Since Halloween is quickly upon us, I thought I would head into the "spooky" for a blog post.
Nick and I are really into the Sci-Fi television series, "Ghost Hunters". The series follows a team of paranormal investigators as they set out to resolve or solve, debunk or declare hauntings. They focus solely on hauntings. They don't dip into U.F.O.'s or bigfoot type creatures.
We have been watching for about a year. Most of the time their scientific efforts to record evidence of a haunting results in very little. Occasionally they collect evidence of something that cannot be explained based on the evidence they have and they leave it up to interpretation. Then finally, very rarely, the evidence is sufficient to point to something that truly is beyond explanation of any sort.
I have to say that I cannot remember ever having an experience of ghost-type phenomenon. Family members have had some experiences that could fit into this category. And personal experience is just as real as evidence in the mind of the person who has experienced something.
But I have found myself wondering about the experience of hauntings (I'm using that in a broad way) in the life of believers. A recent survey by the Associated Press resulted in about 1/3 of people saying they believed in ghosts with almost 1/4 of the people saying they have had an experience they label as ghostly. The survey went on to provide the information that,
The results of this survey would seem to indicate that conservative leaning Protestant believers don't give as much credence to ghost stories. This really strikes me as odd. Because it is conservative Protestants who have the most supernatural of belief system. Miracles, angels, demons, and life after death are part of the worldview of conservative Protestants. It is accepted almost universally among them. This may be a reason why belief in ghosts is so low. Ghostly phenomena may be attributed to miracles, angels, and demons.
Here is my position on ghosts: there are a lot of things that cannot be explained in the natural and the supernatural (the miraculous). Some things that people perceive to be hauntings are the mind's interpretation of things that are out of the normal but can be explained by knowledgeable persons. The experience of a haunting is so real that people need to express their stories without being seen as nutcases. A person's fear resulting from an experience is no less real than other traumatic events. Acts of prayer and anointing can bring comfort to the mind of the person who has experienced a haunting.
All of that being said, and in the spirit of the season, I would like to hear your ghost stories. If you have had an experience with hauntings or a ghostly presence, and if you feel comfortable, I would like to hear your story.
Nick and I are really into the Sci-Fi television series, "Ghost Hunters". The series follows a team of paranormal investigators as they set out to resolve or solve, debunk or declare hauntings. They focus solely on hauntings. They don't dip into U.F.O.'s or bigfoot type creatures.
We have been watching for about a year. Most of the time their scientific efforts to record evidence of a haunting results in very little. Occasionally they collect evidence of something that cannot be explained based on the evidence they have and they leave it up to interpretation. Then finally, very rarely, the evidence is sufficient to point to something that truly is beyond explanation of any sort.
I have to say that I cannot remember ever having an experience of ghost-type phenomenon. Family members have had some experiences that could fit into this category. And personal experience is just as real as evidence in the mind of the person who has experienced something.
But I have found myself wondering about the experience of hauntings (I'm using that in a broad way) in the life of believers. A recent survey by the Associated Press resulted in about 1/3 of people saying they believed in ghosts with almost 1/4 of the people saying they have had an experience they label as ghostly. The survey went on to provide the information that,
The most likely candidates for ghostly visits include single people, Catholics and those who never attend religious services. By 31 percent to 18 percent, more liberals than conservatives report seeing a specter.
The results of this survey would seem to indicate that conservative leaning Protestant believers don't give as much credence to ghost stories. This really strikes me as odd. Because it is conservative Protestants who have the most supernatural of belief system. Miracles, angels, demons, and life after death are part of the worldview of conservative Protestants. It is accepted almost universally among them. This may be a reason why belief in ghosts is so low. Ghostly phenomena may be attributed to miracles, angels, and demons.
Here is my position on ghosts: there are a lot of things that cannot be explained in the natural and the supernatural (the miraculous). Some things that people perceive to be hauntings are the mind's interpretation of things that are out of the normal but can be explained by knowledgeable persons. The experience of a haunting is so real that people need to express their stories without being seen as nutcases. A person's fear resulting from an experience is no less real than other traumatic events. Acts of prayer and anointing can bring comfort to the mind of the person who has experienced a haunting.
All of that being said, and in the spirit of the season, I would like to hear your ghost stories. If you have had an experience with hauntings or a ghostly presence, and if you feel comfortable, I would like to hear your story.
Comments
Amazing.
Here it is - We lived in an old Victorian house in Merced, California. The owners before us told us that it was "haunted." Well, we are conservative protestants, so we didn't lay much credence to that. Circumstances subsequently caused me to change my mind. Of course, I was only 15, so maybe there wasn't much mind to be changed. Or maybe there was.
