Dealing With Family Members that see ghosts

[Bloodletter]

In a recent road trip from Los Angeles to Seattle, My grandma experienced some ghostly encounters. Sometimes she says she feels the sadness at a place or has a bad feeling and other times she claims she sees the ghost as clear as day right in front of her. This is not the first time she has claimed these experiences. She has alwys believed in ghosts and mostly everyone in my family also believe in ghosts except for me. They always ask me to tell them how I can still deny ghosts exists when my grandma is clearly seeing something and being honest. I always answer with "It s impossible for me to explain what you have seen because I am not you and I wasn't there." My grandma is as sharp as a tack and does not express any signs of dementia. It is just hard sometimes to be skeptical without insulting them because I say there may be other explanations than it was a ghost. Anyways, Does anyone have any suggestions as how to discuss this with them without insulting their worldview?

[sophia8]

It's important here to find out if your grandma is actually seeing these "ghosts" as real objects or if she just getting a mental impression. If so, has she always seen ghosts? If this is a new phenomena with her, she may have brain damage from a minor stroke; alternatively, she could have some age-related deterioration in her eyes - cataracts, glaucoma etc.
If she believes in ghosts and the paranormal then of course she'll interpret these fleeting visions as ghosts. So she won't take kindly to being told she ought to have a medical check - it may be best to discuss this with family members first. Tackle the subject as tactfully as possible and avoid any suggestion that she's going ga-ga. She's clearly not.
First of all, before you say anything to anybody, google for age-related illnesses and do some reading. Then you could point out to these family members that she's the only person who is seeing things, and ask them why this is. Then suggest some of the diagnoses you've read about.

[Tipush]

If it wasn't your grandma we are talking about, I would suggest differently, Buy assuming your Grandma isn't very young (I was thinking of about 70, is that correct?) I would just try to shut up about it.
Alot of old people (65 and over) that I have met, get very furstrated with the fact that they are getting old, starting to count their dead relatives and see how they are less needed. Their kids are grown, their grandkids also. They can't do the things they used to do and it's very painful as a human being to figure out your time is almost up.
Arguing with her about it will only hurt her, and I am assuming the rest of the family might tell her as well if you keep saying you don't believe her.

Try to stay out of it, if possible.

Tip

[Bloodletter]

She says she has always been able to see them. She describes them not as vague flashes but as a full on person.

[CLD]

She has alwys believed in ghosts and mostly everyone in my family also believe in ghosts except for me.

If your Gram has believed in something her entire life, it's unlikely she's going to stop believing at such an advanced age.

[zombiebex]

My great grandmother experienced something similar before dementia set in. She didn't say they were ghosts, though, she dismissed them as seeing things. She'd see "shadow people," and I remember reading something on damninteresting.com that sounded like what she described. Of course, the site is down right now...

My grandpa also used to describe sensations of people pushing him when he walked. Again, he could have said it was a ghost, but just chalked it up to being old and his feet not moving as fast as he wanted them to.