Paranormal beliefs and experiences.

[Persian]

I was searching for a topic like that but the only thing somewhat similar to that I found is the "Alien Abduction" one, so I decided to create one.

Well it just a little topic to talk about anything paranormal. Your beliefs, the paranormal experiences you had, ect... By paranormal, I mean ghosts, mediums, spirits, poltergeists, demons, aliens, witchcraft, black and white magic, vampires ect.

Personally, I believe in pretty much everything. There's way too much peoples that had paranormal experiences. It's almost impossible that everything was false... And since I had a lot of paranormal experiences myself, I can't help but believe. I even tried some white magic spells (and black magic ones too) and it always worked! Apparently, from what I found in old books and on internet, my city is one of the biggest magical energy center in Québec. And we have more "magic shop" that some bigger cities, 3 for only 40 772 peoples...

[BubblyShell22]

Personally, I don't believe in any of this stuff. It just sounds too illogical to me.

[plastroncafe]

I've experienced things I can't explain away with the science we have on hand. So while they might not be "paranormal" in the traditional sense, they were certainly not normal.

Afterall, Magic is just science we don't understand yet.

[Lynn]

I've had a couple of experienxes that make me bleieve in spirits. One was absolutely terrifying.

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

Originally Posted by Lynn

I've had a couple of experienxes that make me bleieve in spirits. One was absolutely terrifying.

Details?

I've had a few myself, and know a handful of others who have had "legitimate" experiences as well.

Two years ago this November, I had a car accident. Had the car accident happened slightly differently, I likely would have died (but instead walked away with one abrasion on the inside of my jeans). I had to kick the door of my car open to get out, the car itself was totaled.

I found myself wondering WHY my life had been spared.

For several days afterwards, I would meet people and I would find myself telling (not ASKING, mind you) them about loved ones who had passed on (THEIRS, not MINE). It was very strange and slightly overwhelming. I immediately called GreenWillow (who illustrated Will Tupper's short story, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should) her opinion--and she told me that it did not surprise her one bit that my near death experience had caused a temporary yet somewhat significant bond with the spirit world.

I am still somewhat skeptical, I don't believe that we cease to exist when we die, and I also don't believe that everyone either goes to heaven or hell, I believe both exist but I also believe in reincarnation-- but not in the sense that many of you may believe in it or understand it. I say this because I believe in "soul recycling"-- meaning that someone like Adolph Hitler, had he one redeemable quality, would have gone to God's own "box of broken toys," to eventually be used to build a future person's soul. John Lennon himself said that "we all contain a certain amount of Jesus and a certain amount of Hitler..."

And, speaking of John Lennon...I have been a huge Beatles fan my entire life and not long ago saw a documentary and got a VERY strange feeling...almost as if I had MET the guy. Which is impossible of course... or IS it???

Another thing I find strange (and others here may have noticed this) is that if you compare Lennon interviews to Lady Gaga interviews, you will see EXTREMELY strong similarities between the two, especially their syntax (the way in which they string their sentences together), both speak with a charming, intelligent, awkwardness for lack of a better way to describe it. I also believe in horoscopes and I'm also VERY familiar with archetypes--a concept I honestly feel that EVERYONE should study.

However, I also have to admit that I'm a hopeless romantic and want to believe that there's "more to it, that we're something special"-- just as Donatello stated to Splinter in TMNT II, the Secret of the Ooze.

Sorry that this is so scattered, guys...it's 3:00 AM in the morning here.

[Leo656]

I believe anything's possible. As a kid I was a die-hard believer in all of it, but truthfully most of that was because I was a huge Ghostbusters fan. But it did spark in me a huge fascination with ghosts and the paranormal. I haven't read any recently, but I've read dozens of books on the stuff in my lifetime.

As I've gotten older, though, I'm not sure what I believe in. Not to spark a religious conversation, but as I've gotten older I've seen more and more to convince me that God can't exist. He might, I still hope he does, but I can't reconcile the idea of a higher power with the horrible things that happen in the physical world. Yet, I still talk to God as if he's there sometimes. I want to believe it all makes sense somehow, but deep down I really doubt it.

Based on that, I started to question the possibility of ghosts, spirits, an afterlife, etc... if there's no God, how can these things exist? And yet, there are other things, like aliens or the creature(s) in Loch Ness, that I absolutely do believe in that don't require a higher authority in order to exist, but are nonetheless implausible by most comprehension.

So one day, a random thought came to me whilst reading comics. Someone mentioned that energy itself can not be destroyed, and that got me thinking about the fact that our brains are basically powered by electricity, our bodies are composed of atoms, necessitating the prescence of atomic energy, and so on and so forth. If energy can't be destroyed, what happens to this massive amount of energy that powers the human body to move, think, feel, to exist, when we die?

