Ghosts - The white floaty things that go oooooooo

Capodecina
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For the guy who ended up in a bad place, I strongly suspect that given that smell is often considered the strongest/deepest sense, and he'd just had a ton of pus come out of his stomach, and had the tubes that normally contain faeces, along now with pus, ripped open, that stench would have had a strong effect on what his addled mind was experiencing. I don't think it's chance that he's repeatedly talking about the smell (and he'd no doubt have been feverish too with a lot of rot going on inside his body).

That would seem plausible, yes. Those who've experienced NDEs can see and hear everything that's going on, so being able to smell things could be possible too.
 
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I've no interest in people's views on whether ghosts exist or not, but have really enjoyed reading about people's ghostly experiences.

Years ago, when late night radio talk shows were popular, there was a phone in on local radio about ghosts and people were ringing in with their stories, many of them talking about places I was familiar with and it really gave me the willies. That's the ghostliest experience I've had.
 
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The thought of ghosts is fun for movies, but obviously they don't exist. When you understand this you can move onto the real reasons; mainly people looking for fame or money.

I once met a woman that thought she could talk to dead people, she was stunning and liked me, all I had to do was play along to sleep with her. I went home alone that night, that night has haunted me ever since :p (true story btw)
 
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So you can link me to these documented cases? How many people in surgery have monitors on brain activity? Heart sure, but brain?

I can give you scientific documentation of brain activity 30 minutes after a heart has stopped beating https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...ion-of-death/11F9C14102AECB3D579C7DB879D6BB66

Awareness after death for several minutes here: https://bioethics.georgetown.edu/20...-the-biggest-ever-scientific-study-published/

There's even gruesome cases of beheaded people reacting for 20-30 seconds after being separated from their bodies. You can read about Henri Languille.

So a heart stopping for a minute or two, likely whilst being resuscitated and receiving oxygen, and still having some awareness of your surroundings is not supernatural.






Some of my examples-as general as they are were taken from verbatim video reports from Eminent surgeon Lloyd Rudy and Dr Gary Habermas -but the gist of what I am saying is taken from The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism.

Unfortunately non of your examples can explain or counter the experiences Habermas mentions in chapter 14: Evidential Near Death Experiences pages 232, 234 , chapter 14.22 Evidential NDE Corroboration at a distance because they are supernatural.

Of particular interest is the case of Kristle Merzlock (page 236) who is a girl who nearly drowned who reported more than the specifics of her resuscitation and was able to give an account of what was happening at her home away from the hospital and what her parents were wearing and what they were doing/cooking on the three days she remained unconscious at the hospital. Her condition was corroborated by the hospital staff.

Chapter 14.2.3 goes on to give examples of evidential NDE's connected to deceased persons and more significantly shared Near death experiences.

Dr Lloyd Rudy describes the intervention of a Presence in the surgery he and the rest of his staff were trying to save a mans life they had to give up on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL1oDuvQR08 (9:14)[/QUOTE]

Neuropsychiatrist and neurophysiologist Petr Fenwick goes a lot further when describing his research into what happens to end of life patients:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78SkTuk8Zd4[/QUOTE]


The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism:


Interesting and thought provoking stuff-at least to me :)
 
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Raz

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The thought of ghosts is fun for movies, but obviously they don't exist. When you understand this you can move onto the real reasons; mainly people looking for fame or money.

Can you prove they don't exist? ;)

Edited to add a ;)
 
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Can you prove they don't exist?
Ahh the old "you can't disprove, therefore it exists" argument.

Obviously you can't prove either way, what you can do is examine all the evidence and use your common sense. I can't prove my cornflakes aren't aliens from another planet, that doesn't mean they are.
 

Raz

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Ahh the old "you can't disprove, therefore it exists" argument.

Obviously you can't prove either way, what you can do is examine all the evidence and use your common sense. I can't prove my cornflakes aren't aliens from another planet, that doesn't mean they are.

So...no, I'm not convinced they exist as I don't accept the claims. You made a claim that they don't exist, I'm asking if you have proof.

If I say aliens exist, I'm making a claim for which the burden of proof lies with me.

If I say aliens don't exist, I'm making a claim for which the burden of proof lies with me.

If someone makes the claim that aliens don't exist, and I ask for evidence that supports that claim, does it mean I'm making the claim they do exist?

The cornflakes example doesn't work, there are no such thing as aliens ;)

I should have put a smiley in my original reply :p:D
 
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Raz

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You should have just said 'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence' :p

Nice to know you believe in Ghosts though :D:D

Lol yup :D

I do have family that believe in ghosts though, but I learned a long time that asking some people questions/doubting them is sometimes too much of a headache...

