UFOs, angels and other supernatural phenomena, which people may encounter in their lives, can only be a result of hallucinations, NASA specialists said. However, stories about such encounters, told by pilots, cosmonauts and astronauts, become classified immediately.
In 1985, there were six crew members on board the Soviet Salyut-7 space station. They were cosmonauts Leonid Kizim, Oleg Atkov, Vladimir Solovyov, Svetlana Savitskaya, Igor Volk and Vladimir Jannibekov. That day, the cosmonauts were doing their routine work connected with laboratory experiments. All of a sudden, a cloud of strange orange gas enveloped the station. A flash of bright light blinded all the cosmonauts on board for a while. As soon as they could see again, the cosmonauts saw silhouettes of seven figures outside the station. The aliens looked like humans, but were of higher stature. They also had large wings behind their backs and luminous halos above their heads. The creatures looked like angels.
The crew reported the bizarre sight to the Earth. The document was classified as top secret immediately. All members of the crew were subsequently subjected to psychological and medical tests, which found no abnormalities at all.
It was not the only encounter with angels which took place in space. Not so long ago, the Western media published sensational photos made by Hubble telescope. The photos depicted strange images including human-like winged silhouettes.
Researchers were especially interested in a series of photos made on Earth's orbit. One could see seven luminous objects on them. John Pratchett, an engineer of Hubble project, said that he had seen those creatures himself. According to him, they were live objects up to 20 meters tall, and their wing spread could be comparable to the length of a modern jetliner.
It was also said that US astronauts on board NASA's space shuttles also encountered angel-like creatures.
On December 26, 1994, Hubble telescope transmitted hundreds of photos depicting a large white city floating in space. US authorities did not expose the photos to the general public, of course, although it was rumored that US officials treated NASA's report very seriously.
A Russian cosmonaut who spent six months living and working on board the Mir space station, said that he and his partner had had fantastic visions from time to time. It seemed to the men that they were turning into other creatures - other people, or animals, or even humanoids of extraterrestrial origin.
Similar stories may often be told by aircraft pilots. In this case, it may frequently go about the so-called phenomenon of giant hand. As a rule, the phenomenon occurs during long-lasting flights. When it happens, a pilot feels that the control wheel is being grasped by someone's invisible hand. Researchers from the US Air Force concluded that nearly 15 percent of pilots have experienced the effect during their work. It is not ruled out that the giant hand phenomenon is behind many air crashes.
NASA psychologists say that the majority of the above-mentioned phenomena are of psychic nature. They may occur as a result of such factors as pressure and temperature fluctuations, shortage of oxygen, etc.
June 14, 2011
Margarita Troitsyna
Pravda
dinsdag 14 juni 2011
dinsdag 7 juni 2011
Paranormal is the new Normal
It was late at night, and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had swapped her hot cups of tea for whiskey sours. The room was filled with cigarette smoke. Kubler-Ross and her research partner, the Reverend Mwalimu Imara, were putting the finishing touches to On Death and Dying--the book that would make Kubler-Ross a star, introduce the once ubiquitous Five Stages of Grief and galvanize the international hospice movement. But there was one chapter still under discussion, a chapter in which Kubler-Ross addressed all the strange stories resuscitated patients told: about floating out of their bodies and meeting with deceased loved ones, of visiting what they took to be the afterlife.
"Do I put this chapter in?" asked Kubler-Ross.
"Not if you want it published," replied Imara.
On Death and Dying came out in 1969, with no mention of those classic Near Death Experiences. (The NDE didn't enter our cultural lexicon until 1975). But almost forty years later, the stigma against sharing any story with paranormal overtones persists.
As a journalist, I find this state of affairs to be curious. Polls on the subject demonstrate that a majority of Americans hold some paranormal belief. A Reuter's poll of people around the globe found a little more than half the world's population believes in God and the afterlife. U.S. polls regularly show that about half of us believe some UFOs might be ET spacecraft. As a species, we believe in many things unproven. So it behooves us to learn to talk about them in an open, honest way.
My contribution is Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable--And Couldn't. In it, I weave numerous tales that bear the stigma of what I call The Paranormal Taint, including ghosts, the afterlife, mental telepathy, UFOs, dreaming, meditation and prayer. I hope the result is entertaining, a tour through a territory we in the mainstream too often neglect. But more than that, I hope the book acts as a permission slip, so that people might feel inclined to share these stories without fear of ridicule--or diminished job prospects.
