Does anyone have any evidence of paranormal phenomena?

[ELADA]

I've heard some stories. But I would like to hear some from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Has anybody experienced anything paranormal?

Please give details! I'm verrrry curious!

[pert -5]

I dreamed I was a little blue dog once.

[SWM]

and it turned out to be true.
here is the evidence

[ELADA]

i also dreamt you were a little blue dog once

[pert -5]

I suddenly have a hankering for some kibble...  Er, never mind.

[gone]

I think people who know psychology know why the paranormal exists and it's a social and psychological phenomena only. When one understand behaviour, motivations, social situations, culture etc you realise all paranormal activity can be explained by the non paranormal..
There is nothing 'paranormal' on earth. But having said that, the earth itself in all it's natural wonderment is quite something.
Hhypnosis doesn't exist. But people believe it does. People rarely question things. They believe what they choose to. Belief is the most powerful thing on earth, it can not be penetrated by logic, reason or evidence.
Belief transcends the rational - which is why religion exist and why people believe in all sorts of nonsense.

[SWM]

I had a dream that someone believed kibble was a fairytale.

[pert -5]

I think people who know psychology know why the paranormal exists and it's a social and psychological phenomena only. When one understand behaviour, motivations, social situations, culture etc you realise all paranormal activity can be explained by the non paranormal..
There is nothing 'paranormal' on earth. But having said that, the earth itself in all it's natural wonderment is quite something.
Hhypnosis doesn't exist. But people believe it does. People rarely question things. They believe what they choose to. Belief is the most powerful thing on earth, it can not be penetrated by logic, reason or evidence.
Belief transcends the rational - which is why religion exist and why people believe in all sorts of nonsense.

Right off the bat we have the term "paranormal."  The prefix "para" meaning "aside from" or "distinct from."  So if the thing is happening, why fix the "para" onto it in regards to the norm?  If a thing is "paranormal," then it is not "normal," right?  But then what is "normal" that it can be malleable enough to contain the generally excepted facets of existence, while being rigid enough to eschew that which is not as generally excepted?  Who draws the line?  Does said line even do the prospect justice?

[SWM]

... the paranormal exists...
... Hhypnosis doesn't exist...

i just wanted to point out these two comments in the above post. i am not sure what type of logic you are using or maybe you have different definitions of "paranormal","hypnosis" or "exist" than me.

from my understanding, saying hypnosis doesnt exist is like saying counselling doesnt exist or psychology doesnt exist. hypnosis is a process that a person engages with, a process that is faclilitated or conducted by an opeartor on a subject. you cant pick it up and put it in a bucket to carry it to work with you, but something is definitley happening.

[NataEames]

Since this topic has kinda strayed, i have a spinoff question to add: who has witnessed hypnosys?

[Enigma]

A hypnotist did a show at my school last year; it was pretty cool.  He said the key to hypnosis is the individual person's susceptibility to suggestion. 

[ELADA]

Nice change of pace!

But were you ever hypnotized?

I've seen a lot of self-hypnosys books and stuff.

Any of you experience hypnosys?

[gone]

I'm sorry I brought up hypnosis as an example as this has deviated away from the topic of paranormal. No one in the history of the earth has ever been hypnotised.

Do Witches exist?
Did they ever exist?
There was a time people believed in Witches and associated practices.
There never were any Witches.
Does this mean Witches existed?

In some years time the same will be applied to hypnosis.
HYPNOSIS IS A PRACTICE AND A BELIEF ONLY.

Search 'Penn & Teller busshit hypnosis' and 'Graham Wagstaff psychologist' for more info..

Anything 'paranormal' works on the same social psychology that embeds nonsense into a culture until it becomes accepted as the norm or 'para' norm without question.

[SWM]

if you have watched a tv channel that has ad breaks then you have more than likely been hypnotised. that moment were you are blankly staring at the tv and you realise "shit, WTF am I watching" you just woke up from a hypnotic trance.

