Your Opinions on the Paranormal?

Scientifically speaking, energy cannot be destroyed, rather it is dispersed. It simply returns to the system as errant energy.

You also have to be specific as to what kind of energy you're talking about. All we can really claim to produce is bio-electrical and heat energy. If you're talking about a 'lifeforce' or a 'soul,' you've searching for something that science has not yet established as an existing force. Likewise, because science cannot explain something, doesn't mean it isn't real.

Remember, in the words of Lt. Cmdr. Data, "The most elementary and valuable statement in science, the beginning of wisdom, is 'I do not know.'"

i agree with that prometheus, but energy can be created however.. like you said through heat energy, not only from us but also from the sun.. plants use that energy and convert it into their own form of energy through photosynthesis..
but does this mean that there is constantly new energy being created and none being destroyed?

But that energy isn't being created, as it comes from the Sun, which loses energy every second it shines.

The total energy of the Universe has been constant since the Big Bang... in fact you can consider it to be zero, because all of the positive energy of matter and radiation is balanced by negative gravitational potential energy.

has anyone ever (to the best of their knowledge) come in contact with extreterrestrial beings.. this might include seeing them or have lunch with them.. and no, watching futurama doesnt count

I always coulda swore that my third grade teacher Mrs. Finkle was from Venus...

I know a lot of people that have said they have seen UFO's but they were all smoking at the time, and major conspiracy theorists. One was a major fan of David Icke so u can make ur own judgements...

I kind of wish I could believe in the paranormal, I want that Damascene sense of revealation, but I've never met anything that could give me that.

I'm very much with the other guys with the "what we don't understand now, someday we will" attitude.

Even my father's poltergeist encounter with an electric stove being hurled around a room won't convert me.

Yes, it's true... I posted an old post of Peles on this exact subject. Mostly cuz I thought if I said "Do a search" she'd bite my head off.

But I've been distracted by my cutie too much and didn't have time to jump on and say "Ha"!

So...

Ha!

Post deleted by Valura

I'll fill in my bit on this. . . while I'm an Agnostic, I'm quite open minded.

I'm a scientist at heart, and originally I pursued it at a career. I am quite skeptical of things labeled "mystical" or "magical", including anything under the realm of paranormal. Yet even I who will always search for a rational answer first and look to science and it's methods to explain things am not able to explain all that's around.

A psychic vampire is someone who is more or less an extreme empath--they are highly attuned to others emotional states and draw their own emotional strength from them. Whether they "feed" off a persons psyche or energy may be something of debate to those who believe in them--but science would be hard pressed at all to prove such an existence as one could not rule out the simple fact that perhaps such people are highly-stimulated by crowd settings.

However I'm off topic--while being of an extremely scientific orientation, I've partaken by myself or with a few others things that I could not rationalize, and I realize are well beyond our current scientific methods to study, because of our limited ability to accurately measure the mind in non-lab settings.

It's honestly a toss up--I'm extremely empathic, to the point of it being a 6th sense, yet an intuitive understanding of body kinesetics could explain it, but explaining that intuitive understanding would be a task.

So while I base my view of the world on the scientific and the "real" I am quite willing to accept the possibility of the unknown and paranormal---when all else but that is left as the possiblity. And while our science is not the best or most accurate, many things can be explained by it. But somethings--many things like what Valura describe can be found and rarely can they be proved--but I've never seen them disproved either, for they don't happen on command from my understanding, and that is something that science requires--a constant, and when that is not present, we have a most dastardly time figuring it out. :P

Spiralx, that is a good read if you are into the topic.

So...here is a question...

What does the term Paranormal mean to you? How do you define it?


As I said before, I take it literally. "Para" meaning beyond "Normal" meaning (from Webster's Dict.) Conforming to the standard of the accepted type, regular.

Simply, to me, the term means Beyond Regular. Under that definition anything science has *yet* to explain and is still testing in theory as it is not yet proven can be paranormal. Hell, most of the way I live my life falls into this category!
I investigate things people fear because they are out of the realm of day to day possibility and thought process.

And Phellan, your definition was completely on topic

Spiralx...

I love both the Tandy and the Persinger theories, and am well acquainted with them. And if you continue to research them you will find that they still only explain a fraction of the "ghost hunts" they go on with their science, which still leaves some things unexplained....and this is where the, I think, logical people investigators come in (not ghost hunters...I think they look to find them, not to investigate and explain a claim)...to seperate science from the not-yet-able to be explained.

However, both of these, while extremely plausible are also disputed by people in their own scientific fields. Nuerologists claim that Michael Persinger is full of crap (and in fact our own HoP nuerologist thinks the theory is crap, btw).
And people who study infrasounds and the effects on living creatures (mostly to determine what hears to what extreme) are claiming that Tandy's theory is too erratic.

In both cases, the theories, when tested effect different people in different ways, yet there is no physiological connection yet being made between those who seem suseptible and those that do not, so it is still up in the air...but a *damn* good start I think.

That is a great article on it too, btw.

Now, if only there was a really cheap way of testing for infrasounds that did not cost thousands...then Pele would be a very happy girl!
Electromagnetic, I have that covered...but the sound...nope.

In my opinion telling me that I have a cunning mind is implying that I am not using my abilities and *making stuff up*
I find that offensive.
Therefore I expressed my opinion.
Sorry if you didnt feel that was ok spiral.

woa there, i sense some tension building up...
CANT WE ALL JUST GET ALONG??


sorry

It's done...it's taken care of. Can we now return to the topic and stop this?

I was just looking up popular definitions of each of the terms associated with paranormal investigation, something I don't think I have done before and I found it very interesting that many of the social ideas do not fit with the actual definition.
Do you think this is because of media?
How do you think that masse media has effected your views of the paranormal?

Thanks!

I dont know whether it is a fair thig to do to take a nuetral position on such a thing, because i wouldnt like to rule it out completely but knowing the world today makes it seem pretty far fetched. If you ask me there must be some sort of secondary world of unknown.