Paranormal experiences...

[Alucard_FoN]

actually I'll write up a real explanation of this phenomenon later.. because its pretty easily explained with metaphysics and occultish stuff (which I'm currently studying :\)[/quote]

Excellent. I love occult stuff, it's one of my many fascinations. And I assume you're talking about popular metaphysics, as opposed to "real" metaphysics? Either way, should be a damn interesting read.

[MistyCaldwell]

alrighty. This is REALLY long. I had to make sure you all got plenty of mental images to satisfy the story. Yes, this happened..though I can't make a real decision about what even happened.

The setting is a weenie roast for my 23rd Birthday party. The main names involved are are me, Brent, John, and Kevin. (most of my friends left are guys since my all my female freinds went and had lots of kids since high school and can't stay out late )

I'd like to include pictures of the place to help the imagination, but since I don't have any ready, just imagine this: It's Ohio and there are lots of big rolling hills. My grandfather owns a 130 acre farm. We used to keep cattle but he's too old and sold them all. We still have a barn built in 1860 (the people who built it etched their names into the hay loft, pretty cool) a pond and down by that pond is a mostly buried in mud and destroyed wood shack/house.

Also on this property is 1 lone cottonwood tree sitting on the top of one of the largest hills in the area all by itself. It was very big but has been struck by lightning 4 times since I have been alive so it's mostly split up but still living.

It's about 1 Am at the party and most of the food was gone. The fire had mostly burned out and topics were getting dumb. No beer at this party since everyone had to drive themselves (so no drunken sightings) but it was either find something to do or everyone leaves.

I grew up in the place so I am experienced at riding 4-wheelers. I know the guys are all city people ^_^ and don't have that chance. SO I say "You guys wanna go ride the 4-wheeler?" Of course this meets with enthusiasm.

We take it out and it has one working headlight. So, they take turns riding it all the way (in the dark in the middle of the night) down to the old barn and back and to the old tree. It's about a 6 minute drive there and back for anyone.

Brent wants another turn and he goes down and then we don't see his headlight anymore. About 10 minutes pass and we still hear him but don't see him and then he finally comes out of the woods of all places. He had followed a trail made by my brother in law.

He saw all the paths in the woods and wants us all to go exploring. I had lived there 20 years so I wasn't too scared. They want some kind of midnight tour...so we put back the 4-wheeler and go .

John is very much a clown and narrated our expedition like a dinosaur fossil hunt and kept picking up rocks to examine It's probably because of him all of us were laughing and no one was nervous.

We get up to the old tree and sit there for awhile. It's a nice view from there and you can see out about 8 miles. In the dark it was just lights mostly. Lots of 'your mom' jokes were passed around at this point....so we decide to move along and take a path along some cedar trees through 2 fields down into the woods to follow one of the trails. Why no one was thinking 'Blair Witch' at this point I don't know

Ever try walking in the woods with only moonlight? None of us thought ahead to bring a flashlight since the moon was so bright. In the woods in a clearing we find someone had trespassed on the proprty by building a deer lookout despite the fact many do-not-trespass signs were posted...so we did the only thing we could do...tore it down. This left one of the members, Brent, with a nice big stick he stole from the lookout.

It had been likely an hour and the we were getting tired...it's all hills people. So they wanna know the best and fastest way out of the woods. I know the woods even in the dark so I take them up past a field we had yet to go through as it was closest to the houses.

Getting out of the woods we start walking through the field. It has the typical long weeds and as it was close to 4 AM now, mist.


I didn't notice anything but John said, what the f--- is that? He pointed to this white thing waaay up towards the top of the hill we were climbing.
I couldn't see it at first but then I saw the white 'thing'. It was foggy and the moon was very bright. What ever it was appeared to be illuminated.

John and Kevin start to walk up closer to it, 'it' being about 50 feet away.
They got closer said "Oh, S---!" and both started running back down the hill yelling profanities. They didn't get too close, but they said it was looking at them. Brent started to get nervous, and the only thing he could think to say was telling the thing to do obscene things to him...er....yeah Brent.

Whatever it was, it wasn't moving anywhere. It just stayed in the spot it was in when we saw it. We had to walk up the field to get back though and didn't want to go back into the woods at this point. So...getting closer, I thought I could see pitch black surrounding the illuminated white. Really weird. It did have a very human outline but I didn't look at it head on...I kept it in my side vision beacuse that's how freaky it was.

We took the long way around to the left, watching it until we got over a bump in the hill and couldn't see it anymore.

We were laughing about it then because of how incredibly weird of an experience that had just been and not suprisingly, none of them ever want to walk around in the woods back at my family's farm again.

[MistyCaldwell]

Good, good topic. Since it's related, let me pose a question to some of you. What do you think ghosts are? Do you believe they are actually dead spirits, or something else entirely.

Something else entirely. I told flint all about my theory...I'm too worn out from my story telling to write about it yet though. whew

[Alucard_FoN]

Excellent story. Thank you for the post, even if it tired you out ^^.

[MistyCaldwell]

Thanks ^_^ I'm exaggerating. It's just my seasonal job requires a lot of lifting, tossing, moving...and my arms are just sore. Ahh carpal tunnels has set in

[Flint the Dwarf]

I'll save ya the trouble...

Here's a slightly edited version of what Misty told me...


I'll start with an analogy

When you take a piece of rock that is influenced by magnets and polarize it, it can retain that charge after the intial magnet is gone. You can also store energy in batteries and specifically static electricity can be kinetic.

