Posts Tagged ‘Psychic Abilities’

Paranormal Experiences I’ve Had

May 6th, 09 / 0 Comments

I’ve had a fair number of experiences that some people would say qualify as paranormal. On some of these experiences, I agree, on others, I think another explanation seems more likely. The main reason I’m writing this is to show how there is a lot of uncertainty in dealing with anything paranormal, and even if there are some pretty solid experiences, it’s still very easy to question yourself. This is healthy, as I pointed out in my last piece on the paranormal. At the same time, it may also be frustrating to practice for a long time, only to realize you still aren’t certain of anything. I have some good and bad news on this: it’s normal. If you find yourself in this position, there are lots of others trying to learn in the same position. Of course, that means it’s also going to be difficult to get past that point, and you’ll likely have to find your own way. I’m still working on that part myself. However, now I want to get on with the experiences.  Hopefully, reading about these and the way I view them might help you out in some way.

1) Call the Card

The Experience: I was chilling  with some friends in the basement of their house, when one of them just looked over at me, showed me a deck of cards, and said “top card, what is it?”

I immediately responded “ace of spades” and flipped the card over with a confident flourish… and they started flipping out saying how awesome that was. Confused, I looked at the card to see that it was indeed the ace of spades, and I had called it. Of course, then they wanted a repeat performance, so I tried again a few times. The very next card, I got the right number, wrong suit, and after that, I had nothing.

Was It Paranormal: I doubt it was anything other than blind luck. You guess enough cards, you’re bound to get one right eventually. I just happened to get it right on the first try, which made it seem awesome. If I had managed a couple more hits in a reasonable amount of time, I’d have been convinced, but as it happened, I’d say I just hit my 1 in 52 chance. Let’s face it, those odds are better than the odds of me winning $20 off Powerball, and I’ve managed that before too.

2) See a Level of an Unreleased Video Game

The Experience: I had a dream one night, and in this dream I was playing a Sonic the Hedgehog game I’d never played before. I played through one zone of this game, full of crystals, and a stand for the chaos emeralds. Later on in life, I got my hands on the game Sonic and Knuckles, and when I reached the Hidden Palace Zone, I felt an intense feeling of deja vu. Probably because I’d played through the zone before… in the dream I just talked about.

Was It Paranormal: I think so, but I do still question this one sometimes. After all, I never wrote the dream down beforehand, so the feeling of deja vu could have been from something else, and then I could have constructed the dream memory to explain the feeling. I really don’t think that’s how it went down, but human memory is tricky, and with no written record, I would be remiss in not mentioning the possibility. Other than that though, I’m pretty confident in this one.

3) Pinging a Friend… a Little Too Strongly

The Experience: I’m not sure how commonly the term ping is used in psychic communities, as it’s a term I’ve really only seen at Psipog, so in case you aren’t sure of what I’m talking about, a ping is supposed to be a kind of brief telepathic greeting, like a mental handshake of sorts. I was attempting to use a psi ball to do so, but I had also been experimenting with some elemental magic ideas at the time. So, I used a symbol of elemental fire to add some oomph to the psi ball, and consequently, the ping. Then I sent it flying at his head telling it to get his attention. It did. Apparently it also gave him a splitting headache, because he asked me what I did, so I told him. He told me not to try that again, because it really hurt. So I haven’t tried it since then.

It should be noted that we had an agreement it was ok to do this before, because we wanted to see if we could really get each others attention in this way. We found our answer, and decided that was enough of that experiment.

Was it Paranormal: In a word, yes. That is, I can’t think of any other explanation. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but the timing was very good if it was. Too good, so I find it unlikely. It wasn’t psychosomatic, because I did this with no motion, and was behind him when I sent the ping, so he couldn’t have seen me. Given that he reacted right when I sent the psi ball to him, I find it hard to believe it was anything but success. I am open to other explanations, but so far, I haven’t found one.

