Do You Believe In the paranormal and Did you ever experience supernatural Phenomena?

[free]

I like parapsychology. It is not only about ghosts and other scary things. It is investigation of things about our world and human beings in it that have not been explained yet.

[cacian]

I voted no. there is no such thing as paranormal. it is us that are or imagine to be.

[Iain Sparrow]

I like parapsychology. It is not only about ghosts and other scary things. It is investigation of things about our world and human beings in it that have not been explained yet.

Thus far in human history it has been, and will continue to be Science that unlocks the mysteries of the universe.

[YesNo]

I just voted yes, because I have seen the ghost of my aunt when she died over 20 years ago. I was in Maine, in graduate school, minding my own business, when she appeared in the student common room of the house where I was staying. We had a brief conversation in our minds and she vanished. Later I got a call from my parents saying that she had died.

Raymond Moody, who coined the term, "near death experience" called these experiences "shared death experiences". Although rare they are not that uncommon. There are two other members of my extended family who experienced something similar when a relative died.

When someone who is supposedly a scientist, who doesn't believe that such experiences are real, explains such things, what that person does is comes up with a rationalization of the experience so that it doesn't disturb his or her materialist metaphysics. That process is not science. It is rationalization or an inappropriate way to deal with cognitive dissonance.

There are scientists who study the paranormal. One that I have liked to read is Dean Radin.

[cacian]

I just voted yes, because I have seen the ghost of my aunt when she died over 20 years ago. I was in Maine, in graduate school, minding my own business, when she appeared in the student common room of the house where I was staying. We had a brief conversation in our minds and she vanished. Later I got a call from my parents saying that she had died.

Raymond Moody, who coined the term, "near death experience" called these type of experiences "shared death experiences". Although rare they are not that uncommon. There are two other members of my extended family who experienced something similar when a relative died.

When someone who is supposedly a scientist, who doesn't believe that such experiences are real, explains such things, what that person does is comes up with a rationalization of the an experience so that it doesn't disturb his or her materialist metaphysics. That process is not science. It is rationalization or an inappropriate way to deal with cognitive dissonance.

There are scientists who study the paranormal. One that I have liked to read is Dean Radin.

YesNo how do you mean by
''a conversation in our mind''?
and what was it that you said?

[YesNo]

Basically, words were exchanged, but I didn't actually hear them. It is like talking to oneself. She seemed concerned. I lived with her when I was around 10 for a year. She was a little hard to please from a 10-year old's perspective, but all she was was impatient and she and my uncle were arguing to help keep her on edge. What she said was, more or less, "I'm sorry." What I said was, more or less, "It OK."

[cacian]

Basically, words were exchanged, but I didn't actually hear them. It is like talking to oneself. She seemed concerned. I lived with her when I was around 10 for a year. She was a little hard to please from a 10-year old's perspective, but all she was was impatient and she and my uncle were arguing to help keep her on edge. What she said was, more or less, "I'm sorry." What I said was, more or less, "It OK."

interesting.
the other thing is why would she appear in a place you were at but one that she does not know of.
I thought ghosts only appeared in the place where they either died or they know,

[YesNo]

interesting.
the other thing is what would she appear in a place you were at but one that she does not know.
I thought ghosts only appeared in the place where they either died or they know,

Neither of us had any reason to know where the other one was. We were not close and had not seen each of in over a decade. She died thousands of miles from where I was studying. And yet the first time I thought of her in years was the time when she died.

Even if it was all in my mind, which is what I thought at the time, the coincidence of her death and this conversation makes me think there was more to it. Add to that the reports of other people who have had similar experiences and I conclude, whatever it was, it was not all in my mind.

There may be other types of ghosts that haunt places. I haven't experienced ghosts in that way, but, given the experience with my aunt, I have no reason to believe that such things don't happen.

[free]

Thus far in human history it has been, and will continue to be Science that unlocks the mysteries of the universe.

Sure.

[Emil Miller]

Thus far in human history it has been, and will continue to be Science that unlocks the mysteries of the universe.

Except the one that overides all others i.e. What is the reason for the universe ?

[free]

You mean, the ultimate truths, Emil? Why shouldn't they be the subject for science?

[Emil Miller]

You mean, the ultimate truths, Emil? Why shouldn't they be the subject for science?

I don't say that they shouldn't be of concern to science but human beings have been asking themselves what is the meaning of life and the universe since time immemorial and they are no nearer the answer than they have always been.

[YesNo]

Science has been studying the paranormal for over 100 years. Dean Radin's writing summarize the scientific results: http://www.deanradin.com/NewWeb/TCUindex.html Rupert Sheldrake attempts to build a falsifiable, scientific theory that incorporates mind on the idea of morphic fields. The bottom line for me of this research is that one cannot reduce mind or consciousness or first person awareness to any of the three currently promoted, and presumably unconscious, candidates: subatomic particles, selfish genes or neurons.

At the same time, we haven't figured out the meaning of life although the best first step is a belief that it is good.

I realize I could have avoided all that rambling by just saying I agree with both free and Emil Miller.

