I was rudely awakened early this morning by being poked in the ribs -- two hard jabs in quick succession. I rolled over and looked up to see why my girlfriend was waking me up in such a hostile manner.
She wasn't there. Neither was anyone else.
My first thought was that she had poked me and then quickly left the room for some reason. But it would have had to be really quick. Though I had been fully asleep, I was startled by the poking, and I spun around fast to see what was going on. Plus the bedroom door was closed. She would have had to close it while quickly running out of the room, which meant I would have heard it close, which I hadn't.
Just to make sure, I opened the door and looked in the living room. She was napping on the couch, under a blanket, with her dog sleeping next to her.
My next thought was that something had fallen on me. But it would have had to be something fairly substantial to land on me with that much force, and therefore would have been easy to find (and there would have been two of whatever it was). There was nothing to find, either in the bed or on the floor nearby. Plus, there's nowhere something could have fallen from except the ceiling (there are no shelves or anything nearby). There hadn't been anything hanging from there, and the ceiling itself was intact.
I was rapidly running out of possible causes, and the ones that remained were getting more and more unlikely. Nonetheless, did I check under the bed and in the closet to see if there was anyone hiding there? You bet I did. (There wasn't.)
At that point it was basically down to mind tricks or ghosts. So I chalked it up to an unusual but certainly not inconceivable misfire of some part of my brain, and laid down to go back to sleep.
And as much of a skeptic as I am, and for as long as I've been one, and for all the ways I understand and appreciate (and even utilize) the ways our minds can make us perceive things that never happened… I was too freaked out to go back to sleep, because dammit, I felt something poke me! I know what I felt! There's no way it could have been all in my head!
So today, as I sit here groggy and sleep-deprived, I feel just the tiniest bit more empathy than usual for people who believe in paranormal things because of inexplicable personal experiences. If I could be that freaked out, with the collection of information in my head, it's not at all difficult to understand how someone with less information could interpret such an experience as irrefutable proof of ghosts (or whatever entity they chalk it up to). It really did feel like something I couldn't possibly have imagined. And for someone who isn't familiar with the degree to which it's possible to imagine things that don't seem like you could possibly have imagined them, it would be easy to dismiss that option as ridiculous -- possibly even more ridiculous than ghosts.
She wasn't there. Neither was anyone else.
My first thought was that she had poked me and then quickly left the room for some reason. But it would have had to be really quick. Though I had been fully asleep, I was startled by the poking, and I spun around fast to see what was going on. Plus the bedroom door was closed. She would have had to close it while quickly running out of the room, which meant I would have heard it close, which I hadn't.
Just to make sure, I opened the door and looked in the living room. She was napping on the couch, under a blanket, with her dog sleeping next to her.
My next thought was that something had fallen on me. But it would have had to be something fairly substantial to land on me with that much force, and therefore would have been easy to find (and there would have been two of whatever it was). There was nothing to find, either in the bed or on the floor nearby. Plus, there's nowhere something could have fallen from except the ceiling (there are no shelves or anything nearby). There hadn't been anything hanging from there, and the ceiling itself was intact.
I was rapidly running out of possible causes, and the ones that remained were getting more and more unlikely. Nonetheless, did I check under the bed and in the closet to see if there was anyone hiding there? You bet I did. (There wasn't.)
At that point it was basically down to mind tricks or ghosts. So I chalked it up to an unusual but certainly not inconceivable misfire of some part of my brain, and laid down to go back to sleep.
And as much of a skeptic as I am, and for as long as I've been one, and for all the ways I understand and appreciate (and even utilize) the ways our minds can make us perceive things that never happened… I was too freaked out to go back to sleep, because dammit, I felt something poke me! I know what I felt! There's no way it could have been all in my head!
So today, as I sit here groggy and sleep-deprived, I feel just the tiniest bit more empathy than usual for people who believe in paranormal things because of inexplicable personal experiences. If I could be that freaked out, with the collection of information in my head, it's not at all difficult to understand how someone with less information could interpret such an experience as irrefutable proof of ghosts (or whatever entity they chalk it up to). It really did feel like something I couldn't possibly have imagined. And for someone who isn't familiar with the degree to which it's possible to imagine things that don't seem like you could possibly have imagined them, it would be easy to dismiss that option as ridiculous -- possibly even more ridiculous than ghosts.
via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/PUa2lK
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