Well, it seems the party got more interesting after I left. So often the case
It is always gratifying to amuse, perhaps less so to be ridiculed, but let's not 'split hairs', eh?
As the diction of a 15 year old boy seems, not for the first time I am sure, to have caused some confusion, and, in the hope of brightening another day in the office, please allow me to attempt to explain myself just this one more time.
I consider myself a fortean and a sceptic, not a skeptic, and certainly not an uber-skeptic (if such a beast can actually exist). For the purposes of this discussion I would define the difference as being as follows:
sceptic - remains to be convinced of the existance of the paranormal
skeptic - is already convinced of the non-existance of the paranormal
uber-skeptic - bullishly and vehemently denies the existance of the paranormal.
I believe this is pretty much normal usage here, with the exception of the latter term, which I made up on the spot, but I assumed, incorrectly it would appear, it would be understood.
It was as a result of my anticipation of the reaction of non-sceptics, or believers, such as, as you point out, previously populated this thread, informed by long experience on this board, that I chose to preface my original post with the hope that I would not sound like an 'uber-skeptic' for expressing a
sceptical viewpoint.
I described my 'bizarre experience', which was actually of course a very traumatic but fairly classic symptom of what is now usually called 'panic disorder', amongst, I'm sure, other conditions, by way of a possible alternate explanation for the original poster's experience. One which, in my scepticism, I consider to be at least as valid, if not more so, that again6's alternative explanation of clairvoyantly receiving someone else's fantasy or book plot.
For what it is worth, which is precisely nothing to anyone but me, I'm sure, I did not self-diagnose and treat the condition, and despite my reservations about the philosophy and methodolgy of psychotherapy I am extremely grateful to have received cognitive behavioural therapy to help in this matter.
In addition to suggesting this alternative possible explanation I have tried to communicate my opinion that 'moving the goal posts' so that what is at first called a clairvoyant vision of actual events is, in the absence of those events actually taking place, then renamed a telepathic event diminishes the credibility of the experiencer.
I tried to illustrate this point with examples of other possible, but obviously ridiculous, paranormal explanations, such as the Owlman and Mothman bet.
I also likened this back-pedalling to the behaviour of a cold-reading medium cycling through different names trying to get a 'hit' etc to attempt to explain why I felt it diminished the credibility of the phenomeneon.
These observations were met in the most part by a chorus of 'look we didn't ask to be like this and we've been treated very shoddily by people for it in the past because those who aren't like us don't understand' from those on the thread who claim to have experienced clairvoyancy as well as some misunderstanding of my posts which, naturally, I put down to my own poor communication skills.
I admit I find this a little frustrating, as, as I have repeatedly said, I am in no way denying the existance of clairvoyance, generally or in the case of the original poster or others on this thread. In my frustration I attempted to posit a psychological explanation for what I saw as the possibly willful misinterpretation of my opinions.
I do not apologise for expressing these opinions on a public message board, nor for the fact that they do not accord with the opinions of others on this thread.
I am not prepared to respond to personal attacks, false accusations and ridicule, although that level of debate is disappointing and once again does absolutely nothing, in my opinion, to lend credibility to the phenomena being discussed.
Nor do I feel inclined to respond to speculation about my gender, my avatar or my signature - how I choose to present myself within the features and guidelines of the forum are my personal preferences and completely irrelevant to this debate, piss yourselves to your hearts' content, old darlings.
I'm grateful to Sally, Stormkhan and Timble etc for their contributions which suggest to me that they at least managed to make of my rambling posts what I actually intended.