Must we be normal?

Back to the OP....

Thankfully!

I really dislike the term "magical thinking" because it is used almost exclusively as a pejorative. I think we all have a tendency to believe we are on the right side of "normal", that we are less gullible and ok at spotting scams and fantasies. But it seems some take to a track and follow it wherever it leads helped along the way by confirmation bias.

I've attended groups including people who believed things that, because I was part of the group, they assumed I would believe too. One guy, for example, believed in the Jewish conspiracy and was convinced that the holocaust didn't happen. He started sending me links and materials to back his claim - I had to ask him to back off. The group, by the way, was concerned with spiritual experiences and beliefs - go figure. I always found it odd that such a group inevitably attracted conspiracy theorists of a peculiar intensity, whether they be political or alien focused. It may be the X-Files syndrome: paranormal beliefs get lumped in with CTs and aliens: they are all X-Files to Mulder & Scully.

On the other hand, I'm convinced that lifestyle skeptics are at the other end of the spectrum yet behave somewhat similarly. The aversion to being considered gullible becomes obsessive just as much as the CT has become an obsession for someone else. So confirmation bias is just as much in operation on the skeptical side despite their insistence on following the evidence. There appears to be plenty of evidence to confirm a belief that nothing of a paranormal nature has ever happened and I have had that repeated to me in personal conversations too many times to remember them all.

So is normal somewhere in the middle? Or are we all conspiracy theorists convinced of our own truth? What do you say to someone who is convinced they met an alien? Sneer like a skeptic or consider that he or she might have seen something that most of us never see - whether that something was an alien or perhaps a manifestation of an other-dimensional entity or whatever? Normal, in my book, should mean open-minded.

Thankfully!

I really dislike the term "magical thinking" because it is used almost exclusively as a pejorative. I think we all have a tendency to believe we are on the right side of "normal", that we are less gullible and ok at spotting scams and fantasies. But it seems some take to a track and follow it wherever it leads helped along the way by confirmation bias.

I've attended groups including people who believed things that, because I was part of the group, they assumed I would believe too. One guy, for example, believed in the Jewish conspiracy and was convinced that the holocaust didn't happen. He started sending me links and materials to back his claim - I had to ask him to back off. The group, by the way, was concerned with spiritual experiences and beliefs - go figure. I always found it odd that such a group inevitably attracted conspiracy theorists of a peculiar intensity, whether they be political or alien focused. It may be the X-Files syndrome: paranormal beliefs get lumped in with CTs and aliens: they are all X-Files to Mulder & Scully.

On the other hand, I'm convinced that lifestyle skeptics are at the other end of the spectrum yet behave somewhat similarly. The aversion to being considered gullible becomes obsessive just as much as the CT has become an obsession for someone else. So confirmation bias is just as much in operation on the skeptical side despite their insistence on following the evidence. There appears to be plenty of evidence to confirm a belief that nothing of a paranormal nature has ever happened and I have had that repeated to me in personal conversations too many times to remember them all.

So is normal somewhere in the middle? Or are we all conspiracy theorists convinced of our own truth? What do you say to someone who is convinced they met an alien? Sneer like a skeptic or consider that he or she might have seen something that most of us never see - whether that something was an alien or perhaps a manifestation of an other-dimensional entity or whatever? Normal, in my book, should mean open-minded.

Magical thinking is really important to me.Right up there with the ideal of love.
If ididn't have reason to belive the world contained magic..... I dont think I could bother to get out of bedin the morning.

So is normal somewhere in the middle? Or are we all conspiracy theorists convinced of our own truth? What do you say to someone who is convinced they met an alien? Sneer like a skeptic or consider that he or she might have seen something that most of us never see - whether that something was an alien or perhaps a manifestation of an other-dimensional entity or whatever? Normal, in my book, should mean open-minded.

I think we need to consider also that online activity can have different dynamics to actual face-to-face real world contact with other people. One of my friends once told me he'd seen a UFO land on a main road in the centre of our town. I just accepted that and listened attentively - though if I'd read it online somewhere I might have reacted differently.

There's also an interplay between the desire to fit in, to be part of a like-minded group, and the desire to stand out, to express one's individuality. Though pulling in opposite directions, each of these characteristics can become overdeveloped to the point of self-caricature sometimes.  Whether these represent the real person, as opposed to being a garment behind which to hide is another matter.

I think we need to consider also that online activity can have different dynamics to actual face-to-face real world contact with other people. One of my friends once told me he'd seen a UFO land on a main road in the centre of our town. I just accepted that and listened attentively - though if I'd read it online somewhere I might have reacted differently.

There's also an interplay between the desire to fit in, to be part of a like-minded group, and the desire to stand out, to express one's individuality. Though pulling in opposite directions, each of these characteristics can become overdeveloped to the point of self-caricature sometimes.  Whether these represent the real person, as opposed to being a garment behind which to hide is another matter.

Yeah, and it doesn't help to be sitting alone each day with only a computer for company. The internet almost certainly presents a distorted view of reality, if only because we gravitate to sites that reflect our worldview. A bit like Americans who get all their news from Fox.

Yeah, and it doesn't help to be sitting alone each day with only a computer for company. The internet almost certainly presents a distorted view of reality, if only because we gravitate to sites that reflect our worldview. A bit like Americans who get all their news from Fox.

Actually not only the internet. If one for example is in a work environment where it is unsafe to speak out of the accepted norms, it may lead at least some to consider that those norms represent reality. When I say unsafe, depending on the time and place, the consequences could be anywhere from a physical beating to a loss of employment - both nowadays and in the past.

 If one for example is in a work environment where it is unsafe to speak out of the accepted norms, it may lead at least some to consider that those norms represent reality.

That reminds me of when I became a Christian and the views I gained about the bible clashed with the church's views on a number of points.  I found myself starting to think maybe it was me who was wrong, even though I couldn't understand their way of seeing things and couldn't help feeling they were cherry picking the comfortable bits for themselves.

I think we need to consider also that online activity can have different dynamics to actual face-to-face real world contact with other people. One of my friends once told me he'd seen a UFO land on a main road in the centre of our town. I just accepted that and listened attentively - though if I'd read it online somewhere I might have reacted differently.

There's also an interplay between the desire to fit in, to be part of a like-minded group, and the desire to stand out, to express one's individuality. Though pulling in opposite directions, each of these characteristics can become overdeveloped to the point of self-caricature sometimes.  Whether these represent the real person, as opposed to being a garment behind which to hide is another matter.

" He had the look in his eye of a man that long ago had given up all pretense of leading a normal life." 
H.S. Thompson.
In the early 1980's i was hitchhiking  in southeren cali . Outside of Palmsprings an older gentlemen picked me up. As we motored alonng he began to tell me about the space brothers. How they had seeded this planet. That they had many underground bases. And of their ability to watch us at all times. His monologue  went on in this fashion for a half an hour or so. Then came kind of an uncomfortable silence.
I had no idea what to say, so i said nothing.
Then he turned to me and with the biggest twinkle in his eye that you can imagine. Said" I should have brought my spaceship we would be there by now."