''Weird'' experiences.

[Pae]

Most people I talk to have at least one ''weird'' story. They have some ''experience'' with something that seems to go against logic and reason. For instance, you may have heard someone say something along these lines: ''One night, I had a dream where my father was killed in an auto accident. In the dream, a red corvette hit my father's car head first and killed him instantly. When I awoke the next morning, I recieved a phone call informing me that my father had died last night in an auto accident. The car that hit him was a red corvette.'' How many of you have heard similar claims from people? Does anyone know exactly why so many people seem to have these type of stories? Lies? Tall-tales? Perhaps they exaggerate these claims to make them sound more substantial than they are? I know I've exaggerated the truth when telling stories to make them seem more sad, ironic or funny. Is the same principle being applied?

Also, I would like to ask if any JREF members have had ''weird'' experiences themselves.

Assuming that some of these stories are true, what does it prove other than the fact that science has yet to uncover all the laws and systems of nature? Although I am skeptical of stories like these, I see no reason why they must be ''paranormal'' or ''divine''.

Anyway, what do you think?

[Pae]

Crap....

Sorry mods, I have a horrible habit of posting in the wrong forum. This may be best suited for the Skepticism forum.

Your call.....

[Marquis de Carabas]

First, most such stories Ive heard aren't nearly that specific. I would strongly suspect stretching (or, perhaps misremembering) of details in such cases.

Also, consider how many people dream each night, how relatively common it is to dream of a loved one's death, and how many people die every day (about 7000 in the USA, btw). It's bound to happen rather a lot.

As for my weird story, which has nothing to do with coincidence, but it is weird...

When I was about 16 or 17, I crashed at a friend's house with a number of other people. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a shadowy humanoid figure rise up from where my friend was sleeping, turn its head to look at me, and then walk across the room and through the door into the hall.

I chalk it up to having just woken up, an open window in front of a huge many-limbed oak, a moonlit night, and the presence of certain chemicals of questionable legality in my bloodstream. Still, it was a bit freaky.

[Pae]

First, most such stories Ive heard aren't nearly that specific. I would strongly suspect stretching (or, perhaps misremembering) of details in such cases.

You're right. A lot of the stories aren't as specific as the example I used. We must always suspect stretching. Sometimes, it's not intentional and not the person's fault, it's just the way we (humans) behave.

Also, consider how many people dream each night, how relatively common it is to dream of a loved one's death, and how many people die every day (about 7000 in the USA, btw). It's bound to happen rather a lot.

True.

As for my weird story, which has nothing to do with coincidence, but it is weird...

When I was about 16 or 17, I crashed at a friend's house with a number of other people. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a shadowy humanoid figure rise up from where my friend was sleeping, turn its head to look at me, and then walk across the room and through the door into the hall.

Oh yeah. I've had countless experiences like this. Sometimes I will be lying wide awake and suddenly my mind will slip into another ''state'' and I will see all kinds of ''dark'' faces. Never considered it paranormal. Just another aspect of brain function.

I chalk it up to having just woken up, an open window in front of a huge many-limbed oak, a moonlit night, and the presence of certain chemicals of questionable legality in my bloodstream. Still, it was a bit freaky.

:D

[Marquis de Carabas]

You're right. A lot of the stories aren't as specific as the example I used. We must always suspect stretching. Sometimes, it's not intentional and not the person's fault, it's just the way we (humans) behave.



True.
Richard Dawkins's Unweaving the Rainbow has a chapter or two on such things, including using some armchair reckoning to get an idea of the probabilities involved.

I'll take a stab at it myself, just for fun.

Say 1 in 1000 dreams are of a loved one's death and 1 in 10 dreams are recalled with reasonable clarity (conservative estimates, I think). So, we have a 1 in 10,000 chance of having a remembered dream of a relative's death.

Go back to the 7,000 dead in the US per day. Say they average 10 people who count them as a loved one (again, I feel a conservative estimate). We have 70,000 loved ones. Our coincidence, with these estimates, should occur to seven people in the United States every day. That adds up over time.

Of course, these numbers were just pulled out of my arse, and prove nothing, but should at least give one the feel for how to think about such coincidences.

[Mr Clingford]

Here is one of mine:

I was in a prayer group of about 5 or 6 people and people prayed out loud on various subjects. At that time I was more able, I would have to provisionally say, to 'hear' some words that God wanted to be prayed (Yeah, I know it sounds very woo, but bear with me). When this bloke started praying out loud the exact same words came into my mind at the moment he said them; it was as though I thought the words and he spoke them. I think he spoke only a few sentences at the most but I found it quite striking. I have not experienced anything like it before or since. This is why I wonder a bit about science not having discovered stuff because maybe there is no God and our minds were somehow in sync?

I have considered various questions about this and answered them as best I can. No, I didn't hear the words and then think I thought them at the same time. Yes, it is possible that it is just an amazing coincidence that we were thinking exactly the same sentences at exactly the same time in exactly the same order. I have found this to be an interesting phenomenon because it not just one that occured solely in my own mind because it involved the other bloke too. In addition I didn't know the bloke so I had no knowledge of his previous thoughts and speech patterns.

[Squishua]

I would like to ask if any JREF members have had ''weird'' experiences themselves.

