Ouija Board Experiences

[mista_mo]

No one is saying that you're crazy for believing in what you choose to Ned, but I am getting the distinct impression that you think that someone that believes in the supernatural, or holds certain religious beliefs is not of sound mind. edit, is it also possible for a thread that has a tangible connection to the otherwordly to not deviate into a huge penis measuring contest about which belief is right and which is incorrect?

[AcesandEights]

is it also possible for a thread that has a tangible connection to the otherwordly to not deviate into a huge penis measuring contest about which belief is right and which is incorrect? I would disagree with such a spurious line of reasoning whilst laughing with my large penis spilling forth from my hand, but you posted it in the form of a question and not an opinion...so I can't

[EvilNed]

No one is saying that you're crazy for believing in what you choose to Ned, but I am getting the distinct impression that you think that someone that believes in the supernatural, or holds certain religious beliefs is not of sound mind. My best friend is a devout christian. Or rather, he's a rastafari (even crazier!). And when I say best friend, I really do mean best friend. We talk everyday. We just don't talk about that - possibly for the reasons you stated... is it also possible for a thread that has a tangible connection to the otherwordly to not deviate into a huge penis measuring contest about which belief is right and which is incorrect? Probably not. And I digress.

[JDFP]

No one is saying that you're crazy for believing in what you choose to Ned, but I am getting the distinct impression that you think that someone that believes in the supernatural, or holds certain religious beliefs is not of sound mind. edit, is it also possible for a thread that has a tangible connection to the otherwordly to not deviate into a huge penis measuring contest about which belief is right and which is incorrect? Good point (first paragraph above), Mo. I find it beyond bittersweet irony that anyone could find religious ideology to be against someone with a 'sound mind' and yet prescribe to the insanity of Communist ideology, personally, but that's just me. From a strictly Atheistic stand-point (which I am certainly not) it's basically saying "Let's replace a religious fantasy by inserting a fantasy of a world in which all people will be equal and there will be no wealthy or poor." To quote Church lady, "Well, isn't that special". Shit, I should have read your second paragraph before posting that above... Really though, the whole argument on the matter of faith/spirituality is really a circular argument. It's like Kant said some 300 years ago, "The existence of God cannot be proved or disproved empirically." I'd say the same could be applied to any discussion on demons/angels/ghosts/spirits and the ilk... although I dig Terran's idea of "multiverses" as a potential theory. Ned is just as accurate from his perspective of calling spiritual ideology a sham on his own subjective level as I am in accepting it on my own subjective level. Anyway, it's a matter of preference and choice in what we choose to believe -- believing or disbelieving in a spiritual realm -- these are a matter of personal preferences. j.p.

[EvilNed]

Personally, I do not believe that belief is a choice at all. I could not "choose" to believe in ghosts or god, even if I wanted too, anymore than I could choose to be turned on by men or start enjoying reggae music.

[Terran]

Personally, I do not believe that belief is a choice at all. Is this statement designed to make a robots brain explode? If so I take it as a future threat.

[EvilNed]

Let's just say I picked up a trick or two from a certain starship captain... http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Induced_self-destruction

[AcesandEights]

Is this statement designed to make a robots brain explode? If so I take it as a future threat. Terran, do you ever use contractions?

[EvilNed]

terran, do you ever use contractions? dun dun dunnnn!!!

[Wyldwraith]

