Shadow People

[smoth]

I have a shower, I am safe.

[Felix the Cat]

Google "sleep paralysis". That, to me, explains 90% of people who think they're "haunted".

/used to get bouts of sleep paralysis when I was a kid.
//yes, it's pretty damned scary.

Sleep paralysis doesn't usually induce burns, scratches, or blunt trauma...

There are illnesses such as heriditary diseases or other diseases, some of which we may not know a whole lot about, that can have similar effects and be psychosomatically induced.

I really think that people should try not to be so excitable and exaggerate when such phenomenon occurs and there are plenty of examples of unexplained phenomenon out there that are surrounded by all kinds of superstitions and religous beliefs that may not give you a good understanding of what to do about it. If the phenomenon is partially caused by stress it'll only make the symptoms worse and that may be what's triggering it in the first place.

I used be told that I looked like a vampire because my skin was pale, light sensitive (due to medication), have had sleep paralysis, used to sleep walk, and was a little anemic. Supersticious people can be fun joke around with, but rather irritating when it comes to dealing with genuinely out of the ordinary situations which may have a viable explaination that you can work with as opposed to what their superstions lead them to believe.

The belief that everything in the world is already explained is just as faith-based as superstition. Like faith, this belief excludes any alternative explanations not on their merits, but merely because they are alternative, and requires the believer to view all events through a narrow lens of faith. It excludes any progress in our knowledge of the universe, because our knowledge of the universe is already complete; if we already know everything about everything, then what else is there to learn?

[Pxtl]

How about this - given the tendency for "supernatural" things to get disproven, those of us with basic pattern recognition tend to find it safe to assume that new ideas of "supernatural" explanations will be disproven in time as well.

Kind of like how various religious groups told Darwin, Gallileo, Copernicus, and a host of other scientists that they were wrong... until scientific advancement made it impossible to disagree with the facts. At some point you decide to listen to the methodology with a better track-record.

[Jazcash]

This usually occurs when one does not have enough " Sleep ".












BOO!

[tombom]

The belief that everything in the world is already explained is just as faith-based as superstition. Like faith, this belief excludes any alternative explanations not on their merits, but merely because they are alternative, and requires the believer to view all events through a narrow lens of faith. It excludes any progress in our knowledge of the universe, because our knowledge of the universe is already complete; if we already know everything about everything, then what else is there to learn?

That's not what she said at all - simply that defaulting to superstitious stuff is not helpful when trying to understand things. She never mentioned anything about everything in the world being already explained. In the case of shadow people, 99% of cases are explained using the science of the mind or whatever

Also although I agree that it's important to be open-minded to a certain extent, the word alternative sets off alarm bells with me

[MidKnight]

Spring forum ghostbuster team!

[Panda]

The belief that everything in the world is already explained is just as faith-based as superstition. Like faith, this belief excludes any alternative explanations not on their merits, but merely because they are alternative, and requires the believer to view all events through a narrow lens of faith. It excludes any progress in our knowledge of the universe, because our knowledge of the universe is already complete; if we already know everything about everything, then what else is there to learn?

That's not what she said at all - simply that defaulting to superstitious stuff is not helpful when trying to understand things. She never mentioned anything about everything in the world being already explained. In the case of shadow people, 99% of cases are explained using the science of the mind or whatever

Also although I agree that it's important to be open-minded to a certain extent, the word alternative sets off alarm bells with me

Thanks.

[KaiserJ]

i have a friend from college who has suffered from sleep paralysis since she was about 10 years old, it sounds scary and confusing as hell.

i've always believed chemical agents to be the main cause of many of these visions, IIRC people who have been abducted by aliens often have a raised level of a chemical similar to DMT in their systems, as do people experiencing religious visions; i suppose the brain secretes these chemicals due to factors we as yet don't understand.

the book "doors of perception" is good food for thought, it deals with the concept of a human mind almost like a radio that is set only to recieve information from a certain frequency of input... i have no doubt that by manipulating the way the brain works through chemicals, hypnosis or other stimuli you'd be able to percieve reality in a different way, or even see things that are not "there" for other people...

the tough bit would be someone who HAS experienced things like that trying to explain their experiences to someone who has not.

[Panda]

the book "doors of perception"

I've read that book. The guy who wrote it was on LSD, not good. That probably caused him braindamage.

He was fascinated by the folds in a curtain and couldn't take his mind off the spiritual nature of the the world and by what the curtain fold symbolized to him and I think he starved himself.

Sleep paralysis, sleep walking, and dreaming a lot can appear to have similar effects, but they aren't quite the same thing. For one thing, having very vivid dreams and all has been said to mean that you're learning a lot and that you're mind is very active, not that you're necessarily brain damaged like a drug addict might be. However, both the drug and the altered states of conciousness related to sleep do have to do with a person's levels of dopamine in their brain, whether it's naturally occurring or not.

In some cultures memories or things that are said to contain a person's essence are said to be ghosts. People also do have a weak electromagnetic field surrounding them even though some of those claims for psychic abilities out there seem a little off to me, but you never know. Those kinds of things are interesting to look into if you want to learn about paranormal activity or altered states of conciousness.

You should check this out too: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9901/14/chipman.idg/

This guy had a chip implanted in his arm that gives him the ability to send out radiowaves in order to open doors in his work place by thinking about it. It's technokinesis (http://psi.wikia.com/wiki/Technokinesis).

