Most Convincing Paranormal Event

[Gandalf]

I walways found the Area 51 thing to be the most convincing. Just what the hell is going on there?

[SirNitram]

I walways found the Area 51 thing to be the most convincing. Just what the hell is going on there?

Among other things, creative use of tractors:

[Patrick Degan]

In 1968, while Americans were watching the Chicago riots at the Democratic Convention or live broadcasts from the Vietnam war, millions of Egyptians tuned in to broadcasts of a miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary at a church in the town of Zeitoun, a suburb of Cairo. The amazing thing is that they were first spotted April 2 by a Muslim laborer named Atwa. He noticed someone walking on the dome of the Coptic orthodox church and said he first thought it was someone who was going to jump. He yelled at them to wait, then alerted passersby and fellow crewmen. Well, they all found out it wasn't just some woman. The apparitions lasted for 3 years and were broadcast by Egyptian TV, photographed by many professional photographers and also personally witnessed by Egyptian President Abdul Nasser. Over 1,000,000 people saw the manifestations, with sometimes as many as 200,000 people there at the same time. They all watched Mary pacing the roof and raising her hands in blessing - her robes being seen to move as the wind would blow. Dove-like objects would also appear with or around her and would move without flapping their wings, sometimes forming geometric shapes. The apparitions were believed to be responsible for numerous unaccountable healings, one which happened to be the finger of Atwa, which was full of gangrene and scheduled to be removed the day after he sighted the vision. Local seismic activity was 10 times greater than normal ...could this have had something to do with it or was it the other way around? Local legend said that the church had been built in 1918 by a man named Khalil, who said the Blessed Virgin came to him in a dream and asked him to build it. If he did, she said she would return in 50 years to bless it.

In writing about the similar incident of the Fatima sightings of 1918, Robert Anton Wilson speculated about how the geomagnetic disturbances associated with earthquake activity could induce mass hallucinations because of how the activity of the brain would be affected by the magnetic field effect. The "reality" of the illusion would be proportional to both the distance from the epicentre of the disturbance and the subconscious belief of the individual which provides the substance of the illusion (i.e. the Virgin Mary image), while non-believers or those at considerable distance away might simply see an amorphous blob of light or nothing at all, as Wilson outlined in his theory of such phenomena.

[Ahurazithramis]

I had an incident while I was meditating on the couch. I babbled some strange words and flew to the ceiling, bumping my head. I was fully awake, and the white paint clumps fell from the celing where I bumped my head.

[Winston Blake]

I had an incident while I was meditating on the couch. I babbled some strange words and flew to the ceiling, bumping my head. I was fully awake, and the white paint clumps fell from the celing where I bumped my head.

My guess would be that your meditation went deep enough that you were having a dream without truly being asleep.

...Either that, you know, or you're a hallucinating whacko.

[Shinova]

The only paranormal event I witness recently was when my head started to spin after I got up too quickly out of bed.



Though I do wish a real paranormal event could happen, since it'd make the world that less boring to me.

[Uraniun235]

Once I saw a bowl of soup seemingly move on it's own - slowly slid over a few inches, then stopped. The table was flat.

It remains an utter outlier in my life experience.

[VT-16]

If he did, she said she would return in 50 years to bless it.

And keep blessing it for three years? Wow, talk about divine beaurecracy.

[Crayz9000]

I walways found the Area 51 thing to be the most convincing. Just what the hell is going on there?

Among other things, creative use of tractors:

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/ima ... _david.jpg

Google doesn't have satellite data at that resolution of Groom Lake (apparently it's older data, something like fifty meter res). You can of course see the runways and buildings, but good luck making out anything further than that.

Of course, there was another company that released some high res images of Groom Lake taken by their IKONOS satellite. You can find those on Google, just not on GMaps.

[Lagmonster]

You couldn't have expected a thread like this to pop up without the resident folklorist to chime in.

"I've seen shit that would turn you white". I've been a witness to pieces of iron cookware hurtling themselves off of tables, paintings exected from walls, and absolutely shitloads of anthropomorphized clouds of light, mist, and dust floating down corridors. None of it was so utterly wierd that it lacked a reasonable explanation. Degan already made an excellent post pointing out the feasibility of mass delusion and the fact that odd physical phenomenon like earthquakes or strong electromagnetic fields are actually strong indicators *against* the paranormal - there being evident energies and physical forces of considerable strength in play, more than enough to make you see and experience wierd things in the right conditions.

Virgin Mary sightings are not my speciality, but I *will* say that I've seen 'better' (read: more human-looking than a blob) ghost pictures than those in the OP. I suggest looking up the famous photos of the Brown Lady of Raynam Hall, or some of the ones from Borley Rectory (like the infamous 'floating brick'). And if you ever want to see a place so fucked up that you'll see anything your imagination can come up with, try visiting Winchester Mansion in San Jose.

[VT-16]

Borley Rectory (like the infamous 'floating brick')

That 'floating brick' photo is pretty creepy, I´ll give ya that.

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

Anyone have ideas on what the Faces of Belmez are? Kind of spooky and I can't find a refutation or explanation.

[Dahak]

I had an incident while I was meditating on the couch. I babbled some strange words and flew to the ceiling, bumping my head. I was fully awake, and the white paint clumps fell from the celing where I bumped my head.

I would cut back on those illegal drugs you seem to be taking by the truck load...
It is much, much safer...

