Ghost in my studio!!!

[huck]

it's rather curious seeing mature and grown people getting into these discussions, it's one of the few things that stays with us forever i guess, since childhood. it's only natural to fear it and be fascinated by it at the same time.

everyone has a story like this, no one believes the others unless they know them real well, still everyone's scared shitless by now, despite not believing.

i've had my share of these, and coming from a rural upbringing, i can safely say that old woodfloors will crack, and if you're talking about a house that's more than 100 years old (like my family's farm is), it'll crack daily, loudly - soon enough everyone gets used to it and surelly enough, if there was actually someone getting into the house to rob it or something, even in the next room, no one would notice until the guy was right before us asking us to help him with the telly, cause noises are that loud and happen that often.

old houses have poor isolation as well, at windows, etc. so, even if the windows/doors are very well shut, drafts will happen and are constantly happening probably. that will shut doors, windows, etc.

old houses have very poor electric instalments as well, and i frankly don't understand how that doesn't cause more fires. but that can also lead to humming, and "presence" noises.

ouija boards are often moved by sugestion, so the guys wanted to talk to a spirit, so they did, and they wanted to freak out, so they spelled the word. how many million stories have people heard/experienced with those boards? no disrespect dreamsongs, but seriously, i think it would do you a lot more good to just let go of that instead of trying to understand it.

i honestly believe a lot more in the fact that our minds are so powerful (and we use like 30% or something ridiculous like that) that more often than not, in these situations, we're hearing/feeling something brought on ourselves by our own minds. it's a fact that human beings are capable of telepathy, folding spoons, all of that, it's prooven. no one that has those documents/experiences will actually ever release them, but it's proovable. the human brain is about electricity, it's all about that, electricity is capable of a lot of things. if people would see something like telepathy as a simple brain wave electrical transfer between two terminals, it would seem a lot more plausible and acceptable. people can affect the envolving environment with their minds, of course they can. but due to our limitations and lack of knowledge in those areas, and lack of knowledge of our potential, we're probably doing it without knowing it. there's a lot more to electricity than what we know. it's literally what keeps the world running (and i'm not talking about toasters and tv sets) and balances everything.

with this said, and growing up where i did, at a house where half of my family was born, and where probably half of it died, i can't say that some stuff gets to me still. i never refused this side of things (the paranormal/supernatural) and was always fascinated by it.

i often woke up in the middle of fields, but that's mostly cause i sleepwalked, still running back home through the woods at 4am barefeet is not what idd call a night well spent...i can also totally relate to an unsettling feeling at some parts of an old house where my grandparents still live. my uncle, which is someone i trust, grew up there, and often found himself going to the kitchen and finding benches/chairs upside down in the ground, cabinet doors wide open and sometimes in patterns, and also not being able to spend a long time on certain parts of the house. he actually came through about all this only after i told him i felt funny in certain rooms..he had never told me before and we were always very close.

my grandparents grew up in the country as well and my grandmother tells a story that my grandfather (biggest skeptic i've ever seen) confirms everytime. they were walking home late one night, and going up the hill, my grandfather suddenly grabbed her arm and wouldn't let her look, to his left. stubborn as she'll always be, she wanted to look and got a glimpse..basically they always told me that what they saw was a person buried from the waist down, with its arms reaching up and its body glowing bright white. lots of people saw this and it's a big thing around that small village.

anyway, who doesn't like a ghost story or two once in a while right? at least people get the feeling there's something else more than this, afterwards..

[Tibbon]

Was the recording on Friday the 13th?

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by not_so_new

http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-01/ghost.html

[not_so_new]

Originally Posted by dreamsongs

I've got the freakiest of all freakiest stories which scares the shit out of me even as I write this. This is a bit long but if you like scary stuff, read on. This happened over 15 years ago and it's a true story...

I was in my house in LI, NY which I was renting at the time. Very old house with crackling wood floors and a bit spooky looking. I was beginning to get my first few gigs making demos for local bands. I meet and make plans to track a 4 piece rock band late one night around 10 O'clock since they said that's when they performed their best. I didn't make too much of that but I also wasn't looking forward to an all-nighter.

