Why are people so narrow minded when it comes to the paranormal?

Question

Just because its never happened to them,and can't be proven!There are so many people that have had paranormal experiences and are afraid to say so because of people like that!Do they ever think' hmm maybe that did happen to so many people that say so,maybe the stories are true,whats really out there How interesting'?Why so in denial that these things and experiences exist!It gets old thoughout all history people have always known that these realms exist!Its just this day and age everyone so left-brained and against it all!Why?Just because it has nothing to do with your own little worlds!How can people think like that,I don't know!Just let us be,and others like me,we want to share our stories,and get it out there!So,if your mind can't be changed who cares anyway!Science can't answer everything!

Answer 1

The reasons are just as varied as people are numbered.  No one wants to be in denial but that's one good reason.  Actually without going into alot of explanation this might sum it up for you.  Peoples prejudices normally stem from the unknown.  The more you find out, the less you have to fear.  It's kinda like...everyone would like to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.

Answer 2

I believe in paranormal activities.i have Myself experienced all this. Some people thinks that they are different so they never share anything with anyone. And others think that seeing is believing so they dont trust others whether deep inside they too think all this supernatural things are true. But i think you dont have to care about them much its their choice they want to believe it or not.

Answer 3

I think the people who believe are the narrow minded.You in the face of overwhelming evidence,continue to believe. I'm not against it.In fact I'd like to see a real ghost or psychic.I'd love to see a UFO or Bigfoot.It's just not possible,at least so far.If you check out paranormal claims,they always fall apart.You're always left "someone says they saw--------".If you want to believe fine,go ahead.When you ask a question in Science and Math. You'll get an opposing view.Not for your benefit,but for others.Some one standing on the fence between rationality and nonsense.I'm going to try and influence them with facts whenever possible.Frankly, the world is a better place without superstition.

Answer 4

We are raised to believe in the scientific method and scoff at anyone who does not believe only in that which has gone through a scientific process. However, the most valuable knowledge is not derived from the scientific method.

How can people reject most of reality because a scientist has not condoned it? (See E. F. Schumacher "Guide for the Perplexed")

Unfortunately, most people are overly influenced by a media that has become propaganda for consumerism and materialism. I choose to follow a more spiritual/mystical path. Won't you join me?

Answer 5

I'm like that, but only because the idea of it scares me, so i try to convince my self it's fake, but i know it's real but it scares me!!! Don't be hating on me!!!  I like tacos.

Answer 6

Your views contain WAY too many easily falsifiable opinions upon which to base much of a response.  So, I'll be brief:

No body has EVER presented ANY independently verifiable, reproducible, testable proof of ANY paranormal phenomenon.  Many, many have claimed they have, however.  I mean really, think about it, if anyone had ever "proved" that ghosts were real--or whatever--it would've been all over the news, world wide!  Scientists would've been scrambling to the source, international conventions would've convened, it would be a full-on media circus!  But...that's never happened.  And for good reason...right?

What is needed is proof that can stand up to scientific testing.  It isn't "closed minded" to require this proof.  It's intelligent.  I agree with another responder who said that it appears that the "believers" tend to be closed-minded lot.  I for one, will never deny anyone's right to believe in whatever nonsense they wish, BUT when they try to equate it with rational realism, there's gonna be problems.

Answer 7

1) Because its never happened to me, and 2) because it can't be DISproved!  

So many people CLAIM to have had paranormal experiences, now and throughout history, but these claims are never independently and repeatedly verified.  

I have considered the possibility that these claims are correct, but I have to ask myself, what's more likely: 1) that someone has experienced or witnessed a phenomenon that defies the laws of physics, or 2) that they are either gullible, delusional or intentionally deceitful.  Choice #2 is simply the most likely.

If these claims could be repeated, tested, predicted, and independently either verified or falsified, then they would fall under the realm of science and they would force us to redefine what we know about reality and the laws of physics.  But these claims are always only witnesssed by a single person or a few people, they only seem to happen once or a few times, there's no observed or measureable physical effect or evidence, and the people who make paranormal claims always say things like, "you had to be there," or "you have to beleive or you can see it," or "you have to have blind faith."  Well, these are not convincing to a thinking person.

It's not a matter of being in denial - it a matter of having a firm grip on reality.  Science hasn't answerd everything, yet, but that's no reason to give up on it, and that's no reason to believe in something beyond reality that can't be tested by it.

There are some things that it's OK to be narrow-minded about - like things that can't possibly happen.

Answer 8

Because ultimately, a belief in the paranormal is dangerous.

People wind up scammed.

People wind up cheated.

People wind up wasting their lives in puerile activities.

People wind up with good reputations destroyed.

