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I've enjoyed reading the various tales in this thread.  I was a bit non-plussed with the idea that when, while taking a shower, you call out your sister's name, and an unknown female voice answers instead, your response is to continue your shower unconcerned.  Unidentified people at large in my house would get me moving immediately.

A friend of my father told this tale. In his student days he and a buddy were out camping, and were awoken in fright by a horse galloping through their campsite in the dark of night. He then told of hearing his buddy recount the event at various times over the years, gradually improving till it had grown into a full-blown ghost story.  (Of course, it could have been my father's friend who was inventing a good tale, rather than his alleged buddy.)

And earlier in the thread someone observed that ghosts very much tend to appear to people who see ghosts. I think that must be correct - skeptics report very few encounters and some people - including a lady on Bnet not present in this thread - report so many that ghosts are almost routine.  It simply means that the more readily you allow supernatural explanations for odd events, the more supernatural explanations you'll adopt.

My own story is like this.  It's a bit after 8 am on a cloudless summer morning that's going to be a scorcher.  I'm waiting for my friends to come back from breakfast and pick me up.  We've stayed overnight with student friends in another city, in a very large two-storey brick house that's marked for demolition - indeed the long boundary wall had a notable bow in it.  The student friends of ours who rent the house have all gone off to work or lectures &c.  I wander back through the house wondering if I've left anything behind.  In the alcove under the long straight staircase in the hall is a small table with the phone on it.  Recalling that I made a couple of calls, I wander over to check it.  As I stand there, someone walks across the upstairs landing and runs down the stairs.  Wondering who's still at home, I step out to look.  The footsteps run quickly and lightly past my nose, but there's no one there to make them.  The hair on the back of my neck stands on end and I decamp at great speed out into the sunlight.

Years later I came on a statement in a book.  It said that the frames of old houses can shift, and this can induce each of the stairs to spring one after the other as the stresses realign, giving a sound very like someone running down it.  This is most likely to happen either as the house heats up in the morning, or cools in the evening.

I think that's exactly what happened.

But then, I would, wouldn't I.

Erey wrote:

... What would stop a scientist from obtaining proof?...

The complete and utter lack of any proof what so ever would he quite a hindrance to obtaining proof.

I do feel like this level of trustworthy scientific proof would be enough to facilitate a paradigm shift of sorts.

So far it has not caused any paradigm shift. Those that believe in ghosts and such will not accept any scientific findings that show that ghosts do not exist. THEY are the ones that need to change their believing, not the scientists or skeptics.

Erey wrote:

see, i totally see that as a possiblility.  Why not?  What would stop a scientist from obtaining proof?  Regardless of what people do with that proof is something else all togheter.

I do feel like this level of trustworthy scientific proof would be enough to facilitate a paradigm shift of sorts.

I totally see that as a possibility, too.   :)  I'm not sure what some people are referring to as ghosts in this discussion. But without proof, it's a hard pitch to sell.