What if, I wondered, when we die, this energy disperses but yet still remains tethered in a sense to the point of physical death? Or in some cases, that energy may remain attached to a place where the formerly living being spent most of their time. What if when we die, we in a sense "cast a shadow"? That "shadow" of energy that formerly powered our living bodies could theoretically be driven to reappear in a familiar place, since energy often travels in a pattern or circuit. What we the living percieve as "ghosts" or "spirits" could actually be leftover electrical impulses traveling in a circuit that temporarily realign at the point of physical death, making themselves partially visible. It could also explain why "ghosts" are often reportedly seen going through the motions of an act the person would often do in life (walking a familiar flight of stairs, for example, or walking into a favorite room).

I could be wrong, and probably am, but to me, it's an explanation that allows for the belief in "ghosts" without needing to believe there's an all-powerful guiding hand at work. Either way, SOMEthing has to happen to that energy when we die, so to me this makes sense.

All I know for sure is that there's much more to life than what we the living see, and I believe the only sure way to find out what else there is is, well, to not be alive anymore.

[BubblyShell22]

Hey, that does sound plausible, Leo. I can see something like that happen. Or maybe the person isn't at peace yet and wants to keep an eye on things by using this last bit of energy. I believe in reincarnation and that when we die, we reincarnate to some other life form to continue living on in. I hate to think that we all just die and that's it.

[Voltron]

I've had some stuff happen that was weird, one that was a little TOO weird, and then everything else was just "meh" as far as paranormality goes.

I used to go looking for ghosts and what not. Never found one. Doesn't mean I'm not open to the possibility.

[Venom]

For a detailed account on some of the things I've encountered just take a peek at my post in the "Alien Abduction" thread.

[BubblyShell22]

I don't believe in mediums though. I think a lot of them are just scam artists who want to take people's money for their own profit.

[Wingnut]

Disturbing right?

[Spitfire]

A scientist did an experiment awhile back to disprove the existence of ghosts. Makes sense to me but I was never superstitious.

In 2001 Wiseman decided to investigate the underground "haunted" vaults under Edinburgh, Scotland's, South Bridge. The bridge was constructed in the late eighteenth century and consists of nineteen large stone arches supporting a road lined with several three-story buildings. A number of rooms and corridors were built under the arches to house workshops, storage areas and accommodations for the poor. This place soon became a disease-ridden slum that was abandoned by the late nineteenth century. The area was rediscovered and opened for public tours in 1997 and soon tourists and guides were experiencing many unusual phenomena, including a strong sense of presence, the appearance of several apparitions and the sounds of 'ghostly' footsteps. Soon the Vaults acquired a reputation for being one of the most haunted spots in Edinburgh.

Since some of the rooms in the Vaults had the reputation of being haunted, while others did not, Wiseman designed his experiment to see if people who were not familiar with the reputations of each of the rooms would sense anything unusual with them.

Over the course of four days volunteers entered the vaults and recorded any unusual experiences that they felt and whether they thought it might have been caused by a ghost. Lighting levels, air movement, temperature, and magnetic field levels were also recorded. When the data was examined, it became apparent that the volunteers consistently rated certain rooms as being more "haunted" than others. Their observations also correlated with past records of haunting reports kept by the tour company that ran the vault tours.

Wiseman suspects that people feel a location is haunted not because of actual ghosts at the location, but because of environmental factors. In the experiment volunteers were more likely to have reported haunted experiences in vaults with high ceilings and high levels of exterior lighting directly outside the vault. Wiseman suggests this may be because people feel especially vulnerable in a room with a high ceiling and may also be made nervous by passing from a well-lighted corridor into a relatively dark room.

Wiseman also conducted a similar experiment at Hampton Court Palace in England. Two sections of the palace, the Haunted Gallery and the Georgian Rooms, had reputations for ghostly encounters. These areas were divided into grids and volunteers recorded the locations where they experienced strange sensations. Their observations were consistent with each other and the reputation of those sections of the rooms. Wiseman also identified a correlation with those "haunted" areas having weak magnetic fields. This might suggest that for some reason people may be disturbed by a magnetic field in such a way that it makes them feel the location is "haunted."

http://www.unmuseum.org/ghosts.htm

[BubblyShell22]

Wow. That sounds pretty logical to me.

[Lynn]

Originally Posted by BubblyShell22

I don't believe in mediums though. I think a lot of them are just scam artists who want to take people's money for their own profit.

I believe that those who are genuine don't go around telling everybody.

[BubblyShell22]

They probably don't, which is why I'm so skeptical of them. Though I think the ones that the detectives use to find missing victims are pretty genuine.