Everything was going fine and at around 2:00 in the morning, I sat down with the ld vocalist to go over some tracks. It was just him and me while the other guys disappeared into my TV room. I thought, OK that's cool they need a break, they've worked hard.

We drank some coffee and got to talking about music with the singer and before I knew it, almost 2 hours had passed.

All of a sudden the door busts open and the other 3 guys storm into the room white as ghosts and with a look I'll never forget. It seems that one of them had the great idea to cut up some little pieces of paper with the alphabet in a circle around a table and play some type of "ouija board" in my house.

They told me that one of them wanted to contact their grandfather that had just passed away. They started to talk to "what they thought" was their grandfather which was confirmed because this "spirit" knew family names, events that just happened in his life, etc. He knew his wife was pregnant before he did (he found out a week later) and knew all kinds of things that only a relative would.

Apparently, after about an hour of talking with his Grandfather, the "spirit" started getting really obscene and vulgar with his language. Using words and saying things this guy said his grandafther would never say. Just, nasty and vulgar stuff which surprised and freaked everybody in the room. They were sure it was the grandfather but coudn't understand the sudden behavior. He talked about weird sexual stuff and other scary off the wall things.

So at this point, the guy asked this spirit (supposedly his grandad) if he was really his grandfather to which the spirit replied NO ! At this point, everybody got a cold sweat and began to panic. Then hesitantly, the guy asked if he wasn't, then who was he ? At this point, the cup they were using as a pointer slowly moved to each letter on it's own and spelled S--A--T--A--N...

Right after that, the cup started to spin really fast and one by one knocked all the letters they had made from the table.

When they finished telling me this, I immediately stopped the session, turned all the gear off and got the hell out of the house. I don't frighten easily but I was so freaked out I wasn't sure what to do. I went from being really pissed off at this guys for doing this at my house to going to a diner to have a coffee and talk about it. We did that for 30 min. but it wasn't over for this guy...

I drove to my parents' place to spend the night since there was no way I was going back to the house that night.

Later on that morning one of the band members called me and told me that, later on that same night, he had heard footsteps right behind him as he approached his apt building at night. He would turn around and there was nobody there. He then got into his elevator to take him to the 10th floor and mid-way up, the elevator stopped and the lights went out for almost 30 seconds, which probably felt like an eternity. He struggled to sleep all night and while he was trying to fall asleep, he saw suspended in the air the shape of a bony head, with a pointed chin and pale white skin, (devil like appearance) slowly sink down from the end of his bed into the ground.

There were no more incidents after that...

This is an absolutely true story and it still frightens me after all this time. I still remember how I felt that night. Strangely enough, it has some connection with music so I decided to contribute to this thread. I hope I didn't freak anybody out.

Two things happened after this incident, I moved immediately out of the house and I never worked anymore with people that I didn't know well. To this day, this holds true.

I'm over it now but once in a while I worry when I have to piss in the middle of the night in the dark...

Oh and... I don't see that anything happened to you did it? Your fear and belief of this story comes from second hand sources? And you believe them? I am sure that you believe that they believe something happened but that does in no way mean that something did happen does it? Honestly think about it, you were not there they were you DON'T know what really happened.

If you took the time to read the link I sent you will see this...

Albert Ellis (the creator of REBT), a highly esteemed psychologist, has suggested that human beings 1) have a strong tendency to be irrational, and 2) have a strong tendency to ignore data contrary to their beliefs.

People WANT to believe in ghosts and even when presented with contradictory evidence they continue to believe and often attack anyone who questions their reasoning.

[big country]

I stoped using heavy drugs and all those noises stoped.

