Do you believe in ghosts or the paranormal?

[Nouw]

Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!
I believe in them.

 

[richd213]

My point was that anyone who refuses to believe anything that they don't personally experience IS close-minded and, furthermore, a complete asshole. If your only supposition that something is a fallacy is that other people are gullible idiots then you're really grasping at straws. Yes the world is full of idiots, but that doesn't mean that everyone but you is one.

I believe in things I haven't personally experienced when there is enough evidence of good reliability to baack it up. For example, I have never been to Australia but I can see it on a map, see photos of it, get numerous reports from different people of it that all seem to correlate. In the face of this evidence I would be an idiot to believe Australia didn't exist.

Supernatural claims, on the other hand, don't have this weight of evidence. Often they are experience by a single individual and are easily pinned on a normal (or even abnormal) event that human psychology has taken and made into something it knows: interaction with other sentient beings.

I may have waffled there.

 

[interspark]

I'd preferably like to see all psychics who prey on vulnerable people for no better reason than selfish personal gain with their shameless lies about the afterlife to die alone after chewing their own tongue out in a windowless cell after 15 years of uninterupted mental and physical torture
I may have gone too far there. But you asked for my feelings on it. And you got them

i agree that I think all people who claim to "hear the voices of the dead" for a price are lying through their teeth, but people who make their predictions through charts and cards probably actually believe that their methods work, and i'm not saying they don't

 

[Jonluw]

sure I believe because
1. There is still many doubts whether souls exist in the science community
2. my cd player would turn on for no reason
3.once I was in the bathroom and as I went to leave the light turned off but the light didn't burnout the switch had actually moved.
4. I've seen weird things before like one time my dad came into the house I said hi he said hey then walked into the kitchen then a second later he walked in the front door again I said hi he said hey and walked towards the kitchen but then I asked him how he got from the kitchen to the front door so fast and he didn't know what I was talking about because he wasn't really there the first time I saw him. Also I saw the house from the nightmare on elm street movies in one of my dreams before I actually watched the movie.

1. not sure what a "soul" has to do with this
2. issue with the wiring, now you would have something if it had no batteries and wasn't plugged in
3. It either wasn't flipped all the way or you hit it on your way out without noticing
4. Deja Vu and the second half is because your mind didn't have a real image for what you dreamed, so once you saw the movie your mind grasped the house from the movie and applied it to what you "remembered" from your dream.

dude, how do you hit a light switch without noticing? and de ja vou doesn't make you hallucinate, open your mind a little

I've already posted this before in the thread, but I believe it's worth posting again just for this post:
The one who's being closed-minded here is Grell Sutcliff. He is automatically attributing all his strange experiences to the supernatural without there being anything pointing towards supernatural occurences being the cause of his experiences, and without considering the score of other explanations that don't clash with our current understanding of the universe.
What artanis is doing is providing him with more alternatives and taking different approaches to the case:
artanis is the one being open-minded here.

 

[Duruznik]

I see no evidence to the contrary, but no evidence to prove it. Conclusion? They may or may not. You never know, right?

But I am skeptical.

 

[wrightguy0]

i refuse to discount the possibilities of the paranormal and the supernatural, there are things we don't know about the universe this planet, or ourselves and i personally believe there is more to this world than we know.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Another example of people paying out ridiculous amounts of money for what is almost certainly no benefit is the lottery.

Captcha: hard and fast. uh oh.

Not at all, a few people who pay out for the lottery win it big time.

When you give money to this kind of stuff, nobody ever playing wins.

I never said that. What I DID say was that unless you provide evidence, what you and your mother advocate is complete and utter bullshit.

Reading through the site I was torn between how funny it was yet at the same time the crushing realisation that some people actually pay money for a service which is effectively 'healing via telephone cables'. You could get into the argument that false hope is better then none at all, but when people are being ripped off in the process, fuck that.

 

[EvilEggCracker]

Last night, Iw ent into an old hospital, still very structurally sound, and a door unlatched itself and swung open, then a few minutes later slammed shut.

This is what I like to call "the wind".

