Do you believe in ghosts?

[SoulMonster]

America is such a diverse country when it comes to its population but it seems to me there is a rather strong undercurrent of irrationality where people embrace all kinds of supernatural beliefs. We actually have the same thing here in Norway.

What do Norwegians believe in ? cupcakes ? (Not trolling, I think I once read that in a book. I think it was a children's book though.)

In addition to beliefs in gods we have, like in so many countries, a fairly strong new age movement where people, mostly fairly young people, believe in all kinds of trendy supernatural things (karma, reincarnation, spirits, etc). Basically whatever is popular at the moment. But, and I guess this is more unique to Norway, we have, especially among the older generations and the indigenous Sami people, deep-rooted beliefs that I guess is connected to nature, like beliefs in various spirits that are connected to specific places, various forms of healing, bad spells, etc. For instance in my own family there are older people who believe in the ability to stop bleeding by rituals and particular haunted geographic areas that come from old Sami beliefs. I am not saying this is wide-spread at all, but I do think these things, and their nature, is somewhat special to us. I don't think many people believe in cupcakes any more, for some reason that particular form of irrational belief has died out.

Norse gods are great. Thor was awesome to be fair. I've never heard of him ordering his followers to cut women's genitals off or anything. He pretty much just goes around twatting people with his hammer and leaves it at that.

Yeah, it is almost sad to think that we exchanged our cool gods for depressing, blockheaded monotheism

[Lio]

It's still a bunch of cack, though. Us Norwegians traded out Thor and Odin out for Jeesus for some reason. They are both as believable as unicorns and leprechauns.

What do Norwegians believe in ? cupcakes ? (Not trolling, I think I once read that in a book. I think it was a children's book though.)

Those who believe in bs believe in Jesus, just like you do in the US. They aren't catholic, though. They are protestant. I'm a rational person, so I'm an atheist.

Lithium, did you write this when you were drunk ? Or do you really think I'm from the US ?

[Lithium]

Yes, that was the red wine talking.

[SoulMonster]

Red wine is brighter than most humans.

[DieselDaisy]

Of course I do and England is full of ghosts. We have loads of 'grey ladies' and headless kings walking around our castles. We put the Australian Cricket Team in Lumley Castle, above Durham cricket ground, a few years back and they fled in terror. Apparently Shane Watson nearly shit himself when he saw a 'white lady' in his room. (I think this was a cunning ploy by the ECB by the way).

[Nulla Lex Ink.]

Robert the Doll's backstory is creepier than people claiming to see him move in the museum, though. Haven't heard about Annabelle, think I'll keep it that way.

Oh, I meant the people who claimed to see that before he was "locked up" in the museum, like the people his parents knew. But you're right, the backstory is scarier than anything the average museum goer or worker claims to see. Plus, the way the doll looks in general. Just something about the way he's built gives me the goosebumps. Oh also, when you say backstory, do you mean the business that went down with his original owner, or that girl who claimed the doll tried to suffocate her, or both? The story about the girl seemed too horror-movie for me to take seriously. Although if it was true, yikes.

Annabelle's a pretty recently discussed thing, since she was featured on that "The Conjuring" movie. I knew about her about four months before the film though, cause she was on some museum show and they showed where she was being kept, in that Occult museum owned by the Warrens. She's also getting her own movie soon, but the entire plot is made solely for the sake of the film, it isn't based on the events that supposedly went down between her and her owners. The gist of it is, she was a present from some girl's mother, and this girl and her roommate start to notice the doll moving on its own. They think she's friendly and call in a medium, who tells them she's the spirit of a little girl who died there. But then another friend of theirs is attacked by the doll while he's alone, scratching his chest pretty bad (although the scars disappear before pictures can be taken... Yeah, anyways), and they call in the Warrens, who inform them that it is actually possessed by a demon with malicious intent.

So the Warrens took the doll, and on their way home the car was having troubles, which wasn't normal for it. The husband, Ed I think his name was, steps out, douses the doll in holy water, and the rest of the trip home and some time after, all is well and the doll is "calm." But then some guy makes fun of the doll and later that afternoon dies in a car crash. Ever since then, people have claimed to see Annabelle move and hear her growl at them while browsing the museum. Like I said though, the movie isn't lifting that tale, it's making a new one about some couple or something. Also, the doll looks nothing at all like the real one. The movie doll looks a lot like that Glen doll from Seed of Chucky, which makes it decidedly unscary, at least for me. The real one was a Raggedy Anne doll, which brings on a whole new level of creepiness to me. Think about it - IF the story is real, then that means any kind of doll could be possessed. I think that's what most living doll films get wrong when they try to be scary, they make the dolls too human like or scary looking, when making it something plain is way more freaky. Well, that and they always make the dolls invincible four foot killing machines and the movies about them gory slasher pictures, when something of this concept is better reserved for a psychological thriller of some sort.

