Back in 1998-2000 I lived on a farm on the outskirts of Belleville. I don't remember seeing any ghosts or being attacked by Predators in my sleep or anything, but I grew an extraordinary fear of the dark. The only light was an a rotten bulb from the 19th century hung in a jam jar above the back door. We had no windows facing the fields to the rear of the property, so all there was to guide you home at duskset was a creepy yellow glow. Again, no ghosts or Snarks or Grumkins. Just dark. And stars. Despite never seeing a grey probing the marmots, I was very positive from an early age that there was something beyond the borders of gravity, an OH FUCK THE SUN'S SETTING GET INSIDE JILLIAN GET INSIDE

When I was a teenager, mostly 14-18. I saw some shit. Shadow People were frequent, just chillin on the edge of my vision. I've mentioned a grey blob that I used to see in the hallway between my kitchen and the foyer before, shaped like an 8 foot tall whale man or a dog. My friend Jordan saw the dog as well.

I'm not saying that my house was haunted or anything like that. These were pretty clearly audiovisual hallucinations derived from reading a lot of scary stories and talking with Jordan (who suffers from Schizophrenia) about Shadow People and the like at length. I'd like to think that anything supernatural occurs on an extremely wide and slow scale. Or at least that sounds cool.

This^ was what ultimately turned me off of ghosts and paranormal research when I first read about it. Nikki can tell you I used to be way into that stuff.

While I think that personal 'paranormal' encounters that are experienced through one of the five senses have been wholly debunked, there are certainly a few pieces of footage/sound/photography/etc. that - assuming they weren't just doctored - have proven to be real head-scratchers.

"Ghosts" are just something we came up with to explain things we don't understand... yet. As technology improves, and we have a greater understanding of the world around us, we will inevitably discover a logical cause for these anomalies. For every fifty "ghost" videos that amount to nothing more than a smudge on the lens, or a piece of dust reflecting light, there is one video that leaves you groping around in vain for a simple explanation.

Unfortunately, these videos often fall under the scrutiny of stupid shows like "Fact or Faked" - a show run by bullshitters with no scientific background - resulting in reputable scientific communities refusing to touch it with a ten-foot pole.

I have had none, though I have had similar experiences to the rest of you here. But I knew what was happening as I had them.

http://pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF211-Atlantis.jpg

Seriously proud right now.

I saw aliens once, maybe.

Ghosts are real too, just semantics on what you might call them.

BM POSTED A GOOD COMIC!

Interesting, you like sex offenders then?

Yes.

Who doesn't?

Sex offense victims.

Or so they claim.

I wouldn't say scary, but I had an UFO sighting. About a year ago, when I was traveling by plane, to college, I saw an UFO. Not aliens, just an UFO. Fact is that it had a bright orange light, and as soon it got behind a small cloud, it disappeared. I was very far from any military base or even land, for that matter, which gave me some questions about the fast disappearing, but I really couldn't care less. Also, for the people asking if "Aliens really exist?", I seriously doubt we're all alone in this universe. As for ghosts, I never encountered anything, so my immediate response is no.

There's a big difference between suggesting that life of some kind exists elsewhere in the universe and suggesting that it has actually travelled across the cosmos to buzz across our sky and scare a few farmers.

Maybe aliens really like beef!

You're right, I actually tend to explain people what UFO, or OVNI in my language, means. Ok, I'll put a video from Neil deGrasse Tyson that shares my opinion on UFO's and aliens:


This is pretty much my thought on Aliens, maybe one or two topics that may differ, but the backbone is there. Also:

Ghosts can't possibly exist. How can a consciousness exist and move around without matter? My mind can't even begin to process this stuff. I'd have to go back and fundamentally disagree, with what I think 'humans' are, and consciousness, and physical mass. My head hurts.

Edit: Also, if people see somebody standing at the top of their stairs in the darkness, and they go "Whup, ghost", then I can only say they are ignorant. Because like somebody else said, the mind sees certain objects as human because we're hardwired to process things like that. Plus the fact that you could be dreaming, I've been doing a lot of research on sleep and dreaming lately because I'm trying to learn to lucid dream, and some of this stuff's really interesting. Like 'False awakenings', those are annoying.

I'm getting off topic here, but the point is, ghosts don't exist, and aliens probably don't float over fields in big dinner plates. End.

OWF is so atheist.

Oops.

I think I'm going to become a secular Buddhist, just to see what happens.

Bearshark apocalypse. You have been warned.

People who claim to be Buddhist to be new age or edgy are the worst.

Even Hitler never sank so low.

What bastards.

One of the greatest ironies I've come to realize is while the Buddha Dharma preaches living for the moment and not obsessing over work or long-term goals, it is still the most popular religion in Japan. Am I missing something?

"Math ain't that great" ~ Buddha

One of the greatest ironies I've come to realize is while Jesus preaches self-sacrifice, unconditional love and escape from material worth, it (Christianity) is still the most popular religion in the west. Am I missing something?

Note: Not criticizing you or what you said, just providing a parallel. Religion is two part culture and one part belief.

But embracing the Buddha Dharma as a religion is a fallacy in itself :p

I'd like to point out that I said Secular Buddhism. Not religious Buddhism.

Oh, right.

Well Shinto-Buddism and all that. Nobody (Read: Very few people. Always make allowances for idiots) in Japan actually worships the Buddha. They're mostly atheist and the ones that aren't worship the thousand or so Shinto gods native to the land itself.