• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

A 'Fortean' Subject Of Which You're 100% Convinced

colpepper1 said:
Of the less credible phenomena I have a soft spot for Black Dogs - without any good reason. The mix of archetype, folklore, fiend/friend and explosive habits are irresistible.
Click to expand...

Now I've long regarded British Black Dog sightings as being among the most credible of Paranormal reports.

Partly because there are so many good accounts. When I first became active on the Internet I decided to collect every known Black Dig report. But it proved impossible - like the old saw about counting the Chinese marching two abreast around the Earth at the Equator.
 
What do I believe in?

ABCs - no reason to doubt this.
Ghosts - I saw one. Other people I have known have seen them too. I don't think this proves the existence of an afterlife, however. I don't know what they are.
UFOs - I saw a black triangle. Don't know what they are, but prepared to speculate.
Aliens - no logical reason why they shouldn't exist somewhere in the universe, after all, we exist (i.e. we prove that life is possible).
Panspermia - I believe we will one day prove this theory to be true.
Ball lightning - my sister saw one.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Panspermia - I believe we will one day prove this theory to be true.
Click to expand...

Myth, I'm not disagreeing with you, but a few comments for discussion's sake:

I assume that Life had to arise some place. But if Life can start on Planet X, why not assume that it can also arise elsewhere? And if that's the case why is there any need for Panspermia?

And even if we fully accept Panspermia, how do we know that Earth isn't Planet X?
 
I believe 100% in Poltergeists, my grandad has had one in his house.

As for ABC's, I do not see any fortean link with these moggies at all, we have big cats living in the UK, but there is nothing paranormal or fortean about it, these cats have either escaped from private dwellings or have lived unoticed in this country.
 
PeniG said:
San Antonio has....all the "ghosts" you could ask for and then some. If there's a building downtown that isn't haunted I've never heard of it, and I've worked in two buildings that had multiple haunts. I've never seen a reliable, systematic statistical analysis of hauntings, and would have to examine the methodology closely before I accepted one more than provisionally. A perception of more frequent hauntings in one place than in another need not match up to the reality, as it's as likely to depend on cultural factors as anything else.
Click to expand...

Peni, I've been collecting "true ghost stories" for years, filed by State, but San Antonio is the only city for which I've been forced to create a separate file. There are simply that many San Antonio ghost and other Paranormal reports.

But the question then arises as to whether San Antonio is that much more haunted than other metropoli or whether it is the place where Tex-Mex and Anglo folktales meet, fall passionately in love with each other, and breed.

I call it all "fairies" and treasure up the stories, because that's really what I care about.
Click to expand...

I call that the "goblin world," and sometimes wonder if we may be that goblin world's own goblin world.
 
Peripart said:
Well, I don't think I'm sticking my neck out in saying that I accept the reality of ABCs at large in the UK. No personal experience, but there are way too many stories of encounters with large cats for there not to be some truth in them, IMO, and there's no good reason why they wouldn't be able to survive here, for the most part unobserved.
Click to expand...


Definitely! I'll always remember some footage I once saw on TV of a puma (or similar) in a guys caravan down south somewhere, in ABC country.

The guy came home, heard banging in his caravan, thought he was getting burgled before seeing this huge cat through the window, cavorting, or whatever it was doing.

He either had a cam-corder on him or phoned a mate to bring one.

The footage was shown either on the Fortean Times TV show or something very similar.

I've never managed to see it since, anyone any idea what it is?

For me, I'd say Big Foot, ghosts (not necessarily the dead, could simply be something psychological), ariel phenonemon (not necessarily alien visits).
 
The frequency of certain phenomena, that there are numerous first hand accounts and reliable witnesses makes them worthy of attention IMO. Scientific rationalists are fond of saying the plural of anecdote is not data; true, but there comes a point where volume alone suggests something is going on even if it's inside people's heads - and that conclusion seems to fly in the face of at least some the evidence.

Clearly much of the stuff is orthogonal to scientific method and I have grave doubts over whether the ghost hunter's armoury of technology tells them anything useful. That doesn't put such phenomena beyond enquiring minds or make those disposed to believe in them gullible dupes.
 
my two big ones are these

fairies, or similar entities whatever they may be called - ive had enough personal experiences to convince me.

ancient advanced civilizations - im convinced they exist (whether or not one of them was ever named atlantis i cant say and rather doubt), but i have nothing really to base this on other than logic and my own understanding of how human beings work. i dont hold much with the graham hancocks of the world, but it seems plausible, even certain, to me that civilizations go in cycles like everything else does and that were very likely to not be the first go round. "advanced" doesnt necessarily mean they had flying cars and rayguns or anything.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Mythopoeika said:
Panspermia - I believe we will one day prove this theory to be true.
Click to expand...

