Strange experiences

[Wrench]

Here's my problem with ghosts .....
They are if I'm not mistaken the spirts of those who have gone before and lots of cultures and people around the world believe them to be true.....and lots is the key word here because lots is not all and if these spirts of the dead came back then every culture would have some knowledge of them and recorded history.

There have been many cases if you look hard enough of tribes and cultures who have no knowledge or concept of ghosts whatsoever but they clearly must have had dead people and that is my problem, if these things actually existed then every single culture in human history and even premodern human history would have depicted them in cave paintings and the like.
Lots do but not all and that is simply not possible.

Also by now there would be hard science to back up the ghost theory but science will actually tell you the opposite even after centuries of sightings.

The plural of anecdote is anecdotes not evidence.

I thoroughly belive there are things we cannot explain (yet) just as we once couldn't explain why the sun rises and falls as it does, but ghosts are a figment of human imagination to explain something we can't really explain.
Humans are good at this, we once believed the world was flat because we couldn't explain otherwise, some humans even believe love Island and eastenders are a good use of time and that peanut butter is actually made from peanuts but in time we learn it isn't.

This is a long running argument for me as my wife believes she's seen ghost, .....she hasn't she is simply wrong, but ssshhh don't tell her I said that.

 

[night crawler]

I came across some guy who went to Fair mile and posted some rubbish video about ghost hunting there and the and his paranormal experiences. He was just sat in his car talking for 15min of utter *****. He got quite ****** when I put him down about it. The idiot needed to get a life. He reminded me of a figure i saw on an album cover I have

 

[Electric]

I had a relation who lived next to a churchyard. She said that "its the living that you need to be afraid of, not the dead". She wasn't wrong as it's the people I've encountered in these buildings that could be more dangerous but am pleased that to date this hasn't been the case. Kindly explorers, welcoming homeless, helpful youths, utter [insert word] vandals, friendly pikeys, unpredictable druggies and former employees returning out of curiosity.
Whilst having an open mind, I'm a firm believer in what I can see so conclude these are merely strange, not paranormal occurrences. Exploring mates are however convinced they've seen ghosts. I'm convinced it is 2AM and time to go home.

One thing RE: Sound, dilapidated buildings are not well sealed for air movement or noise entering from outside. I often hear unrelated things; people, cars etc. and the way it travels inside can heavily distort the sound or its apparent proximity.

This has been a really enjoyable thread to read with all of your thoughts, scientific theories and experiences.

 

[MrsVance]

When I was a teenager (about 15/16) the village we lived in had a closed down swimming baths, I don't know how old the building was but I'd guess early 1900s at the latest when it was built. This small group of 3 or 4 of us used to go here ourselves when younger, but at that point it had been shut down for at least 5 years I think. I'm sure it's this place that got me interested in exploring old and abandoned places!

We would enter the building through a window that had no glass in it to explore all the places we couldn't get to when we were kids visiting the place, it was really interesting to me to see all the old fixtures and architecture. We'd often end up hanging out in the main pool area for a couple of hours as well afterwards with a little fire going in a metal drum that was there for light.

Now in this main pool room, there was an old (but fancy looking) balcony that I believe was not used even when it was open, I don't know why but you never saw anyone up there, and at this point you couldn't get to it as there was a locked door that I assumed led up to it.

This one particular night there was just the two of us, we were sat on the old benches at the side of the pool like usual and I just had this nagging feeling like we were being watched, and I looked around the room and saw nothing unusual then up at that balcony. I saw what I could only describe as a tall slender man, dressed in a tailcoat and a sort of top hat, going from standing to leaning right over the balcony as if to look down into the pool. I couldn't see him in detail, it was more like a silhouette of a man. I genuinely don't see how it could have been any sort of shadow or reflection of anything. I absolutely crapped myself, and shouted at the lad who was with me about what I could see, and he looked up there and told us we needed to get out! I don't think we went back in there after that.

