Is There Anything You've Grown LESS Sceptical Of?

Endlessly Amazed said:
I have been told more than once that my racial group started as a science experiment in Africa 6000 years ago by an evil magician so we are inherently evil (thanks to the founder of the Black Muslims in the 1950s, building on Marcus Garvey's work). No kidding. So why is this racist nonsense not being discussed and condemned publicly? I don't mean here in forteanaland, I mean generally anywhere in the US. After the physical injuries from my attack, I lost most of my ability to be normally trusting about some members of a non-dominant group.
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Perhaps because most people are not aware of Nation of Islam theology in a detailed sense?

To most people, the idea that white people are the result of Dr Yacuub's experiments just sounds so "out there" that people are not bothered, any more than they are of their notion that a spaceship shaped liked a wheel, will arrive and save 144,000 chosen ones at the end of the world.

Sorry that you suffered a physical attack.
 
@Victory – I agree. If most people think the stuff is “out there” and they personally have experienced no harm because of it, they will dismiss it or seriously underestimate the harm it can do. More aggravatingly to me, they will tell you that it could not happen because it never happened to them. This, er, insouciance is Fortean. BTW, as you may know, the Southern Poverty Law Center does a great job tracking hate groups in the US.

Back in the 1970’s, I was dating a smart black Ph.D. student who could do very good analysis work in his field: grounded in demonstrated data, careful recording and interpretation, justified conclusions, etc. When he came back after a week in Chicago interviewing the Fruit of Islam (the Black Muslim Police/Militia), our relationship came to an abrupt end as he accused me of being inherently evil and showed me the Nation of Islam literature which proved it.

I was astonished and heartbroken that such a smart person could simultaneously be smart about objective stuff and just batshit crazy about something of personal significance to him. It was a larger and sadder echo of the kinds of mental gyrations we all do, but with more serious consequences.

The belief in the evil magician/white racial origins myth was at one time somewhat widespread among black social science students (and some professors) at US universities, even ones who were not Black Muslims. I think, by the 1980’s, the myth had become decoupled from its origin, and so took on a life of its own.

Thirty years later, I was verbally harassed a few times with this nonsense in Washington DC (in front of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Gallery Place/Chinatown train station) by Black Hebrew Israelites. O the irony.
 
I wonder if we become less sceptical about ghosts as we grow older because we subconsciously hope we are going to be able to hang around after death?
 
Faeries, goblins, leprechauns, fae folk etc.

When I was a teenage nuts-and-bolts UFO fanatic back in the 80s I truly believed it was all just old folklore. Now I have come to believe that there is an 'intelligent other' that has interacted with humanity for its own ends for millennia. This 'intelligent other' hides itself (distorts) its true self by appearing to humans in guises slightly ahead of our time: as fairies etc in the pre-industrial era; as the pilots of advanced airships at a time when such technology was still on the drawing board; post-WW2 as at the pilots of craft that scooted about our skies like the drones of the 21st Century, and right now as dog men, werewolves, big black cats and all manner of other cryptids as we have developed the ability to clone and genetically modify life...
 
I would say I've become less sceptical about every aspect of all Fortean subjects, but that is down to my own experiences and that of my mother. I have become more sceptical of those people who dismiss out of hand subjects and events of which they have no experience at all.
 
Atlantis; evidence of prehistoric occupation of the Azores has convinced me that Plato got it right and it wasn't merely a legend.
Not that I'm about to go all Hancocky about advanced Atlantean technology, but these ancient occupants, possibly contemporaneous with Göbekli Tepe, were obviously a competent sea-going culture and possessed the megalithic skills to create hypogea and possibly pyramids.

I would also go along with earlier comments that tales of Trolls were very likely half-remembered medieval encounters with relict forms of archaic hominins.

I'm still fence-sitting about UFOs, cryptids, time slips, many OOPARTS and ghosts.
 
Hominins, I now know more about the serious scholars.

(And of course more about prehistoric man...)
 
I've certainly become less sceptical about conspiracy theories, especially since the Hillsborough revelations (the post-disaster cover-up / distribution of misinformation).

I'm less sceptical of ghosts / cross-over with the afterlife from a few minor experiences I've had personally, but that might be wishful thinking as @catseye points out.
 
Just wanted to add that I''m now less skeptical of skeptics.

As a teenager devouring copies of The Unexplained magazine they were the embodiment of the boring Maths teacher we had a school: no imagination or sense of wonder but instead rules for everything.

But years later I now know how much pure bunkum emanated unchallenged out of Ufology and also the likes of Uri Gellar. This all needed challenging as it eclipsed the actual 1% of cases that continue to fascinate and also turned popular opinion against Ufology and the paranormal.

