4:55...This idea has been an ongoing comfort to me after deconversion.I had more than a few questions about paranormal experiences of my own.About a year after leaving xtianity I accepted that likely NO gods or supernatural things existed I was using reasoning to explain things, and I accepted that even if I never fully understood the experiences, there must have been natural/physical/chemical or nuerological reasons for them.
I've seen one thing in my life I couldn't explain, but... my skepticism wins out. Also there's a history of mental illness in my family so it's logical to question my eyes
emurphy66 Wierd stuff has been happening around my house. Many people encountering what me and my family are would say it was haunted, but I'm not ready to accept that untill I know what a haunting actually is, or what causes it. In the mean time I'll have to look for other explanations.
I'm not sure I understand why people would want to think that their loved ones are ghosts watching over them because it seems pretty awful. I can't imagine coming back after I die, as a ghost, and not being able to touch anything or do anything besides hover. It would be a shitty eternity.
I never heard the one about the airplane ghost. When I was a kid, my great-aunt used to give "Fate" magazines that she'd read to my mother. Being a voracious reader, I read them. It astonished me that adults believed stories that a kid could see right through. Still does.
I'm happy that you continue to make the completely correct point that the real, physical world in which we live is an amazing and poetic place. We don't need paranormal (or religious) factors to make life beautiful.
Why don't we have modern ghosts? You wake up in the middle of the night to see a ghostly figure standing in your room illuminated by the ghostly glow of an ghostly iPhone, or you hear a disembodied voice whisper "What's your wifi password?". Or you find a message written in blood saying "OMG RAWR SO RANDOM LAWL XD!!!!"
It's interesting to me that you seem to have learned quite a bit about sensory information and how the brain processes it. If anyone is interested, Steven Pinker's fantastic book "How the Mind Works" is a really good read. He starts at the beginning, and explains every step of the way. The chapters on visual processing is astonishing. Another great read (if you're interested in really understanding the thing in your head) is "Neuroscience" by Purves. It makes everything more interesting.
I used to play a game with my nieces where I would take pictures of them so it appeared that they were ghosts. it's ridiculously easy to do and sometimes even happens unintentionally. We had to stop doing it when older family members got freaked out and thought we were mocking fate or something. So, yeah, I'm not overly impressed by "photographic evidence" of ghosts.
A fb friend said that the ghost of her husband's grandmother, allegedly, changed the order of their wedding pictures, because she wasn't able to attend the wedding. I suggested she did it herself and forgot that she put them the photos in that order. She said she didn't, because she would have remembered doing that. I say she forgot, she apparently never forgets, but everyone forgets.
A lot of orbs are actually gnats or mosquitoes caught by the flash. So in some pictures taken after one another, the orbs move, and people think they're ghosts.
Auditory hallucinations are completely natural, yes. I have Exploding Head Syndrome (awesome name), which means that I usually only get a few hours sleep at a time, before I wake up to a loud, very realistic sound that's only in my head. It can be an explosion (hence the name of the disorder), but it can also be a trumpet, or a bark, or something falling (like a shelf, crashing down), or a door slamming, etc, etc, etc. I've even woken up to the sound of someone yelling "HEY!" right next to me. All in my head. I can tell none of it was real, when I see my dog, who gets scared and hides if he hears an ant fart outside, remaining completely calm.
My wife's aunt (a successful lawyer and generally very intelligent person) is always talking about how haunted her 200+ year-old house is. She took a photograph of my wife and her sister once that was full of orbs. She took this as yet more evidence. The fact that moments before the photo was taken someone had shaken out a dusty old blanket that hung across the back of the couch didn't seem relevant to her.
Couldn't agree more with the last one. The real world is so much more interesting. Can't believe you left out ghost trains and other ghost vehicles. Where not only the spirit of the driver/crew roams the earth, but the spirit of the vehicle too, as if they were alive in the first place.
Yeah, ghosts are really boring. They never have anything to say, beyond "we are very happy. I am watching over you." What, no Shakespeare? Is the afterlife that dispiriting?
Remember, they do talk to mediums in great detail. You know, dropping them a CH sound, or a Ka.. was that a Ka? Carl? Carson? Yeah, Carson.. Suddenly he can speak in complete sentences! He says the money is in the safe under the bed
I remember seeing a few episodes of that Ghost Hunter show on SyFy. All it is, is people in a dark room, shooting in infrared, say what was that and you hear that over and over again. It's all suggestion and they know it very well. You can take any handful of people who are primed to believe into any dark room and do that and they will be convinced it's haunted. Oh and not once did I ever hear what they were talking about until they did the replay later (giving them time to touch it up).
