Paranormal

[J.C.]

I found this definition for Paranormal on Wikipedia: "is a general term (coined ca. 1915–1920) that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation".

 

I like the idea of things existing outside of what mainstream science can explain and account for: ghosts, poltergeists, fairies, magic, prescience, telekinesis, psychokinesis, pyrokinesis, levitation, bigfoot, Nessie, the Bermuda Triangle... I'm what you may call a skeptic who wants to believe, but since he has no proof of or has experienced any of this, can't.

 

I think mainly it has to do with my own sense of mortality. For instance, if ghosts and reincarnation are real, then life is not just a meaningless game, and there is a grand scheme of things, no matter how alien or incomprehensible it could appear to us mere humans.

 

So if you have any personal experiences, photos, old tales or legends that fall outside of the realm of what science can explain, post them here.

 

Let me start with this one, that happened to me a couple of months ago, while visiting Edinbugh Castle, in Scotland. As I said, I've never really had a paranormal experience (except for a huge monstrous shadow I saw as a little kid, inside of a condemned room in an old farm, but since it happened so long ago I'm beginning to question the veracity of the memory). But a couple of pictures from inside one of the towers (David's Tower, to be precise, here's a sign at the entrance that explains the history of the place) are really weird.

 

(Click to enlarge)

 

I was walking around the tower with my girlfriend, taking random pictures, when one of them appeared to be overexposed or something like that, as it showed on the screen of the camera. I instinctively took another picture in exactly the same spot (with just a couple of seconds interval between the two of them). Here are the results.

 

FIRST IMAGE (Click to enlarge)

 

SECOND IMAGE (Click to enlarge)

 

I really don't know what the hell is that thing on the first image. As I said, these were taken seconds apart, from the exact same spot, with the same camera. We were alone at the moment. And Edinburgh Castle (all of Edinburgh, actually), has a reputation for being heavily haunted. I know this doesn't prove anything at all... but it's strange nevertheless.

[danielsangeo]

I was taking a citizenship test (back when they were still giving them!) in middle school. While taking the test, I looked out the classroom window and saw a metal/silver sphere off in the distance just sitting above the treetops. It wasn't moving at all. I had never been in that classroom before because they had set special rooms aside for this test so I never viewed the view from that side of the building.

 

Anyway, I figured it was a water tower or something so I continued through the test (aced it, by the way! ) and didn't think much more about the sphere...until the end of the testing period (two hours). I looked back outside to the sphere and....IT WAS GONE.

 

I don't know if it was just a windless day and it was an advertising balloon that was brought down while I wasn't looking or what, but I'm not willing, until further evidence comes, to believe it was an alien spaceship or something.

[Jek Jek Roo]

I know a lot of ghosts stories, but they're not true. I just wory about the Aliens stuff for example that ufo crash in Roswell or signs in corn fields. That's spooky...

[BTGBullseye]

The only paranormal experiences I've had have to do with dreaming the future, and one time of floating off the ground when I was 7.

[Fujin]

Things happen to me from time to time, usually just senses, seeing shadows out of the corners of my eyes, hearing people talking when there is no one there, things have moved in front of me before, nothing really scary has happened, but yes I believe in ghosts, seeing as I have encountered them.

[Eedo Baba]

The only paranormal thing I believe may truly exist is Bigfoot. Most evidence presented is certainly hoaxed, but there are a few that are unexplainable. Like the Patterson Gimlin film, the most famous image of bigfoot ever. Analysts have said that if it was a costume, it was much more advanced than any costume produced for TV or film during that period, or arguably, ever. The motion of the leg and arm muscles seen in stabilized versions of the film, as well as movement of the breasts, most scientists are baffled by.

[nomogoodnames]

There's the website called the flat earth society, and those guys think moonlight is dangerous. They're terrified of it, even pictures of it!

[Jek Jek Roo]

There's the website called the flat earth society, and those guys think moonlight is dangerous. They're terrified of it, even pictures of it!

 

That's pity :>

[Alyxx Thorne]

When someone mentions "paranormal" I think of Fox Mulder.

[Eedo Baba]

When someone mentions "paranormal" I think of Fox Mulder.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGGWzB11P30

[Alyxx Thorne]

When someone mentions "paranormal" I think of Fox Mulder.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGGWzB11P30

Wow, that sounds... like Gir.

[Doom Shepherd]

I know a guy who's a member of the Flat Earth Society.

 

It's not serious.

 

As for the paranormal... color me "indeterminate," but I've known some people who take it really seriously.

 

I knew this one guy, who claimed to be able to see auras and such, and he was afraid of me because, and I quote, "I see flames leaping from your hands, and your aura looks like the glow from a blacklight poster, and that's a color that human beings aren't supposed to have."

[Alyxx Thorne]

I know a guy who's a member of the Flat Earth Society.

 

It's not serious.

 

As for the paranormal... color me "indeterminate," but I've known some people who take it really seriously.

 

I knew this one guy, who claimed to be able to see auras and such, and he was afraid of me because, and I quote, "I see flames leaping from your hands, and your aura looks like the glow from a blacklight poster, and that's a color that human beings aren't supposed to have."

Maybe it was a compliment?

[BTGBullseye]

I knew this one guy, who claimed to be able to see auras and such, and he was afraid of me because, and I quote, "I see flames leaping from your hands, and your aura looks like the glow from a blacklight poster, and that's a color that human beings aren't supposed to have."

A little too much LSD...

[J.C.]

I knew this one guy, who claimed to be able to see auras and such, and he was afraid of me because, and I quote, "I see flames leaping from your hands, and your aura looks like the glow from a blacklight poster, and that's a color that human beings aren't supposed to have."

Nice. If at all possible, you should try to take a Kirlian Effect picture of your hand or something like that.

 

My gf once said she has seen my aura and that it is very bright, because I am overprotective and steal her energy...

 

The only paranormal experiences I've had have to do with dreaming the future, and one time of floating off the ground when I was 7.

You should try to correlate your premonitions with actual events and see if there is sufficient statistical evidence to support it. That would be awesome.

 

I was taking a citizenship test (back when they were still giving them!) in middle school. While taking the test, I looked out the classroom window and saw a metal/silver sphere off in the distance just sitting above the treetops.

I would really like to see something... anything. But besides those pictures and the shadow I saw as a little kid, my life has been completely paranormal free.

[Alyxx Thorne]

My brother claims to have heard ghosts when he was a child, or at least had some kind of paranormal experience.

[ProHypster]

Bringing this topic back.

Dreaming the future is a big one a lot of friends experienced.

Expecially dreaming death of relatives.

[BTGBullseye]

The majority of my dreams of the future I don't remember until right before the event, and then it is a "total recall" experience... I have yet to be killed, simply because of these "total recall" moments happening right before something would kill me. (car accident, bullet, a small meteorite)

[Arby]

You dodged a bullet and a meteorite?

[Rover]

I think the "paranormal" is a manifestation of people not always being able to explain what they see, hear or experience. Doesn't mean there are no explanations. A phenomenon called infra sound may be responsible for a lot of ghost sightings in certain locations considered haunted. As discovered by Vic Tandy in his own lab http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/ghost/ghost-in-machine.pdf (PDF)

There are also a lot of people who claim to have paranormal abilities. But when these are tested under controlled conditions where the ability to cheat is removed, the abilities always vanish. No one's ever been able to take James Randi's 1 million dollar prize.

Magicians like Randi and Penn & Teller are always very skeptical of the paranormal because they know how people are fooled, and more importantly how people fool themselves.

 

As for premonitions

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