Ghostly Encounters

[JarodRussell]

Had some stuff that other people would consider to be supernatural. But just because I don't understand doesn't mean it's supernatural. Or super mysterious, life changing coincidences. Well, that's just that: a coincidence.

Seriously, for everything there is a rational explanation. Even if ghosts existed: if they can be seen, if they can influence their environment, some day that can be measured, because that's simply how our universe works (laws of energy conservation and shit).

I keep an open mind about all that. If someone said he saw a ghost, then I don't laugh at him, I try to understand what happened and how it's possible.


I love stories about haunted mansions. I'm just like: why the fuck would ghosts do that? In their lifetime they got treated badly, or they got murdered, or whatever, and they chose to haunt random innocent strangers instead of haunting the person who's actually responsible? I hope that when I'm dead, I'll have a better judgment of the current situation. For the same reason I can't take 99% of horror films seriously.

 

[Romulus Prime]

<snip>


EXPLAIN

LMAO

I could believe that if I weren't the only one who'd been in the house for months AND the other person - my mom, who only would go there if I was with her - had ever used that stuff.

Last time I caught that scent was at Church about a month ago. They had fresh roses. I'm still wondering how a house with no draft, flowers, people OR air fresheners could produce such a scent from out of nowhere.


And then there was the time a picture of the Virgin Mary flew off the wall and into my friend's lap...

 

[thestrangequark]

^Really, is it that baffling? The odor could have been left by someone wearing a rose scented perfume or lotion. Alternately, the scent could have been picked up by you and you only noticed it (or only noticed you noticed it) when you got into the house. It could have wafted in when you opened the door (because unless you apparated, a door had to have been opened at some point to let you in). It could have been an olfactory hallucination (they happen, and you wouldn't have had to have roses on your mind for it to happen), or you could have mistaken another smell, or combination of smells for that of roses. There are dozens of reasonable explanations, of which even the most unlikely is more plausible than magic.

I'm not the type of person to go looking for ghosts or wanting to believe in them, but for the past 11yrs I've yet to have a non-believer to explain this:

How was it that there was a scent of roses in my grandma's house about a year after she died, with no flowers - real, fake or dried - anywhere in the house?

Only happened that one time and never again afterward, even with doors and windows opened. I don't even recall her keeping roses in the house while she was alive. The ONLY "rose" connection I can think of inside the house was in the bedroom behind a closed door - a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with my grandfather's pic at the base. BTW - I don't care much for flowers or the scent of most of them, so it's not like it's something that would be on my mind or that I would expect to smell, especially in a house which no one had been in or out of more than 2 or 3 times in one year.


EXPLAIN

Are you suggesting that someone trapped the rose-scented ghost in an aerosol can???

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Once your mind seizes upon a scent that isn't part of your every day life you can become highly sensitized to it and notice even the faintest of odors connected to it. Rose scented furniture polish (if there is such a thing) for instance.

 

[Gryffindorian]

<snip>

EXPLAIN

Posted by thestrangequark:

Are you suggesting that someone trapped the rose-scented ghost in an aerosol can???

Pretty much. Hey, stranger things have happened.

 

[JarodRussell]

I just had a thought. What if irrefutable proof that ghosts exist were discovered? Do you think the number of suicides would skyrocket? After all, proof of some sort of existence after death might be all that's needed to convince the really depressed.

There's an even greater issue: if ghosts truly exist, which means that for a while a soul is somehow connected to a human body, it will sooner or later be possible to merge ghosts with bodies: bring back people from the dead. Clone yourself, wait for your death, trap your ghost, and merge it again.

 

[Pingfah]

I'm not the type of person to go looking for ghosts or wanting to believe in them, but for the past 11yrs I've yet to have a non-believer to explain this:

How was it that there was a scent of roses in my grandma's house about a year after she died, with no flowers - real, fake or dried - anywhere in the house?

