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No, and I find it incredibly embarrassing to find myself within earshot of someone who claims to have seen a ghost in person, and that they shared a 'connection'. It's rather like listening to a man claim that he's sleeping with a woman everyone present knows, without a doubt, that he's not, but prefers not to say anything to avoid causing a scene.
Though having said all that, I'll admit to being slightly superstitious and often contemplate the possibility of life after death. I dunno, I suppose I've just contradicted myself in one single breath. At any rate, I've never gone ghost hunting and regard ghost hunting programmes with an extreme level of scepticism, seeing as most of the guests/hunters act like they're a few slices short of a loaf, so to speak.
But you see, my experience has been just the opposite. While I cannot claim a personal experience with a ghost, ALL the people who have expressed their opinion to me that they did see or encounter an otherwise unexplainable presence have been people I trust implicitly to be honest, reasonable, unexcitable, and not given to fantasy or hallucinations.
So that leave me in a quandary. They were all either 'seeing things' or they saw the unexplainable.
So, I am inclined to believe that there is something there that we do not yet fully understand and can't measure. I am neither believer nor skeptic. I sure would like to know though.
I can sympathise that it's a sensitive subject that needs to be treated delicately when close friends and family are the ones claiming to have seen apparitions at the end of their bed, but I've never had to deal with that.
As I've already said/written, I'm superstitious and sometimes find myself contemplating what lies after death. Perhaps my inherent sense pragmatism and cynicism's just at odds with my gut.
As for the unexplained, here's an account I submitted to Teapartysamurai's halloween thread a couple of days ago (make of it what you will):
Ah, yes, how could I forget.
Many moons ago I was contracted to gut-out a portion of an old peoples' home in Southampton (where the Titanic cast off) that had been declared unfit for use. Due to the very delicate nature of the utilities we had to isolate before the gut-out/soft strip could commence, I decided to take a very hands-on approach. The area of most concern to the client and myself was the preservation of a copper pipe that conveyed pure oxygen to various points throughout the buildings that weren't scheduled to be refurbished. We pulled down the suspended ceilings to expose the pipe and make sure the direction it took matched that of what was on our drawings.
One evening I was in a remote corner of the site with a voice recorder, making detailed notes of where and how the pipe in question meandered through the building. I was using a fresh tape and was completely alone. I started at the far fire exit and made my way to the main doors which were scheduled to be sealed before work started. After I'd finished talking into the recorder I sat down and lit a cigarette while I listened over what I'd recorded to ensure I hadn't overlooked anything. I finished the cigarette and the recording came to an end, then briefly went-on to play unrecorded tape. Just as I was turning-off the recorder, I heard what I thought was the beginning of a word spoken by a voice that wasn't mine. I rewound the tape a bit and listened again. I heard myself droning-on about angles and colour coded markings. The tape went dead for a second or two, then I heard it. It was a very clear and aggressive voice saying "shut up, just shut up. Who are you", or something along those lines. I listened to it over again a couple of times and called-out on my walkie talkie asking where everyone was working, wondering if the recorder had recorded someone nearby. Nobody was anywhere even close to me, and there's no way a tape recorder can pick-up radio traffic.
So, what conclusion did you arrive at to explain that?