That last bit is personal. Because, in Fringe-ology, I share an old family ghost story I grew up with as a child. And yes, I wonder if sharing this odd slice of my history might cause some people to view me warily. But the book is worth some risk: As the polls suggest, these stories are so much a part of our culture, so much a part of our make-up as human beings, that when we turn our backs toward the things that go bump in the dark, we're turning our backs on ourselves. And I wonder, when we feel too shamed to tell these stories, what we fail to learn about ourselves.
Consider Kubler-Ross. Her real achievement was her act of listening to the dying. Some of the testimony she gathered proved shocking--reports of feeling peace when pain might be expected, comfort at the moment of greatest affliction. We now know from subsequent research, the majority of these people consider their NDEs to be real, life-changing experiences.
Should we reject the thought that a real scientific mystery might be at work here? Is the appropriate response to this a heaping of stigma and ridicule?
I choose respectful consideration. And I believe another appropriate response is to simply enjoy the story--a campfire tale rising from the hour of our death, from our darkest night.
But we can push further. And in Fringe-ology, I do.
Consider telepathy: I've grown so used to reading articles in which skeptics proclaim there is no firm evidence for telepathy that I was stunned by what I found: Parapsychology has in fact yielded hundreds upon hundreds of studies and meta-analyses demonstrating some small telepathy effect in the general population. But what really surprised me was finding that a leading skeptic like Richard Wiseman has admitted that the evidence is so good that "by the standards of any other area of science, [telepathy] is proven." Even more incredibly, as I report in Fringe-ology, another leading skeptic, Chris French, agrees with him.
Does this mean telepathy is established?
Well, both Wiseman and French hold that the claim of telepathy is so extraordinary--calling into question our most basic assumptions about physics--that we need a greater level of evidence than we normally demand. But given that serious consideration of troves of evidence is the real state of play, we can rescue even the long-derided topic of telepathy from the dustbin of the culture wars. In Fringe-ology, I also discover good reason to rescue tales of ghosts, UFOs, spoon-bending and more. And what all this means is that--well, it's time, finally, to bring your stories up, out of the dark.
Paranormal is the new Normal
June 7, 2011
Steve Volk
The Huffington Post
"Do I put this chapter in?" asked Kubler-Ross.
"Not if you want it published," replied Imara.
On Death and Dying came out in 1969, with no mention of those classic Near Death Experiences. (The NDE didn't enter our cultural lexicon until 1975). But almost forty years later, the stigma against sharing any story with paranormal overtones persists.
As a journalist, I find this state of affairs to be curious. Polls on the subject demonstrate that a majority of Americans hold some paranormal belief. A Reuter's poll of people around the globe found a little more than half the world's population believes in God and the afterlife. U.S. polls regularly show that about half of us believe some UFOs might be ET spacecraft. As a species, we believe in many things unproven. So it behooves us to learn to talk about them in an open, honest way.
My contribution is Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable--And Couldn't. In it, I weave numerous tales that bear the stigma of what I call The Paranormal Taint, including ghosts, the afterlife, mental telepathy, UFOs, dreaming, meditation and prayer. I hope the result is entertaining, a tour through a territory we in the mainstream too often neglect. But more than that, I hope the book acts as a permission slip, so that people might feel inclined to share these stories without fear of ridicule--or diminished job prospects.
That last bit is personal. Because, in Fringe-ology, I share an old family ghost story I grew up with as a child. And yes, I wonder if sharing this odd slice of my history might cause some people to view me warily. But the book is worth some risk: As the polls suggest, these stories are so much a part of our culture, so much a part of our make-up as human beings, that when we turn our backs toward the things that go bump in the dark, we're turning our backs on ourselves. And I wonder, when we feel too shamed to tell these stories, what we fail to learn about ourselves.
Consider Kubler-Ross. Her real achievement was her act of listening to the dying. Some of the testimony she gathered proved shocking--reports of feeling peace when pain might be expected, comfort at the moment of greatest affliction. We now know from subsequent research, the majority of these people consider their NDEs to be real, life-changing experiences.
Should we reject the thought that a real scientific mystery might be at work here? Is the appropriate response to this a heaping of stigma and ridicule?
I choose respectful consideration. And I believe another appropriate response is to simply enjoy the story--a campfire tale rising from the hour of our death, from our darkest night.
But we can push further. And in Fringe-ology, I do.
Consider telepathy: I've grown so used to reading articles in which skeptics proclaim there is no firm evidence for telepathy that I was stunned by what I found: Parapsychology has in fact yielded hundreds upon hundreds of studies and meta-analyses demonstrating some small telepathy effect in the general population. But what really surprised me was finding that a leading skeptic like Richard Wiseman has admitted that the evidence is so good that "by the standards of any other area of science, [telepathy] is proven." Even more incredibly, as I report in Fringe-ology, another leading skeptic, Chris French, agrees with him.
