Hm, this sort of thing is an interesting question.
In my case, I certainly think there's a possibility. Frankly, I've always seen the idea of being always skeptical of stuff like this as... more than a little silly.
People have this strange idea that our science knows everything. They seem very, VERY sure about this. Which, to me, is stupid. We cant even get off this one stupid little planet of ours, or even understand our own bodies fully, or.... all sorts of things. Frankly, our level of science is pathetic. Yet people assume that we have this ability to unravel all of the deepest secrets of the universe and know the answers to all of the big questions? Ridiculous.
Not only that, but there's a rather odd psychological aspect to it. Something I read in a book got me thinking about this one. There's a certain ability that most people have that seems automatic. When something appears before them that challenges or outright defies their idea of "normal and correct", it's like their mind automatically rebels. No matter how bloody bizarre the thing they encountered was, after a short time their mind will sort of try to auto-build an explanation for it. This usually seems to be pieced together from anything that, in their mind, even remotely associates with the current situation they were in at the time it happened. If you were to take a ghost... an actual ghost... and shove it directly in front of someone's face, wave it around, and even outright smack them with it, give them two days and they'll have utterly convinced themselves that it did not happen. They'll have come up with a "rational" explanation for it, pieced together from aspects of their surroundings and nearby objects/whatever that were there at the time. It doesnt matter that you directly smushed the thing into their nose. It still didnt happen. They cannot accept that their idea of how things work might have some holes in it. If you really pay attention to how people react to some things... not just the particularly weird... it's very easy, and also very common, to see this in action.
Actually, there's a quote that I like, related to this sort of thing. There's a bit of dialogue from the movie Beetlejuice that I've always really liked:
"Adam: Well, how is it you see us and nobody else can?
Lydia: Well, I've read through that handbook for the recently deceased. It says: 'live people ignore the strange and unusual. I, myself, am strange and unusual."
I dont quite think "ignore" is the correct term here... though it sounds good in a movie line... but in terms of the general concept, that specific bit has always rung true for me. My whole existence is bloody bizarre. Always has been, always will be. My personality is strange, the things I do are strange, the reasons I do them are strange. And something I've noticed is that EVERYONE will try to rationalize all of these things about me. They'll reason them out to figure them out. However, in every single case they reason it out to fit into THEIR little box of understanding. Everyone does this. Everyone. I remember as a kid I'd try to give some of the actual reasons for some things I did, and was usually told that it was ridiculous. Or I'm just making excuses / making it up / lying. And people dont want to deal with me much of the time. I dont exactly hide these aspects of my personality very well, and have always had to deal with the results. People encounter someone odd, they try to push that person away, or similar acts. Or they try to smash that individual into a DIFFERENT behavioral box in order to force them into a state they can understand. It's all rationalized in their mind.
So naturally, when dealing with something genuinely weird, well... all of these psychological aspects apply. But good luck getting anyone to ever actually admit that. Hit someone with the idea that their base reasoning might not work in all situations and they have a tendency to explode.
Instead of doing any of that, I prefer to simply admit the actual truth: "I dont know". After some things I've done/experienced, I'd absolutely never rule something like this out. But I'm not about to claim to understand it either. I have at times considered the possibility of looking into it further, but that seems a bit dangerous. For all sorts of reasons, it's often not wise to mess with something you dont quite grasp. But I'll likely do it sooner or later. It may prove interesting. It at least wouldnt be boring. I like things that arent boring (well, usually... I suppose being chased by a giant cloud of bees wouldnt be boring, but I wouldnt like that very much now would I). ....Granted for all I know, maybe it WOULD be boring. Dunno. For now though, "I dont know" will suffice. But I'd be interested in learning at some point.
In my case, I certainly think there's a possibility. Frankly, I've always seen the idea of being always skeptical of stuff like this as... more than a little silly.
People have this strange idea that our science knows everything. They seem very, VERY sure about this. Which, to me, is stupid. We cant even get off this one stupid little planet of ours, or even understand our own bodies fully, or.... all sorts of things. Frankly, our level of science is pathetic. Yet people assume that we have this ability to unravel all of the deepest secrets of the universe and know the answers to all of the big questions? Ridiculous.
Not only that, but there's a rather odd psychological aspect to it. Something I read in a book got me thinking about this one. There's a certain ability that most people have that seems automatic. When something appears before them that challenges or outright defies their idea of "normal and correct", it's like their mind automatically rebels. No matter how bloody bizarre the thing they encountered was, after a short time their mind will sort of try to auto-build an explanation for it. This usually seems to be pieced together from anything that, in their mind, even remotely associates with the current situation they were in at the time it happened. If you were to take a ghost... an actual ghost... and shove it directly in front of someone's face, wave it around, and even outright smack them with it, give them two days and they'll have utterly convinced themselves that it did not happen. They'll have come up with a "rational" explanation for it, pieced together from aspects of their surroundings and nearby objects/whatever that were there at the time. It doesnt matter that you directly smushed the thing into their nose. It still didnt happen. They cannot accept that their idea of how things work might have some holes in it. If you really pay attention to how people react to some things... not just the particularly weird... it's very easy, and also very common, to see this in action.
Actually, there's a quote that I like, related to this sort of thing. There's a bit of dialogue from the movie Beetlejuice that I've always really liked:
"Adam: Well, how is it you see us and nobody else can?
Lydia: Well, I've read through that handbook for the recently deceased. It says: 'live people ignore the strange and unusual. I, myself, am strange and unusual."
I dont quite think "ignore" is the correct term here... though it sounds good in a movie line... but in terms of the general concept, that specific bit has always rung true for me. My whole existence is bloody bizarre. Always has been, always will be. My personality is strange, the things I do are strange, the reasons I do them are strange. And something I've noticed is that EVERYONE will try to rationalize all of these things about me. They'll reason them out to figure them out. However, in every single case they reason it out to fit into THEIR little box of understanding. Everyone does this. Everyone. I remember as a kid I'd try to give some of the actual reasons for some things I did, and was usually told that it was ridiculous. Or I'm just making excuses / making it up / lying. And people dont want to deal with me much of the time. I dont exactly hide these aspects of my personality very well, and have always had to deal with the results. People encounter someone odd, they try to push that person away, or similar acts. Or they try to smash that individual into a DIFFERENT behavioral box in order to force them into a state they can understand. It's all rationalized in their mind.
So naturally, when dealing with something genuinely weird, well... all of these psychological aspects apply. But good luck getting anyone to ever actually admit that. Hit someone with the idea that their base reasoning might not work in all situations and they have a tendency to explode.
Instead of doing any of that, I prefer to simply admit the actual truth: "I dont know". After some things I've done/experienced, I'd absolutely never rule something like this out. But I'm not about to claim to understand it either. I have at times considered the possibility of looking into it further, but that seems a bit dangerous. For all sorts of reasons, it's often not wise to mess with something you dont quite grasp. But I'll likely do it sooner or later. It may prove interesting. It at least wouldnt be boring. I like things that arent boring (well, usually... I suppose being chased by a giant cloud of bees wouldnt be boring, but I wouldnt like that very much now would I). ....Granted for all I know, maybe it WOULD be boring. Dunno. For now though, "I dont know" will suffice. But I'd be interested in learning at some point.
