Christians who scoff at paranormal

[cloudyday2]

I'll go one further, without the supernatural, Evil doesn't exist. Are there demons in the world, possibly. Is a fallen angel considered demonic?

There are so many dimensions we can perceive, why are there not more not directly perceivable.

What puzzles me is the why paranormal can be so tangible at times without leaving any traces. That argues for psychological explanations such as hallucinations, but that also means hallucinations are far more common than realized and happen to normal people. A door shaking like it is going to come off its hinges is either a hallucination or it is real. Lots of people have experienced shaking doors due to supposed poltergeists, and that means that lots of people are having hallucinations. I'm not sure if poltergeists are more scary or the idea that we are all hallucinating without realizing it.

 

[Rajni]

It would solve a lot of problems in Christianity if I am the only REAL person in the universe. I don't need to worry about issues like people who are born in non-Christians societies or people who die tragic and meaningless deaths. The only REAL death is MY death and the only REAL salvation is MY salvation.

Sometimes I have wondered if people are not actually people and maybe they know my secrets and my thoughts while only pretending not to know. I pretend too, because I can't let them know that I know that they know what I know. LOL

This reminds me... have you heard of a theory called "Open Individualism"?

 

[RichardY]

@cloudyday2
That was a question I was stuck on. Is the paranormal, something only happening in your own mind. Primordial Archetypes or thinking in images, along a Jungian line is I think the closest to a secular view. Aliens or people miraculously surviving catastrophes could be considered paranormal. Or positive things like winning the lottery jackpot multiple times. Is there an unconscious mind at play, or is there, that and more than that. Even Jung supported synchronicity as a kind of metaphysic, to work with his collective unconscious.

Something I did find odd was that John F Kennedy(murdered), Aldous Huxley(suicide) and C.S Lewis(Natural causes). All died on the same day. I haven't read the Perennial Philosophy of Aldous Huxley, but C.S Lewis was very much into the supernatural. In fact through process of elimination, I've come to agree with the smartest man in the world Christopher Langan(maybe there's someone smarter?) that God and Freewill, are real and not just social constructions.

 

[Rajni]

Even Jung supported synchronicity as a kind of metaphysic, to work with his collective unconscious.

I'm a huge believer in synchronicity. I've seen too much
of it to write it off as just all in my head.

 

[RichardY]

@RayJeena
I used to think synchronicity might be actual, more of a cold universe, quantum entanglement and the like. I didn't always think there was an unconscious mind either. Anyway, I now think hell is real not just a state of mind, about as certain as the world being round. Being sent there for not doing homework as some people on the forum seem to think, a bit extreme. Not sure what to make of it really, both settling and unsettling. Quantum theory from what I understand has locality about it, but there is also Continuum Theory. At some point the theories fall apart, perhaps like the idea of the infinitesimal point or infinite regress. Trying to work things out through sheer human intuition.

 

[cloudyday2]

This reminds me... have you heard of a theory called "Open Individualism"?

I wasn't aware of it, but it seems sensible. It solves questions about why God makes some people lucky and other people unlucky. Some people are born with brains and looks and good parents and good opportunities and possibly the salvation of Jesus while other people are born to gather human feces as an untouchable in India and then burn in hell for eternity at the hands of a "just" God. ... However, if I am the lucky person AND the unlucky person then this problem goes away.

 

[RichardY]

@cloudyday2
Which is why a meta-religion is important. Thinking that Billions of people in India and China are going to burn in hell, because they aren't Christian. Makes no sense what so ever. Why shouldn't Krishna, be as valid as Christ? I suppose dying for your sins.

 

[Rajni]

I wasn't aware of it, but it seems sensible. It solves questions about why God makes some people lucky and other people unlucky. Some people are born with brains and looks and good parents and good opportunities and possibly the salvation of Jesus while other people are born to gather human feces as an untouchable in India and then burn in hell for eternity at the hands of a "just" God. ... However, if I am the lucky person AND the unlucky person then this problem goes away.

It’s a pretty cool concept, and I like it up to a point.
It definitely alleviates a lot of existential issues, such
as the aforementioned good-guy/bad-guy/victim-
villain duality.

But then I get to thinking: If that fascinating
individual that I never got a chance to meet in this
life is just me in another body, then that means I’ll
never get to meet that person. They’re just me. A
sock-puppet of sorts. When I run to meet them in
Paradise some day, I’m basically going to just slam
into a mirror, so to speak. Ugh…

It’s the same struggle I have with the idea that we
are God. I’d like to meet God one day, but if He’s
just me (or I’m just Him) in disguise, well that sucks.

It’s like an ancient Sanskrit (?) poet once said, “I
want to taste sugar; I don’t want to be sugar.”

So I find it really cool and really depressing at the
same time, LOL!

 

[Steve Petersen]

What puzzles me is the why paranormal can be so tangible at times without leaving any traces. That argues for psychological explanations such as hallucinations, but that also means hallucinations are far more common than realized and happen to normal people. A door shaking like it is going to come off its hinges is either a hallucination or it is real. Lots of people have experienced shaking doors due to supposed poltergeists, and that means that lots of people are having hallucinations. I'm not sure if poltergeists are more scary or the idea that we are all hallucinating without realizing it.

All you have are stories. Where is the video evidence? Where is the forensic investigation by credentialed scientists?

 

[cloudyday2]

All you have are stories. Where is the video evidence? Where is the forensic investigation by credentialed scientists?

Project Blue Book ran for about 20 years and there were many unexplained UFO sightings including movies, photos, radar records, ground traces, etc. When the USAF arranged the study that extricated them from their public UFO responsibilities, the conclusion was simply that there was no evidence of a security threat and no prospects for scientific advancement. BTW, the US government DOES continue to gather UFO reports, so obviously there IS a security concern. One of the depositories for UFO reports is NORAD. US officials in NORAD deny the existence of UFO reports, but Canadian NORAD officials happily mailed file boxes full of UFO reports to investigators for a small handling fee (LOL).

 

[Steve Petersen]

Because we don't know what they are does not mean they are from somewhere else.

 

[cloudyday2]

Because we don't know what they are does not mean they are from somewhere else.

That is true. One problem in studying UFOs is that there are many different causes for the sightings. So it is hard to make any sense out of a collection of UFO reports until they are somehow sorted into distinct classes. Some people simply hallucinate things (including me at times). Some people misidentify stars and satellites and weather balloons. Some people make hoaxes. Some people might be seeing top secret projects from various nations. And maybe there are some truly paranormal sightings in the mix.

Also, the extraterrestrial spaceship hypothesis has been falling-out of favor among ufologists, because the sightings are often so bizarre.