Taking into account that ghosts aren't real, yes, I find the real explanation to be much more interesting. Hell, even if ghosts were real, I'd probably feel the same way, given how mundane claims of hauntings are. As I say in the video, these supposed ghosts are some boring-ass entities.
an example of the brain giving false positives is routine with me. When listening to music, I often think I hear someone calling my name or my phone ringing in the distance while listening to music when a part of the song will remotely sound like something I need to pay attention to. and then it happens again with the same song when I listen to it a week later. I'm sure plenty of us have had similar experiences.
True but I was talking about how the belief in ghosts is in our modern world more connected to the excitement we feel when exposed to fear. Same reason why we watch horror movies but taken to a whole new level.
I don't particularly believe in what most perceive as ghosts/spirits, but it's very refreshing to see rational reasons for believing in them (or something like them). I applaud you, sir.
I'm not saying anything for 100% certain. Every fact is open to revision in the face of new evidence. If I ever see persuasive evidence that ghosts are something other than figments of our imaginations (evidence that comes from somewhere other than a glass pipe), I'll change my mind.
The thing that always bugged me about ghosts in fiction? Ghost clothing. Why is it that ghosts ALWAYS seem to have clothing on after death? Does a person's clothes have a soul or souls too? And, did they die at the same time the person did? Are they haunting the dead person? Weird stuff.
When I was 10 or 12 I read a story about a woman whose fiancé was killed in the Civil War. One night she was home alone, and someone knocked on the door. When she opened it, her fiancé was standing there. He came into the foyer, hugged her, then they began to dance. They danced faster and faster, and suddenly she died. He wanted to be with his love, even if only in death. Even as a kid I saw the flaw. She was alone. No one could possibly know what she experienced in her last moments of life.
"Orb" photographs can only be taken with compact cameras, where the flash and the lens are close together. When the light, from the inbuilt flash, hits the dust particle, which scatters the light, some of which is straight back to the camera. The reason for the shape is that the camera is focused a lot further away, say 6 to 10 feet, the dust particle will be less than 2 feet away and way out of focus.
I don't know what it was but I saw something rather odd one morning. I had woken up about an hour before hand and needed to piss so I was walking to the toilet, turned my gaze down the hall... and saw a semi-transparent robed figure floating from the kitchen to the lounge. I was fully awake and aware and LOOKING DIRECTLY AT IT as it made it's journey. Once it entered the lounge I run up the hall and looking inside to find... an empty lounge room. Just one of many strange encounters I've had...
Zak Bagans answered this question. For TV it partially has to do with theatrics. For investigations, it is necessary. From first hand reports for centuries, embodied ghosts are dim shadows of a full figure. If there were light in the scene to interfere with it, it's likely it would not be captured.
Do you want to learn all about "orbs"? 1. Shake a blanket; bump pillows together in a dimly-lit room. 2. Immediately take a photo with a flash. 3. Look at your photos --- ORBS EVERYWHERE!!!
I was thinking of doing a cryptozoology one, with bigfoot as one of the things I talk about. But now that it's been brought up a few times, I could probably do an entire episode about bigfoot. There's plenty of stupid there.
Ghostly phenomena are either so mundane as to be pointless (doors closing by themselves), or so over the top as to be ludicrous, like a story I was once told of someone talking for hours to a person on an airplane, who was gone when the plane landed-- Later it was found the mystery person had DIED earlier that day... So they appeared for hours, totally solid,on a plane, TO A TOTAL STRANGER... WHY, again?
2:13 "Ghosts did these things?" I used to do shit like that to family members who were believers all the time lol. One of my favorite things was hearing a ghost story that I was the culprit of!
I watch some of these shows; Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures, especially. They're fun. I watch them through the same lens I watch any other Sci-Fi show through. A suspension of disbelief, to expand my imagination; not as a documentary.
Here's three very very stupid things about ghosts. Why are they wearing clothes? Do clothes have souls that survives clothe death? And where are all the neaderthal ghosts? Some people say animals can be ghosts as well. Yet nobody has ever reported a t-rex ghost in their backyard.
As much as I want to write ghosts off completely, I've got too many (competent, trustworthy) family members who've had strange experiences. It's not necessarily that I believe them, it's just that either a) They're lying and those things never happened or b) Those things happened and I have no clue how they could be explained away. I'm not comfortable with either choice.
“Auditory hallucinations happen to all of us” - damn right. I hear weird crap that’s not real all the time. Why? Because I’m deaf and my ears don’t work properly, so the brain struggles to process sounds and it’s wild guesses at what I’m hearing are ridiculously inaccurate all the damn time.
Another reason to disbelieve in ghosts: You and I can come up with better TESTABLE hypotheses for what they might be in 10 minutes than "Paranormal Investigators" have in hundreds of years.
The only good thing i would say about ghosts makes great story of fantasy especially with historical places where a spirit of dead horseman roams the burial mound , it like a way of telling a history of a place event without making it mundane boring for kids
On one show, a couple was convinced that there was a ghost in the house because the dogs were barking--at nothing! And we all know that dogs NEVER bark at nothing!
