable.

 

Reincarnation hmmm.........Whenever I go to the Scottish Highlands I visit a particular glen there, in the region of Glencoe. I get the feeling I've been there before and become very emotional when I have to leave. Could it be that the Glencoe area has this haunted feeling because of the great battle there, or is there something in the past that I am connected with.

I have to add that I study Scottish medieval history and did before my first visit there, may be there's a connection.

You would think this would give me an answer to Ziggy's poll, but I'm still uncertain.

 

I`ll turn things back on you Armandii. You prove there IS NO afterlife. That there are no other "dimensions".

 

Our BODIES will die, but do WE? Does our essence die? Does our "spirit" cease to exist? If we have nothing to look forward to then what is the point?

 

Perhaps that is the point Dai! Perhaps we exist on this earth for the time being, just to see how miserable we can make our own lives and the world we live in. Who's to say, if an afterlife does exist it's not going to be the same as we are living now.