Supernatural Phenomenon: Fact or Fiction? (republish for group)

Kathleen,
That sounds really interesting! People communicating with animals telepathically or animals communicating with each other telepathically? Either way I can't wait to read your article. :)

Faith, in whatever is just that. Faith... Believing something we can't see. Even if we could see it would we believe it? I went years not really believing in God. I didn't get it. If I thought I beleived... it was that God would be a loving God not one that would not send good people to hell just for not beleiving in him. (theres more but this is going to be long enough as it is :) LOL)
Then something Tragic happened to me and I needed God to be real and so I prayed not knowing if he was real or not. JUST because I needed him to be real. I asked for forgivness for every thing I ever did... I begged for a deal to stop what was happening to me. I soon found out that I couldn't stop what was happening. Then one night I got came to grips with it and I thanked God for my situation and I suddenly felt like someone wrapped a warm blanket around me. He was there. There is no doubt in my mind. I felt such sorrow, peace, love ... I can't explain it.. . I knew I was broken and it didn't matter what was fair or not fair I finally knew what was real. You don't need to beleive me. Although I want you to. I would've rolled my eyes at anyone else before this time.

I have a definite feeling that God exists and that there is so much to this world that he created. IS there Ghosts? Do we have abilities like telekinesis or ESP? Well it is written that we were made in His image and also scientist say we use very little of our brains (what God gave us) so it doesn't surprise me that some people can do those things. Should we use them ? well thats another issue I won't touch. Every thing was written thousands of years ago in scrolls and books. You have to decide.

I like what Susan from "Miracle on 34th St." said:
"I believe, I believe, it's silly but I believe."

It's easier than not believing.

Though I've always believed that belief doesn't make something true there is some value in simply believing. Sometimes it's that "gut" feeling that tells us more than intellectualizing or analyzing our way throught a problem.

This is something I copied from Edge. net because I thought it was relevant to this subject.

"WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?"

"I believe in belief-or rather: I have faith in having faith. Yet, I am an atheist (or a "bright" as some would have it). How can that be?

It is important to have faith, but not necessarily in God. Faith is important far outside the realm of religion: having faith in other people, in oneself, in the world, in the existence of truth, justice and beauty. There is a continuum of faith, from the basic everyday trust in others to the grand devotion to divine entities.

Recent discoveries in behavioural sciences, such as experimental economics and game theory, shows that it is a common human attitude towards the world to have faith. It is vital in human interactions; and it is no coincidence that the importance of anchoring behaviour in riskful trust is stressed in worlds as far apart as Søren Kierkegaard's existentialist christianity and modern theories of bargaining behaviour in economic interactions. Both stress the importance of the inner, subjective conviction as the basis for actions, the feeling of an inner glow.

One could say that modern behavioral science is re-discovering the importance of faith that has been known to religions for a long time. And I would argue that this re-discovery shows us that the activity of having faith can be decoupled from the belief in divine entities.

So here is what I have faith in: We have a hand backing us, not as a divine foresight or control, but in the very simple and concrete sense that we are all survivors. We are all the result of a very long line of survivors who survived long enough to have offspring. Amoeba, rodents and mammals. We can therefore have confidence that we are experts in survival. We have a wisdom inside, inherited from millions of generations of animals and humans, a knowledge of how to go about life. That does not in any way imply foresight or planning ahead on our behalf. It only implies that we have a reason to trust out ability to deal with whatever challenges we meet. We have inherited such an ability.

Therefore, we can trust each other, ourselves and life itself. We have no guarantee or promises for eternal life, not at all. The enigma of death is still there, ineradicable.

But we a reason to have confidence in ourselves. The basic fact that we are still here-despite snakes, stupidity and nuclear weapons-gives us reason to have confidence in ourselves and each other, to trust others and to trust life. To have faith.

Because we are here, we have reason for having faith in having faith."

TOR NØRRETRANDERS
Science Writer; Consultant; Lecturer, Copenhagen; Author, The User Illusion

I'll chuck this in: What you believe will manifest - you will gather the witnesses to the truth of it and they will attest the reality of what you believe - even if no one else believes what you do. And you will ignore the witnesses that attest otherwise.

As to 'supernatural' phenomenon - such occurs so frequently in my life that I regard it as natural. And not merely as deja vu.

Magi

I believe that there are a whole lot of things we do not have a clue about. What they are is a mystery. But it would be awfully arrogant of us to think we know it all, no?

I believe in God and angels too. I believe anything is possible in God's world.

Jihaan, I've had some experience with psychic type phenomena so I am definitely a believer, and in God, too.

Pam,
I agree. We only use 10 percent of our brains so it's more than likely that if you used more we might develop telepathy or telekenisis, etc. I think if you are lucky enough to aquire these abilities then you should definitely use them. Everything happens for a reason, right?

Ronald: That's a very insightful article. Thanks for posting it.

Nancy: Good point! If we were alone in the universe then it would be an awful waste of space.

Jeff, Nicola, and Laurie: I'd ve very interested to hear about all of your supernatural experiences. Please, please, please post it. I'll be searching your articles eagerly. :)

Im definitely a believer. I have had firsthand experience with ghosts... and I know that prayer works. The hardest thing to come to terms with, is that it doesnt work every time we want it to though. God has a plan.
*whew* I didnt mean, to get all religious in your comments *lol*
And like someone else said- theres no way that WE are all there is. Earth and humans are great and all, but I refuse to believe that this is the extent of it.

