Have you ever used a Ouija board?

[SALTIRE]

One thing that always amuses me watching one of the tv 'investigations' is why they run them in the dark. I know in their case its to add to the creepyness of the show and perhaps the 'investigators' really believe it helps. However they say that spirits need energy, so why not run the show with the lights on - after all photons in light carry energy (E = hf and all that) so surely you are giving them a hand to produce activity having lights on in a real investigation?

 

[Red]

Those programmes are just theatre.

 

[Pliny Harris]

I don't believe in the paranormal but love a good story. I don't think I'm easily led enough to use a Ouija board and make it work in that way. The idea of visiting a haunted house or wherever else appeals to me though, just to test these things out personally. Give me a sample of this ghostie stuff that winds people up so much when you deny it's real.

I've said I'm keen to experience sleep paralysis for myself in the past too, but mates who've had it tell me it's a stupid thing to ask for. As an excitable 16-year-old I tried inducing an OOBE on myself too by following some common procedures. Just a few minutes after dozing off I was mentally awoken by feeling vibrations all over my body. I then got my "astral body" to sit up and freaked out at the sensation and stopped. Weird, but it happened. It's a trick of the mind but certainly one of the most fascinating ones out there. The experience is so emotionally loaded and hallucinogenic that I'd encourage it, though if you're convinced that you're meeting friends out there and having relevant life experiences then get a grip. My motivation was from a band who composed based on music they encountered during astral projections and lucid dreaming, still some of the best music I've heard. It's all personal and mystic though, it ain't no reality to get hung up on.

I have to say though, if I get shown one more picture of "orbs" I may implode, I can't remember how many times I've had to tell people it's just dust, insects or something else.

These are hilarious. Showed my sister a photo I'd taken of an old ruined farm and she confirmed to me it was haunted because there were "orbs" dancing around it. I told her those were raindrops on the lens as it was raining at the time but she replied, "Nope, that's haunted". Embarrassing.

 

[SALTIRE]

Those programmes are just theatre.

Indeed, but I do believe real investigations take place in the dark as well, perhaps Minster can fill us in on this - and whether or not it makes a difference to potential activity?

 

[TheMinsterman]

One thing that always amuses me watching one of the tv 'investigations' is why they run them in the dark. I know in their case its to add to the creepyness of the show and perhaps the 'investigators' really believe it helps. However they say that spirits need energy, so why not run the show with the lights on - after all photons in light carry energy (E = hf and all that) so surely you are giving them a hand to produce activity having lights on in a real investigation?

Yes, most investigations primarily take place at night. Certainly there is an element of "atmosphere" to it, certainly for TV shows but there's a few other reasons they take place at night. Firstly, most of the locations we use are open to the public during the day, you simply can't set up experiments with visitors all over the place and it'd cost a fortune to get a museum etc to shut down for the day to compensate that lost revenue. Secondly, a key element to investigations is, depending on what your doing, relative silence, during the day you've got to account far more for that so holding it at night when in theory nobody should be causing noises outside just reduce contamination. Thirdly, sometimes it necessary for experiments to conduct them in the dark, especially when you're testing people's responses to thing like surroundings, people in a room with dungeon visuals will feel nervous, take them in there when they can't see them they feel less so etc. Also, as many phenomenon are reported at night, you do your best to recreate the circumstances to control it as best you can. Fourthly, very few people make aliving doing it so they're only free later in the day.

Those are the main ones, it actually doesn't make much of a difference in the terms of number of reports, we have had visitors to the museum I work in report stuff in the day, it's more common than people think, you can certainly conduct a investigation in day light, the more spiritual investigators will probably give you some hogwash about energy higher at night, they prefer to come out then etc but it is hogwash for sure. Night or day doesn't make a huge difference to the number of things you can record, it's usually just those factors above and, for events where you want to sell tickets, the fact guests are free then and they want that spooky atmosphere. On a private investigation you can start in daylight.

