Awesome poll.

I'm a lot like you, beliefs-wise, I think. I'm mostly agnostic, but I believe in ghosts and sometimes other weird things like reincarnation that would seem to indicate a belief in a higher power/heaven/hell. I can't reconcile it.

I do think there are things that have explanations we haven't found yet. In the 1500s, they believed diabetics were possessed or cursed, because they didn't know what diabetes was or how it worked.

Hmmm...I couldn't think of any ghost movie off the top of my head except for Ghost, which I refused to name just on principal.

I tend to be a pantheist, so I believe in God and all the other Gods and Goddesses as well. Who am I to play favorites and pick just one? ;)

But, if I'm going to believe in all the various deities...I guess that means that I believe in all the possible after lives as well. Reincarnation? check. Catholic heaven? check. Baptist heaven? check. 72 virgins? check.

You get the picture.

I guess I believe that there are ghosts and that there are probably multiple explanations for them.

As for my answer of wishing vampires were real, I'd like to qualify that by saying that I wish sexy Spike-like vampires were real....or even a broody poofter like Angel. But none of that nosferatu stuff, thanks.

This is possibly the most interesting poll I've ever answered on LJ. Thanks for posting it! :)

I've only seen maybe three ghost movies in my entire life, and that's counting Casper...I don't do scary movies. So I was sort of forced to answer The Grudge.

I think a lot of what we are in life does not so easily translate into death...so I think ghosts are more like fingerprint smudges left behind on the glass, and when we die we become pure spirit and rejoin the power from which we are first created.

The problem is I never watch scary movies, so I'm horribly oversensitized to them. It's not even that I mind freaky movies: I just get too damn scared. Most people seem to agree that The Grudge is not even scary at all, but after seeing it I literally had problems sleeping, being alone and looking in mirrors for about a week. I got through the entire Knight's Tale in the Canturbury Tales in one night because my choices were "read the crappy overdone romantic story that makes you want to stab babies" or "turn out the lights and attempt to sleep while you lie there convinced the Grudge ghost is going to pop up at any moment to AHH WHAT WAS THAT SOUND??!"
I was jumpy all night after seeing the second Resident Evil. I kept looking for zombies to jump out at me.

hmm, I believe in absolutely nothing. Fantastic.

Nah, not really, I'm an atheist who believes in the possibility of the supernatural? Oh, and aliens, but only in that Carl Sagan the universe is a big place kind of way, not in a visitation/probing kind of way.

Also, so not a good idea to take ghosty polls @ 11:30 in the night time, no matter how curious.

I don't believe in ghosts, but I don't think that people who believe that they've experienced them are necessarily wrong or crazy. The universe is a vast, crazy place; we're all getting some of it and missing other parts. As I think I mentioned to eponine119, I don't have much use, on the one hand, for so-called "mediums" and ghost professionals on the one hand, or for pseudo-scientific explanations of what ghost experiences "really" are on the other. I'm a fence-sitter; what can I say? ;)

Vampires, werewolves, etc., are all very cool bits of folklore and literature, but I'm not sure I'd actually want to deal with them in reality, if push came to shove! Chupacabres are cool yet manageable, although I wouldn't want to see poor nice goats getting hurt, either.

Best ghost movie? The Others, with Nicole Kidman et al. Loosely based on James' The Turn of the Screw, although with enough variations that if you've only read that novel, I haven't spoiled the movie for you.

mmm... interesting poll.
I don't believe in ghosts, but I find them an interesting subject for books and movies. And I do believe in a sort of afterlife, so it's not entirely impossible that there can be some sort of communication between the 2 worlds. Just, I don't think at it as a "ghost".

Also, I don't "believe" in aliens in the sense that I don't think they had ever been here - but I believe that in the vaste universe there's some other form of life.

:)

There were two closely related explanations for ghosts that don't fall into your categories, both of which have more to do with *place* than individual souls. One: there are 'thin spots' in the world where the physical laws don't work as the should. So ghosts can be either glimpses of the past/out of time or glimpses into other plains of existence [it depends on your belief system].Another possibility is that a *place* collects energy or memories, because of great truma/tragedy, or simple elements of geography. So you can get snips of repetion - a woman walks down the stairs, lantern in hand, checks the lock on the front door and vanishes - that have worn a groove into the house's memories.

While I was raised as Catholic, it never really took - Pagan beliefs have always made more sense to me. I guess I'm a Spiritual Idealist, very open-minded and willing to include the unusual in my world view. But then, I've seen a lot of weird stuff in my time on the planet. I think that things like Heaven and Hell have validity, that they are real for those who believe [willingly or not] in them, but I feel that your *own* belief also orients you towards particular afterlife options. The general rule of thumb I stick to: never underestimate the combined strength of human will and spirit. It applies equally to what happens after death as to choices made while living.

I have yet to catch up with either Torchwood or the new Doctor Who [though I was a fan of the older series from the Jon Pertwee re-runs they played on PBS on]. I think this is yet another indicator that I need to change that tardiness.

Notice how I avoided making a TARDIS pun there.

But yes, that's *exactly* the principle I was taking about - tis fitting that the Time-Lord related crew addressed it. Not that phenomena is limited to sci-fi shows, o'course.

I find the 'one true religion' concept to be the height of arrogance, and boring besides. Variety is far more interesting. But then, I *am* a Pagan soul, so my pantheon naturally holds a raucous multiplicity. Those folks who are strident 'scientific explanation' supporter simply believe in another 'one true way'.

So yeah, the whole singlar religion right and wrong thing is just silly.

Mine and my dad's theory about ghosts is that they're not spirits of the dead, but representative of two different times crossing in the same geographical location. Both sides see echoes of the other. Time is a human invention to make life easy, therefore I find it easier to believe that two existences can cross rather than life after death :) I'm a complete atheist, and have a firm belief that religion is an excuse people hide behind to justify conflict and derision of others, I can't think of a single war that didn't come about because of differing religious beliefs... but hey, each to their own :) I do however believe in the human soul, so I'm not convinced there's an afterlife as such, but whether the essence of who you are continues after you die is something I haven't made my mind up about.

All I can think is Justin would be so disappointed in my answers! He's been trying to "break" me of my "habit" of believing in ghosts and aliens for years now, LOL.

LOL, I mean POSTER.

I ended up not ticking the God box, because I don't think what I believe in fits with the connotations that capital-G-God has. Does that make sense?

'How do you explain'... I don't know, and that's alright! I'm just open to the possibility. And, well, seems like more people have seen ghosts than seen the afterlife, and it more reliable, less near-death conditions.

What's it say about me that I believe in demons but not angels? :P

This is true.