Have you ever experienced a paranormal phenomenon?

Since the JREF was created to test the paranormal, I wonder how many forum members have actually experienced something paranormal.

For the purposes of this thread, 'paranormal' is defined as an event which is considered 'paranormal', or unexplained by science, by the general public. It consists of three broad categories:

-"Spirit" Phenomena- This includes ghosts, hauntings, possessions, channeling, etc.

-"Psychic" Phenomena- This includes clairvoyance, telepathy, remote viewing, telekinisis, etc.

-UFOs and Alien Abductions- For the purposes of this poll, UFO means stereotypical UFO (i.e. saucer, sphere, or cigar shaped objects seen hovering or moving in seemingly impossible ways in the skies). Alien abduction means stereotypical alien abduction (i.e. 'Grays', 'Lizards', 'Nordics' are commonly reported in alien abduction experiences. If your experience includes anything other than this, please do not say you have been abducted by aliens in the poll).

Again, this poll does not consider what you believe explains the phenomena, but only whether the general public view the phenomena as paranormal.

(Note: This is a multi-vote poll. Please answer truthfully. This is not a joke.)

Once I was drinking beer with some friends at night in a cemetery when I saw something which was white and about 6 foo tall and moving like a ghost. It was very dark and I was a little leery because it was dark and a graveyard but walked forward enough to identify the small tree with white leaves that was blowing in the wind. I went back to my group of friends and after a while decided I wanted to go somewhere else since this was boring so I told them I saw something and I thought maybe it was a ghost. I pointed to the tree which was too far away to tell it was a tree and they all got excited and decided it was time to leave.
Over the next week I ran into all of these guys and individually asked them about the ghost. They had all seen a ghost yet I saw a tree blowing in the wind. Just goes to show that the majority opinion may be wrong.

I can't say that I have experienced anything which might be considered, by anyone, to be paranormal.

As a reminder, this is about the general public's view, not yours. You can't vote both yes and no.

And with that, I am voting for everything.

How do you define "UFO"? I've seen things flying without being able to identify them, but I have no reason to think there was anything paranormal going on.

@Mojo

From the OP:

For the purposes of this poll, UFO means stereotypical UFO (i.e. saucer, sphere, or cigar shaped objects seen hovering or moving in seemingly impossible ways in the skies).

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Yes, I've experienced what could be termed by the general public as psychic, spirit and UFo phenomena. (Hey, what can I say, I'm just lucky that way!)

The spirit ones there are many of - but I was purposely looking for those so I'm not going to list them as the majority are boring. The UFO was a one-off. I was travelling as a passenger in a car on the M53 (UK) in the middle of the day when cars started slowing down. I looked out of the window to see what was causing the holdup and happened to glass upwards where there was an object hanging in the sky. It looked to me like a silver zeppelin shaped thing so I figured it was some kind of hot air balloon funky advertisement shaped doo-dah. While trying to figure out what it was advertising and staring at it, it shot off straight upwards really fast and disappeared. Personally I'm only convinced it was a UFO in the sense of that I couldn't identify it so it was unexplained to me!

The psychic one is my favourite though. Before I moved away I would regularly go to the spiritualist churches to watch the mediums (who would do their thing for free) to see how many were really obvious in pulling information from the crowd. Then a close friend of mine died. We'd not seen each other for a while but he'd write to me often and we had a few private jokes that would have made no sense to anyone else. After he died - amidst a lot of questions about his death - I was invited to the spiritualist church by another friend who hadn't seen a medium before and didn't want to go alone so I agreed. We didn't go to the place I'd normally visited, instead opting for going to one where nobody knew us. The medium was also one we'd never seen before. Anyway, things went on the way they usually do with the medium picking random people out of the audience and giving information and I sat with my arms folded looking rather bored. Then she walked over to me. And I have a transcript of the conversation so I can give you the full account!

medium -"I have a young man wanting to talk to you."
me -"Oh?"
medium - "Yes, he's wearing a suit which is unusual for him as he prefers jeans and a black t-shirt with a skull on it."
me - "OK."
Medium - "Can you accept that?"
me - *shrugs* "Not without more information"
medium - "Alright. He's got long waist length black hair, rather pale skin and dark eyes. His name is Jon."
me - "What spelling of Jon does he use?"
medium - "Jon."
me - "Alright, so what's the message?"
medium - "He wants to tell you that you are right about his death. It wasn't an accident but that it's okay because he's much happier now."
me - "What.. gone to a happy place, has he?" (said in a rather dry tone as I'm not a believer in heaven,hell and purgatory for suicide )
medium - *laughs* "He said that you want proof it's him."
me - "Of course I do. You going to give me any?"
medium - *looks embarrassed* "He's telling me something but it doesn't make any sense."
me - "But it's not supposed to make sense to you, right?"
medium - "True. Alright, he says to stay happy and watch out for those damn haddocks."

