How do you explain ghosts/the supernatural?

Flamed Diving · 17-03-2010 05:29PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

Both me and my sister looked at each other when it called our name, we got up looked in to our parents room, it said something and we ran down stairs as fast as we could.

Who knows what it was, but I think the voice had somethin to with paranormal activity.

I'm saying it was most lkely a ghost.

Were you both children?

17-03-2010 05:30PM

mcmoustache wrote: »

Don't be silly. Everyone knows that unicorns and fairies don't exist.

The scientific term is extinct.;)

Flamed Diving · 17-03-2010 05:30PM

iUseVi wrote: »

Can I ask why you think its a ghost? Maybe it was a fairy or some other being. You are being very specific.

FSM?

gonnaplayrugby · 17-03-2010 05:32PM

Flamed Diving wrote: »

Were you both children?

ye i was 10

Flamed Diving · 17-03-2010 05:35PM

I'm just going to stand back and enjoy this...

mcmoustache · 17-03-2010 05:38PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

ye i was 10

Are you taking the piss?

17-03-2010 05:40PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

ye i was 10

And as we all know 10 year olds alone in a house at night never ever have over-active imaginations or bad memories.

dearg lady · 17-03-2010 05:41PM

I wasn't gonna get involved, but seriously, it's so easy to make yourself believe you've heard or seen something. Sure, as a child I used hear Santas sleigh bells on Christmas Eve, and I was 100% sure at the time, of what I'd heard.
For me, the jury's out on ghosts etc, but I agree with other posters saying the most probable explanation is not a ghost!

Stercus Accidit · 17-03-2010 05:59PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

ye i was 10

...are you still 10?

Antbert · 17-03-2010 06:37PM

This has to be a troll.

gonnaplayrugby · 17-03-2010 06:38PM

dearg lady wrote: »

I wasn't gonna get involved, but seriously, it's so easy to make yourself believe you've heard or seen something. Sure, as a child I used hear Santas sleigh bells on Christmas Eve, and I was 100% sure at the time, of what I'd heard.
For me, the jury's out on ghosts etc, but I agree with other posters saying the most probable explanation is not a ghost!

:rolleyes:

how do u no it wasnt the magical unicorn of narnia? lol

Antbert · 17-03-2010 06:41PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

:rolleyes:

how do u no it wasnt the magical unicorn of narnia? lol

How can you simultaneously miss AND get the point?

gonnaplayrugby · 17-03-2010 06:41PM

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

...are you still 10?

you lot disgust me. go get a life :mad:

i'd say your all fat geeks who live in urs mums basement

Antbert · 17-03-2010 06:42PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

you lot disgust me. go get a life :mad:

i'd say your all fat geeks who live in urs mums basement

I take that as a 'yes' to the question then.

Stercus Accidit · 17-03-2010 06:56PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

i'd say your all fat geeks who live in urs mums basement

Who the hell has a basement in Ireland? Next you will say I won't get a date for the prom

liamw · 17-03-2010 07:03PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

you lot disgust me. go get a life :mad:

i'd say your all fat geeks who live in urs mums basement

So this is the type of person that believes in ghosts... no surprise really

Xluna · 17-03-2010 07:09PM

fluorescence wrote: »

Hey all, newb to this forum

I'm curious if any atheists in here believe in ghosts etc? Have you seen one? Heard a story about one? If so, do you believe what you saw was real? How do you explain these sort of phenomena if you don't?

Mods, sorry if this is in the wrong place!

Schizophrenia.

Dades · 17-03-2010 08:57PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

i'd say your all fat geeks who live in urs mums basement

Actually we all live in your mum's basement. Maybe it was one of us you saw that night?

Xluna · 18-03-2010 09:58AM

Dades wrote: »

Actually we all live in your mum's basement trailer. Maybe it was one of us you saw that night?

Just had to fix one thing.:)

Valmont · 18-03-2010 10:58AM

sink wrote: »

Brain fuck ups.
Human perception is incredibly flawed, we only observer a fraction of what we encounter, and the glimpses we do observe can completely fool our perception. More often than not what we think we see is not what we see at all. It's the reason eyewitness accounts are worth diddly squat to science.

Incredibly flawed? Tell that to a sharpshooter! Surely that's overly harsh. We are dominant species on the planet after all. Saying that human perception is subject to mistakes and errors on occasion would be a better term.