[SWM]

there is plenty of research to support the use of hypnosis. not Penn and teller google type research. there are clinical studies that support hypnosis.

[ELADA]

SWM, do you believe that those ads on tv and newspapers are specifically designed to make you want those things?
For example, when advertising a drink, they use a certain color or shapes, which the person unknowingly associates with feeling thirsty or something?

[SWM]

yes, there are lots of techniques such as you describe and more.

there is one on TV now for sky HD, the content is a family of large fury creature in a supermarket. they use a combination of distraction, supsension of reality testing, and persuasive language and suggestions to influence us.

the family of blue fury monsters causes us to supsend the testing of reality, blue fury monsters can say anything and the reality of what they say will not be criticized.  distraction is used in some of their conversation and behavious in the supermarket. so we pay attention to the distractions and strange behaviour of the family. meanwhile persuasive language patterns and  suggestions are given directly to the "unconscious" mind. language patterns and suggestions such as "Thats a great feature", "i wish i could do that", "I love it" "can we do it" are digested and associated with images and ideas of Sky HD.

[gone]

I've worked in advertising, my whole life I have worked with words, images & psychology.  I wouldn't say the advert above is a good example, I have seen it, remember the blue animals and that one didn't look too keen on going swimming. I have no idea what the product was it was advertising. And I've seen it a few times. I wouldn't say that was effective.
The most effective are the ones that sell to our wants and desires. Ie: we don't need that product but we would feel better with it. For example beauty product 'Because you're worth it' tap into 'self' and sell the idea to a susceptible person they are of more value if they own that product. Usually celebrity endorced as the whole celeb culture is packaged to us glistening and glamourous. (the reality of course is very different).
Mens products will use masculine & techno language with high end graphics & maybe a beautiful woman, for example razors, spring loaded, titanium, tripple effective, power shave, etc.. to make a guy feel he is those words if he buys that product.
Advertisers know we don't buy products because we need them, we buy them because we want them because they tell us they make us feel special. Advertising is a whole new subject, interesting though.

[pert -5]

No fair!  No one answers MY questions! 

[SWM]

awww mate, i would have answered you, but i was busy practising my magic tricks.

[pert -5]

awww mate, i would have answered you, but i was busy practising my magic tricks.

Why, you're a regular prestidigitator. 

[SWM]

ooh! had to google that one. a new one for my vocab. although i now now what it means i doubt i will pronounce it correctly if i ever get an opportunity to squeeze it into a sentence.

[NataEames]

i knew some people years ago who have lived with some poltergeist or something. Surprisingly, their stories were very similar to the movie paranormal activity - which just came out a couple years ago. Several people saw that and i can tell that they really believe that they saw it. But i myself never did so im skeptical

[S. Earl Martin]

Okay I have an example that actually pretains to the topic. LOL!
When I was in high school I started dating the sister of a friend of my brothers. (Bear with me it makes sense later). We went on a double date. I was in the back seat with my girlfriend. Her brother was in the front seat with his girlfriend. We had stopped at a secluded spot. My girlfriend stopped and got this strange look on her face. Like something out of a movie. She turned and looked out the back window of the car. She called out her brothers name. He asked what was wrong? She said that an old man was outside and was really skinny. He was coming toward the car and he was dead. Her brother started the car and drove home as fast as he could. He dropped me off at home and I walked in still wondering what had happened. The phone rang and it was my uncle. He told my dad that my grandfather had died. My grandfather had been sick for years and was 6" 1" he weighed under 100 pounds. I asked her about it later. She told me she was born with a tail. ( the end of the spinal cord exposed). It was surgically removed when she was 12. She said she could see when people were going to die or sometimes when someone close to them was going to die. She told me that she knew it was someone close to me and he was trying to tell me something, but she didn't know what it was. When she saw what she saw. I saw a light approaching, but I thought it was a reflection. I have always wondered about how this works? It was impossible to be a coencidance. How did she know?

