Do you believe in Ghosts and......

JustAsking

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Maybe I missed that lecture. What's the joke about SHC?
SHC stands for Spontaneous Human Combustion. It is probably easily explained by natural phenomenon, but it is fascinating how many people have come across it over the past 500 years. The accounts are usually from police reports where the death and fire was investigated.

Now I need to back and think more about Fan Death.
 

jason_els

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When the brain is stimulated by electromagnetic fields, we see some really creepy things including shadow people, ghosts, and perhaps even Doppelgangers:

In September 2006 it was reported in Nature that Shahar Arzy and colleagues of the University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland, had unexpectedly reproduced an effect strongly reminiscent of the doppelg&#228;nger phenomenon via the electromagnetic stimulation of a patient's brain. They applied focal electrical stimulation to a patient's left temporoparietal junction while she lay flat on a bed. The patient immediately felt the presence of another person in her "extrapersonal space". Other than epilepsy, for which the patient was being treated, she was psychologically fit.

The other person was described as young, of indeterminate sex, silent, motionless, and with a body posture identical to her own. The other person was located exactly behind her, almost touching and therefore within the bed that the patient was lying on.


A second electrical stimulation was applied with slightly more intensity, while the patient was sitting up with her arms folded. This time the patient felt the presence of a "man" who had his arms wrapped around her. She described the sensation as highly unpleasant and electrical stimulation was stopped.
Finally, when the patient was seated, electrical stimulation was applied while the patient was asked to perform language test with a set of flash cards. On this occasion the patient reported the presence of a sitting person, displaced behind her and to the right. She said that the presence was attempting to interfere with the test: "He wants to take the card; he doesn&#8217;t want me to read." Again, the effect was disturbing and electrical stimulation was ceased.
Similar effects were found for different positions and postures when electrical stimulation exceeded 10 mA, at the left temporoparietal junction.


Arzy and his colleagues suggest that the left temporoparietal junction of the brain evokes the sensation of self image&#8212;body location, position, posture etc. When the left temporoparietal junction is disturbed, the sensation of self-attribution is broken and may be replaced by the sensation of a foreign presence or copy of oneself displaced nearby. This copy mirrors the real person's body posture, location and position. Arzy and his colleagues suggest that the phenomenon they created is seen in certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, particularly when accompanied by paranoia, delusions of persecution and of alien control. Nevertheless, the effects reported are highly reminiscent of the doppelg&#228;nger phenomenon. Accordingly, some reports of doppelg&#228;ngers may well be due to failure of the left temporoparietal junction.-Wikipedia
 

jason_els

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SHC stands for Spontaneous Human Combustion. It is probably easily explained by natural phenomenon, but it is fascinating how many people have come across it over the past 500 years. The accounts are usually from police reports where the death and fire was investigated.

Now I need to back and think more about Fan Death.

Oh yes, I'm well aware of SHC. I thought you might have expounded in a previous post on a theory like the wick effect or high static voltages. The problem, as you likely know, is duplicating these theories in the lab. A human body needs 1600 degrees for three hours to burn as completely as alleged SHC victims. It's tough to imagine that kind of heat and temperature occurring with so relatively little collateral damage.

Fan death is a bit odd. I didn't know about it until I read of it here. It disturbs me a bit as I always sleep with the fan on at home to provide white noise. :eek:

Seriously though JA, I'm wondering if this isn't a case of what's real there isn't what's real here and the force of belief has created its own science to back the perceived reality.
 

ntstatic

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I believe that there are "more things between heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy." But I also believe that what most people report as para-normal phenomenon is bogus.

I believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe, but what most people report as UFOs or alien encouters are bogus.

Exactly my thoughts
 

B_lamdellboo

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I'm still undecided on this issue.

I went on a Ghost Tour recently, and met a ghostly friend. His name is Jonathon.

Also, it's hard to believe that we're absolutely alone in the world. I mean, if life can happen here...



But on the other side, maybe I'm just gullible. :tongue:
 

Love-it

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No on ghosts and I hope there is intelligent life somewhere in the Universe. Most likely it is the same everywhere, strife and competition, survival of the fittest, etc.
 

D_Joseba_Guntertwat

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Ghosts don't exist. What are they made of if they are visible and can go through walls?
They're made of energy.
Oh well that explains everything! :tongue:

Fan death is a load of rubbish. It probably started when a few people died of natural causes and there just happened to be a fan running in the room. Perhaps they had a fever and felt hot.
Someone made the connection and another urban myth was born.
 

B_NineInchCock_160IQ

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Fan death is a load of rubbish. It probably started when a few people died of natural causes and there just happened to be a fan running in the room. Perhaps they had a fever and felt hot.
Someone made the connection and another urban myth was born.

This belief is so prominent in Korea that almost all fans sold there come with built-in automatic shut-off timers.

Similar (and similarly stupid) to the many American buildings that go straight from floor 12 to floor 14, out of fear of the unluckniess of the number 13.

Speaking of numbers, also complete and total bunk: numerology.
 
D

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I dont have strong feelings about aliens or monsters, but I do live in an old house that has a ghost. I've also experienced other old houses with ghosts.
 

