Hello Atheists.
This OP is strictly for you.
Please recount any natural unusual phenomena you have experienced including unusual sightings.
If the writer has any ideas to the natural causes please state them. Others are invited to join in.
Why am I asking atheists?
First of all you are more honest than non atheists when it comes to these topics because you have no agenda to link them to the supernatural, aliens, or deities, therefore the stories we will hear are more likely to be true.
Second if I post this in other websites, all the loony bins and fake videos will pop up. Not worth anyone's time: Besides I am looking for a refreshing perspective. You may say but the natural answers are obvious, true but non atheists need to hear your natural explanations as well.and that's something we hardly ever get to read about.
NO BRAINER: Please refrain from linking any of these experiences to the supernatural, aliens or deities. What we are looking for is strictly natural causes. I have a good feeling that science will come into play and it will be fun
We are always bombarded with videos, pics, etc etc etc of how this is all supernatural, alien or deity linked.
It's time we read more articles related to the natural possibilities.
I will just open it up with ....unusual static lights in the sky that then begin to move.
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In 1965 we moved into a rented house in Christchurch, New Zealand. The house belonged to a spiritualist and was rumored to be haunted. The night after we moved in, we heard a terrible wailing and rattling of chains outside on the patio, and when we looked through out we could see a large, white, blurry shape moving around. When my father ventured outside, he found a gigantic Samoyed dog, which we found later belonged to the previous occupants. It had broken it's chain and tried to go home.
I also encountered ghosts twice as a child. In both cases I was in a half-awake/half-asleep state. At the time, the experiences seemed real, but in retrospect I know that I was dreaming (like the final scene in 'Carrie').
In the 1970s, I worked as a tour guide/interpreter for Japanese visitors to New Zealand. There was a sensational news story about a Japanese trawler that caught a 'plesiosaur' off the Pacific coast of New Zealand. (It later turned out to be a half-decomposed whale carcass). A Japanese magazine sent a news team to investigate. They decided it would be too expensive to go out the actual location, so they had me a arrange for a scuba diver to take some underwater photographs in a lake (a man-made lake near a hydro station) instead. I had similar experiences with UFO investigators and someone searching for the extinct moa bird. I'd say that's typical of the journalistic standards of people who write about aliens, Big Foot, Yeti, Nessie, and living dinosaurs, etc.
There's ALWAYS a natural explanation, but it won't sell many newspapers or get many YouTube hits.
Thanks Algebe
That was very interesting.. I will admit that our senses and our mind can certainly play tricks on us. Just as you thought you saw ghosts and thought that it was real until you realized it was part of your dream, I can certainly attest that sometimes when I am in a dream state, I believe that my dream experience is real until ...I wake up and realize it's a dream.
I am starting to believe that natural explanations can get many hits in our day and age, thanks to the advancement of connecting many people on the internet.
Sorry Jo, can't help you here.
My atheism defines my lack of belief in theist claims of a god or gods. My naturalism defines my lack of belief in the supernatural. Sixty plus years and I have never witnessed anything so strange or weird I could not accept as having had a natural cause. I never felt the need to investigate such things. I confidently accepted the combined affect of natural causes and excited imaginations.
I stopped fearing ghosts and monsters and unseen things that go bump in the night when I was a child. They only existed in the fabulous tales others told me or on the t.v. Even as a christian I did not believe in them. For me it has always been a natural world.
Thanks Grinseed
All comments are accepted and I have always stated that it is not necessary to believe in the supernatural.
The only correction I will point out is that I am In Spirit and not Jo....no worries. He must have been on your mind for some NATURAL reason...lol
Sorry Spirit...Jo might have possessed me there for a moment....Oooweeeh! Spooky!
"I will just open it up with ....unusual static lights in the sky that then begin to move."
Many years ago I had an experience with an unusual moving light. It was 1968 and my father was driving the tribe from Ottawa to North Bay, a long and lonely road through true wilderness. It was late at night, and we were in complete darkness, just droning along at 60 MPH.
I gazed out the back window, and saw this unusual narrow beam of light that seemed to be following us, and it was also changing where the light pointed. I just sat there and watched it, and after a while it became obvious it was following us, and closing gradually. I did not tell anyone, I just say there and watched. After a long period of time it got closer, it got closer, then I began to make out a form behind the light.
Up to that point I was definitely entertaining the idea it was a flying saucer.
