Have you ever had a real experience you consider to be supernatural?

[Snarf Zagyg]

There is a term for when a cancer just stops growing or even seems to die. It's called 'spontaneous remission' and medical science uses that term when it can't explain why it happens.

I'm guessing you haven't actually looked at scientific articles in oncology on this issue. It's fairly well-documented.

 

[Ryujin]

There is a term for when a cancer just stops growing or even seems to die. It's called 'spontaneous remission' and medical science uses that term when it can't explain why it happens.

Rather interestingly, that term just came up on the Netflix show "The Midnight Club", which is about a group of late teens/young adults who are dying of various ailments, usually cancer, in a hospice. It's a Spooky Season sort of show with the characters telling ghost stories, ghost sightings, and premonitions.

The explanation that they give for "Spontaneous Remission", in the show, is that it generally involves a secondary infection that triggers the body to "do what it should be doing."

 

[CleverNickName]

I've had plenty of things happen to me that I couldn't explain, but I wouldn't consider them supernatural.

For example, part of my job involves confined-space entry (CSE): I have to go into manholes and pipes every now and then, to inspect them for damage, verify the construction, run tests, collect samples, and all that. It's all part of the glamorous job of being a water engineer. Sometimes, I get a premonition or a 'gut feeling' that something isn't right, and I'll call off the entry...and then discover that the atmosphere in the pipe was harmful and the 4GD was out of calibration, or my retrieval harness was damaged, or whatever.

Now I'd love to attribute that 'gut feeling' to my dad, rest in peace, looking over me and keeping me safe. It's also possible that it is my own guardian angel, or an alien that has an interest in my lifespan, or nanobots that the government injected me with, or a safety charm that my grandmother placed on me when I was born (she was very superstitious). But it's most likely that it is the result of the hours of rigorous training, my years of CSE experience, and the lengthy and repetitive annual certifications that have all sharpened my awareness. I've been trained to be vigilant (paranoid?) to danger, to follow regulations to a T, and to react quickly in danger, and that is the most likely source of my premonitions.

Note that I said "most likely." I know, I know, Occam's Razor, "the easiest answer is also the most likely," sure. But it's not evidence. Since there's no safe way to test that theory (sending untrained people into confined spaces as control, for example), and since we don't have the technology to detect, measure, and predict the impact of ghosts/angels/aliens/nanobots/charms, my premonitions remain unexplained.

Unexplained, but probably not supernatural.

 

[Morrus]

There is a term for when a cancer just stops growing or even seems to die. It's called 'spontaneous remission' and medical science uses that term when it can't explain why it happens.

The logical fallacy you repeatedly describe in this thread is known as "God of the Gaps". While that particular fallacy spefically refers to theological explanations, it's also equally valid for supernatural/magical explanations.

God of the gaps - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It can be very basically summarised as "If I can't explain it, it must be magic".

 

[Fifth Element]

Most ghost stories seem to involve a sense of coldness. Cold feelings, cold air, cold breezes seem to be very common in ghost stories. Now why is that?

Simplest answer? Because people have heard that ghosts involve coldness, so when they feel a cold they can't explain, they're more likely to consider it indicative of a ghost, if they are prone to that type of thinking.

It would explain why ''coldness'' is so associated with ghost stories from around the world and all sorts of separate cultures.

Based on my understanding of folklore, I would challenge a claim that ghosts are associated with cold around the world. Maybe in some cultures, but then you'll also have to consider whether this association is relatively new or not, possibly based on stories heard from other places around the world and then adopted by believers.

 

[Umbran]

Speaking of ghosts, there's one thing most ghost stories have in common that just makes my scientific side do the NDT "Hmmmmmmmm..."

Most ghost stories seem to involve a sense of coldness. Cold feelings, cold air, cold breezes seem to be very common in ghost stories. Now why is that?

As you note, these things are associated with a sense of coldness, but not a verified drop in temperature. Despite what we see in the movies and TV, such experiences don't usually happen in sight of a thermometer.

So, we then are in the realm of speaking not of actual temperature change, but in the perception of same. And human perception is complicated. The body and the mind are not fully separable. Things that impact the mind impact the body, and vice versa.