[ELADA]

Now that you remind me, I know someone who is a dream interpreter and she was usually right.

This one specific time she told me my dream fortold a death of someone close to me and 3 days later my uncle died while at work.

I found that to be something beyond my understanding

[NataEames]

ELADA, i believe you.
I've studied dreams and i've had a lot of those that could tell what would happen.

[gone]

@ S. EARL MARTIN - your story reminds me of something I did as a teenager. About 10 of us were in a really old detached & derelict house, it was eerie.. I stopped suddenly and said
 'No, No get out now'
Well they couldn't get out quick enough, stumbling and falling over the debris on the floor. They shit themselves for want of a better pharse.. Outside I laughed and they couldn't believe they fell for it. But had I not laughed to this day they would probably believe I saw a ghost or had some wiered paranormal experience. It was a practical joke I played, and they played straight into my hands. A bit of fun. Try it yourself sometime!

There are afew things I notice with your story. This girl says she saw a man approaching the car and he was skinny and he was dead... How did she know he was dead? Did she feel his heartbeat? Even if she did see a man there is no way of her knowing he was dead. Do you see what I mean?
You say your grandfather was 6.1 this is tall, if she saw a tall man, she would have said 'tall and skinny'. But she didn't. Most old men are skinny. I know few fat old men, this because they're not usually in very good health if they are so aged. So if she's said 'fat old man' well, no one would would they?

From her other story about the 'tail' it sounds like this girl likes to literally tell 'tails' she sounds like one of those people I remember from childhood who had fantastical imaginations and had all sorts of bizarre stories to tell, obviously made up.

Only on enquiring further did she say to you she knew it was trying to tell you something, if this was the case why didnt' she tell you this at the time? And the reflection was just that, but you have become so swept up in the story you question your own thoughts to validate the story.

Do you understand?

A quick example of this: I was at a psychic reading and a friend Elen came out after seeing the fortune teller and said 'Wow amazing, she said Jack lacks confidence' and I asked 'She actually said Jacks name?' and she said 'No but I knew she was talking about him'..  ?

The only person who said Jack lacks confidence is Elen herself.. Do you understand that. That is kind of what has happened with your story above. It's common. You have to be a linguist to identify it but easy to spot when you know how to. There is a name for it, it's SUBJECTIVE VALIDATION here's more info http://www.skepdic.com/subjectivevalidation.html

[S. Earl Martin]

First off you are presumeing a lot in your post. So I will attempt to address it the best I can. When she saw the vision I would say she was in shock or a trance like state. What she said was what she said.
6' 1' is not that tall for U.S. standards and I don't know where you live, but most people here are fat.
The point is this the information she did give was totally accurate and she had no way of knowing that my grandfather died at all let alone that night. Or what my grandfather looked like. I have seen a number of accounts that I would attribute to psychic abilities. I have witnessed true claravouance.  I also have witnessed and helped expose scams or frauds. I understand how the process you are discribeing works and am very familar with how different con's work. This was not that. She was not pron to telling tails or exagerating as you assume. Actually she was very scared about other people knowing about her abilities and asked me not to tell anyone else. That is why even to this day I am careful not to use her or her brothers name. She asked me to promise not to reveal her identity and I am still honering that promise. I just know what I saw and the fact that she said what she said the night my grandfather died has always facinated me. If you don't want to believe it that is your choice. We were asked for examples and I gave one.

[voodoo scientist]

If there was evidence for paranormal phenomena, they wouldn't be paranormal. They'd be science. There are many experiences and interpretations of those experiences that claim to support various paranormal phenomena, but this is not evidence in any meaningful sense of the term.

[gone]

@S.Earl Martin I understand what you are saying but also understand you mis-interprete easily. For example the question here is
'Does anyone have any evidence of paranormal phenomena'
It's possible you read the word 'evidence' as 'experience' because you say 'We were asked for examples and I gave one'
We were not asked for examples. Do you see how easily one can interpret things to suit?