B_Nick4444

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When the brain is stimulated by electromagnetic fields, we see some really creepy things including shadow people, ghosts, and perhaps even Doppelgangers:

comports with some of my findings --- after it happened to me, I did some research, and learned that a lot of historically noteworthy people had reported encounters with their doppelgängen, and a lot of the literature indicated it happened at the commencement of some major life change, hence, I suspected, some correlation with the attendant stimuli that such life changes evoke.

what I still finding astonishing in my case, and some others, is the corroboration by physical evidence, and the involvement of a third party
 

MidwestGal

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The other day i had a discussion with some co-workers.Some believe in ghosts UFOs little green men and Bigfoot.I think there are others out in space somewhere.And there are parts of the world no one has seen.So do you or dont ya believe in these things or other unexplained things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

ghoast yes, as for otherthings. I do not know.
 

jason_els

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Perhaps, but I also know that people receive death/crisis apparitions which I don't think quite count as doppelgangers. My cousins have seen my late grandfather and the nurses in my grandmother's house report hearing and smelling someone making breakfast in the kitchen yet when they go downstairs there's no one. Whether these are ghosts, eddys in time, or there are states of consciousness that truly do link us with other people in some way we do not as yet understand, I don't know.

I do believe there is something going on with ghosts. Millions of people have seen or sensed them and there are far too many alleged encounters, in every culture since the beginning of history, to dismiss ghostly phenomena outright because we do not yet have the tools to verify it. I think it's fair to say that something is happening to cause this and for science to dismiss ghosts outright because of the supernatural explanations people have created for them does a disservice to science.

As I see it, everything that seems impossible is supernatural until a testable method is found to verify it and a provable theory is found to explain it. Then the supernatural becomes natural.

comports with some of my findings --- after it happened to me, I did some research, and learned that a lot of historically noteworthy people had reported encounters with their doppelgängen, and a lot of the literature indicated it happened at the commencement of some major life change, hence, I suspected, some correlation with the attendant stimuli that such life changes evoke.

what I still finding astonishing in my case, and some others, is the corroboration by physical evidence, and the involvement of a third party
 

D_Joseba_Guntertwat

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My cousins have seen my late grandfather and the nurses in my grandmother's house report hearing and smelling someone making breakfast in the kitchen yet when they go downstairs there's no one.
There are many possible explanations for this. Why assume it must be a ghost?
Millions of people have seen or sensed them and there are far too many alleged encounters, in every culture since the beginning of history, to dismiss ghostly phenomena outright because we do not yet have the tools to verify it.
The key word there is 'alleged'. There are a lot of superstitious people in the world, historically even more so. It doesn't make it true.
As I see it, everything that seems impossible is supernatural until a testable method is found to verify it and a provable theory is found to explain it. Then the supernatural becomes natural.
That is the definition of supernatural. I think if ghosts did exist, then with the amount of cameras that are out there, at least one of them would have been recorded. Yet this has never happened. If you search the internet for ghost videos you just find the usual nuts and fakers.
I'm pretty sure ghosts don't exist, but would love to see any evidence to the contrary.
 

lafever

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I listen to that show on the radio every night when I go to sleep.
I do too much of the time, i love it but my wife gets bored with it.
Usually my wife and i listen to tokyo, france, germany, and many other countries and government channels, some are pirate radio broadcasts.
Here in the good old u.s.a. our news is censored by ..........., well you know, so we seek our news from outside sources(othere countries)to find out what's really going on with what our politicians are up to(their secret agendas).
We listen on my world wide receiver that i have hooked up to on a outside set of beams(antenna).
I can pick up sideband as well as the 13m to 49m spectrum(5.95 to 26.30), i also get world wide ham signals up to 80m and more, some only broadcast at desinated times and dates.
So if you want to keep up with it all you really have to know your stuff.
Basically theres not much that i can't listen too, the government channels can be a real challenge though as they're always changing their signal band and wave length.
chris
 

ClaireTalon

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I'm strictly engineer on the matter of aliens and ghosts: I only believe in the things I can see. I have neither seen an alien nor a ghost, unless you count a look in the mirror at 6 a.m. with a hangover.

Possibly there is intelligent life somewhere. But let's consider a few facts: If they are their, they're subject to the same physical laws as we are. That makes it rather improbable, if not impossible, that they'll pay us a visit in the next time.

Hey, want a joke on this? Recently, NASA has transmitted the Beatles song "Across the universe" vaguely in the direction of the polar star. In roughly 800 years, they'll receive the answer: "Thanks, but I already know that song. J. Lennon". :biggrin1:
 

jason_els

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There are many possible explanations for this. Why assume it must be a ghost?

Mass auditory and olfactory hallucinations explained by psychology? Is there a source of high electromagnetic fields which occur only in the morning in the upstairs part of the house? Have the metals and timbers of the house managed to record a repeated activity and then replays it at the same time? Is it a question of timeshifting in reality? Or is there some form post-mortem afterlife of the spirit which can manifest itself on occasion in the dimensions we perceive?

The key word there is 'alleged'. There are a lot of superstitious people in the world, historically even more so. It doesn't make it true.

No more than the label of superstition makes it untrue. If science ignored everything that a population labeled as supernatural then we'd still think the sun was Apollo traveling around the globe in a chariot.
 

jason_els

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You do have Passport to World Band Radio right? It's the best for SW.

Do you ever listen to numbers stations? They're a hobby of mine.

I also listen to SW for the same reasons as you do though be aware there are plenty of biases in foreign broadcasts as well.


I do too much of the time, i love it but my wife gets bored with it.
Usually my wife and i listen to tokyo, france, germany, and many other countries and government channels, some are pirate radio broadcasts.
Here in the good old u.s.a. our news is censored by ..........., well you know, so we seek our news from outside sources(othere countries)to find out what's really going on with what our politicians are up to(their secret agendas).
We listen on my world wide receiver that i have hooked up to on a outside set of beams(antenna).
I can pick up sideband as well as the 13m to 49m spectrum(5.95 to 26.30), i also get world wide ham signals up to 80m and more, some only broadcast at desinated times and dates.
So if you want to keep up with it all you really have to know your stuff.
Basically theres not much that i can't listen too, the government channels can be a real challenge though as they're always changing their signal band and wave length.
chris