Connecting Beyond

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When strange experiences happen to us, often times we question the meaning of them. Naturally, I think that this a is a normal response. It seems to me that the paranormal, when asked about, is a very common experience that a lot of human’s share. However, I believe people for their own particular reasons choose to interpret theses paranormal experiences in their own way. For people who are religious, it might seem like a sign or a message. The same could be said about people who consider themselves to be spiritual. Another response could be that a person could think their paranormal experience is a coincidence and move on.

http://thespiritualpsychic.com/how-mediums-communicate-with-spirits/
The greatest connection to the paranormal that I have observed and heard about is through people’s dream. When we dream most anything is possible. Dreams allow us to travel and experience other worlds that seem limitless. I remember when I was little, I would have a reoccurring dream that I could fly to school. Dreams also seem to let us connect to people or places that are in our past. My freshman year I had a dream that I was in one of my biology lectures and instead of the professor walking out, it was my late grandmother in a lab coat. I remember her looking out into the Hindle Auditorium and making direct eye contact with me and giving me a gentle smile. I instantly started to weep and then I woke up. I chose to look at this as a connection to the side. However, I do not know if I am taking it seriously only because it was my grandmother and I had an actual connection wither her on this planet.

In the end, I do not think there is a right or wrong way to interpret the paranormal. I believe that some people have some sort of a special connection and can use their methods to connect with the beyond. The way in which people respond to dreams, paranormal visits, or strange experience is subjective and personal.



Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausFebruary 12, 2018 at 8:06 AM

    I wonder how strong our human tendency is to treat dreams and other paranormal experiences as some kind of revelation, or communication from somewhere or someone else. You of course point out other instinctive responses we have, like treating a paranormal experience as a coincidence on moving on. Your observation that "I do not think there is a right or wrong way to interpret the paranormal," makes me want to respond with "but maybe it's wrong not to interpret them at all." As I quoted from the Talmud in class, "an uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter." On the other hand, choosing not to interpret consciously everything we get through our senses, including the 6th, may itself be a kind of interpretation. Ackerman talks a bit about pertinence; that we're hard-wired to sense pertinent things: potential food, mates, or predators. Or better, we sense a lot of things just by breathing and seeing, but our brain pays attention only to those things it deems pertinent. Or even better, there are varying degrees of paying attention. There are certain low level, nearly constant perceptions of our surroundings that allow us to maintain our bearings and balance without too much thought. And that after a while, we become somewhat inured to constant sensory stimuli, like the feel of our clothes on us, ambient sounds, daylight and night darkness, the taste of our own saliva, the smell of our homes or significant others. Though we appear to be more likely to notice them in their absence. As you say, "the way in which people respond to dreams, paranormal visits, or strange experience is subjective and personal," but I wonder about the "filters" at play shaping those subjective and personal experiences. How do we get them, do we have any control over them?

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  2. Deanna BugelMay 9, 2018 at 12:39 PM

    I agree with what you say about how there is no right or wrong way to interpret the paranormal and that they only mean as much as you want them too. I feel as though I have had instances where I have woken up from a dream about someone who has passed and it takes me a minute to try a figure out if that was actually a dream or a memory. I believe a big part of dreaming is memory and that most dreams stem from our memories. Though I have also had times where I have dreamed about things I myself have never experienced and those dreams have been accurate which makes me question how I could possibly of known such details. It is those kinds of dreams that make us question our sixth sense. Personally, I always attempt to rationalize my sixth sense experiences but I also find that discussing my "paranormal" dreams helps me to believe in them. Having the validation of someone else believing in our experiences makes them seem that much more real. I think we should pay attention to our dreams but I believe it is more important to pay attention to the dreams that others give us. Those dreams that we can not explain and have the "paranormal" feeling about are the ones to interpret and that deserve to be noticed.

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