Does this mean telepathy is established?
Well, both Wiseman and French hold that the claim of telepathy is so extraordinary--calling into question our most basic assumptions about physics--that we need a greater level of evidence than we normally demand. But given that serious consideration of troves of evidence is the real state of play, we can rescue even the long-derided topic of telepathy from the dustbin of the culture wars. In Fringe-ology, I also discover good reason to rescue tales of ghosts, UFOs, spoon-bending and more. And what all this means is that--well, it's time, finally, to bring your stories up, out of the dark.
Paranormal is the new Normal
June 7, 2011
Steve Volk
The Huffington Post
zondag 6 februari 2011
The Complicated Connection Between Religion and the Paranormal
Don't expect Hollywood to give up the ghosts.
The parade of paranormal entertainment filling American screens -- from the movie Paranormal Activity 2 to television shows such as Ghost Hunters, Psychic Investigators and Paranormal State -- is meeting an intense interest in otherworldly experiences, new research shows.
More than two-thirds of Americans have paranormal beliefs, sociologists Christopher Bader and F. Carson Mencken of Baylor University and Joseph Baker of East Tennessee State University report in their new book Paranormal America from New York University Press.
And the interest is only expected to increase, scholars say, with the growth of immigrant populations more open to paranormal beliefs.
Not everyone is interested. Those with no religious beliefs, Jewish people and the most committed Christians are among the least likely to believe in UFOs or psychics or Bigfoot.
But a generation of spiritual seekers are opening their minds and bank accounts to beliefs, practices and experiences that are not recognized by science and not associated with mainstream religion.
Whether it is a study showing nearly half of Americans believe extraterrestrials absolutely or probably exist, or ghost-hunting groups and documentary producers rushing to find the latest "haunted" house, interest in paranormal phenomena has entered the mainstream.
"What we can say with certainty is that we live in a paranormal America," write Bader, Mencken and Baker. "Put another way, the paranormal is normal."
Men hunt, women gather in New Age
In the 1980s, the actress Shirley MacLaine was ridiculed for discussing her interest in channeling, reincarnation and UFOs in her book Out on a Limb. But research indicates she may have been less a wacky outcast and more representative of the population than the image ingrained by late-night comics suggested.
The average American holds slightly more than two paranormal beliefs, report Bader, Mencken and Baker.
"Statistically, those who report a paranormal belief are not the oddballs," the researchers said.
But there are major differences in the types of people who gravitate toward different paranormal phenomena. Bigfoot conventions are almost all-male outings, while psychic affairs attract a largely female audience.
The 2005 Baylor Religion Survey found that women are twice as likely as men to believe in astrology, that people can communicate with the dead (a big reason Medium lasted for seven TV seasons) and that at least some psychics can foresee the future. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to believe in UFOs.
"Women tend to want to improve themselves, to become better people," said Bader, who is also a director of the Association for Religion Data Archives. "Men tend to want to go out and capture something, to prove it's real."
In reviewing the research, other findings reported by Bader, Mencken and Baker include:
*Belief in Bigfoot, ghosts, psychic abilities and other paranormal phenomena declines noticeably with increases in age and income.
* Unmarried and cohabiting individuals are far more likely to embrace the paranormal. Asked whether they have had any of five paranormal experiences from witnessing a UFO to contacting spirits, the typical unmarried respondent claimed close to two experience, while the average married respondent had no paranormal experiences.
*Republicans are "significantly less interested" in the paranormal than Democrats or independents.
Overall, the researchers said, conventional lifestyles and stakes in conformity are strong predictors of paranormal beliefs, with highly unconventional people the most likely to turn to otherworldly possibilities beyond the realm of traditional religion.
Spiritual and paranormal
There are conflicting theories about the relationship between religion and the paranormal. Among them are the idea those outside mainstream religion would be more likely to embrace the paranormal as a substitute set of beliefs. Another theory holds that religious individuals, already open to transcendent ideas, would also be more likely to hold paranormal beliefs.
What Bader, Mencken and Baker find in their research is that both individuals with no religious beliefs and the most committed individuals -- those who attend services weekly -- are among the least likely to hold paranormal beliefs. Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God are also highly unlikely to hold paranormal beliefs.
It is in the middle, among people who have an interest in religion but who are not regular attenders, that there is greater belief in the paranormal. Belief in paranormal topics is at its highest level among people with more liberal views of the Bible, researchers said.
What does all this mean for the future?
