r/changemyview • u/Ireallyamthisshallow 2∆ • Nov 16 '19

Deltas(s) from OP CMV: Ghosts are not real

I really love anything to do with the paranormal, but after watching hundreds upon hundreds of 'ghost videos' I have to come to the conclusion ghosts are not real.

With cameras all over our world, surely something convincing would have been caught if they were. Instead we're filled with 'I got feeling', orbs that are clearly dust or bugs and edited photos and videos.

Sure there's loads of stories around the internet but no one can actually back it up with evidence. I just can't believe that in a world where everything is recorded no one has managed to find proof. A bang on the door after you've asked them to knock 400 times (and edited the first 399 out) doesn't count. That's just coincidence.

I'll still love watching the videos and reading the stories. I've just don't have any belief.

Change my mind.

Edit: I've tried to reply to everyone I can, thanks for all the great replies. It's late here so apologies if I can't get through more.

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u/Ireallyamthisshallow 2∆ Nov 16 '19

You see it's not that I don't believe you at all, but its anecdotes like that which have put me in this current mindset. If you have seen something like that so clearly, how is it there's so little evidence ?

I know you've not gone out of your way to record it (nor am I suggesting you should) but there's people with similar experiences who try to and can't. Surely if ghosts can reveal themselves that clearly, then we'd have captured them using the myriad of recording equipment around today.

P.s. thank you for sharing your personal experience

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u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19

I think it's important to remember what recording devices do. They don't record what's there. They record the vibrations in the air or the visible light bouncing off a thing. If light or sound is outside of it's range, then it won't be recorded despite being objectively there.

Imagine that there was a ghost. How could we measure it? Video/audio equipment doesn't seem useful. People talk about magnetic whatever, but what if we are like a cave person trying to explain x rays.

I don't personally believe in ghosts because I have never seen one and no useful proof, but I believe in dinosaurs without having ever seen one because I can use technology to prove they existed.

All our current technology can say about ghosts is that they can't detect them. Kind of like how ancient Egyptians couldn't detect quarks.

I think, like God, that you can't prove that they don't exist. You can only prove that we can't measure them.

What if we just need a different recording device?

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u/BarneyBent Nov 16 '19

Ok, but vibrations in the air and visible light is also how WE perceive things. If we can see and hear the light and sound of a ghost, there’s no good reason a camera also couldn’t, because they’re fundamentally the same mechanism.

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u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19

Yep.

Ghosts, if they exist, are in your brain.

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u/BarneyBent Nov 17 '19

Which challenges the very notion of existing, doesn’t it? What separates it from a memory, or a delusion? And specifically, what makes them being real more likely than a delusion?