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How do we explain ghosts?

Steve said:
[/HILITE]

Not the ones that look like bed sheets.
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I had an experience recently that made me think about how people may end up believing in spirits/ghosts.

I have always had vivid dreams and also was able to control dreams and lucid dream when I was young. I dream frequently and with that comes quite a number of sleep paralysis events. As such, I'm quite used to dealing with sleep interruptions.

The other night, about 3ish, I heard a very distinct voice in my ear say, "Wake up [EHocking]". I didn't recognise the voice and it was clear enough to wake me.

My wife was not home that night, so I had the place to myself.
I put my phone in sleep mode, so no interruptions from that.

I've experienced similar voices in my ear like this while dreaming (or in a dream state), so while it is a little unsettling at the time, such occurrances really don't phase me much. I wake up, realise it was just a dream and then go back to sleep.

After the last "voice in my head", a thought occurred that this sort of thing could cause some people to become upset and confused.
I'm a fairly rational, logical person and have no inklings of spiritual/religious tendencies, but I can see how such an experience could affect people with a superstitious nature, or even just someone who has never experienced this sort of thing before.

Perhaps this inclination toward superstition back in "less enlightened" times in history had some influence on a general acceptance of ghostly visits?
 
I don't know about apparitions but some really weird stuff that I've discussed on here before has happened to me. The weirdest incident was finding my grandmother's lost dentures in the flush mount ceiling light fixture of her bedroom. I still can't figure out how they got into the light cover.
 
Jodie said:
I don't know about apparitions but some really weird stuff that I've discussed on here before has happened to me. The weirdest incident was finding my grandmother's lost dentures in the flush mount ceiling light fixture of her bedroom. I still can't figure out how they got into the light cover.
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Human agency obviously.

Someone thought it was a good idea at the time.

Good luck finding out who.
 
novaphile said:
Human agency obviously.

Someone thought it was a good idea at the time.

Good luck finding out who.
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The only human's in the house were me, a 72 year old woman, and a 94 year old woman. I didn't do it and the other two couldn't balance or climb anything to put it up there. The mystery remains unsolved.
 
Jodie said:
The only human's in the house were me, a 72 year old woman, and a 94 year old woman. I didn't do it and the other two couldn't balance or climb anything to put it up there. The mystery remains unsolved.
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Was one of those two women your grandmother? Sounds like they were lost and then found fairly quickly. Why did you look in the light fixture?
 
EHocking said:
I had an experience recently that made me think about how people may end up believing in spirits/ghosts.

I have always had vivid dreams and also was able to control dreams and lucid dream when I was young. I dream frequently and with that comes quite a number of sleep paralysis events. As such, I'm quite used to dealing with sleep interruptions.

The other night, about 3ish, I heard a very distinct voice in my ear say, "Wake up [EHocking]". I didn't recognise the voice and it was clear enough to wake me.

My wife was not home that night, so I had the place to myself.
I put my phone in sleep mode, so no interruptions from that.

I've experienced similar voices in my ear like this while dreaming (or in a dream state), so while it is a little unsettling at the time, such occurrances really don't phase me much. I wake up, realise it was just a dream and then go back to sleep.

After the last "voice in my head", a thought occurred that this sort of thing could cause some people to become upset and confused.
I'm a fairly rational, logical person and have no inklings of spiritual/religious tendencies, but I can see how such an experience could affect people with a superstitious nature, or even just someone who has never experienced this sort of thing before.

Perhaps this inclination toward superstition back in "less enlightened" times in history had some influence on a general acceptance of ghostly visits?
Click to expand...

There's a state between sleeping and waking called HypnagogiaWP when you can experience dreams remarkably lucidly. I've only experienced it a few times but I clearly recall one where someone was speaking to me, I woke up and scoured the room to find them as "they were right there, dammit". Then I realized.
 
Steve said:
Was one of those two women your grandmother? Sounds like they were lost and then found fairly quickly. Why did you look in the light fixture?
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Yes, my grandmother who had dementia. I was changing her sheets and happened to glance up at the light fixture and saw a "U" shape inside the glass. I didn't know what it was so I got a chair and unscrewed the light cover and there was her missing dentures. The dentures had been missing for a few weeks, we just figured she misplaced them, and that they would eventually turn up.
 
arthwollipot said:
There's your answer. Your grandmother put them there. People with dementia do strange things for no particularly apparent reason.
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They do, but she wasn't able to get up stairs without assistance, I just can't see her climbing on anything to put them up in the light fixture. If she did do it, I never figured out how she managed it without falling and breaking a hip or her neck.
 
Jodie said:
Yes, my grandmother who had dementia. I was changing her sheets and happened to glance up at the light fixture and saw a "U" shape inside the glass. I didn't know what it was so I got a chair and unscrewed the light cover and there was her missing dentures. The dentures had been missing for a few weeks, we just figured she misplaced them, and that they would eventually turn up.
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And they did turn up.

A light bulb in the fixture had burned out. Someone asked X to replace the bulb. X took down the cover, grandmother put dentures in the cover, X replace the cover without noticing the dentures.

The next few weeks were spent looking for the dentures ... until you saw them.
 
Jodie said:
They do, but she wasn't able to get up stairs without assistance, I just can't see her climbing on anything to put them up in the light fixture. If she did do it, I never figured out how she managed it without falling and breaking a hip or her neck.
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She may have tossed them.
 
Sounds like the light burned out and while someone was replacing the bulb your grandmother figured the light cover was a bowl and put her dentures in. Assuming you were not the person replacing the lightbulb there's a good chance that the one who did the work was not comfortable around your grandmother and just wanted to fix the situation and get out of there. My mom is in the early stages of dementia and it is no fun. I also find things in places that I ASSUME she cannot get to but somehow manages to reach.

When I was a ghost hunter stories of moving objects drove me nuts. Here's the list:

1 - Doors. Doors are on hinges and if not properly hung or if the building has shifted they will open and close on their own.

2 - Anything on wheels.

3 - Small, easily held objects which allegedly vanish only to reappear in another room or closet or drawer which the person making the claim swears they never were in or use frequently. This one is common with people who think their house or workplace is haunted. First off, anyone who's ever knocked something off the night stand at 2AM knows that no matter what you dropped it has landed somewhere that you're going to have to make an effort to reach. Next, when you "lose" your car keys it's because you put them down somewhere other than the place you reflexively place them because you had to attend to an immediate situation which required most of your mental focus.

I'm a guitar player and I still find picks in places I swear Id' never had one out, but as they tend to live in my back pocket they like to escape on laundry day and family members picked them up and left them elsewhere.

Just once I'd like to see a report of a piano moving to a different room by itself in the dead of night.
 
Drafts will also move doors and things on wheels.

Also, in our house, if h Th he front door isn’t completely close (pushed shut but not matched) opening the back door can make it swing open due to pressure changes.

So many things that aren’t considered, like cows :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jodie said:
They do, but she wasn't able to get up stairs without assistance, I just can't see her climbing on anything to put them up in the light fixture. If she did do it, I never figured out how she managed it without falling and breaking a hip or her neck.
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They can do things you would not expect they can. Remember, the inhibitions normally functioning people have is greatly diminished. When my wife's mom had dementia she did a somersault onto her bed, something she would never have attempted before.
 
Well, it was odd to say the least, it's been so long ago now that I can't remember if we changed the bulb in that room or not prior to her dentures going missing. I've seen little old women knock full grown men out working in the hospital so I guess it's possible that she climbed up there and slipped them over the edge of the glass, who knows?
 
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