I was out for a walk with a friend this morning after pulling an all nighter and I felt like exploring so I asked if there was any abandoned houses near where he lives. He said there was but that he didn't want to go back ever again because he saw a ghost there one time (that and he has almost fallen inside the well there more than once ). That just made me want to check it out more We didn't though lol.... so anyways, I figured Ghosts, spirits, apparitions, etc. would be a good topic to discuss. What is your personal opinion on their existence and attributes? Do you think they exist? Any experiences or sightings? Finally, what kinds of things does scripture say about ghosts and apparitions?

I believe in residual hauntings. That is to say, I believe that extreme emotions and situations can imprint themselves in places. No such thing as an "active" ghost in my opinion. Doesn't make sense.

one thing i wanna know, ...

my mom's boyfriends son,......he's a self proclaimed "atheist" (i say he's only saying it to act tough) and yet he LOVES paranormal stuff,

how can there be spirits at all, but no God?


about it lining up with scripture,...idk i mean God either sends us to heaven or hell,.....i dont see how someone can haunt earth......now that's not to say i dont believe in "things" happening,... i think it's Satan

I strongly believe in them, although not in the way they are portrayed by most people/movies.

i don't believe them to be "lost souls" stuck haunting somewhere in between here and heaven/hell, as i think most people view it as. but i do believe that they can be evil spirits/demons, and that these evil spirits can meld themselves into something easily believable to us, such as a family member, historical figure and such..

i do believe in that.

not anything i wanna mess with

I definitely beleive in spirits as in demosn and angels..but not gohsts.

since hell is kept as more of a secret as to what exactly it is, I entertain the idea that hell could be a complete casting out of heaven as a means of "hell on earth," as in, having to still exist in a world after death where sin still reigns, such as earth, such as a ghost would need to deal with.
There are lots of claims out there about ghosts, haunted houses, etc that too many people "confirm" for people to just toss out as false. Then again, lots of the TV stuff I think is just there for ratings, junkfood because people like thrills. I think it was King Saul who consulted the medium (don't remember the name, the 'ghost' was a former king) and the ghost asked why Saul had disturbed him and summoned him back there... so obviously there has to be SOMETHING to this story.

metalgrinch wrote:

I think it was King Saul who consulted the medium (don't remember the name, the 'ghost' was a former king) and the ghost asked why Saul had disturbed him and summoned him back there... so obviously there has to be SOMETHING to this story.

Oh right, I remember reading that before. I hadn't thought of that, but indeed that does have something to say about it.

MetLHed4GZus wrote:

I definitely beleive in spirits as in demosn and angels..but not gohsts.

Same here. Ghosts....I don't think so. Spirits, as in just angels and demons(I believe there is no other sort of spirit, no in between) yes I believe them to be real.

It is written that a man lives only once. By definition, what is a ghost?
"the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons."

It makes no sense at all to me that any souls would stay on Earth when their body is nonfonctional anymore (after physical death).

I've noticed that the best trick Satan uses to keep people away from God is to hide. He hides behind anything so that people don't start questioning the most important questions (about spirituality and life after death). Having many hypothesis about the spiritual realms is one way to confuse people into believing that there is a "neutral" state after death. It's also written that Satan can disguise himself into an angel of light. So, really, taking cute little casper forms, or an old war veteran image is no big deal for his army.

I've heard many stories of "ghost" child like apparitions who eventually turned into their real forms: ugly, deformed, putrid demons.

There is no ghosts. Only demons, and angels.

Hero wrote:

It is written that a man lives only once. By definition, what is a ghost?
"the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons."

It makes no sense at all to me that any souls would stay on Earth when their body is nonfonctional anymore (after physical death).

I've noticed that the best trick Satan uses to keep people away from God is to hide. He hides behind anything so that people don't start questioning the most important questions (about spirituality and life after death). Having many hypothesis about the spiritual realms is one way to confuse people into believing that there is a "neutral" state after death. It's also written that Satan can disguise himself into an angel of light. So, really, taking cute little casper forms, or an old war veteran image is no big deal for his army.

