No, I don't believe in ghosts - but I'm clear as to the susceptibilty of the human mind to believe in them.
I well remember years ago spending a couple of nights on a remote uninhabited island in the Hebrides. Friends and I camped there in a long-deserted schoolhouse with no problems. But on another later occasion I spent a couple of nights in the same schoolhouse with two of the local fishermen who had taken us out there. After a couple of nights of their stories about the weird and wonderful goings on in the Islands I found myself looking over my shoulder hard when I went outside into the night for a pee!
It's all in the mind, and the more fertile your imagination the more you're likely to be convinced of ghostly activity. That said, I was once brought up short for a moment by an account by Gavin Maxwell (author of Ring of Bright Water, about the otters) where in one of his books he describes things flying off shelves in the house he wrote about. But then I remembered that, although highly intelligent, he was a very highly strung individual and was thus more liable to be vulnerable to his imagination. So, we can all be convinced about ghosts - given outside pressures - but I don't believe they really do exist.
Tony (shivering!)
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