What’s wrong with me?

[ynot]

I’ve never seen a UFO. I've never seen Bigfoot or his cousins sasquatch, Yeti and Yowie. I’ve never heard voices or seen apparitions and nothing freaky has ever happened to me. Doesn’t god love me? I feel so alone. Maybe it’s not all about me after all.

[arthwollipot]

You're okay, ynot. I've never seen a UFO or a ghost either. Never had any kind of paranormal experience. I'm not even good at magic.

[-Fran-]

Me neither! Many of my friends have had weird experiences though, they claim, so I guess the paranormal, or the "higher powers", or the whatever just likes my friends better than me :(

[H3LL]

I feel your pain...as do others....

DHjxJFpjvkE

:D

.

[Thomas]

I have only experienced one thing that I couldn't explain. A small indoor palmtree was moving out of the blue, as if someone hit it, and no one else but me and my cat was in the flat at the time.. And we were both in a stoppage with eyes wide shut.. I immediately went looking for huge spiders and other bugs, which could've moved the tree, but found none.. Then looked for spider web to see if the cat or I had somehow moved the palmtree on a distance, and again, found none.. The cat kept looking at the palmtree for several hours both before and after the incident, I put him in the bathroom in the end becasue he wouldn't stop looking at that damn palmtree.. It still puzzles me what it was, and I strongly doubt that it was anything paranormal of sorts, it was just... strange.

No need to make up explanations when they're not plausible right? ..I have none for this particular scenario, but I have seen lots of UFOs that soon became IFOs, and ghosts that became shadows etc etc. ..Good ol' pareidolia.

[fishbait]

Skeptic Pitied (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27594)

FAYETTEVILLE, AR—Craig Schaffner, 46, a Fayetteville-area computer consultant, has earned the pity of friends and acquaintances for his tragic reluctance to embrace the unverifiable, sources reported Monday.

[-Fran-]

Skeptic Pitied (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27594)

It sort of neutralizes the intended satire, when people actually have opinions exactly like that. Funny none the less :)

[Cainkane1]

Rest assured if you ever do see something resembling a ghost, UFO, etc its something else. Bigfoot sightings are just bears.

[Ladewig]

I’ve never seen a UFO. I've never seen Bigfoot or his cousins sasquatch, Yeti and Yowie. I’ve never heard voices or seen apparitions and nothing freaky has ever happened to me. Doesn’t god love me? I feel so alone. Maybe it’s not all about me after all.


Haven't you learned anything in you time here? Obviously, all those things happened and you are repressing your memories - a good hypnotist can solve your problem.

[Ryan O'Dine]

I suspect that if a person is a ghost or paranormal phenomenon, every other paranormal phenomena would look normal to them.

[Jimcalagon]

I'm guessing that you've seen plenty of bigfoots - they were just invisible at the time. :rolleyes:

[fuelair]

Are you, by chance (or on purpose, I suppose) left-footed? That could explain a lot!!

[sgf8]

Thanks H3LL that video was great!

Susan

[Leftus]

Because you don't live in anyplace cool?

The reason you haven't seen a UFO or heard a ghost or whatnot is because you aren't looking for them. It's unlikely that you haven't heard voices that you didn't immediately know the source. Some people hear a voice in another room in an otherwise empty house and jump right to the "ghosts" answer and other people, such as yourself, look for the TV that got left on. Stop looking for voices travelling through ducts and you will start hearing ghosts.

[Belz...]

I’ve never seen a UFO. I've never seen Bigfoot or his cousins sasquatch, Yeti and Yowie. I’ve never heard voices or seen apparitions and nothing freaky has ever happened to me. Doesn’t god love me? I feel so alone. Maybe it’s not all about me after all.


I saw a UFO once.




And then I identified it.

[Alice Shortcake]

I saw a UFO once.




And then I identified it.

Spoilsport! ;)

[Hellbound]

I have a ghost story, myself.

But I identified it, also. Still a good story, though, because it illustrates perfectly a lot of the conceptual and logic errors that go into "proving" ghosts are real.

[Paulhoff]

I've seen tons of UFOs, not one so-called Flying Saucer.

Paul

:) :) :)

[ynot]

Gee thanks guys. I don’t feel quite so experientially challenged now. Good to know I’m not completely alone. It’s just that the believers all seem to have such interesting, exotic, romantic and mysterious lives that I always feel like I’m missing out. Perhaps instead of sceptics being called “Brights” we should be called “Dulls”. I was going to suggest a group like Non-Abductees Anonymous, but they’re obviously not really happy. They just think they’re happy. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to continue living with whatever comfort my delusion of being self-honest gives me. :boxedin:

[Hellbound]

ynot:

If you'd like, I'm sure we could get a group of people together to arrange a bigfoot or ghost hoax in your neighborhood.