Shenshen · 18-03-2010 12:49PM

Valmont wrote: »

Incredibly flawed? Tell that to a sharpshooter! Surely that's overly harsh. We are dominant species on the planet after all. Saying that human perception is subject to mistakes and errors on occasion would be a better term.

Not really.
Our vision is well adapted to what it is (or rather, was) required for. We can see quite an amazing amount of detail, and our brain is incredibly good at filling in gaps.
However, we can't handle speed all that well (our vision gets blurry), and we're made to live in daylight, not at night.
As was pointed out, at night our vision doesn't work very well at all (compared to our daytime vision), and we get disorientated easily as our brain has to deal with less usable information coming in. It's left to guess, as it were. You can't blame it for guessing wrong, really. And you certainly can't blame it for assuming danger rather than assuming safety when in doubt. It's a survival trait.

However, in our modern day environment, it's a severe flaw.

Goduznt Xzst · 18-03-2010 12:59PM

Shenshen wrote: »

As was pointed out, at night our vision doesn't work very well at all (compared to our daytime vision), and we get disorientated easily as our brain has to deal with less usable information coming in.

I remember reading about this hoax that took advantage of this. They'd put a lit figure of Mary in the middle of a room and people would pay to stand in front of it to witness an apparition.

When all the lights where turned out and the individual was only able to focus on the figure of Mary, it would appear to begin to move of its own accord, levitating and moving from side to side.

What was actually happening though was that, when left standing in a pitch black room a person will begin to sway side to side, but as their visual sense has no spatial orientation they would not be aware of this. From their perspective they would be standing completely still and the figure of Mary they where looking at would be moving in relation to them, rather than they moving in relation to it.

Shenshen · 18-03-2010 01:28PM

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

I remember reading about this hoax that took advantage of this. They'd put a lit figure of Mary in the middle of a room and people would pay to stand in front of it to witness an apparition.

When all the lights where turned out and the individual was only able to focus on the figure of Mary, it would appear to begin to move of its own accord, levitating and moving from side to side.

What was actually happening though was that, when left standing in a pitch black room a person will begin to sway side to side, but as their visual sense has no spatial orientation they would not be aware of this. From their perspective they would be standing completely still and the figure of Mary they where looking at would be moving in relation to them, rather than they moving in relation to it.

*lol

Well, it does beat staring into the sun until you burn your retinas off to see a vision of Mary

hiorta · 18-03-2010 01:32PM

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

.......... the figure of Mary they where looking at.....

No doubt a Western Identikit image of an alleged Arabic woman?
Amazing how anyone can instantly visually recognise someone they've never seen. Wee theologians at the mind manipulating again?

sink · 18-03-2010 02:53PM

Valmont wrote: »

Incredibly flawed? Tell that to a sharpshooter! Surely that's overly harsh. We are dominant species on the planet after all. Saying that human perception is subject to mistakes and errors on occasion would be a better term.

We can only see a tiny proportion of the electromagnetic spectrum, somewhere around 5%. We can only see 30 frames per second, anything that happens quicker than that is completely invisible to us. If we're moving too fast our brain quickly gets overloaded and our vision becomes blurred as it can't cope with the detail. Our brain filters out what it deems unimportant details and we completely fail to notice things right in front of us. Our brain is easily fooled by optical illusions, mistaking still images for moving, confusing geometry, etc,.

Incredibly flawed is an accurate description.

Lemegeton · 18-03-2010 03:14PM

i take the same stance i do with god. doesnt exist and is a load of mumbo jumbo.

Galvasean · 18-03-2010 03:17PM

gonnaplayrugby wrote: »

i think its best leave the voice as an unexplained mystery.

I'm glad caveman didn't think that way when he first saw fire.

mcmoustache wrote: »

It could just as easily been God himself, Satan, invisible leprechauns, a talking teapot, a witch throwing her voice, martians, a sentient house etc, etc.

18-03-2010 03:22PM

Your senses are very fallible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4
Case and point.

ChocolateSauce · 18-03-2010 03:28PM

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

Who the hell has a basement in Ireland? Next you will say I won't get a date for the prom

I live in the basement of an extremely wealthy scientologist's house.

So there.

Flamed Diving · 18-03-2010 11:57PM

Valmont wrote: »

Incredibly flawed? Tell that to a sharpshooter! Surely that's overly harsh. We are dominant species on the planet after all. Saying that human perception is subject to mistakes and errors on occasion would be a better term.

By what criteria?

How do you explain ghosts/the supernatural?

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