Lestat

[big_bad_buff]

Do you believe in the supernatural? ghosts/spirits/demons whatever you want to call them? Do you believe in witchcraft/spells/magic, house hauntings, demon possession etc. one can truly not deny this stuff occures. I’ve personally seen and experienced a lot of it myself, just curious what atheist’s explanation for these supernatural happenings are……

 

[cindylou]

Do you believe in the supernatural? ghosts/spirits/demons whatever you want to call them? Do you believe in witchcraft/spells/magic, house hauntings, demon possession etc. one can truly not deny this stuff occures. I’ve personally seen and experienced a lot of it myself, just curious what atheist’s explanation for these supernatural happenings are……

what have you personally experienced?

 

[jackangel]

i'll spare you the delight of lestat's verbosity and answer for him:

no, he doesn't believe in any of that. he can deny it because he hasn't had such experiences. although he will technically allow for the possibility of such things (in the interests of keeping an open mind), he has no good reason to consider them valid. he recognizes various sources of human error, and cannot accept the accounts of others as proof or reliable evidence.

furthermore, the possible existence of ghosts, demons, magic, etc...have nothing necessarily to do with the existence of god, so these issues can be considered separately.

 

[curvymommy]

Not that anyone asked me but since I love to type

Spiritual warfare is real. I totally believe in all sorts of spirits, vibes, holy, evil, ect. Not so much in haunted houses and spells and such but I know spirits and stuff exist.

Me and Musclemom have more in common than I ever thought. She's Wiccan/Pagan or whatever, I'm a Christian. I love her and we do have some common ground.

Me and total non-believers of anything spiritual...not so much.

 

[big_bad_buff]

what have you personally experienced?

Growing up my best friend’s house was haunted, something would knock plain as day on the other side of his bedroom door that was feet way from us, we would open it and no one was there or down the hall. And it would continue through the night, banging getting louder. It would happen when we were the only ones home, when everyone else was gone, I heard people call me into rooms of the house and no one be in there….he would wake up and his bed would be moved a foot or two away from where it was when he went to sleep.

Last occurrence me and him were in the car in his driveway and a shadow of a man walked right past the car, like inches away, you could hear the footsteps on the gravel and the shadow was pointing to the moon, not away like all the other shadows from trees and the house etc. I never went over there again at night. His grandma said she saw it, his sister said she saw it, most scared I’ve ever been in my life, I slept in my brother’s room on his floor for 6 months after that, and I was 16 years old. alot of scary shit went on in that house.

 

[hardrock]

I have never witnessed it, but do believe it happens. Why, I have no idea. A friend of mine's mom screamed one day and when he ran into the kitchen a chair was slid about 6 feet across the floor. There were scrape marks on the floor it happened so fast. He truely believed his house was haunted, and so did the rest of his family. At night sometimes he would see a hand come through his window, and his brothers bed moved on it's own. They didn't stay there long.

I wonder, do you have to disclose that your house may be haunted when you sell it? And if so, would you still buy?

 

[Lestat]

i'll spare you the delight of lestat's verbosity and answer for him:

no, he doesn't believe in any of that. he can deny it because he hasn't had such experiences. although he will technically allow for the possibility of such things (in the interests of keeping an open mind), he has no good reason to consider them valid. he recognizes various sources of human error, and cannot accept the accounts of others as proof or reliable evidence.

furthermore, the possible existence of ghosts, demons, magic, etc...have nothing necessarily to do with the existence of god, so these issues can be considered separately.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

And jackangel is right, I do not believe in ghosts, supernatural, astrology, the easter bunny, alchemy, magic, haunted houses, alien abduction, santa clause, or even karma.

I do believe that people see and hear things they attribute to all of the above, there is no denying that, but once again, when people do not have a concrete source of cause for something, they tend to make up and explanation because a wrong explanation is better than no explanation for many people. I myself prefer to live with unknowns rather than a lie, but I realize this isn't everyone's preference.

 

[Lestat]

also big_bad_buff, with our current understanding of the brain, we do know it is entirely possible to hear and see things for which there isn't a discernable physical source. People can see colors when there are none, and hear sounds even though their eardrums are not picking up vibrations.

 

[big_bad_buff]

also big_bad_buff, with our current understanding of the brain, we do know it is entirely possible to hear and see things for which there isn't a discernable physical source. People can see colors when there are none, and hear sounds even though their eardrums are not picking up vibrations.

So if two or more hear or see the same thing, what they’re seeing or hearing isn’t really their, their brains are just picking up….something? I’m not really following you, I understand that some people have brain damage or have life long acid trips and hallucinate or what not, but if people see the same thing at the same time that has “physical characteristics” or interacts with our physical realm, such as opening doors, moving items, walking up and down the stairs, turning tables upside down etc, how is that something two or more brains can formulate?

Say you and a friend are sitting in the living room when you hear the hallway door shake uncontrollable for 10 seconds and then stop, you both hear it and walk over to the door and open it. When the door opens up you see everything in the room laying in a pile in the center of the room, bed, lamp, pictures off the wall, toys, books, blankets, clothes etc. not in a mess, but as if someone stacked it up there. You both see this, and you both just came from the room 5 minutes prior and the room was perfectly normal. No one else home but you two, one door to the room and one window that is locked on the second story.

How would you yourself rationalize this situation if you experienced it?

 

[Lestat]

So if two or more hear or see the same thing, what they’re seeing or hearing isn’t really their, their brains are just picking up….something? I’m not really following you, I understand that some people have brain damage or have life long acid trips and hallucinate or what not, but if people see the same thing at the same time that has “physical characteristics” or interacts with our physical realm, such as opening doors, moving items, walking up and down the stairs, turning tables upside down etc, how is that something two or more brains can formulate?

Say you and a friend are sitting in the living room when you hear the hallway door shake uncontrollable for 10 seconds and then stop, you both hear it and walk over to the door and open it. When the door opens up you see everything in the room laying in a pile in the center of the room, bed, lamp, pictures off the wall, toys, books, blankets, clothes etc. not in a mess, but as if someone stacked it up there. You both see this, and you both just came from the room 5 minutes prior and the room was perfectly normal. No one else home but you two, one door to the room and one window that is locked on the second story.

How would you yourself rationalize this situation if you experienced it?

I'd probably be pretty freaked out, but and I'd try to find out how/why it happened.