Do ghosts/demons/evil spirits exist because people believe they exist?

I was thinking about this recently now. What if the entities just exist because humans believe they exist? If a person doesn't believe in ghosts or demons, he/she probably would never "experience" them simply because of not having a strong belief in them? Now a person who easily believes in ghosts/demons is more likely to "experience" them than a person who doesn't have a strong belief?


[edit on 2-11-2009 by sphinx551]

Hi, sphinx551.


! Exactly !

You will get that confirmation in the second line
of my signature. B-)

Blue skies.

reply to post by sphinx551

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The simple answer to your question is "no."

They exist as creations of life, just as all other existence does.

You will get two people in the presence of a disembodied spirit where one will notice it and the other won't. That's a matter of, you could say, psychic ability.

But just like rocks and trees and planets don't exist just because of a belief that they should, so it goes with spiritual manifestations.

The beliefs arise from individuals and leaders trying to explain these manifestations, and their various considerations about social control and personal fears. The manifestations themselves are, or can be, as real as anything else you would call "real."

reply to post by sphinx551

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A good question!

Believe that all possibilities exist but we bring things into probablilty.

Peace!

Typical of humans to think they are so important that we must be the only life in the Universe and to be the sole creators of everything non-physical.

Once we awaken from this indoctrinated dream of life and experience what really does exist all around us we soon realise that all things exist without our having to believe or think about it.

All the things mentioned are only Other Beings, like us. They exist whether you believe in them or not, just as you exist without them having a belief in you.

Experience trumps Belief every time.

I've been recently pondering the same thing...

I *WANT* to believe in such paranormal things, but having never personally experienced ghosts, demons or evil spirits, I am not apt to believe.

I always jokingly told people that the reason I've never experienced ghosts, demons and evil spirits is because having studied Ceremonial Magick for decades that all such things would be terrified of what I might do to them if they ever presented themselves to me.

However, recently I stayed in a haunted house with my daughter and my girl-friend. They both saw and heard the same things throughout the night, but having been awake I did not see or hear the same things they heard.

It reminded me of the Christian Missionary in the movie Erik the Viking who never sees the things that the Norse Vikings are seeing, but when he witnesses a Christian Miracle the Vikings don't see it.

Maybe our senses are limited by the impressionability of our minds. If we want to believe something our senses filter those things exclusively, ignoring all else. Perhaps our consciousness is only fluid enough to interpret stimuli that it has a predominance to see, or that which it is expecting to see.

It would certainly explain a lot about Quantum Physics and Atomic Probability and why the predisposition of the observer can change the outcome of the events observed.

I suppose it's possible depending on what you believe, I don't really believe such entities exist, but every so often I'll get interested in the occult and start reading about it...

There are things they call thought forms, servitors, god forms, whatever you want to call it they're the same thing, creatures created by peoples belief, with that belief they say they can create beings by rearranging energy or something like that...

There's a surprising lack of information on the internet on the subject, but that's the gist of it. If there's any truth behind energy manipulation and it's not just in peoples heads, then think what thousands, millions, or billions of people believing in the same creature could create.

It could be possible that the power of the mind of a believer can create a ghost or demon. Who knows what the human mind could do if used correctly. Apparently there is such a thing called a Tulpa which is a being or object created through sheer willpower alone. Look up Tulpa on Wikipedia.

Edit :- Sorry Ravernous, I see you just beat me to the being created by thought theory.

[edit on 2-11-2009 by sightings]

That's an interesting theory, and seemingly more likely of a possibility. Consider the possibility that such things are projections of our psyche into the material.

They are commonly called Egregores, although some ancient cultures called them Genius Loci. Over time, as more and more people project their similar beliefs into the same thing, it becomes more and more tangible, becoming a separate and distinct "entity" even though it is in reality nothing more than just a thought-form.

Think of the mass sightings of the Virgin Mary or other such Saints in predominately Catholic nations as but an example.

There's a pretty substantial volume of anecdotal evidence to suggest that animals as well as human beings sense ghosts, entities, etc., and animals certainly don't have any elaborate mythology or belief systems that have to do with these things.