Only happened that one time and never again afterward, even with doors and windows opened. I don't even recall her keeping roses in the house while she was alive. The ONLY "rose" connection I can think of inside the house was in the bedroom behind a closed door - a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with my grandfather's pic at the base. BTW - I don't care much for flowers or the scent of most of them, so it's not like it's something that would be on my mind or that I would expect to smell, especially in a house which no one had been in or out of more than 2 or 3 times in one year.


EXPLAIN

Either you imagined it, or something non-supernatural really did smell like roses, and you simply failed to identify the source.

No further explanation warranted.

 

[Romulus Prime]

I'm not the type of person to go looking for ghosts or wanting to believe in them, but for the past 11yrs I've yet to have a non-believer to explain this:

How was it that there was a scent of roses in my grandma's house about a year after she died, with no flowers - real, fake or dried - anywhere in the house?

Only happened that one time and never again afterward, even with doors and windows opened. I don't even recall her keeping roses in the house while she was alive. The ONLY "rose" connection I can think of inside the house was in the bedroom behind a closed door - a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with my grandfather's pic at the base. BTW - I don't care much for flowers or the scent of most of them, so it's not like it's something that would be on my mind or that I would expect to smell, especially in a house which no one had been in or out of more than 2 or 3 times in one year.


EXPLAIN

Either you imagined it, or something non-supernatural really did smell like roses, and you simply failed to identify the source.

No further explanation warranted.

Wrong on both accounts.

Again, 1. I don't like the smell of roses, or most flowers in general, so it's not something that would be on my mind to even "imagine."

2. As I said, there were no flowers in the house, and no air fresheners or anything else which would give off such a scent. And even if there was an artificial source, there was no draft, never mind that artificial scents tend to smell "manufactured" as opposed to fresh and real.

So yes, further explanation IS warranted.

 

[Romulus Prime]

I'm not the type of person to go looking for ghosts or wanting to believe in them, but for the past 11yrs I've yet to have a non-believer to explain this:

How was it that there was a scent of roses in my grandma's house about a year after she died, with no flowers - real, fake or dried - anywhere in the house?

Only happened that one time and never again afterward, even with doors and windows opened. I don't even recall her keeping roses in the house while she was alive. The ONLY "rose" connection I can think of inside the house was in the bedroom behind a closed door - a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with my grandfather's pic at the base. BTW - I don't care much for flowers or the scent of most of them, so it's not like it's something that would be on my mind or that I would expect to smell, especially in a house which no one had been in or out of more than 2 or 3 times in one year.

^Really, is it that baffling? The odor could have been left by someone wearing a rose scented perfume or lotion. Alternately, the scent could have been picked up by you and you only noticed it (or only noticed you noticed it) when you got into the house. It could have wafted in when you opened the door (because unless you apparated, a door had to have been opened at some point to let you in). It could have been an olfactory hallucination (they happen, and you wouldn't have had to have roses on your mind for it to happen), or you could have mistaken another smell, or combination of smells for that of roses. There are dozens of reasonable explanations, of which even the most unlikely is more plausible than magic.

1. No one had been in the house in at least 4 or 5 months. Last people who were in there (my mom and myself) don't were "rose scented" anything.

2. I said there was no draft, so no way for any smell to "waft through." You have to got through a carport, then a laundry room, then past a bathroom, then a storage area/pantry, then you're at the kitchen/living room where I caught the scent after standing for about a minute or 2 while looking at the coffee table.

3. Olfactory hallucination - not buyin' it. I have a really great sense of smell and taste, and don't belief I've ever imagined a smell or flavor before or since, otherwise I could agree to dismiss it as such.

4. There was no combo of of smells. The house has a specific scent that hasn't changed or altered for the past 15 years, and roses have never been a part of it, especially when there has been no presence of people or flowers for months + no draft. Again, I have a really great sense of smell and taste, and I know the smell of roses - it's very distinct. A rose smell is something I'm familiar with since A) I don't like the scent, but B) actually enjoy the flavor in a Persian dessert called falludeh which is made with rose water.

 

[Romulus Prime]

Once your mind seizes upon a scent that isn't part of your every day life you can become highly sensitized to it and notice even the faintest of odors connected to it. Rose scented furniture polish (if there is such a thing) for instance.

