I always say there's no way to ever really know anything in this world. I explained exactly what I mean by that in my very first Dodger Logic note ("Dodger Logic #1: Do "Facts" Really Exist?") if you want to go back and read it. I feel like there's no way to really know anything for sure. I mean, even in science, which is the most concrete evidence of the existence of anything, we can only dispove things. When we "prove" something to be true, we don't really prove it to be true. We just prove that we can't disprove it. We call this a "theory." No matter how concrete the evidence, everything is just a theory, because there's really no way that imperfect minds can prove something to be true. This is true, especially since most things in this world are up for debate. Most things in this world are just a matter of opinion and different perspectives. That makes things even more complicated.
So if someone were to come up to you and tell you he/she was psychic, what would you do? If someone were to tell you he/she sees ghosts, what would you say? Most people probably think these people belong in the looney bin. And I have half a mind to believe the same thing, but at the same time, I'm willing to open my mind enough to say there's no way we know for sure what's going on in these people's heads.
Lots of people say they're psychic and can summon people's dead relatives for a quick buck. I tend to believe that most of these people are just really good actors and are good at reading people's facial expressions. Some people are even educated to do so. However, what about the people who aren't trying to make any money off of their "gift?" What about the people who go to mental hospitals, thinking they're crazy? What about the 4-year-old that says he can see a dead man who makes fun of him? Some people say these kids (and adults sometimes) are just looking for some attention and aren't really seeing or hearing anything abnormal. That might be true, but I'm inclined to think that that's not always the case, especially for the really little kids.
I had the pleasure of speaking to a nurse who works at a mental hospital for kids, and she told me several stories that peaked my interest. She told me about one 4-year-old boy who was able to see a dead couple, dressed in a wedding gown and wedding tux. The groom always made fun of the boy, while the bride always took up for the boy and got onto her husband for taunting him. When the nurse asked if the dead couple was anywhere around, the boy told her they were right next to her. Creepy? I think yes. The nurse also told me about a 13- or 14-year-old girl who heard voices. When the girl didn't think the nurse was watching, the girl looked over her shoulders and said things under her breath like "Leave me alone" and "Stop making fun of me." I can't imagine a child would put on such a show if she didn't think anyone was watching.
My point is, I don't think everyone who claims to have supernatural powers is lying about what they see/hear. The question is whether they are seeing/hearing things that most people simply can't see/hear, or if they're just crazy. How can anybody really know? I mean tons of people believe in some ghostly figure up in the sky that nobody can see or talk to. They say he created the universe and is a "higher power." Well, if you can believe that, then I really don't see a reason why we can't believe in at least the possibility of ghosts and the possibility of some people being psychic or able to see/hear ghosts. I'm not saying I believe either way. I'm just saying we can't prove or disprove that these people are or aren't crazy. Maybe they just have some unfathomable way of seeing things that exist that no one else can see. Maybe they are just "gifted." And let me just say that I really don't understand why, if there truly are ghosts, these ghosts are always so mean! Why are there no nice ghosts? Maybe those ones go to heaven or something, and the ghosts that hold grudges stay on earth until they solve their earthly problems. I have no idea. I just think that's kind of interesting.
So should we put these people with these "abnormalities" on brains medications to counteract the problems? Do these medicines work? Because if you can just take some medicine, and then the visions or ghosts or whatever go away, then that's an interesting thing to think about. But I've never heard of someone having this "problem" and simply taking medications that make the ghosts vanish. My point here is, what if we're putting tons of people on brain medicines when what they're seeing and experiencing is real? That's a scary thought in lots of ways. We may also be dismissing something that could be very educational and enlightening. We might be putting people on brain medications when they don't need them. And remember, brains medicines have all kinds of horrible side effects sometimes, such as diseases (some irreversable) and even death. We might be making all these people feel like misfits in society when they are simply blessed with a unique gift. If we promoted this "gift," then maybe these people could help these lost souls in need. Or maybe, at least, these people wouldn't feel helpless and messed up by society's standards. I have no idea. They could just as easily have some kind of mental disorder that makes them see things that aren't there, like the doctors say. Ghosts could easily not exist. I'm just not prepared to come to that conclusion without exploring the idea that maybe something that we can't see exists. Things that we can't see have been "proven" to exist before, so I'm not prepared to say I don't believe in the possibilities.
