My Search for Ghosts and Evil Spirits - All Advice Welcome

[ebbixx]

Such bogus nonsense. I can't believe that A&E would allow that crap on their network. As Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Why not? There's at least some art involved in the editing, and many people do find such silliness entertaining. :roll:

OTOH, it is this sort of programming (plus pro wrestling) that put me off the SciFi (soon to be renamed SyFy :shock: ) Channel.

 

[Mapp]

The notion of ghosts seems to be based on the same puerile wish-fulfillment that anchors part of religion: that is the notion that there is some continuation of the conscious after death. But is ghosts really the idea we want to go with? That the spirits of dead people spend eternity hovering around in places they once inhabited, bumping things, moving things and, in the case of mediums, offering vague advice to their descendants? Even if you were to believe in some kind of life after death, it has to be more dignifying than that. If the existence after death is really that banal than maybe we do have something to fear from dying.

 

[Sasano]

What do you guys think of ghosts? Do they frighten you? Do you know of any dark or disturbing places that you suspect may be haunted by the angry spirits of dead?

What about demons or other dark and powerful supernatural entities of ancient lore? Do you believe that books such as the Necronomicon can be dangerous to fool around with? If you were around someone who claimed they were going to summon a demon by performing a dark ritual would it scare you bad enough to leave and get as far away from such a foolish act as possible? Or would you stick around and laugh hysterically at the whole process?

Personally, I wouldn't miss it for the world. Although I'm not sure if I could promise to hold back my laughter. I do not believe in ghosts or spirits of any kind however I would love to encounter one.

Ever since I came to the conclusion that there is most likely no life or continuance of consciousness after death I started looking at the concept of ghosts and the spirit world an entirely different light. Evidence of a ghost or spirit of any kind would in my mind greatly increase the possibility of an afterlife. And I think that would be awesome.

So yeah, if anyone knows of a way to piss off a bunch of demons or evoke an evil spirit to come terrorize me or anything like that, I'm open to suggestions. I'll invite them in to my home, piss all over some graves, light some candles, say "Bloody Mary" three times in the bathroom, take a shit in some ancient Indian burial grounds, open a cursed Egyptian tomb, I don't really give a fuck, I'm down for whatever.

So does anybody got any ideas? How do I come face to face with a demon?

Well sticking to the subject at hand.

I haven't had any personal experiences worth noting but you're best bet would be Rituals and such I had a wiccan(pagan religion) buddy that once warned me how dangerous those were.I remember looking at a site with "ritual instructions" but that was years a go.So you can probably look it up in the internet and try a few rituals,record them and see what you get all though something tells me you'll be deeply disappointed.

Also look in to Wiccans overall, they have a lot of spiritual beliefs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca#Ritual_practices mostly based on nature.

 

[MachineSp1rit]

totally agree with ebbixx's point there.

i would also like to add that "ghosts" is not as stupid as it sounds. but the first thing what u have to do is stop taking it all literally, "ghosts and demons", it doesnt have to be transparent figure of zombie-woman walking around the old houses just to freak u out.

i personally think that there is no afterlife, but there is something left after life. like if u experience something really exciting or maybe something overdreadful then the echo from your emotions may stay for long time. i don't know how can this all get visual, maybe if u take in condition that time is often irrelevant, u might get far into imagination and make up something that will make some kind of sense, that's how science moved forward so far. Don't forget that not so long ago when people heard of microorganisms they would store on same level as magically curing shamans and unicorns.

 

[ImprobableJoe]

There's a good post about it on The Atheist Experience blog:

There are no end to unusual things that can make smells, sights, sounds, and even feelings that we can't immediately explain. But assuming a cause and then "investigating" only in ways that are most likely to give us the answers we prefer, rather than explain what is really happening, is something we have to work hard to avoid if we value a handle on reality over subjective prejudice.

That's stacking the deck. That's manipulating the sound byte results until I hear "get out," or only having a psychic, not a plumber, assess the "moaning" in my house. It's not a way to guarantee I'll find what I'm looking for; but it's a incredibly good way to strongly and favorably influence the possibility of a positive outcome in finding that a god exists. When I "find god" under such circumstances, it should be no more of a surprise than the psychic finding that a spirit, and not a stressed water pipe, is causing the moan.

 

[CupOfWater]

If I got my hands on the necronomicon, If it actually existed (correctly spelled?), I would be scared out of my mind. I have read too much H.P. Lovecraft XD

 

[Nightmare060]

I've recently done a bit of re-thinking of my position on ghosts.

I would LOVE to belive that they are souls of the departed lingering in this world apearing to people and somtimes interacting with the world.

However, I just can't bring myself to realy honestly belive rationaly that this is the case. I belive that there is SOMETHING out there. Perhaps some natural phanomanon that we have not yet descoverd. However I do feel that it's statisticly unlikley that every single recorded event in history was either a delusion or a hoax. Can hundreds if not thousends of reports across time ALL be made up?

The Enfield Poltergiest is the most convincing event for me. I will try and find a good site for reference when I get the opertunaty. Although I would have thaught most skeptics would already know of it.