I've never had an explanation for what that was, and unfortunately back then we didn't have camera phones so I never got any pictures of the place. I live nowhere near there now so I'm not sure what became of that old swimming baths, but if it was still abandoned I'd love to go back in there even after that.

I've explored a few other buildings in the years since (I'm in my 30s now) but I've never had any other weird experiences. I'll never forget that though and I can still see it in my head now crystal clear!

 

[Hayman]

I don't want to believe in ghosts - I find it quite hard to reconcile with my Christianity - but nonetheless, I have seen one; and so has my wife.
We had a cottage in Ellesmere in Shropshire, built around 1620. It had two attics up a rickety oak stairway, and the rear one of these was our computer room.
On a couple of evenings, I had sensed I was being looked at, and upon turning round, nobody was there. This happened on about three nights.
On probably the fourth night, when I turned round, I caught a slightly hazy view of a woman sat in a wooden chair sewing. She wore a blue garment with like a white bib and a puritan style white bonnet.
Needless to say, it took me rather by surprise, but within a couple of seconds it faded and I put the experience down to screen fatigue or just seeing things.
The next night, I saw the same, but the image stayed longer.
That night when I went to bed, having said nothing of my 'vision' to my wife, I asked her if she'd noticed anything odd in the attic.
I was especially careful not to drop the slightest hint of what I had seen as I wanted independent verification if she'd seen something too.
She was cagey in her response, but I pressed her without giving clues. Eventually she said 'do you mean the woman in the corner?'
To that I asked what she was wearing, and my wife gave me a description identical to what I had seen.
That is enough for me to collaborate the evidence of what I had seen.
There was a second 'presence' in the house which neither of us saw. When we moved in, we used to feed the cats in the cellar. The cellar opened at ground level to the back yard. Quite often the cats would go down to eat using the cat flap in the cellar door in the front room. Then they would both come hairing up at top speed with their fur on end and disappear into a bedroom and hide! My wife went down after a couple of weeks of this. She said out loud... "look.. we don't mind you being here. You've been here much longer than us, but can you please stop scaring the cats!" There was never any trouble after that.
A neighbour from some doors away who had a house similar to ours (they were supposed to be the surviving east and west wings of a manor house) was invited round to compare our building to hers. We let her look around, and she came back downstairs for wine with a big smile on her face. Do you know you have a maid still living in your attic room? She asked.
I don't think anyone can be convinced of this stuff unless they've seen it first hand, but there is my account.

My wife was a Spiritualist. She told me that she had ‘seen’ people who were dead. As I do, she had welcome or unwelcome feelings when entering a building for the first time. When we were house hunting in 1980, she refused to come with me into one place for which we had the keys. It was a dark evening, and, on going in I found all the walls painted red or black; the interior doors had been replaced by saloon-style swing doors, and the owner had built a bunk bed out of rough timber. We did not take it.

The large, built 1880, country house I lived in as a boy in the 1950s – and my parents ran as a guest house – was converted into flats around the 1990s. When I visited the place some 20 years ago, the occupant of one of the flats asked me if we “saw the ghost” when we lived there. My answer was no, but a young woman who lived with her husband in what had been the groom’s quarters above the separate stable block had killed herself by putting her head in the gas oven. The occupant had seen a female figure on the path that led around one side of the main house.

While the human body is a physical thing, it runs on chemicals and electricity – especially the brain. Since electricity is generally invisible but its effects can be seen and felt, is it possible that ghosts are some form of after-death electricity recreating the shape and colours of the human body? To include non-human objects such as clothing is another matter.

 

[Wrench]

My wife was a Spiritualist. She told me that she had ‘seen’ people who were dead. As I do, she had welcome or unwelcome feelings when entering a building for the first time. When we were house hunting in 1980, she refused to come with me into one place for which we had the keys. It was a dark evening, and, on going in I found all the walls painted red or black; the interior doors had been replaced by saloon-style swing doors, and the owner had built a bunk bed out of rough timber. We did not take it.

