Surveying the landscape => A paranormal, religious future?

Unidentified w/ Demi Lavato Trailer

Demi Lovato dishes on alien abductions and making contact on UFO docuseries Unidentified

Ruth Kinane

We were looking into [abductions], and as I started talking to these abductees, I was realizing that I had some very similar experience. I had an experience where I feel like I astral-projected in my sleep, and I'm realizing that maybe it wasn't that and it was possibly that I went somewhere.

It's interesting that "astral projection" is now a term in public discourse...

Little boy’s eerie reincarnation story freaks out mom in viral TikTok: ‘This is scary’

Cassie Morris

A mom captured her little boy’s unusual story about being reincarnated, and now the spooky footage is going viral.

TikToker Anna Banana (@ana_mana_pia) gained over 2.2 million views and nearly 8,000 comments when she shared her son’s eerie reincarnation story.

Now, just like the mom who believes her nursery camera captured a spirit in her baby’s crib, Anna’s mysterious footage is giving people goosebumps all across TikTok.

I'm wary of these kinds of cases because it's a good way to try and get followers on social media, but I figure it's interesting to see the way paranormal accounts are proliferating.

Little boy’s eerie reincarnation story freaks out mom in viral TikTok: ‘This is scary’

Cassie Morris




I'm wary of these kinds of cases because it's a good way to try and get followers on social media, but I figure it's interesting to see the way paranormal accounts are proliferating.

Some of those links don't work for me, it may be a temporary thing, I'm not sure. But from the yahoo story:

Thousands of TikTokers flocked to Anna’s comment section to share their own kids’ spooky reincarnation stories.

What's interesting is that people didn't just come to look, but also to say "that happened to me too".

Some of those links don't work for me, it may be a temporary thing, I'm not sure.

Today I managed to access one of the TikTok videos. I'm afraid 'Orb-Mania' is one of my personal dislikes. I downloaded the video and examined it frame-by-frame. As usual, it seems most likely to be a tiny insect passing close by the camera lens. In the context of this thread, it shows an eagerness to believe, rather than some meaningful phenomena.

Those TikTok kids are also into divination in a big way. Divination being, I suppose, a subset of self-directed paranormal experience. The general Tarot card hashtag apparently has 6.3 billion views.

Essentially people are receiving little non-personal Tarot readings shovelled into their streams or whatever via algorithmic processes and then taking them as personally meaningful examples of synchronicity. 

Now, apart from the question as to whether or not something served up by an algorithm's conception of what you'll find engaging can count as a meaningful coincidence, it is clear from a quick survey of TikTok prognosticators that almost all seem to specialise in generic, somewhat positive statements. For example: You have the resources to get through this rough patch, your guides are with you, or, you are on the verge of meeting your soulmate, or, your ex is so sorry he's not with you anymore, or, your dream job is just around the corner, you deserve it, et cetera, et cetera. 

This is not even cold reading (which at least involves a certain degree of skill and art), never mind a serious attempt at pre-modern engagement with time and process, which often entails much structure and a certain rational approach to the irrational. 

It is the serving up of feel-good mush.

The above, plus orb mania, confirms my belief that an openness to paranormal experience, in and of its self, hardly qualifies as a positive development in society. 

And I fail to see how any of this could go any way to meaningfully replacing the cultural void (if there is one) left by the decline of organised religion.

P.S. I suppose, tailored algorithmic divination, with its loaded dice, could work on a metaphysically defensible level, or at least involve a somewhat coherent worldview, if one returns to the oldest conceptions of divination: that any outcome, be it of a battle, a contest, or a game of chance, shows the will of the gods. (In this view, we are once again playthings of higher powers not so much benevolent as bored.)

The above, plus orb mania, confirms my belief that an openness to paranormal experience, in and of its self, hardly qualifies as a positive development in society. 

And I fail to see how any of this could go any way to meaningfully replacing the cultural void (if there is one) left by the decline of organised religion.

Well, I think having people be open and willing to listen if a friend or colleague happens to mention something odd which happened to them, rather than either shutting down the conversation or just dismissing it out of hand, that would be a positive benefit.

What I find disappointing is the shallowness of many people's interest in such matters, people might use language associated with certain paranormal or spiritual matters, but are very quickly onto the next tv soap or whatever catches the attention. Similarly with many movies which may have some sort of paranormal theme. Too often these just turn into a backdrop for some sort of violent showdown, worthy of the old Westerns.

I'm less sure about organised religion, I know when I was growing up it was more a part of everyday life, but often it was just a kind of wallpaper or background, it wasn't meaningful. There's more I could say about the pitfalls, but it isn't necessary, I don't have any axe to grind or grievances to unload. I'm happy for people to follow their own heart in these matters.

I wouldn't discount the value of having more people who feel good because of mush than just having people who feel miserable.