I've heard many stories of "ghost" child like apparitions who eventually turned into their real forms: ugly, deformed, putrid demons.

There is no ghosts. Only demons, and angels.

agreed.

Hero wrote:

It is written that a man lives only once. By definition, what is a ghost?
"the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons."

It makes no sense at all to me that any souls would stay on Earth when their body is nonfonctional anymore (after physical death).

I've noticed that the best trick Satan uses to keep people away from God is to hide. He hides behind anything so that people don't start questioning the most important questions (about spirituality and life after death). Having many hypothesis about the spiritual realms is one way to confuse people into believing that there is a "neutral" state after death. It's also written that Satan can disguise himself into an angel of light. So, really, taking cute little casper forms, or an old war veteran image is no big deal for his army.

I've heard many stories of "ghost" child like apparitions who eventually turned into their real forms: ugly, deformed, putrid demons.

There is no ghosts. Only demons, and angels.

I agree with the majority of your post, however, the last statement you make isn't as encompassing as it should be. On the Mount of Transfguration, Moses and Elijah had appeared... They were neither angels nor demons. I think it would be more accurate to say that there are only "spirits" or "spiritual beings"... these of course are not "ghosts", per say. I believe that spiritual beings can be manifest in a form which we can see, and such things occur multiple times in scripture.

Kan-o-sushi wrote:

Hero wrote:

It is written that a man lives only once. By definition, what is a ghost?
"the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons."

It makes no sense at all to me that any souls would stay on Earth when their body is nonfonctional anymore (after physical death).

I've noticed that the best trick Satan uses to keep people away from God is to hide. He hides behind anything so that people don't start questioning the most important questions (about spirituality and life after death). Having many hypothesis about the spiritual realms is one way to confuse people into believing that there is a "neutral" state after death. It's also written that Satan can disguise himself into an angel of light. So, really, taking cute little casper forms, or an old war veteran image is no big deal for his army.

I've heard many stories of "ghost" child like apparitions who eventually turned into their real forms: ugly, deformed, putrid demons.

There is no ghosts. Only demons, and angels.

I agree with the majority of your post, however, the last statement you make isn't as encompassing as it should be. On the Mount of Transfguration, Moses and Elijah had appeared... They were neither angels nor demons. I think it would be more accurate to say that there are only "spirits" or "spiritual beings"... these of course are not "ghosts", per say. I believe that spiritual beings can be manifest in a form which we can see, and such things occur multiple times in scripture.

Let me reform my statement then.

Ghosts, as in souls, of course exist. However, the idea that someone with spiritual powers could call upon a soul and communicate with it is nonsense (in my very honest opinion) UNLESS God allows it like in the transfiguration, and when the Prophet Samuel appeared to Saul. Because we are God's property. If one soul is in hell, it is stuck there. There is no way it will leave the place to go chitchatting with a medium and then get back... See the nonsense? Mediums are broken and deceived. And they help satan to deceive many.

all those things you see on tv where people claim to see ghosts or aliens or such...probably not true..but i bet they did see something...5they probably got a glmpse of the spiritual war...remeber there is a REAL war going on

I don't believe in ghosts but I do believe in people's great imagination, and I'm sure most of the paranormal stuff people go through are nothing but their minds playing tricks.

And about the serious things, yeah, I'm with the idea of spirits (the evil ones) that like to play around with us, poor mortals, for instance, making good things, like giving hints about where are mortal remains of someone whose case hasn't been solved.

My view-


Residual hauntings , i.e. Memories imprinted in matter- true, I believe it exists.

In genesis, we see a verse about how the Earth cried out for the blood of Able that was spilt into it- paraphrasing. ( after the murder committed by Cain).

Intelligent human hauntings- I believe they are the souls of people simply on the other side of hell which is real close to our part of hell (we are in part of hell now according to scripture). And I believe in some places in particular and usualy because of evil being committed or great tragedy... the two sides sort of rift into each other.