That's argument from ignorance. I can't rule out the existence of the Tooth Fairy, either. So should I believe in the Tooth Fairy? Or should I assume the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist until I see some convincing evidence?
Favorite ghost story... Once, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a ghost was waling on a rail line, when suddenly... IT GOT RUN OVER BY A GHOST TRAIN. The end! They literally told us that story on a ghost tour there. It was so ridiculous that it's hilarious.
Vsauce once explained to me about yellow. The color. The screens that you and I are looking at right now do not make the color yellow (real yellow light). Your television makes red and green light at specific frequencies, and our brains say ,"Hey, that's what happens when I see yellow" and you see yellow. The pixels in the tv are still red and green. If I can be fooled by (and still be fooled by) something that I have been looking at my entire life....It's not a spirit you see, it's your BRAIN!
I was talking about the modern belief in ghosts. Sure, plenty of people like believing that granny is hovering about in ghostly form watching over them but for the most part people interested in ghosts prefer the creepy version. Ask a modern person what kind of ideas they associate with ghosts and nine out of ten will mention the creepiness factor.
I'm so skeptical I can hardly believe it, but the only horror movies capable of disturbing me are ghost stories. 1963's THE HAUNTING and 1980's CHANGELING never fail to creep me out. The more subtle they are, the better-- Let my imagination (and old reptile brain) do the work.
"I have seen and know the processes through which fog is formed, but do you not think it odd that it condensed then dissipated in less than 10 seconds? ... Fog was the first explanation I debunked." Awesome joke man, made me lol.
Here in Québec (Canada) we had a show, a couple of years ago, about ghost. It consist of celebrities (our celebrities, they are jack shit unknown) around a table that was shacking because of the “spirit”. It didn’t pass on our French version of discovery or syfy channel, it was broadcasted on the most watched television broadcast channel. It was extremely popular. And any critics were seen as “closed-minded”.
I wouldn't say that. An orb photo could be taken with any camera. You just need to have the light reflect back into the lens off of particles in the air (dust, rain, etc.) Of course, compact cameras are set up with the flash right over the lens so a lot of light bounces right back, so it's pretty easy to do with them.
To deny what I saw would be the delusion, not the other way around. It doesn't matter who believes me...i saw, heard, and felt something that I cannot explain through conventional science. And the fact I have any evidence to back that up means I really didn't experience something... I'm not saying it's a ghost for sure, but it fits the general description.
Now and then you get some Roman spooks in Italy and England, but in general, you're right. I don't know about China or Japan, though, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't havesome really OLD legendary apparitions,with their culture's strong sense of history.
@Steve Shives There is some things that happen that we can't explain. Ghosts may or may not exist, but still you can't rule out the fact that ghosts may be real. It's possible.
I remembe this one SCARY ghost story my big brother told me about our greatgrandmother (who died before I was born) and told him when she would haunt him when she passed away; Im assuming she was messing with him. Anyway, after she died, my brother told me how seriously scared he was because he could feel her visiting him every night TO PULL HIS TOES IN HIS SLEEP!!! The really scary part of this story were not the actual events, but how hard I was struggling to get Oxygen from the laughter.
What I REALLY HATE: Photos of ORBS!! I hate orbs; what good are they!?? Now that I'm at it: I hate the wide-spread belief that ghosts are spirits of dead people. If that were true, then we can all look forward to becoming haunters after we die. That also would mean that there are are more ghosts than people here on earth, and that the ghost population is ever-increasing.. Oh, my oh my oh my!
My question is... why are ghosts never naked? How is it that they are always able to manifest both their bodies AND their clothing? I would think that if they were real, all ghosts would be naked... that only things that were once imbued with a life energy could be regenerated in ghost form. Instead, it's always people in Civil War uniforms, tuxedos, top hats, frilly dresses, wedding gowns, etc. I think that all ghosts should be naked. Naked and hairless. Now that would be TRULY scary.
I wish pirate ghosts were real. I remember going to Oak Island as a kid in late October and man oh man it would have been way more fun had pirate ghosts haunted that place.
I had one strange experiance when I was like 5 or 6 which I at the time interpreted as a ghost. It was morning, and I was lying in bed kinda just biding my time. I saw a shadow hand move across the wall in front of me. I freaked out and hide under my bed sheet. By the time I was dead sure it was a ghost and told all my friends about it. It was probably just the shadow of my own hand projected onto the wall by the light from the open door, or possibly by my reading lamp.
Agree with # 3 big time. Of all the supernatural things, ghosts are the most boring for sure. I'll take a bigfoot, alien or Nessie sighting over a ghost sighting anytime.
