1) No it doesn't.

2) There's nothing to 'answer', it's not a question, the realy interesting thing is why we feel the need to ask questions which are irrelevant, and why we feel the need to keep the 'mystery' intact rather than allowing rationality to explain it. Rationality doesn't destroy any of the romance for me, it just turns up the clarity of real life.

Sorry, I must have misunderstood. If I experience an anomalous phenomena, which isn't easily explained by current thinking, then it's just my brain doing some dodgy processing?
That's a get out clause you could drive the QEII through, which is surely unscientific, no?



Well, the question would be 'What did I just experience?'. There is no simple, neat 'it's all in your head, silly' answer. That's, well, just lazy.

I have to say, if there was concrete proof of ghosts, I'd have to reconsider my thoughts on God

It's all a big 'maybe' from me...

The following is completely without evidence:

I've always kind of liked the idea of some sort of "energy recording"; a human being experiences some sort of incredibly emotive experience, which imprints on a particular location on the planet. This imprint is then experienced in later generations by other human beings as a ghostly apparition. [edit] Just to clarify, I don't believe this at all....it's just a nice idea[/edit]

Of course this would not explain any experiences of interaction with said imprint, but just like a benevolent creator, I see it as a likable fantasy

^ When you first mentioned 'energy recording', I thought you were gonna bring up the whole 'sensors in a room thing', which has long been in contention! (I keep an open mind on such matters)

As you say, it's a likable idea

No it's not, that's the big answer, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING is in your head, that's perception, reality is not out there, it's in your head. Everything.

Believing in anything is highly dependent on what time of day it is, what I am doing and where I am. If asked about aliens, I start to think about them and at that point my thoughts on the subject lead me to my usual conclusion that there is a high likelihood that they exist. What I don’t do is carry that thought process around in my head all the time.

I was so tempted to post a Yoda o'rly pic.
I get your point of view; however, if that's the case then it also ties nicely into a whole raft of other phenomena such as Tulpas.
It doesn't explain away anything, including God, Big Foot/Sasquatch/Yeti/Orang Pendek, EBEs, ghosts, fairies, goblins, fish falls, noisy poltergeists, ABCs, precognition, telepathy, Uri Geller's Spanner et al.

Cor, I'm a bit like Mulder to your Scully.

It does for me

Personally, I don't know why. I just believe that. It's not stupid to believe in something you can't explain or can't understand, we've been doing it for hundreds of years.

I guess it's the way I've been brought up, going to a CofE school, going to church a few times a year. In everyday life things happen because of something else, I'm here because of my parents, dinner is put on the table because Mum cooks it or whatever. Nature does things too. And sometimes things seem too perfect to just be.

I know there will be holes in what I believe, but it's the way of thinking I have grown up with, it seems that I cannot change that quickly, though certain beliefs have become weaker as I've gotten older.

As to abnormal phenomena, it would be so right, I feel, for them to really exist. It would balance life out I think.

No. End of.

Although I do love to see conspiracy theorists argue the toss about things.

I believe I don't know everything. I don't see the point in taking sides in an argument where there simply aren't enough facts to confirm or deny any particular theory, and most of these things have no effect on how I live my life.

I do enjoy speculating, but I don't "believe".

Not for a single little minute. Not ghosts, not bigfoot, not UFOs (in the sense that any other life form has visited 'us').

To the non-believers of ghosts, would anyone care to suggest a theory that satisfactorily explains the Enfield Poltergeist?

Yes, lying.