This paranormal stuff damages people's lives.

I believe charlatans should be opposed and humiliated!

That's not narrow minded. That's Justice!

Science has actually answered more (and we have all benefited) than anything any paranormal has ever given us!

Answer 9

blame the bible

Answer 10

I thing you are referring to people who have studied science and understand that some things are not possible. Everyone with strong beliefs is narrow-minded.

Answer 11

Weird.

Answer 12

Because some cannot believe what they have no experienced themselves, some feel that others are more naive and fooled easily, and mostly because there is so much faked evidence out there that people are convinced it's all in your head.

I have seen paranormal investigators web sites full of camera straps or other things out of focus, that are considered "Energy Vortexes".  Not to mention, almost any picture or video taken of the supernatural can be disputed no matter how clear and convincing it is, and all someone has to do is say is "Wow that is fake!" and to them it is.

Ghosts, hauntings, and the supernatural are a touchy subject, just like religion and everyone has their own opinion, point of view, and degree of acceptance as far as what they believe or not, or will accept as concrete proof.  It's called eye of the beholder, and everyone has a different one.

Answer 13

becuz sum of them just don't WANT to belive. the world they live in (w/o the paranormal stuff) is comfortable. they r not ready 2 accept the concept of ghosts, etc. so they scorn it, thinking that if they claim it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist. they r afraid of these things.

i'm not saying these things exist. idk. but ur rite about 1 thing: we should b so narrowminded about stuff like this.

plus, ppl will say, there is no definite proof of this stuff. they say they cannot believe until there is proof in front of their eyes.

Answer 14

I think narrow-mindedness is as much a problem of the True Believers as it is anybody else. Why do True Believers tend to think the littlest accident a sign from the spirit world and dismiss the simple, natural explanations out of hand? And what is narrow-minded about needing evidence to believe in a rather unlikely claim? But we're talking in generalities here. Let's not.

What are urban legends? Stories. Unsubstantiated stories. There are seemingly millions of them, everybody has heard them, but are any of them true? Check out http://snopes.com. Not very many of them even have a kernel of truth. And likewise we have people spreading ghost/paranormal stories they heard from someone they heard from someone....  Why is this believable?  How are these any different than the myriad fictitious urban legends? I've never run across ANY ghost story supported by observable, testable evidence. Where is the evidence? How come every demonstration of paranormal ability fails?

Lack of proof isn't proof of lack, so none of this proves that ghosts or the paranormal doesn't exist. But I'm not interested in proving things not to exist. Rather, I'm interested in finding evidence of things that do exist. And ghost stories always seem to be backed up with zero evidence. So why believe in them? And why have I never seen a ghost since there seem to be so many of them floating around?

Science can't answer everything, this is true, but this is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I'm not going to jump on the "Science can't answer everything so lets get really irrational!" bandwagon. Science is a systematic method of discovery of the natural world around us, and as such it is the best method we have for learning about the world. It's worked for us splendidly so far.

Answer 15

more power to ya. I most definitely agree with that yes it's the 21st century we should be more understanding about a lot of things but most people don't like change in their lives they're too narrow-minded and want to live in their own little miserible lives so let them do what they want and be who they want while others change for the better

Answer 16

Is it narrow minded really? There's a very old adage:

"The simplest answer is likely the correct one."

What's more believable? A vast conspiracy of other-worldly truths that would shatter our belief structures, or someone is just making stuff up or is mistaken?

And if, as you mentioned at the start, it can't be proven, why would anyone believe it?

Answer 17

It scares them. It is not denial, just fear to admit. They do not want to look like a nut...even if they had an actual experience. Society says it is bad.

~T

Answer 18

Come to New Zealand, I've seen ghosts and I tell everyone I know about it, most of them have no interest in the paranormal, but they like the stories anyway.

People are pretty opened minded down here and I have never been ridiculed at all.

Answer 19

I have had the experiance but it scared me, really badly. So I try not to think about it because I will spook myself. So the next time I'm home alone and its like 11pm I will be freaking out with all of the lights on in the house. I guess its a little scarier in the dark then in the light.

Answer 20

I believe for two reasons:

1. They are defending their faith (in the science they know)

2. They are reacting emotionally to their knowledge

     having to be correct when faced with contradicting

     evidence.

For the record this is not unusual Einstein called the now demonstrated phenomena of entanglement in quantum physics "Spooky action at a distance" He could not explain it via his knowledge and so rejected it. He was wrong.

When Thomas Edison lit up Menlo Park no scientist attended the demonstration and Scientific American Magazine ran an article by a leading metallurgist explaing why metal coud never used in a long lasting bulb and how ignorant Edison must be of such established facts.

