Have you ever had a real experience you consider to be supernatural?

[FrogReaver]

So, this will seem like "just semantics" but in this case, it is quite relevant.

Technically, what you prove isn't, "The Earth is not flat." What you prove is, "The Earth is round," and it just happens that flat and round are mutually exclusive.

That ends up important - with the Earth, we have something specific we can prove something contrary that eliminates the possibility that the world is flat. With ghosts, the afterlife, and such, we cannot even state a positive assertion that might settle the issue, much less prove that assertion.

This leaves such questions in the state that's called "non-falsifiable". Logic and science do not really apply to such questions.

Flat and round aren’t mutually exclusive. Exhibit A: Pizza!

Flat and spherical are though

 

[Umbran]

Flat and round aren’t mutually exclusive. Exhibit A: Pizza!

Flat and spherical are though

Maybe next time consider for a moment longer that relying on the patience of others to tolerate nitpicks has some very bad failure modes.

 

[Sanguinarious]

Flat earth? Seriously, check this video out.


Honestly I don't know what to think about flat earth types. I hope most of them are just being dicks, honestly. But I remember the guy who darwined himself with a 'steam powered rocket' trying to reach an altitude almost any private plane could have to prove earth was flat.

Seriously, people honestly believe earth is flat then yeah, there is something seriously wrong with them. I mean I believe I have had a few experiences that the most plausible explanation of involves what is called supernatural, and by definition the initiation of existence is beyond our current understanding or explanation so meets the definition of supernatural, but a flat earth? Yeeesh....

Those people kinda scare me, I mean the depths of their delusion, ignorance, stupidity, whatever it is, is terrifying. It's dangerous too.

I mean if people will let themselves believe that earth is flat, what else can they believe? That anyone not just like them is evil? That all the ills of the world are due to people not like them? Then what happens? Yeah, those people are scary.

 

[Hex08]

We should not confuse "we know how the treatment works" with "we recognize that the treatment works." After all, we don't yet know the exact mechanism for the operation of Tylenol, but it is still widely recognized as an effective analgesic.



With respect, the article you linked to says, "It is questionable if acupuncture is clinically superior when compared to sham acupuncture." That does not equate to, "it is most likely a placebo effect."

Especially because, in the realm of pain management, effect is the primary concern - if the patient's pain is reduced, that's awesome. Reducing it substantially via placebo effect, which has minimal chances of side effects or significant interaction with medication or other treatment, is actually a feature, not a flaw.

Not to nitpick, and I certainly don't want to get into a back and forth on this because I do agree that pain management, even by placebo effect, is the end goal but the last paragraph of the paper I linked to states "However, it must be noted that there is a significant placebo effect."

Some of my problem with acupuncture, aside from pain management, is that some practitioners still claim it is a cure for many ailments and that simply isn't true and can interfere with people seeking proper medical attention.

 

[FrogReaver]

Maybe next time consider for a moment longer that relying on the patience of others to tolerate nitpicks has some very bad failure modes.

I considered that. I also considered that a good natured nitpick for fun on a topic I agree with you on wouldn’t cause this response.

People are complicated. Won’t be the first or last time I will be mistaken about their reactions.

 

[Richards]

One time, I was home alone and I turned on the TV. There on the screen in front of me were two brothers, Dean and Sam. I watched it for a few minutes before switching to a different channel.

That was my only Supernatural experience. I used to work with a guy who watched the whole series and said it was really good, but it didn't really do anything for me. Maybe you had to watch it from the beginning to know what was going on.

What?

Johnathan

 

[GreyLord]

Yes.

I've had them occur while awake and with full senses. It wasn't something that was questionable on whether it occurred or not. It occurred and it happened.

I'm not really going into any of them here. I will say it has convinced me that there is more going on in this world than what we know or percieve...

But what exactly it may be...I can't say. That's the bigger question I suppose. It doesn't have to be something unnatural or strange, just perhaps something we don't yet understand and haven't gotten covered to in our science yet.

