Chikirin Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 I dreamt I saw a demon, it looked like Bat Boy. At breakfast the next morning my dad told me he saw a demon in his dream, he didn't tell me what it looked like though. I didn't tell him about my dream though because he would have been frightened. This bat boy? http://en.wikipedia....%28character%29 Is this a true story? Or are you making a joke? True story, my dad was driving me off to my first year of college and we stayed in hotel on the way. So we were both sleeping in the same room and both had a demon dream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikirin Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 This bat boy? http://en.wikipedia....%28character%29 Is this a true story? Or are you making a joke? yes it was that BatBoy. I must have seen him on a tabloid in a store earlier in the day or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noumena Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 [.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chosendarkness Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 When I quit believing in the supernatural, I did loose a bit of my creativity I'd like to get into holistic health and spirituality, but not with people who believe anything and everything. I feel like as I'm getting older I'm too practical and logical, and have difficulty being creative sometimes. I don't believe in the supernatural because I believe anything can be explained, but I don't think we can explain everything. So yeah people might actually experience something that they call ghosts, we just can't explain it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noggy Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 When I quit believing in the supernatural, I did loose a bit of my creativity I'd like to get into holistic health and spirituality, but not with people who believe anything and everything. I feel like as I'm getting older I'm too practical and logical, and have difficulty being creative sometimes. I don't believe in the supernatural because I believe anything can be explained, but I don't think we can explain everything. So yeah people might actually experience something that they call ghosts, we just can't explain it yet. I'm going to assume you mean that everything can be explained completely secularly, by science perhaps. What do you base that belief on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chosendarkness Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 When I quit believing in the supernatural, I did loose a bit of my creativity I'd like to get into holistic health and spirituality, but not with people who believe anything and everything. I feel like as I'm getting older I'm too practical and logical, and have difficulty being creative sometimes. I don't believe in the supernatural because I believe anything can be explained, but I don't think we can explain everything. So yeah people might actually experience something that they call ghosts, we just can't explain it yet. I'm going to assume you mean that everything can be explained completely secularly, by science perhaps. What do you base that belief on? Yes I think it could, given enough time. Life. If someone thinks that we understand everything in the universe, they're either a pseudo-intellectual, or have jumped from one extreme bandwagon to another. It's tempting to want to believe we have it all figured out, but I'd rather be honest than certain. I'd rather be happy than right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertBob Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 If someone thinks that we understand everything in the universe, they're either a pseudo-intellectual, or have jumped from one extreme bandwagon to another. It's tempting to want to believe we have it all figured out, but I'd rather be honest than certain. I'd rather be happy than right. I think having the humility to acknowledge what we don't know is an important facet of this, but I think what Noggy was getting at is that perhaps the intellect can only be applied to the empirical, and that other tools must be applied to other realms. Because a corollary to your statement about us not knowing everything is that not everything CAN be known. Intellect is a particular tool for a particular purpose. So is intuition. My intuition, in the main, sucks, but I do recognize its value and that it is a superior tool for certain things. Women tend to be better in that department and regularly confound us dudes with their intuitive leaps. I don't pretend to know what to do with things I have insufficient data and/or understanding to process with my intellect but I am open to the idea that no matter how long we as a race are at it, not everything will be explained to the satisfaction of the rational mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenstar Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 maybe I'm not comfortable with the term 'supernatural' though I've had an OBE where I actually viewed myself from the other side of a room - wierd, but not at all scary (?), I was wide awake at the time so no sleep paralysis involved, no drugs or alcohol. Don't know how that is possible but I experienced it. I had another OBE when I was washing dishes once and could view the back and top of my head... yes I needed to brush my hair! lol I've described in my testimony an experience of 'higher consciousness' or 'flow' - I really don't have a name for it, have experienced it quite a few times but this one time was very vivid and extended. I get strange 'premonitions' all the time, but it's usually about nothing important and I have no control over it - ie: I will know what someone is going to say before they say it, even if they are on tv or the radio. I don't understand it and think it's kind of funny sometimes. sometimes I can tell what problems a person is having before I know them at all - but that could be a honed sense of psychology. I've had that GTFO thing, almost like a voice, and I did, and sure enough I had been in a place of imminent danger - but didn't find out until later, but that could just be a VERY sensitive survival instinct. Deja vu is an almost daily occurrence - but I don't know what causes that or how to interpret it. I've always