Ghosts - Ghost Stories

Ghosts are real. It’s dead people walking.

I like the TV series Ghosts.

I know ghosts, spirits of the dead, are among us, perhaps in a dimensional shift, but that shift has nexuses with our dimension. My experience is only partially visual, but more directly olfactory, and occurred in November of 2001. My father-in-law, a man I highly respected and admired, lay dying in a hospital bed, in the week of Thanksgiving, which we now approach. One evening around 19:00, I stopped on my way home from work to visit with him, and found him in his private room, asleep, peaceful, with the covers up to his chin and both arms outside the covers at rest by his body. I could see him breathing evenly, so I knew he was alive. The overhead light was out; just the dim, indirect lighting behind him on the wall gave any light in the room. It was very peaceful, and I sat at his bedside, hoping he might wake up. Suddenly, without warning, he raised both arms above him and curled them together, then released and lowered his arms to the bed. He repeated this action several times, and I could not imagine what he was doing, but he continued making the gesture over and over again. Then just as suddenly, I smelled a familiar aroma - the basement of his mother, my bride's grandmother, with whom I was familiar, because I was dating my bride, when in college, and she lived with her grandmother for a time, She did serious quilting in the basement of her home, with fabric and such all over, which carried a particular scent with which I became familiar. That was the aroma I could smell now, and it signaled me that Leon's mother was with us. As he continued his curious arm gestures, I realized he was hugging people, including his mother, and I felt the room was filling with many people, gone on before, now greeting this great and gracious man. The room was getting crowded, and though I believed I was allowed to witness this congregation of spirits surrounding my father-in-law, and welcoming him home, I knew I no longer belonged there, and quietly left the room. He passed the following day in the presence of his wife, who came to live with us after selling her home, and we cared for her until her passing just two years ago. IN our home, I have felt several times that he was there, looking over our mother, assuring we were caring for her.

Here's my "ghost" story:

First, let me set it up with the context. Sidewalker is a term from Therapeutic Horseback Riding, it was my passion for over 30 years and I have performed every role from President of the program to tacking horses and everything in between, but what I loved most was being a Sidewalker. So, what the Sidewalker does is walk alongside the horse (hence the term) to interact with the student, help them with the lesson, and most importantly, protect the child in the event of an emergency. A thousand-pound horse creates a dangerous situation if it is startled, it bolts, bucks, or falls.

At the time my horse farm had both a covered arena and an uncovered arena, in the staging area, was the mounting block, open arena, and where everyone congregated, tacked the horses, etc, the covered arena was about two hundred yards away. we would mount the kids (FLRW, behave yourself, just let it go by) and the therapeutic team would walk them out across a field to the covered arena when that was where they were riding. The entire horse farm had a ten-foot chain link fence around it. So, typically we walk around the arena for an hour with each rider, doing lessons and exercises, because we are doing this all day, because of the monotony of it, I had a tendency to start thinking about work or something, and stop paying attention, the leader or therapist could usually tell when I'm zoned out and get my attention, scold me, etc. I would respond that I was sorry, but I was having an epiphany, which was the big joke with all the kids, a lot of them greeted me with something like, had any epiphanies today Side? Sheesh, I didn't realize I'd have to explain so much before even telling the story, but that's done so here's the story.

I'm sidewalking with a ten-year-old autistic girl (Autism was my therapeutic specialty), we are in the covered arena, about 30 yards on one side of the covered arena it is open, no wall, instead there is a fence and gate there, our barn manager and one of our volunteers were leaned against the fence watching the lesson. So, I started thinking about work and zoned out, I wasn't paying attention and as we came around the bend, I saw an old woman, maybe 70 or 80 years old, she is standing against the fence maybe ten feet away from the barn manager and volunteer. The woman smiled at me, it's hard to describe what that smile did or how it made me feel, but it startled me and caused me to snap to attention, in my mind at least, I heard her voice calmly say, "You know what to do", I heard this very clearly and suddenly, I'm completely in the moment as alert as ever. Right then, the horse stumbles and goes down head over heels, it seemed to happen in slow motion, and I took the girl off the horse as she went by me, had I not gotten her off the horse, she probably would have been injured, maybe very seriously.