 

[Jaded2]

I have.

Normally I'm a rational skeptic, scientifically inclined person. I'm agnostic in that I believe that the actual origin to existence is almost certainly beyond human comprehension as we are now, so I believe that things we cannot explain likely do exist.

All that background established, I have had experiences I do believe had supernatural elements. One involved an experience I had while alone that I believe was a carefully aimed signal from a relative who had died recently. Another one involced several people, one a relative of mine, doing things over a few hours that were unusual to a notable degree and while seemingly unrelated all seemed to be perfectly timed to lead me to being exactly where and when I was needed to possibly save a woman's life.

Both experiences left me with the impression something had happened that had no rational explanation. I'm not easily convinced of the supernatural, but I believe they happened nonetheless.

Have you ever had an experience you believe to be supernatural? I'm kind of curious if other people who generally use analytical thought, which gamers often do, have experiences they can't rationally analyze.

Hello Sanguinarious,

I stumbled across your post via a google search and wanted to share an experience I had, long ago. I was born and raised in the Chicago metropolitan area. At one time, I lived close to several wooded forest preserves. One of the forest preserves is called "Bachelors Grove." It is actually an interesting place to walk thru and view the few history landmarks that remain there. However, it is not 'open' to the public, due to a semi-private and small graveyard that highlights the area and the reason why it is called "Bachelors Grove".

The graveyard itself, is not very big. The fenced in graveyard holds about 100 graves or so, and is full to it's capacity, in that, there are marked graves from one fence line to the other. The fence is rather tall and the gate is no longer locked, so anyone could go in there. On one occasion, I did enter the graveyard to view the graves, dates and names. I don't recall exact dates, any longer, but they had dated as far back as the early 20th century and as late as the 70's...as I recall. Someone was still tending to the graveyard, as the stones are kept intact and in a respectful manner(no debris from unwelcomed guests, etc.).

The small road that starts from the main road and leads to the graveyard, goes even further and deeper into the woods. When you follow the road, past the graveyard, you come across some brick road that appears to of been coming from a different direction than the path you presently walked on to get to the brick road. Beside the brick road, is a very small stream that flowed in the opposite direction. The path and brick road end in a certain spot and it is just small brush and trees from that point.

I never walked past the area where the remains of the brick road was still intact because I felt uncomfortable about it. I was aware about some horrible crimes that actually took place there, or near there, decades before with the notorious, Al Capone while he lived in Chicago. Back then, it was mostly just woods and very little roads. At some point, it was discovered that Al Capone and his crew, would often "dump" bodies in the streams of that area, close to bachelors grove. Hence, I had thought that some people may have suffered or been dropped in that very area, and so, I would not walk past the remains of the brick road.

One time, on a mid October day, I was walking my dog on the path that leads to Bachelor's Grove. Most of the leaves on trees and brushes had already fallen to the ground. While on the path, just before reaching the graveyard, I had noticed this quaint little old, wooden house deep in the woods east of the graveyard and surrounded by a whole lot of brush and trees. It seemed that during the summer months, the foliage 'hid' the house from view, but because it was October and the foliage had since died, it was only then that the home could be seen (if you happen to be looking in that particular direction, at that particular spot). I couldn't see a clear path that would lead to the little wooden house, so the path or road that allowed access must have been on the opposite side of the home, but still far and unobtainable from where I was. It didn't look like anyone lived there and I was a huge fan of anything old. I talked myself out of investigating the house by telling myself that it might be the home of the person(s) who was still taking care of the graveyard and that the brush was way too thick to walk thru. I returned to that area on one other occasion during the warmer season.

It was about 15 years later that I rented a video from a public library by a man who investigated the most popular and known haunts of Chicago and it's metropolitan areas. Most of his show was about the actual city of Chicago and its hauntings, but he also included a few famous suburban hauntings which included Bachelors Grove. He located people who claimed to of had various 'supernatural' experiences at Bachelors Grove. He decided to formally include two women that said they were among those who claimed to of seen a house near the graveyard that seemed to of 'disappeared' right before their eyes.

