Do You Have Experience With Supernatural?

[DayLight]

Hi,

I was hoping that some would post them (or pm me if you think it's too personal, but you are still willing to share).

 

For example, some of these are what I would consider supernatural experiences: altered states of consciousness, remembering the "passed lives", hearing somebody answer (either in thoughts or in a voice), seeing visions and/ or experiencing a different reality, out of body experiences, seeing ghosts, seeing visions that predict the future, seeing abstract things (like music or something else), healing abilities....and probably many others that I did not think of yet.

 

Or even things that show somebody as a super-genius. (Like Mozart writing music when he was four years old or some early age).

[Deva]

Yes. I am almost 53 and have had two experiences in my life.

 

I don't know that I would call them "supernatural" but they were quite different in quality and type from ordinary daily experience.

 

The first was as a child - I experienced a frozen time state where everything suddenly became very vivid and had a different quality. I was merely sitting in a chair at the time and looking out a screen glass door.

 

The second was about 6 years ago when I saw a woman in the room with me. Then she vanished. I can't totally dismiss some kind of half awake dream state for this one since it was dark and this apparition woke me up. It is still very strange and I don't know what it was.

 

I have had strong "vibrations" about people who I don't know. Also feeling that the atmosphere isn't quite right in the place.

[JadedAtheist]

I have had strong "vibrations" about people who I don't know. Also feeling that the atmosphere isn't quite right in the place.

 

 

Same. I've been at places where I'm filled with the feeling "GTFO. You shouldn't stick around". Never questioned it, just obeyed. Had the same feeling with some people I met. Made sure our encounters were brief and I never saw them again. Nothing other than that and I like to keep it that way. I've got a weak heart when it comes to these kinds of things and I don't think I could handle the trauma

 

 

EDIT: I have had several deja vu experiences now that I think about it, but all of them have been uninteresting. One was me having a dream that I'd drop something down a drain only for it to happen the next day, exactly as I had dreamt it. The others, seeing something happen, only for it to seemingly repeat itself (i.e. see someone walk down a street and a few seconds later see the same person walking again).

[hereticzero]

I saw three ravens sitting on the roof over the door way of my bosses house. I told him they were oracles of death this morning and asked if anyone in his home were ill. He said no. We drove out of the driveway and got a call to come back to his house because his father passed away moments ago.

 

Two friends of mine foretold their own deaths days ahead of time.

 

I've done well predicting pregnancies of women I just met, and not in the biblical sense either. They just have a glow or aura that is noticeable. I've had moderate success with tarot cards and runes, throwing bones. Haven't tried to read the future in someone's innards, yet.

[DesertBob]

I have never had the slightest supernatural experience or even the sort of pleasant subjective personal experiences some people call altered states of consciousness. People I am close to and know well have not, either. Others, claim to have, but it has the distinct flavor of wishful thinking.

 

Technically I describe myself as open to evidence of the supernatural or an afterlife or whatever that might present itself, but I now consider the probability of such evidence presenting itself to me personally to be so vanishingly small that for practical intents and purposes you can call me a skeptic / atheist / naturalist. I do not judge people who have had such experiences and value them, but I no longer provisionally believe them, either -- I just believe that THEY believe.

 

For experiences such as Deva's, I am comfortable leaving it in the realm of the unexplained. I don't feel obligated to understand everything or explain everything or prove anything. I will say though that if a surgeon with an electrode can stimulate a spot in the brain that produces religious ecstasy, it seems likely that the brain can (mis)fire in odd ways at times and produce realistic apparitions, sensations, sounds, etc. I don't even think that's inherently a Bad Thing. I wouldn't mind a little ecstasy right now, in fact. I envy people with brain chemistries that leave them easily amused, so to speak. I would accept such experiences, even knowing they are probably nothing more remarkable than a rush of adrenaline or an orgasm.

