Shoshin on 17/6/2008 at 18:01
I had an experience as a teenager. I was spending the night at a friend's house, and I woke up in the middle of the night. I could hear, just out of my range of vision, some fearsome beast prowling. Only the hint of it appeared in my vision, as I was unable to turn my head, but my mind quickly created a slavering, demonic animal of some kind. I remember that night so distinctly, even now, 20+ years later. I was as afraid as I have ever been in my life, so scared that I thought I was literally paralyzed with fear, since I couldn't move. Finally, the thing left & I was able to voice my fear (waking my friend, who was sleeping in the same room as I was).
It remained this singular example of a moment I could not explain in an otherwise completely skeptical life. Luckily, it was (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis) explained for me.
Even with the explanation, it was and is still the freakiest moment I've ever experienced, and I have no problem at all understanding how a person could interpret an experience like it as solid proof that ghosts or demons or aliens exist.
frozenman on 17/6/2008 at 18:04
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Why would you be able to sense them in some way and yet not be able to use the senses you do everyday to detect them? That's what I want to know.
This is where I think the promise of some sort of infrasonic explanation really shows through. High intensity infrasonic waves can no doubt be 'felt' but by no means sensed. I was camping a couple of weeks ago at a beach on Assateague island- and we got pummeled by a tropical storm. Weather being a good generator of infrasonic waves, I could tell that at times when it stopped raining whether it was just a lull in the storm or whether it had truly passed. I could feel it more 'in my bones' that the brunt of the storm had passed rather looking at the sky. I don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of supernatural events (whether fiction or 'true') occur during thunderstorms.
Kolya on 17/6/2008 at 19:03
"18.98 hertz--the exact frequency at which a human eyeball starts resonating"
:weird:
jay pettitt on 17/6/2008 at 23:09
Ghosts - totally and utterly made up.
Jay's spooky theory goes something like we grow up accepting the supernatural by way of religion, stories, rubbish mockumentarys on the tely about visitations from the other side mwhahaha yadda yadda so when we think we see/hear/smell/feel something strange we don't go - duh $10 says it probably wasn't actually a dead person, because dead people are dead, as in bleedin' demised, no more, ceased to be, expired and gone to meet thier maker, stiff, bereft of life, resting in peace, pushin' up the daisies, shuffled off their mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible.
infrasonic my arse.
Tocky on 17/6/2008 at 23:25
I was thinking maybe eagles playing with matches but okay.
I got one. The lucid dream thing reminded me. We were staying in room 147 of the Riverhouse lodge overlooking Pigeon Forge river in Gatlinburg Tennessee. You can feed the trout and ducks from your balcony and very nearly get the squirrels to take a crumb out of your hand plus it has stone fireplaces with hearths big enough to do it on and two queen beds for the rumpling.
Anyway we had drunk some excellent Highland Manor wine from up near Pall Mall which despite the cheesey name is my new favorite and passed out from teh lurv and sottedness. Around two I vaugely feel somebody slide in next to me and snuggle spoonystyle against my back. At first I think nothing of it but they feel so cold on my naked back and I'm wondering has the fire gone out and did she spend some time on the balcony or what when I realize I'm snuggled with her at my front.
I could not get myself to move. I was panicked and it seemed to take the longest time to wake up but I finally did. It was cold. The fire had gone out. The covers were on the floor at the foot of the bed. She is zonked out. I can still feel the cool shape of it on my back. Took a while to go back to sleep and I had to tuck the covers before I could.
SILLY BUT TRUE!
Sorry jay. I'm not helping I know.BEAR on 18/6/2008 at 03:15
Quote Posted by jimjack
I would actually like to believe that when we die our energy is recycled back into the universe and used for something else..I would hate to think that when I die I will hanging out at my house in some closet or under the stairs for all of eternity.
Good, because thats exactly what happens, in a physical sense. I don't think we can argue whether or not that happens. You can have that be part of you're spirituality or not, thats the only real choice.
Brian T on 18/6/2008 at 09:28
I was sort of on the fence on the idea of the supernatural for some years but now, I don't believe. I've never experienced anythingthat could be classed as supernatural. I also think that many people believe, or pretend to believe in ghosts simply because it's fun. You pay money to see horror movies don't you? To a lot of people the idea of ghosts gives them a thrill. On the internet if someone posts a "ghost" pic or video it's almost laughable how many people respond with stuff like "ZOMG dat wuz sooo freaky! Cool pic!" Most paranormal investigators are really thrill seekers, whether they will admit to it or not.
There is also a lot of illogical pussyfooting about with "ghosts". They apparently can be anything ranging from small orbs of light to shining human figures to solid human figures to misty clouds, which to me look, respectively, like dust, Photoshop, real live people and cigarette smoke. And apparently they can be either visible or invisible when it suits them I've seen videos where there's some apparent "light anomaly" visiible for a few seconds which people a few feet away didn't notice at the time. So it was invisible to the people there, yet somehow was visible to an inanimate camera?:rolleyes: With such arbitrary bending of the laws of nature and physics (or less charitably, cheating) I find it impossible to take the idea of ghosts seriously.
I also think the power of suggestion plays a part sometimes. When people go to supposedly haunted houses and say they see shadowy figures moving about, that kind of thing. Well they want to see that kind of stuff don't they? I've seen videos on the net supposedly showing shadow figures moving back and forth across a window of a house at night. I looked 5 times and I didn't see a thing.:bored:
I think there is such a thing as knee jerk skepticism too though. Simply crying "fake!" at everything isn't much good either.
The world would be more entertaining if ghosts did exist in my opinion. But I view it as just a form of make believe. Well they beat pixies anyway.
Kolya on 18/6/2008 at 10:02
Is this another x-files movie anticipation thread?
Vernon on 18/6/2008 at 10:03
The question "do you believe in ghosts?" doesn't make any sense. Explain what a ghost is first. The word "supernatural" doesn't make any sense either, except to explain delusional and/or psychotic beliefs. Nothing exists that is "supernatural." Define your terms.
Hier on 18/6/2008 at 12:47
Quote Posted by Vernon
The word "supernatural" doesn't make any sense either, except to explain delusional and/or psychotic beliefs. Nothing exists that is "supernatural." Define your terms.
I've always thought "supernatural" described anything that defies the natural laws of the universe. Like God or Santa Clause or miracles or whatever. How does that not make sense?
I would think that ghosts, if real, exist outside our understanding of the laws of physics, and would therefore be described as supernatural. And even if they don't exist, it's still correct to describe the <i>concept</i> as supernatural. I don't believe ghosts exist but I don't have trouble understanding the concept, and it doesn't seem delusional or psychotic to me to refer to them as supernatural.
Billions of people for millenia in every culture on the planet have believed in <i>some</i> kind of supernatural being or event. You don't have to swallow any of it if you don't want to, but calling it "psychotic" is pretty ridiculous.
