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Home » Maratoanele Descopera » Fenomenele paranormale » Topul fenomenelor paranormale din
ultimul an
11 POZE
VEZI GALERIA FOTO »
De multe ori, atunci cand vorbim despre paranormal, avem in minte povesti si
legende petrecute candva, demult – fantome, vampiri, calatori astrali sau
spirite neodihnite, toate au un iz romantic, oniric si sinistru care, parca, nu
prea mai are nicio legatura cu prezentul supertehnologizat in care traim.
Citeam intr-o carte despre istoria magiei ca becul lui Edison a “omorat” mai
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multe vrajitoare decat au facut-o toate rugurile Inchizitiei la un loc. Cu toate
acestea, grupul celor care cred in fenomene inexplicabile se incapataneaza sa
ne prezinte dovezi (mai mult sau mai putin credibie) cum ca exista o lume
suprasensibila foarte vie, ale carei manifestari nu au incetat nicicand. Mai jos,
va invitam sa descoperiti panoplia celor mai spectaculoase fenomene
paranormale care au avut loc in ultimul an de zile.
De multe ori, atunci cand vorbim despre paranormal,
avem in minte povesti si legende petrecute candva,
demult – fantome, vampiri, calatori astrali sau spirite
neodihnite, toate au un iz romantic, oniric si sinistru
care, parca, nu prea mai are nicio legatura cu prezentul
supertehnologizat in care traim. Citeam intr-o carte
despre istoria magiei ca becul lui Edison a „omorat” mai
multe vrajitoare decat au facut-o toate rugurile
Inchizitiei la un loc. Cu toate acestea, grupul celor care
cred in fenomene inexplicabile se incapataneaza sa ne
prezinte dovezi (mai mult sau mai putin credibie) cum
ca exista o lume suprasensibila foarte vie, ale carei
manifestari nu au incetat nicicand. Mai jos, va invitam sa
descoperiti panoplia celor mai spectaculoase fenomene
paranormale care au avut loc in ultimul an de zile.
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fantome spectaculoase care au facut repede inconjurul Pamantului, gratie
tabloidelor, site-urilor de entuziasti si jurnalelor de stiri. Cea mai buna
dintre acestea ar putea fi fantoma de la ferma Tewin Bury din
Herthfordshire, Marea Britanie.
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Urmatoarea fotografie cu fantome care a pus pe jar imaginatia
entuziastilor vine din… Romania! A fost realizata de o femeie de 33 de
ani, Victoria Iovan, la hotelul Decebal din Baile Herculane si
prezinta fantoma unei femei inalte invesmantata in alb. Hotelul
Decebal are 150 de ani si se crede, conform legendelor localnicilor, ca in
fundatia sa ar fi ascunse numeroase comori dacice si romane. Hotelul
a fost inchis vreme de cinci ani pentru renovari, perioada in care o serie de
indivizi au incercat sa faca sapaturi pentru a descoperi fabuloasele comori
antice. Fantoma – care, dupa unii, ar fi a unui preot dac – a aparut pentru a
proteja presupusa comoara si a alunga jefuitorii. Cert este ca la vremea cu
pricina – decembrie, 2008 – povestea fantomei a facut turul
ziarelor si televiziunilor romanesti.
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In sfarsit, o ultima fotografie cu fantome care merita mentionata este cea
realizata de profesorul Keiron Brown in cripta castelului Oxford din Marea
Britanie. Inca de cand a fost construit, din 1071, au existat
numeroase relatari despre activitatile paranormale care au avut loc
aici. Un caz celebru este cel al criminalei Mary Blandy, care a fost
spanzurata in castel in 1752, iar de atunci fantoma ei este o
prezenta constanta a domeniului. In 1970, un grup de puscariasi care
erau inchisi in beciurile castelului, s-au plans ca nu pot dormi si ca sunt
ingroziti de fenomenele de poltergeist care au loc aici; acestea incetand
numai dupa ce un grup de preoti a tinut o slujba de exorcizare. Nu in
ultimul rand, cativa membri ai echipei de filmare a peliculei The Italian
Job (2003, Jaf in stil italian, tradus la noi) care s-a filmat si aici au auzit
sunete ciudate si tipete dinspre beciurile castelului, incuiate de decenii. Pentru
a pune capat tuturor acestor speculatii, custozii castelului au organizat
Oxford Castle Unlocked, un eveniment in cadrul caruia au invitat vanatori de
fantome alesi pe spranceana, sceptici si observatori carora le-au dat acces liber
peste tot si i-au provocat sa descopere un fenomen paranormal. Nimeni nu s-a
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intors cu nimic remarcabil, cu exceptia profesorului Keiron Brown, care a
realizat in cripta fotografia de mai jos.
