Believe in the Unexplainable?

The Unexplainable can cover many areas. The following pertains mainly to Ghosts and the world of the after-life. While many people group UFO's, Bigfoot and many other forms of Urban Legend that while arguably are "Paranormal", I'm going to divide this grouping into separate topics.

Belief is a personal thing. It is instilled in us by our parents and our peers; it is taught to us by our religious and sociological teachers. We are taught to believe in the power of science, we are taught to believe in the power of God, we are taught to believe in natural forces. We modify all of our various inputs to come to our own beliefs. We put greater emphasis on some, less on others and discard others still altogether.

We go forward with our external knowledge and apply our experiences into the database to modify our own beliefs. Some people believe in the power of the Blarney Stone, others do not. I think it is that simple. It is directly related to the environment we grew up in and then how we categorize our experiences using the knowledge we already have. When we were kids Santa visited us every year, the tooth fairy also came around a lot. Later in life we find that what we thought was happening wasn't exactly what transpired, yet we still had the experiences.

I have formed an opinion that ghost hunters are not hallucinating. I've had my own experiences which validate most of what I read. I am not ready to conclude though that ghosts are the only plausible answer. Every instance of unexplainable moments hase an explanation. Just because we cannot prove or disprove that moment scientifically shouldn't allow us to dismiss it as a tall tale. The Earth was once flat, right?

I've read a lot of articles concerning the paranormal (but not even close to all of them) and one thing I have picked up on is everyone believes differently about different things. Some us believe there is no other explanation for ghosts than ghosts, some of us believe ghosts are not even in the realm of possibilities. I grew up in a semi open-minded environment; my parents did not force their opinions on me. I was allowed to come to my own life conclusions. This led me to look at every side of every issue.

I do believe you when you tell me you saw a ghost, you aren't making it up, and this is what you believe you saw. I do not necessarily believe it was a ghost though. I can't prove to you it wasn't a ghost anymore than you can prove to me it was a ghost. But I do believe you experienced something as yet unexplainable.

People are reporting experiences I've never had; do I dismiss them as fruitcakes? Nope, they could be exactly correct. They believe they are experiencing what they are reporting and that is good enough for me. Without getting scientific, I'd love to see some experiments done. I'd love for them to be able to prove to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is exactly what they say.

Today I believe what I believe, tomorrow I may believe something else.