I'm really getting disappointed that there are so many ghost hunter shows around, and frankly, so many people hunting ghosts with no idea what the hell is going on.  When I was ten, and my friends tried to scare the crap out of me with "ghosts," all they could offer was stories of their distant uncle who told them about this time that a book hovered off his table or something of the sort. It made sense that if they weren't physical things, then they couldn't physically hurt me.  I didn't know WHY it made sense, it just did.  I was the first kid in the bathroom saying "Bloody Mary" to the mirror over and over.  While I'll admit that Candyman DID scare the crap out of me, I still went into the bathroom and said "Candyman" repeatedly as well.

Now when people find out I don't believe in ghosts, they point to the myriad of ghost hunters on tv, in books, wherever, and THAT's the proof.  Most of the time I hear about or see ghost hunters and their "work," I am flabbergasted at the conclusions made.  "Well, this is an odd reading (on whatever gadget is being used), THIS PROVES THERE IS A GHOST HERE!!"

Most of the equipment they use was NOT designed for hunting ghosts, number 1.  My car isn't designed for towing.  I can do it, sure, but it's going to act like a car, not a towtruck.  Just because you get a funny noise on a tape doesn't mean anything at all, except you have a funny noise.  When people think they see funny shapes that look like something or hear a funny noise that sounds like something, it's much more likely to be paredolia (which is known and understood) than other-dimensionly-beings or demons (something NOT known and NOT understood).  I'm not saying that I know ghosts don't exist, only that your fuzzy picture and questionable recording don't prove that they do.  Not by a longshot.  (paredolia is the tendancy for humans to connect randomness into patterns for recognition.  Inkblot tests are one manifestation of this tendancy)

I also see a lot of electromagnetic data being claimed to support the presense of ghosts.  Still, nobody can explain to me how ghosts have anything to do with electricity OR magnetism, so I'll just stop there.

I also have seen MANY pictures of supposed ghosts that look like fuzzy spots, over compensated exposures, balls of light, etc.  The insides of cameras are very complex.  Even more complex with the common employ of digital cameras.  LOTS of things can go wrong in an exposure, and any professional photographer (read, "someone who makes his bread AND butters it by taking pictures") will attest to how difficult it is to get any decent shots without lensflare, dust, or a million other artifacts in certain situations.  Take my friend who won't even claim to be an amateur photographer, let him shoot a $200 digicam with a hundred moving parts inside and mulitple pieces of shiny glass, and I'll bet you dimes to dollars he'll find some "ghosts" just about anywhere.

I guess I'm not bent that people believe in ghosts.  Just that they don't follow a good process to GET to their belief in ghosts, but can't believe that I don't believe.