Perhaps if there was:

1. someone alive in the house who used such a thing, and

2. if the living people who would use such a thing had that scented cleaner.


My mom didn't touch ANYTHING in that house for about 4 years after my grandma's death, and I know for certain she wouldn't clean anything with any sort of polish. Hell, the most activity in that house over the past 12 years was between January-April of 2009 when two of my (then) friends and I used it as a place to hang out. I actually did get roses for the girl of the group that Valentine's Day, but oddly enough, the scent didn't carry very far, nor stay afterward.


Go figure.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I'm not the type of person to go looking for ghosts or wanting to believe in them, but for the past 11yrs I've yet to have a non-believer to explain this:

What do you mean by non-believer? A non-believer in what, exactly?

 

[EmoBorg]

But please don't go alone. I went with my GF and some friends. My experience was more like a social occasion but in a very spooky place. It is good to be scared sometimes.

The reason why i recommend folks to go in a group is not because of actual vengeful spirits hanging around haunted places but it is because there is a real danger of injuring yourself.

Abandoned places are often derelict. Staircases, walls, ceilings and floors could be in a state of disrepair due to a lack of maintenance and you could injure yourself from collapsing walls and staircases giving way. So please don't go alone. Go with friends.

 

[Pingfah]

Wrong on both accounts.

Again, 1. I don't like the smell of roses, or most flowers in general, so it's not something that would be on my mind to even "imagine."

2. As I said, there were no flowers in the house, and no air fresheners or anything else which would give off such a scent. And even if there was an artificial source, there was no draft, never mind that artificial scents tend to smell "manufactured" as opposed to fresh and real.

So yes, further explanation IS warranted.

Nothing you have said remotely discounts either possibility I put forward, or suggests anything but the most boring and prosaic of explanations. So no, there is no need to look any further than the mundane.

 

[The Dominion]

A vague smell is not enough evidence to assume anything out of the ordinary. Vacated houses often have strange smells anyway, it's probably just the house itself. If you really think there's something strange at the place, you should sleep there a while and see if anything genuinely interesting happens.

 

[Misfit Toy]

Are you suggesting that someone trapped the rose-scented ghost in an aerosol can???

The can is bigger on the inside.

 

[thestrangequark]

^I do hope there's a pool and a library to keep the ghosts entertained while they're in there!

1. No one had been in the house in at least 4 or 5 months. Last people who were in there (my mom and myself) don't were "rose scented" anything.

Again, you could have picked up the scent from some one else earlier and not noticed until then. Not very mysterious.

2. I said there was no draft, so no way for any smell to "waft through." You have to got through a carport, then a laundry room, then past a bathroom, then a storage area/pantry, then you're at the kitchen/living room where I caught the scent after standing for about a minute or 2 while looking at the coffee table.

You've just listed 4 rooms the odor could have come from. Or, again, it could have traveled in with you. As you walked through each of those areas the air in room circulated. Unlikely? Sure. More likely than magic? Definitely.

3. Olfactory hallucination - not buyin' it. I have a really great sense of smell and taste, and don't belief I've ever imagined a smell or flavor before or since, otherwise I could agree to dismiss it as such.

A great sense of smell and taste would probably enhance the likelihood of olfactory hallucination, not make it less likely. The point is that you wouldn't recognize it as an hallucination, so your argument that you "don't believe [you've] ever imagined a smell or flavor before or since" is, well, irrelevant. And, again, you wouldn't have to have roses consciously on your mind to imagine smelling them.

4. There was no combo of of smells. The house has a specific scent that hasn't changed or altered for the past 15 years, and roses have never been a part of it, especially when there has been no presence of people or flowers for months + no draft. Again, I have a really great sense of smell and taste, and I know the smell of roses - it's very distinct. A rose smell is something I'm familiar with since A) I don't like the scent, but B) actually enjoy the flavor in a Persian dessert called falludeh which is made with rose water.