 

[SALTIRE]

Yes, most investigations primarily take place at night. Certainly there is an element of "atmosphere" to it, certainly for TV shows but there's a few other reasons they take place at night. Firstly, most of the locations we use are open to the public during the day, you simply can't set up experiments with visitors all over the place and it'd cost a fortune to get a museum etc to shut down for the day to compensate that lost revenue. Secondly, a key element to investigations is, depending on what your doing, relative silence, during the day you've got to account far more for that so holding it at night when in theory nobody should be causing noises outside just reduce contamination. Thirdly, sometimes it necessary for experiments to conduct them in the dark, especially when you're testing people's responses to thing like surroundings, people in a room with dungeon visuals will feel nervous, take them in there when they can't see them they feel less so etc. Also, as many phenomenon are reported at night, you do your best to recreate the circumstances to control it as best you can. Fourthly, very few people make aliving doing it so they're only free later in the day.

Those are the main ones, it actually doesn't make much of a difference in the terms of number of reports, we have had visitors to the museum I work in report stuff in the day, it's more common than people think, you can certainly conduct a investigation in day light, the more spiritual investigators will probably give you some hogwash about energy higher at night, they prefer to come out then etc but it is hogwash for sure. Night or day doesn't make a huge difference to the number of things you can record, it's usually just those factors above and, for events where you want to sell tickets, the fact guests are free then and they want that spooky atmosphere. On a private investigation you can start in daylight.

Ah cheers for that, sound reasoning, for control purposes it makes sense to run an investigation when its quiet as to try and limit extraneous noises and influences; and I understand about the logistics of it, that it can be difficult getting an investigation running during the day.

 

[Red]

I don't believe in the paranormal but love a good story. I don't think I'm easily led enough to use a Ouija board and make it work in that way. The idea of visiting a haunted house or wherever else appeals to me though, just to test these things out personally. Give me a sample of this ghostie stuff that winds people up so much when you deny it's real.

I've said I'm keen to experience sleep paralysis for myself in the past too, but mates who've had it tell me it's a stupid thing to ask for. As an excitable 16-year-old I tried inducing an OOBE on myself too by following some common procedures. Just a few minutes after dozing off I was mentally awoken by feeling vibrations all over my body. I then got my "astral body" to sit up and freaked out at the sensation and stopped. Weird, but it happened. It's a trick of the mind but certainly one of the most fascinating ones out there. The experience is so emotionally loaded and hallucinogenic that I'd encourage it, though if you're convinced that you're meeting friends out there and having relevant life experiences then get a grip. My motivation was from a band who composed based on music they encountered during astral projections and lucid dreaming, still some of the best music I've heard. It's all personal and mystic though, it ain't no reality to get hung up on.



These are hilarious. Showed my sister a photo I'd taken of an old ruined farm and she confirmed to me it was haunted because there were "orbs" dancing around it. I told her those were raindrops on the lens as it was raining at the time but she replied, "Nope, that's haunted". Embarrassing.

How people experience sleep paralysis is quite diverse. I've never had any visual hallucinations which obviously can be terrifying as they're nearly always hostile entities that are seen. Some people see an entity kneeling on their chest trying to strangle them. Others sense a malicious presence in the peripheral vision but because they're paralysed they can't move their head to see it.

On the several occasions when it's happened to me I've never had visual hallucinations, but as I mentioned before I've had the auditory ones sometimes. I've never found sp to be a pleasant experience, I don't think anyone does due to the primeval fear of being totally paralysed. However, I have over the years become less frightened by it.

Not a great deal is known about the condition but it's thought that when we go to sleep the brain secretes a chemical that paralyses the muscles so we can't injure ourselves when dreaming. The problem occurs when we wake up before the chemical has worn off.

Does anyone here have lucid dreams? If so do you know any techniques to take control of them? Some of my dreams are fucking weird, yet I observe them uncritically.

