Have you ever had a "supernatural" experience? How did you rationalize it?

[cresur]

Very enlightening post, Soapy Sam, thanks.

 

[Piggy]

So, allow me to restate his query somewhat: what do you do, as a skeptic, when you encounter something that strikes you as having no rational explanation? How do you keep it from bothering you.

In my case, I just figure, well, it's a big old damn world and all I got is my iddy biddy brain.

I can't explain that Halloween experience any way you slice it.

But by definition, something you can't explain cannot be evidence of anything.

So, as a skeptic, it doesn't lead me to any conclusions.

Sure, it's frustrating in a way to ponder experiences you can't figure out. But I can't figure out the whole damn universe I'm in, and never will, so I have no desire to go reaching for a paranormal explanation of an event just because I have no other one to hand and just because it happened to me.

 

[XLDS03]

It has made me wonder how many of those religious conversion moments one hears about are caused by this type of glitch. It's similar to that deja vue moment that many of us experience occasionally when the brain gets a spurious "I've seen this before" signal. Just imagine if you're already religiously inclined and are hit by this experience while meditating or pondering the existence of your god, it'd be hard not to resist.

One thing I have got out of the episode is when a religious person is trying to sell their particular brand of wishful thinking to me and they say "But if only you had experienced the joy of understanding God's love!" or whatever, and I can reply that I have and I found there's nothing there.

I love it when that happens! Warm, sunny day, a glass of iced tea, a good book, and ah, I understand! What, I don't know, but I understand!

Reading this and the post about voices while cleaning out grout made me think of the times at work when everyone goes home that I'll randomly feel stark terror. My hair stands on end, my blood runs cold, chills run down my spine, and I can just feel the eyes of some invisible predator piercing into me waiting to pounce. I can almost feel the presence of some black form following me. I'm sure that if I look out the window I'll see some monster looking back at me.

Then I think, "Why would some alien travel thousands of light years just to stare at me through the window? Is it voyeuristic and holding a video camera?" I start to laugh and get on with my work. I start to wonder if my workplace is haunted. Then I think to myself, if it is haunted them ghosts better not set off the alarm!

I have to do a security check around the building alone with many of the lights either burned out or not timed right. I torture myself with little thought experiments like what if a bear/pitbull/sasquatch/Aliens Ressurection alien/human hybrid monster/Cloverfield monster was after me. How quickly can I hop this fence?

Whatever that glitch is a little humor will certainly cure it!

 

[Drewbot]

I don't know if non-hoax Bigfoot sightings fall into supernatural experiences, however, I am theorizing that an explanation of "I Saw a Bigfoot" is the product of a coping mechanism, created by someone who experiences a hallucination of some type. It is easier for someone to create in their mind a Bigfoot experience, than to try and explain to someone that they had a Hallucination. (Which most people think equates to mental illness, or which most people think-that people think is indicative of a mental illness).

Whether the hallucinations are triggered by; Sleep disorders, Substance use, extreme sleepiness or other factor, I can't tell, however, I did a poll at a Bigfoot Forum, asking if the respondents had ever experienced a hallucination while driving tired, and I was surprised at the result. http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=21898&hl=

I don't have General Population figures on the number of people who experience hallucinations, but the poll on the Bigfoot site is running close to 40% positive-response.
Is this because that is the standard population percentage of people that experience this, or is it that high because the forum is made up of a higher percentage people who are prone to hallucinations?