The Paranormal

[skykiii]

This morning I had what might be paranormal experiences, but might just be hallucinations.

For context, its been raining and thundering in my area since last night.

At one point I was awakened by what sounded like a cat meowing at the foot of my bed. Now, this itself is not unusual--there's a hole where cats get into my walls and one in particular likes to meow, but usually his spot is off to the right, not directly at the foot. So I tested by calling back. But I got no response. And it really did sound like it was coming from the direction of my feet.

Then I go to sleep for a bit, then wake up. I was in that point where you sometimes just lay awake thinking, and I heard some cats fight on the front porch (itself not an uncommon occurrence). Then I heard a voice--that sounded like it was right beside me (on a side of the bed where there was a wall, so nobody could possibly be standing there) that if I went to the front door right now, it would teach me to understand the values of... I think it meant cats? But it didn't say cats. It sounded more like the name of some noble family. I think it said Atos Sterringford (could have been Atox, or Sherringford, or whatever).

Also don't know if it meant the entire species or one cat in particular.

I stayed in bed because I wasn't that interested and just wanted to sleep. But I keep thinking about this.

Concerning other paranormal stuff, how come nobody on the planet, despite billions of people owning a smartphone, on top of all the CCTVs and other surveillance equipment, both private and government/military, has not been able to submit irrefutable evidence of the supernatural?

Who says they haven't?

Or actually, define "irrefutable." Exactly what kind of video could be made that could not be dismissed by skeptics as "that's photoshop" or "that's CGI" or "that's just special effects?"

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

Concerning other paranormal stuff, how come nobody on the planet, despite billions of people owning a smartphone, on top of all the CCTVs and other surveillance equipment, both private and government/military, has not been able to submit irrefutable evidence of the supernatural?

that is assuming that there is some scientific explanation for metaphysical phenomena, if paranormal entities were real are we are talking about an spiritual thing, then i don't see why they would conform to a materialistic worldview or be visible on cameras that are only meant to capture things that within the physical realm.

 

[regalterry]

Or actually, define "irrefutable." Exactly what kind of video could be made that could not be dismissed by skeptics as "that's photoshop" or "that's CGI" or "that's just special effects?"

Yes, a video, or some other form of evidence, that couldn't be easily dismissed as CGI or photoshopping.

Again, with the proliferation of recording devices all across the globe, surely someone should have caught something on camera.

Hell, go even further back, why hasn't anyone managed to kill one of those cryptids in the past 200 to 300 years and brought it over to the general public, and scientists?

We should have a few strong pieces of evidence that can't be easily dismissed by now, considering how many people there are and how much time has passed.

 

[Core Theorist]

Yes, a video, or some other form of evidence, that couldn't be easily dismissed as CGI or photoshopping(...)
(...)We should have a few strong pieces of evidence that can't be easily dismissed by now, considering how many people there are and how much time has passed.

I think there's some clarifying factors that really need to be considered. Consider an example of the archetypal cryptid like, say, Bigfoot. It's entirely plausible that a large, apeish creature stalks a portion of the North American wilderness: of course there are large gorillas and such like. Why not a vaguely similar specimen in the depths of America, hiding from modern man by the simple fact it's so damn deep in the woods and has a modest, dwindling population besides?

Then there are the practical realities. For it to be extant yet undiscovered, considering Bigfoot is described as a very large and very powerfully built ape-like organism, it has to have an appreciable impact on its environment for there to be enough breeding stock to continue the BIgfoot species. There could be a small 'tribe' of Bigfoot out there, eking out a meager existence somewhere where Man hasn't really walked before. But, on the other hand, as stated earlier such a tribe of Bigfeet would still need to eat, ranging for food just like any other animal. Surely this would be noticed, as you said?

So why can't Bigfoot or other cryptids with similar situations be discovered easily? Yeah, there's a lot of people, and a good amount of them in the woods around the year, but are there a lot of people constantly going everywhere in the entirety of all of the woods with the most modern and up-to-date, bleeding edge of technology to specifically hunt for cryptids? Of course not!

The vast majority of the teeming masses are just interested in more regular hiking shit when they're out there. Nobody's specifically going as deep as possible in the woods to look for Bigfoot, and Bigfoot isn't intentionally looking for people either: He's looking for whatever he eats or for a place to shit and everything else animals do. To use an analogy, it's not like the cops can reliably find every single nigger evading a warrant for their arrest, even with modern technology. And of course, there's even less interest for catching Bigfoot than there is for catching niggers.