I'm a new subscriber. Very nice to see a video like this. Ghosts and the paranormal always seem to be popular, so it's great to see someone with some sense dismiss it for the rubbish that it is.
to me the best unexplained phenomon found in haunted locations are things that defy gravity. Objects that fly upwards, granted I only know of one or two instances of this. And we have to be honest the so called evidance has to be classified as Unexplained Phenomon because a truly sound ghost hypothisis would have to document what the soul is, how it leaves the body, and how it is substanied outside the body. So far the best lead is the elctromagnetic fields, but that does not really explain it
"Well then you must be deluded every night since that is what is secreted into your brain every night as you sleep." Why, yes, in fact. Dreams aren't real.
Ghost tours/walks can be kinda fun, if you're into local history an all. Spot on about believers not seeing the true beauty and mystery of the real world. Ah well...
Yeah, I've had lots of strange experiences, but that's all they are, just things I can't explain. I don't know where people get this idea that whenever anything unexplainable happens, it must be ghosts, or demons, or god...I just take things for what they are and don't presume to know any more about it than I do.
But thought the Nickel under your pillow after you leave a tooth was proof enough. Well except me, i got a Quarter and a note saying "Here Kid, this covers all your baby teeth, now get a real job".
As I mentioned above, I don't believe, but I like ghost movies-- But I can't enjoy ghost hunting shows any more, because they're so obviously full of crap. It's amazing anyone still has patience with them.
I've always thought to myself, where are all the ghosts crowding the fuck out of the WW2 battlefields? With all the agonizing deaths that happened in those places, I think Europe and Pacific islands would be the most haunted places on the planet. There would be another ghost every time you turn around.
Just sharing my opinion but I can never be told ghost are not real due to some experiences in my family and my life, so don't try to convince me... I do believe ghost investigator are stupid con-artist and I hate how people believe that dust on a camera is a magical orb! I hate the "voice" people claim to hear on those recorders. The only time I'll be believe a ghost is present is when a animal starts to just go off for no reason.
If theists could understand that statement, I would be frustrated by them at a much lower frequency. P.s.: It isn't mandatory that the pipe be constructed of glass. P.p.s.: While on topic, what kind of history or experience do you have within the substance-ingestion world, if any?
True. They go out there with the presupposition that the things that are or might be occuring are the result of paranormal activity. Bad science. That's why I like Joe Nickell. If he doesn't, he should have his own show :) .
"But where is the evidence!" I just responded to another comment pointing out that it doesn't matter what evidence you provide to them, they already have a set belief that will not change.
"It's possible." Yeah, what Steve said. But also "it's possible" does not make anything any more possible. Make up anything you want -- ANYTHING -- and you can apply a dose of "it's possible" to it. It's meaningless.
Man, I saw "5 Stupid Things About Gh..." in my subscription box and for a second I thought you went all Christopher Hitchens and were going to go after Ghandi, this is still good though :P
Any magician will tell you that kids are the worst audiences, because they haven't learned to politely let themselves be fooled yet. When they see through something, they say so!
I think that very young kids are easy to fool, but that's probably because they take adults at their word. By the time they're in school, and start to see that different people believe different things, they start to have questions. If memory serves (it's been a long time since I was a kid), kids are proud of themselves when they're able to figure things out, so they want everyone to know it. It's only after parents get to them that they learn it's not "polite." It's a shame, isn't it?
4:55...This idea has been an ongoing comfort to me after deconversion.I had more than a few questions about paranormal experiences of my own.About a year after leaving xtianity I accepted that likely NO gods or supernatural things existed I was using reasoning to explain things, and I accepted that even if I never fully understood the experiences, there must have been natural/physical/chemical or nuerological reasons for them.
I've seen one thing in my life I couldn't explain, but... my skepticism wins out. Also there's a history of mental illness in my family so it's logical to question my eyes
"WHAT ABOUT CROP CIRCLES!"... oh sorry, wrong bullshit.
you forgot to mention how ifrasound, electromagnetism, and cretain natural gasses seem to elicit ghost type hallucinations in a laboratory setting.
Kurt Warner"certain"... sorry
emurphy66 Wierd stuff has been happening around my house. Many people encountering what me and my family are would say it was haunted, but I'm not ready to accept that untill I know what a haunting actually is, or what causes it.
In the mean time I'll have to look for other explanations.
I'm not sure I understand why people would want to think that their loved ones are ghosts watching over them because it seems pretty awful. I can't imagine coming back after I die, as a ghost, and not being able to touch anything or do anything besides hover. It would be a shitty eternity.
I'm laughing like a madman at the "Love you too, Mom" graphic. Damn I'm glad I discovered this channel.
I never heard the one about the airplane ghost. When I was a kid, my great-aunt used to give "Fate" magazines that she'd read to my mother. Being a voracious reader, I read them. It astonished me that adults believed stories that a kid could see right through. Still does.
I'm happy that you continue to make the completely correct point that the real, physical world in which we live is an amazing and poetic place. We don't need paranormal (or religious) factors to make life beautiful.
Why don't we have modern ghosts?
