Do you believe in ghosts/souls?

  • Yes

    Votes: 15 45.5%
  • No

    Votes: 18 54.5%

  • Total voters
    33
6

6o66yx

Student
Sep 29, 2023
119
I was wondering if souls or ghosts really exist. If you believe that these things exist, could you elaborate?

I want to understand what I'm dealing with if I have to deal with an possible afterlife.
 
sugarb

sugarb

thief of silent dreams
Jun 14, 2024
798
I was wondering if souls or ghosts really exist. If you believe that these things exist, could you elaborate?

I want to understand what I'm dealing with if I have to deal with an possible afterlife.
Due to the afterlife being beyond the perception of the living, it's completely unpredictable and anything could be true, so there's no way for you to truly understand what you're dealing with.

That said, I believe in some kind of afterlife for my soul. I don't really believe in ghosts.

I'm not sure if other people have souls, but for me the soul is like a stone floating in the hollow paper bag that is my body.

To explain that further: day-to-day, it feels like I exist on three levels.

1. Body

Experiences tactile sensation. Material. Goes off of input from the inner brain and some from the outer brain.

2. Outer mind

Material, grounded. Part of me that feels emotion, distress, cares about things, suffers, experiences and craves pleasure, enjoys material reality, etc. The animal consciousness. Makes jokes, talks to others, etc. The outward, presented personality.

3. Inner mind / Soul

Does not care about or feel pretty much anything. No matter what happens to the outer mind, usually remains mostly unaffected. I believe it to be the real me.


So like- right now, my body is just moving automatically based on input from the outer mind while the inner mind / soul just sits in the back not doing anything or caring much.


The outer mind wants to CTB for material reasons. The inner mind wants to CTB in part to be free of the outer. Destruction of the body will destroy the outer mind but leave the inner unaffected.

That's how it feels, anyway. Might just be disassociation but it feels real šŸ¤·

Additionally, I have a very strong and completely unfounded belief that upon death I (the soul) will go somewhere else. I believe it'll be pleasant.
 
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3/4Dead

3/4Dead

Peace, Love, Empathy
Feb 27, 2024
411
Philosophy major here to give very philisophy major answer
In my opnion, the soul is a concept meant to describe consciousness, to describe feelings and thoughts, but not so much actually anything physical. To not believe in the soul is almost to not believe in the mind, as it, again in my opnion, does not need to be theistic. The definition is so broad, it is so different for all that is hard to nail down one meaning.

Some think souls persists beyond life, maybe in energies, maybe just by their atoms, maybe just in concept and not in reality.
 
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N33dT0D13

N33dT0D13

Xe/It
Apr 2, 2023
365
Me and another relative saw the same "entity" which seemed like a ghost, other weird shit happened in that apartment so at the moment at least, yes, I believe in ghosts/souls. I'm not fully sure how I'd define them though.
 
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6

6o66yx

Student
Sep 29, 2023
119
Me and another relative saw the same "entity" which seemed like a ghost, other weird shit happened in that apartment so at the moment at least, yes, I believe in ghosts/souls. I'm not fully sure how I'd define them though.
Were you 2 sober?
 
Trismegistus_13

Trismegistus_13

Your best is all you can give
Jun 17, 2024
62
I don't believe in the eternal soul. Medically, they have no purpose. A human would be able to function perfectly well with just a brain and no soul like how every living being can. There's nothing special about humans except that our brains are more advanced than other animals'.
 
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pthnrdnojvsc

pthnrdnojvsc

Extreme Pain is much worse than people know
Aug 12, 2019
2,618
A soul is a fictional concept.

I'll never believe in any ghosts, spirits, afterlife reincarnation nothing ever

A human is just a brain , and cells.

A brain has 86 billion neurons, 150 trillion connections between neurons


 
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N

nobob

Member
Aug 9, 2024
26
It's just information, like the information on your computer, i think. Thinking is heuristical, that is, it is just approximations to more raw human emotions and the mapping to behaviour, heuristics that are more efficient for the brain to compute in order for hormones to give the brain a reward, our conscious very much lives within this layer of information states and heuristics, that we sometimes call logic, yet it is not perfectly logical and often contradictionary. Living on antipsychotics I have no sense of reward, I just live in my own thoughts, it's a slowly diminishing habit of thought, a pattern of behavior, until I become dull and careless about everything, even my own fate. Eating and sleeping is what is left. Schizophrenia has got the hold of me. That is my soul, slowly dying, from this moment. Information being washed out.
 