What about people who simply say they've seen a ghost before? That's really interesting, because they're not saying that they see all ghosts - just that they've seen A ghost on a single occasion. Can everyone who says this be crazy or have misinterpreted what they've seen? Because a TON of people say they've experienced the supernatural at some point. I guess this goes for people who say they've been abducted by/tested on by aliens. Was these people's ghostly experience or alien experience simply a vivid dream? Are these people crazy? When I dream, it feels real, but when I wake up, I realize it was just a dream and didn't actually happen. So I can't imagine someone actually believing a dream to be real after waking up from it, I can't imagine that it's ever just a dream, but hey, everyone's mind works differently, so I can't say that it's impossible to mistake a dream for reality, even after waking up from the dream. Anyway, I feel like this is a question that no one can answer, and that we'll be wondering until we pass on and figure everything out on our own.
What about people like John Forbes Nash? You guys remember him, right? A Beautiful Mind, which is a great movie, was based on his life story. Nash was a great mathematician who even won the Nobel Prize for his mathematical accomplishments that help us in all kinds of ways today. Anyway, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At least in the movie, he saw and spoke to 3 different people who no one else could see. One of these people essencially forced him to do a bunch of crazy things and made him go crazy and believe a bunch of weird things, like that his family was in danger, and that the government was plotting something crazy. Anyway, he didn't start having these delusions until he was in college. (At least that's how it goes in the movie. I read somewhere that he didn't start having his delusions til his wife was pregnant. He believes the delusions were sparked by all the stress he was going through at the time.) Anyway, how can someone all of a sudden start seeing ghosts when they couldn't see them before? How can they only see 3? And furthermore, these people Nash saw were supposedly not ghosts. They acted like normal people. (Again, I'm mostly speaking about the movie, because I'm not exactly sure how much of the movie is completely true.) So we've been talking about people seeing ghosts. Well Nash didn't see ghosts. He saw who he believed to be real, alive people. Now how is that possible? That must be a brain abnormality/delusion, right? Maybe. Or maybe these people act like normal people, because they don't know they're dead? I have no idea. But this specific case is evidence toward the idea that what schizophrenics see isn't real. But then again, maybe some people, including Nash, are seeing people in other dimensions. I've discussed this in a note on dimensions. But it just seems so interesting that all cases are different. Some people claim to see dead people. Some people claim to see alive people. Some people claim to have only seen one ghost in their entire lives, while others claim to see them everywhere. Nash only saw 3 people. Most schizophrenics shows symptoms as kids, while Nash, for instance, started showing signs as an adult. Apparently, every now and then a schizophrenic makes a full recovery. (Who knows if that's actually true. Nash himself never truly stopped seeing those 3 people. He just pretended not to, so that he could get out of the looney bin, and he simply stopped responding to them, and eventually they apparently stopped talking to him, but they were always there. He could always see them.) What I mean is, there are all these differences that are important to keep in mind if we choose to believe that what these people are seeing may be real. I mean, the most compelling argument against these people actually seeing something that exists but that no one else can see is the fact that some people see ghosts, while others, like Nash, see actual people (alive people.) That raises a red flag for me. That still is not to say that there isn't a mixture of things going on here. Maybe some people, like Nash, are schizophrenics. Maybe some people really are seeing something that doesn't exist and need to be medicated. But at the same time, maybe some people are seeing real ghosts. I fully believe that, no matter what the truth is, there are some fakes out there who are just pretending to see ghosts or read minds or have visions or whatever. There are phonies who either want attention or just want to make money off of some innocent, naive people who just lost a loved one. That I have never doubted.