 

One thing that is odd to me is that the preponderance of "supernatural" experiences seem to be somewhat negative / scary / spooky. While people do have pleasing "visitations" it's odd that TV shows like "Ghost Adventures" almost never depict the supernatural as comforting or informative, only disturbing and obtuse. That may be a selection bias -- maybe people won't pay the cable company to deliver positive, fun supernatural experiences. But even that probably says something about human nature.

[Dhampir]

ultra low frequency

 

Vic Tandy

[DayLight]

For experiences such as Deva's, I am comfortable leaving it in the realm of the unexplained. I don't feel obligated to understand everything or explain everything or prove anything. I will say though that if a surgeon with an electrode can stimulate a spot in the brain that produces religious ecstasy, it seems likely that the brain can (mis)fire in odd ways at times and produce realistic apparitions, sensations, sounds, etc. I don't even think that's inherently a Bad Thing. I wouldn't mind a little ecstasy right now, in fact. I envy people with brain chemistries that leave them easily amused, so to speak. I would accept such experiences, even knowing they are probably nothing more remarkable than a rush of adrenaline or an orgasm.

 

 

OR, another way of looking at this would be: doctors are discovering something, new possibilities, they are tapping into something.... For example, the doctors can induce an out of body experience. Perhaps it simply means that there is something in our brain currently that is blocking that "natural" ability and that's why not all humans can do it yet. But the doctors "help" to unblock it and it results in the ability to manifest itself. In other words, maybe it turns out that we (humans) are not as connected to our body as we thought. Perhaps we can exist apart from it (or something of that idea). Or perhaps we can exist in a different realm or something while being "outside of the body" so to speak.

 

One thing that is odd to me is that the preponderance of "supernatural" experiences seem to be somewhat negative / scary / spooky. While people do have pleasing "visitations" it's odd that TV shows like "Ghost Adventures" almost never depict the supernatural as comforting or informative, only disturbing and obtuse. That may be a selection bias -- maybe people won't pay the cable company to deliver positive, fun supernatural experiences. But even that probably says something about human nature.

 

Yes, it shows that people are afraid of the unknown.

 

And about hearing voices (multiple voices) perhaps is not a disorder, but a blockage has been removed and a person is able to hear things from parallel worlds or other existences... It probably sounds whacky. But all new discoveries are not believed at first. And all the discoverers are mocked. There was a time when people would laugh at the idea of someone telling them that the earth was spherical rather than flat.

[DesertBob]

OR, another way of looking at this would be: doctors are discovering something, new possibilities, they are tapping into something....

It's possible, but I see very few people claiming there is any demonstrable utility in this other than whatever feel-good they personally get from it. And even that is fine -- for them. I just don't experience these things, and not for lack of openness or focused effort.

 

There is a guy by the name of Thomas Campbell who claims to travel freely in other realities and interact with beings in those realities, who believes all realities are just simulations running in a computer-like "machine" that we would call "god". The purpose being, to investigate ways to improve the quality of consciousness. Each reality has its own ruleset, some similar to ours, some very different. Campbell, a physicist, has written a huge book that's desperately in need of a good editor called "My Big Toe" (= "My big picture theory of everything"). One interesting thing he claims is that to us, our simulation appears as physical reality and others we can for the most part only observe from a certain vantage point in between our ears -- whereas to any denizen of a different reality, their reality appears physical to them and ours appears nonphysical.

 

At the end of the day, however, I don't know that this is anything other than a guy with a good imagination with unusual levels of access to altered states of consciousness / waking dream states. That is, actually the simplest explanation for it.

And about hearing voices (multiple voices) perhaps is not a disorder, but a blockage has been removed and a person is able to hear things from parallel worlds or other existences... It probably sounds whacky. But all new discoveries are not believed at first. And all the discoverers are mocked. There was a time when people would laugh at the idea of someone telling them that the earth was spherical rather than flat.

