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As others have said, it's not something you can really prove to a skeptic. The evidence (if you want to call it that) is there, whether or not it's convincing enough for you is where the "belief" comes in.
For me, the most convincing element and reason I do believe in some paranormal type stuff have been from firsthand accounts. I had a geology professor who was 100% sure he had seen one of the many bigfoot creatures; this isn't some kook out in the sticks, he was an intelligent, grounded guy with a PhD in the sciences. One of my coworkers and friends, an agnostic, science-loving skeptic, had personally seen the same "ghost" multiple times extremely early in the morning in our office (who had also been seen by others in the office). Now, obviously you have no reason to trust me, as someone you don't know on the internet talking about other people you don't know. There's zero empiric evidence for you. But for me, their word is enough evidence. Really, that's why we believe almost all of what we believe. I've never seen certain types of bacteria, but I believe they exist based on the accounts of other people who have tested it/seen it. It's just an issue of credibility. As another example, I have ZERO reason to believe that there are other galaxies other than some other credible people have said so. I have no means to personally test and verify their existence.
Now, that's not to say that there isn't some "scientific" explanation behind things which we don't yet know. But I don't like drawing a line between the scientific and the unexplained...the scientific/proven is simply a category of previously unexplained things which we have come to understand. That doesn't mean they didn't exist before they could be comprehended. That, I think, is the problem with hard-line skeptics; the logic is that because it can't be proven or explained, it (whatever it is) does not exist. Just because "it" (whether ghosts or whatever) hasn't been explained doesn't mean they don't exist, whatever they happen to be. It just means we haven't been able to understand it yet, and that's where science and the paranormal converge. If hundreds of credible people claim to have seen a bigfoot creature, I have no less reason to believe them than I do the hundreds of scientists who say they have tested atomic structure. I'm forced to believe based on what other people have said, and what seems credible to me based on how it meshes with my own understanding of the world.
*OP, this isn't necessarily about you - just generalizing.
I think there have actually been quite a few fairly well-documented events that cannot be adequately explained by what we call "science." This isn't to say these events "prove" OUR conception of "the paranormal," just that there HAVE been events that, so far, haven't been explained by science.
Take, for instance, the Phoenix Lights. Extremely well-documented event of UFOs over Phoenix in 1997. Home video recordings of things that are clearly not airplanes, helicopters, etc. This was before anyone could just make a fake video on their home computer. So, either all the home video recordings just happen to be from the few people who had sophisticated "video fakery" equipment in 1997, who all decided to fake a similar event at the same time, or it was secret government testing of ultra-sophisticated aircraft no one has ever glimpsed since. Do these sound plausible? If not, what WERE the Phoenix Lights? So far, no "rational" explanation has surface of something that clearly, obviously, most definitely DID happen.
Then you have the photographs that have images that, so far, haven't been adequately explained. Here is a link to several, most of which were taken before anyone could easily just buy photoshop and make stuff up. Is every single one of these some sort of double exposure? Maybe, who knows. Nevertheless, they are examples of incidents that so far, don't have a solid scientific explanation.
Take, for instance, the Phoenix Lights. Extremely well-documented event of UFOs over Phoenix in 1997. Home video recordings of things that are clearly not airplanes, helicopters, etc. This was before anyone could just make a fake video on their home computer. So, either all the home video recordings just happen to be from the few people who had sophisticated "video fakery" equipment in 1997, who all decided to fake a similar event at the same time, or it was secret government testing of ultra-sophisticated aircraft no one has ever glimpsed since. Do these sound plausible? If not, what WERE the Phoenix Lights?
The Phoenix Lights were Unidentified Flying Objects. (Key word underlined.) The fact is we don't know what they were. Alien spacecraft? Secret military aircraft? Time travelers from the 24th century? Heralds of Galactus? Natural phenomena? John Boehner's tanning bed escaped?
Every single explanation is just speculation. We just don't know.
The Phoenix Lights were Unidentified Flying Objects. (Key word underlined.) The fact is we don't know what they were. Alien spacecraft? Secret military aircraft? Time travelers from the 24th century? Heralds of Galactus? Natural phenomena? John Boehner's tanning bed escaped?
Every single explanation is just speculation. We just don't know.
They looked suspiciously like me like flares, so that is not the one that is going to knock my socks off and make me a believer.
They looked suspiciously like me like flares, so that is not the one that is going to knock my socks off and make me a believer.
Didn't the Phoenix lights hover in one place for almost an hour? I've never seen a flare do that.
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