Ghosts and the Paranormal...

[OtterCreekRanch]

So, who on here believes in and/or has had an encounter with the paranormal? I am mainly asking about spirits/ghosts.

I have seen and experienced things I just cannot explain, but as a Christian I was raised to believe that when we die our soul goes to either heaven or hell. That is not to say I do not believe there is any way someone could stick around for awhile before moving on, but that is not how it is supposed to work, or so I have been told my whole life. I seen an advertisement on my local Craigslist groups section posted by a Paranormal group looking for new members. They are hoping to find a couple of skeptics to help in disproving evidence, because all of the previous skeptics in the group are now believers. Part of me wants to meet with these people and see what it is all about because I have so many questions about the things I have experienced, but the other part of me does not want to see that what I have been told all my life might not be exactly how things work. I am really torn on what to do.

 

[Razadia]

I do indeed believe in the paranormal. I have my own small time crew, but we're disbanding soon since I'm moving out of state.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Questioning some teachings of your religion does not have to crumble the foundations of your faith. A person's faith can grow with their life experiences, I think.

I have not personally had experiences with the paranormal, but I am open minded about the possibility. The paranormal can simply be viewed as the unexplained.

 

[OtterCreekRanch]

All of my experiences have been visual or noises, so I often wonder if it is just my imagination running wild. I have never had any physical experiences that could not be disproved. That is why I wonder about it. I partically want to see hard evidence so I can say yeah, I probably did see what I thought I saw. Then at the same time I think maybe it is best to just not know.

 

[rarely bored]

I've seen and experienced enough to believe in the existance of ghosts, which I think are different than spirits, which also exist.

I too am a Christian and expect my worldview to be in harmony with the Word of God, and having a very healthy fear of God, do not wish to cross any lines.

The belief of a person going to heaven or hell immediatly after death is one which I haven't found a lot of scripture to back up - maybe I'm missing something? But I do see those who die in Christ are with Him (glory be!) yet there is still a judgement day to come, which is when, I think, eternal destinations are awarded. When Jesus appeared to his disciples, after his reserection, they proclaimed him a ghost -- and his response was not, 'there is no such thing as ghosts.' Pesonally, if there was no such thing as ghosts, I'd expect that would have been his reply. Jesus really emphasized that he wasn't a ghost by eating, drinking, touching. If there were no such things as ghosts, would he have done that?

What I've seen/experienced has me wondering about it all too, but, I am not going to actively pursue any paranormal activity since we are warned to not communicate with the spirit world (once again, would the warning be there if it didn't exist?).

Since you are curious, I'd encourage you to spend some time reading the scriptural passages on spirits/ghosts/death, etc and reconsider some of the beliefs you have been taught. Well, that's what life experiences has forced me to do.

lol, didn't quite expect to be discussing theology on BYC.

 

[Razadia]

Otter, do you have a basement with pipes in it? Forgive me if asking that sounds creepy in any way, but when someone mentions noises loose pipes come to mind. That's normally one of the first questions I ask before an investigation.

 

[wolftracks]

 

[OtterCreekRanch]

No, no basement. I guess I should have specified that I have heard voices more so than noises, though when I am alone at my grandparents I often hear what sounds like a radio or TV turned on in another room. I always search the entire house and all electronics are always turned off. I usually will even go outside to make sure it is not coming from a neighboring house or business, but I never hear anything outside.

On several occasions when we used to mostly use the bathroom at the rear of our house I would get out late and night and go back there and while everyone else would be asleep I would hear what sounded like someone talking outside. Several times I got up the courage to either look outside or if I was really brave actually go outside and I never seen anything. Most of the time I do not feel like there is any presence at my house, but there has been a few strange occurrences. I remember years ago when I was still in school and my parents lived here I would come home everyday and be here by myself for several hours. On one day I got home and decided to walk to the back of our property to check and see what the water level was like in our pond. Upon getting close to the house on the way back I noticed the door was open. From inside I heard what very clearly sounded like two men arguing in Spanish. I got scared and used my cell phone to call my mom who was an hour away still at work because I literally thought a couple of men had broken into our house while I was out by the pond. She didn't seem to really believe me so she reluctantly called my grandpa and asked him to come check the house out. I hid behind a hay bale and watched the house for the whole 10 minutes it took him to get there. No one ever left the house. He went in and looked around and didn't find anyone. He stayed there with me until my dad got home and did a through search of the house and never found anything out of place. On very rare occasions my husband or I get the feeling of someone watching us. A friend of mine was staying with us awhile back and he was getting the strange sensation that someone was watching him while he was in the shower. He said he looked out into the living room (why he didn't shut the bathroom door I do not know) and thought he caught a glimpse of a man dressed in a mariachi suit as strange as that sounds.