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GuessWhosBack

GuessWhosBack

The sun rises to insult me.
Jul 15, 2024
466
There's several definitions (none of which are very concrete or even well put together) for what a soul is, but from what I've gathered from people (I'm personally not religious, not spirtiual, not theistic nor atheistic) I would generally describe it as some metaphysical structure that persists our lifespan that 'somehow' is linked to us. What that 'thing' is will vary according to people's opinions.

I want to understand what I'm dealing with if I have to deal with an possible afterlife.
To be frank and to the point, anyone who claims knowledge, with certainty, about what happens (to you) after you die, is bullshitting you and themselves.
 
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Steff1337

Steff1337

Autistic and schizophrenic, please be respectful
Jun 21, 2024
659
All I know as a religious person is that the soul is what differentiates us from other animals...
 
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Dr Iron Arc

Dr Iron Arc

Into the Unknown
Feb 10, 2020
20,969
It's the gut micro biome.
 
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Epikur

Epikur

Member
Oct 6, 2023
63
I think that there is no such thing as a soul. At keast not as an independent entity that is separated from the body. Some philosophers and neuroscientists describe it as a self-referencing process (with the emphasis on process!) also called autopoieisis. Most important of all, it is hard-wired to neuronal structures, again meaning that it canĀ“t survive after brain death. Buddhism teaches us that the concept of "I" or "me" is a delusion. Monks with tenthousand hours of meditation experience sya that the "I" dissolves into nothingness if you let loose all your mental concepts (that are the result of episodic events as well as learning processes). At the end, it doesnĀ“t matter at all. The state of death cannot be felt by any subject, because the process that we call soul ends with the death of the brain 3 to 5min after cardiac arrest.
 
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untothedepths

untothedepths

ego death, then death
Mar 20, 2023
583
soul is how i see, being a conciseness trapped into servitude for millions of cells who got together and decided to be a multicellular creature. to these cells, all that matters is your survival. but to you, it matters how happy your experience is. to me, a soul either happily exists in its slavery of their bacterial lords or are forced to experience every ounce of pain and misery. there is no getting out of this until death. do i believe the cells that make up your body have a conciseness too? of course not, but thats the best way to describe how fucking horrific it all can be and is. the soul is probably just an illusion, some bullshit the brain conjured up so we have some bullshit excuse to keep living. so in essence, none of us are real. we are just sparks of energy rippling through ultimately stupid, indifferent cellular microbes.

in other words, ignorance is truly bliss.
 
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revontulet

revontulet

Member
Aug 4, 2024
33
I believe that all animals, including humans have a soul.
 
DarkRange55

DarkRange55

Enlightened
Oct 15, 2023
1,785
I think people have "aura" I guess which are distinct but I think that aura is just people seeing a manifestation of your subconscious whether it's in a corporal language that is so strong that it exudes a distinct emotion and personality or other less scientific and more kind of mystical thing. But overall I still think this so called aura or soul or whatever is called is either in the brain of an individual (as in being is subconscious) or being the result of a connection between brains of two different people but that might imply the "soul" of a person would vary depending on who's perceiving it and there constantly changing and evolving. It would be messy and complicated but things are complex so why not.

I believe in the soul as in the expression of mind, not brain but mind. Actually now that I think back on it. I believe in the subconscious so it might be similar to the idea of a soul. Soul seems more mystical when subconscious is more theoretical but it actually might be concept that are pretty close. I don't know what's your concept of soul, it's pretty vague and anyone has a different interpretation so it really depends how you define soul. I define it as the "essence of someone" and in that case I would say, I'm not into it. Because to me the essence of someone would consist of everything conscious and the subconscious. The subconscious would kinda be the equivalent to the soul but I don't think that's the essence of someone just the hidden/undeveloped part.

And for soulmates. I really don't think so. I think it's people clicking more with certain people because their life experiences made them a certain way that echoes more with yours. I'd even go as far as to say that every single person is a complex and interesting being and while there's some that you know you might clash with if you truly really learn to know someone you ultimately end up getting attached and they just grow on you. You just even learn to shrug at horrible flaws they could have. You kinda find things in common with everyone no one is really that one dimensional (except people who do it on purpose but then again if you dig deeper they're probably dope too). There's attraction to take into account to and that would take me back to the sort of aura thing where I think attraction is liking the feedback you get from someone whether it's physically and in that case well it's pretty simple. It's literally what you see (maybe not entirely there's also confidence and charm in attractiveness) Or personality wise, emotional wise, intellectually wise and in that case I think it's just your subconscious liking something they think they perceive in the other, from their "aura" (what exudes their bodies) or from conversation.

