Supernatural and Beyond

[Bark's Lounge]

I am a little apprehensive about making this thread, but I thought it might be sort of fun... if there are participants.

 

What experiences do we have with Extraterrestrials, Cryptic creatures, ghosts, etc... ?

 

Personally, I have never had an experience in these kind of events, and I have no stories... and essentially, I am not a believer (E.T. excluded).

 

There are a lot of folks who traverse this site, and might have a story to tell. I want to hear these stories.

 

Sure, we can use this thread as a fictional platform, and if you choose to do so... (whatever).

 

Let it ride my friends... make me a believer!

[PseudoSABR]

Armchair scientist: Aliens are really unlikely, unless we simply misunderstand physics. When we consider that it takes light 4.3 light years to reach the closest star--that is it takes 4 years for freaking light to travel to the closest non-planetary star! And if we accept Einstien's notion that as matter approaches the speed of light, it becomes energy--and can essentially travel no faster, this is hard limit--and more, an ability that we can't even hope to accomplish with our current power or theoretical power sources, it seems very unlikely for Aliens to come visit. It would require inter-generational space ships and a real commitment to get here, or technology that defies the physical reality as we know it (wormholes, etc.) which seem totally corny and hairbrained. Possible? Sure. Possible like invisible unicorns are everywhere kind of possible. (List of possible habitable planets found here, look at the ly (light years) for context)

 

(A neat aside, is that if we think about how long it takes light to travel, that every thing in the night sky is historical, non-current, we are literally looking at the past--so a star 3000 light years away, we see it 3000 years in the past! Cool stuff!).

 

 

As for the supernatural, well, I haven't experienced anything close to such, at least, sober. The idea of ghosts, seems far more sad, than depressing; it's difficult for me to believe in any afterlife, much less one that traps some people to roam our material world.

[Craig Arko]

http://www.cosmosontv.com

 

Reality is surprisingly cool all on its own.

[Mike Sixel]

Pretty much a scientist here.....but I do believe in some kind connection between us that can't be explained. Someone did reiki on me, and admittedly I was on heavy drugs, but I did feel beter......but I am basically not a believer in stuff that is of the supernatural variety.

[TheLeviathan]

I don't see how the possibility of an afterlife and science are necessarily incompatible. I've never experienced anything and I'm probably most closely associated with Deism or the Philosopher's God.

 

Even still, I do know of at least one atheist (my sister) who had an experience that truly threw her belief system for a loop for about a decade.

[Willihammer]

I once saw a mouse come back to life after my cat "killed it."

[Bark's Lounge]

Even still, I do know of at least one atheist (my sister) who had an experience that truly threw her belief system for a loop for about a decade.

 

If you do not mind me asking - what was her experience?

 

I'm curious, but I understand if you do not want to share.

[Bark's Lounge]

Armchair scientist:

 

Because of this brutal winter (in MN), I have boxed myself in and have been watching too much History Channel 2, Destination America, etc., etc... maybe it has warped my mind.

 

Armchair Scientist > Armchair BRAVO Real Housewives Expert:)

 

Maybe I should read more books or stick to playing this:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20131206-how-well-do-you-know-the-world-play-geoguessr-to-find-out

[TheLeviathan]

If you do not mind me asking - what was her experience?

 

I'm curious' date=' but I understand if you do not want to share.[/quote']

 

No that's ok, I'll give the best recounting of it I can. She's a psychologist, well educated, etc.

 

She was at the 120 year old farm house we grew up on. Her husband was outside with our father working, house was empty, she was the only one there. She was in the shower when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She yelled her husbands name, then my father's, then my father's hired hand - no response. She stopped asking, then the bathroom door opened partially. She looked out and saw nothing, called out a few more times, then heard footsteps going back down the stairs. When she worked up the nerve (she said it was until the hot water ran out basically), she went out looking for them and all three had been out there the entire time.

 

She had a significant existential crisis after that. It wouldn't be the first thing a member of my family reported too. I've never experienced anything, however.

[Bark's Lounge]

No that's ok, I'll give the best recounting of it I can. She's a psychologist, well educated, etc.

 

She was at the 120 year old farm house we grew up on. Her husband was outside with our father working, house was empty, she was the only one there. She was in the shower when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She yelled her husbands name, then my father's, then my father's hired hand - no response. She stopped asking, then the bathroom door opened partially. She looked out and saw nothing, called out a few more times, then heard footsteps going back down the stairs. When she worked up the nerve (she said it was until the hot water ran out basically), she went out looking for them and all three had been out there the entire time.

 

She had a significant existential crisis after that. It wouldn't be the first thing a member of my family reported too. I've never experienced anything, however.

 

Tough experience for your sister... Yikes!

 

Thanks for sharing Leviathan. I appreciate it.

[Bark's Lounge]

I once saw a mouse come back to life after my cat "killed it."

 

Did you have to seek counseling after this life altering event? I know I would have.

[Marta Shearing]

I don't think I believe in ghosts. I'm pretty much of the belief that when you die your soul leaves this earth. Any paranornal stuff I consider demonic, IMHO. Scares the living **** out of me.

[freshinthehouse]

Good thread, BL. I've never experienced anything myself, but I find this sort of thing very fascinating. If you're ever bored, here are a couple of links to random creepy stuff that make for some good reading:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Masks_Case

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentich_disappearance

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

The last link about the Mary Celeste ship makes me wonder how the original inhabitants of this continent must have reacted when they first laid eyes on the big European fortresses that appeared on their waters.