I would like to point out that sometimes psychics and ghost-seers can be helpful...maybe. For instance, I remember seeing something on the news about a lady who helped find a body after the person's murder occurred. She "had a vision" and saw where the body was, and she led police straight to the body! It made her a suspect in the process, which is either a good thing or a horrible tragedy, since the lady may have just been trying to help. I don't think she was ever convicted in the murder, but I really don't know. All I know is everyone said that probably either she did it, or someone told her where the body was, which means she knew the killer. Well, what if she really did just have a vision of where the body was? What if she saw it in a dream? What if God sent her that message so she would tell police where to find the body? (If that were true, I don't know why he wouldn't tell her who the killer was, or for that matter, why he wouldn't tell her about the murder BEFORE it happened, so that maybe it could've been prevented. But everyone always says "God works in mysterious ways...") Anyway, what if she was just being a good citizen and reporting what she saw in her mind/dream? And if she really is psychic, how in the world do these visions occur??? Who gives them to her, and for what purpose? How are they conjured? It seems completely unexplainable. Anyway, I'm just saying these people need to be added to the forensic investigation force!
I bet there's a way to figure out if these people are phonies. I mean, you could always look into whether or not they've been trained to do magic tricks or read facial expressions. You could also have them join your forensics team and see if they can give you information on all kinds of different murders and crimes. I mean they couldn't possibly know about every murder that occurs, right? Unless they really do have some strange psychic gift. I mean, of course, this only applies for people who say they have psychic visions on a regular basis, not for people who just had a vision one time. But hey, this is a start. I mean there are people who have their own shows and show their psychic abilities to the world. The problem with that is that no one believes anything they see on tv, since technology can pretty much make anything appear to have happened. Anyone can tamper with a video and make it into something it's not, and anyone can set up some kind of "ghostly experience" before they roll the cameras. Anyway, I would love to interview some psychics and people who see/hear ghosts. I'd also love to follow someone into a haunted house and watch them in action. You know what would be really amazing? Watching someone talk to a ghost. Or listening to someone talk to a ghost, even if that person can't see what he/she is talking to.
By the way, there is a tv show that is kind of like Myth Busters that is amazing. It's called Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, and it's a show where a group of people get together and review some popular tapes/photos of supernatural occurrences. They try to prove that either these occurrences are natural occurrences (caused by the weather and such,) or that these videos/photos might not be legitimate (may have been tampered with.) They prove that a lot of occurrences could be natural, and they prove that a lot of the videos/photos could possibly be fakes, but they can't disprove a lot of the tapes and photos. That's really interesting, because these guys are experts in what they do. This isn't to say the videos and photos are real, or that they can't be explained by science. But these guys couldn't disprove their legitimacy. I'll always have some skepticism until I start seeing ghosts myself. And even then, I'd probably just think I was crazy. Anyway, I like to keep an open mind. You never know.
Taking this a little farther before I wrap things up, wouldn't it be interesting to be on the ghost end? What if, when you die, you are now a ghost, and you're wandering around looking for someone who can see you, and you stumble upon some weirdo who can see you? What are you going to do? Bug the crap out of him/her til he/she listens to you! Maybe you need help doing something on earth that you can't do because you're dead. Maybe you want the person to tell your mom you love her. Whatever. The point is, you would bug the crap out of the only person you found who could see you, and that person probably will think he/she is just crazy, because that's what everyone tells him/her. Well, if you die, and this becomes your situation, think back on how much you criticized the people who could "see ghosts." Think about how you believed they were just crazy and should be in the looney bin. Think about how you didn't believe them and made them feel like they were different and nuts. Think about that when you're trying to get that very person to help you say goodbye to your loved ones! And if we all just go to heaven as soon as we die, or if nothing happens when we die (we're just not there anymore,) then whatever. At least I'm offering up interesting ideas and writing them down for your amusement.
Some people say orbs are spirits.
Some people say they've seen ghosts show up in pictures and in videos.
This is a really great tv show. It's where the title of this note came from. This show is about a woman who sees and helps ghosts. She sure does make you want to see ghosts yourself.
This is the tv show I was talking about earlier - the Mythbusters type show for the supernatural.
I'm giving you guys some golden tv shows and movies here! If you haven't seen them, go watch them. NOW. They're amazing.
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