• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Ghost sightings explanation

Cainkane1

Philosopher
Cainkane1
Joined
Jul 16, 2005
Messages
9,011
Location
The great American southeast
Theres a woman where I go to have a few beers who claims she never believed in ghosts until one night when she ran into a ghost of a man in a bar at the resturant where she was working.

The restaurant job was her second job and she had already worked an eight hour shift. I contend she was tired and hallucinating. I've explored every square inch of this now vacant old house and I saw not one thing out of the ordinary.

She could also have inhaled some carbon monoxide gas from the kitchen cooking area.


After the restaurant closed it reopened as an antique shop. One of the clerks claimed to have seen a woman standing in the door connecting to the area where the bar had been.

I contend she was either lying or had seen an "apparition" via the power of suggestion.

I personally explored every room, nook and cranny in this house and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

A child saw a man walk into a wall there and disappear. I contend children see things that aren't there.

A dog stood stock still growling at some invisible thing there. I contend he heard the water heater.

I also contend that this houses notoriety and history have caused some people to think its haunted and the power of suggestion makes people think they saw something.

Going further since the house is a huge rambling old 19th century building I think people subconscientiously think it should be inhabited. Ancient man knew that when they found a cave that it was either inhabited by an animal or another tribe. Stone age man probably never found a large uninhabited enclosed space and humans are genetically wired to suspect or know that someone or something is in the cave.

I contend that a stoneage human would be very reluctant to merely walk in a building like this with its large rooms, basement, attic and nooks a crannies that could hide an enemy or vicious animal.

This house is on Railroad street and Elm in Conyers Ga and it was build in the 1840's. Anyone who has ever read the book "The Haunting of Hill House" will be amazed at how similar this house is to the house in the book.
 
Last edited:
Cainkane1 said:
...Going further since the house is a huge rambling old 19th century building I think people subconscientiously think it should be inhabited. Ancient man knew that when they found a cave that it was either inhabited by an animal or another tribe. Stone age man probably never found a large uninhabited enclosed space and humans are genetically wired to suspect or know that someone or something is in the cave.

I contend that a stoneage human would be very reluctant to merely walk in a building like this with its large rooms, basement, attic and nooks a crannies that could hide an enemy or vicious animal...
Click to expand...
At lease one psychologist seems to disagree with your contention.
So I don't see it as a valid cause, and the statement that we're hardwired to fear something in a cage seems to be quite wrong.

From an article in Psychology Today.
... Why would a closed space be so frightening? There are three reasons. First, our ancient ancestors who lived in caves realized that caves are not safe. Imagine you are huddled in a cave at night, you hear the call of the wild outside---- wolves howling. It was very simple for wolves or tigers to go into a cave and kill and eat all the humans. So caves could be dangerous. Second, in a closed space there may not be any means of escape. You are vulnerable to attack by predators and by other humans. That’s why people with agoraphobia are always looking for the exit. When they sit in a movie theatre, they want to sit at the aisle seat—and close to an exit. “I want to be able to get out quickly”. Third, many people with a fear of closed spaces feel they won’t be able to breathe. And, again, this also makes sense. Spaces that are closed can cut off air and suffocate you. That’s why so many people with panic and agoraphobia hyperventilate. Their brain is telling them that they will suffocate---so they gasp for air.​
So your contention that "humans are genetically wired to suspect or know that someone or something is in the cave" seems to be merely wishful thinking on your part, and not a supporting argument for your theory.
 
Fair enough - but is Cainkane1 more qualified as a psychologist?
I could have merely responded to his post with "cite?" I guess.
 
Cainkane1 said:
Ok I may not be entirely right but would you cavaliarily walk into a cave in the woods and not expect something perhaps a bear to be in there already?
Click to expand...
Well, the point isn't whether I would, but whether our ancestor's did (according to your theory).