 

[Magic]

I've only had sleep paralysis once but no hallucinations. I just remember waking up and I'm fairly sure I could still hear things from my dream but knew I was awake. I wanted to lean over to my left but literally couldn't. It was like a computer screen freezing and then it would just click back and I could move again. Can see how it could be scary but thankfully for me it was just a strange sensation for a few seconds.

 

[TheMinsterman]

Had a pretty good event tonight, got a stone sounding like it was throw with only three of us stood there, had good look for loose areas of brick or ceiling and couldn't locate any.

 

[blade1889]

In the oldest part of our house, which I think Iis mid-19th century we now have the living room. My mum once put on a clothes shop thing and this lady who believed she had a sixth sense (or similar) refused to go in the living room, to the point she was panicking about it. Not our current dogs but past ones would often stare into the middle of the room, as if they were watching something. Is it true that dogs nay be able to sense these things as its something I've often heard quoted?

My dog once had a random experience where he sounded as though he was in a fight in the woods. I ran to catch up and the nutter was spinning round in circles, barking his head off, spit everywhere attacking thin air.

Friends dog you can take in a certain part of the woods near them as it does similar but they know their dog does it on top of some ancient burial ground.

I've never had a supernatural experience and nor has my mother. But the people on my grandmothers fathers side (so my mums cousin, her father etc.) have always said they can see a purple ora around 'bad' people. My mums cousin tends to try and ignore it and to my knowledge none of them have ever tried to benefit financially from it so they wouldn't just make it up for the hell of it.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

An ex and her mother once told me about a peculiar story from her childhood. She had a spell where she was really quite ill, aged around 6 or 7, and bed bound for a few days or so on strong antibiotics (that makes you suspicious).

Anyway the story goes that during this fever, one night she awoke to find a woman, of around late middle age or early pension age, stood over her bed. This woman smiled and comforted the girl, and she fell back asleep.

A few days later having recovered, she was sat with her mother looking through family photo albums (ok you see where this is going now). Quite quickly, she pointed at a picture and said that she'd seen that lady in her bedroom the other night.

The mother not quite knowing what to make of this, explains that this lady is grandma, mothers mother who died several years before my ex was born.

Ex was insistent and adamant that the photo showed the lady who was in her bedroom looking after her the other night.

Mother insists there was no one else in the house that night. Mother became increasingly spooked with how insistent the girl was.

Etc etc. Apparently it's unlikely she would have known or recognised what her grandma looked like previously.

So the the fever and medication on a child's imagination easily leads to hallucinations. But weird about how specific it was.

Interesting story, although I am a "non believer" who has never experienced anything myself.

 

[SALTIRE]

My mum swears blind when she began her first job working in an old clothing store in the Sixties, she went downstairs to refresh some stock and she turned around and saw a monk wandering back up the stairs.

Also the day my grandad died my sister was staying with a friend. After I phoned my sister to tell her he'd passed she burst out crying and her pal gave her a consolatory hug, and as she did so, she saw my grandad looking at them smiling. I can understand a loved one in a state seeing a deceased family member, but a friend? Weird.

A friend of mine says she saw her dead mums foot going up the stairs and turning into a room once at her house and she also says she has seen both a fog in the middle of the night, and a wee girl standing in the lobby of her boyfriends parents house, and his mum who lives there says she has seen the same thing (though she does drink a quarter bottle of vodka almost nightly so I suppose you can negate that testimony). In all the times I have spent up there sleeping over, and have spoken to the boyfriend, neither he nor I have witnessed anything strange.

Probably all are hallucinations. Whether the mind is more open to hallucinations or suggestion of paranormal events when stressed or at sleeping times is something I wonder about.

 

[Red]

Now look here you lot I started this thread to discuss the Ouija board and it's descended into a cacophony of random supernatural stories!!!

Seriously though I've really enjoyed reading these posts and I hope people will keep chipping in their experiences.