Myth, I'm not disagreeing with you, but a few comments for discussion's sake:

I assume that Life had to arise some place. But if Life can start on Planet X, why not assume that it can also arise elsewhere? And if that's the case why is there any need for Panspermia?

And even if we fully accept Panspermia, how do we know that Earth isn't Planet X?
Click to expand...

All of those things are possibilities, yes.
 
Would it set the cat among the pigeons if I pointed out that nothing is 100% certain to a Fortean? Any belief being only the proper clothes to wear etc...
I have personally experienced premonitions, hauntings "night hag" and telepathy, but that doesn't mean I'm a "believer", I'm still open to other explanations.
Having said that, I suppose I would have to agree that ABCs are pretty rock solid, as Painy2 says, it's not much of a mystery, I myself live amongst a noisy flock of Alien Small Parakeets! :)
 
But isn't there a difference between saying we are convinced something exists as a phenomenon and giving, or accepting, an explanation for it. As I said, I'm fairly convinced that a phenomenon or group of phenomena that we choose to call ghosts does actually exist - what the 'explanation' is, or indeed whether there is a single explanation and not a whole range of them (which seems to me more likely), I have no real idea.
 
Spookdaddy said:
But isn't there a difference between saying we are convinced something exists as a phenomenon and giving, or accepting, an explanation for it [?]
...
Click to expand...

IMHO - yes, and this is the key point.

As *phenomena* clearly (and soberly ...) observed, I've witnessed things that would probably fall under the stock categories of (e.g.):

- unexplained aerial phenomena (mainly lights / glowing objects; almost none apparently a solid artificial flying craft)
- earthlights
- orbs

I *believe* in the phenomena per se, based on first-hand experience. This is not to say I necessarily believe in popular explanations for those phenomena.

I've witnessed multiple flying objects that I'm convinced were not airplanes, balloons, birds, or other recognizable things.

None of these objects suggested themselves as aircraft or spacecraft in any way. As a result, I can claim to have been a 'UFO' witness, even though I don't put any stock in the notion these observations were of extraterrestrial vehicles ...
 
Yup, I agree and understand entirely. I've seen, and heard reliable accounts of, 'ghosts' which in various contexts, could have been examples of several different theories, such as the spirits of the dead, reruns of emotional incidents, fatigue-induced hallucinations and so on.

I don't presume to be able to explain everything. It's more honest to accept that a. 'it happened' and b. 'I have no clue what it was.'

The former Mr Snail was a science teacher who prided himself on his hardheaded, unsuperstitious beliefs. As I have described here before, nearly 20 years of constant bombardment by what seemed to him impossible phenomena drove him a bit silly and certainly helped see off our marriage. :lol:
 
What Fortean phenomenon do I believe in?

Earth lights (the Paudling Light exists in the Upper Pennisula of my home state.)

Recorded events - (My family and I experienced some pretty unexplained things on the sands of Utah beach in Normandy.)

Ball lightening - (My grandmother, Dorothy, saw it herself and is not one given to flights of fancy.)

Precognition and the ability to know things without direct knowledge - (I feel that I should call my mother and when I reach her, I find out that she was just in a car accident.)

Mothman, angels, demons, fairies - (some manifestation that seems to have some commonality in our world though I'm not sure what they are.)

And of course....big foot. (just kidding.)
 
escargot1 said:
...nearly 20 years of constant bombardment by what seemed to him impossible phenomena drove him a bit silly....
Click to expand...

Some men just can't deal with adventurous women!
 
beakboo said:
Would it set the cat among the pigeons if I pointed out that nothing is 100% certain to a Fortean? Any belief being only the proper clothes to wear etc...
Click to expand...

My immediate reaction, too. Then I noticed the quotation marks (of course they should have been inverted commas) around "Fortean" in the thread title.

I'd hazard there is a far greater proportion of 'People interested in subjects typically studied by Forteans' than actual Forteans here.
 
theyithian said:
I'd hazard there is a far greater proportion of 'People interested in subjects typically studied by Forteans' than actual Forteans here.
Click to expand...

Quite agree.

