Do you believe in the supernatural?

[More Than A Feeling]

American Heritage Dictionary
su·per·nat·u·ral (sōō'pər-nāch'ər-əl)
adj.

1. Of or relating to existence outside the natural world.
2. Attributed to a power that seems to violate or go beyond natural forces.
3. Of or relating to a deity.
4. Of or relating to the immediate exercise of divine power; miraculous.
5. Of or relating to the miraculous.

I ask because its hard for me to tell when people use religious language whether they actually mean the supernatural, or if they've redefined the words and applied them to mean something that needs no supernatural explanation (and they aren't using them to mean the supernatural), or if they believe something, which I see as not needing a supernatural explanation, actually does have a supernatural explanation.

[mzmolly]

1. I'm kind of in the 1-3 basket.

;)

[SmokingJacket]

2. No, not really.

But I don't rule it out. If someone shows me something "of relating to existence outside the natural world" maybe I'll change my mind.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Yes

from personal experience.

[Hokie]

4. No, until there is proof

The scientific method has worked pretty well for over 500 years. I have faith it will continue to work. Unlike some faiths, mine is justified.

[NJCher]

5. I don't call it the supernatural

It's just nature and because of the science mindset and near outright refusal to study it, we've not yet figured it out.



Cher

[achtung_circus]

8. I also like Arthur C. Clarke's comment

that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic.

Of course, I lived in a haunted house. Nobody can tell me different.

[kevinmc]

6. Yes n/t

[CelticWinter]

7. Yes

personal experience

[Stevepol]

9. Yes, but not SUPER natural. It's just another aspect of the natural.

We are able to fly, not because the law of gravity ceases to exist. We fly because there are other laws that permit flight under certain conditions.

Same with the supernatural. Take a physical healing. An illness is a combination of physical, mental, and spiritual (attitudinal) factors. Frequently, a shift in attitude can effect great changes in the physical state.

Let me give a personal example from today. I sang in a choir today, though I was pretty hoarse and didn't know if my voice would make it. Once I began singing with the whole choir, I got an extra boost of energy or "something" that just knocked out the hoarseness and I sang all right.

Examples can be found almost every day in sports, in daily life, etc. I think most people if they're honest know many examples from their own experience of things that went beyond the natural for a moment or in certain circumstances. That doesn't mean we should start handling poisonous snakes or eating arsenic.

Because to come back to my example, whatever happened today doesn't change the fact that there are things I can do personally to avoid getting colds that make me hoarse. In this case I think I ate too much cheese for a pretty long period of time and this led to congestion and a cold. If I keep eating too much cheese (all things in moderation), the colds and the hoarseness will come back. Just because I was able to overcome that condition thru mental and spiritual forces associated with a choir concert, doesn't negate the laws of the physical.

Emerson said something along these lines: when you obey all the laws you become a law unto yourself. To my mind, that's the ideal, but there are many times when we need the intervention of "love" or group dynamics (group mind or family support or what have you) and this can create seemingly SUPER natural effects.

[durtee librul]

12. I believe in the supernatural...

I'm not sure if it's dead people who come back tho, but I think their energy is still with us in some shape that we cannot yet grasp or understand.

As far as personal experience, I have had many and some are downright frightening in retrospect.

I know this will sound weird and time to call the men in the white coats but my latest one was really strange and it still makes me emotional to think about it as I have NEVER felt anything like it ever.

I was going home and trying to beat a certain someone's motorcade road blocks....funny thing, they only blocked off the west bound side of the road so everyone going east had a full view. Anyhow, I saw the motorcade coming (3cars) with about 50 state boys speeding like there was no tomorrow. When it closer, I felt such an intense sadness that there was a person in that car who had all the power in the world to do good things and be great and was wasting it. I mean the sadness was overpowering and I just started to blubber.

About 30 seconds later, this gawd awful feeling of fear and I mean true fear that I have never been so scared in my life I was shaking. I felt like I was in the presence of pure evil and it was destructive as hell. The air was actually hard to breathe and the air was very heavy. Weatherwise, the day was cloudless and about 60...in other words, beautiful. I never saw who was in that car(s) so I have no clue if it was deadeye and lil boots or if they were in separate cars (probably)....it was evil. It's such an understatement to say, evil in the sense of what I was feeling.

I had about another 30 miles to go and I cried and shook all the way home - I couldn't even tell hubby about it for a couple days after. He said I had an 'aha' moment and that I was sensitive to auras. (he's a farm kid and usually just poo poos this stuff)

Folks, call it initution, supernatural, or whatever, but whatever it was that day, was REAL and I NEVER want to feel either of those emotions in that intensity ever again. NEVER. It shook my very foundation.

[NJCher]

25. were bush and cheney in your area?

When you said "certain someone," you meant you knew for sure bush was in your area?

That's a very eerie, interesting story. With about 50 troopers around, though, who else could it have been?

Hey, after he stole the first election, wherever he went, it rained. This went on for the longest time. And it was raining during his "inauguration." I recall it well, as I was there protesting it.



Cher

[SidDithers]

14. Huh?...

"We are able to fly, not because the law of gravity ceases to exist. We fly because there are other laws that permit flight under certain conditions."

Sid

[Stevepol]

22. Airplanes, the laws of aerodynamics. Get it? Enough speed, wings, etc.

[John1956PA]

18. Stevepol, it sounds like you are talking about the preternatural

Definition of Preternatural, as such definition has been attributed to Webster's Dictionary, 1913 edition:

Definition: \Pre`ter*nat"u*ral\ (?; 135), a. natural.]
Beyond of different from what is natural, or according to the
regular course of things, but not clearly supernatural or
miraculous; strange; inexplicable; extraordinary; uncommon;
irregular; abnormal; as, a preternatural appearance; a
preternatural stillness; a preternatural presentation (in
childbirth) or labor.

This vile and preternatural temper of mind. --South.

[kiahzero]

20. It's rare that I learn new words, but somehow I hadn't come across that one

Thanks!

[John1956PA]

21. I picked the word up when I saw the 1963 movie "The Haunting" years ago.

And, you are welcome, kiahzero.

[Stevepol]

23. "Preternatural" does sound like a good word for it. Thanks.

[wildhorses]

10. yes, i believe.

n/t

[pscot]

11. No

n/t

[kiahzero]

13. I suppose so, yes.

I don't necessarily think that the things I would qualify as "supernatural" are in fact "beyond natural forces," it's just that we lack the necessary knowledge to understand them.

[SidDithers]

15. Nope...

not by a long shot.

Sid

[cosmik debris]

16. Not without evidence.

Of course the paradox is that if there were evidence it would not be supernatural, it would be natural.

[moobu2]

17. Of course not.

"Despise reason and science,
humankind's greatest powers,
indulge in illusions and magical practices
that reinforce your self-deception,
and you will be unconditionally lost." -Excerpt from Faust

[beam me up scottie]

19. "Credulity kills."

~Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World

[Random_Australian]

24. Nope. Is there anything further ya wanna know?

I mean, if someone finds something that is evidence against the null, I would gladly believe it. No evidence, however, means no belief.

[malikstein]

26. Nope

I'm reality-based.

[trotsky]

27. No, because if it happens, then it's natural.

Supernatural is a meaningless term to me. What most people describe as "supernatural" is indistinguishable from "imaginary."

[Marrah_G]

28. Yes, though I consider it natural but un-explained

Once the world being round was an absurd idea.