Most plausible paranormal phenomena

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I went with the aliens. If there is an extremely advanced society around say Alpha Centauri they might conceivably send out a craft that can get there and back in a couple of decades.

Ghosts are extremely unlikely. It is highly doubtful that whatever might survive bodily death contains any trace of consciousness or personal identity.

ESP seems unlikely because there doesn't seem to be a mechanism by which any form of energy can be transmitted directly to the brain bypassing the senses.

I am highly skeptical of crypto-zoology because I believe it is highly unlikely that we will discover a land or sea based species as large as a dinosaur or even Bigfoot. The Bigfoot legend has been going strong for over 50 years indicating if it exists it is probably not a single being. It must be part of a breeding population that at one time must have been rather large. I don't think a community like that could avoid detection this long. Also correct me if I am wrong, but there is no such thing as New World Apes. How could Bigfoot have evolved in the Pacific Northwest?

 

[ProtoAvatar]

That there's other life out there is an unproven fact. The universe is simply too big and too complex for there to not be.

Is it?

About life - there's no way to know.

About intelligent, technological life - if it exists out there, why is there no sign of it? Why isn't the universe singing the songs of intelligence?

If only civilizations at roughly our development level exist in the universe, then the absence of signals would be understandable.
But intelligent life should have been able to evolve BILLIONS of years ago - the necessary prerequisites were all present. Do you know how long it would take a technological species to colonize the entire galaxy - even with spacecraft we're able to (theoretically) design, which don't even come close to reaching the speed of light? ~100 million years. In billions of years, such a species could colonize the galaxy dozens of times over.
And yet, no signal of intelligent origin reaches us.
No alien construction was detected - dyson spheres, ringworlds, etc, etc.
Did you know that we can detect the spectral change in a sun's emitted light when nuclear fission waste is thrown in it for disposal? So far, nothing.
The universe seems to be in its primordial state, shaped only by the laws of nature, not by intelligence.

Intelligent, technological life being out there is an 'unproven fact'? Not even close.

 

[apenpaap]

Aliens visiting Earth, Bigfoot, living dinosaurs, and sea monsters are not paranormal, and thus much more likely than the other two. Of those four, from unlikely to likely (IMO):
4: Aliens visiting Earth. Though I have no doubt that aliens exist, interstellar distances are so vast that a visit is very unlikely.
3: Living dinosaurs (apart from birds, obviously). If some of them survived for the past 65 million years, how come not a single fossil turned up on that time? How come there has never been a reliable observation of one? How come they didn't become the dominant group on Earth again after the meteorite's mess cleaned up? (It would take about ten million years for mammals to evolve to large forms after it, and dinosaurs that survived the meteor could have become dominant again during this period)
2: Bigfoot. I suppose it's possible that a huge primate walks around somewhere in America. Not very likely, but not impossible either.
1: Sea monsters. Each year (IIRC) two new large sea animals are found, and most of these you would call a sea monster if you saw one.

 

[Unicron]

Ghosts are extremely unlikely. It is highly doubtful that whatever might survive bodily death contains any trace of consciousness or personal identity.

One can always argue though that a ghost doesn't need to be sentient to haunt - it could just be an echo of energy which got imprinted on the environment by some traumatic event. This would also explain reports of non-human ghosts, such as ghostly animals or objects. I tend to be on the fence myself when it comes to that question, because this explanation works for some reported hauntings but in others there is a more consistent claim that the ghost(s) were indeed sentient and remembered their mortal lives.

I'm skeptical of some cryptozoological claims, including Bigfoot. One issue I have is that, given advancements in technology, I think the ability of such creatures to hide (and it is most likely a population of them, not just random individuals) is becoming less and less likely. I mean, I can go on Google and look at a visual representation of my neighborhood.

 

[T'Girl]

Also correct me if I am wrong, but there is no such thing as New World Apes. How could Bigfoot have evolved in the Pacific Northwest?

Have to go with Bigfoot being the most likely. I live in Seattle, Washington, you travel 40 mile to the east and you're in the deep dark forest. If you're talking about a few thousand animals that are intelligent enough to bury their dead, combined with many thousands of square miles of forest (google earth is unfocused up there), difficult terrain, area off limits to logging, it easy to believe in bigfoot.

Bigfoot could have traveled here from north-east asia thousands of years ago during the time period when so many new species entered north america for the first time, Same time as people did, same path. It wouldn't have had to evolve here.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Also correct me if I am wrong, but there is no such thing as New World Apes. How could Bigfoot have evolved in the Pacific Northwest?

Have to go with Bigfoot being the most likely. I live in Seattle, Washington, you travel 40 mile to the east and you're in the deep dark forest. If you're talking about a few thousand animals that are intelligent enough to bury their dead, combined with many thousands of square miles of forest (google earth is unfocused up there), difficult terrain, area off limits to logging, it easy to believe in bigfoot.

