paranormal phenomena?

Question

Explore the argument of paranormal phenomena. Your description should include a debate of the reasons you would believe in paranormal activity and also a description of why you would not believe in paranormal activity. provide reasons for each side of the argument.

Answer 1

You do realize that the nature of your request--that someone not only provide a detailed point but *also provide* a counterpoint is more or less beyond the scope of Yahoo Answers as we know it, right? ;) Just checking.

Having said that, here's my position and counter-position, *in brief* because I don't particularly care to hunt up every *last* link, ok?

My position: Simply put, most "paranormal" phenomena, in the sense of things being either broadly "supernatural" or broadly "psychic", is not authentic--isn't what it is cracked up to be. But. The fact that the evidence doesn't support *most* of what people claim does *not* make *ALL* claims of "paranormal phenomena" false sight unseen.

Just because a large number of cases have been disproven, or at least highly disputed due to lack of forensic evidence, in other words, that does not mean you can just *dismiss* the whole thing out of hand--it still has to be disproven on a case-by-case basis.

Part of this is just the whole notion that "Paranormal" is such a vaguely broad and comprehensive term, that can cover anything from ghost stories over a campfire to aliens to psychic stuff to rituals to odd electronic glitches to well, *anything* that seems outside the norm of science. Anyone claiming something is "paranormal" or super-natural *needs to be more specific*, and so does anyone *debunking* said phenomena.

I mean, back in the days of Benjamin Franklin in the late 1700s, *electricity*, as in lightning, was considered by some to be "supernatural". If that says anything. :)

But part of this is also due to a degree of institutional paranoia among what most folks would call "mainstream, peer-reviewed science", which often also ends up being Big Corporate-Political Science as well....simply put, there is a degree of peer pressure within modern peer-reviewed science to *agree* with your funders in the Mainstream. Some of this evolved--no pun intended--in response to evangelical fundamentalists *endlessly* and stupidly making an issue about Paleontology and Natural Selection....as decades passed and scientists found out they had to *shout down* the idiot Bible Thumpers over and over and OVER again, they began to realize that not only was skepticism a needed component of the scientific method, but that some folks were needed to be *professional skeptics*, or paid-for nay-sayers whose only job is to "shout down the rabble" among the lay people and those *outside* the ivory tower of academia.

In brief, science ended up getting a political agenda along with the agenda of the scientific method (of seeking truth not just through logic but also by testing theories and hypotheses against physical evidence and statistical inferrence when needed).

So...while real science, according to the Method, shouldn't have any bias or prejudice for *or* against disproving the "paranormal" on a case-by-case basis, the truth is, Big Science, or Professional Science that is paid for with Corporate Money, definitely has a *political agenda* to naysay and to throw things out altogether sight unseen, and to declare whole *classes* of things "bogus, imaginary, not repeatable" just because a lot of cases have been disproven already.

And that is the distinction I have to make with *some FEW* instances of Paranormal Phenomena, where a) I have had some personal experiences that have made me ask questions, AND b) where I looked at the "disproof" or the "discrediting" myself and saw much more in the way of professional naysaying, political agendas, tainted procedures and poor gathering of evidence than I saw of anything resembling a real, repeatable, double-blind and peer-reviewed method really *disproving* anything.

Things such as the old Soviet era research looking into bio-magnetic hypotheses of ESP and/or telepathy (seeing as how both migratory birds and cetaceans--dolphins and whales--have senses that would be considered "paranormal" if they showed up in humans). Or some *few* of the incidents of UFO sightings wherein completely competent and presumably well-trained people were told they "saw the moon", as if they were retarded children who couldn't tell the *moon* from a flying object...as in, the *Air Force and Navy Pilots* who saw UFOs, not your typical hippies....Or things like the CIA/Stanford Research Institute studies into training "remote viewing and influence", which were disproven in *such* a controversial and politicized manner it makes me wonder on occasion if the Scientific Method is *dead* or not....

I'm just saying, while maybe 80-90% of the "paranormal" things out there really aren't so....that doesn't mean that the remainder is bogus too, and in fact, some of the "discrediting" of the remainder smells a lot like Paid-For Naysaying and not really about *proving or disproving anything*.

And the counter-argument?

That it's all bogus, that my experience or *anecdotes* mean less than nothing because I am a *mere Peon* and not a Professional Scientist, and that I should just Leave The Thinking To The Pros Who Are Paid To Do It. :) More or less.

Which would be fine if it were just me, but it isn't. :)

Hope this helps, and sorry I wasn't *detailed or complete* enough. Really, the question is more than what Yahoo Answers can handle....maybe we should take this to email?

Answer 2

The right temporal lobe of the brain maybe the link to the paranormal.
http://www.mysteriousworldjlc.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-right-temporal-lobe-of-brain-is.html

Answer 3

I've been to the Bermuda Triangle many times.Flying and sailing overnight.I've seen freighters,liners and small pleasure boats.People fishing and scuba diving is a common sight.I've never seen a vortex or ghost ship.In fact the triangle is no different then any other part of the Atlantic.I'm pretty sure it's the same with other paranormal phenomenon.Check it out with an open mind and there's nothing there.

Answer 4

Paranormal phenomena is just science we have yet to describe.

Answer 5

Definately. I`ve seen and communicated with ghosts. I have teh gift to see the future. I`ve seen demons and other creatures, in "person." I`ve cast working spells and used potions and a billion other things. I`m a witch.

Answer 6

I believe in paranormal activity. I was praying on my front porch one day and I asked God to give me a sign if I have a guardian angel. Well, out of nowhere the car parked in front of the house started by itself and started going uphill up the road. When I yelled to the neighbors to help me catch the car, it was discovered that there were no keys in it. ...)(

Answer 7

i believe unquestionably in paranormal phenomena because i have experienced it. my mom passed awayseveral yrs ago. no one in the house had or was eating any licorice, but my dad, who had passed yrs before her, had always like black jelly beans and we smelled them after the funeral parlor came to get her. i believe dad came to guide her "home". also, her tv, which was working fine, just quit, totally went blank.

Answer 8

There is no need to motivate the analysis on paranormal phenomena, understood as manifestations of the spirits of devils, because they are witnesses who have made ​​their direct experiences, including, myself am one of them!

Among other things, the spirits are sometimes taken by cameras, if you do not believe those who tell them the truth, how can you believe the video surveillance cameras??

Therefore, these are the reasons, beyond whether you believe it or not, the spirits exist, and occur to those who want them, not at all, and you are among those cut off, why do not you think!

But the day will come that you believe, you atheists of the 6th dimension, then it will be too late to change your mind, because you will be dragged by the entity where you would not want to go for eternity!

TRUTH ' ABSOLUTE!!!

Answer 9

You are lucky enough to get a cool homework assignment like this and you just go here to get a free answer w/o learning anything about it. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

Answer 10

That sounds too much like an order to me. If you had couched your question in more polite terms, I might have been able to help you!