You try NOT believing in that sort of thing when your mother is a honest-to-god psychic witch (sorry, MEDICAL INTUITIVE) and has been making decent money on repeat clients for 20 years. I'm not even kidding, if there's good, reliable money in telehealing then there must be something to it.

Care to share what your experiences were?

This what I like to call "the fraud".

As much as I would like to, there is no scientific evidence. Really, that's why we're even having this discussion about whether it's real or not. If you want, you can talk to my mom. Her website is at spiritualmedicine.com. She may be able to prove to you that what she does isn't fake. Obviously there's nothing I can do to change your opinion.

I think that part of the problem is that if someone doesn't believe in something then it doesn't exist for them. Thus it is impossible to prove anything to skeptics because they will always come up for another more reasonable explanation.

If you choose not to have an open mind, that's your business.

This is what I like to call "the sucker".


Ghosts don't exist. There is no evidence for it. Your little anecdotal stories mean squat. Why? Because human perceptions are very very easily fooled. The day I see evidence for the paranormal is the day I give it some credit. To date there is none - and likely never will be any.

Oh, and if your mother is a real psychic, tell her to try Randi's Million Dollar Psychic Challenge. http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

For some reason I don't think she will - funny how real scientific analysis causes all the frauds to crawl back into the wordwork.

 

[Kayla Herrera]

I hope, that everyone who said no, also does not believe in God...because that makes no sense if you do and dont believe in the Paranormal

 

[martin's a madman]

Why the hell would I?
I've never had an experience that can be attributed to a paranormal being, nor have I ever seen any evidence of anything of such a phenomenon existing.
Nor has anyone else for that matter.

What people are saying is: Look at that thing that happened! You can't explain how that happened! That must mean a ghost/paranormal phenomenon did it!

This is stupid. What they're saying is "That can't be explained, therefore I can explain it."

I don't like to sound like a dick; but sometimes...

Seeing a phenomena that you can't explain is not ground enough to believe in something that goes against our current understanding of the world. If you can't explain the phenomena you experienced, you must accept that there is a number of physically viable explanations for why this thing is happening.
If you can't explain it and there is evidence to suggest that the phenomena is caused by a supernatural being (such as ectoplasm suddenly covering everything), then that's grounds for looking further into it. It is not, however, proof for the existence of such supernatural beings.

Great video, thanks for sharing.

 

[blindthrall]

Ghosts are obvious wish fulfillment of individuals which cannot accept that one day, their Self will no longer exist. Same reason why people become more religious as they get older. If the brain is gone, where is this sentience coming from? Is there a cloud network of consciousness out in the aether(since we're indulging Victorian superstitions) somewhere?

EDIT: If I saw a translucent phantom that looked like a person who used to live in my house appear, I would not assume that their disembodied ego still existed, and for whatever reason even looked exactly how they used to be while they still had a body. I wouldn't know what was happening, but that wouldn't be my first guess. It would be easier to believe photons can travel through time and I was seeing a delayed image. Ghosts fail as an explanation because they just raise more questions-which is probably the point of most ghost legends, to set someone up to supply those answers, but I digress...

 

[Laser Priest]

I find that ghosts are only good for reconnaissance.

They're not as useful as people seem to think.

 

[Aqua Trenoble]

GO FUCK YOURSELF, GOOD SIR. Slander my beliefs all you fucking like, but you will NOT debase another person just because you're too close-minded and ignorant to acknowledge anything that doesn't fit into your world view.

THIS WAS NOT DIRECTED AT YOU. PLEASE DISREGARD.

Excuse me? So your mother uses a completely unproven "treatment" and basically scams people into giving her money by promising to help them and you're telling other people they're closed minded? Sorry, that doesn't fly with me and frankly I refuse to let your mother continuously scam honest people who are just looking for help. There's a difference between closed mindedness and asking for evidence. There's a big difference and if you can't see that then fine, don't. HOWEVER, what your mother is doing is scamming. Nothing else. She's a snake oil salesman and I can assure you she won't be "practicing" for long.