But as you entered the house you brought more odors with you, any number of which cold have mingled with existing odors to create a new smell that smelled to you like roses. People generally don't realize how inaccurate our perceptions actually are. What are brains do in interpreting, filtering, and constructing our experience of the world is amazing, but deeply and thoroughly flawed. You can never completely trust your senses or memory. Never. And while people may fall along a bell curve of ability, there are ultimately no exceptions to this rule. You may indeed have a keen and more accurate than average sense of smell, but that doesn't change the fact that the odor your nose detected had to be translated into signals that were then sent to the brain, then interpreted and filtered by the brain, reconstructed into a perception of smell, then linked to your memories, your emotions, and your conscious thought. A misfire could have occurred at any point in this process. Misfires occur all the time, in everyone, every day. It also doesn't change the fact that that process could have happened in the brain without the nose ever smelling anything, and the hallucinated smell would be as real to you as a real smell.

Some of the possibilities I and others have noted are unlikely, it's true, but the real question is: What is more likely, an unlikely natural explanation or magic? As there is no such thing as magic, I'll say the unlikely natural explanation is the clear answer.

 

[Gary7]

In support of what Romulus said, I have my own similar experience to relay:

I was about 8 years old and had a few friends over my house during a really heavy duty snow storm. My sister also invited a couple of her friends. Well, somehow we got onto the idea of having a seance. We put a little plastic skull in the middle of the round table, sat around it and went about trying to channel various people from history. Nothing worked, nobody heard or felt anything. So then I had the idea of channeling my grandfather (he died about 5 years earlier). About 10 minutes into it, there was this sudden rumble and then CRASH!!!

Well, the snow that had built up on the roof finally slipped free and tumbled down right outside the window. We all screamed and dove under the table, rocking it wildly, which sent the skull flying into the air, bouncing off a wall, then rolling under the table right into the center of our little huddle, with the tiny jaw wide open (it was articulated, because it came from an "Invisible Man" skeleton kit). A few of the girls gasped in horror, but the rest of us started to giggle at how funny it was.

Anyway, we get up from under the table and a few of the kids looked out through the window at the huge pile of snow just outside. And suddenly... I smelled it. The pipe tobacco smell of my grandfather. He used to smoke a pipe, quite often. I quickly turned to one of my friends and asked him if he smelled anything like a smoking pipe. "Yeah, I smell it just a little." And then suddenly it vanished without a trace.

NOW, a few facts: 1) Nobody ever smoked a pipe in our house (my grandfather never visited, because we moved in after he died), 2) There was no scented thing of any kind (incense, air freshener) in our house that smelled anything like this, and 3) the memory of him smoking a pipe hadn't even entered my mind until I detected the smell. Plus, someone who didn't even know anything about my grandfather told me he smelled a smoking pipe.


I can't explain it, just like Romulus can't explain the smell of roses.

 

[thestrangequark]

^But that's even easier to explain. You thought of the smell because you were thinking of your grandfather. Then, you directly suggested the specific smell to your friend! How is anything about this scenario a mystery?

 

[Gary7]

^ Yes, but I tried in vain to repeat the experience. I laid in my bed that night and prayed to my grandfather to return and visit me. I waited and *sniffed* the air... and NOTHING. I couldn't get that smell back. If I was so good at fooling myself before, why wouldn't the experience repeat itself?

 

[thestrangequark]

^Why would it repeat itself? I once hallucinated that the sky changed color but I can't will another hallucination just for fun.

ETA: To expand a bit. When you first “smelled” the pipe, you were under a specific set of circumstances: you were physically and emotionally excited, first by the creepiness of the seance and the emotional connection to your grandfather, and later by the start of the falling snow. Your body at this point is flooded with chemicals, your thoughts were on a particular subject, your brain misfired, and you imagined the smell of the smoke.
When you tried to recreate the hallucination later it stands to reason that you’d fail, primarily because you didn’t recreate any of the conditions that led to the original experience. You were in a completely different physical state (relaxed in your bed) and mental state (contemplative). Even if you did recreate all of the original conditions it is unlikely you would experience the hallucination again, partly because the nature of this type of hallucination, and partly because your brain had changed in response to the hallucination.