For me and mine, I think plenty of cryptids could be real, but they have to be endangered species of some description, only handfuls of them in the modern day. Or, they were real but just aren't around anymore because they all died. Or, maybe cross-bred with similar, more conventional organisms.

 

[skykiii]

Yes, a video, or some other form of evidence, that couldn't be easily dismissed as CGI or photoshopping.

You're asking for a metaphorical unicorn at this point. I can't conceive of a ghost, UFO, bigfoot etc. video that couldn't theoretically be dismissed even if it was 100% real.

Literally videos can't prove something exists because anything on video could be fake. The only way to prove something is to experience it first-hand, but then that only proves it to the person experiencing it.

Hell, go even further back, why hasn't anyone managed to kill one of those cryptids in the past 200 to 300 years and brought it over to the general public, and scientists?

Who says they haven't and then debunkers just said "oh that's a dog with mange" or "that's a misshapen monkey"? And the rest of us only get to hear about it from reports dilluted across many generations.

Dude we couldn't even prove conclusively that OJ Simpson killed his wife even though everyone knows he did. If we can't prove the bleeding obvious, why then do you assume proving the supernatural would be easy?

EDIT: Gonna also add that there's plenty of now-known animals (IIRC the Boa Constrictor and the Komodo Dragon were two of them) that were believed to be mythical for centuries, despite folk accounts. This goes back to my previous point: we couldn't even prove something that tons of people with monetary incentives were trying to prove, that most of the population know in their gut to be true no matter what the judge says... so why be so quick to dismiss the paranormal?

 

[Yak-130 Mitten]

I just like putting spooky videos to fall asleep to.

 

[Atli]

I just like putting spooky videos to fall asleep to.

I miss pre-ai text-to-speech youtube channels that were dedicated to reading /x/ posts. Half of them were garbage, but some were truly enjoyable to listen to. All were very cozy. It's been so long I don't remember these channels' names anymore. I know there's midnight broadcast, who afaik still pumps stuff out daily. and there's this one called keque or kekque that is inactive. Those were good times

 

[Yak-130 Mitten]

I miss pre-ai text-to-speech youtube channels that were dedicated to reading /x/ posts. Half of them were garbage, but some were truly enjoyable to listen to. All were very cozy. It's been so long I don't remember these channels' names anymore. I know there's midnight broadcast, who afaik still pumps stuff out daily. and there's this one called keque or kekque that is inactive. Those were good times

I didnt know midnight broadcast, I will check it out.

And honestly I am not bothered by AI. Most traditional youtubers pump out trash anyway, so if anything AI can make landscape a bit better.

 

[Flan Handler]

I didnt know midnight broadcast, I will check it out.

And honestly I am not bothered by AI. Most traditional youtubers pump out trash anyway, so if anything AI can make landscape a bit better.

Except- AI picks up the most annoying part of YouTube videos- clickbait title, 5 minutes of hype for the topic to come…. And then a 50/50 chance of ending up on the topic described in the thumbnail.

It’s somehow more of a waste of time. Or I’m just hostile that my precious time on this earth was wasted by a chatbot instead of a human I can have a proper parasocial relationship with.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

For me and mine, I think plenty of cryptids could be real, but they have to be endangered species of some description, only handfuls of them in the modern day. Or, they were real but just aren't around anymore because they all died. Or, maybe cross-bred with similar, more conventional organisms.

You're overthinking it. There's almost no Bigfoots left because John Marston killed almost all of them back in 1911.

So glad more frens are sharing stories here. This helps out my own studies greatly, however anecdotal/circumstantial they might be.

Swedenborg is really, really good shit (especially as it relates to this topic).

I found this through searching for Kiwi Farmers (then being known as such a morally upstanding bunch, after all) posts with Swedenborg in it. I've become more interested in him lately. I like the side of the Reformation that was more utopian and hippie-ish.

What really caught my attention was that it feels like he was on the same wavelength as me. It makes me happy when I know there's someone else that's at least thinking in the same direction that was recognized as smart, that my ideas might be crude but it's not just pure raving. Mysticism (which is more of an Orthodox tradition, but of course Swedenborg was a mystic) matches with my experience. I've never had a vision but I have had what I think people mean when they say revelations. What really got me on him was his theory of correspondences.