Not sure if I could replicate this one now or not. For the obvious reason of not wanting to cause others pain, I haven’t really tried.

4) Unblocking My Stuffy Nose

The Experience: I had been dealing with a stuffy nose for a  rather long time one winter, so I decided I was going to try and do something about it. Now, I could have just used some nasal spray, but that stuff is really uncomfortable, so I tried something else first: energy healing. I just sent energy at the blockage with the intent to clear it up and be able to breathe easy again. Sure enough, within five minutes, my nasal passages were clearing up. I now had quite the runny nose, and went through many tissues in dealing with it. It wasn’t stuffy anymore though, and that was the goal. I just forgot that everything still needed a way out.

Was It Paranormal: Maybe. The timing was pretty good, but it wasn’t perfect. In addition, I haven’t been able to replicate this often, but I do occasionally get results. I also haven’t had success on helping anyone other than myself. This leads me to think that a placebo effect is also a very good option to consider in regard to what happened. Coincidence also can’t be ruled out here, since the timing isn’t directly in line with treatment, and since it doesn’t always work. Naturally, not working all the time could also mean I just need more practice. Still, I think the jury’s out on this one, and it’s tough to make a good call here.

5) It Needs to Snow… NOW!

The Experience: I was walking to class with a friend, and there had been a significant lack of snow days that particular year. Not uncommon, as I always found days off in college to be a nice stress reliever, and a lack of them to be irritating. On this particular day, I really did not want to be in class, and I came out and said “it needs to snow now!” And no sooner had I said it, then it started snowing. Just flurries mind you, so not nearly enough to get me that snow day. But there was no snow in the forecast, so that was kind of cool.

Was It Paranormal: Well, the timing was spot on, so points for that. However, as anyone in New England knows, the weather here is notoriously unpredictable, and subject to change at a moment’s notice. So even though it wasn’t in the weather report, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t happen on its own. Could have also been coincidence due to this. And as many psychologists like to point out, we remember the big coincidences and forget the ones that don’t seem to work out. Then again, the timing was right on. And it’d be really cool if it was me. But I’m really just not sure.

So that’s it for now. While I certainly have other paranormal experiences, these are the ones that stick out in my mind. As you can see, there’s only one experience in here I’m sure was a real paranormal experience, while most of the others fall into some kind of nebulous area of possibly paranormal and possibly coincidence. From what others I talk to about this have to say, this is pretty normal, so I’m not too worried, especially since I have the one experience that would be difficult to explain in a way not involving the paranormal. In short, while it’s good to be discerning in what you believe is real, it’s also good to have some faith in yourself. You might not be sure of what’s happening, but  believing in your ability makes it easier to continue practicing, and may help bring you to one experience that would be difficult to explain any other way.

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The Paranormal, Belief, and Skepticism

Apr 20th, 09 / 2 Comments

There’s something I’ve noticed about communities built around the paranormal. They seem to attract the die-hard skeptics who aren’t going to believe anything they read short of seeing an amazing, flashy display in person that demonstrates the paranormal is real. They also attract people ready to believe absolutely anything they read, because “anything’s possible” and “we should give them the benefit of the doubt, after all, this is all crazy.” I’m certainly not the first person to notice or comment on this, but I think this is something important to discuss.

Why do so many people feel the need to polarize so much on these beliefs? I’m guessing for the die-hard skeptics, it’s because they truly believe there is no way psychic powers could exist, or at the very least, it’s very doubtful. Furthermore, when they see psychics providing services, that would mean one of two things: the psychic is lying, or the psychic needs psychological help. Either way, it’s up to the skeptic to help out. In the case of the overly faithful, I think it’s a matter of feeling like they’re considered crazy, so they should give everyone else the benefit of the doubt, even on claims that are outlandish by the standards of the paranormal community. It’s not like we have a way of testing any of this after all.

