Scared of spooky places

[chaggle]

Is there anyone else, like me, who doesn't believe in ghosts (at least not since I was about 9) but would be scared to spend a night alone in a spooky old house on a misty cold night, with strange sounds and stuff like that?

[lost thought]

Is there anyone else, like me, who doesn't believe in ghosts (at least not since I was about 9) but would be scared to spend a night alone in a spooky old house on a misty cold night, with strange sounds and stuff like that?

After a stint in the british army sleeping out in the dutch woods or sleeping under the wagons. That sounds like luxury but that was a long time ago but I can still sleep on a razor blade in a storm no problem.
Ghostire and kelpies hold no fears for me just fundies terrify me.

[chaggle]

Ghostire and kelpies.

What's them?

[lost thought]

What's them?

My typo should be "ghosties and kelpies".
ghostie any white sheet with or without eyes floating in the air..;D
kelpie any sea or fresh water beastie with big teeth to gobble you up with i.e nessie. ;D

[chaggle]

My typo should be "ghosties and kelpies".
ghostie any white sheet with or without eyes floating in the air..;D
kelpie any sea or fresh water beastie with big teeth to gobble you up with i.e nessie. ;D


Sod the brandy, I'm going to have a whisky. All ready for tomorrow night lostthought? We here in southern Spain have managed to catch a Haggis and we're going for it in style. And I'm from Somerset!

[Trinoc]

Sod the brandy, I'm going to have a whisky. All ready for tomorrow night lostthought? We here in southern Spain have managed to catch a Haggis and we're going for it in style. And I'm from Somerset!
Oh my gawd ... is it Third Degree Burns Night again already?

[chaggle]

Actually the OP is a serious question. Are rational people like us susceptible to irrational fears? I know that I wouldn't like to spend a night alone in Borley Rectory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borley_Rectory

[bindeweede]

[quote=chaggle;52634 We here in southern Spain have managed to catch a Haggis and we're going for it in style. And I'm from Somerset![/quote]

The wild ones are getting rarer, even in Scotland. I'm having to make do with the farmed sort.:shocked:

[lost thought]

Sod the brandy, I'm going to have a whisky. All ready for tomorrow night lostthought? We here in southern Spain have managed to catch a Haggis and we're going for it in style. And I'm from Somerset!

As usual I will be working but I have my fave peom which I will be reading to my lonesome self, Ahhh. shame. :'(

To A Mouse.

Wee sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an chase thee,
Wi murdering pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion.
An fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve:
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma request;
I'll get a blessin wi the lave,
An never miss't!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An naething, now, to big a new ane,
O foggage green!
An bleak December's win's ensuin.
Baith snell an keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an waste,
An weary winter comin fast.
An cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro thy cell.

That wee bit heap o leaves an stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble.
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o mice an men
Gang aft agley,
An lea'e us nought but grief an pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An forward, tho I canna see,
I guess an fear!


Ah that was great, but I think you would like "Tam o' Shanter".
If you ask nice I'll post it up for you. O0

[Lord Muck oGentry]

http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/holy_willie.htm

Holy Willie's Prayer is my favourite.Mind you, I'm prejudiced, as it's the only one I've been asked to recite at a Burns Supper.

Now, must dash. There's a brace of fresh-caught wild haggis marinating in the cooking whisky...

[chaggle]

I like gravy (Bisto instant will do) with my haggis, neaps and tatties as I find it all a bit dry otherwise.

[chaggle]

My typo

Wee sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an chase thee,
Wi murdering pattle!



lost thought - the whole bloody thing must be a typo!!!

[Trinoc]

I tried haggis once. The sooner they are made an endangered species so nobody hunts and eats them any more, the better, I say! :tongue:

[Lord Muck oGentry]

I tried haggis once. The sooner they are made an endangered species so nobody hunts and eats them any more, the better, I say! :tongue:

Keep huntin' and eatin': that'll endanger 'em. ;D

[Mulder]

Is there anyone else, like me, who doesn't believe in ghosts (at least not since I was about 9) but would be scared to spend a night alone in a spooky old house on a misty cold night, with strange sounds and stuff like that?

I believe in ghosts, but I don't have a problem with spooky places.

[seren]

Whereas I have a problem with spooky places, but don't believe in ghosts.