 

[darthrender2010]

However, I just can't bring myself to realy honestly belive rationaly that this is the case. I belive that there is SOMETHING out there. Perhaps some natural phanomanon that we have not yet descoverd. However I do feel that it's statisticly unlikley that every single recorded event in history was either a delusion or a hoax. Can hundreds if not thousends of reports across time ALL be made up?

no, but they can be mistaken, sortof how people used to think the earth was flat and at the center of the "universe"

SciFi (soon to be renamed SyFy :shock: ) Channel.

WTF???

 

[ImprobableJoe]

However, I just can't bring myself to realy honestly belive rationaly that this is the case. I belive that there is SOMETHING out there. Perhaps some natural phanomanon that we have not yet descoverd. However I do feel that it's statisticly unlikley that every single recorded event in history was either a delusion or a hoax. Can hundreds if not thousends of reports across time ALL be made up?

I'm willing wager that a pretty ridiculously high percentage of everything that has ever been believed by hundreds or thousands of people is dead wrong. I mean, there are millions of Fox "News" viewers who believe THAT bullshit, and that's in 2009 with the Internet and all kinds of access to facts. People misspell and mispronounce words so badly and so often that it is easier to change the spellings and pronunciations in millions of dictionaries than to correct all those people. We live in a time of widespread knowledge about scams and cheats, and people are STILL tricked by con artists of every stripe. Vegas never closes down, even though the odds are stacked against everyone.

Don't tell me that people can't have been wrong throughout history... the amazing thing is that people are ever RIGHT!

 

[Th1sWasATriumph]

BUSTING MAKES ME FEEL GOOD

 

[Coma White]

However, I just can't bring myself to realy honestly belive rationaly that this is the case. I belive that there is SOMETHING out there. Perhaps some natural phanomanon that we have not yet descoverd. However I do feel that it's statisticly unlikley that every single recorded event in history was either a delusion or a hoax. Can hundreds if not thousends of reports across time ALL be made up?

Made up? No. Misinterpreted or otherwise mistaken? Of course.

CW

 

[Nightmare060]

Made up? No. Misinterpreted or otherwise mistaken? Of course.

CW

That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. Although Like many, I can't help but wonder what it could be.

 

[Ozymandyus]

I'm pretty sure we already have know of what it could be - humans are programmed to see will and intent in everything. When a breeze moves a curtain, there is something in our brain that simply tells us - there is someone there. It's a defense mechanism, because IF there actually is someone there, its important that you know it. If there isn't, no real harm done except making you a little on edge for a few minutes. Furthermore, we are programmed to attribute significance to coincidences - when a lightbulb burns out at the same time that we see a little gust of wind move something, we are bound to attribute something to it. But the truth is, it just occasionally happens.

Ghosts are mist and wind and imagination - nothing more.

It's the same thing that made us see Gods as the source of storms and bad weather.

 

[Xulld]

I have been known to become "possessed" and I rather enjoy scaring the pants off of people who lamely believe in crap like this. The entertainment value is worth the effort in most cases.

 

[froggyc19]

You can find a large collection of rituals and spells used for summoning ghosts, communicating with them and banishing them in Judika Illes' Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells (Or the cheaper but very abridged version of 1000 spells).

As for Demons... generally you would have to be much more specific as the term "demon" is fairly broad, and can refer to a number of spirits or types of spirits. You can also find information about summoning/banishing rituals in the above mentioned book.

Another excellent reference is the Encyclopedia of Spirits: the Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses by Judika Illes. I checked my copy, and at the end of each section for both ghosts and demons, they give advise on how to ward them off... the exact opposite of what you're trying to achieve.

Later
(>'.')> Christine <('.'<)

 

[ladiesman391]

I had a close friend that used to have very intense nightmares about, what he described as, "demons" standing at the end of his bed, psycho looking "angels" flying around his room and other scary shit quite frequently. He said he felt completely paralyzed during the experience and that he was in-between being awake and asleep so the visions of demons and what-not appeared as real but he was helpless to do anything and could not move or yell. The amount of detail in which he described what he saw, was insane. I felt so sorry for him as we were only teenagers and the experiences he described to me must have been terrifying because he didn't quite know what was happening to him and his parents were pretty fucking clueless people (especially his Dad).

We suggested he should speak his doctor and a psychologist, which he did, and I think they diagnosed him with some condition but I can't remember what it was called and I can't remember if he was issued any medication for it, but I do know he still sometimes (very rarely) gets the nightmares as most people grow out of it. His parents (especially his Dad) are Christians and frequented their Church but my friend eventually turned away from it. I'm glad he spoke to us (his friends) first before speaking to anyone at his church or his parents. I could only imagine the sort of torment and religious experimentation they might have done to him had they known and had he believed them.

It makes me wonder how many other people go through the same thing but are deeply religious and believe what they see, like visions...

 

[ladiesman391]

This somewhat explains what I was talking about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

If you can somehow induce and replicate sleep paralysis you may get to experience "ghosts".