That said, a world where the public - including a chunk of academia - has grown up with stuff like Tarot and jokes about the "glitching Simulation" is likely also one that can hear greater messages of the Transcendent Self. [To clarify what I mean here is evidence that the Self exists and at the least has some power over the physical (Psi) and is arguably Eternal (Survival)]

Parapsychologists largely failed to move the needle on their own, as admirable as the intellectual honesty of people like Sheldrake and Josephson is. But as the public shifts regarding what is acceptable scientific discourse, even if for mere profit motive on the part of corporations, there is still a path that can lead to a better humanity.

Parapsychologists largely failed to move the needle on their own, as admirable as the intellectual honesty of people like Sheldrake and Josephson is. But as the public shifts regarding what is acceptable scientific discourse, even if for mere profit motive on the part of corporations, there is still a path that can lead to a better humanity.

I have to admire your optimism, Sci, even if I don't really share it. To my mind parapsychology is at the nadir of acceptability within the academic and scientific communities. 

I think back to a time when Darwinism and mechanistic materialism were blowing away all that had gone before - around the turn of the 20th century - yet we had serious scientists and other respected voices investigating the paranormal. I think of Charles Richet and William James, of Arthur Eddington and even the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the quintessential proponent of evidence-based inquiry. While Conan Doyle took some flak over the Cottingley Fairies hoax, he was nevertheless a respected influencer. Add the names of prominent physicists such as Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Plank and Pauli and you have a formidable who's who of prominent thinkers of their time. Oh and let's not forget Jung. OK, so not all of them actually researched parapsychology but they were either open to it of subscribed to a philosophy that could accommodate it.

When you mention Sheldrake and Josephson - how often are they dismissed as fringe cranks? I think also about the pretence of academia in claiming that they do research parapsychology when I see that the University of Edinburgh Parapsychology Unit is run by Caroline Watt who, together with her partner, Richard Wiseman, are nothing more than sceptical debunkers posing as parapsychologists.

No, I'm sorry but the battle is over and the sceptics have won - at least in the upper atmosphere of the intellectuals. We here are counted among the hordes of the gullible and superstitious who question science (= materialism) and expect the Loch Ness Monster to emerge from the depths any day now.

When you mention Sheldrake and Josephson - how often are they dismissed as fringe cranks? I think also about the pretence of academia in claiming that they do research parapsychology when I see that the University of Edinburgh Parapsychology Unit is run by Caroline Watt who, together with her partner, Richard Wiseman, are nothing more than sceptical debunkers posing as parapsychologists.

No, I'm sorry but the battle is over and the sceptics have won - at least in the upper atmosphere of the intellectuals. We here are counted among the hordes of the gullible and superstitious who question science (= materialism) and expect the Loch Ness Monster to emerge from the depths any day now.

Well I'm optimistic because the paranormal isn't going anywhere. People will continue to have these experiences, possibly more than ever before as medical technology gives us more NDEs and incorporating psychedelics into therapy opens more people up to Psi experiences.

Beyond that, the physicalists had the deck stacked in their favor and they still couldn't keep the issue of the Hard Problem from seeping into the cracks.

It might take a long time, perhaps the current iteration of "civilization" has to crumble, but I think we will see a re-awakening with regards to the paranormal.

'But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care...I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come.'
  -Tolkien, Return of the King

I have to admire your optimism, Sci, even if I don't really share it. To my mind parapsychology is at the nadir of acceptability within the academic and scientific communities. 

I think back to a time when Darwinism and mechanistic materialism were blowing away all that had gone before - around the turn of the 20th century - yet we had serious scientists and other respected voices investigating the paranormal. I think of Charles Richet and William James, of Arthur Eddington and even the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the quintessential proponent of evidence-based inquiry. While Conan Doyle took some flak over the Cottingley Fairies hoax, he was nevertheless a respected influencer. Add the names of prominent physicists such as Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Plank and Pauli and you have a formidable who's who of prominent thinkers of their time. Oh and let's not forget Jung. OK, so not all of them actually researched parapsychology but they were either open to it of subscribed to a philosophy that could accommodate it.

When you mention Sheldrake and Josephson - how often are they dismissed as fringe cranks? I think also about the pretence of academia in claiming that they do research parapsychology when I see that the University of Edinburgh Parapsychology Unit is run by Caroline Watt who, together with her partner, Richard Wiseman, are nothing more than sceptical debunkers posing as parapsychologists.

No, I'm sorry but the battle is over and the sceptics have won - at least in the upper atmosphere of the intellectuals. We here are counted among the hordes of the gullible and superstitious who question science (= materialism) and expect the Loch Ness Monster to emerge from the depths any day now.

I sympathise with everything you're saying there, Dave but I don't agree, you know. They can't ignore Parnia and his colleagues, ultimately anyway. Blackmore has already said she will change her mind if he gets the hits. Even if he doesn't have the hits because of low numbers recruited etc, he's still saying the same things he was seven years ago which means (logically) he can't have found anything to tip the scales the other way. It's just a case of endless patience.