The first time I remember ever seeing what I thought to be a ghost was when I was about 6-7. My grandmother had a cat at her house I loved. I had just gotten to her house for the weekend and was sitting in the living room. The cat was a calico named Calico lol. She did have one other cat but it was mostly black with a little white. I seen a cat that looked just like Calico run from the kitchen into the bedroom. Since Calico usually greeted me when I first got there I thought it strange she did not come to say hi, so I went after her calling her name. My grandma stopped me and asked me to come into the living room and sit down. She then proceeded to tell me that Calico had gotten outside and had been killed by a car a few days before. I know I clearly seen a cat run by and it was a mostly white cat. I do not have any other explanation than it had to have been Calico still hanging around even after she had passed away.

I have seen a few other things too. I often stay at my grandparents house during the day helping them out. One day I was walking down the hallway and at the far end of it there is a mirror. In the end of it I seen a man behind me that I thought was my grandpa. I turned around to say something to him and he was not there. I went back out the kitchen to look for him and noticed out the window their van was gone. They were not even home. More than once I have been at their house alone and have gotten such an eerie feeling that I have literally gone outside and sat on the porch and waited until someone got there to even go back inside.

There has been other things as well but those are some of the main ones I can think of at the moment.

One of the real reasons I am torn is because this month is the two year anniversary of the day my grandpa on my dad's side passed away very suddenly (as in conscience and coherent when the ambulance came to pick him up because he was not feeling well, to in a coma by time he got into the hospital without ever having a chance to tell anyone any type of goodbye, and gone a few hours later.). If there was some way for him to come back to us (specially if he could play a practical joke on us), I would think he would be the type to try. I don't know maybe he was content to move on as soon as he passed away. I do believe though when he was in the coma and could not respond, he knew we were with him at the end. He actually died within minutes of my great grandma (his mom) getting to the hospital and saying goodbye...maybe that was enough for him. I just wish I knew that if people did not go straight to heaven or hell when they died...why and how some stick around and others do not. I guess that is not for us to know.

On a strange note a few weeks ago my dad ran into an old friend of my grandpas that did not know he had passed away. He had told my dad that he had seen my grandpa a few days before at a cafe my grandpa often went to for breakfast and had a good conversation with him. My dad told him that was impossible because my grandpa had been dead for nearly two years and the guy was dumbfounded. He was pretty insistent that it was without a doubt my grandpa that he had talked to.
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Sorry for the long post, I kept thinking of more and more things to add.

 

[Zinnia-Hen]

Quote:
Congrats, you're now officially haunted by a ghostly mariachi band and their kitty friend.

 

[SunnyDawn]

I used to laugh at the kids when they told me of the ghost in our house that would come to their door at night to "check up" on them. Because they were so adamant I asked the neighbors if there was a history of such things in this house. I found out that the woman who lived there a while back was killed in the home by her husband. I still didn't believe though. Except when the kids left home...
There was no one else there to blame for all the odd noises going on and after awhile the ghost got more and more active. The TV would turn on or off or as happened the other night the channel was changed - mid program (and the remote was on the dresser, 10 feet away from my husband and I), the desk chair would creak and settle back as if someone had just sat down, the shower curtain has been pulled down several times (it is VERY firmly attached to the wall and this is where she was killed), etc, etc.
I no longer laugh about it. We are currently moving from that house and, thankfully, the ghost has not followed us. Although she was more mischevious than anything it is just more peaceful without our "roommate".

I know how hard it is to question your faith just remember that no one has all the answers and having faith in something helps us grow spiritually. I don't think it is important to get everything right. I really don't believe we are meant to have all the answers. Sometimes the search for truth can be an uplifting experience in and of itself so don't stress about whether what you have been told is exactly right. We are only human and those that have been teaching you are doing the best they know how to do. If your beliefs bring you a measure of peace or security then they aren't wrong at all, are they? If not then your search will likely bring you to that place. It's all good knowledge when it keeps us growing and learning.