Psychic Phenomena, Fact OR Fiction???

[hydrolad]

IMHO, what is today's superstitions, myths, fables and phenomena may very well be tomorrow's actuality as the perception of incidents changes due to shifts in the spiritual education or the spiritual mores of the masses.

Years ago, a psychic or spiritual incident, such as ghost séances, table lifting, spirit Photography and so forth were found out later, through the passage of time, to be actually naturally occurring phenomena or downright manipulation or trickery, yet society's "Bull****" Barometer at the time was very low and people at the time were more accepting of such incidents and thought they were genuine, yet they were not.

Nowadays we seem to be more educated in psychic phenomena, but almost to the point of being overly cynical or critical of all phenomena, yet some of it may be genuine, however society's "Bull****" Barometer at the time renders the phenomena to be almost considered as not being genuine.

I hope I wasn't too dense in my writing as I tried to explain, IMHO that society, or the masses, plays a large part, in overall acceptance of varied psychic phenomena and what is denied acceptance in one decade or century may very well be acceptable in another decade or century, yet the psychic phenomena was genuine (or not) all along.

 

[tanguerra]

It's true that in this modern 'scientific' age, there is little space for the spiritual or the paranormal. Our spiritual lives are crowded out by what others consider to be 'real' - money, telephones, work, whatever. That doesn't mean that the 'other world' doesn't exist. It's just that modern life is too noisy and too busy for us to experience it.


Hundreds of years ago spirits and spirit phenomena were everywhere. Sure, there was superstition and the 'darkness' of ignorance. There were fanciful explanations invented for every day things. But there were fairies and ghosts and gods and hobgoblins as well... There are still a precious few countries where this is still the case, Bali for instance, where society supports a belief in what the western world describes as the 'supernatural'. But there are others, with intact ancient cultures who still have contact with the 'spirit world'.


Oscar Wilde wrote a very funny satirical story about this 100 or so years ago, The Canterville Ghost, where an American family moved into an old English haunted house. The grown ups didn't believe in the ghost, although he'd been haunting the house for centuries - longing for his lost love (of course). Their oft repeated motto was 'there's a scientific explanation for everything', as every morning they scrubbed out the blood stains on the carpet with 'Spotto' the miracle stain remover and 'solved' all the creaking, rattling and groaning by getting the pipes fixed... But the little girl in the story could see and talk to the ghost all the same, even though the grown ups could not, caught up as they were in their grown up issues. The moral of the story was that those with an open heart and eyes for seeing were perfectly able to experience the 'other world' whether it was 'scientific' or not.

 

[helz_belz]

Eventually, I’m sure, scientific enquiry will be able to explain many ‘psychic’ phenomena, but as you say society plays a large part in its acceptance (for example, many medical scientists bemoan the rising use of homeopathy which has no scientific or medical basis, but as society accept it, it seems to be here to stay). The way I see it, it’s like in the Middle Ages lots of things which were beyond the knowledge of people were described as magic, spirits or witchcraft (cats and owls seeing in the dark, the ability of hares to hide in the smallest depression in the soil, thunder following lightening, the spread of disease etc). These things were investigated and explained. The same thing still happens now, but it gets called ‘paranormal’. Eventually it will probably get explained, and then it will just be ‘normal’, but investigations still have a way to catch up - in the same way that those Middle Ages people would never have been able to conceive or understand the processes involved with all the ones and zeros currently flying invisibly through the air and being received by the radio or TV aerial (‘tis witchcraft!’), we cannot understand or conceive of the processes involved in the ‘spirit’ or higher-dimensional planes of the Universe (‘tis Paranormal!’). But eventually, understanding will most-likely catch-up with reality.


Of course, it doesn’t help that as with any area of the world where money can be made, there have been many charlatans, shysters and cranks ready and waiting to exploit the vulnerable, which ultimately gave any serious thoughts to investigating anything remotely ‘paranormal’ a bad name. Just take look at the work of Darren Brown, he shows just how easy it is for a skilled charlatan to cold-read a lot of detailed information without any ‘psychic’ ability whatsoever. Of course, there are genuine people out there with the ability to sense beyond the physical, an ability which most likely has a genetic aspect, just as some people will never be able to roll their tongues, some people will never be able to sense the unseen. But I’d guess many people have a vague ability to sense the higher planes at a very basic level, children especially.

 

[Mama2HRB]

My first grader nephew just left. We were eating at the table, his dad and my mother were in the living room, out of sight and hearing range.


My nephew said, "I know how you talk to ghosts. You are just hearing people inside your head that aren't real."


My reply was, "But, they are real. How about the time I spoke to Pappy when my lights kept going off and on and he told me it was my electrical box and even which breaker it would be? I told your uncle and when he came down it was even the breaker Pappy said it would be. I couldn't make that up because I don't know anything about electricity.


"Oh," he said, then he told me about seeing a man in his room and about how he felt the cold breeze when it passed him. I told him that was real and that the cold breeze was how he would know it was a ghost.


"Well, then, why don't you talk to my Uncle Jimmy?" I have no clue who that is .. LOL ... I told him that I only talk to those who have died that I love so I couldn't talk to his Uncle.


It seemed to satisfy him. Then his father came in with his usual unbeliever stories and the kid got a little freaked out and demanded to be taken home.


I feel sorry for my nephew. Being raised by someone so closed minded only makes it harder for him., I told him, as I had told his older brother, that if had any questions to ask me I would always answer him truthfully.


So, there you have it. Skeptic vs total believer. With a couple of little boys stuck somewhere in the middle.