However, not all skeptics are forgiven, there are still too many who refuse to allow their beliefs to be brought into question, including some whose 'solutions' are more convulsed and unlikely than the actual Fortran experience itself.
 
Eyespy said:
and am coming round to the idea that we ae in a simulation of some sort
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This is not something that we should simply discount on the intimate evidence of our senses or sensibilities. Irrespective of the infinite complexities of the worlds within or around us (or perhaps because of these) the apparent consensus reality always offers gaps & glimpses through the scenery: this is the quintessential essence of all Fortean phenomenona.

Such a perspective explains so much, whilst offering not a single solution.

The putative interstitial layering of base versus incremental / derivative realities (and perhaps interwoven interactions between these) might give us hints as to why inconsistency and unpredictability are the only constants in our sagas.
 
Ermintruder said:
The putative interstitial layering of base versus incremental / derivative realities (and perhaps interwoven interactions between these) might give us hints as to why inconsistency and unpredictability are the only constants in our sagas.
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:chuckle:
 
Ermintruder said:
The putative interstitial layering of base versus incremental / derivative realities (and perhaps interwoven interactions between these) might give us hints as to why inconsistency and unpredictability are the only constants in our sagas.
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So this might explain why, if we are in a simulation, that I am not living in the Carribean and very wealthy- Because let's be honest, it wouldn't hurt those in control to make this true (for me) would it?
 
I'm much less sceptical about paranormal entities manifesting in different shapes and sizes, including as big cats, bigfoot, supposed extraterrestrials etc., a way of thinking that I viewed as completely loony when I was in my teens/early twenties.
 
Floyd1 said:
So this might explain why, if we are in a simulation, that I am not living in the Carribean and very wealthy- Because let's be honest, it wouldn't hurt those in control to make this true (for me) would it?
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There might be a cost. Cost of reprogramming, 3D model design, extra processor load and memory allocation... you might have to do something in exchange for all that.
 
I don't know that I was ever sceptical about parallel universes. My dad explained the theory that there were an infinite number of worlds manefesting all versions of everything that had ever lived when I was about ten. I remember thinking 'yep, that sounds plausible' back then, and I've become more convinced that such things exist as time goes on. I think most things that we label 'paranormal' could be caused by inadvertent interactions between such universes, and I gravitate more and more towards this theory.
 
As a few people have pointed out, you tend to be a lot less sceptical about things you've experienced yourself.

Luckily there is one experiment that almost anyone can do that should convince you of the reality of at least one psychical phenomenon - dream precognition.

The key to documenting it is the traditional dream diary. Keep a notebook and pen by the bed. As soon as you wake up, scribble down as much detail as you can remember from your dreams. Sketch anything that seemed visually interesting.

I tried it for a while. I soon got good at picking up what was a rehashed memory of the events of the preceding days. But another thing that soon becomes obvious is that some of the details are 'memories' of things that are going to happen over the next few days. It's all very trivial stuff, exactly as distorted and fragmentary as the past memories are, but after a few dozen hits you soon become convinced that it's really happening.

Don't expect to dream the names of winning horses or the lottery numbers! You're more likely to get a particular streetscape that you're about to visit, or an unusual piece of furniture in a house you haven't visited before, or maybe sentences from a conversation.

But yes, to answer the original question - is there anything I'm less sceptical of? Definitely. Dream precognition.

You'll only convince yourself if you try it.
 
Salmonellus said:
As a few people have pointed out, you tend to be a lot less sceptical about things you've experienced yourself.

Luckily there is one experiment that almost anyone can do that should convince you of the reality of at least one psychical phenomenon - dream precognition.

The key to documenting it is the traditional dream diary. Keep a notebook and pen by the bed. As soon as you wake up, scribble down as much detail as you can remember from your dreams. Sketch anything that seemed visually interesting.

I tried it for a while. I soon got good at picking up what was a rehashed memory of the events of the preceding days. But another thing that soon becomes obvious is that some of the details are 'memories' of things that are going to happen over the next few days. It's all very trivial stuff, exactly as distorted and fragmentary as the past memories are, but after a few dozen hits you soon become convinced that it's really happening.

Don't expect to dream the names of winning horses or the lottery numbers! You're more likely to get a particular streetscape that you're about to visit, or an unusual piece of furniture in a house you haven't visited before, or maybe sentences from a conversation.

But yes, to answer the original question - is there anything I'm less sceptical of? Definitely. Dream precognition.

You'll only convince yourself if you try it.
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Agree entirely. In fact we have at least one thread on dream precognition.
In one called Think You May Have Dreamed The Future? started by @blessmycottonsocks I posted this experience from 2002, and dredged it up again a few weeks ago:

I dreamed about the country road I took every day where there is a humpback bridge and then a sharp bend concealing a low narrow railway bridge. I always took this stretch slowly but in the dream I was crawling along, barely moving at all. Nothing else happened in the dream.