The researchers say the aging of America's population and projected gains in income likely will reduce belief in some aspects of the paranormal, but the increase in immigration and the tailoring off of conservative religious growth is expected to lead to increased interest.
Going out on their own limb, the researchers predict that by 2050 nearly three-quarters of Americans will report at least one paranormal belief.
Be prepared, and forewarned: Paranormal Activity 3 is coming
The Complicated Connection Between Religion and the Paranormal
February 6, 2011
David Briggs
HuffPost Religion
The parade of paranormal entertainment filling American screens -- from the movie Paranormal Activity 2 to television shows such as Ghost Hunters, Psychic Investigators and Paranormal State -- is meeting an intense interest in otherworldly experiences, new research shows.
More than two-thirds of Americans have paranormal beliefs, sociologists Christopher Bader and F. Carson Mencken of Baylor University and Joseph Baker of East Tennessee State University report in their new book Paranormal America from New York University Press.
And the interest is only expected to increase, scholars say, with the growth of immigrant populations more open to paranormal beliefs.
Not everyone is interested. Those with no religious beliefs, Jewish people and the most committed Christians are among the least likely to believe in UFOs or psychics or Bigfoot.
But a generation of spiritual seekers are opening their minds and bank accounts to beliefs, practices and experiences that are not recognized by science and not associated with mainstream religion.
Whether it is a study showing nearly half of Americans believe extraterrestrials absolutely or probably exist, or ghost-hunting groups and documentary producers rushing to find the latest "haunted" house, interest in paranormal phenomena has entered the mainstream.
"What we can say with certainty is that we live in a paranormal America," write Bader, Mencken and Baker. "Put another way, the paranormal is normal."
Men hunt, women gather in New Age
In the 1980s, the actress Shirley MacLaine was ridiculed for discussing her interest in channeling, reincarnation and UFOs in her book Out on a Limb. But research indicates she may have been less a wacky outcast and more representative of the population than the image ingrained by late-night comics suggested.
The average American holds slightly more than two paranormal beliefs, report Bader, Mencken and Baker.
"Statistically, those who report a paranormal belief are not the oddballs," the researchers said.
But there are major differences in the types of people who gravitate toward different paranormal phenomena. Bigfoot conventions are almost all-male outings, while psychic affairs attract a largely female audience.
The 2005 Baylor Religion Survey found that women are twice as likely as men to believe in astrology, that people can communicate with the dead (a big reason Medium lasted for seven TV seasons) and that at least some psychics can foresee the future. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to believe in UFOs.
"Women tend to want to improve themselves, to become better people," said Bader, who is also a director of the Association for Religion Data Archives. "Men tend to want to go out and capture something, to prove it's real."
In reviewing the research, other findings reported by Bader, Mencken and Baker include:
*Belief in Bigfoot, ghosts, psychic abilities and other paranormal phenomena declines noticeably with increases in age and income.
* Unmarried and cohabiting individuals are far more likely to embrace the paranormal. Asked whether they have had any of five paranormal experiences from witnessing a UFO to contacting spirits, the typical unmarried respondent claimed close to two experience, while the average married respondent had no paranormal experiences.
*Republicans are "significantly less interested" in the paranormal than Democrats or independents.
Overall, the researchers said, conventional lifestyles and stakes in conformity are strong predictors of paranormal beliefs, with highly unconventional people the most likely to turn to otherworldly possibilities beyond the realm of traditional religion.
Spiritual and paranormal
There are conflicting theories about the relationship between religion and the paranormal. Among them are the idea those outside mainstream religion would be more likely to embrace the paranormal as a substitute set of beliefs. Another theory holds that religious individuals, already open to transcendent ideas, would also be more likely to hold paranormal beliefs.
What Bader, Mencken and Baker find in their research is that both individuals with no religious beliefs and the most committed individuals -- those who attend services weekly -- are among the least likely to hold paranormal beliefs. Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God are also highly unlikely to hold paranormal beliefs.
It is in the middle, among people who have an interest in religion but who are not regular attenders, that there is greater belief in the paranormal. Belief in paranormal topics is at its highest level among people with more liberal views of the Bible, researchers said.
What does all this mean for the future?
The researchers say the aging of America's population and projected gains in income likely will reduce belief in some aspects of the paranormal, but the increase in immigration and the tailoring off of conservative religious growth is expected to lead to increased interest.
Going out on their own limb, the researchers predict that by 2050 nearly three-quarters of Americans will report at least one paranormal belief.
Be prepared, and forewarned: Paranormal Activity 3 is coming
The Complicated Connection Between Religion and the Paranormal
February 6, 2011
David Briggs
HuffPost Religion
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