It's true that all pioneers are by definition a bit whacky. On the other hand, if you were completely credulous and open to anything, you can go down some pretty bizarre paths, up to and including things like Waco and Jonestown, so I think that demanding that pioneers jump some hurdles is reasonable.

 

For me the hurdle is that something that's generally useful to mankind should be widely accessible to all so that people can develop reasonably objective shared experiences. The nature of other realities should be no more a matter of debate than the color of your hair or the name of your dog. Everyone agrees I have black hair and have a dog named Nugget. These things aren't subject to debate. Yet, people contact other realities and describe a variety of fundamentally incompatible things. What they have in common, probably comes from the commonality in most people's thought processes, and what is random and conflicting, probably comes from the individual imagination and preferences. Either that or many of these purported realities are real and exist independently of each other and are all different. But if I cannot experience them, and there is no objective proof -- such as, you can't bring back a pet unicorn from your favorite fugue state to show me -- it's of no use to me.

[freespirit]

Too many to count but I am often not too comfortable sharing.

[DayLight]

 

For me the hurdle is that something that's generally useful to mankind should be widely accessible to all so that people can develop reasonably objective shared experiences. The nature of other realities should be no more a matter of debate than the color of your hair or the name of your dog. Everyone agrees I have black hair and have a dog named Nugget. These things aren't subject to debate. Yet, people contact other realities and describe a variety of fundamentally incompatible things. What they have in common, probably comes from the commonality in most people's thought processes, and what is random and conflicting, probably comes from the individual imagination and preferences. Either that or many of these purported realities are real and exist independently of each other and are all different. But if I cannot experience them, and there is no objective proof -- such as, you can't bring back a pet unicorn from your favorite fugue state to show me -- it's of no use to me.

 

Yes, I believe that the brain (the medium through which the information travels) sometimes (or most of the time) corrupts the true information. And also, if a person who has no medical background was trying to describe some new information he rec'd about medical things, he wouldn't be able to successfully do it. The right person has to experience something in order for us to get the right information about it.

 

Albert Einstein's discoveries would be of no use to most people. But they were of use to those who could do something practical with that. We are like a body: different group of people performs a different function in order for our collective to work. So these discoveries might help somebody who would deal with time travel or travel into a different dimension. And as a collective, WE would travel into a different dimension. Even though it would just be one small group of people.

 

Some people are interested in painting. Others could care less. Well, if everybody didn't care, we wouldn't have any paintings. I always am grateful for those who like to work the earth (farmers) because I myself hate doing it. So it's a good thing that we are all so different and have different paths and missions (in a sense) that would work for the good of the collective.

[DesertBob]

Albert Einstein's discoveries would be of no use to most people. But they were of use to those who could do something practical with that.

True. But if I wanted to badly enough, I could spend the next eight years studying physics full time and I could work with it. And even though I don't want to badly enough, there are hundreds of thousands of people who do, and who agree on most aspects of relativity and large swaths of quantum mechanics and even string theory, and who regularly churn out useful things like cell phones and fiber optic routers and highly miniaturized computers and affordable 3D/HD televisions that are a direct result of those areas of inquiry and which work reliably and well.

 

But I can't get a cell phone and talk to (say) my dead wife and I don't see YouTube videos posted of actual other worlds and interviews with exalted masters who are helping us with the cure for cancer or the formula for transparent aluminum. Therefore, I pretty much say, meh to all of it.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

I am friends with those (including my wife) that say they can regularly see spirits and have helped lost souls find their way to the next place. I was in the same house with them while they were helping what they described as an older woman to "cross over" and when she left, there was a strong scent of potpourri in the air. When I rounded the corner into the room where they were, I also smelled it very strongly then it disappeared completely.