But all that is needed is one white crow, so in answer to your question - yes, I would. Of course that is because there are no bears where I live. So does this mean that this hardwired fear of predators lurking in the back of caves has evolved out of certain populations in only 5 generations?

I don't think that is the explanation.
I don't think that the original theory is altogether sound, is all.
 
EHocking said:
Well, the point isn't whether I would, but whether our ancestor's did (according to your theory).

But all that is needed is one white crow, so in answer to your question - yes, I would. Of course that is because there are no bears where I live. So does this mean that this hardwired fear of predators lurking in the back of caves has evolved out of certain populations in only 5 generations?

I don't think that is the explanation.
I don't think that the original theory is altogether sound, is all.
Click to expand...
I'm not talking about fear of ghosts but I personally would not just walk into a supposedly deserted building if there was a possibility of a squatter or a transient being in there.
 
Ok Cainekane, why should we believe anything you have said in your post?
 
Cainkane1 said:
I'm not talking about fear of ghosts but I personally would not just walk into a supposedly deserted building if there was a possibility of a squatter or a transient being in there.
Click to expand...
Well now you are moving the goal posts.

Your contention was that fear of ghosts etc has a basis in evolved physiology/psychology, e.g., our stone age ancestors feared predators lurking in the back of caves.

Now your assertion is merely, "Well, I would be afraid, therefore it must be true."?
 
Were there actual 'ghosts' I'd expect them to be on every battlefield in the world...
Which they aren't
 
We bought an eighteenth century farmhouse from a couple in north Nottinghamshire in the early seventies. Everything went smoothly, and we moved in. After a couple of days of sorting the house out we decided to treat ouselves to a meal and a drink at the local pub, just fifty yards or so from the house. We were welcomed to the village by the pub landlady, who asked us if we had seen the ghost in the house yet. I replied with "What ghost?" She said words to the effect "Oops, perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it, but I thought they would have told you about it". I said that the sellers never said anything about ghosts.

Anyway, moving on a few weeks, the sellers had bought another farmhouse just outside the village and we happened to bump into them one day, and invited them back in the house for a cup of tea. I took the opportunity of asking them about the "ghost". They were both offspring of a farming family in their late twenties, and very pleasant and talkative. The woman told me that while she and her husband had just gone to bed one night, her husband had gone to sleep and she turned to switch off the light, and noticed an old bearded man in a red quilted jacket in the room leaning over the bed. Her first reaction was to ask him what he was doing. He apparently replied "Don't worry love, I'm only looking". She nudged her husband to wake him up, but by the time he was aroused from sleep, the figure had gone. How or where I can't remember what she told me.

The second "sighting" occurred when her mother visited the house a few weeks later after the first event. This village was a quiet and crime free, and front and back doors were always left unlocked and sometimes open, and neighbours, friends and workmen etc, called and came and went freely. The mother went upstairs to the bathroom, and after she left that room she descended the stairs and noticed an old man described as wearing a "red smoking jacket" standing on the half landing to ascend. She passed him on the way down, and didn't react in any way apart from a nod of the head and a smile. When she reached the kitchen, she asked her daughter who was the guy in the red jacket, expecting to be told it was someone she was already aware of. Needless to say, she wasn't aware of anyone else in the house, and after the description of the guy was given, she made the assumption it was the same figure that appeared in the bedroom that night.

She apologised for not telling us about the ghost before we signed the contract, but she didn't have to, as we didn't care one way or another, as we would still have bought the house. I think this is an interesting anecdote, especially when the mother and daughter both apparently saw a similar, if not the same figure, and when the daughter had never mentioned the earlier sighting to her mother.

No proof of anything as usual, and suffice to say, both my wife and I never saw anything unusual in the house throughout the seven years we lived there. However, the story still makes my hair hair stand on end, even to this day all these years on.

Why does hair stand on end? Is it an inherited fear effect of something unknown possibly a danger? I have this image of our hairy ancestors furring up to twice the size, like our cats when they meet a potential enemy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom