Happenstance Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 I've just started watching the X-Files again (thanks to Goafer again for lending me the DVDs) and I thought it'd be interesting to hear everyone elses views or possible experiences. I myself would actually love loads of paranormal things to be real but unfortunately I just don't believe in any of them. I would need really strong evidence or to see something myself to start believing.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 I'm more Scully than I'm Mulder, let me put it that way.
ReZourceman Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 There is no such thing as ghosts. (Is my opinion) Paranormal just means ghosts right?
jayseven Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Seen a ghost, seen a UFO. I take life with a packet of salt.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 There is no such thing as ghosts. (Is my opinion) Paranormal just means ghosts right? Everything considered out of the ordinary. Ghosts, psychic abilities, UFOs, mythological creatures, etc.
Dan_Dare Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Seen a ghost, seen a UFO. I take life with a packet of salt. No you didn't.
ReZourceman Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Oh....well....I believe in aliens, obviously because you'd have to be a complete moron not to. Ghosts aren't real. Mythological creatures? Eh, I guess so, maybe deep down in the dark ocean, but not like Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster or anything. No you didn't. I can confirm that Dan Dare is correct.
Dan_Dare Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Yeah aliens makes sense- in that out there somewhere sentient life exists on a level akin to our own. It's just simple maths, really. Ghosts are just nonsense cooked up by people who attribute meaning when they've simply seen something they don't understand or perceive properly.
Dannyboy-the-Dane Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Mythological creatures? Eh, I guess so, maybe deep down in the dark ocean, but not like Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster or anything. Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster are typically what paranormal enthusiasts believe in. I've never heard of paranormal enthusiasts believing in unicorns, for example.
triforcemario Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 I recently had a paranormal experience. Shall I continue?
mcj metroid Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 I recently had a paranormal experience. Shall I continue? Go on... If it's a massive shit you took, please don't though
Paj! Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 I'm really interested in it. I love things like Most Haunted. (regardless of the tru fax) I want to believe. I don't though. Coincidentally, I watched Paranormal Activity for the first time today. Though apparently I watched a different version than my flatmate... It was decent/meh.
triforcemario Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Go on...If it's a massive shit you took, please don't though This took place just over a month ago. We had a table in our house. Quite an old one, if I may add, and with a history of being located within a place known for paranormal activity (a large warehouse built above the old roman burial grounds of Leicester, but that's a much longer story). One night, it started to make strange, creaking sounds. It had no reason to be making these sounds, since it didn't have anyone on top of it. At first we suspected it was wood-worm, so we took it apart. Found nothing. The following night, the same thing happened again, but considerably louder. We decided that we were going to throw away the chair, since something wasn't right about it, so we put it outside (we live in the countryside, btw) ready to throw away the following morning. Now here comes the weird bit. That night, the table started making sounds again. But this time, they were so loud, I could hear them from within my room, with all the doors shut, and all the windows shut. Me and my brother both came out of our rooms, and the noise suddenly got louder, and it started to turn into a sheiking, howling laughter. An extremely loud one. At this point, we literally started to crap ourselves, and tried to find a torch. Just before we entered our parent's room, the noise completely disappeared again. I managed to sleep after a long time awake that night, but my brother didn't, and he claimed to have heard it again. We looked into all the possibilities, and I can definitely confirm it wasn't an animal. No animal makes noises like that. It definitely wasn't the wind, and if it was someone playing a prank, my dogs would've heard them entering (we have a large gate at the front of our house that makes a shit load of noise when opened, and the whole perimeter of the house is surrounded by a mesh fence). So there you have it. My story.