Anyway. My older sister (18) was very unhappy about moving. VERY. She had just graduated from high school, she was going back to the other state for college, but still my parents forced her to join us in California for the summer. She voiced, repeatedly, and out loud, how much she hated California, the town we lived in and THAT HOUSE. In the kitchen we had cabinets that had space above them (between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling.) On top of the cabinets my mother had placed any number of things, including an old milk crate with some old glass milk bottles. It was directly above the dishwasher. One day as my sister was continuing to complain about everything, but especially the house, while she was putting dishes away, one of the milk bottle flew out of that crate straight for her head. Now, when I say "flew," that is exactly what I meant. It didn't fall, it came forward and straight for her (well, it also came down, but not straight down.) My mother had checked the crate the day before to make sure everything was secure and not in danger of falling out. And yes, I saw this incident myself.
It gets better. We decided to renovate a bit in the attic. While doing so, we found a sheaf of letters in one of the walls. The house, as it turns out, was used as a boarding house in the late 1800's. The letters were between one of the residents and a woman. Coincidence? Maybe. I never liked the attic.
Further . . . one day while I was home alone, with the DOORS LOCKED, I was in my room on the second floor doing something. I heard someone playing our piano downstairs. And I don't mean some random notes such as would occur if a pet stepped on it. It was a full song, chords, melody, everything. I immediately went downstairs to check. The doors were still all locked and I was still home alone. (Or was I?)
ALL of this was personal experience. More things happened in this house that I did not experience personally. Enough happened to make me believe that there was something else there. The presence (other than the bottle throwing incident) was not mean or violent. But it was there.
Amy
Personal experience is real. A lot of people discount personal experience because it is left up to whether or not we believe an individual. But I think the experience was real for you. And that is what counts.
Todd I thought I'd come here too because I'm not really a believer in ghosts but I did have one experience when I was about 12 yrs old.
I remember waking one night to a man standing by my bed. The odd thing was I wasn't scared or bothered by it at all. This coming from a child that had to have the hall light kept on all night! The man was dressed in late 1800/early 1900ish clothing and just stood there and stared.
I didn't tell anyone at the time, and it never happened again.
Over the years I've put it down to an overactive mind and still being half asleep. But it was so real.
The house we lived in was built in the 1950's on a lot beside my grandparents house. My room was originally part of the attic but my parents renovated to make the upstairs into two bedrooms.
We were the second people to live there, the first my aunt and her husband, so nothing old or spooky about it.
And that's the point I'm trying to get at with this. It was real. In your mind it was real. Was there something there? I don't know. But you believe something was there. It was real enough that your remember it **mumblemumble** years later.
That doesn't make you crazy or a spooklover. Something happened that was very much real. And you don't have to do anything with that. But I would encourage you to accept that it happened and go back to your busy life.
Not being a big ghost believer but not disbelieving either.
I don't know if this is a ghost or a spirit or an Angel, but it very much happened.
My husbands parents passed within about 18 months of each other. After their deaths, I kept "feeling" a presence for lack of better words. Everytiime it happened the hair on my neck kinda stood on end though. I chalked it up to emotions. Then Hayley commented a couple of times that Mom & Pop were in her bedroom window every now and then. I attributed that to a young childs imagination.
But then this happened. I was driving home, speeding maybe, on the road to our house. It was almost dusk, and I was driving my inlaws car, that my husband inherited. I also didn't have my seatbelt fastened, which is odd.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a huge deer coming out of a field and right at me. I slammed on the brakes but there was no way I wasn't hitting the deer. As if out of the Matrix movie, the deer slow motioned, turned it's head and stopped inches from the drivers side window. Inches I tell you. I was at a complete stop, but couldn't move a muscle out of fear.The dear turned around and walked away. I swear his tale brushed the window.
There was a car coming towards me and one behind me and everyone was at a complete stop. I sat there for a full 2 minutes. The driver behind me got out of his car and came to my window to ask if I was alright. I asked him if he saw that. He was shaking and said it was incredible and he said was that in slow motion? I was sure it was my MIL that stopped that accident. I figure if that dear hit me, I would have been big time hurt, right in the drivers side window.
Since then, there haven't been any other incidents but it was freaky to say the least and at least one other person saw it.
I don't know if that is a ghost story but it is my only spirit type exposure.
I can't remember who, but someone wise once said that once you stop believing in God, you don't believe in nothing; you start believing in everything.
I'm voting on Jesus on this one. I don't know what a ghost is, but if He says they're real, who am I to question.