been very sensitive to emotional energy - don't know how that works either, but it can make me feel ill, even if the source is not portraying any outward signs of distress. Maybe there is a chemical component I am not aware of? Crowds can be painful. I've never 'seen' a ghost - though some places just don't feel 'right' - maybe there's something to the emf overload theory? I've never seen a UFO, though I've always wanted to if they are real. and here. I have no problem accepting that other life is most likely to exist in our universe. All these things though can be explained either by science or in my suspicion that we are more than just physical beings, connected somehow through consciousness (and I do not claim to understand that at all) - but part of the reason my 'faith' has faltered is because I HAVE tried to connect to what is termed 'supernatural'.. and the above is all I got folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMDKitty Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 Much as I wish I didn't, yeah, I do have experience with the supernatural. I've seen things that aren't supposed to exist, I've held conversations with the non-human population here, and -- well, I live on a Hellmouth. My hometown is, like, Sunnydale North, man. You name it, we have at least one of 'em, if not more, and a whole bunch of mixed-blood folks who haven't a clue what their true heritage is. (Yes, "the masquerade" must be maintained. Fortunately, the muggles are too wrapped up in their human lives to notice when the masquerade slips, and if they do notice, it's altogether too easy to convince them they were "just imagining things.") Hometown aside, I have more personal experiences, as well. I've seen our old cat roaming about the house and yard. Mind, she's been dead for a good three or four years, now -- so there's no reason for her to be here... unless she's doing it out of spite, which is entirely possible. She was a cranky old thing, and definitely the type to haunt you "because fuck you, I'm a cat." Our current feline overlord is way too smart for a cat. (I suspect she's something a bit... more... than just a cat.) And she's a talker. She'll talk to anyone, regardless of their magickal status, and she expects the muggles (namely, my parents and siblings) to understand her. (They don't.) So, guess who gets to translate for them? Yup. Me. And then we get to ME. I'm not exactly... human... myself. I'm a cat cleverly disguised as a human. And... I don't know why, but magickal beings tend to gravitate towards other magickal beings; where there's one of us, there are bound to be more who are, at the very least, lurking nearby. *shrugs* At least we don't have Sunnydale's murder (or "unexplained death") rate. On the other hand, the rate of mental illness around here is... disturbingly high. (Gee, <i>I wonder why that is...</i>) Hell-ingham, WA is, after all, the "City of Subdued Excitement", and up here, being mellow is Serious Business. (Of course, the curse isn't helping us out, here -- much like the Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chikirin Posted October 26, 2011 Share Posted October 26, 2011 I dreamt I saw a demon, it looked like Bat Boy. At breakfast the next morning my dad told me he saw a demon in his dream, he didn't tell me what it looked like though. I didn't tell him about my dream though because he would have been frightened. This bat boy? http://en.wikipedia....%28character%29 Is this a true story? Or are you making a joke? True story, my dad was driving me off to my first year of college and we stayed in hotel on the way. So we were both sleeping in the same room and both had a demon dream. How curious! Did that frighten you? Did you ever tell your dad later on? I told my boyfriend later that night about the weird coincidence of my and his mom's dream. I was a bit freaked out. To my surprise he took it a bit serious and confessed that his mom creeped him out. He then proceeded to tell me that his mom and aunts have "psychic" abilities. They were a very superstitious family. I'm glad they are not in my life anymore. There was something not quite right about him and his family. No I didn't tell my dad it would have scared him. 5 years later on a church trip I dreamt of BatBoy again and told everyone and some girl said "Me too!" My mom has had dreams that people die, and then they are dead the next day; her mother too. Also some cases of seeing furniture levitating and shaking, like only the bed shaking but nothing else. When I was losing my faith in God, I actually clung to these occurrences because I figured it would keep me grounded in a belief in God. But then I asked myself, how come God or Jesus or the Spirit won't deign to present themselves to me, but these weird things do? Especially after the bible PROMISED the holy spirit? I decided that supernatural occurrences don't prove Christianity true, all kinds of other faiths have the same stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenstar Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Maybe it's the baby with the bathwater thing... I think that if I reject all experience that can't be empirically proven or isn't justified by a peer-reviewed paper then my life will be poorer. The subjective has value... but remaining skeptical and questioning keeps it from becoming superstition. I'm too curious to ignore that humans have had many experiences through the ages and though they may only be psychological constructs I think it can still tell us a little bit more about who we are. Jung was good with this stuff... Do I think that subjective experience is proof of god or the supernatural? No... but I do think it's fascinating. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DT761138 Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 I have had altered states of consciousness and mystical experiences from Buddhist meditation, qi gong, and from Christian contexts. I do believe that there is validity to these experiences but I don't believe that the Christian religion is at all unique as an explanation for them. In many of the experiences I had, light or energy was the dominant sensation, with the feeling my body was transparent to the light or energy, "irradiated" perhaps. I also sometimes sensed fields of energy in places, particularly sacred/religious places. Religion is just a universal encounter with the paranormal/supermundane in different cultural contexts. I have another friend that has experienced astral travel but is otherwise very skeptical about new age beliefs and her experiences there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antlerman Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 I have had altered states of consciousness and mystical experiences from Buddhist meditation, qi gong, and from Christian contexts. I do believe that there is validity to these experiences but I don't believe that the Christian religion is at all unique as an explanation for them. In many of the experiences I had, light or energy was the dominant sensation, with the feeling my body was transparent to the light or energy, "irradiated" perhaps. I also sometimes sensed fields of energy in places, particularly sacred/religious places. Religion is just a universal encounter with the paranormal/supermundane in different cultural contexts. Ditto. I practice mediation at least one hour in the morning per day. It is normal for me to experience profound depth experiences which you describe. It's getting to the place its hard to put these things into words. As you move deeper in meditation various imagery begins to arise from the subconscious mind to the heightened waking mind, the superconsious mind, if you will. You can call them like dreams arising from a dream state, except to the fully awake mind. What they are, are profound 'messages' your subconscious is presenting to yourself to ponder, mediate on, embody, inhabit, experience that brings about an inner balance and harmony of the conscious mind to your subconscious self (and even deeper). It brings about inner healing of parts lost or suppressed. You can then go still deeper into the essence of your being in absolute stillness where what arises is the 'life energy' that is within and without. Mental images that arise to symbolize these realizations, vary from streams of light, flame, etc. Physical responses typical move through changes in breathing rates, etc. None of these are supernatural. What I would call them are supranatural. They are an experience and an awareness of the mental and physical being in states beyond the ordinary functioning of lower body and mind. But they are natural, just a higher natural. The mental imagery that may arise are highly symbolic, and may take on religious form, such as that Divine Light, a god, Shiva, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, and whatnot, but they not literal encounters with literal supernatural beings! They are your higher nature taking on highly symbolic form for the mind to process what is arising from the deep within. They should be embraced, but not 'believed' in as some external supernatural entity talking directly to you from outside yourself. To do that you miss the point. You are then shifting the focus from the inner experience to fully externalizing it and not looking within anymore, moving towards self-realization, moving towards full Enlightenment. Plus, these are not objects in material space, and anyone who imagines they are again are not looking in the right place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DT761138 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 You are then shifting the focus from the inner experience to fully externalizing it and not looking within anymore, moving towards self-realization, moving towards full Enlightenment. Plus, these are not objects in material space, and anyone who imagines they are again are not looking in the right place. That's just about what Buddhism teaches about the "higher power" concept, that its useful inasmuch as it moves us towards a goal (spiritual growth). Though some sects in Buddhism differ in how much they focus on the object of devotion and faith being internal. Now days, I think of God as a blank slate. We have experiences of God but these are always interpreted through our culture. So I agree more with John Hick's view, there's something out there that's transcendent, we just are fooling ourselves if we pretend to understand what it is. Its just a question how much we are addicted to bronze age imagery of the divine or numinous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antlerman Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Now days, I think of God as a blank slate. We have experiences of God but these are always interpreted through our culture. So I agree more with John Hick's view, there's something out there that's transcendent, we just are fooling ourselves if we pretend to understand what it is. Its just a question how much we are addicted to bronze age imagery of the divine or numinous. That something 'out there' is the same as what is in here. There is no here or there, this or that. I do like the expression of 'Emptiness' to describe that, but I see that as not a blank slate, but undefined All, through which all objects arise. It's not nothing in the sense of blank, but nothing in the sense of no-things, no-objects. It is the unmanifest all which manifests all that arises to it and falls back to itself. As for bronze age imagery, that's one thing and I do very much agree that hanging onto that in a literal sense will create a framework of understanding that will limit the potentials of what can be realized in the self. But the problem is more systemic than that. The problem is Dualism in general. The Jehovah face of God is a more primitive version of it, but seeing God as some external 'person', even if it is a more sophisticated and usable version of it still creates a distinct image of a false self in relationship to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stealth44 Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 Just when I was starting to break free from religion/superstition I find a stories like this. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/ohio-house-haunted-by-sex-obsessed-ghosts_n_1070127.