Mod+ Members Discuss Their Personal Paranormal Experiences

This thread is the first part of an initiative by several Skeptiko members to soon have a separate forum created with a focus on our own personal paranormal encounters, where we can discuss our experiences and incorporate those tales, threads from other forums, and outside research into setting up experiments to create new experiences.

The premise behind the initiative is simple: for many of us, third-party reports of paranormal encounters (e.g. NDEs, telepathy, mediumship, UFOs, etc.) are nice; secondhand accounts are great; but personal experience trumps them all. So, we can run in circles with others engaging in battles of pride, or we can bypass all that and jump into the rabbit hole. Additionally, listening to the happenings of others can bring us closer together as members, provide new perspectives on other threads and forums, and inspire new threads for discussion in the other forums.

Remember folks, people of all kinds are going to post on here; however outlandish the tales might appear to us, they happened to them. So treat the experiencee with the same respect (or better) which you'd like to be treated.

I'll start with an experience of my own:

A couple of weeks after a friend and coworker of mine had committed suicide, I was driving on the highway when this red truck pulled in front of me. Just above its fender on the left was a magnet for a car dealership, which had the same name as my friend. Now, my friend's name was not common, my research found it hadn't been in the top 300 US baby names since the late 1980s, and has only become less common as the years have gone on. In addition, I had never heard of this particular car dealership, and never saw mention of it before that day, or ever since. So for me, that was a synchronicity, though I don't know what the heck it was supposed to signify.

UPDATE
Credit to Trancestate and Saiko for coming up with the original idea.

2ND UPDATE
Notes for your convenience:
1) Readers are to base their responses on the assumption that what the experiencer states happened to them happened as they said.

2) Topics for posts on experiences can be paranormal, mystical, or any other sort of experience which best fits in a post-materialist worldview.
 
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This thread is the first part of an initiative by several Skeptiko members to soon have a separate forum created with a focus on our own personal paranormal encounters, where we can discuss our experiences and incorporate those tales, threads from other forums, and outside research into setting up experiments to create new experiences.

The premise behind the initiative is simple: for many of us, third-party reports of paranormal encounters (e.g. NDEs, telepathy, mediumship, UFOs, etc.) are nice; secondhand accounts are great; but personal experience trumps them all. So, we can run in circles with others engaging in battles of pride, or we can bypass all that and jump into the rabbit hole. Additionally, listening to the happenings of others can bring us closer together as members, provide new perspectives on other threads and forums, and inspire new threads for discussion in the other forums.

Remember folks, people of all kinds are going to post on here; however outlandish the tales might appear to us, they happened to them. So treat the experiencee with the same respect (or better) which you'd like to be treated.


I'll start with an experience of my own:

A couple of weeks after a friend and coworker of mine had committed suicide, I was driving on the highway when this red truck pulled in front of me. Just above its fender on the left was a magnet for a car dealership, which had the same name as my friend. Now, my friend's name was not common, my research found it hadn't been in the top 300 US baby names since the late 1980s, and has only become less common as the years have gone on. In addition, I had never heard of this particular car dealership, and never saw mention of it before that day, or ever since. So for me, that was a synchronicity, though I don't know what the heck it was supposed to signify.
wow... what a great idea... especially here at the Skeptiko forum where we can look at experience and research side by side. onward!
 
Ok. I'm a little loathe to confess this to anyone, but I've had a few. Since I'm mostly anonymous here, here goes:

About 14 years ago, my cousin and I were into going to raves. I loved it for the music (especially trance and drum and bass) but I have never done recreational drugs of any kind. My cousin had, but had not in a while at this time. In Park City, Utah, there is an old silver mine that they have turned into a museum. A rave was being held one Saturday at this museum and we were super excited to go. On our way out, my aunt kept asking if we were sure we wanted to go, and kept trying to get us to stay in with her and my uncle. But we were super excited to go so, we went.

