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My Ghost Story

Nonpareil said:
Only if you let it.

You are free to choose rationality over credulity. Most people don't, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done.

I've seen quite a few things that I can't explain. I have utterly failed to make the leap to ghosts.
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I don't consider seeing my mother in a dream as being a ghost.
 
Maurice Ledifficile said:
Nope. Your mother did no such thing.

How normal do you think it is that you might dream about your mother visiting? Considering she planted the idea in the first place, it's not amazing at all. Trivial at best.
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My mother did such a thing and what concerned her actually happened at a later date. There was no way that we could anticipate this years in advance for anything to be planted or suggested while she was living.
 
Jodie said:
My mother did such a thing and what concerned her actually happened at a later date. There was no way that we could anticipate this years in advance for anything to be planted or suggested while she was living.
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Nope. The dead don't actually visit the living. Look it up.
 
Jodie said:
I don't consider seeing my mother in a dream as being a ghost.
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That's wonderful.

It still didn't happen. Your mother did not visit you in a dream. You simply - and rather tautologically - dreamed about it.

You have chosen to believe that this was, in some way, actually her. Rationality says otherwise. And no, other people who had the same experience would not necessarily believe what you do.
 
Jodie said:
Maybe not for you, but it happened to me.
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There is nothing about your anecdote that cannot be explained without postulating something that contradicts everything we have discovered about how the world works. There is therefore no good reason for anyone, including you, to think that your dead mother visited you in a dream.
 
Jodie said:
Sure there is, because it happened.
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People's dreams are not a place in spacetime where spirits or whatnot can visit. Think about it.

Even if there was such a thing as the spirits or the souls of the dead or whatever, they could not possibly interfere with your synapses at night no matter how much you wish it were so.
 
You are right. You can explain what you think my experience was, or meant, but life is more than chemical reactions in the brain or statistics on a page. It was real to me and that's all that matters.
 
Maurice Ledifficile said:
People's dreams are not a place in spacetime where spirits or whatnot can visit. Think about it.

Even if there was such a thing as the spirits or the souls of the dead or whatever, they could not possibly interfere with your synapses at night no matter how much you wish it were so.
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Well Maurice, I think she did, because sometimes the will can overcome great obstacles.
 
Jodie said:
You are right. You can explain what you think my experience was, or meant, but life is more than chemical reactions in the brain or statistics on a page. It was real to me and that's all that matters.
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You are free to think this.

Your mother still didn't visit you in a dream, but you are free to think it all the same. Just don't try to pretend that this belief is rational.
 
I've encountered this just recently, Maurice, where someone took research results, oversimplified and misinterpreted the conclusion, then applied that inappropriately to reinforce their argument. It happens here quite frequently.

Many of you don't know how to recognize bad research when you read it and believe what someone else says the research indicates. IMO that is no different than having faith in something unfounded. It is far from being a rational approach to life.
 
Jodie said:
I've encountered this just recently, Maurice, where someone took research results, oversimplified and misinterpreted the conclusion, then applied that inappropriately to reinforce their argument. It happens here quite frequently.

Many of you don't know how to recognize bad research when you read it and believe what someone else says the research indicates. IMO that is no different than having faith in something unfounded. It is far from being a rational approach to life.
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Yes, yes. That's wonderful.

And how does this relate to the fact that your belief in your mother having visited you in a dream is entirely irrational?
 
I'm sure you are familiar with the Allegory of the Cave? Based on that perspective, my belief isn't irrational. In fact it makes reliance on poorly understood research comparable to those prisoners that were chained in the cave.
 
Jodie said:
I'm sure you are familiar with the Allegory of the Cave? Based on that perspective, my belief isn't irrational. In fact it makes reliance on poorly understood research comparable to those prisoners that were chained in the cave.
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Surely, based on that perspective every concrete statement about what is truly casting one of the shadows is irrational? Unless, that is, you can cogently explain why your perceptions are superior to the empirical experimentation of the scientific method.
 
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