Post by auntym on Nov 13, 2013 11:56:19 GMT -6
lifestyle.inquirer.net/136213/why-people-refuse-to-believe-in-the-paranormal
Why people refuse to believe in the paranormal
By Jaime Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Monday, November 11th, 2013
About a week before Halloween, the Inquirer ran stories about numerous encounters with ghosts by people, from celebrities to ordinary folk. Such stories have become an annual ritual of newspapers, magazines, TV and radio shows.
Despite the first-person stories and documented research of respected parapsychologists all over the world, people, especially our Western-influenced countrymen, still doubt the existence of spirits of the dead manifesting themselves to the living.
I remember an article in the Inquirer’s Nov. 1 issue entitled, “I don’t believe in ghosts, but…,” written by a 75-year-old contributor. The author narrated close encounters she has had with ghostly apparitions, including mysterious movements and eerie sounds. Yet, in the end, when she rhetorically asked, “Do I believe in ghosts?” she replied, “No!”
Intellectual weakness
I find her conclusion to be logically inconsistent, yet not surprising at all. It is a common mental weakness. Once our mind accepts a point of view or opinion as the only correct and valid one (e.g. “ghosts do not exist”), all other contradictory things will be rejected, even if it goes against reason.
Therefore, I understand why that contributor couldn’t accept the existence of ghosts, despite her numerous close encounters.
As the great 16th-century British essayist and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon said, “Once an opinion takes a firm hold in one’s mind, it will make all kinds of excuses, logical distinctions and arguments so that by this pernicious device, his original opinion would remain intact,” or something to that effect.
This is the mindset we find among devotees of organized religion, science, cults or even political systems. This mindset leads to intolerance and fanaticism.
CONTINUE READING: lifestyle.inquirer.net/136213/why-people-refuse-to-believe-in-the-paranormal
Why people refuse to believe in the paranormal
By Jaime Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Monday, November 11th, 2013
About a week before Halloween, the Inquirer ran stories about numerous encounters with ghosts by people, from celebrities to ordinary folk. Such stories have become an annual ritual of newspapers, magazines, TV and radio shows.
Despite the first-person stories and documented research of respected parapsychologists all over the world, people, especially our Western-influenced countrymen, still doubt the existence of spirits of the dead manifesting themselves to the living.
I remember an article in the Inquirer’s Nov. 1 issue entitled, “I don’t believe in ghosts, but…,” written by a 75-year-old contributor. The author narrated close encounters she has had with ghostly apparitions, including mysterious movements and eerie sounds. Yet, in the end, when she rhetorically asked, “Do I believe in ghosts?” she replied, “No!”
Intellectual weakness
I find her conclusion to be logically inconsistent, yet not surprising at all. It is a common mental weakness. Once our mind accepts a point of view or opinion as the only correct and valid one (e.g. “ghosts do not exist”), all other contradictory things will be rejected, even if it goes against reason.
Therefore, I understand why that contributor couldn’t accept the existence of ghosts, despite her numerous close encounters.
As the great 16th-century British essayist and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon said, “Once an opinion takes a firm hold in one’s mind, it will make all kinds of excuses, logical distinctions and arguments so that by this pernicious device, his original opinion would remain intact,” or something to that effect.
This is the mindset we find among devotees of organized religion, science, cults or even political systems. This mindset leads to intolerance and fanaticism.
CONTINUE READING: lifestyle.inquirer.net/136213/why-people-refuse-to-believe-in-the-paranormal