Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Ghosts, Time Travel, and Space / Inter-dimensional Neural Communication...

Messages
12,018
Location
East of Los Angeles
Most supernatural phenomena that I've read or heard about...or experienced...fall far short of being "communications". At best, they are encounters or sightings, and most are merely premonitions or feelings. After eons of human existence, it would seem that any entity trying to actually communicate with us would be doing a better job by now...
Your final statement here places the "failing" on the part of the entity in question. But what if such entities are able to communicate with us perfectly, but humankind isn't ready for that kind of confirmation, i.e. that what we call an "afterlife" does indeed exist? The vast majority of us humans can't even deal with cell phones responsibly; how do you think people would react if they suddenly had irrefutable evidence that life continues in some form after the body ceases to function? Would they react calmly and rationally, or would they become wreckless once they become aware that death is not the final consequence most humans believe it to be? In this case I think ignorance truly is bliss, and that fear of the unknown is what keeps most people on their best behavior so that they don't discover the answer to "the big question" prematurely.

Back to the main topic, I'm an agnostic. I've never seen a ghost, or a UFO, or a Sasquatch, so I can't definitively say they exist. But I could say the same for Australia because I've never seen that with my own eyes either. And yet, a lot of people insist Australia does exist, so I'm willing to be open-minded about it. And that's pretty much where I land on the issue of ghosts, UFOs, Sasquatches, time travel, parallel universes, and/or whatever other "paranormal" phenomena anyone can name--I haven't seen enough evidence to either confirm or deny their existence. As such, I couldn't possibly begin to explain how they could exist. But I'm willing to allow the possibility that they do exist until someone proves otherwise.
 

LuvMyMan

I’ll Lock Up.
Messages
4,558
Location
Michigan
Most supernatural phenomena that I've read or heard about...or experienced...fall far short of being "communications". At best, they are encounters or sightings, and most are merely premonitions or feelings. After eons of human existence, it would seem that any entity trying to actually communicate with us would be doing a better job by now.

Just sayin'.

AF

UFO's may be just smart enough to only come by our Planet, observe us (like visiting the zoo) and keep right on going!

Other "ghostly" experiences may be factual much more than what we are willing to accept. Not sure where a non fictional book we had about 10 years ago, some in the medical profession had a message light bar, facing upward on the very top of a tall metal panel box that was in a surgical suite, (the top of the panel box was over 7 foot tall) would read off a variety of nonsense statements, such as "the buffalo are skating in pink". This was done after a number of patients stated they had an "out of body" event in which they claimed they floated above and all around the room, watching what was taking place to revive them, and some after having seen the tunnel of white light and those sorts of experiences. The MD that wrote the book made the claim that as of the time the book was written, more than one patient had described seeing some odd message about Buffalo's and another about the parakeet on a bicycle. Both message had been programmed into the light unit (with a number of other random but silly statements, thus a "control" model to compare the veracity of the patient with the experience that patient would describe. The information given also provided names and dates of these events in the operating room. True or not? From what I had read, seemed valid to me. I wish I could recall the book or even find it now.

Aside from others that may have experienced those hair on the back of the neck ordeals, the home we live in now, has had two previous owners pass away in the home. We had no clue about these facts until after we had made the purchase.

Many many times I would be standing in the kitchen area on the linoleum floor (separate from the rest of the kitchen area which has carpeting) and even with my Husband leaning against me for support for us to mutually cook and warm things up, we have had a motion/noise directly behind us on the floor, the same noise a bare foot would make it you walked hard on your heels and wanted to make such a noise! Our Dogs even bark when this has happened and our cats take off like lightning hit them! We turn to see nothing there but the noise and that you could feel it through the floor right into our feet. it is like someone is right there not even a foot behind you!