I set out as usual that morning but with the dream still vivid in my mind I decided to slow to a crawl at the bridge. I edged over it and reached the corner to find a truck stuck under the bridge and a car crashed into the back of it, and another had hit that!
I had plenty of time to stop and turn around.

I don't think the dream saved my life but it saved me some injury and expense.

There was no 'dream diary' or intention of interpretation involved, just a vivid impression of driving much more slowly than usual along that potentially dangerous strip of road.
 
I like to follow the evidence

More Skeptical of Nuts and Bolts UFO's

More believing that UFO, Fairies, Big Cats, Monsters etc, are all part of the same phenomena (much as Keel and Valle believed)

Like others my belief in an afterlife has grown stronger as I get older, I have come to believe that the next stage (and there are a few stages) is a dreamlike state and will be anything you believe it to be (that's why different cultures have different versions) you will be in this dream like state for as long as you fail to realize that it is a timeless dreamlike state, there are probably still Vikings living it up in Valhalla, Ancient Egyptians still hanging out in their version, Ancient greets still in Hades (you get the drift) and people who don't believe in the afterlife just hanging out in some kind of space.

I believe if you don't complete your allotted time in a physical realm you will be reincarnated
 
Robbrent said:
I believe if you don't complete your allotted time in a physical realm you will be reincarnated
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From the little I've read about the Afterlife from Mediums, we are alive for two reasons - either to learn a lesson or to provide a lesson for some-one else. That is kind of making more sense to me as I'm reflecting back on the my rather insular life (early retirement).
Depending on how well we do in life, our Karma is redressed or we come back (reincarnated) for another go.
 
Bad Bungle said:
From the little I've read about the Afterlife from Mediums, we are alive for two reasons - either to learn a lesson or to provide a lesson for some-one else. That is kind of making more sense to me as I'm reflecting back on the my rather insular life (early retirement).
Depending on how well we do in life, our Karma is redressed or we come back (reincarnated) for another go.
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I absolutely and genuinely believe that the very convoluted story of events happening to me and someone else 20 years ago occurred to provide a lesson to prepare me for my future life. I also believe that the other individual had been reincarnated to provide that lesson and when they had done were recalled back "home". Call it nonsense, but that's my view.
 
PeteS said:
I absolutely and genuinely believe that the very convoluted story of events happening to me and someone else 20 years ago occurred to provide a lesson to prepare me for my future life. I also believe that the other individual had been reincarnated to provide that lesson and when they had done were recalled back "home". Call it nonsense, but that's my view.
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Can relate. :nods:
Willing to elaborate by PM if you're interested.
 
Salmonellus said:
As a few people have pointed out, you tend to be a lot less sceptical about things you've experienced yourself.

Luckily there is one experiment that almost anyone can do that should convince you of the reality of at least one psychical phenomenon - dream precognition.

The key to documenting it is the traditional dream diary. Keep a notebook and pen by the bed. As soon as you wake up, scribble down as much detail as you can remember from your dreams. Sketch anything that seemed visually interesting.

I tried it for a while. I soon got good at picking up what was a rehashed memory of the events of the preceding days. But another thing that soon becomes obvious is that some of the details are 'memories' of things that are going to happen over the next few days. It's all very trivial stuff, exactly as distorted and fragmentary as the past memories are, but after a few dozen hits you soon become convinced that it's really happening.

Don't expect to dream the names of winning horses or the lottery numbers! You're more likely to get a particular streetscape that you're about to visit, or an unusual piece of furniture in a house you haven't visited before, or maybe sentences from a conversation.

But yes, to answer the original question - is there anything I'm less sceptical of? Definitely. Dream precognition.

You'll only convince yourself if you try it.
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Really like this post. It is something I need to do as I have posted on here about how I saw Claverton Down in Bath in a dream a few months before I found myself studying at the adjacent University. Add to this the fact the decision to go to Bath was very much last minute after funding was secured and that I dreamt of the view a seen walking down the road and then over the Down, somewhere I had never visited before. There were some dream metaphors, for example the Down was covered by huge opaque glass houses which I believe was symbolic of the Down being protected by the National Trust.

However, I didn't write this down anywhere and it can be argued that my memory was playing tricks on me when I did get to actually do that walk for the first time.
 
Interdimensional beings - appearing as ghosts, shadow persons and perhaps even creatures in this world/dimension.
Why these beings end up mimicking diseased people, is anyones guess. There are enough witnesses and footage to prove they exist, even if 95% of it has been faked. I don't believe it all is faked.

This is why I still am an atheist. I don't believe the religious take on these phenomena.

I want to believe in some of these phenomena, but evidence for it will probably not appear in the near future.
 
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