[Rye]

Unfortunately, no well known ghost or paranormal things are immediately apparent in my mind. The weirdest things I personally have witnessed was using a Ouija board working one time, (but I know that was down to subconscious willing that I had no control over) and one time making an occult-looking pentagram outside one sunny day in primary school. The sun clouded over and a fuckload of caterpillars, beetles and other insects (many of which could have flown) crawled over the ground towards me through the grass. That was fucking odd.

The weirdest thing I've experienced, however, was another time in my last year in primary school. I was sat at my desk, which was just 4 metal legs and some crappy surface, the people in front of me were busy doing their work, as was I and the guy next to me. I accidentally dropped my pencil case over the edge of the table and caught it by the edge before it completely went. When I tried to pull it back, it wouldn't come, it was exactly like someone had hold of it, and the amount of pull on it changed. I pulled it back and eventually it was released and I got it. There weren't any bent bits or rips or snags, the table was completely smooth and where the pencil case coudln't have gotten caught on anything I could see.

The people in front of me both had their arms where I could see them, and likewise the guy next to me. I was by the window so noone could've got a hold of it secretly from that direction.

I remain utterly confused by that experience. I mean, noone was playing with it, it was damn peculiar if gravity suddenly changed in that area at that specific time, and it really felt like someone was holding the other end of it. If a ghost was there, why on Earth would it do that?

Utterly utterly confusing, as I said.

Oh, and one time ball lightning blew up our downstairs TV. Lightning hit the aerial on the roof and went into the back of the TV. Several eyewitnesses from my old neighbourhood said the lightning came from a hovering beach ball sized orange-yellow orb, that then proceeded to go over near our next door neighbour's house and explode. I didn't see it though, it was one of the most scary lightning storms I'd ever been in and I was hid under my bed covers (I was like 4 at the time).

[Crossroads Inc.]

Borley Rectory (like the infamous 'floating brick')

That 'floating brick' photo is pretty creepy, I´ll give ya that.

Floating Brick? Do show us a pic! after all, I htought only Vogon ships hung in the air the way Bricks don't

[LadyTevar]

Those Faces of Belmez are really creepy. The EVP 'evidence' they talk about, however, is something that I myself don't believe in.

[Hardy]

I've personally taken photos of Bayside, New York during Catholic pilgrimmages(sp) and have procured some interesting light patterns that many believe to look like the Virgin Mary, rosaries, Catholic symbols, and other "apparitions". I've yet to find a rational cause of these.

Some examples:
http://www.roses.org/photos/mirphoto.htm

Most of the photos I've seen and have taken are supposedly miraculous simply because they look odd. Others are a bit convincing.

[Trytostaydead]

Once I saw a bowl of soup seemingly move on it's own - slowly slid over a few inches, then stopped. The table was flat.

It remains an utter outlier in my life experience.

A CD case did the same exact thing.

[Lagmonster]

Anyone have ideas on what the Faces of Belmez are? Kind of spooky and I can't find a refutation or explanation.

There have been a small number of investigations - real ones - into the faces that appeared and disappeared on the floor of the house. However, you won't see many modern investigations into the matter since the phenomena - known as simulacra, is largely believe to be hoaxed (and no 'new' faces have appeared since the original owner's death). The original fama might have been an accident, but after they poured an inch of cement onto the floor, faces continued to appear, but these were far more artistic than the original. I don't still have the skeptic magazine issue that discusses it, but I believe the images were found to have been traced with silver nitrate. Since the woman charged visitors to enter before the authorities banned it as a tourist activity, the motive for fraud was strong.

[Ender]

My brother once farted so hard he woke himself up. Does that count?

[Lagmonster]

Most of the photos I've seen and have taken are supposedly miraculous simply because they look odd. Others are a bit convincing.

Nothing is 'convincing' in blurry photographs or photos of light orbs unless you are expecting to be convinced.

[VT-16]

+http://www.prairieghosts.com/brectory.html

The larger picture and the blowup of the 'brick'-part are on that page.

Now, it seems some people claim to have orchestrated alot of the hauntings in Borley Rectory and that particular picture (made by a photographer from TIME magazine) may have an ordinary explanation (demolitions workers throwing a brick and it accidently being caught on camera.)

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

I don't still have the skeptic magazine issue that discusses it, but I believe the images were found to have been traced with silver nitrate.

Thanks that clears some stuff...did the magazine explain how they could do it despite the place being sealed for 3 months?

[Hardy]

Most of the photos I've seen and have taken are supposedly miraculous simply because they look odd. Others are a bit convincing.

Nothing is 'convincing' in blurry photographs or photos of light orbs unless you are expecting to be convinced.

Which for the record, I am not. Perhaps I should've chosen a word other than "convincing"? Those pictures were major obstacles in my journey atheism, however. The ones I refer to as "convincing" probably do involve some dishonesty as I've never taken or have personally seen anything drastic before.
And there we have it: one perfectly incoherent paragraph

[PainRack]

The Rendlesham Forest incident is now believed by skeptics to be a lighthouse , combined with fatigue, hallucination and the making up of stuff over the years.

Creatures of the Deep frankly remain the most convincing parnormal event ever. Its totally possible . After all, just 2, 3 years ago, a simple scientific expedition led by the Aussies into the Pacific netted over 50 unknown species.

We ignore my irrational belief in ghosts though.:D