A better example might be Robert Rosenthal who came up with the Experimenter Effect which is now one of the most accepted (and supported) hypothesis in all of the sciences. He recieved a rejection letter from a journal for his paper on the same day that he recieved a letter informing him that his paper had won the Socio-Psychological Prize for 1960 from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

New ideas especially ones that require altering, adding to, etc. established knowledge is always resisted. It's also very well established that people resist change in almost anything.

Michael John Weaver, M.S.

Answer 21

I have had many "weird" things happen to me, that later had rational causes, but you do hit the nail on the head with your comment that "....they can't be proven".

Think about a court of law, if someone is accused of a crime, they do not have to prove their innocence, rather the prosecutor making the accusation must beyond reasonable doubt prove guilt.

It is up to the believer of the paranormal to prove to me that these things do exist, or take place.

It's impossible for me to prove the non-existence of something that does not exist.

Answer 22

i totally agree with you...i would think that millions of people all cannt be wrong, a wise person would look into it, to try and work out why it happens and try and work out the nature of it...there is evidence getting caught in photos and cams, that to me would be enough to prove there is more out there....i for one have experienced alot of paranormal and am trying to get a better understanding of it..i know one day there will be a break through, just like discovering the earth is round and floating in space, who would of ever believed that back then, and man would argue that it was ridiculas and that it was indeed flat....who would of believed that we lived on a round ball and how could we all be up right when we,d be up side down...now if thats possible im sure theres more out there to be discovered....it just comes with time and with the right people who are open minded and willing to discover..there are some situations that can be explained and yes sometimes its peoples imagination...and most are mysteries of this universe...if every one said it didnt exist then we,ll never move forward and discover more....thanks to great minds and people in the past who said theres more out there, and they went out and made discoveries of this existence...what if we listened to people that said we,d never be able to fly into space, we,d be still here on the ground and wondering whats out there...what if?

Answer 23

i don,t know,but my eyes are wide open.

Answer 24

I was wondering the same thing myself this morning. I find it depressing to think that all there is is what I can see with my own eyes. Even science is coming around to some things such as quantum physics does. Before there was electricity, people would've thought you were nuts if you had told them that we will one day have an energy that we can plug into and will be in every house to run lights and all kinds of stuff. The same is true with germs.

Answer 25

Too many people are way to eager to believe and everything is paranormal. Just go to some of the websites of the so called "professionals" who post pictures on websites of ghosts and most of the time these photos are merely dust and fog. Nothing paranormal at all. I never suggest people call  paranormal team of investigators simply because all of the ones I know of and have visited their websites are people too eager to believe and see ghosts.

I am  paranormal investigator myself and ghost hunter, but I warn people of the deceptive practices of the modern ghost hunter.

This is not a science and just a hobby and I would feel much better if my fellow believers would admit they are believers and not skeptics and that they are not "professional" but just everyday people who read books or took a home study course or attended a weekend seminar and learned their methods and admitted to being a hobbyist. I believe most paranormal investigators and ghost hunters should STOP claiming to be "PROFESSIONALS"

Is it going to take a law suit from someone who was taken in by these people to bring honesty to this hobby? Will it take a criminal conviction of fruad? These people actually think all they are doing is just using words that are innocent but will cause people to take them more seriously. If you have to use deciptive tactics to be considered serious, then you in my opinion have no business in this hobby. When I say you I am not talking about you personally but people who do these things.

Answer 26

Who is the narrow minded one?

a) The one who seeks the truth through the process of elimination, which so far has eliminated the possibility of paranormal events.

b) The one who automatically assume something is of a paranormal nature, and won't change thier belief no matter how much evidence their is.

I think if paranormal events occur then group A are the ones who are going to find and understand them, in which case I believe they wont be paranormal anymore.

Answer 27

Its not being narrow minded it is rational. You are one side of the fence and sceptics are the other - I, as I believe any proper rational person should be, am sitting on the fence.

I agree that science can't answer everything, that's why research continues, and why we have philosophy and religion. But pure sceptics will sometimes deny that "paranormal" events occur and therefore not bother to research them.

I don't have a problem with you if you want to believe in the paranormal - that's your prerogative in a free world. But don't try and force your view of things down my throat because, equally, I'm entitled to think the way that I think.

Me - I like to have evidence that something is real before I believe in it, but that doesn't make me a sceptic. I don't deny that people have experienced "paranormal" events, but I think there is probably a simple and rational explanation for many of them.

Try reading the works of Charles Fort or read the magazine "Fortean Times" as I do. This will explain how I feel about the "paranormal" and how I believe an open-minded approach is the best way - not to say I believe in something or don't believe in something.