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abandoneze si este atat de ingrozit de ceea ce a patit aici incat nici macar nu se
gandeste sa-l vanda, pentru a nu arunca napasta asupra altor oameni
nevinovati. Lee Roberts, expertul britanic in fenomene paranormale care a
cercetat sute de astfel de cazuri (demascand numeroase falsuri) si a condus
echipa ce a investigat locul dupa ce omul de afaceri a fugit, a declarat
ca acesta este singurul loc in care i-a fost cu adevarat frica, chiar si
in timpul zilei. Zgomote ciudate, tipete, usi trantite, ferestre sparte,
cutremuraturi – intregul arsenal poltergeist a fost dezlantuit cu furie asupra
domeniului musulmanului.
Alt caz spectaculos de poltergeist care se petrece in ultima vreme este acela
al criminalului in serie Ted Bundy, care a fost executat pe 24 ianuarie
1989, dupa ce a omorat peste 30 de femei. Spiritul lui Bundy s-ar fi intors
pentru a teroriza gardienii si detinutii la inchisoarea de stat din
Florida, SUA, acolo unde criminalul si-a petrecut dupa gratii ultimii 11 ani de
viata si unde a primit si pedeapsa capitala, pe scaunul electric. Bundy a
marturisit detaliat cum a omorat 30 de femei, iar dupa ce a fost condamnat la
moarte, a tot incercat sa-si prelungeasca viata, promitandu-le politistilor si
procurorilor ca va mai recunoaste si alte crime si va indica unde sunt
ingropate cadavrele. Acestia, insa, au refuzat sa-i mai acorde timp si l-au
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executat, astfel incat nici pana astazi nu se cunoaste exact numarul crimelor
comise de Bundy – desi criminalistii americani care s-au ocupat de caz
estimeaza ca acestea nu ar fi mai mult la 35, exista si voci care spun ca Bundy
ar fi facut 100 de victime. Astazi, se pare ca in celula in care a fost inchis
psihopatul, pe holurile inchisorii si in camera in care se
afla scaunul electric, au loc numeroase fenomene poltergeist –
zgomote bizare, soapte, ciocanituri in pereti. Sau cel putin asa declara
o parte a detinutilor si cativa gardieni.
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Cea mai cunoscuta poveste cu Bigfoot din ultimii ani vine din Statele Unite si
s-a petrecut in padurile din nordul statului Georgia, unde doi politisti au
afirmat ca au descoperit cadavrul unui monstru paros intr-un
frigider abandonat pe albia unui rau. La momentul respectiv, in august
2008, si site-ul nostru a preluat stirea cu pricina – mass media de
peste ocean, de la tabloide la ziare si posturi de televiziune cat se poate de
credibile vuia cu acest subiect, cadavrul descompus al unui Bigfoot fiind,
totusi, o chestie pe care nu o intalnesti pe toate drumurile. In zona, existau
numeroase legende despre o creatura semi-inteligenta, un primat mai mare
decat orice gorila de munte; de asemenea, cativa vanatori si cautatori de urme
indieni afirmasera ca au descoperit urme ciudate in padure… din nefericire, in
cele din urma, povestea s-a dovedit un fals, Bigfoot fiind
„confectionat” dintr-un costum de carnaval, mate de porc, muschi
de cerb si alte resturi de animale.
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fost, din nou, semnalat in Nepal: in urma cu fix un an, o echipa de
specialisti analiza mostre de par, iar in octombrie 2008, o echipa
japoneza de antropologi si zoologi a descoperit, in cadrul unei
expeditii nepaleze, urmele lui Yeti pe muntele Dhaulagiri IV.
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Oamenii de stiinta si fenomenele psi
Unul dintre cele mai concludente exemple in acest sens s-a petrecut chiar in
urma cu cateva luni: o bursa de cercetare in valoare de 4 milioane de
dolari, pusa la bataie de U.S. Army, a fost castigata de Universitatea
din California pentru tema de studiu „telepatia sintetica asistata de
calculator”. In cazul telepatiei, in scurta vreme, folosirea termenului
paranormal va fi cu totul improprie, intrucat fenomenul se pare ca este
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explicabil din punct de vedere stiintific, in cele mai mici amanunte ale sale.
Telepatia asistata de calculator presupune dezvoltarea unei interfete creier-
computer, care sa se foloseasca de tehnologia electroencefalografica (EEG)
pentru a ajuta doi sau mai multi oameni sa comunice prin puterea gandurilor.