And as for souls that stays after death I think that's kinda true but again I feel like it's a connection between individual more than a specific entity. I think after someone dies they still live and remain through people's memory and perception of them and I'm not opposed to the idea that what stays becomes a sort of ethereal invisible presence but I do not believe this.
A soul is not something that you possess, it is something that you emit. When you die, you stop emitting more soul, but the soul that you have already emitted still bounces around. An example of soul would be my mentor's father, and all the people he touched in his life that are still influenced by the way he lived, and that will in turn influence others.

Afterlife: my general thought is that there isn't one. I wish that there was. But I don't think there is some solar repository you go to when you die.

Ghosts:

Interestingly all of the world's major religions agree on the existence of ghosts, they're mentioned numerous times across various religious texts. The disciples for example famously fear Jesus when they encounter him walking towards them on water in the middle of a storm, asking if he's a ghost. Whether you believe the events of the bible happened or not, what is clear is that the authors themselves believed in ghosts, and in fact a belief in ghosts is found throughout every major culture, dating back to the dawn of history itself.

The nonmaterial embodiment, or essence or organism that's seen as a specter, wraith or apparition has been scientifically proven to be a sheer myth. In other words, there's no such thing as a ghost. Watch Myth Busters, watch Penn & Teller: Bullshit, subscribe to Skeptic Magazine and Skeptical Inquirer and read any scientific book and watch that so-called "evidence" for ghosts just disappear.
When people talk about "scientific proof of ghosts" they usually site the first law of thermodynamics: matter cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms. So the total amount of energy and matter in the universe always remains constant. So when we die is it possible that our energy manifests as ghosts? Well not if we're gonna stay consistent. Energy is transferred into the environment meaning that human energy transfers like all other organisms energy into other life forms and plants that absorb it.
Ghost hunters monitor the temperature of the room because it gets cold in a ghost's presence. And yet if ghosts were indeed a type of energy it would be impossible for them to cool the room down. Only if ghosts were made of matter could they then absorb the heat from the room and cool it down. But if ghosts were made of matter then they would be physically observable.
Today modern science has given us many explanations for phenomenon we traditionally considered to be ghosts. Dancing lights which humans believed for millennia where spirits or playful sprites have been shown to be a rare phenomenon known as ball lightning.

From my background in mathematical physics I'll say this (AGAIN): I don't know on ghosts, although some things called ghosts are persistent energy patterns (a bit like whirlpools in reality). What we call reality is based on seemingly-random events. However systems with seemingly-random events can have larger non-random patterns. For example, water molecules bounce around seemingly randomly off each other in a large body of water, yet the ocean can have currents and waves that are far from random and these patterns can persist. The best non-dismissive explanation for ghosts that I know is that they are persistent patterns in reality, similar to a whirlpool and a stream that periodically forms in the same place. These examples are a subset of persistent patterns in reality. Any sort (of energy) that can interact with the human. For example, an oddly-shaped tree can suggest things that repel or attract particular types of people, or a room can reflect sound in a peculiar way, or have strange drafts... I think that what we mean by "ghosts" are mostly psychological, but that can be triggered by some real phenomenon. We don't necessarily refer to the energy itself as a ghost. Any sort of energy that can be perceived (patterns of shade, the outline of a big tree, clouds, wind and other air currents, probably magnetic fields, sounds, etc.) can trigger the human brain to come up with explanations for that which is perceived, and a ghost is one of the way that people explain what they perceive.
Mostly psychological.
Stone tape theory is not right, but people behaving differently does influence their environment, which can influence other (including future) people, so it is not total garbage.