The large, built 1880, country house I lived in as a boy in the 1950s – and my parents ran as a guest house – was converted into flats around the 1990s. When I visited the place some 20 years ago, the occupant of one of the flats asked me if we “saw the ghost” when we lived there. My answer was no, but a young woman who lived with her husband in what had been the groom’s quarters above the separate stable block had killed herself by putting her head in the gas oven. The occupant had seen a female figure on the path that led around one side of the main house.

While the human body is a physical thing, it runs on chemicals and electricity – especially the brain. Since electricity is generally invisible but its effects can be seen and felt, is it possible that ghosts are some form of after-death electricity recreating the shape and colours of the human body? To include non-human objects such as clothing is another matter.

Since that electricity that ceases once the brain dies I don't see how that is possible or how it's possible for electricity to recreate anything, it's not a conscious thing that can choose one form or another.

This thread has got people chatting away tho so it's all good

 

[cogito]

Having been in about 600ish abandoned buildings at a conservative guess, the only out of the ordinary thing that I've ever come across was a group of ghost hunters that were confused by how we hadn't set off their motion detector at the only entrance.

 

[Wrench]

Having been in about 600ish abandoned buildings at a conservative guess, the only out of the ordinary thing that I've ever come across was a group of ghost hunters that were confused by how we hadn't set off their motion detector at the only entrance.

I think ghost hunters are just confused in general

 

[zeroUE]

Thing is, we as explorers go to places and some of them really do have a dark past, murders, abuse, early treatment of lunatics... the way I see it if there was any likelihood of actually coming across some poor tortured soul haunting a place then that's the kind of place you'd expect them, yet... nothing .

I don't know what happens to our consciousness after death, I have no beliefs regarding it, but there are some interesting theories regarding the substance DMT but this isn't the place for that discussion, and no it doesn't involve ghosts either

 

[Hayman]

Since that electricity that ceases once the brain dies I don't see how that is possible or how it's possible for electricity to recreate anything, it's not a conscious thing that can choose one form or another.

This thread has got people chatting away tho so it's all good

As others have said, we know things now we did not know in the past. A capacitor holds its charge after it has been disconnected. Batteries are electro-chemical devices, as is the brain. Countless people over centuries have reported seeing ghosts. Anglesey Guy's wife described without prompting the same figure he had seen. All I am doing is using the knowledge we have now to suggest how ghosts may be formed. How about a type of hologram created by a currently unknown method?

 

[Wrench]

As others have said, we know things now we did not know in the past. A capacitor holds its charge after it has been disconnected. Batteries are electro-chemical devices, as is the brain. Countless people over centuries have reported seeing ghosts. Anglesey Guy's wife described without prompting the same figure he had seen. All I am doing is using the knowledge we have now to suggest how ghosts may be formed. How about a type of hologram created by a currently unknown method?

Na it's all mumbo jumbo

 

[motionlessmike]

Interesting thread this!

I am actually a long time closet Most Haunted fan and have had some weird experiences myself over the years, but for me there's no crossover with UE and ghosties. If there's ghosts about wandering about in a derp then they don't bother me and I don't bother them.

Apart from Taxal Lodge... on top of being a fetid ********, the place just doesn't feel right when you're in there for some reason!

 

[AngleseyGuy]

Interesting theories!
My first weird experience of these things - and aside from the woman in the attic, the only other one - was when I visited the office of my landlord once, many years ago. The office was in a stately home in Hertfordshire, converted into office suites. As soon as you went in, it felt really empty and 'cold'.
Apparently the previous occupant had trouble with a poltergeist and had the room exorcised. Yeah, I didn't believe in poltergeists either, but presumably as a result of the exorcism, the room had been completely cleared of whatever historical energy had been there.
This is all sounding a bit weird and goofy, but it's difficult to explain. Sometimes you can go into an ancient church, and you can almost feel the centuries of prayers that have been absorbed into the walls. Maybe that's what makes some houses seem really homely? I'd only really noticed the warmth that old buildings have once I encountered one completely devoid of it.
Here's a poser for you...
Why do derelict buildings decay so quickly?
A house identical to ours a few doors away has been empty for about five years. The paint is flaking, inside and out. There is unevenness in the roof tiles and bits of render starting to fall off. Our house has not really received any more maintenance in that time than the neighbouring one has, but it is still perfectly fine. Do houses know they are unloved and give up? lol.