You wake up in the middle of the night to see a ghostly figure standing in your room illuminated by the ghostly glow of an ghostly iPhone, or you hear a disembodied voice whisper "What's your wifi password?".
Or you find a message written in blood saying "OMG RAWR SO RANDOM LAWL XD!!!!"
+Alicia Murphy Why are there no cow or chicken ghosts? Or DINOSAUR ghosts, that would be awesome.
Of course there are chicken ghosts, How else do you explain poultrygeists.
machintelligence I believe you won the internet that day.
It's interesting to me that you seem to have learned quite a bit about sensory information and how the brain processes it.
If anyone is interested, Steven Pinker's fantastic book "How the Mind Works" is a really good read. He starts at the beginning, and explains every step of the way. The chapters on visual processing is astonishing.
Another great read (if you're interested in really understanding the thing in your head) is "Neuroscience" by Purves. It makes everything more interesting.
Perfect closing, Steve. Loved it.
Reminds me of several of Tim Minchin's lines/lyrics.
I used to play a game with my nieces where I would take pictures of them so it appeared that they were ghosts. it's ridiculously easy to do and sometimes even happens unintentionally. We had to stop doing it when older family members got freaked out and thought we were mocking fate or something. So, yeah, I'm not overly impressed by "photographic evidence" of ghosts.
Totally agree with you here. I'm not knocking a good ghost story. I love those as much as anybody.
A fb friend said that the ghost of her husband's grandmother, allegedly, changed the order of their wedding pictures, because she wasn't able to attend the wedding. I suggested she did it herself and forgot that she put them the photos in that order. She said she didn't, because she would have remembered doing that. I say she forgot, she apparently never forgets, but everyone forgets.
A lot of orbs are actually gnats or mosquitoes caught by the flash. So in some pictures taken after one another, the orbs move, and people think they're ghosts.
Auditory hallucinations are completely natural, yes.
I have Exploding Head Syndrome (awesome name), which means that I usually only get a few hours sleep at a time, before I wake up to a loud, very realistic sound that's only in my head. It can be an explosion (hence the name of the disorder), but it can also be a trumpet, or a bark, or something falling (like a shelf, crashing down), or a door slamming, etc, etc, etc. I've even woken up to the sound of someone yelling "HEY!" right next to me. All in my head. I can tell none of it was real, when I see my dog, who gets scared and hides if he hears an ant fart outside, remaining completely calm.
+Ela Mongrella That's interesting and a good explanation for a lot of stuff that would have gotten you burned at the stake 300 years ago.
I personally think ghost exist, but I like the points you bring up.
My wife's aunt (a successful lawyer and generally very intelligent person) is always talking about how haunted her 200+ year-old house is. She took a photograph of my wife and her sister once that was full of orbs. She took this as yet more evidence. The fact that moments before the photo was taken someone had shaken out a dusty old blanket that hung across the back of the couch didn't seem relevant to her.
Couldn't agree more with the last one. The real world is so much more interesting.
Can't believe you left out ghost trains and other ghost vehicles. Where not only the spirit of the driver/crew roams the earth, but the spirit of the vehicle too, as if they were alive in the first place.
Both great suggestions. I'll see what I can do!
Yeah, ghosts are really boring. They never have anything to say, beyond "we are very happy. I am watching over you." What, no Shakespeare? Is the afterlife that dispiriting?
Remember, they do talk to mediums in great detail. You know, dropping them a CH sound, or a Ka.. was that a Ka? Carl? Carson? Yeah, Carson.. Suddenly he can speak in complete sentences! He says the money is in the safe under the bed
Ghost are like " Banging pots are very scaryyyyyyy."
Intelligent, well spoken, entertaining man.
Great show
I remember seeing a few episodes of that Ghost Hunter show on SyFy. All it is, is people in a dark room, shooting in infrared, say what was that and you hear that over and over again. It's all suggestion and they know it very well. You can take any handful of people who are primed to believe into any dark room and do that and they will be convinced it's haunted. Oh and not once did I ever hear what they were talking about until they did the replay later (giving them time to touch it up).
Taking into account that ghosts aren't real, yes, I find the real explanation to be much more interesting. Hell, even if ghosts were real, I'd probably feel the same way, given how mundane claims of hauntings are. As I say in the video, these supposed ghosts are some boring-ass entities.
an example of the brain giving false positives is routine with me. When listening to music, I often think I hear someone calling my name or my phone ringing in the distance while listening to music when a part of the song will remotely sound like something I need to pay attention to. and then it happens again with the same song when I listen to it a week later. I'm sure plenty of us have had similar experiences.
True but I was talking about how the belief in ghosts is in our modern world more connected to the excitement we feel when exposed to fear. Same reason why we watch horror movies but taken to a whole new level.
I don't particularly believe in what most perceive as ghosts/spirits, but it's very refreshing to see rational reasons for believing in them (or something like them). I applaud you, sir.
