Look At It This Way

Ever seen the movie Spinal Tap? I laugh everytime I hear or see spontaneous combustion. Anyway, I do not see how you can deny such hard evidence (I am joking, by the way).

Thanks for making me smile.

And thanks for making me smile in turn.

BTW - I was just reading where 10% of Americans believe we never went to the moon. The Apollo astronauts were just making it up.

Steve

It is irrational to believe in a JFK assassination conspiracy? Have you done any research? What exactly do you know about the case? My guess is, absolutely nothing. If you had just a smidgeon of understanding of the facts of the case you would know that it is irrational to believe that Oswald acted alone.

Stick to what you know: junk science, inexactitude and alien abductions. Charlatans like you are an impediment in the fight for the truth.

Tim Fleming
http://www.blazingtrailers.com/show.php?title=441

I agree with everything you say. Any paranormal event on tape, on any film, on TV, or on audio could be faked. The fact remains that I saw a ghost. Once you do, you can no longer use modern technology to explain everything away, though I remain skeptical on most reports.

Anonymous #1
Why in the world did you feel it was necessary to launch a personal attack? You are certainly free to disagree and to express your JFK conspiracy theory but did you truly feel it was necessary to be abusive and to diminish your position by calling names? I find it difficult to understand such behavior.

Anonymous #2
I too have had a number of weird experiences and on one occasion thought I'd seen the ghost of my wife...only she happened to be very much alive. For the full story, take a look at:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/look-it-way/200903/wired-the-lord

The problem with believing you saw a spirit is that it starts you down a very slippery slope. Once you accept such an explanation, you lose touch with your sense of reason and logic. After that, there's no telling where fantasy and magical thinking will take you.

The problem with believing you saw a spirit is that it starts you down a very slippery slope. Once you accept such an explanation, you lose touch with your sense of reason and logic. After that, there's no telling where fantasy and magical thinking will take you.

I think your comment above suggests you are on a slippery slope, one that put science and its theories above human experience. Why cant you accept that a person saw an apparition of their dead partner. Oh thats right people that see such things are into "magical thinking", how condescending to make such a comment. This is a typical technique of Skeptics to "shoot the messenger". Obviously anyone who has had such experiences and acknowledges them as real must be delusional in a Skeptics eyes'.

I happen to believe that ufos are a reality and possibly of an alien origin. Therefore I must be nuts eh. Skeptics must be scared of all us crazies out there!

I saw a ghost once.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/look-it-way/200903/wired-the-lord

And, on another occasion, I was attacked by a UFO.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/look-it-way/200903/seeing-is-believing

The truth is, I've probably come up against as many weird things in my life as you have in yours. The difference between us lies in our belief systems. How do you and I differ in our reaction to something that seems to be supernatural?

My first inclination is to assume that I'm seeing something natural in an unnatural way. That was the case with the UFO. The ghost turned out to be a hypnopompic hallucination. In my belief system, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. It's a reality based approach to life that's just the opposite of a slippery slope. There's no need for magic or mystery, things that go bump in the night or other such woo-woo.

Apparently Mr. Benedict-Mason is completely oblivious to the HSCA Government report regarding the JFK Assassination which states that the assassination was most likely a part of a conspiracy. It's easier to "see himself on TV" and be overjoyed by making such statements rather than check out the facts first. Might just put him in the catagory of the balloon boy seeking publicity. Study the facts, then perhaps comment.

Like your friend Tim, you appear to delight in personal attacks. That's unfortunate because it suggests you have little in the way of information to offer. You also seem to believe that anyone who doesn't agree with you is uninformed. That's not true I am well aware of the HSCA report and the fact that the government has two official - but opposite - conclusions regarding conspiracy.

That said, don't you see where your beliefs would have been far better represented had you mentioned the clearly altered autopsy results, the Warren Commission's bias, the magic bullet, Mrs. Odio's testimony, Jack Rudy's polygraph and a dozen other details brought out in the second report? It's funny but I can probably offer a better argument for your side than you have so far managed. When coupled with your inattention to detail (I'm a Dr. not a Mr.) I have to wonder if having you on one's side wouldn't be a detriment.

The bottom line on this is that I'm open to all new and significant findings. Note the word "significant." When legitimate researchers are faced with a plethora of data, but none of it is definitive, it must be assumed the basic hypothesis is illusory. To date, this is the case with UFO's. There are literally thousands of anecdotal accounts of alien space craft but not one single piece of undeniable proof.

This could have been a very interesting Comment's section. It's too bad you decided to go with heat rather than light. However, if there are any other readers who would like to take part in a balanced exchange of ideas, I'd be happy to hear from you.

There is a cheesy Poison song from the eighties called "Something to Believe In." Whenever I hear it, I think the band really struck a chord with human experience. Life is as mundane and easy as it has ever been and people are therefore unhappy and searching for meaning in all the wrong places. I love ghost shows and don't rule out the existance of ghosts but I have yet to see anything compelling enough to believe. Fortunately there are other things in my life that have brought meaning but it took a while for me to find them, and get away from the seduction of a media obsessed with fantasy,in order to embrace them. I believe in love, I believe that hard work pays off, I believe that life isn't meant to be taken too seriously ( hence my enjoyment of ghost shows) and I believe that we don't need to believe in the "super"natural when we have super stuff right here on earth that can bring us just as much of a sense of wonder. Was the moon landing a conspiracy? Hello? people landed on the moon!!! How wonderfully fantastic is that? Do we really need to make it more fantastic by inventing some story?

I think it was Neil Armstong who said that actually going to the moon was far easier than it would have been to create a Gone-to-the-Moon Conspiracy involving something like 400,000 people.

Do you ever wonder if those who don't know a lot are forced to believe a lot?

In any case, thank you for yet another keenly insightful comment. As I said in the past,

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/look-it-way/200905/finally-diet-works

I should ask you to help me write my next piece. You clearly have talent.

Steve

I don't believe in aliens, but I still don't get the clue about silly crop circles. Can anybody give me a detail and rational explanation on how these geometrically complex figures are actually made, because I haven't found one sane explanation yet.

If u are opened many things can enter you space...

Crop Circles are simple enough to explain. How would you think they were done? Some boards and some ropes are usually all you need. Indeed, many of the pranksters who made them have come forward and explained exactly how they managed their often spectacular effects.

But the important thing to keep in mind is, even if you can't explain exactly how something was done, that doesn't mean it involved anything paranormal. I can't explain much of what magicians do but I know that magic is nothing more than a clever trick.

Though I must agree with the previous comment:

If u head is open, many things can enter you (sic) space. And being dumb as dirt doesn't hurt...not at all.

Forget about UFOs, ghosts, aliens, crop circles and JFK. Did you know we evolved from Dragons? How else did we start off with Reptilian DNA. Phylogenetically we evolved from Dragons. Yep it's the oldest and most primitive part of our brain. I'm a fire dragon. I like to play with fire. (lol)

Thanks for the article. It scares me as well that so many people believe so strongly in things w/ no physical evidence. I love what Chris Rock said in "Dogma", "It's better to have ideas, it's easier to change your mind than a belief." or something like that.
However, I feel sorry for scientist as well. They're trained to be so logical and rigid their minds are completely closed to certain possibilities.
"Failure to see something only means you failed to see it."

It's true that some scientists appear to be closed to some possibilities but that's not always the case. Indeed most scientists I know are remarkably creative. But I agree with your comment on dogma - it's very scary.

S