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What's more exciting than the idea of possessing paranormal abilities, or experiencing something so unusual it seems it must be supernatural in nature? Alas, there are a few common things that, although curious, in all likelihood, have a mundane explanation. Below are five common dynamics that are often taken as paranormal.
1. Dreams and experiences in the sleep state
My husband, Stephen Wagner, is a paranormal expert, and has been the guide to About.com's Paranormal site for a decade. It may actually be the largest depository on the web for ghosts and paranormal phenomena. Over the years, he has received thousands of stories from readers about their paranormal experiences.
By far, the most common type of stories he receives are associated with dreams, and the sleep state. Dreams by nature are full of weirdness, synchronicities, messages, strange encounters and circumstances, personal revelations, and meaning. Dreams can be both profoundly disturbing, and ridiculously blissful. But they're not paranormal, no matter how weird they are.
Aside from dreams, sleep in its various states can provide experiences that seem absolutely paranormal. Often reported are feelings of presences, strange shadows and sounds. Chances are, if these things are occurring within a sleep stage, including the stages directly before and after sleep, there's nothing paranormal at hand; they're likely an artifact of the mind, or misperceived events.
I know how convincing these phenomena can be. When I was about eight, I went through a period in which, upon waking, I would sometimes hear the sound of a girl or woman crying. The sound would actually stir me to wakefulness, but as I became more awake, the sound would fade. When I was fully awake, and wanted to focus on and make sense of it, the crying had disappeared completely.
1. Dreams and experiences in the sleep state
My husband, Stephen Wagner, is a paranormal expert, and has been the guide to About.com's Paranormal site for a decade. It may actually be the largest depository on the web for ghosts and paranormal phenomena. Over the years, he has received thousands of stories from readers about their paranormal experiences.
By far, the most common type of stories he receives are associated with dreams, and the sleep state. Dreams by nature are full of weirdness, synchronicities, messages, strange encounters and circumstances, personal revelations, and meaning. Dreams can be both profoundly disturbing, and ridiculously blissful. But they're not paranormal, no matter how weird they are.
Aside from dreams, sleep in its various states can provide experiences that seem absolutely paranormal. Often reported are feelings of presences, strange shadows and sounds. Chances are, if these things are occurring within a sleep stage, including the stages directly before and after sleep, there's nothing paranormal at hand; they're likely an artifact of the mind, or misperceived events.
I know how convincing these phenomena can be. When I was about eight, I went through a period in which, upon waking, I would sometimes hear the sound of a girl or woman crying. The sound would actually stir me to wakefulness, but as I became more awake, the sound would fade. When I was fully awake, and wanted to focus on and make sense of it, the crying had disappeared completely.
Comments
It has been my experience working with people that are psychic, that it is not unusual for a latent psychic to experience messages via the dream state simply because their waking mind has not yet learned to accept the psychic impression while awake. It's the classic left brain/right brain functioning. Does that make every dream paranormal? Hardly. My best advice is if a person feels they are experiencing precognition keep a dream journal and see if you actually are correct about events before the fact. Remember "paranormal" is considered anything "out of the normal" a significant and provable ratio of hits even while in a dream state could mean there might be something more going on. Great story Richelle!
I hope it didn't really come off as if I meant synchronicities are understood or explained, or worse that I was dismissing the notion; as a matter of fact, I meant to rather make the same point you did--that just because we find something may not be 'paranormal' doesn't mean it is automatically meaningless or mundane. Looking at it with an eye toward synchronicity and loaded coincidence we are likely to find something even more meaningful. I think we're on the same page...
Interesting article. There are no shortage of examples of people jumping to a paranormal explanation for a common part of the human experience. For instance, I can see how someone might suspect larger forces at play when they experience the old hag syndrome, which I know as the term devil sitting on your chest. Sleep in general is kinda creepy, and not being able to wake up when you are conscious is particularly scary.
However, I have to interject at your writing off synchronicity as being something that is well studied or understood. As smart as we can be, there's obviously much more to life than we can perceive with our senses or our minds. Whatever synchronicity is, I think that it is crucial that we try to approach it logically as a real force that isn't just our imaginations at work.
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