Belief and Experience

[orangepeaceful79]

What I'm wondering after having been a member here for a little while now is this - Does holding beliefs in "The Paranormal" make one more or less succeptible to having experiences or is it the other way around?

My opinion is that it does, though I would chalk that up largely to the phenomenon of confirmation bias - ie looking for information (sometimes subconsicously) that supports what we already believe.

I am a skeptic with regards to these sorts of things, though I do have an open mind - if I see evidence that back something up and can't be ruled out as something else, I am happy to adjust my beliefs. The crux is that I've NEVER had an experience that I would term to be paranormal. However this was true even before I became more of a skeptic. When I first joined this site, I was a believer in many things. This site has changed things for me.

Anyway - enough about me. Back to the original question. What do you think?

[ZaraKitty]

A lot of people are desperate to believe, so in my opinion a lot of 'paranormal' stuff going on is just a trick of the mind. I've met a few people who really believe in this stuff, and they think a simple breeze or a creak in the floorboards is solid evidence of a ghost, while many skeptics have no experiences whatsoever, because they are aware of how things in the world work, like floorboards expanding in the heat and then creaking when they shrink back down in the cold.

[Simbi Laveau]

My beliefs come from having experienced it.

Its why I think a lot of alien abduction stuff is total crap.

I might be totally wrong,but I think aliens have no reason to abduct us,at all.

Im sure they exist though.Thats because I find it hard to believe we are THE only life that managed to evolve in this vast universe.

If I say I believe in something,its because I've experienced it,or know people who have.

Some thing,are just common sense.

Aliens from other planets make sense,bigfoot,not so much,but again,I could be wrong.

Most of my beliefs are about ghosts ,spirits,magick.

[Knight Of Shadows]

it's all fantasy till proven otherwise

am not really close minded i have beliefs on some matters

but comes teenager say they're vampires etc etc that's too much for my taste

i believe in things that is actually happened " possessions " for example

but none the less .. i enjoy myths and legends for entertainment they're fun

[Farmer77]

What I'm wondering after having been a member here for a little while now is this - Does holding beliefs in "The Paranormal" make one more or less succeptible to having experiences or is it the other way around?

My opinion is that it does, though I would chalk that up largely to the phenomenon of confirmation bias - ie looking for information (sometimes subconsicously) that supports what we already believe.

I am a skeptic with regards to these sorts of things, though I do have an open mind - if I see evidence that back something up and can't be ruled out as something else, I am happy to adjust my beliefs. The crux is that I've NEVER had an experience that I would term to be paranormal. However this was true even before I became more of a skeptic. When I first joined this site, I was a believer in many things. This site has changed things for me.

Anyway - enough about me. Back to the original question. What do you think?

Great topic! For me,literally my earliest memories surround my Grandparents house, the haunting that took place there and how it affected everyone in my family.

I think that early experience gave me the knowledge that things outside the realm of our worldly, or scholarly knowledge do exist. When it comes to ghosts and poltergeist type activity i know they exist because I lived through them, but i think living through that also instilled in me the belief that anything is possible. Maybe not plausible , but possible.

[Beany]

My experiences came first, around the age of 45. Until then, I was a non-believer, and tended to snort outloud and rolly my eyes when someone talked about the paranormal. I labored under the illusion that because I hadn't experienced it, it didn't exist. When I began having paranormal experiences, I thought I was going crazy. But some of my friends were having the same experiences I was, some of my family members either saw, heard or witnessed some of the phenomena, so at that point I went to the bookstore and spent a gazillion dollars on books and began researching. History, psychology, self-help, religion, culture, socialization, everything but metaphysical books. Those were in the back of the store and the other stuff was in the front, and there was so much material there that I never went to the back of the stacks. When a friend informed me of the metaphysical section, I checked it out, and found some stuff of value, but I'm grateful that I got the solid grounding and education that I did before deliving into the metaphysical stuff. I was also very lucky that my daughter-in-law was from an island clan of healers, and she was able to educate me on their cultural/spiritual traditions, which are very different from the Western perspective.

