How do we explain ghosts?

[Steve]

My kettle switched itself on once. I thought it was an electrical blip but now I've read more about these footsteps, I'm not so sure.

It was that dude in Nessie’s hallway. He loves turning off appliances when no one is looking.

 

[Nessie]

Your logical perceived idea was walking in a hallway. Your fact is nobody was there. You can't even be sure the sound started in the hallway as it could have been the floor structure shifting or a wall, maybe both in an odd twist?

Check raw facts. Without allowing preconceived ideas in. How was the weather recently, lots of rain, a change in season or a lack of rain? Wood is never the same size two days in a row. It expands with humidity and contracts as it dries. The older the structure the more it moves. A simple fact.

Hearing a structural noise, only once and not hearing anything even remotely approaching what I heard, is very strange in itself.

The changes in structure you describe mean that the noise should repeat itself.

 

[Pixel42]

Hearing a structural noise, only once and not hearing anything even remotely approaching what I heard, is very strange in itself.

The changes in structure you describe mean that the noise should repeat itself.

Not if it was a particular combination of temperature/air pressure/wind speed/wind direction etc which produced the sound. A combination unusual enough that it only occurred once during the time you lived there.

And we're still talking about obvious possible explanations, there are undoubtedly less obvious ones we haven't even thought of.

 

[Nessie]

Not if it was a particular combination of temperature/air pressure/wind speed/wind direction etc which produced the sound. A combination unusual enough that it only occurred once during the time you lived there.

How likely is that????

And we're still talking about obvious possible explanations, there are undoubtedly less obvious ones we haven't even thought of.

Like what?

There is nothing in that hallway to make a noise that sounds just like someone has walked down it.

Plaster, pipes and electric cabling do not make a sound that is anything like footsteps.

Most likely is something within the floor, which was carpeted over floorboards over joists. It would need to be something that originated at the front door and then at the same pace as someone walking, triggered the sound to move along the hall to the back bedroom.

Say it was some sort of incredibly weird, freak atmospheric circumstance that caused the wood in the floor to flex in such a way that it sounded like foot steps, is belief in that not incredible?

 

[bluesjnr]

How likely is that????

Say...... three or four times in a lifetime, one of which occured when you lived in that house.

Like what?

There is nothing in that hallway to make a noise that sounds just like someone has walked down it.

Bald assertion.

Plaster, pipes and electric cabling do not make a sound that is anything like footsteps.

With regard to the pipes, I disagree.

Most likely is something within the floor, which was carpeted over floorboards over joists. It would need to be something that originated at the front door and then at the same pace as someone walking, triggered the sound to move along the hall to the back bedroom.

Rats - you'd be surprised at how loud they can be moving around.

Say it was some sort of incredibly weird, freak atmospheric circumstance that caused the wood in the floor to flex in such a way that it sounded like foot steps, is belief in that not incredible?

Much less incredible than belief in an entity.

 

[Pixel42]

How likely is that????

Fairly unlikely, which is why it only occurred once during the time you lived there. How likely is a ghost?

Like what?

I don't know, I haven't thought of it. Try asking a practical joker, they might be able to think of some possibilities.

Say it was some sort of incredibly weird, freak atmospheric circumstance that caused the wood in the floor to flex in such a way that it sounded like foot steps, is belief in that not incredible?

Not as incredible as the explanation you seem to believe.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Hearing a structural noise, only once and not hearing anything even remotely approaching what I heard, is very strange in itself.

The changes in structure you describe mean that the noise should repeat itself.

I thought you said someone else (your wife?) had heard it as well on other occasions? Or am I getting mixed up?

 

[abaddon]

Not if it was a particular combination of temperature/air pressure/wind speed/wind direction etc which produced the sound. A combination unusual enough that it only occurred once during the time you lived there.

And we're still talking about obvious possible explanations, there are undoubtedly less obvious ones we haven't even thought of.

Actually, it's a tad worse. How long one lived there is irrelevant. For a repetition to occur, not only must the same conditions recur, but one must be present at exactly those times. It could have happened 50 times but nobody was in the house...

In fact, there doesn't even need to be nobody in the house for the unexplained effect to have repetitions go unnoticed. People watch TV, play video games, listen to music, sleep and so on.

It is actually impossible to claim that it only happened once, only that one happened to NOTICE it once. That says nothing at all about the frequency of the occurrence. It could easily be happening every day but lost in the noise with which we seem to surround ourselves.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

I never told anyone about what happened that night for a few years. I was hoping it would repeat or I found the source.

Then one day my wife asked me to make sure I kept the doors locked as she had heard someone walk down the hallway. She was adamant someone had come into the house, but when she had checked, no one was there and she admitted she had checked the doors and they were locked.

I just brushed it off as is happening in this thread right now. Go on a while and my wife told me she had been told someone had died in the house just before we had moved in. I then told her about my experience with footsteps in the hall.

The point is to all the ghost stories I have told, is that in all cases it is credible witnesses who at the time did not think, ghost, we all thought someone really was there.

There we go, it has happened more than once.

 

[theprestige]

Actually, it's a tad worse. How long one lived there is irrelevant. For a repetition to occur, not only must the same conditions recur, but one must be present at exactly those times. It could have happened 50 times but nobody was in the house...