[u b k]

Originally Posted by not_so_new

Thinking like yours just makes me a little frustrated is all.

and yet, i said i thought it was a bug.

my thinking does not frustrate you, i don't have that kind of power. i submit that it is *your* thinking --- specifically, your thoughts about my thinking, your thoughts about america and its thinking --- that is frustrating you.

i believe we are all the creators of our own experience; not the events, not the circumstances, but our experience of them. frustration, like any other reactive mindset, comes from investment in a belief that argues with your story of reality.

your story of reality: america lacks critical thinking.

the belief you invest in that argues with your own reality: america should have more critical thinking.

result: frustration.

you saw in my post evidence that furthers your own story, despite the fact that i viewed the situation and came to the same conclusion as you. you saw in me exactly what you wanted to, what you expected to. you saw your story, and disregarded evidence to the contrary.

you have done exactly what you claim to resent in others, and i can see how that would be frustrating. for what it's worth, i do this too, we all do, we are all masters of faulting others for our own sins.

everyone, equally innocent.


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[warhead]

bgrotto, your stories freak me out.

War

[dreamsongs]

Originally Posted by not_so_new

Oh and... I don't see that anything happened to you did it? Your fear and belief of this story comes from second hand sources? And you believe them? I am sure that you believe that they believe something happened but that does in no way mean that something did happen does it? Honestly think about it, you were not there they were you DON'T know what really happened.

If you took the time to read the link I sent you will see this...

People WANT to believe in ghosts and even when presented with contradictory evidence they continue to believe and often attack anyone who questions their reasoning.

I don't want to "not believe it" because I was in the other room. I heard about it seconds later. I saw the look in their faces. These were regular guys but they did something stupid and irresponsible. I guess you would have to be there to know it was pretty real.

I've heard about the power of suggestion, I don't think this applies here. After they got freaked out, the cup started moving by itself. Maybe one of those guys was a great magician otherwise how do you explain it ?

It's different when it happens to you and you live it in the flesh. Funny thing is, before that, I never really believed in any of that crap.

[londontown]

most ghost sightings, including those mentioned above, occur late at night, or during the night. Curiously enough this is when (documented by quite a few good studies) hypnopompic hallucinations, sleep paralysis etc. take place, for obvious reasons. Often these are very real to the observer, but they're not real any more than the 8 1073s I'm imagining in my rack right now are real...

Occam's razor - an idea that's been around for centuries - says that given two equally valid explanations for an idea, the one with the least assumptions is the better explanation. With a ghost sighting there is two options - either it is a supernatural phenomenon or the person is being or is deluded or confused; since there is much evidence for people being mistaken (many millions of examples!)...and since there is no physical evidence at ALL for ghosts...then it's pretty clear which is the likely explanation....the one that makes the assumption that people can screw up and see things that aren't there, and not the one that assumes the supernatural is possible.

Also, when you admit that the supernatural exists, you're admitting there is no need for further investigation. Supernatural explanations for things are basically lazy explanations. That doesn't mean that there aren't things we can't explain, just that we should investigate them and not draw the line and say 'it's magic'....

[not_so_new]

Originally Posted by londontown

most ghost sightings, including those mentioned above, occur late at night, or during the night. Curiously enough this is when (documented by quite a few good studies) hypnopompic hallucinations, sleep paralysis etc. take place, for obvious reasons. Often these are very real to the observer, but they're not real any more than the 8 1073s I'm imagining in my rack right now are real...

Occam's razor - an idea that's been around for centuries - says that given two equally valid explanations for an idea, the one with the least assumptions is the better explanation. With a ghost sighting there is two options - either it is a supernatural phenomenon or the person is being or is deluded or confused; since there is much evidence for people being mistaken (many millions of examples!)...and since there is no physical evidence at ALL for ghosts...then it's pretty clear which is the likely explanation....the one that makes the assumption that people can screw up and see things that aren't there, and not the one that assumes the supernatural is possible.

Also, when you admit that the supernatural exists, you're admitting there is no need for further investigation. Supernatural explanations for things are basically lazy explanations. That doesn't mean that there aren't things we can't explain, just that we should investigate them and not draw the line and say 'it's magic'....

GREAT POST!! Occam's razor is a great exercise in critical thinking.

