August 22, 2007

• Internet Island Topic Post #28: Premonitions

  

  Internet Island Topic Post #28: Premonitions

  28.1.2: Do you believe in the supernatural, and if so, what do you think causes things like premonitions, deja vu, telekinesis, and the reading of others minds?  If not, why do you think these strange things happen? Is there a natural explanation?

  I may not like Shakespear, but he got it right when he wrote, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” I respect atheists and other people who don’t believe in the supernatural or divine, it takes a lot of guts dismiss the unknown as insignificant or incidental to their lives, but I must disagree. The supernatural is alive and well, though it keeps to the shadows outside your bedroom window when you here that tap-tap-tapping but cannot find the source, it hides in the shadows of your closet when you casually reach through the hanging clothes without looking, it hides under the bed and tickles your feet when you let them dangle in the dark. The supernatural is the unknown and unknowable. It is everything about reality that we do not understand, but still experience.

  Still we try to come up with reasons for our experiences. Asking why the supernatural exists is almost as silly as asking why we exist, why the universe exists, what came before the “big bang”…. The supernatural exists because we can’t explain it. Because we cannot explain it, it becomes something other than natural, super-natural, or abnormal. Just because we do not understand what causes the phenomena, that hasn’t stopped us from trying to explain it. Some say that the phenomena is natural, that it is simply something which our minds do which we do not fully understand. Scientific examination would seem to bear this out… some Christian saints and many Buddhist holy men have developed strange abilities in their quest for the divine. However, many people have abilities without the benefit of years of prayer and meditation. Others have assumed that many psionic abilities come from a group subconscious, that what we call premonition or synchronicity comes from a mental connection at a metaphysical level… it is sometimes referred to as the Akashic record.

  There is a natural reason why “supernatural” things occur. I don’t know what it is, but all things that exist are natural. There is nothing unnatural about supernatural phenomena; it is just that we haven’t discovered a plausible reason yet for why it occurs. There are certain words that I shun -normal and unnatural are at the top of that list. Normal is a statistical illusion and nothing that exists can be unnatural, because if it was antithetical to the natural world, it couldn’t and wouldn’t exist.

  I don’t know why “supernatural” things happen, but I don’t worry about them either. I’ve experienced a lot of “weird” things over the course of my life, and while it seems to have had a warping effect upon my views of what is “normal” and “natural,” I have learned that acceptance of the unknown and unknowable is an easier undertaking than analysis.

  28.1.3: A lot of bloggers “blog their dreams”. Do you have or have you ever had a dream which seems to relate to “real life”? Has a dream ever told you to do something, or stay away from doing something? What are dreams? How do they relate to life, or do they? Why do people seem to forget their dreams immediately after they wake up? Can someone die in their dreams like in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies? Use these questions, or formulate some of your own for an entry about dreams and nightmares.

  I’ve had a few dreams that seem to relate to “real life,” but never anything that was specific. I rarely look to my dreams for answers, though I have a knack for analyzing and explaining other people’s dreams. I tend to accept my dreams as entertainment, my subconscious telling me a story, and for the most part, my dreams are better than television. Sometimes they can be comforting when I am distressed about something, and if prophetic, they must pertain to a very distant future.

  Dreams are a way for us to work out things asleep that we are unable to tackle awake. Some people recall their dreams, and some never do, but just about everyone dreams. I don’t think it’s important to recall dreams, though I like to remember mine -I’m a storyteller. I pack away everything I dream for future use in a story. Even if someone does not remember their dreams, it’s pretty much been proven that the act of dreaming is as necessary to good mental health as regular excercise is good for the body.

  It’s an old myth that you can die in a dream and therefore in the waking world. If someone died in a dream and in the waking world, how would anyone know that it was their dream that did them in? People can die in their sleep, my great grandmother did, but I doubt dreams are the culprit.

  28.1.4: Here’s a more serious subtopic you might try your hand writing about. Is there a spiritual reason for paranormal phenomena?  Or is it a bunch of hooey?

  Some people are sensitive to ghosts and sometimes ghosts will try to communicate with the living. Sometimes it’s for their own sake; they have unfinished business. But sometimes the ghosts are trying to help the living as well. If you’re asking is there a divine reason for paranormal phenomena, I’d say yes to that too. Every living thing contains a piece of the divine, and it is through this spark that the divine continues to communicate with us. Sometimes this manifests as paranormal activity, but mostly we just don’t notice and take occurrences, strange or otherwise, for granted. It’s not really a big deal if we don’t notice the messenger, so long as we get the message.

  • 6:06 pm
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