Just a little bit fun poll.

I answer No. Only metaphrorical meaning they are not real.

i'm an atheist & i don't believe in ghosts, certainly not as afterlife souls of dead people.  i would say that at present there is insufficient evidence to state that "ghosts" (whatever they may be) exist but i'm not wedded to any dogmatic view that precludes a change of view if more evidence becomes available.

Yes, from personal experience.

Mina.

Definite yes for me, from personal experience as well.

Yes, by personal experience.  Many times.

Quote from: mina.m->-bleeped-<-ie link=topic=54151.msg335945#msg335945 date=1232648090
Yes, from personal experience.

Mina.

Ditto. Repeated personal experience.

Even Most Haunted hasn't been a deterrant.

yes, i do. i don't know what ghosts 'are' exactly - if they're the dead or something else, but i believe in them.

Ghost is a metaphor for brain dysfunction. The imagination has a vale over reality.

I do believe in ghosts as well.  I did see one (a woman inside my own house) when I was a child.  I also experienced some unusual events with my kitty Bebe when he became ill.  Was it my imagination?  I honestly don't think so because my dad was there with me when it happened.


tink

I've worked in places that others swear are haunted.  Theaters are a place where dreams are both made and broken, so its easy to see why.  But I've never felt that, or seen what others have seen or felt, and I've been all over it, been in there for hours alone, been deep inside when lights were shut off and I had to feel my way out - and I never felt it.  It could be, I'm sure there are other sources of energy on this earth besides us, but I've never felt this kind of energy.

Listen to the first five minutes of this episode of "This American Life" from last Haloween:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1268

... and you will learn the hidden secret of the spirit world! (Hint: 28.010 g/mol)

People usually say that I am a little bit crazy when I say that I am unsure have there visited aliens but 6 people are telling that they believe in haunting. Or was the question a little bit different?

I don't believe in ghosts as such, in that I dont belive in existance of entitiles that "commmunicate" with the living.

I do believe in the possibility of a parallel world and the idea of "stone tapes" (that apparantly inanimate objects/locations may be able to record and replay events to those "gifted" with the ability to trigger them).

Chrissty

No.  I choose not to therefore they do not exist for me.  If I decided to believe in them then they would become real for me just as they do for others.

I have no personal experience with them, but since you can't prove a negative, I'm open to the possibility.  One of my tenants (I live in a tri-plex) claims that our house is haunted by 3 ghosts.  I've never encountered them, personally, but who knows.  Makes me curious enough to try to find out if anybody has died here.

When you are open to them... that's when they get you  !

Quote from: Caprica-6 on January 24, 2009, 05:24:53 PM
No.  I choose not to therefore they do not exist for me.  If I decided to believe in them then they would become real for me just as they do for others.

Not necessarily. Granted, being open to the possibility does slightly improve your odds of seeing something (perhaps simply because you're more willing to attribute a mundane phenomenon to a supernatural cause), but I'm not sure existence is dependant on belief, and vice versa. Just because you believe a phantasmal figure replete with chains and the best Scrooge-taunting wail is in your house, that doesn't automatically mean you're ever likely to observe it.

Having said that, often people who have the most profound experiences are exactly the ones who resolutely refuse to believe in metaphysical occurrences.

Quote from: Caprica-6 on January 24, 2009, 05:24:53 PM
No.  I choose not to therefore they do not exist for me.  If I decided to believe in them then they would become real for me just as they do for others.

Let me see if I can get this to work for me:

(to herself): I don't believe in Christian fundamentalists! I don't believe in Christian fundamentalists! I don't I don't I don't believe in Christian fundamentalists!

Did it work?

Yes it worked.  I don't think of fundamentalists as real people.