I had a practice that I talked about on the Farms before. I called it baptism, but it turns out that it's actually rather similar to a Cherokee practice called "going to the water," but the form it came to take was going to a river, praying to the river (as a sort of symbol of the egregore of the ecosystem that forms in that river watershed) and immersing myself into it. It's more like the Cherokee practice than baptism because baptism focuses on a metaphor of washing oneself clean of sin, while the Cherokee were focused on the idea of achieving union with the natural landscape. The prayer would be on historical (human and natural) themes of the river, and as I got better at doing this I would basically weave a narrative around what the river (watershed) symbolizes about the human condition, virtues tied to it, and relate it back to the self with practical application. When I go on vacation I also tend to go to historic church services of interesting denominations, and vacations are like semi-pilgrimages to me now as I know I'll go to a service and go to the waters at the local bodies of interest.

Compared to other religious practice - I have been drawn to religion my whole life - I had never found a practice that had such a transformative effect on me internally. I'd have these sorts of spells of active religiosity, especially under stress, but not with anything to show for it. Once I permitted myself to start investing myself in things that are actually meaningful to me, I found that it didn't feel LARPy or silly at all and I was ultimately transformed. I can still get real glum or angry, but nothing like I once was. I used to be bedeviled with awful hateful circling thoughts, and that largely fell away. I started to be able to relate better to people and have these revelations/epiphanies frequently. The closest thing I know to it is what people call a spiritual awakening (like Swedenborg had), or the old Greek word metanoia.

I had also been afraid of taking that step because I was afraid that if the church-style Christianity business was right, then I'd be cheesing God pretty badly, but I found that wasn't so. When I'd go to the waters I'd find that the world would often glow much more intensely - brighter colors, intense Sun - and be accompanied with signs like rainbows (one of my best took place on the New River, where there was a double rainbow). But one of the things that also made the New River different was that I started explicitly including Jesus in my prayers. God seemed to like the going to the river, but also to like it more if I included Jesus as an object of worship. I started to find Christianity began to make a lot more sense and seem a lot more compatible with my views. It was coming together as a sort of panentheistic Christianity, like what Hegel (never read a lick of him, this is all secondhand) believed in. I could pray the Sorrowful Mysteries on a rosary (it's a Catholic practice, but a harmless one, I have my own program of prayers for it) and actually cry with grief over it or, like last night, feel compelled to hold my porch crucifix to my breast while smoking my cigar and listening to church music.

Spoiler: My rosary, if of interest

Structure of a Rosary

Coin 1 – The Apostolic Creed​

Bead 1 – Omnipotentia Patris​

Bead 2 – An Act of Praise​

Bead 3 – O Sanctissima​

Coin 2 –Ecclesiastes 3:1 – 8​

​

(each of these has a set of scripture readings, bouncing through the Synoptic Gospels - the Scourging has some wonderful lines of Ezekiel - with different voices, abridging the scene)​

Large Coin – The Agony in the Garden​

Coin 1 – The Scourging at the Pillar​

Coin 2 – The Crowning with Thorns​

Coin 3 – The Carrying of the Cross​

Coin 4 – The Crucifixion on Calvary​

​

Large Coin – Communion (I could not give less of a fuck about priestly ordinances or the exact recipe used in the Bronze Age. I take cornbread and cranberry juice by myself.)​

Coin 2 – Introduction of Prayer​

Bead 3 – Psalm 111 // "Prayers of Thanksgiving for a merciful and loving God"​

Bead 2 – Psalm 51: 1 – 12 (for // "Prayers of Penitence for a sinful heart"​

Bead 1 – Job 38:1 – 42:6 // "Prayers of Petition and Supplication with a mind to the unknowable plan of God"​

Coin 1 – Conclusion of Prayer // Ecclesiastes 12:1 – 8 "Memento mori"​

Structure of a Decade

The Lord’s Prayer (1)​

The Beatitudes (​

Minor Doxology (1)​

The impression I have is that while my lazy mysticism would doubtlessly collide with Swedenborg's rigorous mysticism, I think he had developed his ideas into a more coherent Christian form with this notion that everything in the physical world is built by God with spiritual truth and symbolism in it to be read or at least wondered at as a mystery.

 

[AnsemSoD1]

I just hope that I never, and I mean, NEVER, have to see any of the real fucked up Lovecraftian CGI Demons from any of those Paranormal Reality shows in my day to day life.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

I have recurring dreams about a city. It's not at all unlike New Orleans, where I grew up, but it's not New Orleans. I've dreamed about this place so often and consistently that I could draw a map. It's not a scary place, but there are a couple of 'iffy' areas. Anyway, it's very peaceful there. Should I go on a dream-quest to find my own unknown Kadath or what?

Yes. Dreams are always a fascinating place to delve into.

I got one that I have visited a couple times. Best I can describe it as sort of a clock-work like college town, usually had some female companion that I would be talking to. No idea who she is but she's been around a couple times and I always felt at incredible peace with her.

