Can All Weird Experiences Be Explained?

[nailit]

I'm generally sceptical of the paranormal and view with suspicion the claims of psychics, spiritualists and the like. However I personally know many people who have had some very strange and inexplicable occurences.
Can ALL strange experiences really be explained by science, psychology etc?

[naomi24]

chakka, // these people do not expect to be ridiculed//

I think experience has taught them to expect it - or perhaps to be unsurprised by it - but I appreciate your sentiment. Must dash – got a plane to catch. Bye for now.

[whiskeryron]

We do know as fact that there are sounds that are not audible to our ears ( eg.dog whistles) our visual range is also limited so anything outside our audio/visio capabilities could be there & we would not be aware of it. I feel strongly that there could be other levels of so called life running parallel with our own which we could possibly be aware of at certain times or in certain conditions.

WR.

[joko]

i think whether or not someones account is believable (i mean in that they believe it really happened) t is dependent on the way in which they tell the tale .. if they are reveling in it, clearly embellishing and seem to be just making it up for attention, then they'd likely be laughed at.
the 'psychic' i know clearly was utterly preposterous.

but if their life had been hugely affected by it, they were scarred by it and terrified and did not enjoy discussing it, id say its more plausible that they believe it, and they are less likely to be ridiculed.

not that either are true or untrue - i just mean in terms of whether the person believes what they're saying or are simply making stuff up.

i have spoken on another thread about some friend whose minds seemed to twist things and they began to believe things that were totally untrue.

people also have to try to explain something largely 'unexplainable' which is not easy - so they fill in the blanks to make the story more coherent, and gradually over time things become more 'rounded' and eventually can be rather different from the first time they told it, and also from their actual recollection.

by everything i have said above, i mean it to apply to 'some' people, not all ...

[Khandro]

birdie; //Please tell me you're joking//. Not at all, I take it that your scorn presupposes you can answer my question? Please do so, think very hard first, and remember, we know how.

[birdie1971]

Khandro - “...Think very hard first...”

Thanks for the patronising response to my apparently scornful reply. Correct me if I'm wrong but are you not suggesting that whilst we know the biological mechanism by which living tissue heals itself, the underlying reason why it does so is currently unknown?

[Khandro]

birdie; Yes, my point being that before concerning ourselves with the 'paranormal', we should perhaps concern ourselves to a better understanding what we consider as normal. This may require asking more 'why' questions not just 'how' ones. After all, you don't have to be very clever to answer 'how ?' once all you needed was an encyclopedia, now you don't even need that, - machines can do it for you, the trouble is, computers don't know how to ask questions, only the mind can do that

[whiskeryron]

I can see that the points I raised received no comments whatsoever, is this because no one thinks they are relevant ?

WR.

[Khandro]

WR; I think the point you make is relevant and plausible. The lack of response could be that at 107, posts the thread is running out.

[whiskeryron]

Cheers Khandro

[LazyGun]

@WR

I do not think you can use the fact that our own human senses have a limited range when it comes to detecting sound and electromagnetic spectrum, as a means of saying that things exist that we cannot feel, hear or see. Fact is, we know how this stuff works, and we can build detectors that can hear and see all parts of the spectrum. We know that bees and other animals can see or hear different frequencies, and we know that they will experience the world differently to us - we know that flowers will look a lot different to a bird, for instance, or a bee. We can exploit Infra-Red detectors as a form of night or heat vision.

You then go on to say that you feel strongly that there are other forms of life running parallel to our own - do you mean lifeforms? or do you mean ghosts, spirits - entities linked to our own?

There have been hypotheses of multiverses, where other universes exist side by side ( if that is really a good description), but no one has suggested that we can interact with them in any way......

[daisya]

To answer the OP question as I've just happened upon this thread, no I don't think all "paranormal" or weird experiences can be answered by science. I must say that I follow through with Naomi's thoughts and very well put words...it's very much the way I think. I put paranormal in quotes simply because it means that it cannot be explained, that paranormal really is IMO normal to some or weird as you put it. We pick up on things just as animals do...that it isn't para-normal but of normal experience, that many years ago was the rule rather than the exception.

I don't know WHAT it is, can't explain it but I think all creatures on this planet have the ability to "know" things which cannot be defined nor can they be conjured up. It's a natural phenomena that was accepted many years ago but has been decried in this modern age because it's something unusual and we have lost that sense in lots of cases. All those years ago it was normal to human nature. The James Randi thing....he knows that these experiences cannot be reproduced under lab conditions, they happen randomly, cannot be predicted and certainly will not appear at will....his money is safe and he knows it. Believe it or not, the things that happen are "of the earth", natural and picked up by sensitive people, nothing extra-ordinary but just the norm. No one offering millions will ever be able to replicate this phenomena but how and why it happens is still the mystery as far as I'm concerned.

[murraymints]

I was once grabbed in the old grayfriars churchyard only there was nobody there...

[murraymints]

To the believer no proof is necessary,to the non believers no proof is possible

[daisya]

Bet that hurt to be grabbed in the old greyfriars minty ...lol.

[doctordb]

Is 'old grayfriars churchyard' a euphemism murray? ;)

[murraymints]

No ,grayfriars
is a very ancient churchyard in Edinburgh

[birdie1971]

Khandro - “... birdie; Yes, my point being that before concerning ourselves with the 'paranormal', we should perhaps concern ourselves to a better understanding what we consider as normal...”

In your earlier post [16:23 Wed 06th Mar 2013] you said, and I'm paraphrasing, “We know 'how' a cut piece of flesh heals itself but we don't know 'why'”. Since you apparently thought that such a phenomenon was (your word) “inexplicable”, I presumed that you weren't being serious.

Apparently you were.


I find it incredible that you think there is some mystery as to why highly complex, evolved creatures have the ability to perform cellular repairs and in some cases regenerate entire lost limbs and appendages. This thread is about phenomenon that is currently outside the realm of scientific understanding yet you seem to think that cell regeneration falls into the same category.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology)

[joko]

we do know why the body heals though - quite simply because it has to - if it doesn't, it will die - and if there is one thing above all that living creatures a geared to not want to do, its die.

if it didn't heal we would all be dead within days - blood would pour out, infections would start, and if we didn't die, we would be walking round with flaps of skin hanging off and great gaping gashes - we would be bloody wrecks...

nature has ensured that we can survive in many circumstances and healing illness and wounds is one of them - our bodies are full of ways to fix itself

also under that 'logic', you could say that about anything on our bodies - hair grows... but how and why? snot appears, we know how, but why?

it happens because it needs to in order for us to function and for survival

i too am amazed you find the healing of a cut a supernatural issue - or rather are you implying that is god doing it?
that he heals every single cut or spot etc himself?

[Khandro]

joko; The key word in you long text is 'nature' (has ensured) what do you mean by that please? I have never said that the process of healing was supernatural, I have said we know how it happens but we don't know why.

[jake-the-peg]

I rather take it to mean evolution