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I’ve noticed common theme here in the C-D religion forums. People are claiming to have had personal experiences which prove (to them) that supernatural things (like Heaven, god(s), spirits, the afterlife) exist.
My question is this: are personal experiences evidence for the supernatural, and why?
I don’t understand why personal experiences are evidence for the supernatural. I have personal experiences all the time: weird dreams, panic attacks, burning my tongue on a hot cup of coffee, etc. A panic attack is a very powerful personal experience. Nonetheless, I don’t believe these experiences are evidence for the supernatural. Why do so many believe that they are?
I think because we are genetically hardwired to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801
None of the examples you gave have anything to do with the supernatural.
How do you know? Look, even burning our tongue on a cup of coffee is everyday so we don't trat it as anything inexplicable, but something uncommon especially if science hasn't got a sorta explanation, and the supernatural becomes a very appealing option. But you could apply the same reason to burning your tongue and scientific explanation? They are always getting things wrong. They can even decide whether eggs are good for you or not, so the nervous system could be a sort of printed circuit for receiving supernatural impulses from outside..
And before you laugh or post a rolleyes icon, think about some stuff that Believers buy into that you don't.
They were both powerful experiences that I didn’t understand.
(Ok, I’ll admit...I’m being snarky with the hot coffee example.)
Panic attacks are awful. I used to have them when I was in my 20s. Thought I was going to die. I hope that doesn't occur on a regular basis for you.
I've only had one in more recent years. About five years ago, this hard cement-like substance started to grow off my thyroid and throughout my neck, surrounding my trachea. I was having trouble breathing because of it. One day I was driving to work and I felt lightheaded from not getting enough air and then it turned into a full-blown panic attack. I had to pull over to the side of the road until it passed, and this was on the Newark Bay extension of the NJ Turnpike at rush hour. Not a calming place to recover from a panic attack, up on a raised roadway with tractor-trailers whizzing by lol.
I've experienced things that can't be explained: loud banging on an interior door with no one on the other side. Cold spots in the basement of a house that I could sense approaching, accompanied by a nearly palpable aura of dread. (And in those days, I didn't drink or smoke herb.)
I lived in that house for several years and wasn't the only one to experience some unusual things. I find the word "supernatural" to be a bit off-putting, though. It seems to imply something we'll never understand. I believe there is an explanation for what I experienced. I just don't know what that explanation is -- yet.
I'm with the Bard: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
How do you know? Look, even burning our tongue on a cup of coffee is everyday so we don't trat it as anything inexplicable, but something uncommon especially if science hasn't got a sorta explanation, and the supernatural becomes a very appealing option. But you could apply the same reason to burning your tongue and scientific explanation? They are always getting things wrong. They can even decide whether eggs are good for you or not, so the nervous system could be a sort of printed circuit for receiving supernatural impulses from outside..
And before you laugh or post a rolleyes icon, think about some stuff that Believers buy into that you don't.
That was just to be mean, hehehe.
OK, I get what you are saying. To take it further, perhaps to one person burning their tongue might mean something to them while to another person, it just means the coffee is too hot.
I choose to eat eggs and you can't stop me, dammit. Smoking was definitely bad for me, there is scientific evidence for it, but I quit because it got too expensive, and what helped me quit was a bit voodooish, even though it is supposed to be scientific.
I’ve noticed common theme here in the C-D religion forums. People are claiming to have had personal experiences which prove (to them) that supernatural things (like Heaven, god(s), spirits, the afterlife) exist.
My question is this: are personal experiences evidence for the supernatural, and why?
I don’t understand why personal experiences are evidence for the supernatural. I have personal experiences all the time: weird dreams, panic attacks, burning my tongue on a hot cup of coffee, etc. A panic attack is a very powerful personal experience. Nonetheless, I don’t believe these experiences are evidence for the supernatural. Why do so many believe that they are?
Something that is supernatural can not be explained by evidence. If it could, it wouldn't be supernatural. That is NOT to say that experiences of the supernatural are not real. Experiences are real. The thoughts and beliefs that accompany them are also real. And, more importantly, they can play an important and often positive role in people's lives.
I've experienced things that can't be explained: loud banging on an interior door with no one on the other side. Cold spots in the basement of a house that I could sense approaching, accompanied by a nearly palpable aura of dread. (And in those days, I didn't drink or smoke herb.)
I lived in that house for several years and wasn't the only one to experience some unusual things. I find the word "supernatural" to be a bit off-putting, though. It seems to imply something we'll never understand. I believe there is an explanation for what I experienced. I just don't know what that explanation is -- yet.
I'm with the Bard: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
He did have a way with words, that boy Will.
I think I've posted on here (or maybe the "Unexplained" forum) that I also had something in the house I lived in from 2005 to 2009. I saw a figure, always in my peripheral vision, that appeared to be a tall man wearing a long coat and a hat who walked through the dining room and over to the basement door. I did smoke weed, and I thought it might just be my brain playing tricks.
But then my roommate said she saw the same thing without my ever having mentioned it. Then I noticed that my cats occasionally would stop what they were doing when they were in that area, and charge over to the basement door meowing and sticking their paws underneath.
It wasn't scary. It was just as if there was some sort of memory of something from another time that was looping through now.
There were also what I believe were ghost cats in that house that would jump up on my bed at night and touch me with their paws when I sat at my computer, but I'd best not continue lest someone think it's time to drive the Mighty Queen to the loony bin.
I’m not suggesting that experiences aren’t real. They are real. Sometimes, people have experiences which are unusual, powerful, or “weird” (like NDEs, hallucinations, psychedelic experiences, etc.).
What I’m asking is this: are unusual/weird/powerful experiences evidence for the supernatural? Are these experiences direct encounters with the supernatural?
There is no supernatural, Freak, just the currently inexplicable.
I've seen everything - hundreds of ancient Celtic men,hundreds of spirits,heard otherworldly music,been able to suddenly sing in a soaring erethral way that astonished me,apparitions,hundreds of visions,hundreds of secrets and riddles about the universe would be revealed to me during my episodes,or flights to the otherworld as I call it.People who have been able to do this use to be valued enormously they were shamans,seers,veledas,sibyls,healers alot of them were women and this strong intuitive faculty to get prophetic and other information was prized.Alot of them are in the psyche wards now.
In Ancient Greece the 'mad’ were placed within temples of worship, segregated from the rest of society, where they would be sought out for their divine wisdom and cryptic messages.
the word mantic means prophetic but translates as "I am mad raving".In all disorder there is a secret order,Madness fascinates because it is knowledge. It is knowledge, first of a difficult, hermetic, esoteric learning.
I absolutely love when I'm in hospital and there are all these madmen talking in riddles,the incoherency does have meaning if you decode it,people are so literal and logical they can't and it's all our society value.Ancient masculine principles like logic,reason,objectivity etc dominate so completely now,the ancient feminine principles that use to be valued like intuition,emotion,the subjective world has been degraded to nothing.
An enormous amount of the population have this relationship with the otherworld,spirit world and are highly intuitive but in the age of reason they are classified as mentally ill and banished from society.Thats how much reason dominates.
Last edited by Katiethegreat; 03-22-2018 at 01:49 PM..
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