Once we got there, I couldn't find my ID. You had to be over 18 to get in. I had it with me just moments before, but then couldn't find it. I tore my car apart and found it underneath the drivers side car mat. Which was kind of odd because this mat was held in place by two hooks, and it makes the mat hard to remove. But, we shrugged it off and headed for the entrance. We went to pay and they told us the cost was more than the cash we had brought with us (higher than the advertised ticket cost). So, my cousin went in to find some friends to give us the extra.

So finally, we're in. We kind of just walk around, checking it out. Its not long before both of us realise that something feels....off. We both felt like we were walking around in a bubble. It was like no one was seeing us. My cousin would have to literally touch her friends to get them to see her.

So, we start checking out some of the photographs that were part if the museum, and some of the exhibits. And the feeling just gets weirder and weirder until we both decided we should leave.

So, we were walking to my car, and this museum is kind of up in the mountains, and it was a beautiful night-warm, clear sky-and I look up at the tree lines to the sky and up at the stars and kind of "open myself up"so to speak to the beauty of my surroundings.

Then suddenly, my vision goes black and I'm am literally overwhelmed, physically and emotionally, by sadness, depression, devastation, fear, sorrow, every emotion connoting sadness and loss that you can think of. And I was getting flashes of faces in my mind of people in clothing of the time period the mine was functioning. I start falling to my knees. I hear my cousin. Ask if I'm ok and all I can get out is a whimper. So she grabs me and tells me, we need to get out of here, now. Her saying this brings me to enough to stagger to my car.

The whole way home, I refuse to look in my rear view mirror, and my cousin keeps turning around. So I asked her if she is seeing something, and she says no, but she feels like something is there.

We finally make it back to my aunt's house, and she is already up waiting for us. She says she knew we were on our way and that we would need her.

She was doing reiki and theta healing at the time so commences doing this for me. As she's doing it, I feel a sort of pulsing between us. She then asks me if I feel the pulsing energy between us. I am calm by this time but am left with confusion as to what the hell just happened. She told us she had had a bad feeling about that night and didn't want us to go. My cousin and I agreed that it seemed like something kept trying to stop us from going inside. Maybe they were just coincidences, maybe not. I'm not sure.

Some background here: my aunt is now, supposedly a full fledged medium. She does readings all the time now and also helps "clear" houses and such.
My cousin who was there with me started seeing apparitions in her early teens. I think she still does, but has better control over it.

I'm not sure if I believe them. I want to because they are my family and I see no reason for them to lie. Especially my cousin since her "ability" has been more of a curse than anything to her. But I also don't want to blind myself to what is or isn't true because I have an emotional tie to them.

There was more to this, and it doesn't translate well to a forum post. But to avoid an even longer wall of text, I've given the main points.

I still have no idea what that was that night.

I have a few others and will post later.
 
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This thread is the first part of an initiative by several Skeptiko members to soon have a separate forum created with a focus on our own personal paranormal encounters, where we can discuss our experiences and incorporate those tales, threads from other forums, and outside research into setting up experiments to create new experiences.

Is this initiative only for paranormal experiences or does it also include other types of mystical experiences such as altered states produced by meditation ? Given Alex's interest in the enlightenment movement I think people might want to discuss those types of experiences too. But I don't want to push you into it so just say what you really intended originally.
 
Is this initiative only for paranormal experiences or does it also include other types of mystical experiences such as altered states produced by meditation ? Given Alex's interest in the enlightenment movement I think people might want to discuss those types of experiences too. But I don't want to push you into it so just say what you really intended originally.

I can't speak for the others, but I was thinking of allowing any sort of experience that could best fit in a post-materialist worldview. Altered states, remote viewing, kundalini, encounters with light beings, energy healing, automatic writing, synchronicities, ADCs-- everything ranging from nuts-and-bolts experiences to the outer fringes of the New Age movement. If the member feels it's worth sharing and going into, that's what this thread is for.

Then, very soon, we'll start a new thread: Phase 2, where we take elements from these experiences, resources like the ones you provided, threads from the other forums, and, Mythbusters-style, attempt to create our own personal experiences.

To reduce the chance for possible abuse, I was thinking of limiting the folks who can contribute here to those who have made at least 30 posts, but that would really be Alex's department, I could at best say, "Shoo fly, don't bother me."