It might be better to consider these things as "quantum echoes" that bleed over from various dimensions including the past. Human and animal brains sometimes pick them up (and possibly give them a kind of partial reality) because our brains are quantum machines that sort out virtuality from reality, or whatever might be in-between.

Although... it's interesting that most ghosts are generally described as originating in the past, and if these things are actually quantum echoes, then they have just as good a chance of originating in the future as they do in the past. But, maybe that's where aliens and demons and angels come from. The future.

If your talking about the collective consciousness. Then you are correct.

But the collective consciousness means, you do not need to believe it for it to happen to you as the shared belief alone will influence everybody.

A lot of people I'd say who don't believe demons for instance, experience what I would call demonic experiences.

Such as when a drunk goes around screaming profanities and looking possessed. I'd call that a demonic experience, but the drunk may not believe in it at all.


[edit on 2-11-2009 by FouL-LiveR]

I've often wondered the same thing, I think you have to be open to these things. My husband comes from a very Catholic family (we live in Quebec, Canada) and they have all kinds of paranormal stories to tell. I can tell that he believes in that kind of stuff but he doesn't like to talk about it, he had one paranormal experience when he was young, when he told me about it gave me goosebumps. He blames his mother because of her openess to this stuff.

He thinks that his family brings these things on because they all believe it so much and talk about it a lot.

So an atheistic family would never experience ghosts and demons because even if ghosts and demons do exist, they feed on the fear and/or belief in them?

[edit on 2-11-2009 by sphinx551]

They exist whether you believe in them or not.

Also, they exist because you believe in them! For you, they are demons and ghosts because that is what you believe them to be.

You exist because you believe in you. You, as you see you, are merely a figment of your imagination.... and so is everything else you believe you see.

And reality only exists in the past.

reply to post by sphinx551

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... and we are existing in all dimensions simultaneously .....

This is caused by the "Collective Consciousness". What the "Collective Consciousness" believes, it creates. The belief in these things comes from what religion tells us to believe to that men of power ($$) can control men of poverty.

Case in point: When is the last time you heard of a Jew, Muslim or Buddhist experiencing a demonic possession requiring an exorcism?

In most cases, ghosts are an imprint on a specific place from a specific time that has strong emotions attached to it.

Originally, when "hell" was first brought up, it was a dull, dingy, gray, boring place to spend eternity once you die for committing sins. Then Christianity comes along and *poof!* it is a fiery hell filled with demons, etc. etc.

Whatever you believe will happen to you in the afterlife, is what you will create when you initially arrive. It is time to break this cycle of lies and learn the truth.

S&F!

I believe that humans who live in a matter world would then live in an anti-matter world in their next life.

If you lose the ability to distinguish between good and evil i.e you die, how can heaven/hell/demons/angels possibly exist?

Take the body out of the equation and what happens to reality? it ceases to exist as there is no way to prove it, or even challenge it but then is there anyway?

Kind of like the "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" riddle.

It doesn't matter if they believe or not.

I myself aren't a firm believer in ghosts and monsters, ect, but I've had many quite strange and unexplainable experiences myself. Although I do believe in Aliens and UFO's.

For example, one night me and the family were all watching a movie at night, when we heard a loud thud on our roof and what sounded like it run across it. We quickly ran outside but didn't see or hear anything. Quite strange. At the time we were living in Hawaii and there is no sizable animals that could end up on our roof and do what it did.

And everyone in my family, excluding me for some odd reason, has had an one on one encounter with a ghost/spirit. As in they visually saw it. My dad felt a presence in the kitchen, turned around and saw a little girl, did a double take to make sure it's real and she was gone when he turned back around, he didn't give much details because he was shaken by the experience. My sister has seen an old lady walking on the side of the road, only to have her gone when looking in the rear view mirror. My brother was home alone one day, also felt a presence and looked back from the couch to see an entity in a trench coat, no face or anything. Also he was shaken by it and has spoken of it since. My mom has had countless experiences with spirits and ghosts I can even mention any.

And then it comes back to me, I haven't had a personal encounter with a spirit yet, it's either just a matter of time or it won't happen at all. I don't sit here thinking about them, and I don't acknowledge they're existence, but I also don't deny they're existence either.

It's not really up to us for these type of experiences to happen.

[edit on 3-11-2009 by grrrrt]