De exemplu, un soldat gandeste un mesaj spre superiorul sau; computerul
primeste semnalele EEG pe care creierul oricarui om le emite cand ne gandim
la ceva, le traduce si le retransmite sub forma de unde cerebrale spre creierul
receptorului.
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Alt exemplu ca fenomenele psi sunt privite cu cea mai mare seriozitate de
cercetatori este acela unui amplu articol stiintific din Journal of Scientific
Exploration, o publicatie academica, realizata de cercetatori pentru
cercetatori, care exploreaza ipoteza ca perceptia extrasenzoriala ar
interfera cu campul geomagnetic, influentand activitatea acestuia
(pentru pasionati, textul integral al lucrarii se gaseste aici).
Rubrica de Paradiverse
Jose Gabriel Funes, astronomul sef de la Vatican, soca mass media anul trecut
cand declara ca credinta in extraterestri nu contravine cu aceea in
Dumnezeu, mesajul implicit fiind acela ca Biserica Catolica accepta
oficial existenta altor creaturi inteligente in Univers.
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demonica – o femeie care levita si vorbea limbi straine; incapabili sa o
trateze, au apelat la doi preoti care au exorcizat demonii cu succes.
In mod cert, o parte a cazurilor din acest top prezinta un grad mai mult decat
discutabil de veridicitate, in vreme ce altele au sanse foarte mari de a fi
autentice. Cu toate acestea, cred ca am castigat provocarea pe care v-am
lansat-o la inceputul acestui material. Fenomenele paranormale nu fac parte
dintr-un cerc existential incastrat exclusiv in trecut. Ele joaca un rol activ in
viata a numerosi oameni si vor continua sa existe, chiar si in epoca
digitalizarii, atata vreme cat nu le respringem aprioric, ci le cercetam
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IN DEPTH | PSYCHOLOGY
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By David Robson31st October 2014
S
Soon after World War II, Winston Churchill was visiting the White House when he is said to
have had an uncanny experience. Having had a long bath with a Scotch and cigar, he reportedly
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walked into the adjoining bedroom – only to be met by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln.
Unflappable, even while completely naked, Churchill apparently announced: “Good evening, Mr
President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.” The spirit smiled and vanished.
His supposed contact with the supernatural puts Churchill in illustrious company. Arthur Conan
Doyle spoke to ghosts through mediums, while Alan Turing believed in telepathy. Three men
who were all known for their razor-sharp thinking, yet couldn’t stop themselves from believing
in the impossible. You may well join them. According to recent surveys, as many as three
quarters of Americans believe in the paranormal, in some form, while nearly one in
five claim to have actually seen a ghost.
Intrigued by these persistent beliefs, psychologists have started to look at why some of us can’t
shake off old superstitions and folk-lore. Their findings may suggest some hidden virtues to
believing in the paranormal. At the very least, it should cause you to question whether you hold
more insidious beliefs about the world.
Some paranormal experiences are easily explainable, based on faulty activity in the brain.
Reports of poltergeists invisibly moving objects seem to be consistent with damage to certain
regions of the right hemisphere that are responsible for visual processing; certain forms of
epilepsy, meanwhile, can cause the spooky feeling that a presence is stalking you close by –
perhaps underlying accounts of faceless “shadow people” lurking in the surroundings.
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(Thinkstock)
Out-of-body experiences, meanwhile, are now accepted neurological phenomena, while certain
visual illusions could confound the healthy brain and create mythical beings. For example, one
young Italian psychologist looked in the mirror one morning to find a grizzled old man staring
back at him. His later experiments confirmed that the illusion is surprisingly common when you
look at your reflection in the half light, perhaps because the brain struggles to construct the
contours of your face, so it begins to try to fill in the missing information – even if that leads to
the appearance of skulls, old hags or hideous animals.
So any combination of exhaustion, drugs, alcohol, and tricks of the light could contribute to
single, isolated sightings, like that reported by Churchill. But what about the experiences of
people like Conan Doyle, who seemed to see other-worldly actions on a day-to-day basis?
Protective shield
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Psychologists studying religion have long suspected that a belief in the paranormal can be a kind
of shield from the even harsher truths of the world. The idea is that when something unexpected
happens – a death, natural disaster, or job loss – the brain scrambles around for answers, looking
for meaning in the chaos. “It’s such an aversive state that if it can’t gain control objectively, we
will get it by perceiving more structures around us, even if they don’t exist,” says Jennifer
Whitson at the University of Texas, who studies pattern perception, and judgment and decision
making. Even simply asking people to remember a time when they felt out of control, can make
people see illusory forces at work, she has found. That included seeing patterns in the random
movements of the stock market, for example, but it could also manifest itself by linking two
unconnected events, such as the belief that “knocking on wood” for good luck would improve
your chances in a job interview.