[freshinthehouse]

Ever see Apocalyptico? There is a very cool scene of two natives seeing Spanish sailing ships for the first time.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I forgot about that, will have to go back and check. Amazing film.

[Turd Furgeson]

The natural world is filled with so many things we do not understand, and are very interesting all on their own! Like the discovery that everything in our galaxy is influenced by a supermassive black hole in its center, and that every known galaxy has a massive black hole in its center.

[Milkman]

Saw this bumped thread, and Freshinthehouse you were the first person I thought of. I don't nessecarily believe in ghosts and what not but do love a good story. Freshinthehouse, you probably won't see this for a while but were you the gentleman who had told me about the account involving a baby's crib?

[Shane Wahl]

No that's ok, I'll give the best recounting of it I can. She's a psychologist, well educated, etc.

 

She was at the 120 year old farm house we grew up on. Her husband was outside with our father working, house was empty, she was the only one there. She was in the shower when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She yelled her husbands name, then my father's, then my father's hired hand - no response. She stopped asking, then the bathroom door opened partially. She looked out and saw nothing, called out a few more times, then heard footsteps going back down the stairs. When she worked up the nerve (she said it was until the hot water ran out basically), she went out looking for them and all three had been out there the entire time.

 

She had a significant existential crisis after that. It wouldn't be the first thing a member of my family reported too. I've never experienced anything, however.

 

That's interesting. It would certainly challenge one's materialist worldview, though perhaps leaves one's atheism untouched?

[TheLeviathan]

That's interesting. It would certainly challenge one's materialist worldview, though perhaps leaves one's atheism untouched?

 

All depends how you want to view a spiritual world I suppose. The devil is in the details and the definitions. For myself, I'm often amused by how quickly people want to laugh off or dismiss such a notion and yet across many cultures throughout human history this notion has persisted. Most interesting to me, it's happened with and without notions of deities.

 

To this story, if I'm remembering correctly, for her it was a challenge to both.

[Turd Furgeson]

The logical answer is that the hired hand wanted to sneak a quick peak and then went down stairs. You say that she looked to see anyone there, without knowing the specifics of how far the door opened, if it was possible for someone to hide behind the door in some way when she was looking etc. it's hard to judge the validity of such a thing. Just judging from what you've said, that sounds completely possible for a human being to recreate that incident. I think even atheists can fall victim to those circumstances where things can feel very real to them.

[TheLeviathan]

The logical answer is that the hired hand wanted to sneak a quick peak and then went down stairs. You say that she looked to see anyone there, without knowing the specifics of how far the door opened, if it was possible for someone to hide behind the door in some way when she was looking etc. it's hard to judge the validity of such a thing. Just judging from what you've said, that sounds completely possible for a human being to recreate that incident. I think even atheists can fall victim to those circumstances where things can feel very real to them.

 

No, without belaboring the house schematics that would not have been possible. There may be some kind of explanation (more likely she thought she heard what she did and a cat opened the door) but it's hard to believe that given how much it shook her. Hell, she still refuses to be there alone.

 

Of my immediate family of six, all but two of us had some kind of experience. Beyond that my wife stayed there alone one night (before any knowledge of supernatural experiences with the fam) and was woken in the middle of the night by the TV coming on and then the VCR and then a tape being sucked in. By the time the FBI warning flashed she was in hysterics with me on the phone.

 

Still hard for me to swallow all of the things I've heard given no experiences growing up there.

[Turd Furgeson]

No, without belaboring the house schematics that would not have been possible. There may be some kind of explanation (more likely she thought she heard what she did and a cat opened the door) but it's hard to believe that given how much it shook her. Hell, she still refuses to be there alone.

 

Of my immediate family of six, all but two of us had some kind of experience. Beyond that my wife stayed there alone one night (before any knowledge of supernatural experiences with the fam) and was woken in the middle of the night by the TV coming on and then the VCR and then a tape being sucked in. By the time the FBI warning flashed she was in hysterics with me on the phone.

 

Still hard for me to swallow all of the things I've heard given no experiences growing up there.

 

I hear ya, and I don't mean to call your family members liars or anything it could have in the very least felt very real to them. Our subjective experiences are truly everything to us. The issue is just that this information isn't falsifiable since we don't have any evidence of this outside of the testimony of a few people. It also tends to violate Occam's Razor so there's naturally going to be a lot of skepticism. Carl Sagan would say that the more grand a claim was, the better the evidence needed to be to satisfy that claim.

[TheLeviathan]

I hear ya, and I don't mean to call your family members liars or anything it could have in the very least felt very real to them. Our subjective experiences are truly everything to us. The issue is just that this information isn't falsifiable since we don't have any evidence of this outside of the testimony of a few people. It also tends to violate Occam's Razor so there's naturally going to be a lot of skepticism. Carl Sagan would say that the more grand a claim was, the better the evidence needed to be to satisfy that claim.

 

Totally understandable, but many things felt aren't falsifiable. That standard would render almost any expression or experience of emotion dubious.

 

Bit too skeptical for my liking, even as a practicing skeptic. The problem with most any supernatural question is evidence, but that has never made much sense to me either. Why would we expect evidence in this world for something that definitionaly is not part of this world? I think we try to drag a metaphysical quandary into the physical world and it just doesn't fit.

 

Though, I suppose doing that does give us hours of entertainment watching clowns on TV act like they discovered the meaning of life for seeing an orb on their camera.