Has swiy believe in the paranormal?

[BackToBasics]

It's really interesting to Budgie that so many people claim to have had paranormal experiences, but as many dismiss them as if they couldn't possibly have happened. So what is the truth?

Budgie believes there is something else. He will try and explain his theory.

The world is full of comparisons. Look at when you strike a match for example. When you strike the match, it gives life to a flame. The spark could be called the 'conception' if you like. This could be compared to the birth of a human.
The flame starts small, and as it builds up energy, it grows. This could be seen as childhood and growing up. Once the flame has reached it's potential, it is mature. It gets to a point where it doesn't grow anymore, but instead starts to lose energy and gets weaker. It gets old in other words.

The flame gets smaller and smaller, until it gets to the point of 'dying'. What the flame has done is that it's used up all it's resources so eventually it will go out. But what happens after it has gone out? There is smoke.
Budgie believes this is the 'spirit' of the flame. It has an afterlife.

So what makes us any different? It's all life at the end of the day.

What does swiy think?

[bob_arctor]

It seems like an erroneous analogy, comparing the process of rapid oxidation and the stages of development of a human.

It sounds pretty, kind of poetic, but flawed as a theory for extrapolating on the possibility of the existence of an afterlife.

[BackToBasics]

Maybe Budgie was thinking a bit too far out, but it makes sense to him because it is all energy, whether it's a flame, a plant or a human. They all experience birth, growing and dying.

[old hippie 56]

That is a fact of life, if something lives, one day it will die. Would you want to be immortal? Swim wouldn't.

[BackToBasics]

Budgie wasn't talking about immortality. He was suggesting that maybe there is a comparison between different forms of life in the way that they live and die.

[bob_arctor]

A flame is not a form of life is it? Perhaps a good comparison would to say that the smoke is analogous to the different bodily products released at death as the sphincter eases as rigor mortis goes away? What do SWIY think?

[BackToBasics]

Of course a flame is life. It wouldnt be able to change and grow if it wasn't alive, Budgie thinks. Thinking about it, even after the smokes gone, there's still the odour of the smoke..What is swiBob's view on the afterlife if you don't mind Budgie asking?

[Salvinorin A]

Fire is not alive if SWIY wants the scientific side of it.

It's a simple chemical reaction in which oxygen is used up. And not all flame leaves smoke afterwards...depends on the environment.

Sal-A

[augentier]

I definitely believe in the paranormal..many types of it. Ghosts, gods, gnomes..not the typical white apparition, bearded man in the clouds, or little people with pointy hats riding foxes through the forest either..like BackToBasics said..so many people through the ages have experienced these things, yet so many shoot the ideas down as ludicrous or irrational.

I believe in aliens, too..I think it's a bit selfish to think that we are the ONLY ones in the ENTIRE universe. Sure we seem to be alone (as far as "advanced civilizations" go) in our galaxy, or at least our solar system..which makes us think we're special, which leads on to beliefs of god (seems like a big game at times doesn't it?) and whatnot but I digress..

There's much more around us than we can perceive, science even proves that we have limited perspective of our surroundings. So, it seems logical to me that the paranormal is actually normal.

[BackToBasics]

Point taken Sal-A..maybe 'alive' was the wrong word. Budgie was thinking more in terms of energy..maybe it was the wrong analogy for Budgie to use because he can't find the right words for it at the moment.

Anyway, does anybody have any other arguments for or against the paranormal? It'd be interesting to hear other peoples theories...

[TMM]

Originally Posted by BackToBasics

Anyway, does anybody have any other arguments for or against the paranormal? It'd be interesting to hear other peoples theories...

I don't think you can really argue for or against the paranormal in such broad terms, only specific examples of things that may be considered abnormal to our traditional worldview. Then again, with the concept of God and spirituality so ingrained in our cultural mentality (I'm not going to say collective unconscious, I'm not...), maybe we're more inclined to belief in these sorts of things without realising it, and the idea that everything is just as we perceive it is in fact the radical new one. I think it's reasonable that a lot of people instantly shoot down most claims of the paranormal, since there are so many ridiculous and clearly false stories out there. Of course, there are some that make a hell of a lot more sense, but these are sort of ruined by the vast quantity of people jumping on the bandwagon. It's sort of like the public view on drugs, I suppose. There are so many negative stories of heroin addicts and so forth - the only ones we hear about - that people automatically shoot down any positive stories they hear as delusions, the ramblings of a junkie or someone who's taken too many "hallucinogens" (god I hate that word).

That... went off on a bit of a tangent. Sorry if that makes absolutely no sense at all.

Originally Posted by augentir

I believe in aliens, too..I think it's a bit selfish to think that we are the ONLY ones in the ENTIRE universe. Sure we seem to be alone (as far as "advanced civilizations" go) in our galaxy, or at least our solar system..which makes us think we're special, which leads on to beliefs of god (seems like a big game at times doesn't it?) and whatnot but I digress..

I'd agree with you there. I just don't believe that aliens have visited Earth.

[Broshious]

I don't know if I believe in the paranormal as it is commonly perceived (ghosts and such), but I'm nearly certain we do not have a complete scientific understanding of how the universe works so there are things that cannot be explained as of yet.

[bob_arctor]

Broshius position mirrors SWIM's. Seems like a more tangible outlook than ones based on ideas of morality (for example, believing humanity is alone in the universe is selfish).

[Kodi]

I think many reputable scientists would agree that we are not alone in the universe. Once one delves into string/m theory it becomes almost obvious that we are not alone in our existance, not neccissarily in our dimension, but one of the multiple existing dimensions.

Universes are constantly being created and destroyed everytime the planes vibrate against eachother


Its actually quite fascinating stuff that everyone should check out.

[Mona Lisa]

I can see an analogy to life in the seasons.