Jihaan, I am psychic, and could write volumes on my experiences and beliefs. I don't, nor do I talk about this much unless someone asks. And you asked ;-) Many people aren't able to accept that anyone else can (or will, as I believe) see, experience, do, or understand what they haven't personally seen, experienced, done, or understood. Those people often can't be satisfied accepting their difference, so they wage futile, irrational 'truth wars' in hopes of discrediting anything or anyone who claims to have something they don't have. Because they have no experience, they usually start with ridiculous demands like, "If you're psychic, then what are the lottery numbers," or "what's in the box under my bed" and digress from there. The way I look at it, I know what I know. It won't go away because someone else doesn't believe it, so I have no reason or need to prove it to anyone. I'll discuss anything with a curious skeptic who is searching for truth, but nothing with the naysayer who doesn't realize he makes a fool of himself by denying what I know to be true.

Sandy,
Wow! You seem to be open to question so I'm gonna be a bit nosy. :P Can I ask, have you been psychic all your life or is it something that developed at a certain point in your life? Do any other members of your family have this ability?
Also when you say psychic, is like a feeling, or is it dreams, visions? You don't have answer any of this. I know this is personal to some people but if it's all the same to you, I'd really like to know. :)

Me, too.
I think there are a couple of problems here... 1. Many people take the bible literally and thus cannot accept anything other than the earth as the center of everything, which let's be real, all you have to do is look at the night sky to know that this is ridiculous, and 2. human beings have not been around all that long, geologically, so how likely is it that we would have figured everything out? Maybe the cockroaches have it all figured out.....
Also, even if you do believe in God, you must accept that he is not gonna share all his secrets with us. Hell, we can't even get along with each other! (See: Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten)
If you believe in science, which I do, then you know that every new discovery is just a baby step towards knowing it all.....
I sincerely hope that we will have more discussions like this on Gather.

Jihaan, I've always been psychic. I didn't understand early on, and thought I was weird. My open-minded mother figured it out and helped me. Fortunately, I had the experience to help my daughter before she had time to be confused. I will gladly talk more about this, but don't think I can answer your questions in this little box. Tonight, I'll try to put some some things in a reasonable format if you guys truly want to get into this. I guess this is the appropriate group, huh?

Nancy: Me too! I hope we have lots of more discussions like this in the future.

Sandy: Thanks. I'm so glad you're going post more about this. I really am very interested to learn more.

I hope this is the correct group. I'll post what I've written.

I have also experienced feelings and known things that have happened without knowing how or why. When I meet someone who doesn't appear to be the type of person they say they are, I know it-without a doubt. It may take months or years before my feelings are proved true, but they always have been true. I knew a friend of mine had been killed just by hearing the firetrucks and sirens of ambulances go by. It wasn't until later that day that I knew for certain, but the initial feeling was too strong to ignore. I'm so glad there's a place to explore these feelings and thoughts now. I don't claim to be psychic and unlike Sandy, my mother has just laughed off these feelings.

Jihaan -

What an excellent topic to bring up for discussion. I'm still somewhat ambivalent about my own personal experiences. I do believe that there is a great deal which we don't understand, and which we must remain open minded about if we ever hope to. What I'm unconvinced about are if my own experiences with the supernatural are the genuine article.

My husband, a died in the wool skeptic, is convinced that I'm some kind of magnet for the bizarre. He doesn't even pooh-pooh things that happen anymore - just says,"Honey, would you quit that already?" when he witnesses the same things I am.

But, like many others, I often wonder if I'm just really wishing that these things are supernatural. So, I'll come up with a million LOGICAL explanations, and just settle on one of those.

See....ambivalent...what can I tell you?

Here's a link to Sandy's article about her experience as a psychic. It's called Seeing More .

Jihaan, I wrote about one of my experiences and I think it's titled, My Grandfather, the Sparkly Ball.

Fascinating thread here. I believe psychic events are very real. My belief in this phenomena was once opposed by a devout person who, while denying that these things are possible, said that God stated in the Bible that we are "not allowed to communicate with the dead." My response was: "If it is not possible to communicate with the dead, then why is God commanding us NOT to do it???"

Here's a link to Laurie's article, The Supernatural and My Grandfather the Sparkly Ball. Check it out, you all.

Thanks, Jihaan :) I'll also read Sandy's article-something I am and have been interested in. There's parts of my life where sometimes I just know something is going to happen. I don't know when, but I just have this "feeling" I get and know there'll be a connection somehow to my future.

Check out Martha's article, titled Daddy's Little Girl.

Hello, My oldest sister believes she saw a good spirit. I think it could be true. She said it protected her from her drunk boyfriend. It's possible. Great article, I am pretty new on the site saw your article so I read it.
Take care & thanks for sharing.

Ruby,
First of all, welcome to Gather. I hope that you have as much fun here as I do.
I think it's very possible that you sister did see a spirit or maybe a guardian angel? It's good to have someone watching over you. :)
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my article and comment on it.