My mom once told me a story about the witch from my dad’s family telling a chair to hold someone in a corner. That chair, on its own, chased the kid into a corner and would not let him leave until that old witch said to. She also told me about the conversation she had with her dead mother, sitting on the corner of her bed. Now, you don’t know my mom, but I can tell you, this woman wouldn’t lie to save her life. She really believes these things. She was not lying to me. She also was not correct.
The story of the witch, that’s not something she saw. That’s a story she was repeating. And it’s a story she believes. So she repeated it as fact, even though it was just a ridiculous story. But the conversation with her dead mother, that was her story. That was something she not only believed, but something she, personally, experienced. But there’s a clue to a rational explanation even in the abridged version I told. Her dead mother was sitting on the corner of her bed. She was in bed at the time and she had a vivid dream. In fact, that is how a great many ghost and, especially, alien abduction stories start. It is really a disproportionate number.
It doesn’t matter how many people tell me these stories, or how much I trust them. I am never going to believe them. If I see it with my own eyes I’m not going to believe my eyes. I’m certainly not going to believe what I “feel”. (And, by the way, no, I have never “felt eyes on me” or woken in the middle of the night sure someone was there. Ever.) Schedule a session with your psychiatrist (keep reading. I’m not being a dick here) and tell him that someone “made you feel” something. He will immediately tell you that nobody has the power to “make” you feel anything. You are in control of how you feel. Your “feelings” cannot be trusted because they are of your own making. You’re not “more perceptive” if you can see ghosts, you’re just more prone to psyching yourself out. And you can see this in all the ghost hunter shows. They always follow the same formula. Get excited about the new “hunt”. Talk about it on the way there. Talk about the things you might find. Get there and set up. Then turn off all the lights and walk around a dark, spooky, unfamiliar place for a few hours, teaming up with one other person who is as psyched out about it as you are. Not 3 or 4 or 10 people, just 2. That way you don’t feel the “safety in numbers”. Literally everything they do is designed to psych them out so that they can have an “experience”.
And I’m sorry, but the two sides are not equal. One side is rational, the other side is not. I can say this with complete confidence because supernatural claims are one of the few true dichotomies I know of. All supernatural claims have either 1) not been proven to be true or 2) been proven to be not true. A truly rational, objective person would look at that and say that it is pretty good evidence it’s all bunk. James Randi offered a million dollars to anyone who could prove anything supernatural for years. Nobody ever won, though many tried. There were always excuses, much like the ones given in this thread, for why they couldn’t be scientifically tested. There was crying about it not being fair. There was whining about disagreeing and disputing being disrespectful. I hate to break it do you, but your beliefs are not due any respect from my any more than my beliefs are due any respect from you.
Respect is not a thing you are automatically due. If you say something ridiculous you should expect to be treated as someone who just said something ridiculous, even if you don’t think it is ridiculous. If you link a moving story about the death of your mother to something ridiculous you say, that’s on you when people treat it like it’s ridiculous. If you don’t want to have hurt feelings then maybe you shouldn’t exploit the death of your mother in an attempt to make your ridiculous claims (a second hand story, by the way) immune from dissent. Because that is what you did. You shared a personal story because, in your mind, NOBODY can say you are wrong now or they are just being disrespectful jerks! Well, I am sorry about your mother. I was actually there when my father died and it was not cool. But I didn’t see anything in that story which in any way suggested anything “spiritual” happened except that you claim that your father claimed that your mother claimed to have seen dead relatives. An unproven, third hand claim is not exactly the nail in the coffin to skepticism.
A little tip, in all seriousness here. Look back at the things you posted. Really read it and think about this. You are arguing from an almost entirely emotional perspective. Then go on to reread what others have posted. We are arguing from an almost entirely logical perspective. I think that is very telling that the ONE believer here is the ONE person thinking more emotionally than logically about the subject. This subject means something to you emotionally, and that’s why you take offense when people disagree with you or dispute what you’re saying. That is the very definition of a bias.