Needless to say after this happened a few times, we asked the sellers of the home did the owner's late husband pass away in this home? Yes. And he was not the only person to have lived in the home and pass away. A Ghostly experience? This has happened perhaps 5 or 6 times now. No pattern of time of day or night or anything else to indicate some source or cause. My Husband thinks maybe someone is missing the baking that his Wife did for him while he was still alive? So we gave him a nick name, "Twinkie"! HA! And oddly the woman that sold us this house just passed away December 5th. She was born in 1923. Her Husband had been gone for a while and she herself could not stay here by herself so she had moved into a facility. We rented and then purchased the home after being here a short while. And just like you hear in some movies or read in some books about experiences, we do not have any wild imaginations about any of this. We have had some other issues, things moved, stacked on the table, sitting outside the front porch items from the dresser (hairbrushes and a hand mirror) our shoes one time (several pair). We keep the doors bolt locked all time (you can only open from the inside) and have a very high end alarm system. These thing all took place within the past few years however have not happened any more and stopped about this past November, no more noise and no more anything being moved around.

Now I do have a 93 year old Mother living with us. She has a fairly bad case of dementia. Has super bad arthritis, and is not able to open the dead bolts of the doors on our home. Plus we have motion sensors in each room that connect to a panel box with a light and a "beeper" that is on my dresser in the bedroom. We also have "top locks" on each door to keep her from being able to get out if she was able to manage getting past the dead bolts. My Mother talks to people all the time in her room. Friends that have been dead since 1950 or before that date. My mother cannot open a jar, loaf of bread, and barely can do things for herself in the bathroom. Yeah she is on depends just in case. She is like a tape recorder. "it sure gets dark early"..."got anything you want me to do"...."if I go hungry, it is my own fault for not asking for more"...."we used to race to see who could eat the most corn on the cob"...."my Sister and I would hide in the ditch on the way to the dances when a car would drive by so we would be safe"..."I'd rather dance then eat"...."how old am I, Mother lived to be 94 and she went wacky then passed away, but she sure was lively"..... and My Mother says Thank you...even if SHE passes gas! HA!

Daniel and I have thought about my Mother and cannot see her at 4' 9'' being able to open the doors and move things about. She barely walks as it is, and cannot handle carrying anything. You almost have to put things in her hands for her to see them and feel them to know what they are. She is almost totally blind, and has to guess and feel her way around.

So, do things happen? We believe they do. Why, whom, how, are questions that we have no real answers for. Ghosts? Maybe. Seems that way to us. Yet nothing has happened lately and we actually are happy nothing further has taken place.
 

LuvMyMan

I’ll Lock Up.
Messages
4,558
Location
Michigan
As to some of how our brains/minds work. The "electrical program" aspect. It is said our brain is similar to a complex computer organic in nature. Who could know one way or another that part of what we have sort of like a computer program, could continue to work or function, perhaps travel outwards sort of like being connected to "wiFi" and remain after we are dead? Old Radio and Television transmissions are said to still exist in travel towards the outer reached of the Universe....

Oh now it makes sense why no one is going to spend too much time coming here to visit us from another world out there! Can you imagine someone viewing some of those older shows from our past? Those purple and blue suits that Lawrence Welk would wear may just frighten the bejeezus out of some cheerful spirit or space traveler! HA!
 

staggerwing

One of the Regulars
Messages
284
Location
Washington DC
To the original poster -

I never figured out how to quote other posts on this site. I did not intend for my comment about "lumping" these phenomena together as an insult or criticism of your title. I apologize if it came off that way. I'll go now.

Cheers,
Staggerwing
 

philosophygirl78

A-List Customer
Messages
445
Location
Aventura, Florida
So....are you suggesting that it's the same neural activity on our part that makes different folks see ghosts or ufos or bigfoots or whatever, and that this is indeed the same activity that would explain esp and related phenomena?
I am aware that the human mind is as mysterious and unexplored as the darkest depths of the oceans, or the farthest reaches of space, but that still doesn't make any of the things listed mutually exclusive.
I don't think the gent said there was no sense to your thread, I think he may have been choosing a different option to the ones offered. There's no shortage of folk who have absolute faith in the existence of aliens or alternate dimensions who will also unhesitatingly pooh-pooh the idea of ghosts or spirits or an afterlife. If there are aliens out there, who's to say they don't believe in god, or struggle with some of the same questions we do.