EDIT: What the heck, I'll put it in the rules anyway. Nobody under 30... posts.
 
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Ok. I'm a little loathe to confess this to anyone, but I've had a few. Since I'm mostly anonymous here, here goes:

About 14 years ago, my cousin and I were into going to raves. I loved it for the music (especially trance and drum and bass) but I have never done recreational drugs of any kind. My cousin had, but had not in a while at this time. In Park City, Utah, there is an old silver mine that they have turned into a museum. A rave was being held one Saturday at this museum and we were super excited to go. On our way out, my aunt kept asking if we were sure we wanted to go, and kept trying to get us to stay in with her and my uncle. But we were super excited to go so, we went.

Once we got there, I couldn't find my ID. You had to be over 18 to get in. I had it with me just moments before, but then couldn't find it. I tore my car apart and found it underneath the drivers side car mat. Which was kind of odd because this mat was held in place by two hooks, and it makes the mat hard to remove. But, we shrugged it off and headed for the entrance. We went to pay and they told us the cost was more than the cash we had brought with us (higher than the advertised ticket cost). So, my cousin went in to find some friends to give us the extra.

So finally, we're in. We kind of just walk around, checking it out. Its not long before both of us realise that something feels....off. We both felt like we were walking around in a bubble. It was like no one was seeing us. My cousin would have to literally touch her friends to get them to see her.

So, we start checking out some of the photographs that were part if the museum, and some of the exhibits. And the feeling just gets weirder and weirder until we both decided we should leave.

So, we were walking to my car, and this museum is kind of up in the mountains, and it was a beautiful night-warm, clear sky-and I look up at the tree lines to the sky and up at the stars and kind of "open myself up"so to speak to the beauty of my surroundings.

Then suddenly, my vision goes black and I'm am literally overwhelmed, physically and emotionally, by sadness, depression, devastation, fear, sorrow, every emotion connoting sadness and loss that you can think of. And I was getting flashes of faces in my mind of people in clothing of the time period the mine was functioning. I start falling to my knees. I hear my cousin. Ask if I'm ok and all I can get out is a whimper. So she grabs me and tells me, we need to get out of here, now. Her saying this brings me to enough to stagger to my car.

The whole way home, I refuse to look in my rear view mirror, and my cousin keeps turning around. So I asked her if she is seeing something, and she says no, but she feels like something is there.

We finally make it back to my aunt's house, and she is already up waiting for us. She says she knew we were on our way and that we would need her.

She was doing reiki and theta healing at the time so commences doing this for me. As she's doing it, I feel a sort of pulsing between us. She then asks me if I feel the pulsing energy between us. I am calm by this time but am left with confusion as to what the hell just happened. She told us she had had a bad feeling about that night and didn't want us to go. My cousin and I agreed that it seemed like something kept trying to stop us from going inside. Maybe they were just coincidences, maybe not. I'm not sure.

Some background here: my aunt is now, supposedly a full fledged medium. She does readings all the time now and also helps "clear" houses and such.
My cousin who was there with me started seeing apparitions in her early teens. I think she still does, but has better control over it.

I'm not sure if I believe them. I want to because they are my family and I see no reason for them to lie. Especially my cousin since her "ability" has been more of a curse than anything to her. But I also don't want to blind myself to what is or isn't true because I have an emotional tie to them.

There was more to this, and it doesn't translate well to a forum post. But to avoid an even longer wall of text, I've given the main points.

I still have no idea what that was that night.

I have a few others and will post later.

Wow. Now that's an experience. I can take it you've never gone back to that mine?
 
No, I wanted to in the daylight, but just never did. Maybe something was telling me subconsciously not to.

Interesting. Did you then read up on the history of the mine? Maybe something terrible happened there?

I've got theories on why you had those feelings and why you experienced the blackout and images of miners, but I'm at a loss for words about your ID vanishing from your possession and finding itself under the car mat.
 
http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2015/02/joy-during-meditation.html
It is possible to experience a deeply joyful state during meditation. Reaching this state and integrating it into daily life can help one to live a more spiritual life because it is easier to love when you are happy.
...
If you are able to enter this joyful state during meditation, you might wonder what you should try next. Here are a couple of suggestions:
Tuning in to Universal Love
A Healing Blessing from the Light of God

Spiritual Healing: You Can Do It (How to do spiritual healing.)