Both groups have their own issues, as does the group I put myself in, which I’ll talk about in a minute. For the die-hard skeptics, they’re more or less unwilling to acknowledge the possibility of the paranormal. This is despite a long list of evidence, both in lab settings and through people’s experiences, that points to the possibility of their existence. For more on this, see Sean’s excellent list How to Prove Psychic Abilities are Real over at A Little Weird.

Now, I know all the science types are saying that experience doesn’t count, and I certainly understand that. In terms of proving something, replication in controlled circumstances is important. That’s what the scientific studies are provided for. They give us an objective viewpoint on all of this. Methods to experience psychic abilities are provided because, even with scientific evidence, we don’t exactly have concrete proof, other than to say something strange that we can’t explain is going on. Furthermore, even with complete proof, I think the existence of psychic abilities is something that would be hard to swallow without some kind of experience with them. After all, I have experience with them and I still doubt sometimes.

We also have the completely faithful, who believe anything about the paranormal that anyone tells them. I think this is because we simply don’t know enough about the paranormal. Since we don’t know much about it, no one knows when to call someone on lying about something that they claim may be possible or they may have done. Since no one knows when to call someone on it, clearly the thing to do is give them the benefit of the doubt, otherwise, they’re being hypocritical by claiming to believe in the paranormal, but also claiming that someone else can’t do something paranormal.

I think both of these groups have it wrong though. You can believe something is possible, while still being skeptical of it. I think this is currently the appropriate view to hold on many psychic abilities. I’ve said this in my disclaimer, but I believe psychic abilities exist, and think I’ve had some minor experiences with them. I’ve been informally studying and practicing them for around ten years now, but I still don’t know if I’ve been experiencing bona fide psychic abilities or simply coincidence and feeling things that aren’t there. Given that it would be a lot of coincidence for none of it to be real, I tend to lean toward thinking something is happening, but I also know people find significance in the things that do happen, while forgetting the things that don’t work out. So, for me, it’s still up in the air about whether they exist.

Furthermore, anything paranormal seems to get lumped together, but there are a large number of phenomena that need to be tested. It could turn out that some are real and some aren’t. For instance, maybe it’s possible to predict the future, yet not possible to spontaneously teleport across town. Both claims have been made. But there will need to be different tests for both claims, and one could be shown true while the other is shown false.

Finally, many skeptics like to argue by Occam’s Razor: the most likely explanation is the one you should use. So, whenever it turns out a psychic ability can be replicated by other means, such as cold reading or magnets, they assume that means the psychic ability doesn’t exist. Naturally, while this is sensible to avoid getting conned, it’s also quite reasonable to realize there’s more than one way to get the same result.

Of course, rabid supporters of the paranormal forget this important idea too. Just because it’s possible something is paranormal, doesn’t mean that it is. There are perfectly mundane reasons lots of seemingly paranormal things can happen, and you can’t just rule them out. Furthermore, there are people who will lie about what they can do. If they can pull it off convincingly, it could be for money, or it could just be for fame or to feel special.

I have two major tests I use when I think about whether or not some claim is plausible. One is to think about if it matches up with my own experiences. The other is to see how well it matches up with other claims. If it matches up pretty well, then I tend to think it’s fairly plausible, though I also know there are other reasons claims may match up, such as proliferation of these ideas across the internet. Of course, there are other factors to take into account as well. If it sounds too good to be true, or if it sounds like the idea being presented came out of a cartoon or rpg, that can seriously hurt the credibility of an idea. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to see which came first, the idea or the cartoon. If the idea came first, then it may still be valid, but if it came after, then it could just be someone who wants their favorite show to be real.

In the end, I think what’s important is to realize you need to think for yourself. Don’t have blind faith in anything. Use reason to think about the world around you. This doesn’t mean you can’t believe in all sorts of crazy things, but figure it out for yourself, and don’t rely solely on other people to tell you how it is. You’ll certainly need to hear other ideas, but by filtering them, reasoning, and coming to your own conclusions, you have a better chance of finding an answer without being conned.

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