Please choose your preference:
A. Ghost
B. Bigfoot
C. Lake Monster
D. Aliens Abduction
E. UFO
F. Chupacabra
G. Psychic Visions
H. Telepathy

You must, of course, recognize that fees may vary consderably between items.

:D

[ynot]

ynot:

If you'd like, I'm sure we could get a group of people together to arrange a bigfoot or ghost hoax in your neighborhood.

Please choose your preference:
A. Ghost
B. Bigfoot
C. Lake Monster
D. Aliens Abduction
E. UFO
F. Chupacabra
G. Psychic Visions
H. Telepathy

You must, of course, recognize that fees may vary consderably between items.

:D

Thanks, really appreciate your offer. Think I’ll just go to the movies. ;)

[-Fran-]

Gee thanks guys. I don’t feel quite so experientially challenged now. Good to know I’m not completely alone. It’s just that the believers all seem to have such interesting, exotic, romantic and mysterious lives that I always feel like I’m missing out. Perhaps instead of sceptics being called “Brights” we should be called “Dulls”.

Bah! That's all just a myth, I think, this notion that believers in all sorts of crap are happier, more comforted in life, and have more exciting lives. In my own experience, the woos I know of are, many of them, quite uncreative people with a lot of neurotic behaviours. The woo doesn't make them happy, they turn to woo because they are not happy.

Not that I haven't got my neurotic quirks, not that I haven't been really down in periods, and I don't claim to be successful or happy (at least not always) but that's sort of my point :) I don't think that there is, on average, any bigger difference in the over all quality of the lives of skeptics and in the quality of the lives of woos. We all have our problems, our hard stuff happening to us, our quirks and issues. Some of us are dull and some not - it's the human condition. The difference lies in that most skeptics see life for what it is... and most woos tries to fill up what they percieve as some sort of void with unsubstanciated nonsense. I much prefer to see life as it is, and since accepting reality does not mean I can't be imaginative, creative, artistic, romantic and so on - I'm not jealous of them at all :)

[Hellbound]

ynot:

We also offer our "Budget Bull" line, for the price-conscious experience:

A. Bigfoot photo/cast with backstory
B. Strange alien artifact/UFO photo with backstory
C. Lake monster photo with backstory
D. Miracle cure
E. Talking animal-audio and backstory

All purchases are shipped in plain brown packaging, and charges will appear on your bill as "THIS IS NOT A HOAX, INC.". We strive for discretion.

[Showmeproof]

Do not despair, I have never experienced something of the paranormal :( lol. I often wonder why some people experience ghostly sightings and I have never even exeperienced something remotely close to a ghost sighting or any other paranormal sightings.

[Brown]

I've seen lots of UFOs. Part of the fun is trying to identify them. Some of the best:

A B-2 bomber flying over Boston on the 4th of July. If you don't know that you're going to see such an aircraft, you might not recognize it when you first see it. Folks who saw prototype stealth aircraft can be excused for thinking they saw something strange (although they cannot be excused for lacking the integrity to admit that they mistook a terrestrial craft for an extraterrestrial one).
A migration of geese flying at night. I'd heard that geese and other large birds don't fly at night, but they do, at least some of the time. It's very weird-looking, especially when they fly over a well-lit area like a parking lot, which makes their bellies gleam.
A once-in-a-lifetime sundog (http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php?p=927430&postcount=10). Perhaps the most bizarre thing I'd ever seen in the sky.
An anti-abortion sign (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=26077), towed by a propeller-driven aircraft.
Low-hanging mist iluminated by a car's headlights. After seeing this, I started to realize how folks could mistake swamp gas or other vapors for solid, hovering objects.
A satellite in polar orbit.
A kite. Some kites are pretty strange looking.
An experimental prop-driven aircraft. Fortunately, I had heard Paul Harvey describe it before I actually saw it, or I might not know to this day what this thing was.
A high altitude balloon.
A blimp at night, the blimp illuminated from inside.
An aircraft with banner advertising on the underside of its wings.

[Spektator]

I saw a spectacular UFO toward sunset one evening, but it turned out to be a high-altitude balloon that released an instrument package which then parachuted down to earth. The newspaper carried the explanation the next day, but for a few moments there it sure looked like a mother ship releasing a small craft and then booking it out of there.

Once before my marriage, when I was young and footloose, I spent nineteen nights and twenty days on the Appalachian Trail (I'm ashamed to report that I covered not even two hundred miles). Actually, I spent fifteen nights out in the open, four under a roof because of horrible weather and a need for a hot shower and a soft bed. Anyway, I heard lots of weird noises. Once a guy and gal camped near me after dark and evidently didn't realize how close I was to them. They got, um, amorous. Very interesting sounds.