So, now the girl is crying, the barn manager and volunteer have rushed into the arena to help us out, we get the horse settled, calm the girl down and put her back on the horse to finish the lesson (getting back on is important or they will never ride again). I asked the others where that woman went (I felt I needed to thank her) and they said "what woman?", they didn't see a woman there. The girl was non-communicative, only spoke with ASL, and for the rest of the session she was fidgety and excited, as you would expect after such a mishap. So, we finish the lesson, go outside and I'm looking around for this woman, she isn't around, and we walk back across the field to the staging area. As soon as we dismount the girl she ran to her mother and started excitedly signing to her to tell her what happened, I'm thinking "oh great, I'm going to have a frightened mom to deal with. While that's happening, I'm asking around and nobody saw the woman, I'm thinking, what the hell, she certainly couldn't climb the fence, and nobody saw her walk across the field, WTF.

So Mom comes over and I said "I guess she told you what happened", and started to explain to calm her down, to which she said what her daughter told her is that her grandmother was there. I said, I saw her and wanted to know where she went, I want to thank her (thanking this woman was very important to me at the time), anyway, Mom tells me we are mistaken, the girl's grandmother died two years ago. I was shocked, and to this day, maybe two decades later I remain shocked by what happened. I have no idea what really happened that day, but I know that I experienced a woman who helped me protect that girl from harm, and I know the girl saw her too.

I don't know if I actually saw a ghost that day, I think it's best to not even try to explain it, or even comprehend it rationally, I just know something happened and I'm grateful for it. One thing is clear, my skepticism about so called "ghost stories" completely disappeared that day. and I believe in my heart that, somehow, some way, the girl's grandmother reached out to me to protect her granddaughter.

I believe in ghosts, but I usually see them in my dreams. I only once succeeded in summoning a ghost, but I am not much dedicated to necromancy. If you focus enough, you can start seeing things other people dont.

The mind makes up many things that defy logic. That is why there were 3000+ Gods.

Demons can take any form. Nothing new. Been happening for thousands of years.

The mind makes up many things that defy logic. 

I think logic applies to epistemology rather than ontology, existence itself defies logic.

Can you name anything you believe to exist, that doesn’t “defy logic”.

A simple, logical statement like 

"A is either a or it is not a" does not defy logic. Any observation that follows a consistent pattern in nature, such as the sun rising in the east, is an example of something that aligns with logic. Things that "defy logic" are often those which seem contradictory or impossible under our current understanding, like certain aspects of quantum physics or mathematical paradoxes, which are more about a gap in our knowledge than a failure of logic itself. 

Basically admitting logic is subjective. Nice.

Can you name anything you believe to exist, that doesn’t “defy logic”.

No

Basically admitting logic is subjective. Nice.

If humans didn't exist, logic wouldn't exist, it follows that logic is subjective.

A simple, logical statement like 

"A is either a or it is not a" does not defy logic.

Simple logical statements do not defy logic, cool, thanks for clearing that up for us.

Any observation that follows a consistent pattern in nature, such as the sun rising in the east, is an example of something that aligns with logic.

Logic describes the patterns of nature, and from that it follows we can predict future behavior, that is epistemological rather than ontological.

Things that "defy logic" are often those which seem contradictory or impossible under our current understanding, like certain aspects of quantum physics or mathematical paradoxes, which are more about a gap in our knowledge than a failure of logic itself. 

Are you saying that you believe in the omnipotence of logic?

Perhaps what you are really saying you don't know the difference between epistemology and ontology. Ontology is the philosophical study of being and existence, Epistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge. What I said was "logic applies to epistemology rather than ontology, existence itself defies logic."

Existence is not logical; it is a philosophical concept that precedes logic. Logic is a tool for reasoning about things that exist, but logic itself cannot prove the existence of the physical world or other entities. The question of whether something exists is fundamentally an ontological question, not a logical one.

What 

seems to defy logic typically falls into three categories: paradoxes, phenomena of quantum mechanics, and human emotions/behavior. In many cases, these things don't necessarily break the rules of logic but rather expose the limits of classical logic, common sense, or current scientific understanding. 

What 

seems to defy logic typically falls into three categories: paradoxes, phenomena of quantum mechanics, and human emotions/behavior. In many cases, these things don't necessarily break the rules of logic but rather expose the limits of classical logic, common sense, or current scientific understanding. 

Maybe you should Google it.

ontology vs epistemology - Google Search

Which comes first ontology or epistemology?

Ontological claims about the social and political world logically precede epistemological claims concerning what can be known about that social and political world. Hence, epistemology is dependent on ontology.