Pet spirits

Wow, that's weird. Did your ghost have a name and a personality, Cav?

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Yes she did, Piffka.

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Oh, it was female! I was imagining Topper.

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Her name was Anne, and she was British. She died when her car hit a large maple tree on our property.

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Oh! How awful. You believed you met with her when you were a child and then...???

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She eventually "passed over", I suppose, Piffka. Perhaps our strange friendship set her spirit to rest.

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I posted something about this ages ago. Dr Michael Persinger has done much work in explaining the 'paranormal' experience existing within our own minds ( variation in normal electromagnetic (EM) fields, when applied to certain parts of the brain like the temporal lobes can result in experiences from the physical, like being touched, to the metaphysical, such as feeling close to God ).

However that being said, I have convinced myself, if only out of a selfish void, that I can hear my old horse Twister's deep calming knicker when I visit the old trails we used to trek in TX.

It certainly opens up a whole other can of worms philosophically I suppose should one want to believe something is true it is for all intents and purposes true.

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That's a comforting way of thinking about it, Cav. I like this story, you should write it out in more detail.

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stand up for pessimism wrote:

Setanta wrote:
We are the stuff that dreams are made on . . .

Isn't that a line from "willy wonka, and the chocolate factory?LOL

We are the stuff that dreams are made on
And our little life is rounded with a sleep.

-- Prospero

William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 1611

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Individual wrote:

Like I said, everything is made for survival, so how does hallucinating help us? A sense of security, familiarity, tradition?

Yeah, like you said . . . and without the least desire to be mean about this, why should we assume that you are an authority? In fact, as i understand natural selection, it simply punishes traits which are counterproductive to reproduction, and improves reproductive opportunity for those with felicitous traits. Any vestiges of previous "incarnations" of the genetic code which are not detrimental would be retained, it's not as though our DNA sequence discards whatever it "cannot use." Additonally, i see no good reason to assume that a percieved inability on your part or my part to demonstrate the usefulness of hallucination is evidence that there is none. Finally, it seems terribly simplistic to me to assume that we are nothing more than survival and reproduction machines. Serendipity is a reality.

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Some interesting stories here.

I have had ghostly experiences of my own, though not many involving animals. While I accepted these visions at the time, I now believe they occured entirely in my imagination.

I don't know of a good way to test the "reality" of these visions.

It would be very impressive, Cav, if your friendly ghost idenitfied herself before your research revealed her name and nationality.

On a similar note, I have often wondered why the Virgin Mary or Jesus never appeared to people of other cultures before a missionary had told them who she was.

Of course, their experiences could still be real, but think how much more impressive such an event would have been.

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Actually Greyfan, that is pretty much how it happened. I did the research later just to let myself know I wasn't going crazy. Definitely the strangest experience I have had with the paranormal.

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Quote:

Actually Greyfan, that is pretty much how it happened.

See, that's the sort of information that's liable to upset my world view. I'll be over here in the corner with my head buried in the sand until the troubling thoughts go away.

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Greyfan, the fact that we have weird experiences only goes to show that we do not yet understand the world, scientifically or supernatural. Hey, we're learning, and that in itself is a good thing.

I'm going to digress just a bit here to ask if anyone saw the movie 'My Dog Skip'? I don't think I've bawled like a chick more than when I saw THAT film.

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Yeah, I almost cried when the dog was left all alone and finally died.

Setanta, please don't ever assume that anyone is an expert even if they say they are. Also, near the end of your paragraph it sounded like you were trying to argue with me but let me just say that I never actually put out any real facts, only speculation. Finally, it is not overly simplistic to assume that we are nothing more than machines that do nothing more than try to survive (as long as we don't get into religion), if every biological advancement for our species makes us batter survivors then it is only natural that surviving will consume every part of what it is to be human.

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Individual wrote:

. . . then it is only natural that surviving will consume every part of what it is to be human.

This is the crux of the biscuit for me--i can easily imagine even the most primitive existence entailing leisure time. I am not completely Hobbesian about the "state of nature," and as well, i would point out that Hobbes contends that leisure is the mother of philosophy. Given that we know nothing, including how much we may know, of the mental processes of animals--they may indeed have leisure and philosophy as well.

None of which leads me to conclude that there is either a remnant of being after death, nor a revenant.

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I don't see the connection between leisure and ghosts...

Are you saying that an animal would have to be smart in order to become a phantom or have a spirit?

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No, i specifically denied any such connection--i've already announced my scepticism about any spirit world. I was simply responding to your contention to the effect that: ". . . it is only natural that surviving will consume every part of what it is to be human."

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Setanta wrote:

Individual wrote:
. . . then it is only natural that surviving will consume every part of what it is to be human.

This is the crux of the biscuit for me--i can easily imagine even the most primitive existence entailing leisure time. I am not completely Hobbesian about the "state of nature," and as well, i would point out that Hobbes contends that leisure is the mother of philosophy. Given that we know nothing, including how much we may know, of the mental processes of animals--they may indeed have leisure and philosophy as well.

None of which leads me to conclude that there is either a remnant of being after death, nor a revenant.

Well dogs sure have plenty of leisure. They do sleep a whole lot. As for philosophy, I'm not sure, but they do indeed have society, and heirarchy. However, I still can't explain Cerberus...

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And don't forget--don't pay the ferryman until he gets you to the other side . . .

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