I could not sleep!

[Eileen sobora]

I found out last night that it was a ghost in my bed but it wasn't the one my mom seen. It was some male ghost that look like someone I know and grew up with . I was scared and was hiding in my sheets. First when I saw it I gasp! hmy:, then was frozen for 5 sec, soon started to hide. This ghost was different from others that people may have seen. I don't know if the person I know is dreaming and I wined up seeing him. There was something that they say of people having dreams and others see them while there awake! I'm not sure if this is fact or fiction but I was scared and almost fainted. but thank the lord that he didn't let that happen. I'm still a little scared to go back to bed at night though.

[fafner]

There are no such things such as ghosts. Have a look at this part of the article on sleep paralysis that Anapan gave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis#Cultural_references
When we are not fully awake in a dark environment, it is easy to see strange things. I have often seen things I couldn't understand in darkness, and as soon as I would stand up to see closer, the thing would vanish. It would not vanish as in disappearing before I reach it, more like perceiving more details and understanding what it really is.
Do you know about the mysterious statues of Easter Island? Well, I found one recently in my bedroom one evening, have a look. In fact, this "shadow statue" is the shadow of a pile of CDs and papers. Nevertheless it is worth the look

[1magus]

There are plenty of ghost sightings at Disneyland btw. People say they see Walt Disney show up at Sleeping Beaty Castle he smiles at you and waves then fades into Mainstreet. There are others but they have too many and I forgot the link. Anyway hope you can sleep.

[stoogefreaky]

Well, I believe in ghosts! Dude, I was not asleep. I know what I saw. Why wouldn't ghost exist?

[1magus]

Well, I believe in ghosts! Dude, I was not asleep. I know what I saw. Why wouldn't ghost exist?

Just watch Red VS Blue some times it might explain some things.

[fafner]

Well, I believe in ghosts! Dude, I was not asleep. I know what I saw. Why wouldn't ghost exist?

And why would ghosts exist? If you intend to demonstrate something without proofs, I can demonstrate the opposite without proofs too You should learn not to place too much trust in your senses, they can betray you much too easily
To be clearer, I am not saying outright that you are wrong, but for each thing you must be certain of, you must apply scientific method. By applying it to so-called "supernatural phenomenoms", I found out that they came from my own untrustfull senses or biases. Put in clearer words, if I want to see ghosts, I actually see ghosts. If I want to see something else, I will see something else with the exact same things

[1magus]

There is also a simpler way. Just snuggle up with a Plushie and get some sleep .

[stoogefreaky]

(sigh)

[Astro Forever]

And why would ghosts exist? If you intend to demonstrate something without proofs, I can demonstrate the opposite without proofs too

Maybe nobody can prove that ghosts exist, but I doubt anybody can prove they don't exist either.

In general, I can't say that I believe that any particular paranormal phenomenon is for real. There were so many cases of such occurences that turned out to be either scam or had an actual explanation. That said, I think it would be a little pretentious to pretend that we humans already have an explanation for everything and that nothing escapes us. I find it hard to believe that there isn't somewhere a phenomenon we would call now "paranormal" that has a totally logical explanation that we just aren't aware of yet.

Actually, as I'm typing this, I just remember that there's at least one I have to believe in. I don't know how you'd call this one but one night a woman whom I was chatting with started to tell me things about me and my life that were true, that I hadn't told anyone else on the planet and that were very precise, not the usual generalities that astrologers or many so-called clairvoyant people will say. It actually helped me a lot to see better within myself. It was totally unexpected, as I had never had any personal exchange with that person before.

The thing is, how could I prove it? I still have the logs, but those could be made up. Or one could argue that the logs were true, but that in fact I might have told something to someone who then told her something. I know I didn't but I don't see how I could prove it. Therefore I can't scientifically prove it, but it's still there. And frankly, I don't feel like I have to prove anything and I'm sure this woman don't feel that way either. I just know it was totally true, she knew it as well and if other people don't believe it, then it's too bad, but it doesn't matter in the end.

Now, don't worry, you'll never see me dial one of those psychic phone lines, desperately hoping to learn something about myself or my future. It's not like I'll trust everybody on the matter either.

