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Ayn Rand's ghost, real or a sophisticated prank?

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http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/Ayn_Rand's_Ghost_Responds

I think it sounds very much like something she would say and I don't see how someone could possibly make it up.  Paranormal occurances are usually not covered by the mainstream media, probably due to the lack of explanation for it so I wouldn't be suprised such a wild occurance would be so unheard of.  

I don't know about you, but I think paranormal beings are very real, because I have been haunted by them first hand and know many other people who have too.  I was haunted by one while staying at my aunts house one time as a little kid, and some of my family members were too.  I thoroughly believe in ghosts, just don't have a rational way to explain why they exist.  People back in the old days couldn't explain why people got a certain disease for example, but they knew it existed, so just because we don't know WHY paranormal beings exist, doesn't mean we can't assume they exist since there is plenty of testimony by many people.    

It is so funny though, I know exactly how she feels when she says "f*ck you!" over and over again because that's exactly how I sound when I'm enraged and at my wits end with someone.

Edited by Dreamspirit
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I don't imagine her coming back from the dead just to talk to some local news reporters and drop f bombs.

Seriously, if Ayn Rand of all people, were going to come "back from the dead" ( a meaningless phrase), I suspect she would probably go talk to Peikoff or something personal like that.

So if you have seen weird things that you can't explain the best thing to do is to keep to exactly what you saw and do nothing else. I know it is very easy to put one's symbols down on anything they can't immediately verify but you must avoid doing this.

I am not discounting that whatever it is you saw was outside of the norm, but what I am saying is that it is out of the question to state that it is a ghost. A ghost is a concept that was given to you, taught to you, by stories that your community told you. When you see something ghost-like it may be easy to say "oh yes, that is a ghost", however one should not do this because whatever strange things you saw could easily be explained by dozens of contradicting theories.

The Undead

Local Gods (Like a river spirit)

Aliens

Demons

The Architect is rewriting some other part of the matrix, and there are glitches, so dead people's files are popping up. Patch day you know?

A mage is attacking you with a vissage of the dead, ghosts don't exist, but witchcraft does.

Hysteria

Subspace Anomalies

As you can see I can throw out dozens of mythologies that could explain whatever it is you saw.

1. Stick to what you directly experienced

2. Learn with known methods like experimentation

3. Try to relate that information to the rest of your concepts.

Who knows maybe you will discover some new form of life that is usually "out of phase" or something.

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Yes well, I didn't see anything.  I didn't say it was a ghost necessarily, but I was being  "haunted." What I heard and experienced could have been an animal and some cold air, but I seriously doubt it since my sister who was in the same room was really creeped and my father had some similar experiences earlier in the night.  Ghosts are usually the most rational explanation for hauntings in old houses.  I define a "haunting" as someone thinking they saw, felt, or heard a being who is not alive. I woke up VERY cold to some strange scratching and human like sounds as well as the door mysteriously creeping open when I was half asleep multiple times in the night.  I tell this to my family and they don't understand how I can remember it, because I was only 8, they think I'm nuts, but I can be sure of what happened.  My dad only vaguely remembers that he heard very creepy, strange sounds.  I have a very strong episodic memory and I remember little details from things I did, like dogs I petted and toys I played with even from when I'm 2. I don't seem how it makes sense to take all the other ridiculous paranormal theories into account, these sorts of things are very specific to the concept of "ghosts" (whether they can all be classified the same I have no idea but I think the concept is good enough to use).  If such things do indeed exist, they are ghosts, because most of the proof pointing to it would only be true if they are indeed dead people haunting the space they passed away in.

Edited by Dreamspirit
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What I am saying is that you are talking about things that you can't know. For instance, you kept using the word "dead". Well what did you perceive that would indicate that something was dead/undead? You are extrapolating one experience into a narrative about someone who was once alive now occupying a house as a spirit. That is not a safe leap.

Once when I was young I saw silhouette petting my dog in the hallway, after I blinked the shadow disappeared. I am fairly sure that everyone else was asleep.

What did I see? I don't know. It was creepy at the time (although looking back on it whatever it was just liked my dog, so no worries).

Ultimately I will never know what that was. Until I experience that thing again, I won't ever have a chance of knowing.

Besides it was probably a vampire.

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The blog strikes me as obvious satire. It was no prank; a prank implies that the author was trying to convince people that Ayn Rand's ghost actually appeared. I doubt the author was really trying to convince anyone. I think he was just using artistic license to make a point. Think, "The Onion."