A Synthesis of Spiritual Healing and Qi Gong (How to improve spiritual healing abilities)http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-synthesis-of-spiritual-healing-and-qi.html

I see all the links above are part of the same phenomenon - tuning into ... something ... and bringing it into the physical plane.


Not part of the above set but related to this thread:

Varieties of Mystical Experiences






http://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/mystical_experiences
 
If you are interested in reproducing paranormal experiences it is helpful to understand the meaning of rituals and visualizations. Sometimes the exercises or practices might seem silly and it can be hard to believe they are not foolish superstition. But if you understand what is going on at the spiritual level you learn that imagination in a physically incarnated individual = creativity = creating real things in the spiritual level.

My attitude toward religion is best explained by something I learned when I took classes in spiritual healing. I was taught that all that is needed for healing to occur is the intention of the healer to act as a conduit for the healing energy to flow through him from a higher source.

One implication of this is that despite the fact that there are many different forms of energy healing, the particular method of healing is not important, only the intention of the healer is important. The best method of healing would be the one that helps the healer maintain his intentions best. If dancing around wearing a grass skirt and shaking a rattle helps you maintain your intention best, then that would be the best method for you.

When I judge a group of people meeting to practice their religion. I don't judge them by the form of their religion, I judge them by their intention. There are many people who practice religion with the right intention and their religion helps them to maintain their intention. That is good.

In a realm where there is no physical reality, a mind can do nothing but dream, ie create / share reality through thought.

The afterlife cannot be understood entirely by analogy to the physical world.
The afterlife is the ultimate reality, our "objective" world is what is unreal.

It seems absurd to me to criticize religions for being false when the entire physical universe is a dream and what seems even more absurd is that many of the critics are materialists who are much farther from the truth about consciousness than the religions they criticize.

https://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/meditation-1#meditation_love
Spirits interact with their world through their mind. They think of a place they want to go to and they start moving there. They are telepathic. They think of someone and their thoughts go off to that person. Spirits use their mind the way an incarnated person uses tools. Spirits create by using their mind.

We also use the word "create" to describe how people use their imagination because it is the same thing.
 
Yesterday I happened to just read these words on a forum; someone asking ' what do you mean by enlightenment '
in the instant I had read that, the whole screen went totally white, no icons etc. just totally white.

It's a linux machine. I have never had it hang like that , with a blank white screen
 
Yesterday I happened to just read these words on a forum; someone asking ' what do you mean by enlightenment '
in the instant I had read that, the whole screen went totally white, no icons etc. just totally white.

It's a linux machine. I have never had it hang like that , with a blank white screen

Interesting. Hasn't it been reported that people who've had spiritual experiences sometimes have trouble with electronic equipment?
 
Yes TWF , but myself , I've never had anything out of the ordinary with electronics as far as I can tell.

The PC I use has never had a problem. & that it should happen as I described, must be an astronomical 'coincidence'
May i ask a little question about your encounter? Was it a ubuntu linux operation system? I heard from a few other white screens of other unbuntu users before.
 
May i ask a little question about your encounter? Was it a ubuntu linux operation system? I heard from a few other white screens of other unbuntu users before.

It's mint 17 DasMurmeltier ( Ubuntu based right enough )
I've used lots of different distros. Mint since v9 if I remember

never had a white screen before. I wasn’t doing anything at the time except reading.
So I hope it's not going to happen again :) It will kind of spoil the memory.. :mad:
 
Interesting. Did you then read up on the history of the mine? Maybe something terrible happened there?

I've got theories on why you had those feelings and why you experienced the blackout and images of miners, but I'm at a loss for words about your ID vanishing from your possession and finding itself under the car mat.

You know, I never really thought about that. I guess I just more or less put it behind me. I think I will see what I can find out when I get some time.
 
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