And happy birthday! Hope you enjoy this one and plenty more.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

No one has made mention of mutual exclusivity as far as I am concerned.... All I am stating is that without the dynamics of neural activity and behavior none of them would be possible. So not If x, then y, which yes, makes no sense... But rather, IF Not Z, then Not x and Not y etc...

And thank you for the birthday wish. ;)
 

philosophygirl78

A-List Customer
Messages
445
Location
Aventura, Florida
YOU think you had a bad week ! HAH !
wait til you get my age, sweetie !
28a3te0.jpg

Age is a number.... I don't feel what I am turning, *cough* 28... As I have for the last 11 years...
 

philosophygirl78

A-List Customer
Messages
445
Location
Aventura, Florida
For the sake of clarification.... The absence of Oxygenated blood to the Brain causes a cessation of Brain Neuron activity in X seconds...

That's a hard question to answer. The Short answer is both yes and no... Physics is still very young in understanding the core or nature of neural activity. We know it is real.. We know it happens, but we don't understand its origination or purpose or interaction with electrons lets say, which just recently proved that spooky science IS real. (This is not new age speculation but actual physics.). While what we observe as neural activity 'appears' to cease, there may be other dynamics that may 'carry' or 'affect' the energy and perhaps substance they hold.

There have been many positive strides towards proving the controversial 'concept' of a consciousness, and tests like this have made progress in proving there is such a thing: http://phys.org/news/2014-01-discovery-quantum-vibrations-microtubules-corroborates.html

This is getting very in depth though to complicated matters... I just thought it would be fun to explore the origin of where these phenomena might be created or originate from. ;)
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
NEWS FLASH - THIS JUST IN!

The Voyager space probe has been found by intelligent alien life. The probe contained images of human beings, our solar system and place in the Milky Way, and recordings of music including classical, jazz and even Chuck Berry.

We are receiving signals back and they're being decoded.

Wait, yes, WE HAVE IT! The first message from alien life!

It reads: SEND MORE CHUCK BERRY.




Saturday Night Live skit...
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,763
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
The laws of radio propagatiion would preclude that from being any ordinary AM radio broadcast -- the frequencies used in such transmission, whether longwave, standard broadcast, or shortwave, are all too low to penetrate the ionosphere.

Experimental television broadcasts started in the late twenties, but these were originally in the shortwave bands, so would likewise have not have been able to penetrate the ionosphere. So no Felix The Cat or Stooky Bill for the aliens.

Radio experiments using high frequency transmissions began in the mid thirties, and in the US a few standard broadcast stations were authorized to duplicate their programming via special transmissions on frequencies above 40mc. That's approximately the threshold at which signals can penetrate into space. So in all likelihood, the most remote aliens that could be monitoring us would be eighty light years away. I don't think we have to worry too much about the neighbors coming over and asking us to turn down the radio anytime soon.

The first such station to receive a license, by the way, was W1XPW of Meridien, Connecticut, which relayed the programming of station WDRC. WDRC was a CBS affiliate in 1936, and the highest profile personalities appearing on CBS at the time were Eddie Cantor, Joe Penner, and Arturo Toscannini. I can't imagine what they'll make of our culture from that.
 

Lean'n'mean

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,087
Location
Cloud-cuckoo-land
We expect aliens to be technologically advanced enough to receive & interpret our radio signals but are we advanced enough to receive theirs. As far as I know, we haven't yet received any recognizable signal from an extraterrestrial life form, so does that mean that aliens are too far away for their radio emissions to reach us or that they don't use radio signals since they are either too advanced to be using such an antiquated means of communication or that they are still at the amoeba stage in their development. There is a third possibility though, they have found a way to block all that freakin' noise pollution we insist on emittng to inform the universe just how great we are.....................life was so much quieter back in the neolithic, an alien could hear himself think !.:D
 

MikeKardec

One Too Many
Messages
1,157
Location
Los Angeles

Of course that's assuming aliens can "see" anything.