If you want to help people with alternative treatments, FINE. HOWEVER, you do not do so when there is no evidence to suggest those treatments work. At the same time you do not charge 200 dollars for bullshit like that.

No one asked to personally experience your mothers "powers". What people asked for was evidence which is an entirely different thing and as of now you've not been able to provide that. You've resorted to insults and I'm sorry but that does not prove your point.

I never said that. What I DID say was that unless you provide evidence, what you and your mother advocate is complete and utter bullshit.

I'm sorry but I had to laugh when I saw the "snake-oil salesman" and "she won't be 'practicing' for long" bits. She's been in business for years, as you would have seen if you had bothered to read what I wrote previously.

I'm not asking people to personally experience anything, I'm just saying that they blatantly disregard or even attempt to disprove other people's personal experiences. That is the mark of a complete douche. I'm providing potential evidence, you are just ignoring it in favor of an explanation that is more comfortable to you.

Really, I'm insulting people because they deserve to be insulted and because it makes me feels better about this whole inane conversation. If you don't understand either of those reasons then you really should go elsewhere.

Actually, I'm rather hoping that you do go elsewhere, as I doubt my poor internet connection can take much more of this.

 

[Richardplex]

I believe none of it. I've done the chapter in A level ethics & philosophy about the afterlife, and none of them seemed believable to me. Especially 'Stone Tape' theory. That one makes me laugh.

 

[artanis_neravar]

sure I believe because
1. There is still many doubts whether souls exist in the science community
2. my cd player would turn on for no reason
3.once I was in the bathroom and as I went to leave the light turned off but the light didn't burnout the switch had actually moved.
4. I've seen weird things before like one time my dad came into the house I said hi he said hey then walked into the kitchen then a second later he walked in the front door again I said hi he said hey and walked towards the kitchen but then I asked him how he got from the kitchen to the front door so fast and he didn't know what I was talking about because he wasn't really there the first time I saw him. Also I saw the house from the nightmare on elm street movies in one of my dreams before I actually watched the movie.

1. not sure what a "soul" has to do with this
2. issue with the wiring, now you would have something if it had no batteries and wasn't plugged in
3. It either wasn't flipped all the way or you hit it on your way out without noticing
4. Deja Vu and the second half is because your mind didn't have a real image for what you dreamed, so once you saw the movie your mind grasped the house from the movie and applied it to what you "remembered" from your dream.

dude, how do you hit a light switch without noticing? and de ja vou doesn't make you hallucinate, open your mind a little

Easily, it becomes such a habit that you don't even notice that you do it, and yes actually Deja vu does just that it makes you believe that you have experienced something before. Maybe you should keep an open mind hmm?

 

[Pinkamena]

No, screw that. I believe in what can be tested and verified. Scientific method, betches.

 

[Alcamonic]

I really don't know.
The logical science part of me thinks that: We have no proof of it, yet... so maybe.
The paranoid, somewhat on the edge insane part of me is hearing or seeing things in the corner of my eyes. Maybe it's just illusions, because no one close to me is experiencing things.


Captcha: die-hard. Yeah, thanks. Now I feel MUCH better!

 

[Aqua Trenoble]

Oh, and if your mother is a real psychic, tell her to try Randi's Million Dollar Psychic Challenge. http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

For some reason I don't think she will - funny how real scientific analysis causes all the frauds to crawl back into the wordwork.

I'm not sure I want to tell her about this whole conversation, to be honest. Though I am curious about what the results would be.

I'm not sure that that experiment is a wholly sound idea, though. Any scientist can tell you that preconceptions alter outcomes. If there are any skeptics involved, the challenge may be broken even for legitimate subjects.

I'm not even going to bother responding to the rest of your comment, as having multiple arguments at the same time is never a good idea and nothing I say to you will make the slightest damn difference.

 

[EvilEggCracker]

Actually, her winning the psychic challenge would speak volumes and I would reconsider my stance.

And the test is usually triple-blinded which means that no preconceptions will alter the experiment results.

 

[JokerCrowe]

Not until I get some actual proof/explanation/I experience it for myself. I believe in science, and its ability to give me answers.