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Ghosts: Scary?

do you find ghosts, the idea of ghosts, etc, scary?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 25.8%

  • No

    Votes: 8 25.8%

  • Sometimes

    Votes: 15 48.4%
  • Total voters
    31
I agree with Zygon: a ghost in itself is proof (I almost said living proof) that death is not final. Therefore any reaction of fear, or at least mortal fear, would be proved completely irrational by its very cause.
However, I have heard many accounts of ghosts directly affecting the emotions of those who witness them, so perhaps a reaction of fear would be automatic in some cases. I know I would most likely be at least somewhat frightened just to see something that far out of the ordinary occur.
By the way, this is my first post on these forums, so hello to everyone!
 
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I voted sometimes because there have been occasions when one has suddenly appeared infront of me and scared the sh*t out of me.
 
I think we all know that there are some living people who are very bad and who we wouldn't want in our homes. So ghosts are complete strangers, potentially menacing ones, turning up near you without any warning or invitation with no expressed intention with unmeasureable capabilities. We all know that some spirits can move things in our dimension (including my mothers hair! oooo, creepy!) and we all know about Borley rectory where people were physically attacked, manifesting bruising, as well as assaulted, 'Entity' case if you believe it and Denise Dyke and her mother, some people have gone mad, missing, been found dead at the bottom of stairs with a broken neck after staying in a haunted room on a dare (Sir Robert Worboys at 50 Berkley Square)etc. etc. etc.

I voted yes, they are scarey. They are an unknown quantity and that is always scarey when you don't know the reason for the visit, surely?:confused:

I've made everyone I know swear that they will, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, return after their deaths to reassure me that they are fine and that there is life after death...I believe it! I don't want them turning up unannounced - I might be up to anything!
 
All Rationality Aside

(and no remarks about that being my normal state, thank you) I've experienced ghosts several times and never once had a fear reaction. Not sure why. It is almost like being in an altered state. Indeed, some would argue it is such a state and would further point to various causes, from ULF waves to exposure to various chemicals causing mild allergic reactions. I tend to think it's exposure to what ever it is we call ghosts, myself.

In any case, none I saw were scary.

I'd imagine those with hard-and-fast belief systems might get spooked, though, and of course nervous folks prone to imaginative dooms or susceptible to eerie situations.

If you jump at movies or if movies give you nightmares, perhaps ghosts may scare you, I don't know.
 
how could you tell a ghost is benign and not an evil spirit or malicious ghost like a banshee or a jin or anything similar? From what I've read the occurance of a ghost brings bad luck (death and misfortune) more than good. As banshees of ireland and whistling ghosts of the south pacific have been known to signal.
 
You just get a feeling I think when you see a ghost. I personally don't think that ghosts are that scary cause if they're non-carporeal then they can't hurt you and if they're carporeal then you can hit them...
 
I guess it would depend for me, I'd be freaked by a grey's appearance but could assumedly have a physical altercation with it, where as depending on the freakyness of the ghost it could be as alarming and there is nothing you could do about it?!
 
I voted "sometimes" because I think if I saw an apparition I'd either be unaware or bemused at the time, and think it "strange" later.

Poltergeists, however, scare the crap out of me. I haven't encountered one (I don't think) and I don't intend to, but just the thought of something disembodied but with you is simply awful, because... well.. what would you do if it began to menace you?

As a teenager I used to have a recurrent nightmare in which I was chased by a floating axe and the most frightening thing was that since there was no one wielding it, there was no escape.

Similarly, that story (either on the board or in the mag, I forget) in which someone was walking past a field at night time and heard a blood-curdling scream come out of thin air chills my bones.

Brr.
 
Scary Ghosts?

There is no proof of anyone being harmed by a ghost and if they are dead people then what can they do?
 
If a poltergeist (and I'm not saying they definitely exist, but there have been reports of them) can levitate then drop an object, surely they could harm you if they wanted to?

With ghosts, poltergeists and the unexplained in general it's the possibility that's frightening, isn't it?
 
A half-glimpsed threat, or barely glimpsed threat, is much more terrifying than even a very direct challenge to your safety; this is touched on by Burke's discussion of the sublime in his Philosophical Enquiry. I personally think that it's down to the fact that the individual's imagination, informed by their own fears fills in the blanks and makes it much more individual and personal. This is why the idea of poltergeist activity scares me, certainly; it's a deep-rooted fear.

Thinking about it, some of the most terrifying reported cases of hauntings have this in common - the Enfield case, the the Calvados case, etc (no idea whether or not the latter has been succesfully debunked so feel free to correct me). An unseen and malevolent (or even mischevious) spirit which could be anywhere around you? Shudder. Manifestation often seems too unreal and I can imagine it as being more "weird" than threatening but a toy brick flung at someone's head by something you can't see doesn't require us to stretch our the parameters of reality as we experience it nearly as much; it also constitutes a present and unknown threat.

Now, I don't believe in ghosts per say, but the idea and the records of peoples' experiences is enough to warrant discussion on its own, I think, and for me, it's certainly the most interesting aspect of fortean studies. Having said that, because of my own beliefs, I had to vote "no"

Matt
 
Well I watched someone yesterday seeing a ghost underneath Edinburgh, and I can report that she was pretty scared! I didn't see anything though.
 
But do you class poltergeist's as Ghosts? They're supposed to be suppressed powerful emotions and to my mind the events they can cause may be scary, but they themselves are not.

'There is nothing to fear but fear itself, bring me that gentleman and I will leave you be.'
 
