LiveSience's Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena

#10
The Body/Mind Connection
Medical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body. The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective, whether they actually are or not. Using processes only poorly understood, the body's ability to heal itself is far more amazing than anything modern medicine could create.

#9
Psychic powers and ESP
Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception (ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread. Many people believe that intuition (see #3) is a form of psychic power, a way of accessing arcane or special knowledge about the world or the future. Researchers have tested people who claim to have psychic powers, though the results under controlled scientific conditions have so far been negative or ambiguous. Some have argued that psychic powers cannot be tested, or for some reason diminish in the presence of skeptics or scientists. If this is true, science will never be able to prove or disprove the existence of psychic powers.


#8
Near-Death Experiences and Life After Death
People who were once near death have sometimes reported various mystical experiences (such as going into a tunnel and emerging in a light, being reunited with loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.) that may suggest an existence beyond the grave. While such experiences are profound, no one has returned with proof or verifiable information from "beyond the grave." Skeptics suggest that the experiences are explainable as natural and predictable hallucinations of a traumatized brain, yet there is no way to know with certainty what causes near-death experiences, or if they truly are visions of "the other side."

#7
UFOs
There is no doubt that UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) exist; many people see things in the skies that they cannot identify, ranging from aircraft to meteors. Whether or not any of those objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter entirely; given the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from across the universe, such a scenario seems unlikely. Still, while careful investigation has revealed known causes for most sighting reports, some UFO incidents will always remain unexplained.


#6
Déjà vu
Déjà vu is a French phrase meaning "already seen," referring to the distinct, puzzling, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before. A woman might walk into a building, for example, in a foreign country she'd never visited, and sense that the setting is eerily and intimately familiar. Some attribute Déjà vu to psychic experiences or unbidden glimpses of previous lives. As with intuition (see #3), research into ,human psychology can offer more naturalistic explanations, but ultimately the cause and nature of the phenomenon itself remains a mystery.

#5
Ghosts
From the Shakespeare play "MacBeth" to the NBC show "Medium," spirits of the dead have long made an appearance in our culture and folklore. Many people have reported seeing apparitions of both shadowy strangers and departed loved ones. Though definitive proof for the existence of ghosts remains elusive, sincere eyewitnesses continue to report seeing, photographing, and even communicating with ghosts. Ghost investigators hope to one day prove that the dead can contact the living, providing a final answer to the mystery.

#4
Mysterious Disappearances
People disappear for various reasons. Most are runaways, some succumb to accident, a few are abducted or killed, but most are eventually found. Not so with the truly mysterious disappearances. From the crew of the Marie Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have vanished without a trace. When missing persons are found, it is always through police work, confession, or accident never by "psychic detectives"). But when the evidence is lacking and leads are lost, even police and forensic science can't always solve the crime.


#3
Intuition
Whether we call it gut feelings, a "sixth sense," or something else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or another. Of course, gut feelings are often wrong (how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been "sure" your plane was going down?), but they do seem to be right much of the time. Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it. But cases of intuition are difficult to prove or study, and psychology may only be part of the answer.

#2
Bigfoot
For decades, large, hairy, manlike beasts called Bigfoot have occasionally been reported by eyewitnesses across America. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found. Not one has been killed by a hunter, struck dead by a speeding car, or even died of natural causes. In the absence of hard evidence like teeth or bones, support comes down to eyewitness sightings and ambiguous photos and films. Since it is logically impossible to prove a universal negative, science will never be able to prove that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster do not exist, and it is possible that these mysterious beasts lurk far from prying eyes.

#1
The Taos Hum
Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz; and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural; no one has yet been able to locate the sound's origin.





I've often wondered what I would be like were I not a magician. I wondered how I would look at the world, not having experienced things that are debatable myth to other people. It kind of makes me sad, that some on this list are things we've all experienced, but despite the fact that millions of people from every walk of life agree that this thing happens, so many cannot accept it as fact because they cannot touch it.