There is actually another very weird thing that happened to me when I was 3. I don't remember anything of it since I was so young, but I was told the story and I can't see why it would be made up. This one can't be scientifically proven either. Apparently I was with my mom and met a pregnant woman who was a friend of hers. I kept trying to run out of the restaurant, which was not a normal behavior for me, and it made my mom very uneasy in front of the other woman. After we left, she asked me why I had behaved like that. Apparently, I replied that the woman's baby was dead and that it was ugly. I was asked if I had seen it and I said yes. My parents didn't think anything of it. However, a few weeks later, the woman died, poisoned by her baby who had died in her womb. (This was back in the days ultrasounds weren't widespread yet).

Back to ghosts, once in the middle of the night, fully awake, I saw my mom come into my bedroom, sit on my bed with a smile, then get up and then... vanish! I was maybe 10 at the time, my first reaction was to touch myself and sit in my bed to check if I was sleeping and I wasn't. But it looked so real that I actually called my mom in terror to ask her, seriously, if she had come to my room, and obviously she told me she hadn't as she was sleeping. Then I remembered I hadn't actually *heard* my mom as she came into my room. I've never experienced sleep paralysis to this day in my life and I had been awaken for a little while when I saw my mom. I really have no explanation for this one. I'm definitely not ruling out that my senses could have been acting up at the time, but it doesn't seem to be in line with the sleep paralysis explanation.

[fafner]

(sigh)

Sorry if I have upset you, it was certainly not my intent. As you probably have noticed, I strongly don't believe in ghosts. I have been "attacking" more your biased way to tell things than your actual beliefs. Astro Forever has told a very similar story about a "ghost" appearing in her bedroom, however she presented the phenomenom as it really is: a perceived fact. She didn't jump to conclusion to claim it was actually a ghost.
Now a bit about perception...
<turning on doubt-o-matic phsycho-philosophical rambling>
I don't trust my ears
I have tinnitus, and because of this I have a permanent background noise in which I can hear sounds that don't exist (even though despite of that I hear very well). When I surf the web, I usually play music on my computer. It has happened once that I had forgotten to start the software. The problem was that I had heard music anyway When I realized the software was not started and there couldn't possibly have music, I also realized that in fact I heard nothing, I really had only imagined it, the tinnitus allowing the background noise to look like music until I really pay attention.
I don't trust my nose
I have chronical nasal irritations (like some kind of light hay fever that lasts all year). Because of that I have troubles smelling correctly. But I can smell odors that don't exist too.
I don't trust my eyes
Although I have a good sight, I sometimes see things that don't exist, especially in darkness. If I am in complete dark and I begin to think about ghosts, I will see movements. If darkness is only partial, I will still see movements on the extreme side of my sight, never on front of me even if I move quickly. I will occasionally see moving shadows on front of me, but will eventually realize it is for example the shadow of a tree moving before a city light, unless it is a pile of CDs and paper As you may have seen in a recent post, shadows can have very realistic shapes
I don't trust my mind
What's that? If we can't even trust our very selves, we are all doomed! But it is true nevertheless. The mind can work in many, many modes: normal, happiness, sadness, fear, anger, drowsyness, simple lack of attention; many states that have a direct impact on reasoning. Just think about how you think in all these modes, the dramatic difference between normal thinking and thinking in dreams with its twisted logic. How reliable can be the mind when one is trying to sleep?
After more than a decade of introspection, after having analyzed my thoughts, dissected them, investigated where they come from, what are their motives, I finally concluded that the mind is not very reliable. By the way, how reliable can be considered such a conclusion done by a mind that is unreliable according to this very conclusion?
If I am sad, I will look for more thoughts that make me sad. If I am happy, I will look for more thoughts that make me happy. If I am angry, I will look for more thoughts that make me angry. And so on... Even in a "normal mode", I know that my mind is very likely to find proofs of what I believe, even if it's false. Finally, the mind is more like a vast land whose only a small part is known. The vast majority of the land is inaccessible, or very difficult to access: high mountains, vast oceans, dark forests, deep caves... Is there something beyond/within them? Many thinking processes, if not most, occur in those unexplored areas. The perceived thoughts are nothing else than the tip of an iceberg.

It is worth nothing though that I know when I can decently trust my senses: if what I can perceive is above a kind of threshold, I know it is real. And so far, I never saw/heard/whatever anything unusual that was above that threshold