Ghosts?

[truthquester]

A person I know very well is really paranoid about ghosts. I have tried several times to get her to see that there is no such thing. I believe that she genuinely believes she does as there is no convincing her otherwise.
She used to be involved with things like ouji boards and the like. Is it possible that a demon could be present and pretending to be the ghost of her loved one or is that just way out there?

 

[mikekle]

Ghosts most certainly do exist…remember right after Jesus was crucified and he appeared to the apostles…they thought he was a ghost, (note that they had a word for such a thing), this means they knew what a ghost was.

Personally, I have seen one, only once, it was indoors, in a stairwell, with no windows, clear as day, saw a transparent kind of gray ‘ball’, about the size of a beach ball, bouncing around the ceiling, the walls, etc. I watched it for about 10 minutes, eventually it just vanished.

Many on here think they are demonic in nature, but Im not sure, as the thing I saw, whatever it was, was not good or evil, it was neutral, as it didnt do anything either way, so…??

Then theres also the quadrillion pictures and videos of ‘orbs’ out there, who many claim are ghost-like, as they are under some type of control, not like something just being effected by wind, or gravity, etc. These orbs tend to gather around living people, animals, if you zoom in one, its pretty interesting to see!

 

[AKDee]

I believe in ghosts because I’ve encountered them on multiple occasions. How they fit in with Catholic beliefs I don’t know. I recall reading one of the “ask the apologist” and the answer was that perhaps there are certain circumstances where God allows someone from purgatory permission to come here to serve out part of their sentence.

Even the Bible doesn’t deny ghosts. Think of when our Lord shows himself to the disciples after his resurrection, they thought he was a ghost and he said that “a ghost does not have flesh and blood as you see I have.” They also thought he as a ghost when he walked on water. That sounds pretty much like confirmation that ghosts exist to me.

 

[Antegin]

I have been asked where purgatory is. The answers I have found included the possibility that souls in purgatory appeared to the living for their comfort, for their edification or because they had unfinished business.

I have also found multiple accounts across cultures of demons disguised as the deceased.

 

[Dorothy]

A person I know very well is really paranoid about ghosts. I have tried several times to get her to see that there is no such thing. I believe that she genuinely believes she does as there is no convincing her otherwise.
She used to be involved with things like ouji boards and the like. Is it possible that a demon could be present and pretending to be the ghost of her loved one or is that just way out there?

Your last sentence reveals what is problematic. It is forbidden to dabble in things of that sort.
A priest knowledgeable about such things can help her.

The evil one is the father of lies, and it is not “way out there” to think that when we open doors we shouldn’t be opening we can expect problems.

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

The best thing would be to gently persuade your friend to speak to a priest ,
A priest can visit the home and bless the house,
My mother did that every time we moved when I was young

 

[Micosil]

She used to be involved with things like ouji boards and the like. Is it possible that a demon could be present and pretending to be the ghost of her loved one or is that just way out there?

Yeah, probably speak to a priest about this. In all interviews and writings I’ve read involving exorcists, they unanimously claim that Ouija boards are a known source of demonic manifestation. The priest should know what to do.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

A person I know very well is really paranoid about ghosts. I have tried several times to get her to see that there is no such thing. I believe that she genuinely believes she does as there is no convincing her otherwise.
She used to be involved with things like ouji boards and the like. Is it possible that a demon could be present and pretending to be the ghost of her loved one or is that just way out there?

I’m not sure why you would think that there are “no such thing” We believe in saints, apparitions and demons no?

 

[truthquester]

I’m sorry, maybe I should clarify what I meant. I meant that I don’t believe that the souls of the dead inhabit the earth for any great length of time. I believe that God does not allow for that to happen.
I used to work in an retirement home and one time I clearly remember seeing one of the residents run across in front of me as I was walking down the hallway just outside of her room.
As this does not sound strange in and of itself, the woman could not walk, she had been disabled for quite some time. I just shrugged it off as low blood sugar or something. About 20 minutes after I saw her, I learned that she had died and I never saw her again. I never told anybody because I just didn’t know what to make of it. Maybe she was just earth-bound for a short span of time.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I’m sorry, maybe I should clarify what I meant. I meant that I don’t believe that the souls of the dead inhabit the earth for any great length of time. I believe that God does not allow for that to happen.
I used to work in an retirement home and one time I clearly remember seeing one of the residents run across in front of me as I was walking down the hallway just outside of her room.
As this does not sound strange in and of itself, the woman could not walk, she had been disabled for quite some time. I just shrugged it off as low blood sugar or something. About 20 minutes after I saw her, I learned that she had died and I never saw her again. I never told anybody because I just didn’t know what to make of it. Maybe she was just earth-bound for a short span of time.

It is just odd that you would be so adamant about trying hard to convince someone that something does not exist when you yourself do not really have any real data to the contrary. That is all. I think it is quite compatible to our faith to believe in ghosts or spirits. And I also believe that some of them can be bad or demonic in nature. So paranoid? Well perhaps the person you are talking about just has a healthy fear of such phenomena.

 

[Faith1960]

I believe in ghosts because I’ve encountered them on multiple occasions. How they fit in with Catholic beliefs I don’t know. I recall reading one of the “ask the apologist” and the answer was that perhaps there are certain circumstances where God allows someone from purgatory permission to come here to serve out part of their sentence.

.

I was going to post the same thing. Actually there are several posts on Ask An Apologist about ghosts.

 

[on_the_hill]

I don’t believe in ghosts.

But.

I have close friends who have had experiences that cannot be explained. I had friends who believed they lived in a haunted house. They had seen, heard, and even physically felt “people” who weren’t there. My friends had out of town guests who stayed with them on several occasions, who had never heard any of the stories, and they would say things like, “The weirdest thing happened last night…” Or, “I keep having dreams that someone is standing next to the bed…”

In truth, I don’t tell my kids these stories because, from my perspective, they are real, and my kids would be totally freaked out by them.

My only “other worldly” experiences involve unexplained sounds. The day of my father’s funeral, after everything was over, everyone was at his house.

I was alone in a small workroom in the basement. I heard someone walk down the stairs and shuffle around on the floor. I wondered who it was, and when I looked out there was no one there. I’ve had other experiences like that.

 

[mikekle]

I’m sorry, maybe I should clarify what I meant. I meant that I don’t believe that the souls of the dead inhabit the earth for any great length of time. I believe that God does not allow for that to happen.
I used to work in an retirement home and one time I clearly remember seeing one of the residents run across in front of me as I was walking down the hallway just outside of her room.
As this does not sound strange in and of itself, the woman could not walk, she had been disabled for quite some time. I just shrugged it off as low blood sugar or something. About 20 minutes after I saw her, I learned that she had died and I never saw her again. I never told anybody because I just didn’t know what to make of it. Maybe she was just earth-bound for a short span of time.

This definitely sounds like a ghost to me.

This is something that Ive always been very curious about…what happens in those moments right upon our death, Ive heard similar accounts of people feeling and acting young again, so maybe all their aches and pains are gone, Ive heard people being able to walk around in their environment, and not being seen by others, its terrifying to me, mainly because I dont know what to expect, as Ive heard some other much darker accounts too, some say their rooms got real dark, stench in the room, they heard their names being mocked, and feeling they were being lured somewhere…that is scary!