i dont believe in god
i do believe in the loch ness monster
its more fun
How can anyone really be a 100% confident atheist given the paranormal and occult?
by yadda yadda 2 78 Replies latest jw friends
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cofty
The Society for Psychical Research in the UK (and there are many other agencies across the world) has well over a hundred years of research records on the subject.
Don't you think that if they had any compelling data we would know about it by now?
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Hortensia
Serious lack of evidence. Also, I just love how people who believe in this stuff say "it's the ONLY explanation!" It's never the only explanation. It's just the only explanation they're willing to accept.
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King Solomon
Ziddina, why would the ghos....? Oh, never-mind!
Zid, here's a video for you (and I love the one comment left for the video, which pretty much says it all):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw5oq4O5imU
Oh, here's that Darkmatter video on what it means to have a personal relationship with God (thanks, but no).
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DATA-DOG
I had a paranormal experience and it was incredible!!! Here is what I saw!! It was a night I will never forget...
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The Scotsman
A friend of mine was dragged out there bed by the ankles while "someone" was shouting in there ears. She was in the room alone.
Explain that?
She was traumatised by the experience for many years.
(She has had several experiences since then though less dramatic.)
A few coming on here saying all this paranormal stuff is just BS etc etc - but then offer no explanation for the 1000s of experiences.
Some of it can defo be explained away but the sheer volume of experiences is thought provoking.
An intersting subject.......
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Witness My Fury
Easy, it's all in the mind.
Did you hear this radio 4 program the other day?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nbq6d/Hallucination_Through_the_Doors_of_Perception/
Copy and paste:
Hallucinations aren't what they used to be. Time was when reporting a divine vision would bring fame or fortune, and have a queue of people wanting to touch your robe, receive a blessing, or recommend you for sainthood.
The Enlightenment changed all that and nowadays you'd be more at risk of being handed a prescription for a major tranquilliser or even sectioned under the Mental Health Act for reporting what you saw or heard. Hallucinating, in essence, the experience of seeing or hearing (and sometimes smelling or touching) something that by any objective measure, isn't there, has been linked to a wide variety of causes. From the use of mind-altering substances such as LSD, to the complex collection of often distressing symptoms labelled schizophrenia. Neurological damage, dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, stress, narcolepsy - all these and more have been linked to hallucination. But there are also examples of otherwise 'healthy' individuals who have experienced vivid and sometimes distressing hallucinations which for most of the last century, science has largely overlooked. But with the advent of fMRI scanning, where researchers can observe the hallucinating brain in action, it is these "healthy" individuals who are beginning to open the doors of perception and which may provide new insights and treatments for psychosis and schizophrenia.
In this programme, Geoff Watts meets researchers attempting to unlock the mysteries of hallucination as well as some of those who experience the phenomenon. Geoff visits Dr Dominic Ffytche of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, and undergoes a stroboscopic experiment designed to induce hallucinations in subjects whilst their brains are being scanned. We hear some of the vivid accounts from hallucinators, including Doris, who has macular degeneration. Over the last year, her failing eyesight has resulted in an array of objects and images appearing before her with startling clarity, from relatively benign baskets of flowers to the rather more distressing sight of dark, haunting figures sitting by her bed. Her condition is known as Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Dr Ffytche estimates that over 2 million people suffer from this in the UK alone, mostly in silence, due to the fear of being labelled as 'mad'. Geoff also visits Kelly Diederen's lab at Cambridge University, which is investigating the origin of auditory hallucinations - hearing voices. Common in people with schizophrenia, Dr Diederen is instead, scanning the brains of so-called "healthy hallucinators", individuals who otherwise lead perfectly functional lives save for the fact that they hear voices on a daily basis. Could they hold the key to understanding and treating a key symptom of psychosis? And Geoff talks to internationally renowned neurologist and author, Dr Oliver Sacks, about his own experience of hallucination as well as his new book on the subject.
(Bold is mine otherwise you'd likely miss it...)
Here's another link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01nbq6d
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cofty
A friend of mine was dragged out there bed by the ankles while "someone" was shouting in there ears. She was in the room alone. -Scotsman
Of course she was alone.
If somebody had been in the same room and saw her getting dragged out of bed and heard the screaming and been able to corroborate exactly what was said then you would have an interesting story.
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Witness My Fury
It's also a very big clue that many of these things happen around situations involving sleep...
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The Scotsman
I accept that many of these types of events may well "be in the mind" - but not all.
I know of another experience involving 4 people - all saw and experienced the same event.
In the end no-one knows for sure - but to explain away tens of thousands of experiences as "in the mind" or "they were actually asleep" or "it is a fraudster" does not wash.
