Do you think paranormal activity (that can't be explained by science) still goes on in Star Trek?

[The Rock]

We've seen "ghosts" and "demons" in Star Trek that turned out to just be aliens or people using trickery. That's not that I mean. What I mean is, do you think say, on earth in the 24th century, there are still haunted places that the Federation tried to investigate with their advanced scientific equipment, but even with those, they still weren't able to find any scientific answers for why said place is haunted?

I would like to think so. I would hate for every mysterious thing in the universe to have a scientific answer! Some things are better left mysterious.

 

[Relayer1]

I don't think paranormal activity goes on now, let alone in Star Trek.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm pretty sure there are episodes that leave some stuff vague and unanswered, like the end of that Voyager episode where Harry Kim needs to die in order to be rescued.

 

[NCC-73515]

Emanations was great!
But I always liked Trek treating apparently supernatural creatures as rationally explainable biological creatures.

 

[at Quark's]

We've seen "ghosts" and "demons" in Star Trek that turned out to just be aliens or people using trickery. That's not that I mean. What I mean is, do you think say, on earth in the 24th century, there are still haunted places that the Federation tried to investigate with their advanced scientific equipment, but even with those, they still weren't able to find any scientific answers for why said place is haunted?

I would like to think so. I would hate for every mysterious thing in the universe to have a scientific answer! Some things are better left mysterious.

So what exactly is the difference between a 'ghost' and an 'alien' that happens to live in another state of existence? The fact that they cover some with technobabble doesn't mean they really understand what kind of phenomenon it is. For example, I don't think we are ever offered an explanation of how a katra works, or any indication that the 'anaphasic lifeform' from Sub Rosa is really understood (except that it is 'anaphasic' that is and that it needs that candle). So in that sense, I'd say that there still is a lot of paranormal activity in trek.

Or are we talking about people treating paranormal phenomena as being explicitly 'paranormal' in their frame of reference, e.g. terms of 'haunted', 'ghost', etc ? In that sense, there may be little left.

 

[publiusr]

It would be quite something to learn of things that might frighten a Q

 

[Timo]

If anything, Trek is so full of paranormal activity that it has simply become normal.

That is, there's no stigma attached to "currently being unexplainable", both because there's so much precedent on it getting explained in due course, and because facing unknowns that directly affect one's life is so ubiquitous that dealing with it does not call for spirituality or philosophy or a choice between belief and disbelief, but simply for the rolling of sleeves and a can-do attitude.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[NCC-73515]

It would be quite something to learn of things that might frighten a Q

Kids are not supposed to provoke the Borg and are sent to Kathy if they misbehave XD
And the continuum can strip them of their powers, and even then they keep watching...

 

[somebuddyX]

Maybe since Roddenberry abolished all human religions all the supernatural creatures died out as well. But perhaps that didn't affect the aliens in Star Trek so all the Klingon ghosts and Romulan ghouls are still alive and kicking. Unless the Klingons killed all the ghosts at the same time they killed off all their gods, that is.

 

[at Quark's]

Kids are not supposed to provoke the Borg and are sent to Kathy if they misbehave XD

Those people on that insanely accelerated planet of Blink of an eye (VOY), relatively primitive though they still were at that point in time, must have had an innate sense of Truth:

Astronomer: My grandfather wouldn't allow it. He told us that the Sky Ship was a palace where an Evil Protector lived. He said that bad children were sent there to be punished.

 

[1001001]

"Nothing unreal exists."

 

[Sci]

We've seen "ghosts" and "demons" in Star Trek that turned out to just be aliens or people using trickery. That's not that I mean. What I mean is, do you think say, on earth in the 24th century, there are still haunted places that the Federation tried to investigate with their advanced scientific equipment, but even with those, they still weren't able to find any scientific answers for why said place is haunted?

No. Also, there are no haunted places today.

I would like to think so. I would hate for every mysterious thing in the universe to have a scientific answer! Some things are better left mysterious.

Why? The entire point of Star Trek is the search for scientific knowledge.

I'm sure there are things in the Star Trek Universe that are not fully understood and under scientific investigation, but there is no such thing as the supernatural.

 

[XCV330]

It would be quite something to learn of things that might frighten a Q

Guinan does

 

[1001001]

Guinan does

Well....

 

[The Rock]

I don't think paranormal activity goes on now

No. Also, there are no haunted places today.

I wholeheartedly disagree.

 

[Relayer1]

I wholeheartedly disagree.

You are entirely able to, but I'm not superstitious - I don't believe in luck, gods, ghosts etc.

There's things we don't understand - yet. There may well be some things we never understand. Unexplained does not, however, necessitate paranormal in a supernatural way.

I'll accept the term in an "scientific knowledge is currently inadequate" context.

 

[Tim Thomason]

The phrase "that can't be explained by science" is meaningless. That's kind of like saying "that can't be explained by explanations." If we are using "Paranormal" with that meaningless definition, then there is no such thing as a paranormal occurrence, as everything can be (eventually) explained.

In the real world, we don't have explanations for lots of things. Not just spooky houses and UFOs, but loads of mathematical equations, dark matter/energy stuff, cosmological constants, the origins of everything. Are these paranormal phenomena? No, they're just unexplained. Not unexplainable, but unexplained. Even if the answer is God and Jesus and Santa Claus, that's still an explanation that science has yet to identify (and may never identify).

In Star Trek Land, the unexplained is everywhere. And fantastical explanations (higher beings like Q and Organians, amazingly advanced technologies like warp travel and transporters connected to fantastical realms like subspace and the mycelial network) abound. Ghosts exist, in the form of crazy aliens, but still ghosts in every conceivable definition. People have come back from the dead, due to super-science or crazy science, but that's still resurrection. The Gods are real (Apollo, Kukulkan, Lucifer), even if the stories we came up with didn't quite match their background.

And magic is a thing that people can do. But only in Megas-Tu. Although it bears a strong similarity to the thought powers displayed by Wesley Crusher and the Traveler.

 

[Sci]

I wholeheartedly disagree.

If you can demonstrate the existence of ghosts and of the supernatural using the scientific method, I'll buy it. Until then, if there's no evidence for it, it probably doesn't exist.

 

[fireproof78]

I would like to think so. I would hate for every mysterious thing in the universe to have a scientific answer! Some things are better left mysterious.

Just because there is the possibility of a scientific answer doesn't make it less mysterious. Simply that we don't fully understand it...yet. I believe that humans are fully capable of learning and will continue to do so, even as a person who believes in some supernatural beings, like God.

 

[1001001]

A very significant portion of human history consists of replacing magical beliefs with science as the tools become available. From the first time someone climbed Mt. Olympus and confirmed there were no gods there...

Star Trek extrapolates that into the future. It is a central tenet of the franchise that we can understand anything, given enough time and opportunity. We see that all the time.