I'm 99% convinced of the existence of quite a few Fort-interest subjects (ghosts, objective UFOs, Man-beasts.) However, the only thing of which I'm 100% convinced is that we haven't even scratched the surface, yet.
 
I think we can explain some falling stones, frogs and pitbulls. Although there is still a gray area.
 
I'll jump into the fray and see how many strange looks I can get. I believe without a shadow of a doubt in the Ancient Astronaut Theory (though I guess in my world it would be law and not theory). I read Chariots of the Gods when I was in 4th grade and it completely changed how I think and live. Though 20 years older and wiser (I like to think) I have all but abandoned Daeniken's ideas (too simplistic and optimistic from an AAT standpoint). I have since devoted a good portion of my free time (and not-so-free time) to studying religious texts, ancient manuscripts and ancient history. I also am a firm believer in creationism though I am a devout atheist (pretty much sealed the deal with the omnipotent/omnipresent concept when I held the hand of my day-old nephew an hour before they pulled the plug on his life-support).

This also puts me into the belief of ancient technology and the existence of Atlantis (located on our side of the pond by the way). I also emphatically believe that carbon dating is the most absolutely flawed system in science today.

I also believe in the existence of Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti, Nessie, Mokele Mbembe, the Megatherium of South America. These animals are leftovers of the not so past (yet again back to the carbon dating thing). The coelacanth supposedly died out before any of these animals were even alive (according to science) but surprise, surprise they're still living happy as clams with the clams. Which brings me to....

...It's not really Fortean but does tie in with my rant. It drives me to Hulk-like anger to know that my government still throws billions at the space program and we still have no idea what is at the bottom of our oceans or even what's in our own forests. It was just a few years ago that new deer were found in vietnam...DEER!!!!!!...not butterflies, not spiders, not even mice but freaking deer. (which the locals knew completely about but scientists pushed that aside as folklore.)

I also believe in the coexistence of man and the last of the dinosaurs (there are far too many examples in ancient art and not-so-ancient art to dismiss it as fanciful)

I believe in the writings and foretellings of Nostradamus (and I have read all of the quatrains multiple times and even retranslated ones that I felt the original translators injected there own speculation into the ambiguous words).

I believe in 2012 though I don't at all believe in the doomsday concept of it. I believe that Dec. 21 will mark the start of a new age. Something will be revealed at that time that will set history and the future straight.

However, I have absolutely no belief in ghosts/poltergeists. I have experienced night hags (in various forms) for the past 25 years and have since learned to control it (much in the same fashion of lucid dreaming).
 
OK, one thing leaps out. How can one be an atheist and a creationist at the same time? Am I missing something obvious here?
 
Maybe he doesn't believe it was God who did the creating.
 
Like maybe someone who believes aliens created life on Earth?
 
It all depends on how you interpret the word "god" really.
 
Well, to elaborate. Yes, i believe we were created by "aliens" though not little green men. My beliefs lie closely with the concepts presented by Zecharia Sitchin. All religions are polytheistic or started that way, even the judeo-christian construct. It even slips through in the bible. Genesis 1-26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness....

That's another thing, I hold that the bible was derived from the epic of gilgamesh and is based on factual occurances.

I believe that Jesus Christ was the son of "God" presented before us as a teaching tool to relieve us of our heathen ways.

And no I do not believe that "aliens" created earth, though I do believe that it was manipulated to suit our's and their habitation.
 
Well I never. There's a 600 page blockbuster with an embossed foil cover in that idea.
 
And no I'm not a scientologist. L. Ron Hubbard was a charlatan and used other people's concepts to make himself famous infused with his own nonexistent science-fiction writing skills. It is people like this that give people like me a bad name. We have been warned of false prophets.
 
The only difference that I can see between Zecharia Sitchin and RLH in presenting bad science fiction as fact is that fewer people believe in Zecharia Sitchin....

I'd argue that Bible probably didn't originate in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but both drew on same body of myths and legends from the lands around the Tigris and Eupharates.
 
Dr_Baltar said:
Who created the "aliens"?
Click to expand...

I didn't say that all of the life on earth was created by "aliens". I fully believe in abiogenesis. The alien's planet's primordial ooze just coagulated before ours did. The they came along and nudged our evolution into a more useable path.

And Timble, I'm not saying sitchin is a great writer but sitchin didn't create a false religion like RLH did to boost his faultering ego. I didnt base my belief structure on Sitchin. I held these beliefs long before I had even heard of him. I only used his name because I figured the people on here would know of him and have at least a basic grasp of his writing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top