I laughed then. Now.... I can't actually make my mind up about this. I'd never been to this spiritualist church, I knew nobody other than the friend I was with and she didn't know Jon or anything about him. We'd not talked about him during the journey to or whilst we were in the church. In fact we didn't talk to each other or anyone else the whole time we were there. I'm pretty confident I didn't feed the medium any information she could have used during the conversation I had with her. Yet....

Jon committed suicide, of that I am sure. Although the verdict was accidental death as he was drunk and fell in Wallasey Docks. Thing is where he fell in you'd have to climb an 11 foot fence and then over a wall ... you don't really accidentally do that. About three days before he died, he sent me a letter from him telling me he was depressed and didn't think life was worth living anymore. But I wasn't at home and didn't receive it until the day I heard about his death. He would always sign his letters with "stay happy" and had this thing about colouring in a corner of the letter with shadows and eyes and writing underneath "those damn haddocks are watching, make sure they don't get you!" I never shared the letters with anyone and I never talked about them. Then you have to add the location of the church, which after I left, I realised was 3 roads away from where he'd lived (a house I'd never been to while he was alive). This happened two days before his funeral.

I still can't make my mind up about it.....

TheLoneBedouin said:

As a reminder, this is about the general public's view, not yours. You can't vote both yes and no.

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Well I've had to!

Given your definition of what counts as a UFO and spirit phenomenon I voted yes for both those options however I have no evidence that these were anything of a paranormal nature so have to say no to that part of your poll.

I had a brief feeling of "being one with the universe" while sleeping. I was weirded out for about a week after. Impossible to describe but easy enough to explain. I'm very glad I had that experience, it helps me relate to religious people.

I counted that as a "spirit phenomenon" since it involved a feeling like an OBE.

I've experience pre-cognitive dreams on more than five occasions.

They tend to be vague and deja-vu like but I definately remember the details of the dream with the current event that I was witnessing and matching...however all those events were pretty irrelevant precogs such as me moving a dresser or driving past a circus...oh well, I'm still waiting for the dream with the winning lottery number.

It's all in the mind!

I have experienced various "psychic" phenomena but don't consider them paranormal. Brain science is in its infancy and its understanding of the mind and consciousness is extremely rudimentary!

I received some basic Remote Viewing training from a former operative of the US 'Star Gate' program and, along with most other participants in the course, was able to draw remarkably credible representations of unseen locations and objects by following Remote Viewing's systematic protocols.

JihadJane said:

I have experienced various "psychic" phenomena but don't consider them paranormal. Brain science is in its infancy and its understanding of the mind and consciousness is extremely rudimentary!

I received some basic Remote Viewing training from a former operative of the US 'Star Gate' program and, along with most other participants in the course, was able to draw remarkably credible representations of unseen locations and objects by following Remote Viewing's systematic protocols.

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Want a million dollars?

Do the instructors?

As an aside: JihadJane - you do realise that the JREF's million dollar challenge is still running and what you describe would certainly win the challenge?

Darat ninja strike!

I have experienced what seem like really bizarre coincidences (like meeting someone I know every time I go on holiday), but I have no doubt that these are just normal run of the mill coincidences.

JihadJane said:

I have experienced various "psychic" phenomena but don't consider them paranormal. Brain science is in its infancy and its understanding of the mind and consciousness is extremely rudimentary!

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Your ignorance on this subject is not evidence of your powers.

I received some basic Remote Viewing training from a former operative of the US 'Star Gate' program and, along with most other participants in the course, was able to draw remarkably credible representations of unseen locations and objects by following Remote Viewing's systematic protocols.

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Amazing. Prove it. There's a million dollars awaiting you.

Paximperium ninja strike?

I voted no but wish I could have voted yes, it sounds fun.

KingMerv00 said:

Paximperium ninja strike?

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That's no ninja strike. That's monkey style back handed pimp slap.