Where Atheism and Skepticism generally meet, is when the Skeptic was a Child, Teenager, or College Student, having been raised Religious, they have their world view shattered by starting to broaden their perceptive on life and by using logic, starting to learn to critically think for themselves, and then Church "doesn't make sense anymore", and then they declare they will "never be fooled again" and then get into the mindset that "If religion is a hoax, then everything even remotely associated with it, like life and death, the paranormal, etc, is likewise a hoax", and seeing all sorts of similar gullible people likewise believing in Paranormal Topics and not using critical thinking (just like in Religion!) they end up auto-dismissing it as well as just an extension of Religion which they "grew out of" long ago. Go on YouTube or Atheist Websites and read their "Testimonials" of how they become Atheist and Skeptical, many of them repeat a story very similar to what I just wrote.
That's generally why many people tend to lump Atheism and Skepticism together.
I understand where you're coming from but it's not fair for people to lump skepticism and atheism together. Being a skeptic and an atheist are two completely different things and someone who insists they are both is perfectly acceptible. They simply do not believe in God. Belief and skepticism, again, are two different entities (pardon the pun). I personally know skeptics who believe in God. So not believing in God is the exact same thing.
Ok...now I'm confusing myself. I think if a skeptic were to say God didn't exist they'd either have to state is as an assumption or speculation because they clearly cannot prove he/she doesn't exist.
Anyway....back to the ghost stories.
I grew up in a house here in Australia where as a child I'd have experiences. Seems as though they were only directed at me. Things like being wide awake and having something tug on my ears was a frequent event. Eventually, it stopped. Now my skeptical side tells me that I could have potentially just been dreaming or in a state entering sleep and simply imagined it. That's kind of hard to explain away when I'd cry and go to sleep in my mums bed and have the same thing happen soon after getting into bed. I'd also wake and hear what I thought was a lion roaring or drum rolls. The more I ignored it, the louder it got. Again, that could have been my father snoring and me simply interpreting it as a lion or drums. It may have gotten louder because I was waking from sleep and becoming more aware of my surroundings. Also, my senses may have just been heightened at this stage due to fear.
The same house had very small events happen. Mostly months or years apart from each other. The large kitchen window has violently shake. This happened a handful of times. Although we'd witness it, we never felt vibrations around the window that could cause it. Possibly infrasound from the large road directly in front of the house. We also had glasses explode occasionally. This could be for many reasons. We were a large family and the kids weren't the most careful so I assume possible stress fractures in the glass from use would have caused it to explode when the glass was heated or cooled quickly or over a certain period of time.
Still the same house and I was always uncomfortable alone in it. The back end of the house where all the kids rooms were was the most uncomfortable. I assume this was fear instilled from the ear pulling etc.
Most of what happened in that house could be explained. All except one. I used to work nights to get me through school and I'd come home late and have a shower. I had once fallen asleep in the bathroom after taking a shower and my dad, who was quite a comedian, loudly banged on the bathroom door and startled me. After that, I'd get home from work, jump in the shower and he'd quietly walk to the bathroom door and bang on it loudly just in case. Then I'd hear him walk away bare foot whilst quietly laughing to himself.
One night, I got home and was just about to jump in the shower. I heard bare foot footsteps walk up to the door. I waiting silently assuming my dad would bang on the door as he had done before. I waited for a good minute or so and then the sound of bare feet walked away from the door. I found this pretty strange but didn't think anything of it. Then I heard my sister call out "Jose, I know it's you". I was a little puzzled so I responded asking what she was talking about. She asked where I was and I responded "In the bathroom...why?" She went dead quiet. So I unlocked the door and walked through the hallway and into her room. I asked he what she was talking about and both my sisters, who slept in bunk beds, had the covers over their heads.
My sister went on to tell me that she saw a dark figure walk through the hall and past her bedroom door. It then returned, peered through her doorway and walked away. The reason she thought it was me was because I'd often scare my sisters by stalking them in the dark.
At this point I figured it was my dad. Until my mum walked into the hallway in a pretty pissed off fashion and asked us who was walking around the house. She was scared we'd wake my dad. I asked her if my dad was asleep and she said yes. She wanted to know who was walking around the lounge room which was on the other end of the house near her bedroom. At that point, I thought we had an intruder. My sisters tried to convince my mum that it wasn't any of us but she wasn't buying it until I started turning on all the lights in the house in search of someone who'd broken in. All the doors and windows were locked. My dad then woke and was pretty pissed off. Neither him or my mother were buying it. I went to my room and sat on my bed flicking through a magazine. All of a sudden I could hear the sound of bare feet in the bathroom near our bedrooms. My sister asked if it was me. I responded and again, she hid under her covers. I walked slowly to the bathroom. All the while I could hear something walking around. I got to the bathroom and it was empty.
We've never been able to explain that.
Other events have been my mother hearing me calling out to her from inside the house. She called me at work asking if I had been home. I worked over an hour away. That happened a few times.
When I moved out, I rented some run down town house. It was pretty big and myself and my girlfriend were the only occupants for a while until my sister moved in. Before my sis moved in, I remember really weird things happening. Firstly, for the first couple of weeks, I'd wake up and there would be a light on inside the house (or I assumed so). As I got up, the light would turn off. I assumed it may have been a remote light from the neighbors house and it was a coincidence I was waking while it was on.
I had an old stereo that would change stations on it's own. At this stage I figured the house was haunted whilst trying to find rational explanations for events. The radio may have been faulty or influenced by some interference but the dial would not turn and the stations would change. That was easy to dismiss even though it freaked me out.
One night I had to work late on freelance work. I sat in the house with only the lights from my Mac to light the room. It was early morning and all of a sudden I heard a woman speak a sentence with a hoarse voice. She spoke actual words but they didn't fit together to form a coherent sentence. That freaked me out. I sat there listening and only when the voice finished did I shut my Mac down and go straight to bed. My art director wasn't too happy about me not submitting my work to say the least.
I was still living in the house and had to fly to Spain for my dad's funeral. At this stage I had told people the house was haunted. When I got home from overseas, my sister was living with us. I got home suffering jetlag and fell asleep in the spare room. I woke with the bed shaking. I figured it was jetlag. I woke again with the headboard shaking. Same thing, jetlag. Finally, I woke with a weight sitting on my feet. I thought it was the dog so I kicked it off and it got up, but never hit the ground. I got the hell out of that room.
I moved out of that house a while later. Little things happened. Noises etc but never saw anything. Can't explain some events, other are easily explainable.
Worked on a TV show about the paranormal. 13 locations and nothing ever happened except for a few strange events. I'll post again when I get home. Sorry, lunch break and I gotta get back to the grind...
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