Was That A G-G-G-G-Ghost???

I mentioned in a previous discussion that I seem drawn to writing about things that I do not believe in. I do not believe that there are space aliens cruising around our skies, yet I love writing stories about them. I don't believe in ghosts, yet the supernatural and everything about it fascinates me.

I was recently reading an article on the Cracked.com website that offers an explanation as to why people think they see and feel the presence of ghosts, and that article made a lot of sense to me. Then I read the comments and there were plenty of people saying that they felt the scientific explanation was well-written, but then they went on to say that there are ghosts because they saw one.

The bottom line is - no, you did not see a ghost. I always find it interesting when people point to "pictures of real ghosts" as their evidence. Some of the pictures are extremely convincing. This one here looks like it could be real:

Thanks to Pinterest

Then there are pictures like this one that are passed off as real ghost pictures and I just lose faith in the whole idea:

Thanks to About.com

The second one is obviously a hoax, and the first one is something I could make with the software I have on my computer right now. Some evidence of hauntings can be compelling, but then it falls apart when the truth starts to come out. For example, electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) can be really creepy stuff and there are hundreds of audio recordings of what people say are ghosts all over the Internet. But when you watch enough episodes of Ghost Hunters, you start to realize that EVPs can be faked and capturing one is like capturing lightning in a bottle.

Camera Shy Ghosts

A big problem I have with believing in ghosts comes from the "evidence" that is all over the place. I have watched plenty of documentaries about what are supposed to be real ghosts stories and I have noticed one thing; there never seems to be any video recording equipment or cameras around when the ghost stuff really happens.

For example, one documentary I watched showed 45 minutes of pictures and video footage of ghost hunters hearing strange sounds, seeing things and one even had a rope wrapped around his neck when he went into an attic by himself. The thing is all of that stuff was obviously staged to try and create the illusion that there were ghosts. When it came time for the big payoff at the end, we were told a story about a seance in the house that resulted in ghosts appearing, furniture flying around the room and voices from every dimension. The problem is that this film crew magically forgot to set up their cameras for this seance, so nothing was captured on video or in audio recordings. How convenient.

My point is that all of the "evidence" that supports the idea that there are ghosts is extremely suspect and none of the really good stories we hear are ever backed up by any tangible evidence. When I read the Cracked article, I gained a better understanding as to why people seem to see ghosts in the same buildings, even though those people never met each other before. As for the details about seeing a woman who died in the building decades ago, those can be filled in when the person who said they saw the ghost gets told the stories about the hauntings.

I want to believe in ghosts because the presence of ghosts would indicate another dimension really is out there. If there are ghosts, then a lot of other stories we hear could also be true. But I have a hard time believing in something that can be discredited by science, and just cannot seem to come up with real evidence when it counts.