I'm not saying anything for 100% certain. Every fact is open to revision in the face of new evidence. If I ever see persuasive evidence that ghosts are something other than figments of our imaginations (evidence that comes from somewhere other than a glass pipe), I'll change my mind.
The thing that always bugged me about ghosts in fiction? Ghost clothing. Why is it that ghosts ALWAYS seem to have clothing on after death? Does a person's clothes have a soul or souls too? And, did they die at the same time the person did? Are they haunting the dead person? Weird stuff.
When I was 10 or 12 I read a story about a woman whose fiancé was killed in the Civil War. One night she was home alone, and someone knocked on the door. When she opened it, her fiancé was standing there. He came into the foyer, hugged her, then they began to dance. They danced faster and faster, and suddenly she died. He wanted to be with his love, even if only in death. Even as a kid I saw the flaw. She was alone. No one could possibly know what she experienced in her last moments of life.
"Orb" photographs can only be taken with compact cameras, where the flash and the lens are close together. When the light, from the inbuilt flash, hits the dust particle, which scatters the light, some of which is straight back to the camera. The reason for the shape is that the camera is focused a lot further away, say 6 to 10 feet, the dust particle will be less than 2 feet away and way out of focus.
Paranormal Activity played on those just-out-of-sight scares pretty well too.
I don't know what it was but I saw something rather odd one morning. I had woken up about an hour before hand and needed to piss so I was walking to the toilet, turned my gaze down the hall... and saw a semi-transparent robed figure floating from the kitchen to the lounge. I was fully awake and aware and LOOKING DIRECTLY AT IT as it made it's journey. Once it entered the lounge I run up the hall and looking inside to find... an empty lounge room.
Just one of many strange encounters I've had...
I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe in demons, I believe that "ghosts" are demons fucking with people ;)
I’m digging the ASMR delivery of this younger Steve 😆
Zak Bagans answered this question. For TV it partially has to do with theatrics. For investigations, it is necessary. From first hand reports for centuries, embodied ghosts are dim shadows of a full figure. If there were light in the scene to interfere with it, it's likely it would not be captured.
Thanks for making me recall that scene. That was indeed a funny part of the movie.
Do you want to learn all about "orbs"? 1. Shake a blanket; bump pillows together in a dimly-lit room. 2. Immediately take a photo with a flash. 3. Look at your photos --- ORBS EVERYWHERE!!!
I was thinking of doing a cryptozoology one, with bigfoot as one of the things I talk about.
But now that it's been brought up a few times, I could probably do an entire episode about bigfoot. There's plenty of stupid there.
Ghostly phenomena are either so mundane as to be pointless (doors closing by themselves), or so over the top as to be ludicrous, like a story I was once told of someone talking for hours to a person on an airplane, who was gone when the plane landed-- Later it was found the mystery person had DIED earlier that day... So they appeared for hours, totally solid,on a plane, TO A TOTAL STRANGER... WHY, again?
Can you do five stupid things about duck dynasty?
2:13 "Ghosts did these things?" I used to do shit like that to family members who were believers all the time lol. One of my favorite things was hearing a ghost story that I was the culprit of!
I think like #5 every time I see one of those ancient aliens documentaries. The real world is more interesting.
I do.believe in ghosts though.
Exactly. If I came back as a ghost I wouldn't haunt people, I'd just hang out with them.
Mundane and tedious. Thank you, Steve. This is the best description I've ever heard about ghosts and other superstitious nonsense..
I watch some of these shows; Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures, especially. They're fun. I watch them through the same lens I watch any other Sci-Fi show through. A suspension of disbelief, to expand my imagination; not as a documentary.
Totally agree, Ghost Adventures can be a fun show to watch if you just put yourself in that mindset, those guys are so over-the-top and into it haha.
I tried that once; seriously, ghost shows are about the most boring television shows I have EVER seen. Oh my God they're terrible.
Here's three very very stupid things about ghosts. Why are they wearing clothes? Do clothes have souls that survives clothe death? And where are all the neaderthal ghosts? Some people say animals can be ghosts as well. Yet nobody has ever reported a t-rex ghost in their backyard.
As much as I want to write ghosts off completely, I've got too many (competent, trustworthy) family members who've had strange experiences. It's not necessarily that I believe them, it's just that either a) They're lying and those things never happened or b) Those things happened and I have no clue how they could be explained away. I'm not comfortable with either choice.
“Auditory hallucinations happen to all of us” - damn right. I hear weird crap that’s not real all the time. Why? Because I’m deaf and my ears don’t work properly, so the brain struggles to process sounds and it’s wild guesses at what I’m hearing are ridiculously inaccurate all the damn time.
Another reason to disbelieve in ghosts: You and I can come up with better TESTABLE hypotheses for what they might be in 10 minutes than "Paranormal Investigators" have in hundreds of years.
