Ever read or listen to other people's "accounts" about spirits, other worlds, other realities, other dimensions, and/or other supernatural occurrences? Ever start asking them questions, and you get a response like, "It can't be explained." Or "It's hard to explain." Or "You wouldn't understand." Oh, really? Well, the acceleration due to gravity is difficult to explain, but I understand it and can express it mathematically. The same thing applies to the conservation of energy, kinetic energy, momentum, inertia, centrifugal force, etc. It's all hard to explain, but it can be explained and expressed mathematically.

So these same people tell me, "Well, you'll never understand what it's like, because you're not 'unique' or you're not open to other possibilities. In short, you're close-minded."

On the contrary, I am quite the opposite. When I hear, or am being told, about supernatural occurrences, I am taking into account the fundamental principles and laws of physics, along with logic. My mind IS being open to other possibilities and interpretations. You want me to ignore those universal laws of nature that apply to every single living thing on this planet, just so I can believe a person's highfalutin account of the supernatural? Not on my watch. I'd bet my inheritance that this person is either LYING or DELUDED.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

Whatever happens, where or when, we're prone to wonder who or what's responsible. This leads us to discover explanations that we might not otherwise imagine, and that helps us predict and control not only what happens in the world, but also what happens in our minds. But what if those same tendencies should lead us to imagine things and causes that do not exist? Then we'll invent false gods and superstitions and see their hand in every chance coincidence. Indeed, perhaps that strange word "I" -- as used in "I just had a good idea" -- reflects the selfsame tendency. If you're compelled to find some cause that causes everything you do -- why, then, that something needs a name. You call it "me." I call it "you." -M. Minskey (1985), from Dennett's Consciousness Explained, pg. 426

More brilliance from Dennett to come later.