[dreamsongs]

I agree only partially with some of what's been said. Everybody wants to be "philosophical" about something that is sometimes "unexplainable".

Most people believe in God or any other supreme being but not the Devil. There's good and bad right ? A few hundreds years ago people laughed at the notion and the idea that the world was round...One guy sailed away in faith, proved everybody wrong, the rest is history.

What I mean is, sometimes you have to believe in the unseen...

[huck]

Originally Posted by dreamsongs

otherwise how do you explain it ?

i thought i just did.

[dreamsongs]

Originally Posted by huck

i thought i just did.

Not really...

I don't know if you read the whole story. One of the things I left out because of the length of the story is. To make sure the other 2 weren't moving the cup, the guy's grandfather would ask questions only "he" would know.

This spirit was answering all the questions only a true relative would know. Then, the cup moved by itself and spelled SATAN. Nobody was touching it then...

Sorry but Occam's Razor doesn't appy here...

[Jim vanBergen]

I'm curious as to why no one has asked:

What microphones, and what preamps?

Have you never found a combination of mic and pre that could "hum" or have a resonant frequency? To me, it's more likely that this is NOT some spirit (which I would not rule out totally or exclusively) but having heard a LOT of crazy-ased recordings from the forensic audio side of things, I think you should try and re-create the same channels of mics & preamps in a similar area. If the pres and mics were not warmed up, they could easily do this. Guess what, so could a power supply for a German (or other) microphone. A change in humidity could do the same thing. As could a mic capsule & preamp "settling down" as it starts to warm up to operating temperature, or if there is a tiny piece of dust in the perfectly right & delicate part of the diaphragm, or a miniscule drop of moisture.

There are a dozen, if not more, PHYSICAL possibilities that could create this audible response before we get into the phsychosomatic, before we get into ghosts. And yes, I believe in spirits, and that you can hear them. I just don't think this is one of those moments.

Jim

[londontown]

Originally Posted by dreamsongs

I agree only partially with some of what's been said. Everybody wants to be "philosophical" about something that is sometimes "unexplainable".

Most people believe in God or any other supreme being but not the Devil. There's good and bad right ? A few hundreds years ago people laughed at the notion and the idea that the world was round...One guy sailed away in faith, proved everybody wrong, the rest is history.

What I mean is, sometimes you have to believe in the unseen...

Nah - he sailed away because he believed the evidence pointed to the earth being round. And funnily enough - so did most people after about the 1st century AD. It's a complete and utter misconception that the norm was it to be flat and that people laughed at it. Amazing - but it's total bollocks, only a few nuts thought it was anything other than roughly spherical from about the 11th century AD. Pythagoras thought the earth was flat, and Ptolemy came up with latitude and longitude from curved globes in the 1st century AD. The only people who proposed much else were mostly christian philosphers and doing it mostly based on theological grounds.

The modern idea that they all thought it was flat (and that has gone into many a movie, book, or even school textbook) appeared in the 19th century thanks mostly to some gloriously made up stuff sailing how the sailors on columbus' boats thought they would sail off the edge of the earth. In fact - the sailors probably knew before anybody else because of the way masts of other ships disappear on the horizon...

Probably one of the greatest urban legends ever.

[dreamsongs]

I worked with those guys for some time after that story and until I moved out of state. We always remembered that incident and to this day, nobody said it was all a big joke.

Years later, they still believed it happened !

Too many witnesses and everybody had the same story for me to believe it was fake. Call me gullible but I believed every word of it...

[not_so_new]

Originally Posted by u b i k

and yet, i said i thought it was a bug.

In this instance right?

my thinking does not frustrate you, i don't have that kind of power. i submit that it is *your* thinking --- specifically, your thoughts about my thinking, your thoughts about america and its thinking --- that is frustrating you.

Your thoughts and your thinking is indicative of the overall lack of critical thinking in our society so if you wish to split hairs yes my thinking about what you are thinking is frustrating to me. The end result is STILL the same.