I was also a member of a group of women who sponsored some native American healers/medicine people to the island, to help the indigenous people recover some of their spiritual traditions, ceremonies, songs & dances through ceremony. Being a participant in ceremony was an education in itself, and was a huge influence in changing the way I understood the world and how I was in it. I've also worked in the spiritual tradition of Ifa, from West Africa, participating in ceremony and having long discussions about their cosmogony and their understanding of what we call reality. Here's the thing, all of us are acculturated into our own society & traditions. That is a good thing, as it allows us to fit in. On the other hand, it can also function as blinders that prevents us from seeing, understanding, or accepting beliefs that are different from ours. So my experiences opened up my eyes, to use a metaphor, but the real journey is what one does with the experiences or information. To believe or disbelieve requires very little, but to do, that requires work & discipline. I'm not interested so much in the phenomena as how it fits into a greater puzzle, and how I can use that to enhance my life.

[Guest Coffin It Up]

This was solved this week, when a chicken was born with no shell.

[keninsc]

Hard to say really. I know I was indifferent before I experienced a couple of things over time. Granted it's subjective and can't be verified and I can't rule out everything to leave over the paranormal, however These three were my only real brush with it. No, I don't see ghosts, no, I don't hear voices or remote view or astrally project myself.......much as I'd really like to be able to do those things. At least in my case the experience was the deciding factor.

[PixieCutLover]

The whole skeptic vs belie er thing is in it's self paranormalish. My friend is an alien from a parrallel earth, we hang out on the weekend and talk over a machine with a brain interface, he thinks its weird that Earth is so isolated, it trips him out. I talk to this guy we've known each other for over 2 years but I have 0 proof, he's there and me and every one else is here I find my self just pausing while eating or working just to shake my head that this is even going on. I think it would take a lot of evidence to get some people to believe. Not all debunkers are real debunkers,some are deniers pretending.

[Panda124]

I think that when something weird happens to a believer the automatically explain it as Paranormal but non believers find the real explanation behind it.

Edited May 18, 2012 by Panda124

[White Crane Feather]

What I'm wondering after having been a member here for a little while now is this - Does holding beliefs in "The Paranormal" make one more or less succeptible to having experiences or is it the other way around?

My opinion is that it does, though I would chalk that up largely to the phenomenon of confirmation bias - ie looking for information (sometimes subconsicously) that supports what we already believe.

I am a skeptic with regards to these sorts of things, though I do have an open mind - if I see evidence that back something up and can't be ruled out as something else, I am happy to adjust my beliefs. The crux is that I've NEVER had an experience that I would term to be paranormal. However this was true even before I became more of a skeptic. When I first joined this site, I was a believer in many things. This site has changed things for me.

Anyway - enough about me. Back to the original question. What do you think?

I think there is a lot of truth to your observations. But. There are people that are skeptics with experiences that they cannot deni. They remaine skeptics of many things, but are forced to maintain certain observations an call it how they see it. The benefit of people like this is that, at least in their own respective experiences, they can offer skeptics a window into what they themselves might see things if it happened to them.

[Saladin]

The chicken or the egg- what came first?

Neither

t'was the c***

I mean the Rooster (pun intended, too)

(sorry- couldn't resist it )

Edited May 25, 2012 by Saladin

[pinupgirl]

I was more of a skeptic until i had an experience when i was in my early 20s.The older i have gotten,the more experiences i have had.

[fran123]

I don't think believing or being sceptical makes the slightest difference whether you will experience anything allegedly paranormal or not. It's when an incident happens, and it completely defies all logic and doesn't fit in with the rules of life that we have been brought up to accept that your views change. I was in my 30's when I had my first experience of a haunting and this was verified by other witnesses. We had evidence, we had proof, it wasn't normal. I had never given it much serious thought before this, and subsequent incidents, in the same building and it totally changed my views on life, whatever kind of life that may be, after death. I DO think though that some people, irrespective of whether they are sceptics or believers, are more likely to be able to see and feel things that others can't, why I don't know as the vast majority of people never experience anything paranormal in their lives. I hope that one day you will experience something as it will change your life but there's no point in looking for an experience as you can't make it happen., if it does it does, if it doesn't it doesn't, it's as simple as that.