While I was hiking along, in North Carolina as best as I can recall, toward dusk I kept hearing an ungodly screeching sound that made the hair on the back of my neck stand right up. I might have been convinced it was a sasquatch, except that I finally saw the critter, perched up in a tree: a peacock! I yelled at him a little, and he screeched back at me a little. That was the first time I'd heard one, and I have no idea how it wound up there--an escapee from a farm, I suppose.

But the most disturbing noises I heard were grouse. They'd erupt right beside my feet and take to the air with a clatter of wings entirely out of proportion to their tiny size. They scared the bejabbers out of me more than once.

[Floyd312]

A migration of geese flying at night. I'd heard that geese and other large birds don't fly at night, but they do, at least some of the time. It's very weird-looking, especially when they fly over a well-lit area like a parking lot, which makes their bellies gleam.

My wife is from the Chicago area and we visit there a couple of times a year, typically in November and/or December. There are lots of geese and I tend to notice them since we do not see them very often in Texas. They are pretty cool to watch flying over and their honking is very distinctive.

I remember one of the first times I was up there we had gone out to dinner. It was after dark and as we were walking across the restaurant parking lot I glanced up and was momentarily startled by a very weird site. I had never seen anything like it. Definitely UFOs. Then a second later came the honking and I immediately realized that it was a flock of geese with their bellies lit by the parking lot lights. The UFOs had become IFOs.

[contra]

When I was young (4 or 5) I lived a stones throw from Stirling Castle; and one night I recall looking outside and seeing a ghost like person standing on the edge of the castle.

Now obviously my memory of back then is a little odd, and I told the story to my parents and other people.

Interestingly my parents were going through a divorce at the time and I remember them both sitting there watching me telling them about what I saw.

So in case i'm not clear, I don't think I saw anything, I just wanted attention andmy parents to get on.

[fls]

I’ve never seen a UFO. I've never seen Bigfoot or his cousins sasquatch, Yeti and Yowie. I’ve never heard voices or seen apparitions and nothing freaky has ever happened to me. Doesn’t god love me? I feel so alone. Maybe it’s not all about me after all.


I bet some of the same things have happened to you. You just haven't attached a freaky interpretation to the event. You've never caught movement out of the corner of your eye when no one was there? Heard a noise you couldn't immediately place? Had a dream that was somewhat different in nature from your usual dream?

The problem is that once your eyes have been opened, you can't go back to seeing these things as freaky. Who here was able to see that gas station video as anything other than something crawling on the lens?

Linda

[Floyd312]

To ynot, lol, I have never encountered anything paranormal either. And I remember, as a kid, sometimes wondering if there was something wrong with me since some of my family members seemed to encounter weird things and I never did. But I think it can be explained by the following example.

Once while in the car my dad suddenly pointed out the windshield and exclaimed "Woah! What is that!?". The ensuing conversation went something like this:

Dad: "Woah! What is that!?"

Me: "What?"

Dad (pointing): "That. It must be a UFO!"

Me: "I still don't see it. Where is it in relation to that airplane?"

Dad: "What airplane?"

Me (pointing): "That airplane. It's the brightest light in the sky. Right there."

Dad: "That's the UFO. It can't be an airplane. It's not moving.

I proceeded to explain that we are due south of DFW airport (one of the busiest airports in the world) and that we are actually due south of the runways. The planes are landing to the south. Their landing lights are very bright and can be seen from a great distance. Planes do not appear to move when their heading is directly toward or away from your point of view, etc.

The point is, that upon seeing the same thing my dad immediately thought "UFO" and I immediately thought "airplane". I tend to think that is why he has seen more "phenomena" than I have.

On another note, our conversation reminds me of the scene in Holy Grail where the knights encounter the "beast of Caerbannog":

TIM: There he is!
ARTHUR: Where?
TIM: There!
ARTHUR: What, behind the rabbit?
TIM: It is the rabbit.
ARTHUR: You silly sod!

[arthwollipot]

I bet some of the same things have happened to you. You just haven't attached a freaky interpretation to the event. You've never caught movement out of the corner of your eye when no one was there? Heard a noise you couldn't immediately place? Had a dream that was somewhat different in nature from your usual dream?

The problem is that once your eyes have been opened, you can't go back to seeing these things as freaky. Who here was able to see that gas station video as anything other than something crawling on the lens?

Linda

You're absolutely right. I expect that I've encountered a lot of things that a credophile would put down to the paranormal. I just don't jump to the conclusion that simply because something is unexplained doesn't mean that it's unexplainable.

[kittynh]

use drugs. It would help with the auditory and visual hallucinations.

[ynot]

I bet some of the same things have happened to you. You just haven't attached a freaky interpretation to the event. You've never caught movement out of the corner of your eye when no one was there? Heard a noise you couldn't immediately place? Had a dream that was somewhat different in nature from your usual dream?

