Questioning the Paranormal

[Gryffindorian]

I have been watching this series on The Travel Channel called Into the Unknown, featuring adventurer Cliff Simon. Like many documentaries, the show investigates paranormal phenomena and mysterious creatures of folklore and myth. Simon interviews eyewitnesses to the sightings, consults with local experts, and sets up state-of-the-art recording equipment in an attempt to document the case. There's a suspenseful build-up, and at the end, he's nowhere closer to proving the existence of Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil than when he started.

Anecdotal evidence is just that. Who's to say the so-called witnesses aren't lying or making things up? Or more likely, their senses or perception could have been impaired at the time (too much alcohol, drug use, hallucinations brought on by illness, etc.). Even if these people believe what they saw, there's always the possibility that someone was simply walking around the forest in a gorilla suit.

Other paranormal documentaries are so laughable; you can even tell someone staged the "bizarre" incident on video. While the objective of these series is to document strange goings-on, they accomplish quite the opposite.

What are your thoughts on the paranormal? I believe there's a scientific and rational explanation for everything we humans experience, no matter how unusual. Superstitious or magical thinking is not the right way to find the answers.

 

[Imaus]

I have been watching this series on The Travel Channel called Into the Unknown, featuring adventurer Cliff Simon. Like many documentaries, the show investigates paranormal phenomena and mysterious creatures of folklore and myth. Simon interviews eyewitnesses to the sightings, consults with local experts, and sets up state-of-the-art recording equipment in an attempt to document the case. There's a suspenseful build-up, and at the end, he's nowhere closer to proving the existence of Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil than when he started.

Anecdotal evidence is just that. Who's to say the so-called witnesses aren't lying or making things up? Or more likely, their senses or perception could have been impaired at the time (too much alcohol, drug use, hallucinations brought on by illness, etc.). Even if these people believe what they saw, there's always the possibility that someone was simply walking around the forest in a gorilla suit.

Other paranormal documentaries are so laughable; you can even tell someone staged the "bizarre" incident on video. While the objective of these series is to document strange goings-on, they accomplish quite the opposite.

What are your thoughts on the paranormal? I believe there's a scientific and rational explanation for everything we humans experience, no matter how unusual. Superstitious or magical thinking is not the right way to find the answers.

My thoughts are that it would be nice to experience something paranormal, supernatural, but aye, there's an explanation for everything tied to the material laws of the universe. While we may never get to the grand theory of everything or the exact reason why the smallest things do as they do, we'll still try to understand.

And yea most media outright stinks; it's staged or it's keyfabe, but it sells, somehow.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

To quote Simmons from Agents of Shield, magic is just science we don’t understand yet.

You don’t have to be lying or on drugs. You just have to be extremely subject to confirmation bias and prefer to live in a more magical world than the one we do.

It’s easy to spot patterns that seem to tell a story if that’s what you’re trying to find.

 

[Silvercrest]

I have been watching this series on The Travel Channel called Into the Unknown, featuring adventurer Cliff Simon.

Heyyy, it's Ba'al!

 

[Velocity]

You have to figure everything on tv is purely for entertainment, not really trying to "solve" anything with serious investigation. The producers invent situations to make for more drama, etc. Plus, with all the ways to use computers to add or take away from video, etc, it's impossible for the layperson to discern or trust what is going on anyway. I think most people watch merely to see if they can tell "how it was done".