[BaNa]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_peo ... planations

Lots of sane explanations.

Demonstrated in laboratory conditions, electromagnetic fields have been demonstrated to interfere with the functions of the temporal lobe; creating altered states of perception in which auditory and visual hallucinations can occur.[13]

fucking awesome!

and i've had some mind anxiety and paranoia once or twice but then again it was after lsd so i wasn't too surprised.

[AF]

I've read that book. The guy who wrote it was on LSD, not good. That probably caused him braindamage.

Ad hominem

[KaiserJ]

that computer chip story was pretty interesting, i've never heard of it before... there's a lady downtown in my city who always seems to be on the same streetcorner, handing out pamphlets about how satan is trying to control us all by implanting microprocessors under our skin, i'm considering printing it out and reading to her next time she starts bugging me :)

about doors of perception and pretty much the whole thread... i'm certainly not saying that i believe in ghosts and shadow people and the like, but i'm not saying that i disbelieve it either... it's just something that i've never experienced myself in a convincing way, and i'm fairly open minded, so until it can be absolutely proven that there are ghosts or no ghosts, i'll probably be on the fence about it... certainly the prevalence of reports of spirits and apparitions in every human culture throughout history lends it more than enough credit to at least consider.

as far as the drugs go, it's a case for opinion... i'm always going to hold to the idea that although drugs can addle and destroy a brain, they can sometimes also unlock different kinds of thought processes and sometimes even unleash genius... some of my favourite authors, artists and musicians are / were heavy drug users.... brains scrambled and re-arranged? i'd say yes... but damaged? maybe not always in the sense of being knocked silly in an accident... perhaps something more akin to being broken and reassembled differently, with unexpected results? heheh anyways i certainly wasn't trying to imply that you had sleep paralysis because you had been taking drugs :D

i see no reason why there shouldn't be parallel realities to our own that can be seen or even interacted with under different conditions... certainly if you showed a television to someone in the middle ages they wouldn't be able to understand it or even the underlying concepts behind it and probably think it was sorcery, but since we are already used to the idea of technology working wonders, it wouldn't be nearly as big of a shock to us and we could understand its true nature. don't get me wrong, i dont believe in the idea of shadow people, but i'm interested enough in the idea that i wouldn't discount it, and i want to discuss it in this thread

[Panda]

don't get me wrong, i dont believe in the idea of shadow people, but i'm interested enough in the idea that i wouldn't discount it, and i want to discuss it in this thread

Martial artists work on enhancing their ability to focus by doing Kata or sparring while imagining their targets, which can be shadowy, while fighting in dim light or blind.

If someone were to wake up in the middle of the night while their mind was playing tricks on them and making the shadows seem almost animated, being able to focus while using your imagination would be helpful.

[adin_panther]

don't get me wrong, i dont believe in the idea of shadow people, but i'm interested enough in the idea that i wouldn't discount it, and i want to discuss it in this thread

Martial artists work on enhancing their ability to focus by doing Kata or sparring while imagining their targets, which can be shadowy, while fighting in dim light or blind.

If someone were to wake up in the middle of the night while their mind was playing tricks on them and making the shadows seem almost animated, being able to focus while using your imagination would be helpful.

Agreed.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

deamons are bullshit.

we started as single cell organisms.
think there were single cell organisms daemons?
how about any of the forms human evolution went through between single cell organisms and monkeys.
do monkeys have daemons? a black furred monkey with red eyes? bullshit do they. humans are monkeys that have evolved a bit. bear that in mind when anyone tries to pull the god, supernatural or any other kind of far fetched bullshit card.

this stuff is very real- in peoples heads. human mind is very complicated, I wouldnt deny people experience this kind of stuff for a second; I could beleive that the human body could damage itself by reacting to injuries that are not infact there. but DO i think it would be all fucked up stuff happening in the brain- nothing to do with all these mythical beings that all spawned at some undefined time between us being monkeys and our current state. to beleive that there are gods and daemons is the most arrogant load of horseshit ive ever heard.
humans are animals, same as any other animal, we just kick alot more ass

[Teutooni]

Some people trust their perceptions too much, or even worse, their friends'.

[CarRepairer]

humans are animals, same as any other animal, we just kick alot more ass

Kicking ass is what separates us from the animals. Well, except for the ass.

[smoth]

I think cuttle fish and octopus would find our lack of camouflage odd, or perhaps serpents would find our lack of agility and venom odd, maybe dolphins think us uptight, or better yet eagles find our lack of sight to be uncomfortable to imagine.

nature is full of all kinds of creatures, our ability to be self realized separates us from the animals and some humans are not even that self realized going through life as really little more than a glorified hairless monkey.

[Panda]

humans are animals, same as any other animal, we just kick alot more ass

Someone who was more religous or studied the supernatural might say that the body is the part of us that is more related to earthly things such as animals, but be also have a soul which is not.

I think humans' ability to have self-realization is, at least, part of what separates us from animals.

[AF]

nonsense, if you mean literal self realization then of course animals do not believe in brahmen or a hidden inner self.

If you're referring to self awareness however, then scientific tests show that numerous animals elephants, apes, dolphins, are self aware, even magpies are self aware ( though I read recently gibbons are not )