I’ve noticed the plethora of these kinds of stupid programs. The only advantage is that it makes it easier for me to turn off the TV.
I see that they’ve now been adding vampires to the Woo mix. I thought the reality shows were atrocious, but they seem to find new depths of mental incompetence to sink to.
It is rather sad, every channel seems to be clamoring for their own version of “Ghost Hunters.” I’ve even seen a commercial for a show called “psychic kids” in which parents desperate for attention and money encourage their (possibly mentally ill) children to claim they can see and talk to ghosts. If these kids are really hearing voices and hallucinating ghosts, they should be receiving psychiatric help, not being placed on reality TV and encouraged to believe the voices in their head. There is even a show on Animal Planet, about pet ghosts. It’s disgusting.
It’s more of a sympathetic biography than a critical history, and because the popular readership is predisposed to believe in “unseen phenomena,” it’ll sell better than a book such as Paul Kurtz’s “Skeptic’s Handbook of Parapsychology, which apparently also addreses that lab’s work (http://www.amazon.com/Skeptics-Handbook-Parapsychology-Paul-Kurtz/dp/0879753005 ).
I think the human mind, having developed similarly for all of us, is prone to hallucinations, under certain circumstances, and that ghosts are merely a reflection of that.
Our brains developed to look for predators lurking in the dark. It’s no wonder to this day, we are suspicious of things that go bump in the night. Thousands of years ago, that bump might have been a large animal stalking us. Of course today we know it’s not a large predator - and even if it is a predator lurking around our campsite, some may think it’s “bigfoot” or some other nonsense! Is it just that we love the drama?
Personally, I dont want to believe in ghosts. If I believed in ghosts I dont think I could sleep
at night. My husband has several “ghost stories” he has told me but I’m content in believing
he’s nuts. My daughter-in-law has a more convincing story about two ghost children, but I
still prefer not to believe it. The strangest ghost story I ever heard, a little girl on my school
bus told me about a “headless horseman”, she and her dad had both seen it, from their little
cabin in the hills, up a hollow in eastern kentucky. It was the first time I’d ever heard of an
adult believing in ghosts. Something tragically ironic happened to that little girl not long after
she told me that. I dont believe the “ghost story” but I believe it was more than coincidence.
That was about 38 years ago and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around exactly what
happened and who was responsible for it. I have a very elaborate and convoluted “theory”
that spans nearly five decades and includes a number of suspects and victims but I need
some help in “refining” my theory. I hope to meet some clear thinkers who wont get too
caught up in the strangeness and phenomenal nonsense and all that, to help me make sense
of it. Even though I believe in God, I believe He expects me to find answers to life’s questions
within the boundaries of science and reality.
But you may speculate about paradigms of reality different from what you usually hear.
What is SHEOL? What if the system works on reincarnation? If so then where are the “souls” between incarnations? Can they manifest in any way? If human beings can be neurotic while they are incarnate then why couldn’t they be while they are decarnate?
Hell is a really dumb idea but it is obvious that the physical universe is a really complicated place. So if you hypothesize a metaphysical reality then it is likely to be complicated also.
But you may speculate about paradigms of reality different from what you usually hear.
What is SHEOL? What if the system works on reincarnation? If so then where are the “souls” between incarnations? Can they manifest in any way? If human beings can be neurotic while they are incarnate then why couldn’t they be while they are decarnate?
Hell is a really dumb idea but it is obvious that the physical universe is a really complicated place. So if you hypothesize a metaphysical reality then it is likely to be complicated also.
psik
Here is a speculation. What if the physical and thought presence of a human leaves an universal imprint or memory (there are several such theories)? Could others with a sympathetic or resonant physical and thought presence somehow “receive” or “feel” the other’s stored memory.
We do have several paradigms in physics which speculate on such a universal storehouse. I believe that there is even a theory that the universe itself has a ghost-like aspect to it as well as physical presence.
Our brains developed to look for predators lurking in the dark. It’s no wonder to this day, we are suspicious of things that go bump in the night. Thousands of years ago, that bump might have been a large animal stalking us. Of course today we know it’s not a large predator - and even if it is a predator lurking around our campsite, some may think it’s “bigfoot” or some other nonsense! Is it just that we love the drama?
Yes, the Boogie Man has been around for a long time.
I think the human mind, having developed similarly for all of us, is prone to hallucinations, under certain circumstances, and that ghosts are merely a reflection of that.
Perhaps in Ireland the hemp rope (for ships) industry had something to do with the evolution of Leprechauns.
To believe in ghosts one would have to believe in some sort of metaphysical world, that is, something that contains angels, gods, heavens, hells, devils, etc. Since there is absolutely no evidence for such a world, and there has never been any scientifically verifiable evidence of ghosts, only anecdotal reports of hallucinations, there is no reason for me to waste my time believing in them or in any other fairytales.
No, there is no evidence of a “universal imprint or memory” other than what we each remember of the other people we contact, both living and dead. But that’s in our memories, in no way an indication of the existence of the dead person, either as ghost or some sort of “memory mist” floating in the air. And no, there are no paradigms in physics that postulate anything of the sort.
Sorry, the version of cannibis from which hemp is made doesn’t contain enough tetrahydrocannabinol to get a mouse high.
I believe I understand why people think they see ghosts, especially when its a loved one who
has recently died. Because someone you live with and you become accustomed to their being
there, then suddenly they are gone, your mind may be distraught but as long as you are
“mourning”, that is, thinking consciously about missing them, you wont “hallucinate” their
presence but, at times when you become lost in thought, out of focus so to speak, your mind
momentarily “forgets” they are gone and subconsiously you may see or hear them, as if
“habitually”, because its what you’re accustomed to.
Sorry, its a little convoluted to try to explain, but I think it happens just as often when people
are living except that it doesn’t seem so phenomenal. Like when my husband works overtime,
and I’m so accustomed to him leaving and coming home at certain times I sometimes catch
myself talking to him when he isn’t there. Or I can be going about my business as usual, and
its like I’m thinking he’s in the bathroom, then after it seems like a really long time I go to
check on him to see if he’s all right, and of course he isn’t there, and then I feel silly as I
remember he’s still at work. Of course I dont freak out and call “ghostbusters” because, as
silly as it seems, it actually makes sense in a way. I mean, I am a creature of habit after all,
and if I’m sitting here at the computer and I hear settling in the pipes or some other noise that
reminds me of the sounds he makes when he’s in the bathroom, then without really thinking
about it or realizing I’m thinking it, my subconscious mind automatically makes the assumption
he’s there, and once I have that thought in my head, without really noticing I go on thinking it
until I either happen to remember or something proves the thought wrong.
