Critical Thinking and The Paranormal

reply to post by Morgenstern89
When you join an entity you start to think like the entity. To me an entity is any organization, work, church, scientific community, unions, even clubs or gangs. By giving faith to these things it appears that a communication link is created. If the entity is corrupt you will most likely become corrupted and if the entity is good you join in their perception of good. If the perception of a strong confident member is adopted the whole entity changes.

I understand this concept well. People of a kind also think together and this genetic bond can be stronger than any organizational bond. This is evident in the shootings in the base in Texas by the guy who didn't want to fight his kind. If there is no direct challenge to members of our kind the Entity bond can be strong.

This "thinking as one" conditioning that we adopt to feel a sense of belonging is not bad but people should understand that it effects their perception of things. When someone loses their job they become distraught from breaking the bond or communication link. Many times the person breaks this bond themselves from guilt. Those who do not join into the link have a harder time working as one within the workplace or organization. There has been much research on this communication throughout the last 70 years.

I don't know why I'm commenting on this because I fail to see relevance of this post to the thread. I'm possibly just trying to get you to understand his perception.

Yeah, I see what you mean, but I'm not suggesting some kind of group think, just thinking for ones self, and putting forth objective information and ideas. If anything, being open and objective will help to break the group think that tends to damage the credibility of a certain topics, so I wasn't quite sure what he took issue with.

reply to post by Morgenstern89


I don't think we, as human society, are ready to "study" any particular areas of "the paranormal".
To dismiss someone's purported experience as fabrication or lie is to exalt oneself above the other - whether by "intelligence", "credentials" or simple "belief system".
The fault in such tales (as has already been pointed out) is more often a product of the "experiencer's" interpretation/perception - which, most often, is a product of their belief system.
If their belief system is based in some scientifically-based doctrine...the interpretation will generally fall within the context of mental or psychological instability/problems.
If their belief system is based in Christianity or other Omnipotent/Omnipresent/Omniscient God...the interpretation will side toward either good or evil (or some mixing of the two).
If their belief system is based in other religious paradigms, the interpretations will go in whatever direction/s the fundamentals of those systems dictate.
If it were possible to erase the biases from the tales and their interpretations, as has been stated already, one might be able to "study" the phenomenon/phenomena with some objectivity.
So - to form a group of scientists to study any one or number of paranormalities...would almost require that said group be built from the ground up (meaning - from infancy through the various stages of schooling - they would need to be shielded from all of the "this is how it is's" that comprise the manifold belief systems (including scientific) everyone-else is a slave to).
Nonetheless - we are where we are (as humans), and can only attempt to hold all such judgments (biases) in check when considering the experiences (paranormal or otherwise) of others...and hope that in so doing, we will eventually amass enough untainted data in our mental repositories, to sift through and through...and find some nuggets of truth/reality (if that is even possible)…which, in the end, might be nothing more than – “this is a magical universe!”.
Thanks for the OP (and the responses).

Originally posted by Morgenstern89

Because the paranormal community (what would you have me call it?) largely depends on people coming together and sharing their knowledge and experiences, it would seem reasonable that those who are interested would want to phase out that kind of flawed logic.

Which side of the paranormal community? the side looking for facts and potential answers or the side which wants to make a fast buck on bullsh$t?

Critical thinking is vital to the paranormal researcher. Without it they would accept blindly every bump and knock as supernatural.

Early on in my own development, I came straight from a scientific aspect, with one difference, I had already experienced ESP as a child, so I did not have the doubt that someone has who has not experienced it, but that did not mean I went blindly accepting everything someone said or did.

I went for personal experience, if I could experience it, I would. After the experiences I ripped them apart to figure out how and why it happened the way it did. I have come to my own conclusions on a lot of subjects, but come more from the realm of the studied than the studier.

Kind of like why a psychiatrist becomes a psychiatrist, to understand their own mind and what it is capable of.

I think research into ghosts and residual haunting is a great place to start because that will lead to the most tangible evidence in the future. There is already a lot being done in the field even though it is very young. As people are discovering now, spirits do leave a signature of some kind, be it EMFs or whatever, because they ARE there and do interact, there has to be a way to prove it in science.

As the equipment gets more specialized and sensitive, the more the evidence will pile up.

Originally posted by Darkblade71

I think research into ghosts and residual haunting is a great place to start because that will lead to the most tangible evidence in the future. There is already a lot being done in the field even though it is very young. As people are discovering now, spirits do leave a signature of some kind, be it EMFs or whatever, because they ARE there and do interact, there has to be a way to prove it in science.

As the equipment gets more specialized and sensitive, the more the evidence will pile up.

Not if our science isn't applicable to their environment.

Telepathy has been proven? Aliens exist? Where have I been?


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reply to post by raggin


That is true too.

it could be something that just cannot be measured at this point because we just are not technologically "advanced" enough.

But we will never know if we don't try.
You have to start somewhere and some spirits are very interactive so I think sooner or later we will figure out some way to measure some sort of energy signature. At least that is my hope for the science community.

reply to post by VekTorVik


As far as I know, nothing has been proven as of yet.

Seems it would be BIG news it something was.

Originally posted by Darkblade71
reply to post by raggin

 

That is true too.

it could be something that just cannot be measured at this point because we just are not technologically "advanced" enough.

But we will never know if we don't try.
You have to start somewhere and some spirits are very interactive so I think sooner or later we will figure out some way to measure some sort of energy signature. At least that is my hope for the science community.

we've seen the ghost shows, turn off/on flashlights, make sounds, open doors, shadow figs, etc etc etc. There is some kind of intermittent interaction that is there. Repeatability seems to be a problem. Science likes repeatability on demand.

And there's enough of a ciomunication gap that these spirits can't teach us, or they don't know themselves. Dunno. It's a mystery. No offense but the TV shows with their cheap cameras and EMF meters and lack of multiple devices for each haunted room and everything aint gonna cut it. There a joke but its all we have commercially.

I like the tv shows, but they are much different from what I have experienced with spirits. But then, I have never tried ghost hunting. Well, Once I did, long ago, when a friend said there was something that pushed them in their house, but when I went, I couldn't sense anything. That doesn't mean there was nothing there, it just means that either I was not sensitive enough to detect it, or it did not want me to know it was there.
Or,maybe that nothing was there at all.

So it was a failed ghost hunt.


I have always wondered if now, knowing what I know, what would happen if I walked into a haunted place.
I hope some day to put that to the test