Distinctions

If you are going to try to make such distinctions, you're going to have to define both things very carefully indeed, and you'll end up making choices about what constitutes "ghost" that won't be supportable by confirmed facts. That's just the problem. Unless and until we know what they are, we cannot necessarily separate the various types.
 
Palthera said:
You just get a feeling I think when you see a ghost. I personally don't think that ghosts are that scary cause if they're non-carporeal then they can't hurt you and if they're carporeal then you can hit them...
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that is a rather broad assumption. you might not be able to hit it, but it certainly can hit you, or throw an object at you, get into your head/possess you and all those other things spirits are supposed to be able to do to us mortals. Let's just say if I were to see some "thing" materialize out of a wall and drift across the room, I would be more than attentive of its prescence. If it were to be violent or evil, I wouldn't want to stick around and see what move it may do next. The number of benign or inactive (as in don't interact with humans at all) is far less than the number of malicious, angry, or cursed ghosts that from what I've read.
 
Oppposite

I have quite the opposite impression, with most ghosts being pretty much indifferent to us, and the few that cause trouble causing only slight mischief and nothing serious.

Fear is what blows this all out of proportion.
 
As a child i was really frightened by the thought of ghosts ,as i got older and /cough wiser and had a few ghostly happenings , the first of which scared me ,i came to realise that there is nothing to fear , they can not hurt you ,and once you know that then what is there to fear ,outside a pub in north london on a friday night is a lot more scary then any ghost.
 
The fact that someone resurrected this thread from 7 (!) years ago is rather spooky in itself.

But - there seem to be different types of ghosts around, so this isn't an easy one to answer.
 
I chose the "sometimes" option. I'm one of those annoying people who both screams and laughs at the same time.
 
Zilch5 said:
The fact that someone resurrected this thread from 7 (!) years ago is rather spooky in itself.

But - there seem to be different types of ghosts around, so this isn't an easy one to answer.
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I am browsing the forum at my leisure so expect more ghosts from the past!!
 
H_James said:
Explain why or why not
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I suspect that most of us, if we survive death, are no better or worse than we were in life. There's probably even some improvement.

But when the truly Evil die they don't suddenly become fluffy and friendly.
 
For the most part the concept of a ghost does not really scare me, although I don't think I'd fancy being condemned to haunt the same house for eternity after I die.

There have been exceptions to this, however, such as the Hexham Heads story. So I vote for "sometimes".
 
crossetti said:
For the most part the concept of a ghost does not really scare me, although I don't think I'd fancy being condemned to haunt the same house for eternity after I die.

There have been exceptions to this, however, such as the Hexham Heads story. So I vote for "sometimes".
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It was the Hexham Heads which were haunted, I think, not the house, so all you needed to do was get rid of them and hey presto, no more bumping into werewolves on the stairs.
 
Can some list member more erudite than I please supply the name of the mid- to late-18th Century French noblewoman - a sort of "ageless beauty," with a bevy of young guys constantly in tow - who famously remarked that "I don't believe in ghosts, but I am afraid of them"?
 
It depends. My wife works in a university where one one building is reputed to be haunted. The tale lecturers, maintenance staff and security tell is of a middle aged man who passes through corridors to different parts of the building during quiet periods. When the employee realises they don't know recognise the person, or he's heading towards a locked room, they generally head out to ask if they can help to find he's no longer around.

Individually a person can convince themselves they're mistaken but the figure appears to have been seen by a range of people in various parts of the building over a number of years until the likelihood of that he's somehow eluded them, or they were all mistaken about seeing him becomes more remote. Even so, there's nothing intrinsically frightening about the 'ghost' as most people don't even realise they've seen one, though support staff are pretty wary of working alone at weekends because he's seen fairly often.

The scary aspects of hauntings are the feelings of isolation, depression and being watched that accompany the phenomenon. An earlier generation for whom the option to move house didn't exist seemed able to co-exist with spooks and accept them as part of the furniture in a way we have forgotten.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Can some list member more erudite than I please supply the name of the mid- to late-18th Century French noblewoman - a sort of "ageless beauty," with a bevy of young guys constantly in tow - who famously remarked that "I don't believe in ghosts, but I am afraid of them"?
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Marquise du Deffand is the only one is can come up with,i always thought it was Oscar wilde,but that doesnt seem correct.
 
ttaarraass said:
Well I watched someone yesterday seeing a ghost underneath Edinburgh, and I can report that she was pretty scared! I didn't see anything though.
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Something similar happened to me a couple of years ago: I was standing at a table with a colleague when another woman came in and saw someone walk across behind us into another room.

She went pale and and stammered something about a woman in a long dress who went in there and WHO IS IT because there's only us here! :shock:

I rushed straight into the next room, which didn't lead anywhere and had no windows, and found nobody.

Didn't scare me, but my poor colleagues were most disturbed. :lol:
 
I said sometimes. Remember the tale of 50 Berkeley Square? That sounded terrifying, but if it was some benign 'shape' drifting around, well, people do live with ghosts and get used to them, apparently.
 
I voted No (and it shows only one vote having been cast... is this to do with the moving of the forum?)

... I actually surprised myself at first that I didn't vote 'Yes' (as there are plenty of paranormal things that would frighten me) but I thought long and hard about it and realised that, because I believe ghosts* to be a form of time-slip (as opposed to a dead person coming back to haunt us) then... how can I find that scary?

*as in, apparitions seen by the living. I'm not including 'poltergeists' in this theory as I have never made up my mind as to whether I believe in that particular phenomena at all.
 
I think it's the surprise factor that scares people. If a ghost were to knock on your front door, I don't think there'd be a huge shock. But if one were to suddenly appear/disappear in front of you, it'd be a huge jolt. It's that that I'd be "frightened" of.
 
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