Do you belive in ghosts?

Do you call them spirits instead of ghosts?

Let's discuss it.....

I have seen things since I was a kid. Sometimes I don't know what I am seeing or where it comes from. I have participated in house cleansings, where I have seen black shadowy figures exit the room we were in.

I believe in ghosts and in spirits, both good and malevolent. I think the spiritual realm is inhabited by all manner of spirits (as above, so below) and we certainly have a variety on the physical plane, so why not the spiritual.

Seeing things in the darkness is like scrying, I guess. This is the same thing I used to do with the Christian group I was with. I was one of their seers, and "seeing" and dreams were the thing they asked me for when they wanted me to look into a situation or help someone find their way. I can tell when a spirit is in the room; some are curious, some are rather scary, and some are peaceful, though to see them at first is frightening, but I have learned to control my emotions. I have used mirrors to elicit spirit presences, some of it rather scary--but like I said, I control that part of my reaction to what I see in order to explore deeper.

Interesting subject matter...

I'm like Rael -- I believe that spirits are all manner of things including both human and non-human. Some are clearly the shades of departed people while others probably were never human and never will be human.

The house we live in now here in Eden Prairie is relatively new -- we're the second family to live in it, and it was built in the 1990s. Despite that I'm positive we have at least one spirit that shows up every once in a while. I've had friends notice the spirit when they were here, and I'm sure I've noticed it too, often out of the corner of my eye.

My guess is that the spirit is the ghost of a former resident of our home. The people who had the house built where a retired couple, and the husband died about a year after they had moved in. His widow lived in the house until 2003 when we bought it from her and moved in that summer.

I don't know if the husband died in the house or somewhere else. It wouldn't surprise me that his spirit might have hung around the house though since his widow continued living here after he died. (She's in a retirement complex now.)

We had an elderly cat who died a couple of years ago too while we were living in this house and I'm pretty sure her spirit has come back to say hi at least a few times. Sometimes I swear she has jumped on the bed just like she used to always do. The vet's office had her remains cremated and now she rests in a little box on a shelf I've made up as a memorial altar, with a Bast statue to watch over her. We still have her brother, Bub, who is eighteen years old this year.

The house I grew up in was very old, built around 1900. My Dad bought the house and land that it was on when we were very young, and he re-modeled it.

I encountered a ghost there as did just about everyone in the house. I have seen it ascending the stairs and in the dining room. I was at a family thing a couple of years ago, and we were talking about the ghost and what she looked like and what it felt like so long ago to encounter her. My brother, who now lives in the house with his wife and children, said he woke up once to find this ghost hovering over him, same description, but it scared the daylights out of him. This was interesting in that my brother is not the type that believes in ghosts or the type that would admit he saw one. I was glad he felt the freedom to tell of his experience. He and I don't get along very well, and I was surprised he would admit to something that would confirm my own experiences. We think this spirit may not know she is dead. She seems to kindly interact with all that are in the house and kind of mothers them.

I lived in very old pre-civil war houses when growing up..and we always had "other residents".

My house I sold a few years ago..was built c1830 and had several spirits. Some would just go about their business..but we could hear them talking, woman would bang pots and pans in kitchen..and you could heart he swish of her long dress and hear the heavy footsteps of the man, on the stairs.

Some spirits were interactive. When my husband died, they were very comforting. You could feel their concern.

Our camp had been the home of an Afro Indian...and he frequented the place.