I love studies and surveys. This is one that I found this morning...
But first...
I think that we know each other well enough that I can admit this to you without too much judgement! I believe in ghosts. And I am 100% serious here. I believe in ghosts and spirits.
I have had a couple of encounters with ghosts in my lifetime. The first encounter was when we tried to actually summon a spirit with a Ouija board. It was when I was in college and we wanted to summon the ghost of a student who had jumped to their death from our radio station tower years before. We shut off all of the lights in the studio and did our thing. It was terrifying. From that night on, I decided that if I were going to have an encounter with a ghost, the ghost was going to come to me. I didn't sleep for a few nights after that.
Fast forward twenty plus years. It was a warm summer morning and I was leaving for work. I was walking down the sidewalk and to my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone standing in the parking lot. I did a double take. Yes, I saw someone standing there but they didn't look like a 'normal' person. There was something off about how they looked. They looked like watercolor. I blinked and looked again and they were gone. Ghost. It couldn't have been a person because the night was dead silent and there were no foot falls. So yep. Ghost. I wasn't scared. I never felt threatened. I simply accept that they walk amongst us.
Now let's go back about a week. It was a windy morning and I was leaving for work. Ugh. I get all the way downstairs and realize I forgot my coffee on the kitchen counter. I unlocked the door, went up, got my coffee, told the cats I loved them and went back downstairs. As I was locking my door from the outside, I felt this weird vibration behind me...and a swooshing sound. I figured it was the wind and continued to mess with the door. (I have a hand injury and it was a struggle to get the door locked.) Then it happened again. Only this time, the wind had totally stopped and the air was as still as can be. The vibration was actually audible this time around and I could feel it behind me. I turned and of course, no one was there. How bizarre. Then the wind picked back up and the leaves started swirling around and around in the parking lot. There was definitely someone there to say hi. I have zero doubts in my mind about that. But once again, I never felt fear or felt like there was bad intent in the visit. I think someone just wanted to stop by and say good morning. So what did I do? I said good morning back, got in my car and went about my day. I've told only a handful of people about the encounter. Most of the time I get the "whatever" response but I have believers in my circle, too.
So now we can get to the study I found on YouGov.
Do we think Ghostbusters was a docu? Hahaha. Maybe some of us do.
In the survey, they found 45% of Americans believe that ghosts are real. 13% of those surveyed said that they have communicated directly with the ghost of someone who had died. And 36% said that they have felt the presence of a supernatural being, like a ghost or spirit.
Now 45% also believe that demons are real.
What about vampires, though? 13% think the vamps are real. You know...if Dracula were real, I think that we would be pretty good buddies!
Now you think I'm weird, don't you?