Ok, here's one. The earliest one I can remember.

Back when I was nine or ten years old, a friend and I were hanging out the outdoor "strip mall" where Kings Drug Store is (or was, it may be gone now) in Layton, Utah. It's a big parking lot with many storefronts all having a common sidewalk.

We were accompanying my mom, who had gone to the Montgomery Wards service center to get a vacuum repaired, and were walking from one end of the strip to the other. We weren't wearing shoes and quickly discovered the asphault was blisteringly hot to our bare feet, so we stayed on the cement sidewalk that was, at least partially, shaded by an overhang.

When we began walking back, we weren't sure how far it was to Montogmery Wards or where it was along the strip. All we both remembered was there were some rotortillers on the sidewalk in front of it.

We walked along the sidewalk, looking into all the shops on our right as we walked and talked about whatever ten-year-olds talk about, when we realized we were at the end of the strip.

Somehow, we had missed Wards and the rotortillers. We turned around and not five feet behind us was about eight or nine big rotortillers. They completely blocked the sidewalk and we had to really climb through them to avoid stepping on the boiling hot asphault.

How the hell did we miss them? From where we were, we would have just walked through or around them moments before. We did not climb over the rotortillers nor did we walk around them on the hot asphault. I should qualify that his is what we both remember because there seems to be no way for it to have actually happened.

Two boring, but not impossible, explanations present themselves:

1. We were so distracted with whatever (incedentally, we both had ADHD, according to the Dr. anyway, and were medicated accordingly) that we climbed through the rotortillers completely absent-mindedly and neither of us remembered doing it.

2. We hot-footed it around the tillers, stepping onto black asphault that was so hot it was gooey, and, likewise, did not remember doing so.

(I have to admit that part of me wants to believe something more fun)

There are a few other stories too. Much stranger than the above.

Assuming that some of these stories are true, what does it prove other than the fact that science has yet to uncover all the laws and systems of nature?
I think it's evidence of the magic of the thinking mind. ;)

-Squish

[Pae]

Interesting replies so far. Making me question this type of phenomenon even more.

I often wonder if ''woo'' like telepathy or whatever could possibly exist in some form. Perhaps our brains can communicate information via other mediums other than our usual senses? Then, since they don't understand it yet, the masses classify it as supernatural and start making a ******** of unfounded assumptions about the phenomenon. I'm open to the possibility, but I need evidence to believe it.

[SamanthaMc]

Okay, I have a good one.

When I was a senior in high school, I worked at Baskin Robbins. One night, I was having a perfectly normal dream in which I was working, doling out ice cream cones, etc. Then, in my dream, I see these white fluffy clouds and through them burst two guys, one with a gun, and they rob me.

Less than a week later, I was at work, and in walk two guys with a gun, and they rob me.

The gun didn't scare me; the fact that I had dreamed it before it happened did. I was seriously freaked out. My dream wouldn't have had the impact on me that it did if it weren't for the clouds. It was if I was just minding my own business, dreaming as usual, and I was imposed upon.

The dream was so powerful that I mentioned it to a friend of mine before I was robbed. He was fairly astonished when the dream "came true."

The robbers in my dream did not order ice cream after they robbed me. In real life, however, they did. Maple walnut. Darned buttheads.

[Dark Jaguar]

Unfortunately I have no weird stories... Not a one... I WANTED a weird story I couldn't explain, but nothing all that unusual has ever happened to me.

Okay, well one time I was riding along and this truck in front of us had a dead horse in it. I mean, a dead HORSE! Upside down, flies showing up every single time it stopped. The bed of the truck was actually "open", so a single bad bump and that thing would have hit the road. Imagine! Not the part where we would have to somehow avoid the thing to avoid a very disgusting accident, but after that, when we are both long gone and the NEXT person on the road finds this mammal just sitting right there in the middle of a downtown road, only they have no explanation at all as to how it got there.

With THAT being the strangest story that comes to mind, you can all pity me now.

[Dogdoctor]

I had a weird experience which I haven't really been able to explain. I knew this girl I liked and she invited me to a party which I blew off due money making activities I was involved in. She was so mad at me that she screwed my friends at the party. Then later I was depressed and went on an outdoor hike booze out party where we hiked to a waterfall and got drunk going and coming. Anyway because I was depressed I drank really a lot of booze and could barely walk and was tripping and falling down. Everyone was laughing at me so I climbed a tree and my friends were trying to talk me down so I said I am not coming down till someone else gets drunk and takes over being a fool for me. One of my friends said he would and he was sober but he grabbed a bottle of beer and chugged it. Then he said "There you go" and proceeded to fall down apparently drunk (normally he could drink several beers without being noticeably drunk). I was suddenly overcome by a feeling of sobriety and clear headedness. I climbed down and was able to move around with my usual cat like agility and my friend apparently became a fall down drunk. I haven't really been able to explain it other than the power of suggestion.

[latent aaaack]

My weird story is that everyone I know and strangers often assume I'm on drugs based completely on non-verbal cues. Police officers also quickly come to the conclusion that I'm on drugs and am suspicious, presumably based on their lengthy experience with intoxicated people. Ironically I've never been intoxicated so an abnormal brain process must be at work.