Ghost Experiences: Have You Ever Had Any? I Have…

Believe in Ghosts?
When I was a kid, I had a handful of experiences that could be described as paranormal. And most of the experiences happened in two different old houses in Massillon, Ohio. Now, even if some of those experiences were false alarms, due to overactive imagination, I’m very skeptical that they all were. I had experiences of knocking on the wall and it knocking back multiple times. I heard a ghostly scream. I saw multiple doors close on their own. And I even saw a tall misty figure walk straight through a dark room.

Ghost Hunters
As I grew older, I stopped giving thought to ideas like ghosts, and it just so happens that I also stopped having paranormal experiences. Most of the research on ghostly phenomenon I knew of seemed under-skeptical. You’d see pictures of people’s camera straps claimed as being weird plasma phenomenon and specs of dust or bugs claimed as pictures of orbs. However, a few years ago, I started watching the show on The SciFi channel called Ghost Hunters and it rekindled my childhood interest in the paranormal. The approach of the people on that show is skeptical, and they sometimes collect interesting evidence. And unless they fake evidence, which I don’t think they do, there is some stuff they have collected that is very hard to ignore.

Pseudoscience
The worldview that simply dismisses the paranormal as pseudoscience and thus ignorable takes a real closing of the eyes and lack of imagination. Ghosts are one of those things that just because they are elusive and don’t fit into the common reality models doesn’t mean they are not real (or real enough). It seems to me that one of the major problems with evidence for phenomenon like ghosts is that there are haunted people as much as haunted places. Which is to say, some people are more tuned in to accepting ghosts into their reality than others are and so find and manifest them. It is kind of like how some people really believe in global warming while others think it is overblown. And like global warming, the people who are global warming doomsayers do as much disservice to the idea as the unmovable skeptics. You need balance and openness to explore these kinds of things. And you need to consider how your thoughts about something are often suggestive of your consequent experience.

I think proving scientifically the existence of ghosts is a wild goose chase (a treadmill run). Science essentially studies the corpse of the world, not its spirit. Spirit doesn’t fit into the criteria of the scientific worldview. Ghosts are one of those things that you are either open to or not, and your experience follows. It is my view that this universe is, at its core, not made of matter/energy, but instead made of thought (the material world is an effect of mind, not its cause). And in such a model of the universe, ideas like the paranormal are perfectly compatible.

Mansfield Reformatory
Last summer, on my annual trip to visit relatives in Ohio, I took a tour of the Mansfield Reformatory, which is where they filmed that great movie Shawshank Redemption, and also where they filmed an episode of Ghost Hunters–amongst other things. In the episode of Ghost Hunters that took place at the Mansfield Reformatory, they didn’t collect much evidence. However, different investigators had the same sensation of seeing something in the same prison cell. The first investigator who had the experience marked the cell with an X (see first pic) and it just so happened that a second investigator ended up seeing something in that same cell without knowledge of what the other investigator saw. It was all beyond mere coincidence.

When I went to the Mansfield Reformatory for myself, there was one strange experience I had. There is a specially painted prison cell where they filmed part of the Lil’ Wayne music video for Go DJ. There was a sign on a ledge marking the cell (see pic). Our tour group was standing in front of that cell facing away looking at the tour guide who was speaking. I was at the back of the group and out of the corner of my eye I saw the sign marking the Lil’ Wayne cell fly off the ledge and onto the floor—landing about three feet from the cell wall. It was as if a gust of wind blew it from behind, but there was no wind. Some kid picked up the sign and put it back. The other people in the group didn’t see what happened and dismissed the sign falling because of the kid standing near it. However, I saw that the kid didn’t touch the sign—he was too far away. It was a bit odd, but not enough to conclude that a ghost did it.

Conclusion
So anyway, what do you think about ghosts and the paranormal? Have you had a personal ghostly experience? Or, if you don’t think ghosts are real, what makes you so sure? And, oh ya, have a Happy Halloween!

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