Proof Of Survival: Ed. Andrew Honigman
Jul. 29th, 2013 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloTwo reasons for believing people when they say they've had ghostly encounters:
1. Ghosts IRL are not very much like ghosts in fiction. If people were making things up you'd expect them to import fictional tropes: you know, sheeted spectres, blood-curdling laughter, all that Scooby stuff- and they don't.
2. There's a consistency about the reports. Ghosts have limited energy; they don't persist, they're accompanied by a drop in temperature, they can affect the physical environment- but not very much, they have an affinity with children, they can hack the telephone. There are things ghosts can do and things they can't. The evidence is anecdotal but it feels like a real phenomenon is being described.
And here's a third reason, of sorts: ghosts are common. When you deny their existence you're saying you think a very large proportion of your fellow humans- the people who say they've had ghostly encounters- are lying, delusional or stupid- and I'm just not that much of a cynic.
I've never seen a ghost but I've frequently brushed up against the odd. I don't have any difficulty believing the "reality" we inhabit is permeable.
1. Ghosts IRL are not very much like ghosts in fiction. If people were making things up you'd expect them to import fictional tropes: you know, sheeted spectres, blood-curdling laughter, all that Scooby stuff- and they don't.
2. There's a consistency about the reports. Ghosts have limited energy; they don't persist, they're accompanied by a drop in temperature, they can affect the physical environment- but not very much, they have an affinity with children, they can hack the telephone. There are things ghosts can do and things they can't. The evidence is anecdotal but it feels like a real phenomenon is being described.
And here's a third reason, of sorts: ghosts are common. When you deny their existence you're saying you think a very large proportion of your fellow humans- the people who say they've had ghostly encounters- are lying, delusional or stupid- and I'm just not that much of a cynic.
I've never seen a ghost but I've frequently brushed up against the odd. I don't have any difficulty believing the "reality" we inhabit is permeable.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-07-29 06:28 pm (UTC)I see nothing implausible about a multi-dimensional universe in which our reality co-exists with others. In a multidimensional universe things like ghosts and other paranormal phenomena are neither unlikely nor in need of being explained away. If our dimension is knocking up against other dimensions a certain amount of overlap and interpenetration is almost to be expected.
19th century science was powerfully materialistic and had problems with the paranormal. Modern science- so far as I can see- has none at all.