For instance the lack of critical thinking in our society is causing me frustration because it leads to the erosion of science in our class rooms and puts my country, that I am very proud of, behind 32 other nations in belief in evolution.. This scientific theory that is excepted by an overwhelming majority of scientists is understood by less people in America by % than Bulgaria and Lithuania. The folks from these fine countries do not experience the same amount of primary and secondary education yet they get a simple scientific principal and Americans don't? That is frustrating.

i believe we are all the creators of our own experience; not the events, not the circumstances, but our experience of them. frustration, like any other reactive mindset, comes from investment in a belief that argues with your story of reality.

What? We are not the creators of our experience, that is more mombojumbo. I experience a unicorn so that makes it real? No it does not, that makes me a fruitcake. We are very poor recording devices us humans, we get events wrong all the time but that does not mean the events that we get wrong all of a sudden actually did occur.

your story of reality: america lacks critical thinking.

the belief you invest in that argues with your own reality: america should have more critical thinking.

result: frustration.

Just like viewing a unicorn is not to believed without evidence (strong evidence mind you) saying that America lacks critical thinking abilities can be proven by evidence. Sure, that may also be my stance as well but just because it is my theory does not make it less true.

you saw in my post evidence that furthers your own story, despite the fact that i viewed the situation and came to the same conclusion as you. you saw in me exactly what you wanted to, what you expected to. you saw your story, and disregarded evidence to the contrary.

Nope, I saw you defending the fact that there are in fact supernatural events in the universe. I disagree with that and so does science.

you have done exactly what you claim to resent in others, and i can see how that would be frustrating. for what it's worth, i do this too, we all do, we are all masters of faulting others for our own sins.

How is that again? I am not finding anything in your words that you did not write am I? You said "i'm inclined to keep an extremely open mind when it comes to asserting any restrictions on this lovely universe." I take that to mean the universe could possible be full of supernatural events. I am just pointing out that this theory is refuted but all of our known scientific findings. That does not mean science might not find evidence of supernatural events but as we expand our understanding of the universe we are finding less and less places for the boggy men to hide.

[bcgood]

Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham (Guilhelmi Ockam and Guillermi de Ockam in Latin [1]). Originally a tenet of the reductionist philosophy of nominalism, it is more often taken today as a heuristic maxim that advises economy, parsimony, or simplicity in scientific theories.

Occam's razor states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating, or "shaving off," those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. In short, when given two equally valid explanations for a phenomenon, one should embrace the less complicated formulation. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae (law of succinctness):

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,

which translates to:

entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.

(That is, the fewer assumptions an explanation of a phenomenon depends on, the better it is.)

Furthermore, when multiple competing theories have equal predictive powers, the principle recommends selecting those that introduce the fewest assumptions and postulate the fewest hypothetical entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood

[not_so_new]

Originally Posted by dreamsongs

I worked with those guys for some time after that story and until I moved out of state. We always remembered that incident and to this day, nobody said it was all a big joke.

Years later, they still believed it happened !

Too many witnesses and everybody had the same story for me to believe it was fake. Call me gullible but I believed every word of it...

I read your story, did you read the link I sent?

Lets try it this way. We are VERY poor recording devices us humans. There was a story a few years back of a research experiment. I don't remember where it was published so I can't give you a link sorry.

The experiment was this. They rounded up 100 or so people that went to Disney World 20 or so years ago.

They asked all of them a few simple questions and one of these questions was "do you remember taking the photo along side of Micky and Daffy Duck?" If I remember correctly none of the people interviewed remembered talking the photo.

They rounded up these same people 5 years later and asked them if they remembered talking a photo with Micky and Daffy Duck. An overwhelming majority of the participants remembered taking the photo.

The point is that Daffy Duck is a Looney Tunes character that would not have been at Disney World. The "suggestion" that they took a photo with Micky and Daffy was enough to get their minds to recall an event that never took place.