And then I managed to connect the dots. It was a big diesel freight train traveling along on a track running parallel to the road. The moving light was a form of floodlight on the diesel, it just rotated up, and then down.
The train overhauled us, it slowly moved away into the distance, and I learned how easily one's senses can be fooled.
Thanks David Killens
Now that's a GREAT EXAMPLE of how a natural explanation is applicable to what could have easily been accepted as a UFO.
Luckily you saw it play out to the end so that the natural truth could be seen.
I am sure that many times we are not searching for the natural and can easily make the wrong conclusion.
This is the whole point of my OP....to show the flip side.
I once believed in the unseen cause of the universe; demons, spirits, and things that go bump in the night. When I was 4, I remember seeing a wolf man in the forest by my home. An older boy told me that if I ran it would get me. I stood in place a long time, never thinking that it should have attacked the older boy as he walked away. I stood and watched it as it peaked around one side of a tree and then another. Finally, I drew up the courage to run, and I did, all the way home (About 50 yards) screaming and yelling that it was after me. My mother heard the yells and came to me thinking something was wrong. I explained to her about the wolf man in the forest. She grabbed me by the arm and told me to show her.
We got to the spot where I could see the wolf man. It was still there. It was looking around the tree, First one side and then the other. My mom walked out into the forest, up to the tree, looked around it, and said, "There is nothing here! What in the hell are you talking about. You see! Nothing! Stop being an idiot!" (Mom was both physically and emotionally abusive,,, yes she called me an idiot and a lot worse as I grew up.)
Another common mystical experience concerned dolls. I came to the realization that dolls were looking at me as I slept at night. Their eyes would follow me. This went on for a few years, until about the age of 7. I woke up one night and realized my teddy bear was looking at me. I threw it on the floor and never had a doll again.
Another common mystical experience occurs around age 5. I would occasionally go into the kitchen and steal cookies, fruit, or simply raid the sugar bowl and eat spoon fulls of sugar. (This happened on numerous occasions.) I would be up on the counter where I had climbed and I would see a shadow walk into the room. I would jump down off the cabinet and immediately after, one of my parents would walk into the room. On the occasions I ignored the omens, I got caught.
Thanks Cognistic
Great examples of how 2 things come into play to make us believe in something that does not exist.
!) Stories other people tell us and 2) Our imagination creates the best Hollywood effects
DURING MY CHRISTIAN DAYS: Everything was caused by the hand of God and God's plan. I once saw a bearded man standing at the foot of my bed when I woke from an early morning sleep. The room was still dark but there he was just standing there. Of course I rubbed my eyes and looked a bit harder and there was nothing there. Was it a sign from God? It would have been were I still a believing Christian. Not being Christian, it was due to floaters and the fact that I was not yet awake.
As a Christian, I would make up stories about how god intervened in my life. If I found some money on the street it was god's intervention. If I lost some money, that too was god's intervention (probably protecting me from some evil I would do or possibly providing for the poor as he knew I could afford it.) Once I was riding along in the back seat of a car. We went around a corner and the door next to me flew open. Everyone in the car was Christian. We rounded the corner, slowed the car, and "IT WAS A MIRACLE THAT I HAD NOT FLOWN OUT OF THE OPEN DOOR. IT WAS THE HAND OF GOD THAT KEPT ME IN THE CAR. PRAISE THE LORD." Come on, we could not have been going more than 10 or 15 mph around the corner. I would have had to jump to get out of the car. Still, I remember sharing and believing that it was the mighty hand of the LORD that spared my life.
I GOT A WHOLE LOT OF THESE KINDS OF STORIES. I REALLY WAS A DELUSIONAL CHRISTIAN ONCE, A HOLY ROLLING BAPTIZED IN THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD, A JESUS PEOPLE AND PROUD OF IT. I WAS A BIBLE CARRYING EVANGELICAL WITNESSING, WALKING WITH THE LORD, JESUS FREAK. THE VERY SORT OF PERSON YOU WANT TO AVOID SITTING NEXT TO ON A BUS.
Thanks again Cognistic
I'm glad you brought this story in here. I agree that too often theists give God credit for miracles when in fact it would have turned out fine for non believers as well. I have heard many stories like yours when I was younger.
I saw a load of lights in the dark night sky. I was in the Great Sandy Desert , they went away when I lit my fire but came back when I settled down in my swag. I saw three lights almost inn a row...when I woke up..THEY HAD MOVED!