Me "Did you really see a ghost or could it have perhaps been because of X, y or z?"

Relative "Are you calling me a liar??"

Me "No, just that sometimes the mind plays tricks and..."

Relative " If you don't believe me/ghosts it means you don't believe in God"

Me "well that's a different topic but..."

Relative "Why do you hate God?? I will let everyone know you are an apostate!"

Me "er...what?"

Relative " you don't believe in God anymore! I bet all you do is drink and eat pork"

Me "you're an idiot"
 
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So...no, I'm not convinced they exist as I don't accept the claims. You made a claim that they don't exist, I'm asking if you have proof.

If I say aliens exist, I'm making a claim for which the burden of proof lies with me.

If I say aliens don't exist, I'm making a claim for which the burden of proof lies with me.

If someone makes the claim that aliens don't exist, and I ask for evidence that supports that claim, does it mean I'm making the claim they do exist?

The cornflakes example doesn't work, there are no such thing as aliens ;)

I should have put a smiley in my original reply :p:D

Can you prove that 3080/90s exist? ;)
 
Capodecina
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Ahh the old "you can't disprove, therefore it exists" argument.

Obviously you can't prove either way, what you can do is examine all the evidence and use your common sense. I can't prove my cornflakes aren't aliens from another planet, that doesn't mean they are.

Fair enough, but Occam's Razor demands a rebuttable presumption of a single, systematic underlying cause. So while it's not impossible that your cornflakes are aliens, the chances of that being the case are so incredibly small as to be insignificant.

However, there have been many instances of phenomena concerning unexplained visitations, physical and auditory disturbances and related phenomena over the millennia, so many, in fact, that the chance of the explanation for some of these being an as-yet undefined and scientifically ununderstood non-physical energy form becomes increasingly worthy of serious consideration. Conversely, reports of extra-terrestrials masquerading as breakfast cereal are close to, or effectively close to, zero.
 
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Fair enough, but Occam's Razor demands a rebuttable presumption of a single, systematic underlying cause. So while it's not impossible that your cornflakes are aliens, the chances of that being the case are so incredibly small as to be insignificant.

However, there have been many instances of phenomena concerning unexplained visitations, physical and auditory disturbances and related phenomena over the millennia, so many, in fact, that the chance of the explanation for some of these being an as-yet undefined and scientifically ununderstood non-physical energy form becomes increasingly worthy of serious consideration. Conversely, reports of extra-terrestrials masquerading as breakfast cereal are close to, or effectively close to, zero.

Afterlife has a very strong emotional pull as we all fear death, this would have been compounded many years ago when life expectancy was low. If ghosts hold up to rigorous scientific testing I will believe it, until then it's all folktales and deluded people.

Watch this for example, look how strongly these people believed in dowsing, even when confronted by scientific fact they still believed.
 

Raz

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Afterlife has a very strong emotional pull as we all fear death, this would have been compounded many years ago when life expectancy was low. If ghosts hold up to rigorous scientific testing I will believe it, until then it's all folktales and deluded people.

Watch this for example, look how strongly these people believed in dowsing, even when confronted by scientific fact they still believed.

Indeed.

It becomes even more difficult when people think they can communicate with spirits.

Personally, I don't think this will ever disappear, no matter how scientifically advanced we become.
 
Capodecina
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Afterlife has a very strong emotional pull as we all fear death, this would have been compounded many years ago when life expectancy was low. If ghosts hold up to rigorous scientific testing I will believe it, until then it's all folktales and deluded people.

Watch this for example, look how strongly these people believed in dowsing, even when confronted by scientific fact they still believed.

I totally understand your position. I am, however, the wrong person to talk to about dowsing since I've been practicing it, on and off, since the '80s. So you and I will just have to differ on our opinions of that.

The scientists think they know more than the faithful, and the faithful think they know more than the scientists. It's very difficult for one to convince the other. The best that can happen is respect and acceptance of the other's view.

@Raz is effectively saying the same thing.
 
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I totally understand your position. I am, however, the wrong person to talk to about dowsing since I've been practicing it, on and off, since the '80s. So you and I will just have to differ on our opinions of that.

The scientists think they know more than the faithful, and the faithful think they know more than the scientists. It's very difficult for one to convince the other. The best that can happen is respect and acceptance of the other's view.

@Raz is effectively saying the same thing.

In some ways I'm jealous of people like you, I would probably feel better if I believed in the afterlife, god and the supernatural. (not sarcasm)
 
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