When you are cold, a person tends to pull their limbs in, their shoulders tense up, scrunching up to the ears, and so on. This body posture we use to hold in body heat is extremely similar to the body posture we take when we are afraid - defensively drawing in to protect the body and appear to be less of a threat.

In some abuse survivors, we then see an effect of being cold bringing on anxiety. The body takes on the same body posture as fear, and so the mind reacts with fear. This can work the other way too, in which anxiety is interpreted as cold by the conscious mind.

If you want, though, I could crunch some numbers, and see how much heat energy there is to steal out of a room's air, and how much could then happen with that energy.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It’s funny that often when people are dying they see parents or loved ones that have passed or in some cases angels. Regardless they seem to find peace in it before they die.

There was something comforting about it, whatever the explanation is. This does bring to mind another event that happened which I would file under unusual. It certainly has plausible explanations though. My aunt had a stroke over ten years ago, and when we got to the hospital the doctors told us she was basically brain dead, wouldn't make a recovery and we should sign papers to have her taken off life support. One of the nurses whispered to us that we shouldn't feel pressured to make a decision. A picture of the pope was placed over her bed and she ended up recovering. She still has issues from the stroke but is able to live by herself, speak clearly, read, etc. She is basically back to normal with some residual issues around sight, memory, etc. Obviously this one has plenty of material explanations. Still it was an event that gave me pause in a number of respects (I started going back to Mass with her shortly after the stroke as a result).

 

[Ryujin]

I've had plenty of things happen to me that I couldn't explain, but I wouldn't consider them supernatural.

For example, part of my job involves confined-space entry (CSE): I have to go into manholes and pipes every now and then, to inspect them for damage, verify the construction, run tests, collect samples, and all that. It's all part of the glamorous job of being a water engineer. Sometimes, I get a premonition or a 'gut feeling' that something isn't right, and I'll call off the entry...and then discover that the atmosphere in the pipe was harmful and the 4GD was out of calibration, or my retrieval harness was damaged, or whatever.

Now I'd love to attribute that 'gut feeling' to my dad, rest in peace, looking over me and keeping me safe. It's also possible that it is my own guardian angel, or an alien that has an interest in my lifespan, or nanobots that the government injected me with, or a safety charm that my grandmother placed on me when I was born (she was very superstitious). But it's most likely that it is the result of the hours of rigorous training, my years of CSE experience, and the lengthy and repetitive annual certifications that have all sharpened my awareness. I've been trained to be vigilant (paranoid?) to danger, to follow regulations to a T, and to react quickly in danger, and that is the most likely source of my premonitions.

Note that I said "most likely." Occam's Razor says that the easiest answer is also the most likely, but it's not evidence. Since there's no safe way to test that theory (sending untrained people into confined spaces as control, for example), and since we don't have the technology to detect, measure, and predict the impact of ghosts/angels/aliens/nanobots/charms, my premonitions remain unexplained.

Unexplained, but probably not supernatural.

I've got something similar, that has made some people question if I have some sort of clairvoyant ability. There have been many times that I have led rather... ahem... "spirited" group rides on motorcycles. Many times I have slowed down for seemingly no reason, only for a police cruiser to pass us going in the opposite direction within less than a minute, in most cases.

The real reason is that I've thought to myself, "Now would be a REALLY back time to see a cop", because our speeds had generally climbed to something frequently double the posted limit.

 

[Fifth Element]

If you want, though, I could crunch some numbers, and see how much heat energy there is to steal out of a room's air, and how much could then happen with that energy.

What I've always wondered is what ghosts are supposed to be made of. Clearly it's something that is subject to gravity, since the Earth travels at about 370 km/sec through space and ghosts apparently stay right where they are relative to the planet.

 

[Janx]

Once upon a time, at the turn of the century, my mother was in hospice in the land of ice and some snow, for it was only November. I traveled up there and spent the week by her side. On one of those cold days, I spotted a monarch butterfly flying just outside in the some snow of freezing temperatures.

I don't know the exact temperature (I reckon I could look it up). It wasn't the coldest possible in the clime, nor was it sunny but brisk. I don't know the tolerances of a butterfly or its season.

I just know it should have gone south back in September or so. Not flapping around in the cold woods of Minnesota outside a dying woman's room.