Answer 28

This is one of my favorite subjects.  I have spent most of my life surrounded freaky paranormal stuff.  I come from a long line psychics and we just except it as a gift.  I have watched how others deal with it.  There are a lot of those that refuse to believe.  They see something and go into a sort of self defense mode to keep their brain from exploding.  The worst are the supper religious ones that think everything is demonic. Give me a break!  The only evil is in the minds and hearts of man.  They are looking in the mirror of their own souls, and it scares the c**p out of them, but instead of changing they just keep going.  It's always the same, blame it on the other guy.

I have a little problem with my wifes dead mother, she never did like me.  Now that she has passed on, she likes to toss  things at me from time to time.  While at a grocery store a while back she hit me with two boxes of cereal and this guy saw the hole thing just a few feet in front of me.  He went in to brain fry mode, slack jawed, pal white and shaking.  I tried to reassure him that it was all ok,  that this type of thing happens all the time around me.  I think he just turned it off and found it easier think that it never happened.

I guess that many people, when confronted with the truth, just can't handle it.  Its not their fault, it is how they are raised and how they are influenced by the world.  I don't know how many people think ghost are the Hollywood scary movie, "I'm going to eat you" bull c**p. I have never heard of any of that being real.

You can't really blame people from protecting their sanity, but they have no right to cast stones either.  I guess that is why I try to educate people and help.  Most people who have a paranormal experience  just want to know that they are not alone and not crazy.  I worked for a security company doing CCTV installations and service.  Security cameras pick up stuff all the time.  When something happens that the client can't explain they call out the service guy, Me.  They will have the video ready to show you and they always say "What the h**l is that!"  This is where you have to read the person right,  you can say that you caught a ghost on a security camera,  but its better to wait and see if they bring it up first.  I will say that I don't know and give them all the stuff about glass reflections or blame it on old tapes that have been recorded  over to much and offer to clean all the lens and replace the tapes. I know what I think.

If you can't move the world, try just pushing it in the right direction,  that all anyone can do.

Answer 29

There has never been evidence of the paranormal beyond personal perceptions.  Anyone who has looked at the track record of eye witnesses knows that human perceptions are very unreliable.  Anything which has really happened will leave physical evidence.  There has never been any physical evidence presented for paranormal events which could not be better explained as the product of normal events.

Answer 30

Bingo! You hit the bullseye! I agree fully with you. I can heal others to a degree without them knowing that I am trying to heal them. Here is a quote: "Many times what you cannot see is more truthful than what you can". So all you skeptics out there can either choose to embrace it or live your boring lives like I used to.

Answer 31

I'm really skeptical about claims of paranormal activity but I'm also skeptical of those who dismiss every thing out of hand immediately.  

Back about 1890 some experimenters got to messing about with coils, wires, tubes of powdered metal and batteries.  By 1895 they could send messages a few miles, and by 1901 hundreds of miles.  Not only that, it worked almost every time, whether you believed in it or not.  By now it has developed to the point where it does work every time and most people have not got a clue how.  I mean radio of course.

Despite hundreds or thousands of years of claims of paranormal activity there has yet to be any similar achievement by those claiming paranormal powers.

Every claim of paranormal activity, abilities and powers has fallen to bits when decently investigated or has been exposed as fraudulent.  Spiritualism was based on the ability of a teenage American girl to crack her knuckles at will.  What Madame Blavatsky wrote about it and  Himalayan "masters" was done from the comfort and greater warmth of Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka.  Some of her scribblings became part of the ideology of the n**i Party a few decades later.   Heinrich Himmler and to a lesser extent Adolf Hitler were "New Age" guys.  

The "fairy photographs" that took Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in were faked by two girls with a camera, one confessed in old age.  The original crop circles were dreamed up by a couple of English jokers after a few beers in their local pub.  Edgar Cayce had a few very remarkable successes but was wrong about hundreds of things.  As for Nostradamus, nobody knows what he was really on about and some have suggested that most of his verses were about things that were happening in his own time.  

Alchemy never produced gold from lead or the philosopher's stone but it did make a few useful discoveries about some other things. Astrology columns in newspapers have been recycled by putting the "predictions" in a bag and drawing it out.  That paragraph for Taurus today, the next  drawn out for Aries. A few months later they use the stuff again for different signs.  The "real" astrologers who cast "real" horoscopes can't agree with each other and an investigation into "real" astrology in the 1970s revealed no connection between "real" horoscopes and the careers of hundreds of well known people.    

Despite all that, there appear to have been a few cases, generally involving particular persons like Rasputin and the levitator Home where what investigation there has been, has failed to find a scientific or even common sense explanation.

These cases should not be dismissed outright.