 

Another friend has been seeing and hearing "them" since she was a little girl, and only in the past 10 years or so has come to terms with this ability and used it to help others. Quite frankly, it freaks out a lot of parents when their kids say they regularly see and talk to grandma who died a few years ago, and the kids are told that it isn't real and to suppress such things, or even worse that they are demons trying to deceive them or hurt them. I had awful dreams about my mom who died, because Christianity teaches that it CAN'T be the actual person, but only a demon impersonating them, so it always turned ugly in my dreams due to my programming. Very sad since she wasn't a bad person at all. I guess another way of looking at it was separating from her and coming to terms with her death, but I can still love and miss her even while knowing she is gone. No need for "demon" crap.

 

While I was a believer, I heard the "voice of God" speak to me three times. Once when I asked a direct question about "Should I marry this woman?" and heard an actual "No" which left me rather stunned. I explained that I needed to ask again due to having an active imagination, and only got so far as "Should I mar.." when I heard a shouted "NO!"

 

The second time, I was very suspicious of the boyfriend of a girl in the church. He never wanted to be around anyone but her, and it struck me as odd. I began fasting and praying, because I was getting a terrible feeling about it. After a few months, I was entering the church, and greeted her parents at the door. They said that this girl and the boyfriend were "camping". It struck me as odd that they didn't see anything sinful about it. I sat down in the sanctuary and heard immediately in my ear "She is at his house now in bed with him." I got up and drove out there, and it was true. That was the worst day of my life emotionally, because I felt she had rejected Jesus for "the flesh". In retrospect, I don't think "god" cares about any of that, so I don't know who or what spoke to me. New Age thought would say it was my higher self intervening, since I was devoting so much time and energy to this situation.

 

The last time I heard the voice, I was waiting to get into a service to hear a friend preach at a charismatic church. While we were waiting, a lady who is a professional clown was going down the line acting out her clownish ways by "brushing off the cares of the world" to with a paint brush, or acting drunk, or beeping them on the head with a clown hammer. This seriously irritated me, and it was building to a climax as she approached me. I was just about to unleash on her, when I heard distinctly "Don't be mean to her". I likened my reaction to an old TV set being turned off. All that anger went "blip" down to a little dot and then disappeared. I was disarmed in a fraction of a second. Again, I assumed it was God at the time, but now am not at all sure. Maybe my wife's thoughts, since she was standing there. Dunno.

 

There are other things, but those are the ones that stand out the most.

[Vigile]

Technically I describe myself as open to evidence of the supernatural or an afterlife or whatever that might present itself, but I now consider the probability of such evidence presenting itself to me personally to be so vanishingly small that for practical intents and purposes you can call me a skeptic / atheist / naturalist. I do not judge people who have had such experiences and value them, but I no longer provisionally believe them, either -- I just believe that THEY believe.

 

One of the better descriptions of my own position I've seen written on this subject. Nicely phrased.

[RankStranger]

I wish I could see or experience something supernatural or at least unexplainable. I want to believe in ghosts, sasquatches, psychic powers, aliens, chupecabras, alternate dimensions, reincarnation, and lipstick-lesbians... but I've never seen or experienced anything of the sort.

 

Now I know people who have seen (or see evidence of) all of the above (except chupecabras). Hell, even my wife has experienced three or four of these. But I know how unreliable my own memory is. I know that my brain quits working correctly when I get hit in the head. And I've seen how poeples' 'memories' change over time... usually in ways that make for a better story. So I can't help but think that the vast majority of supernatural experiences are entirely contained within peoples' heads. Sure, the people relating the stories very well might believe them- but that doesn't make said story 'true'. My wife says that my position is condescending and closed-minded. Maybe it is... but I'd be lying if I pretended that I thought otherwise.

 

And I wish I could have an experience that would prove me wrong on this. But it never seems to happen to me. It's always a friend-of-a-friend, or something that happened YEARS ago. Always just out of reach and can't quite be verified.

[DesertBob]

But it never seems to happen to me. It's always a friend-of-a-friend, or something that happened YEARS ago. Always just out of reach and can't quite be verified.

Yep, and the vast majority of stories people tell me are second and third hand, too. When I occasionally get a first person story it's from someone who is an attention whore in other aspects of their lives. Think "Celebrity Ghost Stories".