The only good thing i would say about ghosts makes great story of fantasy especially with historical places where a spirit of dead horseman roams the burial mound , it like a way of telling a history of a place event without making it mundane boring for kids
On one show, a couple was convinced that there was a ghost in the house because the dogs were barking--at nothing! And we all know that dogs NEVER bark at nothing!
Ghosts; they need floors to walk on....
That's argument from ignorance. I can't rule out the existence of the Tooth Fairy, either. So should I believe in the Tooth Fairy? Or should I assume the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist until I see some convincing evidence?
Favorite ghost story...
Once, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a ghost was waling on a rail line, when suddenly...
IT GOT RUN OVER BY A GHOST TRAIN.
The end!
They literally told us that story on a ghost tour there. It was so ridiculous that it's hilarious.
Vsauce once explained to me about yellow. The color. The screens that you and I are looking at right now do not make the color yellow (real yellow light). Your television makes red and green light at specific frequencies, and our brains say ,"Hey, that's what happens when I see yellow" and you see yellow. The pixels in the tv are still red and green.
If I can be fooled by (and still be fooled by) something that I have been looking at my entire life....It's not a spirit you see, it's your BRAIN!
I was talking about the modern belief in ghosts. Sure, plenty of people like believing that granny is hovering about in ghostly form watching over them but for the most part people interested in ghosts prefer the creepy version.
Ask a modern person what kind of ideas they associate with ghosts and nine out of ten will mention the creepiness factor.
I'm so skeptical I can hardly believe it, but the only horror movies capable of disturbing me are ghost stories. 1963's THE HAUNTING and 1980's CHANGELING never fail to creep me out. The more subtle they are, the better-- Let my imagination (and old reptile brain) do the work.
We used to get ghosts on our black and white TV screen. Moving the antenna would often get rid of the ghost images.
According to the BBC quiz show QI some houses in The States lose a third of their value if they are believed to be haunted.
"I have seen and know the processes through which fog is formed, but do you not think it odd that it condensed then dissipated in less than 10 seconds? ... Fog was the first explanation I debunked."
Awesome joke man, made me lol.
We had ghosts that actually destroyed something too strong for any human to destroy. but we just lived with it and never made any big deal out of it.
Here in Québec (Canada) we had a show, a couple of years ago, about ghost. It consist of celebrities (our celebrities, they are jack shit unknown) around a table that was shacking because of the “spirit”. It didn’t pass on our French version of discovery or syfy channel, it was broadcasted on the most watched television broadcast channel. It was extremely popular. And any critics were seen as “closed-minded”.
I wouldn't say that. An orb photo could be taken with any camera. You just need to have the light reflect back into the lens off of particles in the air (dust, rain, etc.) Of course, compact cameras are set up with the flash right over the lens so a lot of light bounces right back, so it's pretty easy to do with them.
To deny what I saw would be the delusion, not the other way around. It doesn't matter who believes me...i saw, heard, and felt something that I cannot explain through conventional science. And the fact I have any evidence to back that up means I really didn't experience something... I'm not saying it's a ghost for sure, but it fits the general description.
Now and then you get some Roman spooks in Italy and England, but in general, you're right. I don't know about China or Japan, though, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't havesome really OLD legendary apparitions,with their culture's strong sense of history.
@Steve Shives There is some things that happen that we can't explain. Ghosts may or may not exist, but still you can't rule out the fact that ghosts may be real. It's possible.
I remembe this one SCARY ghost story my big brother told me about our greatgrandmother (who died before I was born) and told him when she would haunt him when she passed away; Im assuming she was messing with him.
Anyway, after she died, my brother told me how seriously scared he was because he could feel her visiting him every night TO PULL HIS TOES IN HIS SLEEP!!!
The really scary part of this story were not the actual events, but how hard I was struggling to get Oxygen from the laughter.
Both coming soon: Obama on October 24, Romney on October 31.
What I REALLY HATE: Photos of ORBS!! I hate orbs; what good are they!?? Now that I'm at it: I hate the wide-spread belief that ghosts are spirits of dead people. If that were true, then we can all look forward to becoming haunters after we die. That also would mean that there are are more ghosts than people here on earth, and that the ghost population is ever-increasing.. Oh, my oh my oh my!
My question is... why are ghosts never naked? How is it that they are always able to manifest both their bodies AND their clothing? I would think that if they were real, all ghosts would be naked... that only things that were once imbued with a life energy could be regenerated in ghost form. Instead, it's always people in Civil War uniforms, tuxedos, top hats, frilly dresses, wedding gowns, etc. I think that all ghosts should be naked. Naked and hairless. Now that would be TRULY scary.
I wish pirate ghosts were real. I remember going to Oak Island as a kid in late October and man oh man it would have been way more fun had pirate ghosts haunted that place.
I heard the story of the airplane "ghost" in an AOL chatroom back in the 90s-- Oh, they hated me in there for daring to question their assumptions.