I think there is a logical explanation for ghosts. I think it's something that we don't understand yet. I have ideas. The problem is real serious scientists don't seem to want to investigate which is a shame because I think it could be interesting. Some things that I've come up with is that oftentimes places where people see ghosts have high electronic readings and stuff like that.
High levels of EM Radiation is also associated with paranormal activity. Living near a substation, or high voltage power lines. It's possible that there's magnetic fields in the earth that we don't understand and that maybe they mess with our heads and we see things. And if you're on a battlefield maybe you see soldiers because you expect to see soldiers. But I don't know thats my guess.
Personally I don't believe that ghosts are dead people floating around. I've seen something that people consider a "paranormal activity" at Gettysburg, I saw the floating orbs over the battlefield. These things I'm quite certain that they're not human souls wandering around because that would require us to have souls and I don't see any proof of that. The human consciousness cannot exist without the body. You are inexorably linked to your brain and vice versa. So unless we could prove that somehow human beings could exist outside of the body or at least consciousness then we could get onto the issue of ghosts as actual beings. I think it's more likely that ghosts are the result of some sort of magnetic wave or something that we do not understand yet that emanates from the earth or the sun or the moon or whatever and that messes with our brain in a way that we don't understand yet.

I know some people who have told some pretty... entertaining, I'm not sure how convincing, ghost stories of their own experiences. So a part of me really, really wants to believe in them. But the fact of the matter is, I don't. Its kind of a nice thought to think that there is an afterlife and a spirit world but I have never experienced any ghosts. Yet. So whats the final word on my belief, well, I certainly, certainly think that there are things in this world that we cannot fully understand or do not yet fully understand. All sorts of strange things happen all the time to all sorts of different people. I mean people I personally know have had these weird things happen. Is this proof of ghosts? No. Is it evidence? Maybe, I think that ghosts are possibility.

I'm sure there's people with better explanations than me but the way that I look at it is that anything that's natural is governed by laws. Physics is governed by laws, the way that your body works, different chemicals interact within it is governed by laws. Everything in nature is governed by laws even these weird things about physics like uncaused appearance of particles, ect. anything that happens in physics either has been explained by law or can and will be explained by a law. The supernatural obviously is the exact opposite in this situation. The supernatural does not have the same laws apply to it as everything else in our world. And if anything "supernatural" exists it wouldn't really matter because we couldn't apply the scientific method to it because being supernatural it wouldn't be governed by the same laws that we have to know in order to know how things work in order to apply the scientific method. So we wouldn't even be able to I don't know "research" ghosts or whatever in the same way that we could understand how a star works or something like that. There's no reason for there to be a supernatural, there's no reason to believe that. There's no reason that you should feel close-minded about this. That's like, most of us 99.9% of us can agree that there is not a secret society of fairies that live under the ground. If you're not willing to accept that possibility that doesn't make you close-minded, that makes you rational. There's no reason to throw out everything you know about how the world works to indulge whimsical ideas about ghosts and goblins and whatnot. It's amazing all the things people used to think were supernatural that can be explained by natural reasons. Possessions for example, most of these turned out to be seizures. People being tormented by demons or whatever is symptoms of things like schizophrenia. So considering how much we've already been able to explain away I think it's foolish to assume that something like ghosts doesn't have a naturalistic explanation.

Calling SS!
@Pluto
@SmallKoy
@Blurry_Buildings
@Darkover
@Forever Sleep
@noname223

Everyone else!
 
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sos

sos

Experienced
Jul 22, 2024
277
holy shit did i just read the bible or what






anyway ontopic: idk im like a quarter ginger
 
DarkRange55

DarkRange55

Enlightened
Oct 15, 2023
1,785
Me and another relative saw the same "entity" which seemed like a ghost, other weird shit happened in that apartment so at the moment at least, yes, I believe in ghosts/souls. I'm not fully sure how I'd define them though.
that sounds intense, what happened?
 
N33dT0D13

N33dT0D13

Xe/It
Apr 2, 2023
365
that sounds intense, what happened?
Me and her were lying on the couch, it was late, I saw a black smoky looking figure floating in the doorway, I turned to her and she looked horrified, she asked if I saw it, I said yeah, we started at it for a while before it was just gone, we were shook...

Besides that, whatever ghost was there hated my mom lmao, a CD almost sliced her neck (a horror movie we begged her to let us watch and she tried to break it afterwards), a decorative mask hung on the wall fell and almost hit her head, a glass randomly exploded in her hand... I hate her too and no one else seemed to be targeted so me and that ghost are cool lol
 
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SoulWhisperer

SoulWhisperer

Careless Soul Ā« MtF Ā»
Nov 13, 2023
347
Regardless of what I believe in I always saw myself as a brain controlling a body. It's hard to define what we exactly are when there's several point of views. Another thing I think about often is a soul inside of me like the pure essence of my predispositions.
 
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