[RankStranger]

I know a place in Southern Colorado where UFO's are routinely seen. You can sit in a watch-tower and buy refreshments while you watch the UFO's... that's how often they're seen. If I'm ever in the area again and have the time, I'll definitely stop there for a night.

 

Problem is that the UFO observatory (or whatever it was they called it) is right in the middle of several military bases strung across the desert... so I'm not counting on a life-altering experience.

 

But maybe when I'm done with school I can land a job in the pacific NW and go hunt for Bigfoot. I've asked myself this: If I saw one and became convinced that sasquatches were real... would that be enough for me? Or would it motivate me to go shoot one and parade his head around on a stick? I'm guessing the latter.

[Vigile]

But maybe when I'm done with school I can land a job in the pacific NW and go hunt for Bigfoot. I've asked myself this: If I saw one and became convinced that sasquatches were real... would that be enough for me? Or would it motivate me to go shoot one and parade his head around on a stick? I'm guessing the latter.

 

I've hiked on mountain ranges in both ID and WA that were 20 miles or more removed from the main highways up roads navigable by 4wd only and then well off the trails -- about as isolated as you can possibly get in the lower 48 -- and I've seen beer cans and other signs that other humans had also trekked way off the beaten path. If there were a Sasquatch, someone would have already shot him.

 

It's kind of depressing that you can't really go where no man has gone before anymore. Perhaps in Siberia.

[chosendarkness]

Had a strange experience where I asked (god, the universe, whatever) a very specific question, opened the bible to a random page, pointed to a random place on the page, and got a specific answer related to the question. It happened the first few times I tried it, then it stopped. There was no explanation because the answer was like a response a real person would give, and it always came on the first try. Then I thought, 'this is great, I can ask questions all the time', but that's when it stopped. Like I said it only happened the first few times I tried it, when I was really confused and going through potentially life-altering situations. For instance, I started to get into 'speaking in tongues', but for some reason felt uneasy about it, so I asked if it was a good thing, pointed to a random place in the bible and it said 'stop babbling'. The other ones were more amazing than that but too personal to share.

 

I doubt this came from a Christian god. I think there's something out there (maybe it's us) but it has no religious preference.

[stryper]

So on topic,

 

1) I was in sixth grade. I had a very intense lucid dream where I was riding my bike somewhere and was running late. I came up to a very busy RL intersection. Suddenly I was watching like it was a movie my bike riderless shot out into the intersection and got smashed by a car that didn't even slow down. The next day I was riding my bike to school, running late. I was crossing an intersection with the crossing guards, I was halfway across when I suddenly stopped, looked up as a red Ford Ranger truck rolled right through the stop without slowing down.

 

2) On at least 2 different occasions I have know when a relative died who was not around. So was unsuprised when i got the phone call. A third time didn't have the feeling of the other two, it was very joyous and happy. The other 2 were very sad and painful.

 

3) Like hertic have picked up on women being pregnant sometimes before they knew. This I think though is probably more to do with being open to keener observation and not dismissing those things that don't fit.

 

4) I have also had dreams that seem to be to real of other place and times. So I like to think they are of past lives.

 

 

Just a few to throw out there.

[chosendarkness]

I wish I could see or experience something supernatural or at least unexplainable. I want to believe in ghosts, sasquatches, psychic powers, aliens, chupecabras, alternate dimensions, reincarnation, and lipstick-lesbians... but I've never seen or experienced anything of the sort.

 

Now I know people who have seen (or see evidence of) all of the above (except chupecabras). Hell, even my wife has experienced three or four of these. But I know how unreliable my own memory is. I know that my brain quits working correctly when I get hit in the head. And I've seen how poeples' 'memories' change over time... usually in ways that make for a better story. So I can't help but think that the vast majority of supernatural experiences are entirely contained within peoples' heads. Sure, the people relating the stories very well might believe them- but that doesn't make said story 'true'. My wife says that my position is condescending and closed-minded. Maybe it is... but I'd be lying if I pretended that I thought otherwise.