I don't want to discount your childhood experiences, DreamSpirit, I'm sure the fear and creepiness you felt were real. But, "it's a haunting," is one of the least rational explanations for spooky noises and feelings. Old houses express their age in noise as the house shifts, drafts from poor insulation, and uninvited animals who've nested in the walls. The human mind has a natural psychological need to connect the dots; when no dots are there it will make them up.

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Yeah, it is not even a very good spoof. Ayn Rand just was not to my knowledge the sort to say this kinde of thing ( or at leastt to worde things in this manner). Why woulde her "ghost" be different? :

"AR: Greenspan! Please - darling boy, do not talk to me about that panty sniffer. He was always trying to bed me. I even caught him stealing my panties from my luggage. Does he talk about that, when he is recommending my book? I will bet not. He is maybe the biggest Looter of them all. I abhor Central Banks as anyone who reads my work for 10 minutes can tell you."

Yeah, not something she would say. Yeah, you imply she might be speaking in a way that might normally be out of character, but this is just as arbitrary as the assertion that this is her in the first place.

I agree that the site is probably some sort of crazy spoof. That and the site is generally very badly written anyway. It should not fool anyone, though I do not think it is meant to,

Edited by Prometheus98876
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I'm not sure if this is really a person without a body manipulating physical objects somehow, but maybe this gives some evidence for the existance of ghosts:

One time I awoke abruptly with a shock as though someone had tried to rouse me from my sleep. I frantically searched the room but no one was there! I was filled with great fear, and it was at that moment I smelled something and realized I had farted hard enough to wake myself up. Perhaps it was a ghost fart?

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I too thought some of the things were pretty off for even an impersonation of her, and I figured they were slanting some of the things she said and making fun of her to make her look bad, however, I do think that this may have been something that actually happened.  

These two quotes are things that sound very much like something she might say:

I hear every word from these imbeciles and I have reached the point where I can no longer allow it to happen.  Nobody else has spoken up to these people, so I took it upon myself to speak up and say to them, that which needs to be said.

Objectivism is a moral code and not a permission slip for amoral destruction.

With all the people out there using objectivism incorrectly for some kind of libertoonian tool I would think this might be something she would want to clarify if she had an idea of what was happening and could be interviewed.  I don't think she would say things so goofy in the other two responses though, even in a very casual interview. How could someone even come up with the idea for this for the purpose of a stupid satire joke?  I wonder if you could contact the actual people who supposedly witnessed it and ask them if they are really serious.

Edited by Dreamspirit
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I too thought some of the things were pretty off for even an impersonation of her, and I figured they were slanting some of the things she said and making fun of her to make her look bad, however, I do think that this may have been something that actually happened.

These two quotes are things that sound very much like something she might say:

I hear every word from these imbeciles and I have reached the point where I can no longer allow it to happen. Nobody else has spoken up to these people, so I took it upon myself to speak up and say to them, that which needs to be said.

Objectivism is a moral code and not a permission slip for amoral destruction.

With all the people out there using objectivism incorrectly for some kind of libertoonian tool I would think this might be something she would want to clarify if she had an idea of what was happening and could be interviewed. I don't think she would say things so goofy in the other two responses though, even in a very casual interview. How could someone even come up with the idea for this for the purpose of a stupid satire joke? I wonder if you could contact the actual people who supposedly witnessed it and ask them if they are really serious.

So, because you think that those quotes sound like something you think she would say, you are assuming it is probably her? Even though there is evidence that it probably is not her ( such as the totally out of character quotes ) and it is far more likely to be some sort of spoof/hoax? Sorry, that makes no sense.

Maybe the author simply knows enough about Ayn Rand to create a few pretend quotes from her that do sound authentic.

As for how someone could up with this a joke : I dont know. But the fact that you cannot think of reason for someone doing thiks => assuming it probably is not, smacks of something like the old "Appeal from incredulity" logical fallacy. You are assuming this stuff is too fantastic to be faked, therefore it isnt. But that is not valid reasoning sorry.

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Do you see how important it is to adhere to rational judgment of reality? The fact that you have allowed yourself to believe in the ability of a consciousness to exist apart from a brain or living organism, based on nothing but emotional responses to the unknown, has made you so gullible as to believe something that is clearly satire - and clearly labeled as such.

How many of these stories do you consider honest or potentially factual?

Edited by brian0918
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Yeah, it is pretty strange that lots of people on *this* forum of all places woud respond to an extremely bizarre thread like this . Definitely an inordinate number of replies. ;) Or not , sarcasm aside.

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