In fact, there doesn't even need to be nobody in the house for the unexplained effect to have repetitions go unnoticed. People watch TV, play video games, listen to music, sleep and so on.

It is actually impossible to claim that it only happened once, only that one happened to NOTICE it once. That says nothing at all about the frequency of the occurrence. It could easily be happening every day but lost in the noise with which we seem to surround ourselves.

"... and to think! If not for [wildly unusual circumstance], I would never have known that this was happening every day!"

 

[Thor 2]

How likely is that????



Like what?

There is nothing in that hallway to make a noise that sounds just like someone has walked down it.

Plaster, pipes and electric cabling do not make a sound that is anything like footsteps.

Most likely is something within the floor, which was carpeted over floorboards over joists. It would need to be something that originated at the front door and then at the same pace as someone walking, triggered the sound to move along the hall to the back bedroom.

Say it was some sort of incredibly weird, freak atmospheric circumstance that caused the wood in the floor to flex in such a way that it sounded like foot steps, is belief in that not incredible?

Not necessarily incredible.

We all know how well our brains manage to fit input from sight into something recognisable. I find this happens quite frequently, and the recognisable result my brain presents me with, is quite wrong quite often. So too can be the result of input from hearing or other senses. Heck, the sound you are hearing may even be generated inside your head, without external input.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Hearing a structural noise, only once and not hearing anything even remotely approaching what I heard, is very strange in itself.

The changes in structure you describe mean that the noise should repeat itself.

Don't "ghosts" repeat themselves, though? They supposedly do the same things over and over again in the locations they're said to haunt. So I'd expect that if what you heard was actually a ghost, you'd hear it on more than one occasion. It's stranger to think a ghost would make just one trip down the hallway in all your years living in the house than it is to think a certain structural change wouldn't repeat itself.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

How likely is that????

I'd say it would be more likely than you having heard the disembodied footsteps of a ghostly apparition walking down your hallway, but that's just me.

 

[wasapi]

Not necessarily incredible.

We all know how well our brains manage to fit input from sight into something recognisable. I find this happens quite frequently, and the recognisable result my brain presents me with, is quite wrong quite often. So too can be the result of input from hearing or other senses. Heck, the sound you are hearing may even be generated inside your head, without external input.

I wrote about this before; I was outside with my dog when I noticed her red collar was not on. She has very short hair and the red stood out. Looking around, I couldn't find it anywhere. Glancing back at the dog, I saw that her collar was on her.

A trick of the eye. It happens. Why not other senses? It did not seem incredible in any way.

 

[Steve]

I wrote about this before; I was outside with my dog when I noticed her red collar was not on. She has very short hair and the red stood out. Looking around, I couldn't find it anywhere. Glancing back at the dog, I saw that her collar was on her.

A trick of the eye. It happens. Why not other senses? It did not seem incredible in any way.

That's one clever dog you have there. Almost scary!

 

[Pope130]

I wrote about this before; I was outside with my dog when I noticed her red collar was not on. She has very short hair and the red stood out. Looking around, I couldn't find it anywhere. Glancing back at the dog, I saw that her collar was on her.

A trick of the eye. It happens. Why not other senses? It did not seem incredible in any way.

It certainly does happen with sound. In the quiet of the deep woods all the man-made noises I usually hear in the background are gone, and I find I often perceive the edge of audibility sounds as music. Irish pipes and bodhran, the sort of thing Capercaillie would do. I'm a fan of Celtic music, I suspect others would perceive the sounds according to their own experience.

 

[bluesjnr]

I'd say it would be more likely than you having heard the disembodied footsteps of a ghostly apparition walking down your hallway, but that's just me.

I think you'll find, having read, previous responses that it certainly is not just you.

 

[Steve001]

Whatever cause the sound of the footsteps down the hall, I could rule out that it was caused by

- someone walking down the hall, I could see there was no one there and I searched the house, the residents were in their beds and the doors to outside locked.
- creaky floorboards, there were none
- wind, it was a still night
- plumbing, there was no tap or anything on that would cause water to flow
- heating, it was not on (coal fired with a water pump I had to switch on to feed the radiators)
- subsidence, there were no issues with the house
- vermin under the house, no access to anything more than a mouse and a mouse could not make a noise that loud from under the house that could be heard in the house.
- the only object in the hall was a bookcase and the books did not move/fall over. They couldn't, it was so full.

I, or another adult could replicate the sound, by walking down the hall. I was in the house for 4 years and heard it only once. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what caused the noise and found no source.

Well the honest conclusion is, is the source of the noise is a mystery..

 

[Steve001]

So how come I only heard it once?

How many factors can affect a hallway in a house?

No one knows.
No one knows.
Therefore, no conclusion is possible.

 

[theprestige]

Well the honest conclusion is, is the source of the noise is a mystery..

Exactly.

In this scenario, "ghost" isn't the phenomenon that needs explaining. It's the explanation being offered for an unexplained phenomenon.

In order to for me to try to explain a ghost, you'll have to show me a ghost to begin with. It won't work to show me an anecdote of an unexplained noise, and tell me the explanation is "ghost!"