Paranormal experiences

I have friends that swear that they have experienced paranormal activity... from a simple Ouija board and that "light as a feather stiff as a board" game to seeing a the ghost of a person that was once alive. Since I wasn't there I can't really pass judgment on their experiences. However, I cannot help but shake my head. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and I wouldn't look under the bed because I KNEW there was something there.

Does anyone have any rational explanation for these experiences?

Just because we have no explanation for certain happenings does not mean we should automatically assume that they have supernatural causes. We don't presently understand them but that doesn't mean that we never will. For example, a few hundred years ago, they could never have undestood a phenomena like the tsunamis. They probably would have just chalked it up the to fury of God or the like.

We know that most crop circles are created by humans. With some crop circles, we can't find evidence of human hands. That is still not sufficient to assume that they were created by aliens. There are many murders that we cannot solve, do we assume that these murders were carried out by aliens? Same kinda logic here.

Also, the power the human mind has in deluding itself is amazing. If you keep telling yourself something enough times, you will believe it. There are also many contradictory "supernatural" experiences. For example, some Christians claim to be touched by Jesus or whatever. But there are Muslims that claim to have been touched by their God and there are Hindus that claim to be touched by certain Hindu dieties. There are African tribals that claim to be possessed by their Gods. Is it the case that most of these groups of people lying and only one group is telling the truth? I highly doubt it. I think the more reasonable explanation is that they are all deluded by the power of their own beliefs.

Have a read of several skepticism sites, particularly CSICOP's and Randi's. Familiarize yourself with "confirmation bias" and the extent to which wishful thinking affects our ability to recall the details of emotionally charged events with any accuracy.

There's a reason why Randi's $1,000,000 prize has gone unclaimed.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacies.

Have fun.

joli wrote

Since I wasn't there I can't really pass judgment on their experiences

Well actually you sort of can in a way because unverifiable personal experience is a useless form of evidence.

positiveatheism.org wrote

Anecdotes -- stories recounted in support of a claim -- do not make a science. Without corroborative evidence from other sources, or physical proof of some sort, ten anecdotes are no better than one, and a hundred anecdotes are no better than ten.

Personal experience can only ensure the person that experienced it and can have a lot of possible explanations.

joli wrote

I have friends that swear that they have experienced paranormal activity... from a simple Ouija board and that "light as a feather stiff as a board" game to seeing a the ghost of a person that was once alive. Since I wasn't there I can't really pass judgment on their experiences. However, I cannot help but shake my head. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and I wouldn't look under the bed because I KNEW there was something there.

Does anyone have any rational explanation for these experiences?

Ask them to document it an videotape it. And if they really do think they have something, tell them to get ahold of the James Randi foundation. They can win a million bucks!!!!!

http://www.randi.org/research/

But personally I think they are just deceiving themselves.

joli wrote

Does anyone have any rational explanation for these experiences?

Yes. Those people are irrational.

I recall having a conversation with a Wiccan who was convinced that magick was real. When she mentioned seeing someone cast an "invisibility spell", I asked her to elaborate. It turns out that her and a fellow Wiccan were in a store. He left the store and then she realized she forgot to tell him something. When she ran out, HE WAS GONE. She assured me there was no way that someone could get away that fast. She later asked him and he said that he had cast on invisibility spell on himself. (LOL)

She also told me about spells that she had successfully cast. Well, the only ones she knew how to cast were "protection" spells on herself. I asked her to elaborate and she said that, although they weren't 100% effective, these spells protected her from bad things and bad people.

Basically, she was saying that the spell worked if nothing happened to her. Think about that.... This is like saying that proof of Jesus' resurrection is that there's no body... a lack of evidence is considered evidence.

This is the kind of gullibility and irrationality you see in a lot of people who were not raised to think skeptically and rationally.

schemanista wrote

Familiarize yourself with "confirmation bias" and the extent to which wishful thinking affects our ability to recall the details of emotionally charged events with any accuracy.

This is right on the mark. Confirmation bias is very real and very pervasive. It affects EVERYONE, including people who know about it. We all have preconceptions about the way things are and uncritically accept evidence that supports our preconceptions while critically dismissing evidence that disagrees with them.

Humans are irrational by nature and have to expend effort to think rationally. The reason that "science" works so well is that it automatically corrects for the various biases and irrationalities of individual scientists.

joli wrote

I have friends that swear that they have experienced paranormal activity... from a simple Ouija board and that "light as a feather stiff as a board" game to seeing a the ghost of a person that was once alive. Since I wasn't there I can't really pass judgment on their experiences. However, I cannot help but shake my head. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and I wouldn't look under the bed because I KNEW there was something there.

Does anyone have any rational explanation for these experiences?

http://skepdic.com/ouija.html

One time I was on acid and I saw a lot of bright pink things. I think the acid was the cause though =(