 

And I wish I could have an experience that would prove me wrong on this. But it never seems to happen to me. It's always a friend-of-a-friend, or something that happened YEARS ago. Always just out of reach and can't quite be verified.

 

In my experience it doesn't really matter. It's not going to cause any major change n your life if you have a supernatural experience. I don't think these experience mean anything either, they don't prove any beliefs or religion, they just help out a person in specific situations. I don't think it's that big a deal. honestly

 

But there is something to be said about being open-minded. I've heard that there may be strange things around us all the time, we just can't see them because our brains can't process it. I think meditation is one of the best ways to become open-minded. You need to be at peace with yourself to be open. Someone who is overly-skeptical and angry isn't at peace. For me that's most of the time, but meditation helps.

[Vigile]

But there is something to be said about being open-minded. I've heard that there may be strange things around us all the time, we just can't see them because our brains can't process it. I think meditation is one of the best ways to become open-minded. You need to be at peace with yourself to be open. Someone who is overly-skeptical and angry isn't at peace. For me that's most of the time, but meditation helps.

 

I think we have two very different definitions of being open minded. If it takes meditation to open one's mind, then I'm not sure they are opening up to answers, but rather looking for ways to stamp out otherwise reasonable doubts.

[chosendarkness]

But there is something to be said about being open-minded. I've heard that there may be strange things around us all the time, we just can't see them because our brains can't process it. I think meditation is one of the best ways to become open-minded. You need to be at peace with yourself to be open. Someone who is overly-skeptical and angry isn't at peace. For me that's most of the time, but meditation helps.

 

I think we have two very different definitions of being open minded. If it takes meditation to open one's mind, then I'm not sure they are opening up to answers, but rather looking for ways to stamp out otherwise reasonable doubts.

 

To me meditation is about observing without judging. It's not about finding answers. I tried to find answers in my 'spiritual' experiences and it was a big mistake. If you decide you know something you always have to stamp out reasonable doubts. That's can be a good thing in practical matters but when it comes to religion or whatever it doesn't make much sense.

[Vigile]

observing without judging.

 

Judging is an important component in arriving at truth. Without it, you get faith, not objectivity. Being critical isn't the opposite of being open minded. Many who lack critical skills are completely closed minded in fact.

 

If it's just about feeling better, I get that and encourage you to continue.

[chosendarkness]

observing without judging.

Judging is an important component in arriving at truth. Without it, you get faith, not objectivity.

 

What if there's something that you can't judge? We're a pretty awesome species but we don't know everything.

[Vigile]

observing without judging.

Judging is an important component in arriving at truth. Without it, you get faith, not objectivity.

 

What if there's something that you can't judge? We're a pretty awesome species but we don't know everything.

 

What if is a pretty meaningless question to me in this context. What if the world is controlled by Norse gods?

 

When there are no demonstrable realities, the possibilities are endless meaning you will never possibly come to a valid conclusion but will be guaranteed to spend your life going down rabbit holes. Were it not for the fact that not one single claim regarding alternative realities weren't easily debunked and weren't built on foundations of mushy thinking and dubious premises, I'd say at least there would be a valid direction to pursue. As it currently stands, are you/is anyone making even a tiny hint of progress toward discovering anything not based in physical reality?

 

Do the math. Take endless possibilities. Add up the fact that we currently have only one basic way of measuring reality that has been validated. Then add to the equation that there are endless possible ways to discover alternative realities (with no guarantees that any of them will actually work), meditation being only one amongst a myriad of unproven techniques. How can you possibly hope to arrive at anything meaningful using such a haphazard process of discovery?

 

I'm probably stepping outside the bounds of what is acceptable for this section of the board, so I probably better bow out before I offend anyone if I haven't already.