You should look her up if you wanna get a better description of the story. You should at least look up an image of her in her case, if only for the way she's hilariously displayed. See, she's put behind a glass case, with a sign under her that says something like "Absolutely positively do not OPEN!" Funny thing is, the "OPEN" part is hidden so that you need to open the case to see what the sign says. It's like they want it leap out and attack a customer or something, haha.

[SoNobodyToldYaBaby]

I bet the same people who believe in ghosts are also the people who believe alien begins visit earth on a regular basis.

[luciusfunk]

I bet the same people who believe in ghosts are also the people who believe alien begins visit earth on a regular basis.

That's a pretty big generalization.

[SoulMonster]

Almost all Christians believe in ghosts.

[luciusfunk]

Almost all NASCAR fans are rednecks.

[WFA]

i believe this thread gets made every year

[SoulMonster]

Almost all Christians believe in ghosts.

Almost all NASCAR fans are rednecks.

Did you disagree with my statement? Edited August 12, 2014 by SoulMonster

[luciusfunk]

Yes. It's a very broad generalization. Have you polled most Christians? Have you asked most Christians?

My statement that most NASCAR fans are rednecks is very broad.

[Lio]

I disagree too. I know a lot of christians and I know no one who believes in ghosts. Based on that I could jump to the (undoubtedly wrong) conclusion that not one christian believes in ghosts.

[Lithium]

I have a good friend that is Christian. We got locked out of his house once and he thought it was ghosts.

[DieselDaisy]

I do not agree with it either as a blanket statement. In fact you could argue that the belief in ghosts is antithetical to the Christian religion since, the soul is supposed to go to heaven or hell upon the extinction of temporal existence, not wander around stately houses terrorising people.

[Lio]

I do not agree with it either as a blanket statement. In fact you could argue that the belief in ghosts is antithetical to the Christian religion since, the soul is supposed to go to heaven or hell upon the extinction of temporal existence, not wander around stately houses terrorising people.

Quite right.

[SoulMonster]

Yes. It's a very broad generalization. Have you polled most Christians? Have you asked most Christians?

You never heard of the Holy Ghost?

[Lio]

Yes. It's a very broad generalization. Have you polled most Christians? Have you asked most Christians?

You never heard of the Holy Ghost?

Totally different. The Holy Ghost isn't a dead person walking around and haunting people. He was never human to begin with.

[Lithium]

Totally different. The Holy Ghost isn't a dead person walking around and haunting people. He was never human to begin with.

He never existed to begin with.

[DieselDaisy]

It is also a translation issue. 'Spirit' is more apt translation of the Greek, 'pneuma'. The spirit is the animating power which Jesus possesses.

[Lio]

Totally different. The Holy Ghost isn't a dead person walking around and haunting people. He was never human to begin with.

He never existed to begin with.

Okay, but that wasn't the point. The point was christianity and belief in ghosts are not really compatible. SM tried to debate it was, because of the Holy Ghost, but he's not a ghost like the ones we've been talking about.

It is also a translation issue. 'Spirit' is more apt translation of the Greek, 'pneuma'. The spirit is the animating power which Jesus possesses.

Yes, translation mistakes. That's like the virgin Mary, who was only a young girl, not really a virgin at all.

[DieselDaisy]

It is more about connotation than anything else. When the first English translations of the Bible were produced, the Greek pneuma - a concept difficult to render properly in English - was rendered as ‘ghost’. Unfortunately, ’ghost’ also began to acquire the connotation of, headless white dead people. There is barely any similarity between the Christian ’Holy Ghost’, an ubiquitous force connecting Jesus with God, and the apparitions found in old houses. Since the 20^th century in fact, English Bibles have addressed the problem by switching to the term, ’spirit’.

[SoulMonster]

Yes. It's a very broad generalization. Have you polled most Christians? Have you asked most Christians?

You never heard of the Holy Ghost?

Totally different. The Holy Ghost isn't a dead person walking around and haunting people. He was never human to begin with.

It was a joke!!

[MrPoe]

I started following paranormal investigators in 2010 when I filmed my first documentary. I was a complete skeptic, but I wanted to keep an open mind about what I'd be witnessing. I wasn't too impressed the first few months of doing this; my doc mainly concentrated on the people doing this. I saw a coupethings that I explained away. But when I first heard a disembodied voice as if someone were standing next to me, I couldn't explain it. And I tried to rationalize it away for three days before I told anyone.

I'm still an open minded skeptic, but I definitely believe there is something going on. I have no idea if "ghosts" are spirits of dead people, or something else. Unfortunately, a large portion of the paranormal community firmly believe they are speaking to dead people, and have this "mission" to cross them over. This is with no proof whatsoever. Faith based ghost hunting really muddies the water in what is an actual phenomenon.

http://youtu.be/yT2Iz8ZT6UQ