Excuse me but there is a ghost on my boat.

You are on the right side, when someone getting close to death promises to send a message from the "other side", and it comes to pass after their death in the exact way promised, twice in my case, you then "know", you don't have to believe on trust, in fact there is no option but to believe.

 

Since rwatson mentioned lights I had an unexplained experience with light in another way....

My best friend, a very religious and part time preacher, joined me on a trip to Johannesburg to go fetch an 18ft cabin cruiser boat. We left JHB late at dusk and started our 300km odd trip back to the Free State.
We had an unevent full trip, the 4x4 behaving nicely, so the four wheel trailer of the boat. Because we decided on a Tuesday to do the trip traffic was scarce, moreso on the Free State side. About 40km from my hometown Welkom - about 20km outside of Kroonstad a strange thing happened.

To put this event in perspective, let me amplify on the terrain - there is a common saying that if to stand on an ant heap in the Free State, you can see three days into the future. Welkom is smack centre in this flat desolated flat lands which is also the maize belt of SA. The time this event happened, the farmlands were barren - land awaiting seeding.

As said, we were about 20km out of the last town of the trip on this quite desolated road at night, when suddenly there was a very bright light (strange blueish white) behind us. My buddy and I surprised where the hell it just came from, because with no traffic at all, I would have spotted him a few kilometers away in the rear mirrors, but as said, the light were just there.
It was so bright, I had to dim the inside mirror, could have drive with my lights off and could easily see the trailer wheels on the road, but could not the vehicle following due to the high cabin of the boat. I mentioned to my buddy why dont he pass us because the road is open, but it just stayed put on my tail. This lasted for about three quarters to a minute and suddenly the lights disappeared much like switching it off. I said to my friend I believe the car behind us left the road and smashed because of the lights gone out suddenly.
We stopped and got out and because it was full moon, could see for miles about - no wreck, no turnoffs except for flat barren fenced farmlands...

I placed a letter in the local newspaper if someone else experienced this phenomenon or knew of an accident that happened at the spot, but there were no takers.
This event still make me wonder what happened that night about 3 years ago, what had we witnessed.

 

Like you, I am a magnet to this spirits. I have been experiencing this sort of things lately in my new house. Vanishing tools, parts, ect. which turns up later when you are not looking for it.

I have had too many experience with this paranormal activities, in several of the house I stayed in at home or in another country. I believe it can happen to anyone but not to everyone. As Mr. Efficiency said "They call you, you don't call them".

To me it is just a personal experience. Nothing to be gained from it, will not make money nor fame from it so life goes on.

On a personal level, I don't have any religious affiliations, so it is not belief based on religion. Just acceptance.

So when skeptics ask me "Do you believe in that crap?", I just smile and say, "it is a non-material thing so it would not matter to you". After all, it is just a personal experience.

 

Well I can see I missed my meaning.
Beliefs are conclusions drawn by others and at times are not subject to further debate. At least in polite conversation. I did make a mistake in drawing an example in specific from the statement of a forum member- unnecessary and impolite.

Sooooo.

To me there are two aspects of this- what is observed, and the meaning applied to the observation.

Experience is irrefutable- "It happened to me" Is a statement that can be excepted at face value by reasonable people when received from other reasonable people.

The meaning applied to the experience is a whole nother thing..
To my mind, explanations are best viewed in the context of those explanations which are present in the broader society.
Flashing lights in the sky are alien technologies in flight, tunnel vision in deeply injured bodies is a path to the next life.
These are cultural ideals based on far broader beliefs. So little is provided in the observation that the broader belief is required to accept these as valid explanations.
The observation itself is not compelling, it becomes so due to the meaning we ascribe to it.

So no rawston I don't think I missed the point:

A common observation is of scant interest to me and I give it little thought as so little can be concluded from a flashing light seen in the sky.

I am not "dismissing the observation", just questioning a broadly accepted meaning assigned to it.

 

I had a encounter one night while driving a truck.

It turned out to be a fighter jet from a local base.

I was half alseep @ 3AM when he buzzed me, scared the **** out of me.

I guess he hit the after burner just as he passed over me, I thought the world was coming to an end.

I didn't know he was there till he was gone. I'd bet he laughed his @ss off.

 

At the risk of being boring, may I stress that I was not assigning any meaning to the event, nor was I supporting any meaning supplied by the photographers

Nor was the discussion in support, or claiming the existence of UFO's or any of the meanings supplied by the photographers.

It was stating my observation that :
1) That there were numerous unexplained lights over Mexico City, for several days, observed by many reliable sources.
2) That on receipt of this information, official news organizations failed to request more details or explore the story.
3) The phenomena was only reported and recorded by potentially biased enthusiasts.

They did as you did and also thought "common observation is of scant interest to me and I give it little thought "

Your comment "so little can be concluded from a flashing light seen in the sky" wasn't in line with the meaning I was intending to convey. If you had asked "why wasn't there a concerted effort by government agencies to investigate such a large number of unexplained lights, so reliably observed by so many people." then you would have got my point.

The point is, that when unequivocal, proven phenomena are observed, many people purposely ignore it, and so 'statistics' and 'events' are only ever compiled by biased and sometimes misguided 'enthusiasts'. This one sided history can then be ignored by serious researchers on the basis of unreliability.

And, IMHO, the 'blind eye' attitude that creates the the blanket dismissal , is as illogical as many as the 'explanations' of the phenomena by proponents.