Another dream that stuck with me, I wish I understood what it was getting at was after hosting a party at my place there was this guy on the deck. It was night time and I went to go talk to him. I told him that I feel a strong presence off him, not good nor bad just really strong. He laughed and had powerful teeth about him. He told me that if I needed him, I would be able to find him. I then woke up lingering feeling of tunnels underground on my mind.

 

[AnsemSoD1]

Yes. Dreams are always a fascinating place to delve into.

I got one that I have visited a couple times. Best I can describe it as sort of a clock-work like college town, usually had some female companion that I would be talking to. No idea who she is but she's been around a couple times and I always felt at incredible peace with her.

Another dream that stuck with me, I wish I understood what it was getting at was after hosting a party at my place there was this guy on the deck. It was night time and I went to go talk to him. I told him that I feel a strong presence off him, not good nor bad just really strong. He laughed and had powerful teeth about him. He told me that I needed him, I would be able to find him. I then woke up lingering feeling of tunnels underground on my mind.

Isn't Louisiana, New Orleans specifically, filled with that Haitian voodoo crap?

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

Isn't Louisiana, New Orleans specifically, filled with that Haitian voodoo crap?

From my understanding voodoo was African beliefs blended with Catholicism. Not sure if Haitian has it's own variant but in a nutshell yes.

Was pretty cool to visit when I was a wee lad but im sure it's been more commercialized and tumblrized with "black girl magic" shit now.

Edit: for any dream explorers I found taking a dissolvable b12 vitamin before bed to aid i it. Place under tongue and let it dissolve before bed. Reading a book seems to help to, guessing it helps calm down the mind after looking at screens all day but that's just a guess on my part.

Also no weed. It suppresses your dreams for some reason

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Isn't Louisiana, New Orleans specifically, filled with that Haitian voodoo crap?

From my understanding voodoo was African beliefs blended with Catholicism. Not sure if Haitian has it's own variant but in a nutshell yes.

It's homegrown. Vodun is West African paganism. In Haiti it became a coherent religion through syncretizing with Catholicism. French Louisiana had the same shit but not really as a religion per se, more folk magic. In the rest of the South the Anglo version was called Hoodoo.

Marie Laveau was a real person (1801-1881) who in Civil War era New Orleans was a leading citizen, advised people like governors and business magnates.

 

[AnsemSoD1]

It's homegrown. Vodun is West African paganism. In Haiti it became a coherent religion through syncretizing with Catholicism. French Louisiana had the same shit but not really as a religion per se, more folk magic. In the rest of the South the Anglo version was called Hoodoo.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=XBt845vjzq0https://youtube.com/watch?v=FO5cHIRr-bo
Marie Laveau was a real person (1801-1881) who in Civil War era New Orleans was a leading citizen, advised people like governors and business magnates.

Its still all evil though and what has likely led to the astronomically high level of demonic activity down there.

 

[The Taco Santo!]

Isn't Louisiana, New Orleans specifically, filled with that Haitian voodoo crap?

Not really, at least not since slavery days. The only people that even pretend with that shit are fat, middle-aged women who don't find Wicca exotic enough. There's plenty of backwoods nigger hoodoo, which is just folk beliefs about witches and spells and angels/devils, but it's not any kind of organized system. No different from lots of backwoods whites, really. The popular image of New Orleans and especially voodoo is laughably wrong. There aren't really vampires wandering around either.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Bros it turns out that either ChatGPT is a demon or mine is at least haunted by a demon. This demon goes by the name of Anti-Pentecost.

that is assuming that there is some scientific explanation for metaphysical phenomena, if paranormal entities were real are we are talking about an spiritual thing, then i don't see why they would conform to a materialistic worldview or be visible on cameras that are only meant to capture things that within the physical realm.

I want to second this. By definition if it is explicable within a scientific framework... it isn't paranormal. It's just not fully understood yet. My position is that paranormal phenomena is pure faith. It can never be proven or disproven, only experienced, and only believed in after the fact.

 

[WonderWino]

Smartphone cameras are crap. I can’t even take a decent picture of the birds in my garden when they’re a few feet away from me.
My real proper big girl camera can take great snaps but the phone is a potato

The only good camera i've seen on any device is on the google nexus 7 tablet. I bought one years ago for an app development course cause the emulator was driving me nuts trying to get it to work. Its not particularly good for doing much gaming wise or anything like that but the camera is legitimately shockingly high quality. Some of the best pictures i've ever taken have been on that thing, especially for shots taken outdoors. So if you're looking for a good camera i'd definitely consider picking up a nexus 7