Stop and think about the things we talk about on this forum for just a moment and think about how much of it would go on that list as well. We truly have a different mindset that much of the world we live in.

Heh, just think of how many people would ask "what the hell is a chakra!?"

True, but at least that's based on study. Things like ESP have been heard about by most people, and it's not at all hard to understand what it is. Just why it is.

People usually don't like things they don't understand.

They understand the stuff just fine, it's just that they cannot comprehend it. Which means they know basically what it is but cannot fully grasp the concept and how it relates to them.

I call it willfull ignorance, and it is one of the qualities of a human being I loathe...it is when someone is able to comprehend something, but choose not to. They go "eh, that's stupid" a matter of opinion maybe, but I think all subjects of study are relevant to life and that to say one topic is stupid is like saying trying to help dying children in africa stupid.

I've hit the near death expirience before. I was riding my bike, when suddenly something hit me and I went flying down a steep, wooded hill. I finally rolled to the bottom, apparently, but I was out cold. I remember just black. Black in my vision. I felt awake, but aloft. Then I was aware of a tingling, then a strong burning, like I was trapped in the middle of a bonfire or something....I'm usually immune to burns and such, since I handle Pyrokinesis alot, but this was different...It had a rage to it...A dominance, if you will...I felt like my soul was burning, which is what i've come to believe...I felt like I was in hell...I couldn't see anything, but I heared indistinct voices, that sounded like crushing gravel or something.....I don't know...Perhaps I went to hell for a second...it felt like two years...Perhaps it was just a very strong pain...I do not know, but I barely remember waking up in a hospital bed, a doctor standing over me, with an IV in my left arm...I couldn't move at all...I had a mind numbing pain...I remember the doctor saying something, but I couldn't make it out...It's later that I found out that he told me that I have six broken ribs, a broken right arm, and a fractured disk in my back, and fucked up knees....I must have hit a tree on the way down...I believe i'm lucky to be alive....But I do not know....I have never felt the burning sensation again...Not on this earth. Not even when I intentionally set myself on fire...(trust me, that did not hurt, and we had several fire extinguishers ready) ....To this day, I have believed that I got just a taste of Hell....But feel free to comment on my expirience i've just shared with you....And Deja' Vu? All the time. And I follow my intuition -- I call it animalistic instinct, A.I., or just instinct - i'm otherkin -- alot. It gets me through alot of shit. Anyway, I must be rambling now, so i'll stop. - Nikolas Rayne

It's interesting how near death experiences are either very peaceful or very painful... similar to the typical view of what heaven or hell is...

Perhaps that's how the two extremes began --- nothing in between.

Yeah. I'm torn between the idea that it's caused by the body interpreting death as painful and only some people filtering it out, and the idea that it's all fabricated within the mind due to expectations.

While the latter seems somewhat more reasonable and likely, there's a fine chance it started or was heavily influenced by cases of the prior, long ago when the muthos was still being created.

I think that there is a possibility of a near death experience, my only similiar experience would be my few successful attempts with Astral Projection. I do believe in those few supernatural things because I experience them, daily. Esp, Intuition, Deja Vu, psychic powers, body/mind connection.

People tend to dismiss these ideas because if they don't experience it or don't know anything of it, they dismiss the idea and therefore don't care to hear about it.

I never use to believe in this shit until I started slowly being introduced to them and open my mind.

What do you all think of that James Randi guy with the Million Dollar Challenge?

He makes it nearly impossible for people to perform psychic phenomena. By changing the surroundings, the brain is unable to function properly and the psychic powers are rendered nearly useless. The brain's memory is used to certain things being present whenever you utilize certain knowledge, and it can't be used to it's fullest unless all of these surroundings are nearly mimicked... When Randi switches everything up, the brain is confused and does not know what to do, therefore making it impossible to collect any real scientific data.

Though most of the people he catches or reveals live were actually using tricks to fool people.

What do you all think of the Skeptic's Dictionary at
http://skepdic.com/