If you look back through the history of art a lot of what exists more than a couple of hundred years ago seems very poorly rendered, yet today it seems nearly every high school class has some kid in it who can knock out a nicely proportional, accurate to perspective, sketch of their classmates. Many of these kids never had an art class, they just have a gift. I have always wondered if that ability was simply absent in earlier centuries or if people have actually changed in the way they see each other and the world. An extreme example would be the way faces are presented in meso American reliefs ... was that simply the official style of public works carving for years and years or was it somehow the way people saw the world in that time and place? Or was it a combination of the two? We might look at it as a somewhat grotesque stylistic choice (though I consider it to be beautifully in character with other aspects of the culture), but are we making a mistake to call it a choice? There are few examples of other styles of presenting the world in the culture and these are as different as the differences between sculpture and painting.

So were there reasons why humans didn't need or choose a particularly good presentation of perspective and proportion before the Renaissance? I do not believe humans were physically incapable of representing it. I've often wondered if this wasn't some of the "experiment" of cubism, to see if a change in perception could be artificially introduced. I don't think it worked but I'm now wondering if the question was more legitimately historically based than I'd previously thought.

Even if human perception hasn't changed over the centuries (which I realize is pretty far out there), I wonder if "aliens" could even recognize us at all. We were completely blind to what is now "the largest living thing on earth," a honey fungus in Oregon, only a few years ago ... yet it was anything but invisible. One wonders if there aren't aliens all around us.
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Haha!! I would much prefer it be Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, but.... who knows? I am not sure what the real first radio or tv signal we sent out into space was, but what I do know is that we did send it, and chances are it has already reached several locations...

Not Hitler.
Aliens didn't care for his ideas.

It was Earhart.
First alien rescue.

A woman ahead of her time .

She's out there in space .

Challenging women & others that
nothing is impossible.

Amelia...if you can read this...

"You Rock Baby!" :D
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,082
Location
London, UK
Aliens / UFOs.... No direct experience, but I do conclude that they most likely exist, on the same basis as LIzzy and others: it's simply inconceivable that even by sheer random chance a universe of this size would only support one form of life. It would also appear logical that an EBE, being outsdie the frame of reference of an individual, could be processed as a "ghost".

Ghosts, now.... spirits........ call them what you will. Here I have some experience. I have been in a number of places (starting from being a small child, and in many different places in the world) where I have experienced a sense of distinct emotion, both good and bad. A sense of great warmth and piece in John Wesley's house in the room in which he died. An overpowering sense of hopelessnessand despair that almost knocked me on my back in a hut in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Similar experiences in otherwise unremarkable buildings, the history of which I did not know. Some of them I later found out a lot of bad juju had happened in - others I'll never know, but there it was. I firmly believe that humans (and animals - one of my experiences as a five year old child was in a house that had once, it turned out, belonged to a very disturbed butcher who used to kill his own livestock and keep the corpses in the lounge...) leave an echo behind. The quasi-science is this: energy is never destroyed, simply transformed into another form. If all our thoughts and emotions are organic, electronic impulses, is some of the energy given off in a manner which hangs around in the air, and can be 'felt'? Seems to make sense to me. I've definitely seen visual echoes of these things. In a very specific doorway in a house we used to live in, I used to regularly - just out of the corner of my eye - see a large, tabby cat run round the corner, between my legs, and into the room, where it disappeared. We never had such a cat in that house, nor encountered one otherwise. And yet... Last year, one Sunday morning, I saw one of the old boys in our church sitting where he always sat. I nodded at him, he nodded back. 'd had a late night the night before and was a bit tired, which is probably why it was only an hour later, on the way home, that I remembered he'd been dead for three months. Not sure what happened there - an echo, maybe?