For the record, I do not predispose towards fright, unless I myself am in danger. I do not believe in, nor have I reacted to irrational and/or substance-lacking fear triggers for well over two decades. Having experienced a deranged parent who physically abused my mother, little brother, and myself for a protracted period of time, and having lived in fear during that time due to the practice of what was essentially small-scale psychological warfare, I have a very high break-point for fear and/or anxiety. Examples of more common "games" played by my biological father to screw with us and cause an increase in our fear of him due to his violent and unpredictable behavior. 1) 2-3 hours after the house had settled down and everyone had gone to bed (or seemed to) some time ago, my biological father would quietly enter the bedroom I shared with my little brother and activate one of those obnoxiously piercing Air Horns to shock us awake from a dead sleep. In the moments of confusion/interval before either of us regained our wits, he would lean in over top of whichever one of us made a sound of distress first and roar insults and demeaning statements at the top of his lungs, with his face only a couple of inches from the face of whichever one of us he'd targeted that time. This would be followed by a general boomingly loud rant towards both of us. Any attempt to leave the room while he was ranting would provoke an incident of outright physical abuse, or at the very least another personalized attempt to intimidate and scare the living shit out of us. Most of these incidents concluded with our Mom attempting to intervene (to redirect his hostility towards her and away from us. The night's "festivities" would then conclude with an incident of physical or emotional abuse, with my mother as the target, before he inevitably stormed off to the master bedroom and ordered my Mom to accompany him. 2) "Father Dearest" would set one or both of us two impossibly contradictory edicts. A basic example would be a demand that I vacuum the house, except his second shouted demand would be "If I hear so much as the loose step creak once I've gone to bed for the day (Firefighter who often worked nights, and would thankfully be gone for 3-4 days at a time regularly) my belt buckle will go across your backside. Ditto if the vacuuming isn't done by the time I get up for work this evening. Obviously a lose-lose scenario, with obvious, brutally painful consequences. 3) Countless sick pranks and psychological ploys meant to terrify me and my brother. In any case, my point in all this is I have a CRYSTAL CLEAR understanding of my fear, the effect it has and has had on me at various times in my life. My personal experiences during my formative years, where the only portion of the nightmare I could mitigate was seeing through his sick pranks and fear-inducing ploys has a) Desensitized me to a large extent, and b) Created an automatically skeptical reflex that I've gone on to get quite a bit of mileage out of in my adult life. So, when I say I saw something, you can trust that I've already considered as many potential "rational explanations" as I can attribute to the situation. The quality that stands out in my mind isn't the history of the house, or even the totality of the malevolent apparition. It was the inexplicable way that direct sunlight was unreasonably warped/affected. If not for that, I would be the first one to dismiss what I saw as my mind playing tricks on me. I have nothing but respect for those whose experience and/or belief has led them to conclude such phenomena are simply misunderstood incidents of a scientific principle at work. They are as entitled to their perspectives as those of us that could be termed "believers" are to our own. All I ask is that the patronizing, contempt-laden manner be left out of the dialog. It serves no constructive purpose, and is grossly disrespectful to individuals as entrenched in their intellectual position as the skeptics are in theirs.

[Terran]

Terran, do you ever use contractions? My programming may be inadequate to the task. I study people carefully, in order to more closely approximate human behavior.

[Tricky]

Damn wyld thats harsh, you come across as a decent guy on here though so I hope it hasnt badly affected you as a person. As for ghosts and spirits, whether you believe in them or not, they've made decent plot devices for hundreds of films!

[Terran]

All I ask is that the patronizing, contempt-laden manner be left out of the dialog. It serves no constructive purpose, and is grossly disrespectful to individuals as entrenched in their intellectual position as the skeptics are in theirs. "I seem to have reached an odd functional impasse. I am, uh... stuck." The last time I was a common visitor/poster I think I was much more patronizing, this time around I am trying to be more 'polite'. Perhaps this will change though....

[krakenslayer]

All I ask is that the patronizing, contempt-laden manner be left out of the dialog. It serves no constructive purpose, and is grossly disrespectful to individuals as entrenched in their intellectual position as the skeptics are in theirs. This is a big misconception. People throw the word around without using it correctly. "Skeptic" (or "sceptic" as we say over here) does not mean "disbeliever", it means someone who weighs up, as evenly as possible, all the available evidence and arguments using logic and scientific method, without presupposing belief or disbelief. In other words, a true sceptic does not set out to specifically prove the existence of ghosts/aliens/fairies, nor does he set out to specifically disprove their existence; he just wants to know one way or the other without a pre-determined bias. The word for someone who dismisses things outright would by "cynic".

[darth los]

No one is saying that you're crazy for believing in what you choose to Ned, but I am getting the distinct impression that you think that someone that believes in the supernatural, or holds certain religious beliefs is not of sound mind. Exactly. To believe what religious people do you have to suspend your reasoning power, which more than anything else distinguishes us from the "lower" forms of life on the planet. And if people get offended, so be it. The truth often does that. There's not a shred of proof that santa exists either. Anyone wanna make a case for that too?