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My 2 y.o. niece sees ghosts

Yeah kids are cool and whatever, it's just funny to me when people attribute supernatural powers to them. People are gullible as fuck. Your belief system should be based on what you can prove and how logical things are. Not ,like, how cool something sounds

I hope that isn't the impression i gave off in the OP. I tried to dismiss the highly unlikely event that my niece actually sees ghosts and was trying specifically to paint a picture because it sounded cool (or spooky in this case).

People will cite how unnerving they find the image of a little kid doing anything alone outside at night (usually they're on a swing for some reason) and this situation reminded me a lot of that.
 
I see them, too.

It's a combination of things. It's mostly just eye jitter combined with the pinhole camera effect of light focusing and after imaging that your eye perceives. Essentially a trick of the light and environmental conditions (humidity, backlight/lighting conditions, etc) as well several oddities in the way that the eye functions.

You can make a pinhole with your hand (this is how Bukowski masturbates)
pinhole-hand.jpg

and look through it to see how looking past edges of objects helps your eye focus by cutting down on scattered light from the object that the object is cutting out. If you experiment with the edge of your finger and distant object with high contrast or especially backlit objects (more on this later), you will perceived the edges of objects bending around your the edges of your finger. This isn't light bending, but scattered light that the lens of your eye didn't quite catch that your eye isn't getting anymore.

I'm not going to explain afterimage between two high contrast objects - I assume everyone is familiar with them.

Your eye is constantly moving around, even when it is looking at a single object. Normally, this eye jitter is not consciously perceivable. Here is a demonstration do detect gross eye jitter (your eye actually has more frequent microjitters as well that is not perceivable in this demo):



Your eyes are constantly moving around and are constantly receiving slightly different sets of images. Look at of your computer screen, then slightly nod and shake your head at the same time. Notice that along the edges of the screen, there is new info popping in and out behind it. Eye jitter is actually a good thing and improves perception, but between the constantly shifting images and the afterimages, the "aura" around objects in certain lighting conditions is one of the side effects.

I was going to get into lighting conditions as well how humans arrange objects (such as furniture and taller, sightline obstructing objects tending to be along walls and while humans tend to be away from and backlit by walls) and how and why the human tendency to focus on other humans makes this aura stuff more perceptible in other humans but this post is getting too long. Basically, if you stared at a dark colored La Z Boy in a very light colored room, you'd notice a "aura" around it, too.

Also, here's a simple question - if humans actually had a living aura and certain people could perceive it, then why can't you see that shit in the dark?

I lol'd bigtime at the masturbation reference. And this all makes complete sense.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on my experience, though. Though I'm telling the truth, I know that it sounds out there for someone as rational as you. So, just assume that I really did see what I'm claiming to have seen. What do you make of it? Is there a logical explanation? And if it was an illusion, how?
 
We're programmed at an early age to lose our intuition. 'Ghosts' are completely real, I've felt/known they're real many a time. I think our 'souls' hang around just to be wankers. Scientifically I can't pin anything on which annoys the fuck out of me. I don't think it's a God thing, I jut think it's some brilliant thing that we can't wrap our heads around yet. But I reckon we carry on after our body fucks off.
 
We're programmed at an early age to lose our intuition. 'Ghosts' are completely real, I've felt/known they're real many a time. I think our 'souls' hang around just to be wankers. Scientifically I can't pin anything on which annoys the fuck out of me. I don't think it's a God thing, I jut think it's some brilliant thing that we can't wrap our heads around yet. But I reckon we carry on after our body fucks off.
Share some stories.
 
My best friends girlfriend has a ton of these stories from when she was a kid. About how her and her sister used to see shit all the time. She got so overwhelmed talking about it she started crying and shaking. Shit is horrifying.
 
I hope that isn't the impression i gave off in the OP. I tried to dismiss the highly unlikely event that my niece actually sees ghosts and was trying specifically to paint a picture because it sounded cool (or spooky in this case).

People will cite how unnerving they find the image of a little kid doing anything alone outside at night (usually they're on a swing for some reason) and this situation reminded me a lot of that.
Nah I was just talking about people in general. People are drawn toward mystical thinking. there's some legit psychological reasons as to why but well, I've been drinking and don't recall them at the moment.
 
I'm not Mulder, by the way, I went seeking and I found. My own Dad's seen a Nazi hanging when he had to go away in the army, and my dad's the least sort of person to ever believe in anything like that.
 
So y'all can explain them away from your keyboards? Newp. I do have recorded digital evidence, however.
Ah it's just stories on the internet. I've got some batshit insane stories as well that I've shared here. Don't be bothered by what others might say. it's the internet after all.
 
Dick to Phone. I saw what's supposedly an 'orb' just dancing around for the fuck of it straight after my face feeling like it was on fire before finding out there was a major fire in the room where people perished. I'm 40. I'm quite sane. These are just a couple of things, I've always known things aren't quite as they should be.

Take the piss all you want.
 
We're programmed at an early age to lose our intuition. 'Ghosts' are completely real, I've felt/known they're real many a time. I think our 'souls' hang around just to be wankers. Scientifically I can't pin anything on which annoys the fuck out of me. I don't think it's a God thing, I jut think it's some brilliant thing that we can't wrap our heads around yet. But I reckon we carry on after our body fucks off.

As an undead vampire and Ghost-type Pokemon trainer, I can confirm this.
 
I figure the only harm that can be done is to be afraid. If I'm not then it doesn't really matter if these things happen.

Well there's always the other direction. . .

If these things happen, rather than being afraid, how about the sense of wonder? I mean, it's amazing that there is more to heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophies. . .
 
Lol then you get the "Well kids have a special sort of intuition and see these sorts of things" explanation. I'm pretty sure we were all kids once and I don't know about you but I was never able to see fucking ghosts.

When I hear that explanation this is immediately how I envision the person...

 
Every single experience anyone has ever had like this could be a hallucination or mental issue. That's why it's so difficult to confirm anything like this.


We could all be in the Matrix, bro. And I'm not kidding.
 
Is it really right to say that there are supernatural possibilities? We also know that mass hallucinations are real and do happen. A lot of these stories are about family members who "see the same ghosts". With what science knows about the link between genetics and mental health problems, and how it's more possible that a family's internal culture makes them latch onto fanciful explanations and delusional thought processes for certain experiences, why hold out for a mystical explanation?


What about people totally unrelated who have similar experiences in the same place? And that's not to mention some of the other things that were discussed earlier in the thread.
 
We don't know if there's a spiritual world or not, it's not anything we've been able to prove either way with technology. It might not even be possible to prove with technology.

Totally legit point. I stay constantly baffled by the people who think that ghosts/the paranormal is something that can be captured and tested in a laboratory . . . or else it doesn't exist. With this phenomena, we have no idea what it is. Why should we expect it to cooperate with the scientific method?
 
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