Bigfoot could have traveled here from north-east asia thousands of years ago during the time period when so many new species entered north america for the first time, Same time as people did, same path. It wouldn't have had to evolve here.

Bigfoot is also the only paranormal "phenomenon" or "creature" with an analogue in the fossil record in the form of the giant ape, Gigantopithecus Blacki. While no complete specimens have been found, it's thought by many that the spotty skeletal remains that have been discovered could easily be extrapolated that the creature was a close match for descriptions of the modern Sasquatch. These apes lived in SE Asia and MAY have migrated across to the New World along with humans. They were as much as ten feet all and may or may not have been bipedal. It's uncertain as no pelvic remains have been found but it was postulated by the late Grover Krantz of the U of WA that, based on the the fact that Blacki's jaw widened at the back and was an over all U-shape, like humans, (as opposed to the a V-shape, like apes) this indicated that the skull set atop the spine in the manner of a biped.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus

Again, Bigfoot has more evidence, both physical and circumstantial than ANY of the other suggested "phenomena" as well as have a representation in the fossil record. What remains "implausible" about it?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Also correct me if I am wrong, but there is no such thing as New World Apes. How could Bigfoot have evolved in the Pacific Northwest?

Have to go with Bigfoot being the most likely. I live in Seattle, Washington, you travel 40 mile to the east and you're in the deep dark forest. If you're talking about a few thousand animals that are intelligent enough to bury their dead, combined with many thousands of square miles of forest (google earth is unfocused up there), difficult terrain, area off limits to logging, it easy to believe in bigfoot.

Bigfoot could have traveled here from north-east asia thousands of years ago during the time period when so many new species entered north america for the first time, Same time as people did, same path. It wouldn't have had to evolve here.

Bigfoot is also the only paranormal "phenomenon" or "creature" with an analogue in the fossil record in the form of the giant ape, Gigantopithecus Blacki. While no complete specimens have been found, it's thought by many that the spotty skeletal remains that have been discovered could easily be extrapolated that the creature was a close match for descriptions of the modern Sasquatch. These apes lived in SE Asia and MAY have migrated across to the New World along with humans. They were as much as ten feet all and may or may not have been bipedal. It's uncertain as no pelvic remains have been found but it was postulated by the late Grover Krantz of the U of WA that, based on the the fact that Blacki's jaw widened at the back and was an over all U-shape, like humans, (as opposed to the a V-shape, like apes) this indicated that the skull set atop the spine in the manner of a biped.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus

Again, Bigfoot has more evidence, both physical and circumstantial than ANY of the other suggested "phenomena" as well as have a representation in the fossil record. What remains "implausible" about it?

Again the lack of any fossil traces or evidence of a breeding population anywhere in North America. Gigantopithicus was a Southeast Asian creature who dies out about half a million years ago. If you want to trace Bigfoot to it where is any evidence of a migratory pattern?

 

[Zachary Smith]

There is no "direct" evidence--just as there is no incontrovertible direct evidence that Bigfoot exists at all. Unidentifiable hair samples which have primate characteristics yet match no known species of record have been recovered many times--but that is compelling rather than conclusive evidence. These hair samples MUST be coming from a source and, if they are being planted by hoaxers--one must be able to account for WHERE the hoaxers are able to obtain otherwise unidentifiable hair samples with primate characteristics. It's similar to the conundrum of the footprints which have been discovered which contain EXACTING MICROSCOPIC details, including sweat pores and dermal ridges, and which are FLEXIBLE and give across rocks and rough terrain like living tissue would (as oppose to "carved wooden feet" or other static models) and have been deposited into the ground with a pressure indicating a weight well about an average of 600 pounds or more YET demonstrate such traits as the toes FLEXING to get a better grip on an inclined surface. Again, these examples EXIST. And the question boils down to asking whether it is more reasonable to consider that expert hoaxers with virtually unprecedented skill are spending who knows how much money and time to "plant" these indicators (with no hope or expectation of financial reward) --sometimes for decades at a time (this in the case of the uniquely identifiable "club-footed" big-foot tracks which showed up seasonally for more than 15 years) or if there is a REAL creature.

Clearly migration from the Asian subcontinent WAS possible. Humans did it and so did a host of other animals. If they could have done it, it is obvious that Gigantopithecus could have as well. There are countless examples of creatures traveling to the New World across the Bearing Land Bridge. If you mean to suggest the Gigantopithecus could not have done while hundreds of other species could have, then the onus is on you to make that argument.

As I've stated all along, the evidence for Bigfoot is highly compelling but tantalizingly inconclusive. I can't address WHY no dead bodies have been found or live specimins captured other than possibly that bigfoot is a threshold species, highly intelligent, very few in number, shy and perhaps capable of burying its dead. Due to the fact none have been captured and no bodies found, I say I beleive in the LIKELYHOOD of Bigfoot but I don't claim it as fact. There ARE other possible explanations for the evidence, they just seem less likely than the idea there IS a creature there.