A simple no will do 
Thank you!
Not sure why you had to explain that, I wasnât saying that about anyone in particular. 
The reason why I said that was because in the past I too was confronted with an argument that âyou donât believe it, therefore youâre closed-mindedâ. However, on the contrary, I donât believe it but Iâm not saying it canât be true, my mind is always open for evidence (unlike those who already believe in something). So saying that I donât believe it but Iâm open-minded is redundant.
Love the video above, I couldnât have ever put it better.
@ Shaun
Great reasoning on the video I love the rubbish conclusion 
Thanks Mittineague for sharing those experiences!
This last tale also involves the cemetary. A few years ago there was a full moon that happened to coincide with the Spring Equinox. I had just bought my digital camera and thought I would experiment by taking some pictures of the full moon as it rose in the east. Iâm far from being a good photographer but once in a while I get lucky if I take enough shots. I was hoping for a dim scene with a large moon in it, but most of them disappointingly came out like this one, too dark and with a small moon
While I was taking one of the pictures I felt a sudden chill. I thought nothing of it at the time. March is often chilly at night in New England. When I went home I anxiously checked my new photos to see how they had come out. I was shocked when I saw this one
Thatâs the one I had taken when I felt the sudden chill. And I hadnât see the âmistâ when I took it! After some time I figured it was just one of those things, maybe it was outside of the vision of my left eye and I couldnât see it with my right eye while looking through the view finder for some reason.
A few years later, my grandmother passed and I inherited some old photo albums. This sparked an interest in my familyâs history and I did some genealogical research. I learned that some distant relatives (branched about 6 generations ago). had lived in my town and were buried in the cemetary across the street. I decided to see if I could happen upon their graves (not really expecting to find them) and gather more information. But there they were, right where the âmistâ photo had been taken which is also the same spot where I had seen âthe walking womanâ.
So do I believe in ghosts? No. Do I believe there are no ghosts? Again, no.
I also donât believe that spirits can be summoned from the beyond, but Iâm certainly not going to try doing it either.
Once a college philosophy professor asked the class "How many coincidences does it take before you start seeing a cause - effect relationship?
I think 1 more similar coincidence will just about convince me.
You are only frightening your self. Just believe in God.
i believe in ghosts
No I donât believe in anything like that, simply because thereâs no credible evidence. Someone told me recently that studies have shown that the likelyhood of a belief in the supernatural is inversely proportional to IQ. He then followed that with âbut donât say that to your nurseâ⌠sound advice I think.
I have a few questions about ghosts:
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What do they do when theyâre not haunting us?
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Do they think?
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If they can walk through walls and ordinary matter is therefore transparent to them what keeps them from dropping through the earth or getting left behind as we zip through space at 70k mph?
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On a similar note, what keeps them walking exactly on the surface, why not a foot below it or 3 feet above it, or 300 yards under it?
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What are they made of, everything can be measured, are they energy? They must be since everything is, so what kind of energy are they?
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Why do big groups of people never see them?
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If theyâre real how come we donât just see them as a matter of day to day living, like crows or badgers or clouds?
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There must be millions of them, how come theyâre seen so infrequently and always by one or two people in a scary context?
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Why donât animals have ghosts?
etc etc
Mitt, that mist in yor photo is most probably your breath, you did say it was a chilly night.
I do not believe but i always fear
The studies in question that he is discussing resolve around belief in God and religion and IQ.
People with high IQs tend to want to see more proof, as itâs impossible to prove the existence of God it would thus make sense that they would be less likely to believe in God.
- What do they do when theyâre not haunting us?
Who says they are haunting us?
- Do they think?
That would depend on whether youâre looking at an intelligent haunting or a residual would it not?
- If they can walk through walls and ordinary matter is therefore transparent to them what keeps them from dropping through the earth or getting left behind as we zip through space at 70k mph?
No scientific thoughts as to this, but I wonder why weâre not all getting whiplash as we zip through space at 70k mph?
- On a similar note, what keeps them walking exactly on the surface, why not a foot below it or 3 feet above it, or 300 yards under it?
Many residual type hauntings have exactly this sort of thing occurring, Spirits half in floors that were moved a few feet up during a reno and the such. Same reason that people will sometimes see spirits walk through walls where there once was a door.
- What are they made of, everything can be measured, are they energy? They must be since everything is, so what kind of energy are they?
The general consensus on the topic would be energy, EMF meters have been known to detect anomalous energy readings that have the ability to move around a room, and have also been used to ask questions of spirits and seemingly get responses to those questions.
- Why do big groups of people never see them?
Big groups of people have never seen spirits? Says who?
- If theyâre real how come we donât just see them as a matter of day to day living, like crows or badgers or clouds?
Crows, badgers and clouds are physical entities that exist on our plane of existence. Spirits on the other hand are energy. How many times a day do you see electricity and radio waves, do those not exist because they canât be seen by the human eye?
- There must be millions of them, how come theyâre seen so infrequently and always by one or two people in a scary context?
