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Why Do Some People Believe in the Paranormal?


Claire.

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How Come Some People Believe in the Paranormal?

I loved magic shows when I was a kid. I remember being absolutely fascinated by mysterious events and the possibility that some of us might possess supernatural powers such as the ability to read minds, get a glimpse of the future, or, perhaps, suddenly port into another dimension. The human mind is a curious one. Although it is well-known that children have a lively imagination, what about adults? You might be surprised to learn that a recent national poll found that over 71% of Americans believe in “miracles”, 42% of Americans believe that “ghosts” exist, 41% think that “extrasensory perception” (e.g., telepathy) is possible and 29% believe in astrology.

Read more: Scientific American

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“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”


 Socrates

 

There is a lot of " woo woo"  stuff out there, so I have a tendency to be skeptical about most paranormal stuff. However, you can't teach a dog algebra either, but  algebra is real. I  really wonder what's out  in the universe we (Humans) can't even begin to fathom or comprehend  because of our insufficient brains. Sometimes I muse on an idea that knowledge may be infinite and that an unknowable/unreachable God sits on the other end of it (I'm revealing my Agnosticism) and I think as we gain this  knowledge over millennium , it'll appear as paranormal/magic, etc.  as compared to the present.  I don't know, just an opinion I'm throwing out.

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People believe in the paranormal... the supernatural... because they've witnessed (or thought they did) that they can't rationally explain with their current knowledge. This difference in levels of knowledge among societies, nations and individuals leads to societies, nations and individuals who are more, or less, subject to belief in the supernatural.

Belief can also be taught. Religion is just a formalized tradition of belief that is passed down to children and new believers.

This is not to say that such beliefs are even wrong, but that generally the higher the level of knowledge, the more one can explain, and the less likely one is to believe in the supernatural. Whether those who believe they know the supernatural to be entirely wrong are correct or not is still up to debate, since not everything has, or can, be explained.

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Beliefs depend a lot on how we have been taught to think, and if we grew up in a superstitious environment, we will probably be superstitious.

When things go bump in the night (that is, I hear or see or feel things I can't explain), the first choice is just to say, "I don''t know" rather than jump to unwarranted conclusions.    It is better, even, to conclude hallucination than be so arrogant as to think one's brain always tells the truth.

I know personally that hallucinations can be convincing and scary, as I have had them from time to time throughout my life, probably linked to high fevers and starvation and war conditions I experienced when I was young.  I have come to see them as a quirk that doesn't quite work right in my mind, often internal talking to oneself that gets misidentified as incoming sounds and converted by the brain into the experience (qualia) of hearing voices.

Just remember that it is not necessary to believe everything one hears.

 

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Well that was a good article.

I'm a believer in the paranormal, supernatural, and so on. We just don't know everything. We have a long history of paranormal and supernatural and magical things that later became normal, natural, and scientific things. But we don't know everything about ourselves or how the world works, let alone space and the universe. There is still a lot of unexplained stuff out there- and we keep figuring a lot of it out but... I think there will still always be some sort of paranormal or supernatural things. I'm also fairly critical in my beliefs. Because we do know so much about what has been thought of as paranormal or supernatural.

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Interesting that they attribute belief in the paranormal to a 'cognitive thinking style' and that belief depends (among other things) whether a person is an 'intuitive' or 'reflective' thinker. We all approach the 'unexplained' differently, but I find it fascinating that some people will immediately jump to a paranormal conclusion, whilst others will conclude the opposite. Rarely is there a middle ground, it seems.

My personal beliefs are such that I do not believe in the paranormal or supernatural, regardless of how strange or inexplicable an event/experience is. But I'm also aware that we have yet to fully grasp and understand all the possibilities that exist. There may indeed, for instance, be something supernatural out there, but not as we typically envision it. We just don't know.

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51 minutes ago, rashore said:

Well that was a good article.

I'm a believer in the paranormal, supernatural, and so on. We just don't know everything. We have a long history of paranormal and supernatural and magical things that later became normal, natural, and scientific things. But we don't know everything about ourselves or how the world works, let alone space and the universe. There is still a lot of unexplained stuff out there- and we keep figuring a lot of it out but... I think there will still always be some sort of paranormal or supernatural things. I'm also fairly critical in my beliefs. Because we do know so much about what has been thought of as paranormal or supernatural.

I'm a believer in many things called paranormal. I'm not a believer that it is supernatural as being outside of science or psychological originations of cause and effect.

Once studied even what we call paranormal and unexplained  now will be explained by science someday, given enough time and research. The causes of the effects will be discovered. 

Edited by White Unicorn
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I'm open to the possibility, I can't say I've really 'believed' in anything since Christianity. But I don't actively disbelieve either... Guess I'm hoping..??

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46 minutes ago, Wes4747 said:

I'm open to the possibility, I can't say I've really 'believed' in anything since Christianity. But I don't actively disbelieve either... Guess I'm hoping..??

I'd say your optimistic.

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For me and my dad, we both saw a ghost as kids. He was traveling along a highway at night with his friend and saw a boy in those old German style clothing that seemed to be keeping up with the car so according to him the boy walked in front of the car and vanished into thin air and he looked at his friend to see if he saw the same thing. The friend looked stunned they hightailed it out of their so fast your head would spin. His friend tells the same story even after about sixty years. 

         For me, I saw what looked like a girl staring at me outside my bedroom door which is where the kitchen is, as such, I though it was my sister, so I called her name twice got no answer back. What funny is, I was like ok shuts door. 

 

Still keep my bedroom door shut. 

 

    I still think it can all be explained using the scientific method. Their is answer to everything and I intend to find them.  

 

 

Edited by Ryinrea
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I couldn't stand magicians when I was a kid. I even poked one in the eyes Three Stooges style because I thought it was so bogus and lame. I have never believed in the paranormal, although I have had experiences in life I haven't been able to give a good explanation to. I love mysteries because the more difficult it is to find an explanation, the more exciting it is to try to figure out.

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