I believe that the 'soul' is really just a combination of the electrical energy that makes our bodies tick, the ability to learn, store, and create emotional ties and keep them in our brains (thus being influenced by our own life experiences and desires...personality) and the fluke of being self aware. I don't believe all animals are self aware but the ones we like to say have souls are.

A lot of prey animals are known to release a surge of chemicals before death and thus it becomes a pleasant experience (as much as it can be) and the body knows death is coming...releases these...and people used to be prey creatures. This is why we experience near death visions, and why they are so similar across our species even though we grow in different religions and cultures. It is a bio-chemical response.

We can remember this because we are not truly dead or separated from our bodies or our brains. It would be impossible to remember an experience when not connected to our brain. This is why we do not recall being in the womb (I think those people who recall such things under hypnosis are simply recalling what they have learned about birth and making images... a whole line of bad psuedo-science) or memories until the brain fully connects (around age 3 for most of us). I don't think medical science is so advanced that we know everything and the things we use to 'measure' brain waves are very primitive. They only know what they see and we simply aren't advanced enough to know everything... even about ourselves. One day we may stumble upon a way to search and detect all about our chemistry and brains. How many years have we used these devices? Less than 100 at most... so far to go yet...

I also believe that brain waves are something that can act like other frequencies at times. We are all humans, and the brain patterns are very similar. We are more attuned to our own species than another so it would make sense to say that thinking releases energy as we use our nerves and sparks go through them. The older we are, the more accustomed to recognizing similar patterns in other people through this feedback that I think may act very similar to the physics of other frequency waves and feedback. This would explain twins being so good at 'sensing' each others' thoughts or feelings because genetically, this nerve electrical feedback would BE identical. Older married couples too... being around each other so long they would be accustomed to reading and reacting to them like knowing what a dog's barks mean over time. They may have little meaning in themselves, but repetition of similar things (barks) over time can lead to habit-forming reactions or responses.



All this being said, and back to ghosts....

People, in times of stress involved with death, fear, great pain, have an enormous neurological response. This, coupled with electrical feedback can imprint a geographical location or even object (possibly their own body). This is why ghosts are often seen doing the same things they did in life. Perhaps this person's last thoughts were of a person or object... of pain... of a desire. This 'brain wave stain' of electrical feedback is easliy interpreted by others of the same species. Animals are also very sensitive to static electricity and can be affected by sensing a build up leading to an appearance.

This explains why it's so hard to capture an image of a ghost vs a light response. Our brains would be influenced by the wave where a camera might only detect the electrical or physical repsonse in the environment.

There is a hand print on a wall in a jail cell somewhere in an old colonial town. The inmate who put it there 'cursed' it. By all tests of science, there is no print. But we can see it, even on recorded tape on tv. I believe that it's sensitive to our brains.

Electrical energy also would explain why even ghosts die. They fade away... strongest soon after their death and fading after several hundred years. For 5000 years native people lived on the soil we walk and we never encounter them. Sometimes around sites of battles that occurred less than 200 years ago. This also says why ghosts in Europe have been disappearing... AND why ghosts are said to not come around when massive amounts of cell phone and microwave towers go up. Too much electrical interference.


If you need a more simplified version, just say so. I think I, or Misty, can cook something up for those that can't quite grasp this all. Very well explained though, if I might say so.

[MistyCaldwell]

I'm probably going to get ripped apart by all the experts on the details though.
Thanks flint. Even if I am wrong, at least I thought about it.

[Alucard_FoN]

I grasped it. It's certainly an interesting theory. and it makes a certain kind of sense too. With scientific ideas like that, maybe someday people will prove once and for all the existance of ghosts. When you mentioned that it's hard to capture them on camera's, I was reminded of aura's. There are many people who claim to be able to see aura's around people, and even read them. Until a while ago, you had to take what these people said on faith. Either you believed it or you didn't. But then someone invented a camera that can pick up the aura's. I forget exactly what it's called, but anyway... it's kinda the same thing here. For the most part, we have to either say we believe in them or we don't, without any real proof either way, but someday that could change.

[jacheatamobits]

when i first moved into this town, my sister and her new freind went selling girlscout cookies in the neighborhood. they happened upon this house that an old lady was living in. she was out on the porch, sitting in a chair, with her back sort-of facing them. they asked if she wanted to buy some cookies, but she wouldnt respond. they thought she hadnt noticed them come to the door (which was inside the porch) or that she was deaf.

a dy or so later, we find out that she was dead. found on the porch.

skip forward a year or two...

this guy kevin, and his mom move into the house, and we hung out ALL the time. mostly causing trouble. well, he told me about this ghost, and i wasnt hearing ANY of it. i am a very skeptical person. he said that he saw the ghost once, and hears it almost every night. he also said that it didnt scare him, and because he was dppressed at the time, actualy wanted the ghost to come and kill him.

there were always rose petals strewn down the stairs going to his room, and he says the ghost leaves them. he also says that he hears footsteps going up to his room, and voices.

skip forward a few more years...

i move away, and come back to this town. hes just moved back in. one day, were catching up on old times, and he says the ghost still comes back, but not as often. hes not suicidal anymore, so he sleeps downstairs on the couch.

[Flint the Dwarf]

I'm probably going to get ripped apart by all the experts on the details though.
Thanks flint. Even if I am wrong, at least I thought about it.

Nah, you won't get ripped apart. There aren't really any experts on this field. And it is just a theory. And a very good one that I think has more arguments to it than you talked about. But yeah, there will always be those that nit-pick.