The women lived in two separate cities from each other that was around twenty miles away from the graveyard and around 50 miles from each other. The host asked the women to draw the house that they had seen. Each woman drew a picture of the house they saw and when they showed the picture that they drew, I hit the floor. Not only was it almost identical to each other, but it was the same house I saw.

The only difference was that the house did not disappear in front of me. I walked away from it. I was contemplating on walking thru the brush because my attraction to old things was significant. I was not afraid at the time I saw the house because I didn't know that I was viewing a haunting. So even when the video was discussing people seeing a house that would disappear in front of them, it did not make a connection in my mind because I did not have that experience and the location of where they saw their houses and where I saw my house were different. However, when I saw what the two women had drawn, it was only then that I had come to realize what exactly I had experienced.

I was frightened of what I had seen some 15 years earlier and I can't explain fully the shutter that went thru my whole body once I found out that what I saw was 'supernatural' and not something of this world.

It is my belief that the reason the house did not disappear in front of my eyes is because "it knew" that I was seriously contemplating on walking to the house and checking it out. However, I can't say for certain that this is true, but it is my guess and belief.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I find myself in a slightly weird position re: the supernatural in that:

A) I haven't had any experiences at all, personally, that I think are actually supernatural. Not even close.

I have had a ton of deja vu flashes, but over the decades I've worked out that given they seem to be tightly connected to how tired I am, and the main thing they actually do for me is warn me that my ADHD is particularly bad that day and that I should tightly monitor how I behave that day.

I've also had so much sleep paralysis, and know exactly the situation that causes it for me - going to sleep, especially on my back, when I am "overtired", but without reading a book or the like to slow my brain down. When I was a kid and younger teenager, I got them but didn't know why (apart from sleeping on my back was bad), and so just had to deal with them and they were often terrifying. But then thanks, appropriately for this forum, to Dungeons and Dragons, my brain broke itself on it's own idiocy. Because instead of vague presences or the like, this time when I got sleep paralysis, I got a full-on D&D-style rotting skeleton warrior with helmet and rusty axe (I believe someone once even pinned down the 1E or 2E picture my brain originated this with), and I started laughing. My body was still paralyzed, but apparently that didn't matter, because I was just filled with amusement at the ridiculousness of this, even as my brain continued to try to scare itself. After that sleep paralysis can be extremely annoying and uncomfortable, but not much else.

Also so far in my life, "ghost stuff" just never happens when I'm around. Even in supposedly very haunted places.

B) On the flipside, I don't disbelieve others re: some experiences.

Some stuff people are clearly being silly about - sleep paralysis as demons or aliens, for example, ghost stories that boil down to "I heard a scary noise and worked myself into a state and I didn't know what it was so it must be a ghost" (which is like, 30% of internet ghost stories, another 50% being clearly "I am an amateur horror writer", and the rest being stuff people actually believe that isn't as simple as just a noise, even if a lot of it could be explained). But some intuition (often phrased as psychic flashes or the like) people have re: certain events is extremely hard to explain conventionally (the brain does incredible work on the down-low but it can only work with information it somehow has), as well as some weirder ghost-adjacent stuff is a bit harder for me to dismiss. My feeling is we'll probably find scientific causes eventually, but for now it falls under "supernatural".

I do love a good ghost/supernatural story, too - there were these amazing ones on reddit a few years ago, supposedly written by a park ranger in the US (clearly fictional, but very well done), about stairs to nowhere in the woods, noises that weren't noises, abductions by fey-like sasquatches and so on.

 

[Scribe]

2 experiences, 1 in my current home where I swear on anything I was for lack of a better word 'caressed' on the back of my head, and nobody else was in the room, and the other as a kid, where decades later my sister was telling a story and described the exact same spirit in the same house, and we had NEVER spoken on this before. My mother freaked out over the second incident and left the room.