Then there's the other thing.... the experiences I've had which very definitely involved.... an actual presence. One might have a rational explanation.

One night I was in Brussels. Sunday night, wet, early in the year. I'd slipped out of the hotel with directions to a bank machine so I'd have cah for a cab to Commission the following morning. About 10:30pm. I stepped onto the main drag that separates old and new Brussels. It as deserted. Nobody, but nobody out there. Must be two or three miles long, totally straight. It was errie, it was so quiet. I'd reached where I thought the bank should be, then looked back behind me - nothing - looked ahead - no bank. Then a voice behin me said - in English, though with a local accent - "Are you looking for somewhere?" Turned aroun - guy on a racing bicycle, all the lycra gear, helmet. I said "Yes, the aTM?" "Oh," he replied, "it's over there. " I thanked him, he said it was no trouble, and he rode off. I looked back in the direction he rode off in as I reached the other side of the road - no sign. Of course, he may have come out of a side road, and gone back into one, just exactly at the right time to be there to help me, but I've always wondered.

The other big experience.... between 2003 and 2007, my department at the university was located in Charterhouse Square (a few doors from Florin Court, an art deco apartment block which was used for the exterior shots of Poirot's block in the TV series) - apparently one of the most haunted areas of London. My office was on the third floor of a Georgian townhouse. I regularly worked late in the building. To begin with, there was always the lurking sense that there was... something... there that did not like that we were in its space. As time wore on, this presence felt more and more malevolent, to the extent where there was a real sense that it wished us ill will - and, it felt, me in particular. The stairs were very uneven, as in some old buildings, so you were more aware of your footing. There was a specific point on the second floor where I always felt a very strong sense that this presence wished to push me down the stairs, but couldn't quite get through. It was also very strong at the front door, as if it wanted either to catch me and do me harm before I left, or to force me out. I felt distinctly safe in my own office room, and as soon as I got out the front door, but in between, especially if I was the last one in the building - oh, my. There was an inner front door and an outer one - you had to use a key for both. That used to be quite nervewracking. Only once did I see something - out of the corner of my eye. A man, in a frock coat of some sort, a strong red colour, maybe terracota. Just out of the corner of my eye. There were many occasions on which I didn't turn around as I knew I might see something I really did not want to. There was a definite sense that if I spoke to or acknowledged it, I would somehow bring it through. When I was in my office, I often heard footsteps in the room above when I knew there was noone there. The really chillnig bit was.... this was one of those old houses where if you didn't deliberately walk very lightly, the windows in the room below would rattle as you stepped across its ceiling. I found that often enough with the PhD students who used the upstairs office. When I knew there was noone in, I heard the footsteps, but there was none of the movement. The night I thought I'd seen something, I'd put off leaving for quite some time, owing to the presence being particularly strong that evening. After that, it was about five months until we left, but I made sure I wasn't the last one in the building again. Som time later, a friend who had visited told me she'd (without us ever having discussed it) sensed the presence, and something human looking, male, had registered in her mind that it wanted to do me harm, at exaclty the point on the stairs where I sensed it wanting to push. We only discussed this first after I'd moved out. I later found that others who worked in the building had a sense of something unpleasant too. I still occasionally walk past it and shudder. Felt more daemonic than human. It could, of course, all be bobbin and coincidence. I am religious, and thus open to a spiritual explanation in a way that, perhaps others might not be, but jings, it was nasty. I never did enquire into the histroy of the building.


Does "the Force" count?


Potentially. The common element of pretty much all neopagan faiths still being practised today is that we are all seeking to return to the lifeforce from whence we came; many believe it possible that those 'in the force' can manifest out of that energy to appear to us, for good and ill. This is, of course, the basis of what Lucas ripped off for his Jedi doodahs.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,298
Messages
3,078,221
Members
54,244
Latest member
seeldoger47
Top