The next time I woke up the sun was up and ALL THE LIGHTS HAD GONE! Spooky....
Thanks Old man shouts
Humor accepted. We all need more of that.
Well in my younger days, I twice saw something I identified as a ghost. The obvious reason; that I didn't know what it was, so it must have been ghost--- Same kind of logic used by me and my mates when a girl knocked us back for a dance. Obviously lesbians. I mean, what other reason could they possibly have to not want to dance with three of god's gifts to woman kind ?
A bit OT: To those who speak of Yeti, Bigfoot and similar. A question: these creatures have apparently been around for a very long time . Where are the breeding populations needed for these creatures to survive?
Also once had a premonition of a death at the beach. A person did drown while I was in the area. Explanation; with premonitions ,we only remember the hits, not the misses
Thanks cranky 47
I ask myself, as a child, where do our ideas of ghosts come from. I suppose they come from stories we hear, books we read, movies we watch. Without any of those mediums, excuse the pun, our imagination would not interpret them as ghosts. I wonder what we would say if we had no knowledge of ghosts.
Not exactly experienced by myself, but nevertheless a strange occurrence I was privy to...
10 years ago I was a passenger in a horrific highway car crash, where my father (the driver) was parked at a red light at an intersection, only for some muppet to come out of nowhere and plough into us (mostly on my side).
Just before the incident, I apparently said to my father, "shit, hes going to his us!" Although since the accident and a sustained head injury I have 0% recall of that entire day.
I take my fathers words as being accurate and true.
However, I would simply put it down to perhaps I saw headlights from the passenger side mirror or something like that...
I don't believe for one second that anything supernatural compelled me, nor do I believe anything exceptional happened either.
Thanks Randomhero1982
I would agree that this is a common experience that merits no supernatural credit.
I too have had a similar experience in which I give it no supernatural credit.
I was sitting on the passenger side and we were at a red light on a major street. On the opposing lane there was a car coming quite fast and I noticed it was not slowing down. I told the driver to close her eyes and hold on to the steering while while I closed my eyes and held on to the dash board. I know that my mind had played out one potential outcome before it happened. It happened just the way I foresaw it, but it could have played out in many ways. The driver (we were told after the fact ) was eating and did not see the red light. He went through the light and was hit on the side and it through him straight in our direction head on. All my life I had been a very cautious person, trying to see potential accidents before they happen. I know I am not the only one who lives this way. Nothing supernatural here. Just a guy(me) who is very cautious. Everyone was ok even though the car we were in was sent to the scrapyard. There were other times when my forecasting did not see events turn out the way my mind saw it could happen.
Once again....thanks for sharing the Natural
I once saw a reddish light travel across the sky at a ridiculous rate, covering great distances in only a few minutes. I could have imagined it to be anything but after a bit of research it turns out it was the International Space Station I had seen and it had a red hue due to the sun having already set.
These days I get an email everytime it will be visible in my part of the world and go watch it every chance I get.
Thanks Kataclysmic
Good example of a Natural occurrence. It's not often people see lights moving in the sky and it is way to easy to contribute them as unnatural. I had a similar experience with a very bright light moving extremely fast in a straight line. I chalked that off as a satellite or the space station that gave out a brighter light than usual either because it was lower than usual or having to do with the direction of the sun rays as it was also during a setting sun.
Here's one from my young days when I was a big time Catholic
My mom was always very religious and she had several saintly statues in her basement. One of them had a vase of flowers in front of it. After several years, the dried up flowers revealed leaves hanging in mid air. My mom, my sister and I had all attributed it to be a miracle. We never questioned what did this miracle accomplish or what purpose does it serve. Well my sisters atheist husband observed it very closely on another day. He calls me over and says I want you to see something. He says get your reading glasses and come over to the magical flower. Upon arriving at the flower he says put your reading glasses on and take a closer look.
Well gosh darn it...the old and quite invisible few strands of cobwebs that were left over was what was keeping that flower in mid air....lol
Strangest thing I saw was; a warm day, and afternoon shower wetting everything well, before the clouds move off and partly cloudy nice early evening.
I was leaving a yransit train station, and past the vending machines outside, damp pavement in the shade... a line of dry footprints leading along the concrete for maybe 15 meters from overhanging cover off to the curb.