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C109441 Also, here is a "medium" I heard on a radio show. http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2011/10/26 The ghost in the mirror story sort of freaked me out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ro-bear Posted November 6, 2011 Share Posted November 6, 2011 Sorry. Wrong forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted November 6, 2011 Share Posted November 6, 2011 Just when I was starting to break free from religion/superstition I find a stories like this. http://www.huffingto...1_lnk3%7C109441 Also, here is a "medium" I heard on a radio show. http://www.coasttoco...show/2011/10/26 The ghost in the mirror story sort of freaked me out. I am skeptical of these ghost photos. There are so many ways they can be faked. Just because we post in this forum doesn't mean we automatically accept any and all kind of evidence for the supernatural. I don't think that's a requirement here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stamps1962 Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 My mother died in 1996 we had an ok relationship but with some issues. I was sitting in our kitchen one night a few months later and was griping about something related to her; we suddenly heard a loud racket in the family room, it is connected to the kitchen so we could see the channel selector for our TV banging around by itself on top of the entertainment center and then go flying off across the room. We both sat there stunned. I finally went in and picked it u p and said aloud, "Well, Mom, you always said people who evesdrop don't often hear nice things about themselves." Still later I was reading a book and told my wife my mom would really have liked it, we came home the next day and found it in another part of the house lying face down on the LR floor. I also had a very beloved cat who was killed by a car. At the time I was working several miles away and had a clear impression of seeing her runnimg across the floor. I found out later that was the instant she died. I saw this same thing a few more times at various points in my life but not for awhile. I don't really think there is a supernatural; all this stuff is natural. We just don't understand what it is and how it works yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpheliaGinger Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Just when I was starting to break free from religion/superstition I find a stories like this. http://www.huffingto...1_lnk3%7C109441 Proof positive! You can clearly see a guy's ugly ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will02 Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I've had supernatural/paranormal stuff happen to me back when I didn't believe in it. (actually I did, but I was a fundie back then and I was of the If-god-didn't-do-it-then-it's-of-the-devil mentality.) When this weird stuff started happening, I started researching the occult because I wanted to understand what was going on and at that point I already knew that the bible didn't give you all the answers. From that point, occult stuff has had a profound impact on my worldview. I'm agnostic in the sense that I don't believe in biblegod anymore, (there may be a god or there or there may not be, I don't know for sure) but I do know that there's stuff out there that science/logic can't explain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblueep Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 I can stand in front of a room of strangers, pick people out, and then tell them something about their past (and future, although to future is unconfirmed). It's usually emotional in nature but sometimes practically specific (like "you are a teacher" or "you were married to a man who was abusive"). I used to call these "words of knowledge", but I think now it's just an ability to read people. About three months ago, 2Honest had strong impressions about a friend who was in Australia on a missions trip. She sent him a very specific email about what he was experiencing. That friend called it to most accurate "word" he has ever received in his sixty years. Like others here, these things make it difficult to say that I'm an atheist...I'm currently somewhere between a deist and believing that these experiences are just things we don't understand yet (perhaps quantum entanglement, etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openpalm45 Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 I haven't had many experiences, but the only ones I can remember are when I was going through a really rough time (I was living at home with my alcoholic dad and my crazy step mom, she physically and verbally accused him, in front of me and her young children, ran through the house and stabbed holes in the walls, slit her wrists, and a bunch of other crazy shit) and that time was just a dark time, very oppressive. Well, like 4 or 5 times when I was sleeping in my bed, i felt something crawl on top of me and sit on my chest. I couldn't see what it was, but I was terrified and my heart beat really fast. At the time I thought it was demonic forces that had come with my step mom and her crazy stuff, and now I just dont know what it was. I've had a few minor situations that I don't really remember very well, but nothing like those experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noumena Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 not here for your entertainment.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RankStranger Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I haven't had many experiences, but the only ones I can remember are when I was going through a really rough time (I was living at home with my alcoholic dad and my crazy step mom, she physically and verbally accused him, in front of me and her young children, ran through the house and stabbed holes in the walls, slit her wrists, and a bunch of other crazy shit) and that time was just a dark time, very oppressive. Well, like 4 or 5 times when I was sleeping in my bed, i felt something crawl on top of me and sit on my chest. I couldn't see what it was, but I was terrified and my heart beat really fast. At the time I thought it was demonic forces that had come with my step mom and her crazy stuff, and now I just dont know what it was. I've had a few minor situations that I don't really remember very well, but nothing like those experiences. Read up on sleep paralysis. That's a fairly common experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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