I am not sure whether I should post this on psychology board or here, but as it is relevant with paranormal issues, I think that is the proper board;
mods will move it if it's inappropriate.
For some time now I've been researching the phenomena of paranormal both in theory and in practice. The critical and skeptic mind often dismisses the
whole phenomena as unreal, even non-existent. But who is to say that what happens in human mind is not real? Thoughts have been the
prima causa
of the human action since the dawn of the intelligence and capability to think. Most projects are thought before they are executed; this is valid also
to our daily actions for we tend to plan our next move, some more, other's less.
My own experience regarding the paranormal is limited. I've been on the places which are said to be haunted, yet I've failed in catching such
experience that would have convinced me of the reality of the phenomena. I am not that skeptical that my skeptism would object me of observing the
matter; I am not denying the phenomena
a priori.
But as a empiricist, I cannot lay my trust on second hand testimonials, i.e the tales and experiences of other people, but I must have the experience
myself to be able to judge it in a way or another. So, for some time now I've been doing mental excercises, mainly visualizing, meditating and that
kind of stuff with the motivation that I would "clense" my mind enough to be able to experience these things. I am unsure whether I've been
successful, but I can tell you that the rate of nightly dreams have increased and their quality somewhat altered compared to what I use to have.
I have been able to produce few phenomenas that might fit the category at hand. For example, I heard the birthdate of my brother's children many
months before he was born, and he was born 3 weeks early, so I cannot really contribute that to a lucky guess. All in all, I have been able to produce
few experiences, that might be categorized as 'clairaudience', but I have been unable to attain visions or see spirits.
I am that much mundane person however, that I don't contribute these events to anything un- or supernatural, but consider them to be perfectly
natural. In my cases of clairaudience, I concluded that my subconsciouss has been able to pick up the weak signals - signals that normally won't
exceed the consciouss level of sensory observance - and then, through meditation I have been able to extract from the subconsciousness:
In sciences that focuses on neuropsychology and -physiology, itis suggested that human sensory organs (eyes, ears, skin, nose and mouth) are
capable of receiving very delicate information; about eyes, it has been suggested that it is capable of perceiving a change in a single photon.
(source)
In a moments of deep concentration (like meditation and focusing) or perhaps dreaming - which is said to be the condition, where subconscious
organizes daily events in it's preferable order - then these weak signals can surface into the consciousness; perhaps it can happen in form of mental
realization or even in a form of vivid images, visions. Also, from personal experience I can tell it can happen as clairaudience.
(source)
And in the end, I'd like to paste here an excerpt from
Psychological Types by C.G. Jung:
Among primitives, for instance, the imago, the psychic reverberation of the sense-perception, is so strong and so sensurously coloured that when
it is reproduced as a spontaneous memory-image it sometimes even has the quality of an hallucination. Thus when the memory-image of his dead mother
suddenly reappears to a primitive, it is as if it were hes ghost that he sees and hears. We only "think" of the dead, but the primitive actually
perceives them because of the extraordinary sensuousness of his mental images. This explains the primitive's belief in ghosts and spirits; they are
what we quite simply call "thoughts". When the primitive "thinks", he literally has visions, whose reality is so great that he constantly mistakes
the psychic for the real. Powell says: "The confusion of confusions is that universal habit of savagery - the confusion of the objective with the
subjective." Spencer and Gillen observe: "What a savage experiences during a dream is just as real to him as what he sees when he is awake." What I
myself have seen of the psychology of the Negro completely endorses these findings. From this basic fact of the psychic realism and autonomy of the
image vis-à-vis the autonomy of the sense-perception springs the belief in spirits, and not from any need of explanation on the part of the
primitive, which is merely imputed to him by Europeans. For the primitive, thought is visionary and auditory, hence it also has the character of
revelation. Thus the sorcerer, the visionary, is always the thinker of the tribe, who brings about the manifestation of the spirits and gods. This
also explains the magical effect of thought; it is as good as the deed, just because it is real. (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, part 6)
So, in my opinion all above explains a small part of paranormal phenomenas in quite natural way. They are based on thought and are much dependant on
the subjects ability to
imagine. My only hope is, that this will at least slightly open the veil of mysteries for someone.
-v