A) If one accepts general religious dogma, then spirits would have the option to âpass overâ to another plane of existence, most spirits would choose to do so (can you imagine spending eternity essentially alone?) so only a very small percentage would choose to stay. Of those who choose to stay an even smaller percentage would be strong enough to manifest themselves in any visible way.
B) You watch too many movies, most spirits are not seen in a scary context. One could argue that spirits are more likely to manifest at night, which may be true, and that nighttime is scarier than daytime, but that doesnât mean that they are manifesting at night because itâs scarier.
- Why donât animals have ghosts?
Who says that they donât? If an animal did have a ghost, would it not make sense that it would not actively attempt to communicate or manifest itself to us based solely on itâs lack of higher brain functions?
Have I ever personally seen a ghost? No
Have I ever experienced a strange psychic phenomenon? Yes
Therefore I choose to keep my options open on those topics.
Iâd recommend that you go to Youtube and watch some GhostHunters episodes, they catch some crazy stuff on video and audio tape but what I like best is the number of times they donât catch anything, they donât feel the need for every investigation to be successful and I get nervous about shows where they always find stuff.
Are you saying that people who believe in God are likely to have a lower IQ? 
I am joking⌠lets not move this thread towards God and Politics and have it closed.
I donât believe in ghosts merely because I have a problem believing in general. The known seems so much more interesting than the unknown. Even the known has plenty of unbelievable stuff (pun intended).
OK then. Sounds convincing enough to me.
Iâll try.
Perhaps tomorrow.
Yes, I know. Iâm hopeless. 
No mate, thatâs a set of studies which I wouldnât have brought up because discussing religion is against SP ToS.
As for my friend, I think he was joking.
Wandering aimlessly, kiling time, haunting us, picking their ethereal noses⌠whatever you want to call it. What are they doing when theyâre not doing it visibly?
âan intelligent haunting or a residualâ ? your categorising hauntings? Thatâs like arguing whether the tooth fairieâs wings are green or blue to me.
We would if the planet accelerated from 0mph to 70,000mph suddenly, weâd probably burn up as we were flung through the atmosphere at 70,000mph, lucklily thatâs not whatâs going on. We evolved on a planet already travelling at that speed.
I really hope that was a joke.
The implications of this type of thinking are what give skeptics all the ammo they need to shoot down belief in the supernatural.
"EMF meters have been known to detect anomalous energy readings " that could happen anywhere at any time for any reason, itâs hardly conclusive proof of anything is it.
Says me, canât remember the last time a ghost wandered through a busy shopping center or across the pitch at a big football match.
The point being that no one ever sees ghosts in an indisputable context, because they never will, becuae theyâre not real. Things that ARE real get seen in indisputable contexts all the time.
Spirits are energy are they? Where do they come from? Energy canât come from nothing.
According to you I canât see electricity therefore I canât rule out the existence of ghosts. Honestly, I barely even know how to address that kind of fuzzy thinking. Youâre right, I canât see electricity but I can see and test and understand the effects it has, I understand it, I can feel it, quantify it, I can even create it. Itâs a totally understood, controllable, and proveable natural phenomenom and is about as suitable for use as an analogy to support the possible existence of ghosts as me saying that Ferraris can accelerate to 100mph in 3.2 seconds and therefore so could a smurf.
Pure speculation based on wishful thinking. I could make up some ridiculous unlikely theory to demonstrate how a complete lack of evidence doesnât stop people believing stuff like that but I canât be bothered.
Who says they do? You want to apply all the rules for human ghosts to animal ghosts? Do they âpass overâ too then? Where do they go? Do they have a choice too? does this prove the existence of the soul?
Once you start looking hard at this kind of logic it dissolves in a puff of unlikelyness.
Have you experienced something you canât explain and youâre willing to consider something highly unlikely without any proof or evidence as the explanation? Yes.
Is there a theory TOO ridiuclous for you to believe? Just curious, or do you keep an open mind about absolutely everything, like there being a teapot orbiting the earth?
If I want to watch people taking advantage of the bereaved and gullible in a distastefull and immoral way (or worse, actually believing that they have some kind of powerâŚ) I will watch those programs, for now though Iâll remain contemptuous of them.
No, there are studies that show that.
Wandering aimlessly, kiling time, haunting us, picking their ethereal noses⌠whatever you want to call it. What are they doing when theyâre not doing it visibly?
How the heck would I know?
âan intelligent haunting or a residualâ ? your categorising hauntings? Thatâs like arguing whether the tooth fairieâs wings are green or blue to me.
Except there is video, audio and other measurable evidence of the above. Hauntings are categorizable.
We would if the planet accelerated from 0mph to 70,000mph suddenly, weâd probably burn up as we were flung through the atmosphere at 70,000mph, lucklily thatâs not whatâs going on. We evolved on a planet already travelling at that speed.
I really hope that was a joke.
So your argument that spirits should be flung off into space is not applicable to humans even though the physics are the same?
So one is ridiculous, but the other is factual?