[Pompey Bum]

First of all, I want to carp about the category "I'm open minded about the subject." That is something that could apply to those who chose any of the other categories, from not believing to believing that everything can be explained by science (especially the latter, since science remains open to any new empirical data squeezing through its method). It would have been interesting to see the categories people would have chosen if that had not been an option. I suspect more people would have said no if they really had to choose.

Now that I've got that off my chest, I will believe in ghosts when they can be conjured up in laboratory conditions with repeatable results. Until then, they remain a matter of faith, and I do not have faith in their existence. (It is a source of amazement and amusement to me, by the way, how many people believe in ghosts, or souls, or soul mates, or a host of other things they find cool, but disdain faith in God as wishful thinking--but I guess that is for another discussion). I don't believe in ghosts, but of course I am open-minded to the possibility of their eventual "discovery."

I did have a strange experience, though, and I fully admit that at the time it was a little scary. It happened a few years ago when I was living in a country town in New England--not too remote but remote enough. My wife was visiting her family in the Far East at the time and I had been living on my own for about two months. One night in late September I was standing at our kitchen sink rinsing off some dishes. There is a window over the sink that looks into the back yard, and as I stood there, I saw a sudden small flash of light, maybe six feet above the ground, and about 100 feet away. It was much too large to have been a firefly but too small to have been much of anything else. If anyone here is old enough to remember that long extinct dinosaur of photography known as a flash cube, it had that sort of size and intensity.

My initial response was: What the hell was that? The thought or feeling that it had been supernatural didn't enter into my mind. It had happened so quickly and unexpectedly, though, that I didn't really know what I had seen. I wasn't ready for it. Then, perhaps 20 seconds later, there was a second flash, directly in front of the window. It created the frightening illusion that whatever had flashed the first time had flown directly at my face. That startled me to the point of physical fear, by which I mean that the hair on my arms stood on end. (Yes, yes, "PAM has hair on his arms." )

At that point I left the kitchen and sat in the chair where I like to read. I thought rational thoughts and read rational things, and after some time, I got a grip and actually went into the back yard. There was no sign of spooks, or aliens, or even soul mates. It was much to cold for anything like fireflies, though--the first cold night of the year.

That's sort of the end of the story, except for a strange dream I had that night (or actually the next early morning) that those who believe in ghosts may consider evidence for their view. It was a type of dream I have had all my life, although I get it only once or twice every few years. I dream that I wake up and get out of bed--the dream being so vivid, realistic, and accurate in detail that it may as well be real as far as my perception is concerned. But these dreams are always nightmares and always involve evil spirits or ghosts or whatever you want to call them. This was a relatively mild one.

In this dream, I awoke and, as usual, I talked a little with my wife a little before getting up. (That, of course, should have been the tell-tale sign that something was fishy, since she was in Taipei at the time). As we talked, though, I became increasingly aware that, although she looked and sounded like my wife, there was something missing; in some intangible way, it just wasn't her. At one point, she told me that the ground was very cold. "Just look outside," she said, "and you will see the frost." I got up, drew the curtains on a window back, and saw frost glistening in the morning light. I continued to have a strong feeling that this was not really my wife.

At that point, I turned and faced the woman, who unbeknownst to me had also risen and was standing directly behind me. I got a little start since she was closer to me than I had thought. Finally I looked her in the eyes and said, "Look, I don't mean to offend you, but I should tell you that I know that you aren't really [my wife's name]. The woman glared at me with a mixture of hatred and disdain, then turned around and stalked out of the bedroom. At that point I awoke for real and in terror. No ghost was there, and of course the window curtain was closed; but when I did draw it back, I looked down on the same frost glittering on the late September grass.

This was a dream, nothing more. It may have been brought on by the earlier fright, with the detail of the frost added simply because it was a cold night. Although it has not been exclusively so, I have tended to get that kind of vivid dream on nights when I find myself alone. After considerable scientific and spiritual reflection, I have decided that it's because I am a big wuss.

[Ecurb]

Abut five years ago my friend and longtime work colleague got married (she was middle-aged -- her second marriage). I had dinner at a table with her aunt and uncle. The uncle was Lewis Mudge, a theologian, Episcopal Priest, and former professor at Amherst and University of Chicago -- and my friend thought her aunt (a documentary film-maker) and uncle and I would hit it off, which is why she seated us together.

She was right. We had a great time at dinner and at the wedding. I told her how much I enjoyed her relatives.

About two months later, she came into my office at work. "Let's look google my uncle, whom you met at the wedding," she said. "I just want to show you how famous he is and how many books he's written."

So we googled him, and talked about my conversation with him and his wife, and how much I enjoyed their company.

The next day, my friend told me that her father had called that morning and told her that the uncle had died suddenly (he was 80 years old) at almost the exact time we were having our conversation the day before. What possessed her to think about her uncle at that precise moment?

Of course, any supernatural experience was hers -- not mine.

One side note: my friend's aunt and uncle once lived in Emily Dickinson's old house in Amherst.