K, I’ll tell my “ghost story.”

I will say that I find the “idea” of ghosts enchanting, but I’m not a believer. I enjoy exploring and photographing abandoned buildings with my girlfriend. I’ve had that feeling of the hair on the back of your neck standing up a few times in some creepy places. A fun little rush, but again, not a rush I get from the idea of a ghost coming after me. Just sort of the same reason I love horror movies and to some extent the cadaver lab. I like entertaining that part of my brain, but I don’t give it decision making powers.

Here is my “ghost” story:

The story starts during my time working at facility for behavioral TBI/Psych patients, in a ward that everyone said was haunted. While working night shift, with a co-worker with me, I witnessed something I cannot rationally explain.

It looked very much like the shape of a human being made out of (for lack of a better term) opaque orange light. This figure appeared to step from out of a utility closet, turn, see us and leap back into the closet. I could see the light spread across the room and I saw it reflecting off the white walls in the closet. I immediately went up to try and look for outside light sources, burnt out light bulbs or anything that could replicate what I had seen. There was also no person in the the very small closet, which was occupied by a washer and dryer and left absolutely no room for any human to hide in.

The persona I was on watch confirmed that she had seen what I had just saw and then said “I never want to talk about this ever again.”

So, NO I do NOT think it was a ghost. But I’ve never been able to explain it.

-RC

P.S.

I absolutely, unequivocally do not believe in the paranormal. Please do not think this is a trolling post.

The first problem we all have with this is that we can’t replicate it for ourselves.  I have no idea what caused what you observed and can’t examine the location so I can’t draw any useful conclusions.  I do know that I saw a delightful Chinese dragon form out of a smouldering tree root in a campfire the one time I tried hashish.  And it certainly looked real at that moment.

Occam

Kind of like my old boss who thought his friend’s shower curtain was alive and trying to eat him when he was high on acid.

I’m not saying it is evidence of anything. It was just something I could not explain and couldn’t find a way to replicate. It is frankly just a story of something that happened to me. I can’t expect anyone else to believe it.

Just saying I saw something I couldn’t explain.

And I’ve never done drugs, especially acid.

-RC

I have no problem believing that you are being truthful in relating what you perceived.  I think that the answer lies in the human brain, and there is research out there about how the brain can sometimes construct illusions, and even the rare mass-hallucination.  You said that you and your friend talked about ghosts BEFORE seeing the spectre, not after?

Actually, no we didn’t I was then, and am still now a non-believer in ghosts. I had previously mocked a “psychic” who was on the staff who claimed to “know” the place was haunted.

I think many of you seem to think I’m trying to convince the forum of something.

I’m not.

I just saw something I couldn’t explain. I’d love to know what it was, but I seriously doubt it was a “mass-hallucination,” since such things are so rare as to not even be worth mentioning. And are also nearly impossible to distinguish from mass lying. 

If I had to wager, I think it was a trick of the lights outside and skylights above. Not sure why it would’ve been orange, perhaps a street light blew a fuse, or a tow truck (they have orange light bars in my neck of the woods) passed by and reflected its lights off the skylight glass. I can’t remember if it was raining that night or not.

I’m absolutely sure there was a rational explanation for it. I just couldn’t figure it out. And the facility wasn’t going to grant me permission to investigate. I never have, and never will claim it to be anything other than a light source, mostly surely man made, originating from a source I couldn’t see.

None of that however, is enough evidence to call it anything other than something I can’t explain. Since you guys seem to keep tripping on that terminology, how about “insufficient data to draw a conclusion from?”

-RC

The part I find hardest to understand is why the person with you wanted to deny having the experience.  I mean, what was she there for if she wasn’t at least hoping to see some sort of ghost?

yea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxLnIRVVwIM

advocatus - 09 October 2010 07:38 AM

The part I find hardest to understand is why the person with you wanted to deny having the experience.  I mean, what was she there for if she wasn’t at least hoping to see some sort of ghost?

She was there for the reason I was there, we were at work.

We were on shift, covering the common room, the room patients had to pass through on the way to the restrooms, in a mental facility.

-RC

I apologize.  Somehow I got the impression that since the place had a reputation for being haunted, that was the reason you were there.

One possibility I can think of off the top of my head is headlights (perhaps from an emergency vehicle) coming through a window and reflecting off of a mirror somewhere.  As the vehicle moved past, it would give the appearance of the object turning in place and returning back the way it came.

Your conjecture, Advocatus, makes sense, especially if the vehicle had yellow or red lights which could appear orange inside the room.

Occam

I ain’t afraid of no ghosts - ghostbusting makes me feel good.

Occam. - 11 October 2010 01:02 PM

Your conjecture, Advocatus, makes sense, especially if the vehicle had yellow or red lights which could appear orange inside the room.

I made this exact hypothesis in one of my previous posts, but I said the light bars were orange.

How exactly do red or yellow lights appear orange and not their initial color when reflected?

-RC

In dim light far more of the ocular stimulation is from the cones rather than the rods in the central retina.  The cones are much more sensitive to dim light, however, they are not nearly as effective at allowing one to make minor color differentiations.  Since you said it was fairly dark, the amount of light that would come from an emergency vehicle would also be minimal.  And, since the glass lens filters they use are designed to allow the maximum amount of light transmission, the spectrum for each would be rather broad so that much of it would be orange in either case.  So it would have been quite easy for you to perceive the color as orange.

Any further questions?

Occam