Paranormal experiences?

[Ryan1984]

I’ve been watching Uncanny on iPlayer and listening to the podcast. I really like Danny Robins’ approach to examining from both sides. The question for this thread is have you/anyone you know had a paranormal or supernatural experience and are you a believer or not?

[Mark E. Spliff]

I've had a few experiences of the sort that people often put in the 'paranormal' category.  One was an object falling off a shelf, that really shouldn't have.  The others were a few instances of thinking about a particular person for no apparent reason, and subsequently discovering they had died at that time.

However, I don't believe in the paranormal.  The object-falling-off-shelf would have simply been a normal physical effect in the environment, which I (to this day) was simply unaware of.  Me failing to notice something is far more probable than any paranormal explanation.  If I were to put the thinking-about-the-dying instances down to the paranormal, that would just be me succumbing to 'confirmation bias.'  We all think about people in our lives thousands of times per day and it's statistically likely that, very occasionally, this will coincide with that person dying or being involved in an accident etc.  When it happens, this has massive shock value, however we never remember the many millions of times we think of someone who doesn't happen to die.

I, too, listed to 'Uncanny' as well as 'The Battersea Poltergeist.  I absolutely despised both of them as I see them as dishonest clickbait - his 'seeing both sides' of the story is a con: he doesn't believe this stuff any more than I do.  People love to watch stuff about ghosts and the paranormal, but we've already got all the explanations we need for the weird stuff that goes on.  In some anecdotal cases, like my object-falling-off-shelf example, we might not know the full explanation for what happened, but we always know that it's immeasurably more likely that it was down to a non-supernatural explanation, than the laws of physics stopped working.  Whenever claims of the paranormal are put to a rigorous test, they always fail.  It's a bit dated, but if you look at 'James Randi' on YouTube, you'll see him absolutely destroying charlatans like Uri Geller, by applying a mixture of his ex-magician insider knowledge and a bit of scientific rigor.

I do think there are things of wonder in the universe - e.g. I don't think humanity will ever figure out the 'subjectivity' aspect of consciousness - how can you connect a bunch of atoms together in such a way that they become aware?  And there are fundamental aspects of cosmology and physics which will probably never be cracked by science - infinite universe? multiverse? etc.  But the 'supernatural' stuff which will inevitably make Danny Robins his fortune, is a load of nonsense and he knows it.

[philipsteak]

Well, now that Mr Spliff has absolutely murdered this thread with that great post, we'll have to see if it comes back and haunts us.

[squirrelarmy]

I’m a massive believer in science and what can be physically proven. 
 

People seeing ghosts and things that aren’t there must down to imbalances in their brains. 
 

There’s nothing in physics that can make something appear or do something supernaturally. 
 

Your brain however can make you think you’ve seen something. My brain is always playing tricks on me due to my illness, I get huge Deja vu moments all the time. I’m always thinking I’ve seen something before or remembering thinking about something before it happens so I wonder did I actually see the future or is my mind just getting reality confused with memories. 
 

As the great Morpheus said, “your mind makes it real” even if it’s not. 

[GeorgeNotC]

I've always been intrigued by the paranormal, though I've never had a personal experience. I believe there's a lot we don't understand about the world, and sometimes events occur that defy logical explanation. While I lean towards skepticism, I'm open to the possibility of unexplained phenomena. It's fascinating to hear others' experiences and perspectives, whether they're believers or not. The discussion around these topics, especially in shows like 'Uncanny,' always brings an interesting blend of skepticism and wonder.