What do you believe in ?

Nope, they're all examples of Post hoc ergo propter hoc (or post hoc fallacy).

And a little magical thinking.

 

Interesting observation - I have a good friend who swears that she is 'susceptible' and frequently knows who is phoning before she picks it up.

I often make guesses and sometimes I am right. I don't have a 'feeling' per se. I put it purely down to probability.

Now, If psychic phenomenon exists, that means we have another form of communication outside of our 5 senses. Thats a tall claim and outside of the excellent heroes series I don't think a single person has ever displayed such a talent.

Maybe its there and not easily repeatable? Ever.

 

I can tell what you're thinking of. It's naked chicks, isn't it?

-- Ian

 

you got me.

 

That's uncanny! Do you have sixth sense?

 

Yes, but I'm missing senses one to five.

-- Ian

 

How could that be possible?

 

I carefully used the word 'maybe'. The events gave me a jolt, but they may simply have been extreme coincidences rather than anything spooky.

 

They should be working overtime.

 

This thread is pathetic.

 

I knew you were going to say that.

-- Ian

 

And yet you've contributed six posts and you're still here.

 

I once knew some on who said she was telepathic especially with her twin sister.

Frankly, I believe her.

She was certainly not showing off about it and was quite pointed about the fact that it cause just a massive amount of unhappiness.

She was relatively bright;doing a pHD at the college I was working at.


The paranormal; like I say, statistically I think there have been just too many reports of stuff happening for the subject to be dismisssed entirely as nonscence.

My parents stayed at an old place in chippenham whilst there 2nd house was being finished. My Mums spoken breifly about it at times ove rthe years....my Dad (the ORIGIONAL sceptic/scientist) goes pretty quiet on the subject if brought up.

Again, my Dads quite bright.

As someone said, some people seem to be more prone to this stuff than others.

 

Really David...

Well here's someone REALLY bright reminding humans that they shouldn't get too carried away with our all to active imagination. A bit of perspective if you like ?

 

i can understand the twin sister thing, assuming they were identical twins; identical twins are genetically identical, so their brains are 'wired up' in the same way. Thus even if raised separately they will tend to wear the same sort of clothes, like the same kind of things, and so forth. It's not difficult to see how they could both be thinking the same thoughts at the same time, an interpret this as 'telepathy'.

Other pyschic phenomena such as ghosts I'm not sure about. They don't seem to be 'provable' in a scientific sense; AFAIK there's never been a successful film of a ghost, despite numerous attempts with hidden cameras/microphones. On the other hand, people whose veracity and sanity I trust say that they have seen such things. My scepticism is not so much about the phenomenon itself, as about the origin of it. Have the spirits of the dead (if that what ghosts are) nothing better to do than hang around the same place on earth for centuries on end?

 

what do I believe in..?

myself

 

Yes, what wrote is fact, not imagination JCL.

I think this is a very valid point

This is the (million dollar) question.

(whoops got my self into deep water i suspect.... )

 

But are you sure you really exist?

When my eldest boy was 4 years old he watched "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". A few days later he asked me "What's a philosopher?" I said that philosophers were people who thought about the important questions in life and, not being able to immediately think of a better example, I said that for instance they considered questions like do we really exist. "Do we exist?" I asked him. "Well we're talking aren't we?" he replied.

I post therefore I am?

 

Good quote Steve Might use that one myself one day.

I didn't realise it would have been Carl Sagans birthday recently. Its mine next week - I feel a Carl Sagan book coming on.

 

I'd recommend Cosmos and other Sagan books to other people on the forum too