 

[Wrench]

Mainly due to lack of warmth to keep our the damp and maintenance to keep out the weather ....oh and dicks smashing stuff up

 

[Norfolkbloke]

Anyone remember Jimmy Blanch's cottage on the outskirts of Long Stratton?

On my last visit (going back a few years now!) to the cottage I was about to enter one of the out buildings but had an intense feeling of being watched and not being wanted, while standing in a doorway looking at the buildings floor strewn with old vintage car magazines, newspapers, books and letters etc I heard the sound of someone very firmly stamping down a foot just behind me...no sound of nature or other explanation I can think of can replicate the sound of someone stamping down a foot just a few feet away from where I stood!

The cottage was completely levelled and is now fenced off, Jimmy was a recluse and was a very private person and was undoubtedly attached to his cottage and somewhat eccentric way of life..though sad to think of the prospect of a persons essence lingering in these lonely old places.

Matt

 

[Teesskin]

Wither you believe in ghosts or not makes No difference as to this topic and unlike a lot of people we " explorers " enter old buildings and wander around locations a lot more than some paranormal groups do so its just an Interesting thread to hear peoples take on strange experiences but while some want to argue for natural explanations its good to read other people have seen or heard what can only be put down to a gut feeling, as to ghosts and paranormal I'm sure one day we'll all find out what happens at the end.

I have had three strange experiences over the years my first was not really exploring but I was in a old RAF building and a ghost of a man walk past me this was later proven when a friend came to the proper some years later to do a ghost box session. My second experience was exploring a ruined farm outside Darlington a clear voice was heard in between by myself and the guy I was wish and we both left the property. The third experience was while walking around the derelict Lord line building in Hull, I was walking around inside the building during the day when this shadow of a man stood up like he's been caught my friend and I both saw it and we moved aside from the door to let the figure escape, needless to say I've not been back.

 

[Wrench]

Been thinking about all this mumbo jumbo.....sorry ghost stuff.

I have a question for all the believers in this.

I have been in a certain derp in Liverpool, in the dark (cus that's when ghosts appear) for several hours in a small group but nothing "spooky" happened.
In fact I know one chap who's been in the place dozens of times and never seen a ghost.....bear in mind this is "one of the most haunted places in the uk"

But

When people go on ghost hunts here (ya know....on a PAID ghost hunt)
They see and hear somethings "spooky"

My question is this

Is this pure chance or is the fact people pay money and the organiser's want to keep a reputation going directly related to the " SPOOKY" goings on?

Also why no ectoplasm? We've all seen ghostbusters .....why no ectoplasm?

Damn that was two questions

 

[Wrench]

First correct answer gets a big kiss from Porky Pig

 

[AngleseyGuy]

Madness lies in trying to convince a non-believer of something you have had personal proof of, whether it is the appearance of apparitions, God or UFOs.
I've had personal experiences of both a ghost and of God, and that is enough to convince me!
I saw our attic ghost probably four times in total - certainly not often enough to base a tourist experience around her. I therefore assume that ghost tours as you describe are wholly bogus, though they may well have been based on a first hand account of a particular event in the past.
I'm just thankful that there might be no ghosts yet from the social media generation. Can you imagine??? These things are going to be crawling out of the walls all over the place posing for instagram pics or Facebook likes! There will be a whole new anxiety about what you wear, not only to go out, but around the house in private too. You never know when you may die, and then your arse is going to look big perpetually in the grubby outfit you chose to hoover in when you were electrocuted! Ghosts are going to be jumping out all over the place when cameras are around shrieking "Me! Me!".
Until then, they and their ectoplasm are going to remain unexplained and unexplainable.

 

[Wrench]

Unexplained or just untrue