Simple enough question, really. Do you believe in such things as spirits and demons?

I do, even though I realize much of the evidence out there is just bogus. There are some truly, truly unexplained things out there. I've witnessed a few by myself. Things happening with no obvious cause of them happening. When I was 15, me and my friends were walking back from the convenience store around 11:30 at night, and we were walking by a old factory that was closing soon which had run for many, many years. I can't, for the life of me, recall the name of the factory since I didn't even know about it before that night, but me and my friends decided it would be fun to walk near it, bang on the door. We did so, but while we had obviously expected no return of this knock, we swear to even this day we heard shuffling of feet. And when we walked away, a light was on in another part of the factory. A light that had no godly reason to be on. We were to spooked to stick around, as you can imagine.

Do you believe in such things?

You think a few shuffling sounds and some lights turning on in a closing factory is a "paranormal" event?

Completely abandoned factory for 6 months at 11:30 at night, yeah, I'd say so.

Edit: I realize it sounds like it may have been a squatter, or some hobo or something, but there have been a few reasons why I don't think that is. First, I live in a middle-upper class small town way, way out of the city, this factory being our only major source of employment for a long time. Now everyone works in the city 25 miles out. Second, that factory I believe handled wiring...? I'm not sure, but some very toxic chemicals were handled around in that factory and I know it's been badly polluted. So it'd be very unhealthy and not very plausible to even live there. Third, all the doors and windows are locked under bolt and chain, so how would one even get it in? Fourth, no, no caretakers lived in it. And five, why would a squatter come and answer the door...?

Sounds more like homeless to me.

I don't believe in the paranormal. I've never had anything happen to me to make be believe otherwise. And quite frankly, if the paranormal do exist they've obviously left me alone thus far; I'd like them to continue to do so.

Nope. When the only evidence I've ever seen is fabricated, that makes me even more inclined not to believe. (not you, that ghost stuff they show on TV)

No, but I do believe in bums or raccoons making shuffling sounds in abandoned buildings when they're woken up by someone knocking on the door.

Yeah, sounds like the homeless.

And no, I don't believe in the paranormal. There's no hard evidence for them, and just because there are unexplained occurances doesn't mean you should make Occam cry by assuming their caused by an undiscovered class of entities.

Yeah, I do. I'm a little superstitious.

'Spirits and demons'? No.
The paranormal in general? Yes.

Don't feel like getting into a debate, so I'll just leave it at that.

Aha, now I feel really foolish xD. Yeah, there's a good possibility it was an animal, or the homeless. I'm not trying to immediately say it was paranormal, it's just that the facts around the situation make me feel as if it was paranormal.

It's the difference between a mundane episode of the twilight zone and Bwahahaha For the EVILZ giant space fleas from nowhere.

This.

The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter.

I believe in demons, not ghosts and whatnot. I've had a few experiences of my own, as has my family. I'd rather not get into it, as it would end up being religious.

I believe in the paranormal due to my numerous experiences with things of that nature... However, I believe almost anything can be explained by science, just some things we haven't figured out quite what they are or how they work. There are theories in science that back up parallel universes and alternate dimensions... its not so hard to believe that they could interact to some degree with each other.

Yes, I believe

Ghosts, spirits & souls? Yes - I see those as being the same thing. though there are exceptions.

Demons? no

No, I don't. No matter how strange something is, I rationalize it. I do like paranormal shows though. I have no idea why. I don't believe in anything they're doing, but I'm still entertained.

If it's "paranormal", it doesn't exist. If it exists, there's a deterministic, physical explanation for it.

I don't believe in demons, really. I think all perceived threats from demons are self-created manifestations of the subconscious mind. Inner turmoil and repression can actually create an entity that resembles the demon archetype, and it can appear very real and scary, but its all a product of your brain working overtime... from what I can gather anyway.

Nope.



About to close, or completely abandoned for 6 months? Because there's a big difference. There's a construction site near where I live where they were intending to build a mall, but ran out of funding. There is now a half-finished collection of buildings that have been abandoned for years, but there still tends to be a security guard hanging around. I wouldn't be surprised if there was one in the factory, too.

Part of me seems to want to believe in paranormal stuff, but I have a huge built-in scepticism counterbalancing that. I guess I try to keep an open mind. I guess I tend to see "the unexplained" as "there is currently no explanation", assuming that the explanation isn't something obvious or there's nothing to be explained!

No debate required, but what paranormal things, if not spirits and demons?

My imagination was long ago destroyed by science.

Nah, it's more the difference between 'there are more things on Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dream't of in your philosophy' and 'HOLY [censored] I SEE JESUS' FACE IN MY CHEESE TOAST IT'S A SIGN'.

Or, to paraphrase NOVA: "If all the wavelengths of light inherent in the known universe were to be represented by a large building, the wavelengths of light that we perceive would be represented by a thumbtack".

Only with 'reality', instead of light.


EDIT:

Oh, I dunno. Parallel worlds. Faerie folk. Animate ideas. Holes in the fabric of reality. Stuff like that.

Ah, a Bohmian!

Pretty much this.