It's most definitely not the supernatural that worries me, it's people. I'm frightened of the face at the window (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/may/12/comment.charliebrooker), of the creaking of floorboards perhaps indicating an intruder...horrible paranoia, basically.

I recently discovered I'm also frightened of wild animals, after a night spent in a house in the rural Himalayas during which I was woken up by the most spine-chilling of howls. All I could think about was how unlocked and ajar the door was.
Found out afterwards it was a fox.

Yes, complete coward, but no, not afraid of ghosts.

[Mulder]

I think your ancient survival instincts are probably stronger than in most others ...

[Mongrel]

Found out afterwards it was a fox.

Even domestic foxes can be unnerving if you don't know what they are.

As for the OP, I think 'spooky' is just a remnant of survival instinct, what we now call creepy would used to have been "things that could kill us in the dark".

[chaggle]

after a night spent in a house in the rural Himalayas during which I was woken up by the most spine-chilling of howls.

Go on.. Admit it.. you thought it might be a Yeti just for a few seconds.. didn't you?


domestic foxes

er...

[seren]

;D

Thankfully not THAT far up in the Himalayas! It would have been too cold to leave the door ajar!

No, sorry I remain paranoid only about things that really exist: it sounded like a person. It was only hearing it yap and snarl
( :shocked: ) made me sure it wasn't (not that a snarling wild beast was a much better proposition).

Even then, you know, rabies makes people do strange things...is it a rabid man wandering around the valley?

These are the kinds of thoughts I have! ::)

[Mongrel]

er...

???
Domestic - British, native to these fair damp and grey shores. The red and white garbage raiding ones that sound like someone's running a baby torturing contest

[chaggle]

???
Domestic - British, native to these fair damp and grey shores. The red and white garbage raiding ones that sound like someone's running a baby torturing contest

Oh, that domesticO0

[lost thought]

lost thought - the whole bloody thing must be a typo!!!

Heritic thems the mans ane wurds, a canny hilp it if in ye canny mak it oot. ;D
It who he spelt thum, as he spakit he spelpit.

Translation.. O0

Oh you Heritic, this was how the man wrote his poems.
If you are unable to understand I can not help.
He wrote the words the same way he spoke them.

Speak the words out it is easier to read. O0

[chaggle]

;D

Thankfully not THAT far up in the Himalayas!

OK.

So how far up have you got to go?::)

[seren]

Well Yetis are generally found above the winter snow line....(do I have to go on?!) ;D

[Trinoc]

Well Yetis are generally found above the winter snow line....(do I have to go on?!) ;D
That would be how many more found above the snow line than below, exactly? :smiley:

[Croydon Bob]

That would be how many more found above the snow line than below, exactly?

>sigh< None have ever been found below the snow line and that PROVES that they live above it of course.

[Trinoc]

>sigh< None have ever been found below the snow line and that PROVES that they live above it of course.
Ah yes. Absence of evidence is evidence of presence elsewhere. I should have remembered.

[ZERO]

You're not likely to get nice, big footprints in the snow below the snow line are you. ::)

[Trinoc]

You're not likely to get nice, big footprints in the snow below the snow line are you. ::)
Ah ... a variant on the old looking for the keys under the street lamp idea ... :smiley:

[lost thought]

You're not likely to get nice, big footprints in the snow below the snow line are you. ::)

How about a nice fresh log or two if it eats its gonna have to......;D

[Edinburgh-Skeptics]

Fear of the dark (an evolutionary throwback to when, as some one said earlier, things in the dark could eat us) is a bit different to the unnerving feeling of "Haunted" locations.

I think its more to do with childhood. As a child you tend to believe in ghosts and are naturally scared, especially in a location said to be haunted- even if its just a room in your well lit modern house. But then when you mature and realise ghosts (probably) don't exist you're still left with that child hood feeling. When you are in a "Haunted" location emotionally you remember what you felt as a child and therefore become scared of shadows and creeks.

Thats my theory on it any way.

[bobdezon]

I would spend the night anywhere, I have no fear of allegedly haunted locations. Infact I would stay there alone, with no form of illumination if required. I would be more concerned about burglars than ghosts. Poor burglars may soon become ghosts themselves though if they stumbled over me in the dark ;D

[Croydon Bob]

Didn't Richard Wiseman do work on why certain places seem spooky? didn't he do this work in Edinburgh? Very brief summary here: http://www.richardwiseman.com/research/ghosts3.html