(Thinkstock)
Anthropomorphism is another common way that we try to understand events, says Adam Waytz
at Northwestern University in Illinois. So we might think that a spirit lies behind a storm or that a
demon is causing us to get ill – rather than acknowledging that we have no control over the
matter; and if a branch is tapping on your window, you might be more inclined to imagine that it
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is a ghost sending you a message. “We create beliefs in ghosts, because we don’t like believing
that the universe is random,” says Waytz. Again, this seems to be more common when we feel
less control over our lives.
Given these strange turns of the mind, might some people be naturally inclined to see hidden
patterns and motives, and could this explain why they are more superstitious than others? It is a
question that Tapani Riekki at the University of Helsinki in Finland has tried to answer for the
last few years. He says that believers often welcome his research, since they genuinely can’t
understand why others don’t share their worldview. “They say that ’I don’t see why other people
don’t feel what I feel, or believe what I believe’,” he says.
Hidden faces
Riekki recently asked sceptics and believers to view simple animations of moving shapes, while
lying in a brain scanner. He found paranormal believers were more likely to see some kind of
intention behind the movements – as if the shapes were playing a game of “tag”, say – and this
was reflected in greater brain activity in the regions normally associated with “theory of mind”
and understanding others’ motives. Riekki has also found that people who believe in the
supernatural are more likely to see hidden faces in everyday photos – a finding confirmed by
another team at the University of Amsterdam, who showed that paranormal believers are more
likely to imagine that they had seen a walking figure in random light displays.
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(Thinkstock)
Added to this, Riekki has found that believers may have weaker cognitive “inhibition”,
compared to sceptics. That’s the skill that allows you to quash unwanted thoughts, so perhaps we
are all spooked by strange coincidences and patterns from time to time, but sceptics are better at
pushing them aside. Riekki gives the example of someone who is thinking about their mother,
only for her to call two minutes later. “Is it just that sceptics can laugh and say it is just
coincidence, and then think of something else?” he wonders. Significantly, another paper
reported that paranormal believers also tend to have greater confidence in their decisions,
even when they are based on ambiguous information. So once they have latched onto the belief,
you might be less likely to let it go.
Even so, most researchers agree that sceptics shouldn’t be too critical of people who harbour
these beliefs. After all, one study has found that various superstitions can boost your
performance in a range of skills. In one trial, bringing their favourite lucky charm into a
memory test significantly improved subjects’ recall, since it seemed to increase their
confidence in their own abilities. Another experiment tested the subjects’ golf putting ability.
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Telling them that they were using a “lucky” ball meant they were more likely to score than those
simply using any old ball. Even something as simple as saying “break a leg” or “I’ll keep my
fingers for you” improved the participants’ motor dexterity and their ability to solve anagrams.
And even if you think you are immune, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of suggestion.
Michael Nees at the Lafayette College in Pennsylvania recently asked a group of students to
listen to sound recordings from US ghost-hunting shows. Subtly priming the volunteers with the
thought that they were involved in a paranormal study increased the number of voices they
reported hearing in the fuzzy recordings – despite the fact that they mostly reported being
sceptics. It seems that the merest expectation of hearing something spooky can set your mind
whirring.
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it makes you question the future, compared to a feeling like anger where you might be surer of
your righteousness.
And if you tell yourself that you have reasoned yourself out of superstitions and ghost stories,
you might still harbour other beliefs that are equally fanciful, she says. It could be a full blown
conspiracy theory about the government, or just suspicions that your colleagues are ganging up
on you, based on a few spurious comments.
We can perhaps see the brain’s ability to “spot” illusory patterns in the response to the Ebola
epidemic – such as the emergence of folk remedies (including the belief that drinking salt water
is a cure), fears in the West that it will spread through air travel, and theories that it was created
by industrialised governments.
“It’s easy to think of yourself as the one holding the rational cards, but it’s wiser to understand
that every one of us are going to be prone to those mistakes when we feel like we are lacking
control,” says Whitson. “We should all be ready to evaluate our assumptions more thoughtfully.”
As Churchill, Turing and Conan Doyle showed us, even the most astute minds can be given to
fancy from time to time.
If you would like to comment on this, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to
our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.
"We create beliefs because we don’t like believing that the
universe is random"
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