Grazza Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Well, on the one hand you have people who get carried away, who believe in psychics, clairvoyants, ley lines and everything mystical. Whilst this is essentually harmless and I wish them no harm, you'd have to say these people are not greatly in touch with reality. At the other extreme you get sceptics who come up with explanations that really don't fit. These people, because they haven't seen a ghost, believe it must always be a lie, a hallucination or misinterpretation of a shadow, fog, a beam of light etc. I believe this approach to be quite irrational. Personally, I try to be open-minded, but I would say I swing about 60% towards "believer" more than "sceptic". Take ghosts, for instance. Intelligent, rational people see them, and they try to rule out all the possibilities themselves, but at the end of a day, if a ghost is in front of you, there's a ghost in front of you. Just because not everyone has seen one doesn't mean they don't exist. That doesn't mean we know what they are. Comforting though it may be to think they're proof of an afterlife, the truth is they could be anything, from pure "images" to beings on a different frequency. In fact, one day, I'm sure they will be scientifically proven to exist. This is the thing - reality is stranger than fiction. Many physicists and cosmologists theorise that many dimensions exists - up to 11. Is it really so far-fetched to think that what we call "ghosts" may exist in one of them, very occasionally blending into our world? Incidentally, my theory is they do not "haunt" houses, and as such, films about hauntings have got the wrong idea (but that's just my theory). As for UFOs (specifically that they are alien craft), whilst we don't know exactly what they are, I do believe there is quite a lot of evidence that they are something extraordinary, and that the masses (perhaps through fear) don't really want to see it. Of course, this evidence may be no more than the governments wanting us to believe in aliens, although I find that more sinister than them actually being so.
Diageo Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 It's not irrational to be sceptical. There are no ghosts. There is no evidence behind it. Ghosts are people jumping to an irrational explanation because they misinterpret or don't understand what is happening to them. Everyone says they see a ghost, because they have no other explanation. A lack of explanation is not proof. It could be a magic unicorn trying to mess with you as much as it could be a ghost.
Dan_Dare Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Exactly. Why is the burden of proof on sceptics all of a sudden? You're talking about fucking ghosts.
Guy Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 (edited) I want to believe. So very badly, but it's all pretty much bullshit. If you want to see a scary monster, go read the newspaper. There are stories about real monsters in there every day. Edited October 24, 2010 by Guy
Diageo Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 I don't get why people want to believe. It would be scary more than anything.
The fish Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 We looked into all the possibilities, and I can definitely confirm it wasn't an animal. No animal makes noises like that. It definitely wasn't the wind, and if it was someone playing a prank, my dogs would've heard them entering (we have a large gate at the front of our house that makes a shit load of noise when opened, and the whole perimeter of the house is surrounded by a mesh fence). No, you don't think it was animals. Actually, that said, an animal or a just a creaky old house is no where near as likely as evidence-free ghosts. How foolish of me.
Grazza Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 It's not irrational to be sceptical. There are no ghosts. There is no evidence behind it. Ghosts are people jumping to an irrational explanation because they misinterpret or don't understand what is happening to them. Everyone says they see a ghost, because they have no other explanation. A lack of explanation is not proof. It could be a magic unicorn trying to mess with you as much as it could be a ghost. But people don't see unicorns, do they? They don't see fairies or dragons either. We know what does exist and we know what doesn't exist - it's the things people aren't sure about that are the mystery. How are you so sure ghost sightings can always be explained by something else?
The fish Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 Personally, I try to be open-minded, but I would say I swing about 60% towards "believer" more than "sceptic". Take ghosts, for instance. Intelligent, rational people see them, and they try to rule out all the possibilities themselves, but at the end of a day, if a ghost is in front of you, there's a ghost in front of you. That's not keeping an open mind, though - that's being gullible. Keeping an open mind is basing what you believe on what the current evidence tells us (namely, there are no ghosts), but being prepared to change when there is evidence for them.
Dan_Dare Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 But people don't see unicorns, do they? They don't see fairies or dragons either. We know what does exist and we know what doesn't exist - it's the things people aren't sure about that are the mystery. How are you so sure ghost sightings can always be explained by something else? why are you so quick to claim ghost when you don't know why something's happened?
Diageo Posted October 24, 2010 Posted October 24, 2010 People do see Unicorns, but these people are put in mental institutions.
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