The problem is that once your eyes have been opened, you can't go back to seeing these things as freaky. Who here was able to see that gas station video as anything other than something crawling on the lens?

Linda
Well ”nailed” fls you win the prize. I hope everyone realises this is a “tongue in cheek” thread. One of my eariliest memories of my scepticism was when I was around 4. I was definitely preschool. I had a bad dream that the big bad wolf was chasing me and I woke up in fright. I reasoned that there were no wolves where I live (let alone big bad ones) and that the dream was silly. The big bad wolf hasn’t featured in my dreams since. Now how to get rid of all the other demons. ;)

[-Fran-]

I hope everyone realises this is a “tongue in cheek” thread.

I wasn't all that sure, to be honest, of one of your comments further down :) I have seen skeptics actually having been genuinely jealous of woos for one thing only - that they seem to get comfort from their delusions. Thus my little rant above :o

[my_wan]

I’ve never seen a UFO. I've never seen Bigfoot or his cousins sasquatch, Yeti and Yowie. I’ve never heard voices or seen apparitions and nothing freaky has ever happened to me. Doesn’t god love me? I feel so alone. Maybe it’s not all about me after all.


It's no fun from my perspective either. Just think of seeing two UFOs and still not having any evidence, even to satisfy yourself. Then there's that time I went on board a UFO. There was a room full of people chanting a single tone I didn't understand. When I started looking around the room for clues about what was going on a (hostess?) came over and took me by the arm. After leading me to a chair she sit me down. It sounded like someone turning a radio dial fairly fast and I woke up. Dangit! Cheated again!! I was there and still got rejected!!!

[ynot]

It's no fun from my perspective either. Just think of seeing two UFOs and still not having any evidence, even to satisfy yourself. Then there's that time I went on board a UFO. There was a room full of people chanting a single tone I didn't understand. When I started looking around the room for clues about what was going on a (hostess?) came over and took me by the arm. After leading me to a chair she sit me down. It sounded like someone turning a radio dial fairly fast and I woke up. Dangit! Cheated again!! I was there and still got rejected!!!
Same thing happens to me with sexual dreams :(

[manofthesea]

I’ve never seen a UFO. I've never seen Bigfoot or his cousins sasquatch, Yeti and Yowie. I’ve never heard voices or seen apparitions and nothing freaky has ever happened to me. Doesn’t god love me? I feel so alone. Maybe it’s not all about me after all.


E nana i ka moa.

[ynot]

E nana i ka moa.
That's easy for you to say!

[my_wan]

Same thing happens to me with sexual dreams :(
Now I feel better :blush:

[DRBUZZ0]

I’ve never seen a UFO. I've never seen Bigfoot or his cousins sasquatch, Yeti and Yowie. I’ve never heard voices or seen apparitions and nothing freaky has ever happened to me. Doesn’t god love me? I feel so alone. Maybe it’s not all about me after all.


Well, my first concern would be the lack of hearing voices. You never have heard voices? Does this include when people are speaking to you? You probably want to have your hearing checked out. Generally hearing voices is not difficult as long as the other person is speaking loud enough.

You've never seen a UFO? That's odd. Just look at the sky more. Look especially low on the horizon. What you want to look for is some distant light or tiny dot. It works well at night. Just make sure it's too faint and small to identify. If you can tell that it's flying but can't make out if it's a plane and if so what kind, a helicopter, maybe even a balloon or a blimp or even a plastic bag blowing in the wind or a bird... Well there's your UFO... unidentified, flying and presumably an object.

If you want to find a bigfoot, try hanging out in the shoe section of a "Big and Tall" kind of shop. One will likely come along.

[ynot]

Well, my first concern would be the lack of hearing voices. You never have heard voices? Does this include when people are speaking to you? You probably want to have your hearing checked out. Generally hearing voices is not difficult as long as the other person is speaking loud enough.

You've never seen a UFO? That's odd. Just look at the sky more. Look especially low on the horizon. What you want to look for is some distant light or tiny dot. It works well at night. Just make sure it's too faint and small to identify. If you can tell that it's flying but can't make out if it's a plane and if so what kind, a helicopter, maybe even a balloon or a blimp or even a plastic bag blowing in the wind or a bird... Well there's your UFO... unidentified, flying and presumably an object.

If you want to find a bigfoot, try hanging out in the shoe section of a "Big and Tall" kind of shop. One will likely come along.
Very sorry - Forgot to mention that I’m deaf, dumb and blind. Do you think that this may have something to do with my problem?

[TjW]

Very sorry - Forgot to mention that I’m deaf, dumb and blind. Do you think that this may have something to do with my problem?

I don't know. Have you considered pinball as a hobby?