The implications of this type of thinking are what give skeptics all the ammo they need to shoot down belief in the supernatural.
You asked a legitimate question, you got a legitimate answer. Just like spirits are sometimes seen walking up stairs that are no longer there.
"EMF meters have been known to detect anomalous energy readings " that could happen anywhere at any time for any reason, itâs hardly conclusive proof of anything is it.
Yes, anomalous large localized spikes in energy near no discernible sources that move around are all over the place.
Says me, canât remember the last time a ghost wandered through a busy shopping center or across the pitch at a big football match.
- Why would a ghost have any reason to frequent such a location?
The point being that no one ever sees ghosts in an indisputable context, because they never will, becuae theyâre not real. Things that ARE real get seen in indisputable contexts all the time.
There are plenty of photos out there that are fairly indisputable as far as people appearing in places that they were not when the photo was taken.
Spirits are energy are they? Where do they come from? Energy canât come from nothing.
Iâm no physicist and Iâm certainly not going to get into the religious aspects of this.
According to you I canât see electricity therefore I canât rule out the existence of ghosts. Honestly, I barely even know how to address that kind of fuzzy thinking. Youâre right, I canât see electricity but I can see and test and understand the effects it has, I understand it, I can feel it, quantify it, I can even create it. Itâs a totally understood, controllable, and proveable natural phenomenom and is about as suitable for use as an analogy to support the possible existence of ghosts as me saying that Ferraris can accelerate to 100mph in 3.2 seconds and therefore so could a smurf.
Your original statement was that we see clouds and the such so why donât we see spirits? If you want to clarify your statement now then bully for you, but it doesnât make my rebuttal any less accurate at the time.
I agree it would be much more valid if spirits could be quantifiably proven.
Who says they do? You want to apply all the rules for human ghosts to animal ghosts? Do they âpass overâ too then? Where do they go? Do they have a choice too? does this prove the existence of the soul?
Iâm not saying one or the other, Iâm simply putting forth a theory as to why there would be no animal spirits of the same sort, I wasnât going to get into the soul thing because now weâre getting into religion.
Have you experienced something you canât explain and youâre willing to consider something highly unlikely without any proof or evidence as the explanation? Yes.
Picture thisâŚ
Two people decide that they are going to try to communicate telepathically (for kicks, no one expects it to work). They agree upon a time and say that they will try to pass a message to the other and see what happens.
The time comes and goes with no discernible effect, later that night one sees a flash of the other in his bedroom.
The next day, the one asks the other if they got a message, the other says no but does mention that he got a strange flash of the other. Each of them is able to describe, in detail, where the other person was in the flash and the room that they were in even though neither of them had ever been to the other personâs house.
I would consider that proof of something strange happening. Iâm not talking about how a âhey I should call Jimâ RING! âHello? OMG I was just going to call you!â Thatâs a coincidence and easily explained away.
Is there a theory TOO ridiuclous for you to believe? Just curious, or do you keep an open mind about absolutely everything, like there being a teapot orbiting the earth?
Considering the amount of space junk surrounding our planet it wouldnât surprise me at all if a tea pot was orbiting the Earth.
If I want to watch people taking advantage of the bereaved and gullible in a distastefull and immoral way (or worse, actually believing that they have some kind of powerâŚ) I will watch those programs, for now though Iâll remain contemptuous of them.
Talk about close minded, there are no bereaved people on this show and no one is taken advantage of. They are asked to come to various locations by people (homes and businesses) to investigate reports of activity. They do so purely through the use of equipment such as cameras, audio recorders, EMF meters, etc⌠At the end of the show they present the evidence (if any is found) after thoroughly attempting to debunk it. There are no mediums or psychics or the such involved in this and no money changes hands and they were doing this for a long time before they were offered the chance to do a TV show on it.
Often times there is no evidence to report because they debunk all the claims. For example, one restaurant reported that they would leave for the night and they would return and the silverware on the tables would have mysteriously crossed over themselves to form Xs even though the building was locked and empty. They discovered that some of the silverware had somehow become magnetized and was causing that thereby debunking the claims.
Another time they had some incredible video in the Queen Mary (if I remember correctly) that showed a sheet on a bed moving on itâs own. After watching that for quite some time they determined based on examining the frames of the video that someone had snuck into the room, paused the video camera, hidden behind the bed and moved the sheet, it would have been much better TV to let it stand, but instead they debunked that video.
Most of their evidence is audio, thermal, or EMF in nature, but they come up with the occasional cool video and the such.
No harm in keeping an open mind, personally I make it a point not to insult the beliefs of others, but thatâs just me.
Animals donât have ghosts. Just imagine if a cat had a ghost. It has 9 lives⌠it could potentially be scared of itâs own 8 ghosts if it were on itâs last life.
And that is just trippy to be haunted by your ghost self.
JJMcClure, maybe animals go to limbo
Cats donât have 9 lives, try running one down with your car, itâs not going to suddenly re-inflate itself and carry on as if nothing happened. 
Disclaimer: I do not endorse the killing of kittens!