I had one strange experiance when I was like 5 or 6 which I at the time interpreted as a ghost. It was morning, and I was lying in bed kinda just biding my time. I saw a shadow hand move across the wall in front of me. I freaked out and hide under my bed sheet. By the time I was dead sure it was a ghost and told all my friends about it.
It was probably just the shadow of my own hand projected onto the wall by the light from the open door, or possibly by my reading lamp.
Agree with # 3 big time. Of all the supernatural things, ghosts are the most boring for sure. I'll take a bigfoot, alien or Nessie sighting over a ghost sighting anytime.
I'm a new subscriber. Very nice to see a video like this. Ghosts and the paranormal always seem to be popular, so it's great to see someone with some sense dismiss it for the rubbish that it is.
There's a ghost in my house that leaves the toilet seat up at night. My wife knows I'd never do that.
to me the best unexplained phenomon found in haunted locations are things that defy gravity. Objects that fly upwards, granted I only know of one or two instances of this. And we have to be honest the so called evidance has to be classified as Unexplained Phenomon because a truly sound ghost hypothisis would have to document what the soul is, how it leaves the body, and how it is substanied outside the body. So far the best lead is the elctromagnetic fields, but that does not really explain it
"Well then you must be deluded every night since that is what is secreted into your brain every night as you sleep."
Why, yes, in fact. Dreams aren't real.
Ghost tours/walks can be kinda fun, if you're into local history an all.
Spot on about believers not seeing the true beauty and mystery of the real world. Ah well...
Yeah, I've had lots of strange experiences, but that's all they are, just things I can't explain. I don't know where people get this idea that whenever anything unexplainable happens, it must be ghosts, or demons, or god...I just take things for what they are and don't presume to know any more about it than I do.
But thought the Nickel under your pillow after you leave a tooth was proof enough. Well except me, i got a Quarter and a note saying "Here Kid, this covers all your baby teeth, now get a real job".
Good recent ghost stories; American Horror Story 1st season, The Others,...
As I mentioned above, I don't believe, but I like ghost movies-- But I can't enjoy ghost hunting shows any more, because they're so obviously full of crap. It's amazing anyone still has patience with them.
Yeah it seems like the existence of a ghost would be rather tedious based on the reports of the Believers in ghosts
I've always thought to myself, where are all the ghosts crowding the fuck out of the WW2 battlefields? With all the agonizing deaths that happened in those places, I think Europe and Pacific islands would be the most haunted places on the planet. There would be another ghost every time you turn around.
Just sharing my opinion but I can never be told ghost are not real due to some experiences in my family and my life, so don't try to convince me...
I do believe ghost investigator are stupid con-artist and I hate how people believe that dust on a camera is a magical orb! I hate the "voice" people claim to hear on those recorders. The only time I'll be believe a ghost is present is when a animal starts to just go off for no reason.
Right on the mark. People invented ghost cos they are so terrified of the alternative : there's nothing after death.
Izzard had a good one. Where are all the cow ghosts? They should be everywhere. Loitering near abattoirs.
What would be on top of my list of stupid Ghost crap is those supposed haunted places like the Paulding light or other places like that. *rolls eyes*
If theists could understand that statement, I would be frustrated by them at a much lower frequency.
P.s.: It isn't mandatory that the pipe be constructed of glass.
P.p.s.: While on topic, what kind of history or experience do you have within the substance-ingestion world, if any?
You busted the ghostbuster.
True. They go out there with the presupposition that the things that are or might be occuring are the result of paranormal activity. Bad science. That's why I like Joe Nickell. If he doesn't, he should have his own show :) .
I think Ricky Gervais said, it's odd how we never get caveman ghosts. Ghosts only started existing around the 16th Century. :D
Ghosts have an unwritten agreement that they shouldn't appear in photos.
"But where is the evidence!" I just responded to another comment pointing out that it doesn't matter what evidence you provide to them, they already have a set belief that will not change.
"Orbs" lmao What's funnier is people who, without hesitation, define their properties and purpose.
"It's possible."
Yeah, what Steve said. But also "it's possible" does not make anything any more possible. Make up anything you want -- ANYTHING -- and you can apply a dose of "it's possible" to it. It's meaningless.
Man, I saw "5 Stupid Things About Gh..." in my subscription box and for a second I thought you went all Christopher Hitchens and were going to go after Ghandi, this is still good though :P
Any magician will tell you that kids are the worst audiences, because they haven't learned to politely let themselves be fooled yet. When they see through something, they say so!
I think that very young kids are easy to fool, but that's probably because they take adults at their word. By the time they're in school, and start to see that different people believe different things, they start to have questions. If memory serves (it's been a long time since I was a kid), kids are proud of themselves when they're able to figure things out, so they want everyone to know it. It's only after parents get to them that they learn it's not "polite." It's a shame, isn't it?