h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wulfric - you should do an extensive google on this. It's an interesting topic...and there are more than a few people out there that would be willing to investigate it all properly. I would advise against any kind of medium/psychic though...most of them aren't genuine.

I'm a little concerned that your psychic friend has 'found' an early medieval ghost - of all the possible eras - in the home of someone who has professed an interest in the early medieval history or their area - what a coincidence! Wulfric, you may not think that you've given any sign of this interest, but psychic types are ingenious at picking up clues from home and conversation (read Dorothy L Sayers 'Strong Poison' for a fun demonstration of this.)

Without sounding like a bag of wind (more thanusual that is) as a medieval historian I'm stil concerned that your oxherd identified the eras by the name of the monarch (a) because he happened to choose the only early med monarch many people have heard of and (b) because a lot of the evidence of life at the time implies that the common people would *not* know the name of their king - too far up the scale.

i'd try your psychic friend on a few questions that would be easy and unremarkable to people of the time, but harder to do - deliberately or subconsciously - for someone in the 21st century:

Who is your lord?
Can you tell me about three locals saints?
What's the best way to catch and cook a rabbit?
What do you eat in winter?
What coins do you use?

etc...

I have ghosts in myhouse. 3 adults and a small group of children. My house is 137 yrs. old (new in English standards but old in Canadian years.) My daughter sees and hears them often and my husband has as well. They appear to be playful and friendly but at times become annoying to my daughter. We've asked them to leave but to no avail. So I guess we're stuck with them. We are only the 5th family to live in this home so one would assume that these ghosts once lived here. I have a record of who owned the house and land prior to us but khaven't been able to get any information on the particulars about them.

Cloviscat

I think my or rather my fiancés psychic friend probably is geniune as she doesn't use this ability professionally and has always, apparently, been somewhat embarrassed about it. Plus there's no profit at all to be gained from this.

But it would be nice to be able to get more detailed information about the times. I agree that it sounds a just a little convenient that two Saxon ghosts would haunt the home of someone with an interest in that period.

I remain a little sceptic about our ghostly visitors, but not necessarily about the possibility of ghosts - some of the sightings and occurances are genuine, I'm sure.



Saturnine,

I had a look and found a site called Ghost Study (I think) with hundreds of photos of apparent ghosts, although with digital manipulation these days I can't be sure how genuine they are.

Hmmm this is an interesting point.

I was hypnotherapically regressed to a "past life" - I use the quote marks to show that I have a healthy dollop of scepticism in my view of it. I was apparently a monk in medieval times.

Now I have always had an interest in medieval monastic life - so I am left wondering am I interested because of a past life or was my past life generated from the stock of information and images I have gathered through my interest?

Wulfric - I didn't (necessarily) mean to catch aspersions on the person in question. I think it's qquite possible that a well-meaning person is giving you info based on things they have taken in *subconsciously* - I hoped my questions might clear that up!

Bornonthe20th, since you have no *proof* of what you so firmly believe, why should any good "sceptic" take your word over anyone elses.

Never seen a ghost, met plenty of people who claim to have seen one. None of them particularly excited or frightened by their experiences. Ghosts, if they exist, are pretty mundane things.

Oh, and without copying Bornon...'s bluster, I would be very sceptical about any "ghosts" that manifest themselves as "banging" or "thumping". On story I heard regarding a "tapping" "ghost" was investigated by Ghost Hunters and turned out to be a clock sitting on a shelf or something. It's clockwork was being amplified by the wood.

And I wouldn't pay much attention to "psychics".

My neighbour is a retired, rational minded man. He has a glass door seperating his living room and kitchen, and on some dark nights when the lights are dimmed, he can see an indistinct shape moving around in his kitchen from his living room sofa. Apparently it is the previous occupant who died about 20 years ago. He says she is harmless, and he smells freshly baked bread in his kitchen on the odd 'hauntings'.

Uh huh. Obviously not car lights casting shadows then?

Chronic, does this "shape take the "form" of something that appears to be "there" or is it like a shadow. Is there a light source that could be causing it?

Does anything else bring on the "smell"? The part of the brain that deals with smell also deals with memory. Music, I think, is also closely related. This is why smells and music "take you back" to a time and place. If something else manifests itself (eg just music) then I have heard cases (one on this site) of this being "accompanied" by a "phantom smell" that relates to the music.

bornon- I didn't realize you were such a sceptic. Abbi- I've been told I was once a Philosopher, a Can-Can dancer and a Highwayman! I said to the psychic "what, I robbed people!!!!?" She replied " you did it for the adventure" To my relief, that is truely believable. I'm a great believer of re-incarnation and know that my soul has been around for several thousand years. I believe that of my children as well. One simply has to look into their eyes and see that they are old souls. In fact, the eyes are the windows of the soul. All of you sceptics out there- Look intensly into the eyes of someone who is close to you (strangers might think your crazy) and think about what you see. Bornon- Istill owe you the wire. I misplaced your e-mailand found it again yesterday!

"bornon- I didn't realize you were such a sceptic."

He's not a sceptic, he's a non-believer. A sceptic is willing to believe if shown *evidence*. A non-believer does not believe and discounts all evidence.

"Abbi- I've been told I was once a Philosopher, a Can-Can dancer and a Highwayman!"

Sorry to rain on parades, but isn't it a bit odd that past-life psychics never say "you were a child-murderer" or "you were a brutal tribal chief who had a whole village put to death"

Actually, I have been told something like that. That I was a female warrior that was raped, and took revenge by massacring a whole tribe and razing all their settlements to the ground. Wasn't exactly 'traditional' past life regression stuff mind you.

Not to cast aspersions on anyone here, but it always amuses me the sheer amount of people who were Cleopatra or Elizabeth Bathory or William Wallace in a past life - Imagine those poor people trying to get through life with that many souls in their bodies

Seriously though, I don't know believe in this kind of thing, but I don't believe either really. I just kinda accept what comes and sometimes question it. I'm too lazy to bother otherwise.

Not merely a facile change of subject, but also a deep philosophical question... Are "Ghosts" objectively observable apparitions of previously living entities, or mental projections from a collective subconcious...?

I think I must be a sceptic, verging on being taken over by my own imagination...

I think sometimes things are seen or felt and there is not an easy way to describe it.There has to be a "interpetation" . To be believed, maybe some of the details that are wanted are then heard. I believe there are spirits on differnt levels here. I have not been convinced of "hauntings" happening, just IMO. I do believe in the existence of different living spiritual beings , NOT quite the *living neurotypical beings* we are assumed to be. To me....these things are not outrageous beliefs.

Wow- Zagreb I didn`t know that we knew each other so well. Or were you descibing yourself: as a non-believer- from below the parapet, of course!
Has anyone here heard of James Randi? Thats a name that makes all so-called `psychics` tremble with the fear of imminent unmasking as the charletans and fakes that they so obviously are. Some of course are just deluded.

Have a look for yourselves at http://www.randi.org/
This is just a tid-bit:
"At JREF, we offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. "

"To date, no one has ever passed the preliminary tests."