For me, it's not as much about "do you believe" as in "what is it". Just like with UFOs, the term "ghost" sort of creates a dumbed down media stigma with a giggle factor. In all seriousness, this thing we call “ghosts” should be looked into further as I am convinced there’s something going on. I would recommend a change of name though to get rid of the taboo baggage.

I don’t know what it is, but it exists and its unpredictable and extremely hard to understand or come to terms with. It is a mixed bag with several types of phenomena. But it’s there.

I’ve experienced a few paranormal events or “situations” – I think most people have. From things turning on by themselves to premonitions and even strange lights in the sky. However, it is the 2016 “event” that changed things.
From February to June I was in complete turmoil as my marriage had failed. I was constantly thinking of what to do next and plan accordingly like the adult that I was. I felt – at the time – I only had one shot at getting it “right” next time. I pressured myself immensely about making the right decisions for the future without knowing what the future would bring.
And then, someone came.

Never before or since have I had this sensation or experience. It was like another person transferred feelings of care and love to me and used my human, biological traits for the cause. I have always cared for my mother, like most do, but suddenly this was jacked up to new heights. I had no idea what was going on, but clearly someone was trying to communicate with me through my own emotions. In May I had not told my parents about my marriage breaking up yet, and I was struggling to tell them. I was driving home from them one night and I was thinking out loud how no one knew.

“But I know,” was the message that came to me.
There was two consciousness types within me and it was shocking to be part of.

By late May I was quite convinced this personality/consciousness that had entered me or stayed close to me was my grandmother on my mothers side. I never got to know her well due to sickness, and I remember being equally fascinated and pleased with actually having some form of “new” relationship to my grandmother 22 years after she passed. It was very, very personal. And the level of compassion that flowed into me from this external source was breathtaking. Her care for me, and for her daughter (my mother) was completely off the charts.

This lasted for some months, and then it started to disappear. I had made some decisions by then.

People will say it was only me being emotional. However, my real emotional reactions to the marriage breaking up only came later that fall. And I tried once again to find this mental state I had that spring of someone being there trying to call upon whatever it did that to me that spring. I did not find it or feel it again, and I could not awake or call it back. It stayed while I was trying to make decisions and I was left with my struggles once I was on my way. I have never, ever felt it since.

Instead of trying to brush it aside like it was me playing games with myself, I have chosen to embrace the event, and accept that consciousness is not dying with the body. Some of these so called mediums and spiritualists are onto something, and I felt it back in the spring of 2016.

My God you're still here. For me these days, GNR doesn't take full focus. Hardly anything at all. GNR is only fun when it's unpredictable. Like Absurd. When it's not, I loose interest. But I'll try to remember the community and perhaps circle back to forums and stay off social media.

It's hard to judge the present. I'm not gonna say he's "never been happier". The truth always comes out a few years down the road when you can look back and judge the situation. Maybe Axl will come out and say "yeah, 2016 was so fucking good for us" maybe he won't.

But considering they had a war going on for decades and then patched things up on the phone, well, perhaps it wasn't all that complicated after all. Axl won, he got his way. Slash caved. Perhaps that's just as good.

She said bring a flag. Celebrate their...well...whatever they were doing. It's just used as a greeting, like "welcome".