• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Talking Ghosts

Robbrent

Robbrent

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
1,013
Location
United Kingdom
I was lost in thought the other day and I don't seem to recall any cases of ghosts talking, apart from the supposed phantom hitchhiker cases even then they don't say much (and many of the stories apocryphal to my mind) , are there any cases when the ghost has attempted communication, I seem to remember reading about a case where it looked like the shade was talking but there was no sound.

I guess it comes back to my pet theory that many ghosts sightings are partially formed time slips, even so some two way communication would be useful
 
Robbrent said:
I was lost in thought the other day and I don't seem to recall any cases of ghosts talking, apart from the supposed phantom hitchhiker cases even then they don't say much (and many of the stories apocryphal to my mind) , are there any cases when the ghost has attempted communication, I seem to remember reading about a case where it looked like the shade was talking but there was no sound.

I guess it comes back to my pet theory that many ghosts sightings are partially formed time slips, even so some two way communication would be useful
Click to expand...
I had a ghost shout at me once, although nothing intelligible.

There are many cases of ghosts calling people's names. There are also many case of unintelligible conversation going on in a haunted room - I suppose none of this is what you are actually going for, though. I'm sure I've come across plenty of accounts of ghosts saying things, but usually nothing particularly useful or informative.
 
AmStramGram said:
Well, in folklore, ghosts can get very talkative. For instance, the ghost of Inverawe supposedly told his brother, the lord of the house : "We shall meet again at Ticonderoga", alluding to his death at the battle of Ticonderoga decades later.

Here is a rendition of the story : https://www.lakechamplainregion.com/story/2016/10/scottish-ghost-adirondacks

Interesting wikipedia page alluding to the tale : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Campbell_(died_1758)
Click to expand...

Another typical exemple from the medieval folklore is rendered here : https://www.normandythenandnow.com/the-gruesome-crowd-a-medieval-ghost-story-from-normandy/

Here, priest Walkelin meets with the "Mesnie Hennequin", the nightly travelling suite of the dead, who jump on the occasion to tell him of all their miseries, pass messages to their families, and ask for prayers. It's clearly an "exemplum", written by a monk (Orderic Vital) aimed at giving the living some religious/moral teachings. But those stories were fairly common at the time and in the Middle Age litterature.

In another post, I gave another example of such tales, from Catalonia, with the story of "Count Arnau", who came back from hell to visit his mourning wife, asking for prayers, and for the possibility to take his daughter back with him to Hell. The story inspired a whole song, once interpreted by Montserrat Figueras and Jordi Savall in their CD "Cansons de la Catalunya Millenaria" (which I highly recommend).
 
Given that it only involved one actual word, I'm kind of hesitant to describe my most inexplicable encounter with phantomly oddness as being with a 'talking' ghost - but I suppose, technically speaking, it does fit the criteria.

I've mentioned it a few times on the board already, and will just link to the original - which is post #12 on the Eerie East London thread.

To counter the the lack of verbosity of my spook, that one word was very clear, and it was heard by more than one witness - and in broad daylight.
 
I guess you'd have to set up some parameters for 'talking ghosts' to exclude those who have never heard of hypnogogic and hypnopompic experiences and are convinced that those are ghosts talking to them. Although - maybe they are?

I was terrified as a very small child left alone downstairs whilst my mother bathed my little brother, by a voice saying my name. A male voice and quite 'boomy; it scared me so much that I ran upstairs and refused to be left alone for quite some time. It was, more than likely, an overactive imagination though, in an imaginative child who didn't much like being left on their own in a quiet room with all adults elsewhere.
 
It depends if you include poltergeist in with ghosts as some have been very talkative. Also there was that account in an episode of Uncanny of the old lady talking to the firefighter. I and people with me have heard ghostly human conversation coming from a locked hall, all of us could hear it but do you class this as poltergeist activity?
 
catseye said:
I was terrified as a very small child left alone downstairs whilst my mother bathed my little brother, by a voice saying my name. A male voice and quite 'boomy; it scared me so much that I ran upstairs and refused to be left alone for quite some time. It was, more than likely, an overactive imagination though, in an imaginative child who didn't much like being left on their own in a quiet room with all adults elsewhere.
Click to expand...
It makes sense to me that a small child would feel unsafe on an instinctive level if feeling parted from the safety of adult protection. Children are small and vulnerable—a tasty snack for bears and panthers! Even without much imagination involved in an experience it's understandable that a child would feel uneasy if the source of love, food and security were removed and preoccupied for awhile.

What you heard while alone that time? Hypnogogic illusion, vagary of brain development, a phantom roaming the downstairs? There's no telling!
 
I think we may have heard sounds and interpreted them as the human voice it's what the mind does, but my original question was on the lines of a shade holding a conversation with an witness? Or even going through the motions like the mouth moving
 
Robbrent said:
I think we may have heard sounds and interpreted them as the human voice it's what the mind does, but my original question was on the lines of a shade holding a conversation with an witness? Or even going through the motions like the mouth moving
Click to expand...
It was one of the good old staples of the Victorian 'true ghost story' wasn't it? The ghost which appears to witnesses to denounce their murderer?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top