Demonic Hauntings- I believe this accounts for the vast majority of even what most people like to believe are human haunting s... as demons always want to appear safe and non-threatening at first... until they've got you. That doesn't mean I don't believe there are acutely human ghosts that wonder about,, but that there present very rarely, imo.

I have experience some hauntings and have hung out one of the Most Haunted houses in the US, here in San DIego, the Whaley House... and it definitely was like being in a portal to other side of hell. I had to actually pray hard and long after leaving that place.. because of the evil that dwelt there.

I also have experienced a demon fisrthand.. as well, when I summoned it while I was practicing sorcery many years ago. I'll leave it at that.. as I don't want to remember that experience in too much detail right now.

I believe all "ghosts" and "hauntings" are demonic in nature. Unless the "ghost figure" is clearly an angel (God will allow you to tell the difference if you have His spirit in you), then the only other option is demons.

When someone dies there are only two possible places for a departed soul to go. One is "paradise" or heaven, where the soul of a believer in Christ goes temporarily until the resurrection of believers where souls of believers are reunited with a glorified body and then spend eternity with God. The souls of nonbelievers go to "hades" after death. "Hades" is a Greek word used in the New Testament meaning, "place of the dead" and it is basically a place of temporary punishment where unrepentant souls await the final judgement and ultimately, hell as in the lake of fire.

So, there are no human souls floating around in this realm we live in. Only evil spirits trying to deceive people.

I'm of the same opinion of bee_rad.

My take on ghosts is this....

I dont believe in ghosts, but as for cases when people see ghosts I think that its a possibility that these so-called "Ghosts" are actually demons or minions of Satan that choose to take the form of a ghost. I think the same could be true about people who claim to have seen aliens.

The devil is a deceiver, and he will have his demons take the form of a cheeseburger if thats what will bring fear into your life.

I have no backing at all, its simply a theory I've thought about.

If we only live once, and we end up in either Heaven or Hell, then how do people's spirits get "lost" in between the realms so to speak? If our spirits go to Heaven or Hell, then those spirits people see cannot be even close to human. That is why I think its yet another one of the devil's games.

The Hell on earth theory is interesting though and I had not thought of that.

I definately do believe that spirits are demonic activity. I think they cause mental breakdowns and a few cheap apartments I've lived in have had my hair on my arm stand up knowing something was around. Not trying to sound crazy but that is how it seems.

I personally believe that what some people have mistaken to sometimes be a ghost or spirit is actually an evil spirit/demon appearing as that.
I mean, look into the nature of the spirits that Amazon tribesmen experience (such as the Yanomamo).
Especially when a medium believes they're talking to a dead relative, for an example; in that case, I see that as an evil spirit disguising themselves as their relative.

We all know Satan likes to fool and trick us humans.

I have had personal experience with evil spirits manifesting themselves in tangible ways, and I know that some people might call them "ghosts".

Also, a friend of mine who is not a Christian but dabbles in mysticism and new age practices, has had experiences with apparitions of "spirits" or ghosts as some might label them. She told me that her previous bedroom was haunted. Next thing you know, she moves out and her mother moves into that room; and ever since her mother moved into that "haunted" room, the mother has been severely depressed and suicidal. I think that the evil spirits are clearly causing the oppressive suicidal feelings.

It's clear that such spirits bother us Christians as well: I believe they can't possess someone that is saved, but they can (and do) still bother us. But through Him we can have these cast away!

You can't be christian if you believe God would allow the soul of a human to remain here on earth.

I totally agreed with Celine. That makes 100% sense to me.

I believe in the thing people refer to as ghosts. As to what they are, I don't have a solid opinion, though I do believe that at least some of them are demons (especially the ones, as somebody mentioned earlier, that eventually reveal themselves as demons). Residual hauntings, I can't quite figure out how they'd work from a scientific standpoint, but the concept itself does make sense in a way. (a little off topic, but has anyone ever experienced seeing a residual ghost of someone who was still alive? That's something I've been wondering for a while.)