Again the human mind is a very bad recording device and it can be tricked into believing many things that did not actually take place. I have no doubt at all that you believe these events took place but even believing that you expereinced them does not mean they actually took place. Sorry.

[not_so_new]

Originally Posted by bcgood

Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham (Guilhelmi Ockam and Guillermi de Ockam in Latin [1]). Originally a tenet of the reductionist philosophy of nominalism, it is more often taken today as a heuristic maxim that advises economy, parsimony, or simplicity in scientific theories.

Occam's razor states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating, or "shaving off," those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. In short, when given two equally valid explanations for a phenomenon, one should embrace the less complicated formulation. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae (law of succinctness):

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem,

which translates to:

entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.

(That is, the fewer assumptions an explanation of a phenomenon depends on, the better it is.)

Furthermore, when multiple competing theories have equal predictive powers, the principle recommends selecting those that introduce the fewest assumptions and postulate the fewest hypothetical entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood

Yep... good definition.

To put this in practical terms here is a working model of Occam's Razor.

We witness an event, for example a large explosion on the horizon. It is too far away for us to research locally. We search for a causation because we are interested in the event.

Two scientists put up theories about the event. Scientist one says that the explosion was a volcano in a distant land. Scientist two says that the explosion was a large extraterrestrial space craft crashing into the Earth.

Without the ability to visit the site it would be assumed that both theories are valid but Occam's Razor looks at this differently.

That volcanoes have been witnessed before, even if you don't know how a volcano works there is evidence of their existence. The theory of a UFO crash has a problem that no evidence of their existence has ever been presented. Also this theory has a greater complication in that an alien race would have had to make a vehicle that could travel interstellar space safely.

There is no proof of either theory but the UFO theory is much more complicated so it is less likely to be valid.

Is it a bug or an electrical malfunction of the recording gear or is it a ghost? Occam's Razor would say it is the former before the latter. That is critical thinking.

[bcgood]

Originally Posted by not_so_new

Yep... good definition.

To put this in practical terms here is a working model of Occam's Razor.

We witness an event, for example a large explosion on the horizon. It is too far away for us to research locally. We search for a causation because we are interested in the event.

Two scientists put up theories about the event. Scientist one says that the explosion was a volcano in a distant land. Scientist two says that the explosion was a large extraterrestrial space craft crashing into the Earth.

Without the ability to visit the site it would be assumed that both theories are valid but Occam's Razor looks at this differently.

That volcanoes have been witnessed before, even if you don't know how a volcano works there is evidence of their existence. The theory of a UFO crash has a problem that no evidence of their existence has ever been presented. Also this theory has a greater complication in that an alien race would have had to make a vehicle that could travel interstellar space safely.

There is no proof of either theory but the UFO theory is much more complicated so it is less likely to be valid.

Is it a bug or an electrical malfunction of the recording gear or is it a ghost? Occam's Razor would say it is the former before the latter. That is critical thinking.

Don't you see the irony of this? Your beloved theory was conceived by a Franciscan Monk, someone who believes in the supernatural. Even Alanis Morissette could see the irony in that : ) It’s funny how science has become a fervent religion for some folks, well at least Vulcans. : ) I love science but there are very few things that we actually have full fledged, bullet proof laws for, the universe is vast and our knowledge is quite infinitesimal.

Don’t stop wondering, dream of the marvelous! And don’t be scared of what you don’t understand, keep searching; truth and fiction often intermingle which creates confusion, discernment is key…

bcgood

[3rdeyeKnight]

It definitely sounds like some kind of mosquito or fly. There's an up and down, vibrating sound. The same sound I get when a fly or mosquito flies very close to my ear (I go to whack it, only to slap the shit out of myself everytime ) and then flies off. The humming-bird effect you know? Just out of curiosity, were microphones #11, 12 and 13 close to each other? If so, how close? That would give you some insight on the bug's flight pattern and why the signal was stronger on one mic and not the other. If I were you, I wouldnt allow my mind to stray too far from the fly/mosquito theory. I did thoroughly enjoy the other stories on here though. Peace.