Agnostic.com

28 3

What are your thoughts/ideas on prophesy? Do you think that dimensions exist on our plane of intelligence? Is it physical or metaphysical?

Dazeypanda 4 Dec 17
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

28 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

2

I don't believe anything is magical or supernatural. There are things we understand and things we don't.

When I was around the age of twenty, I had an unusually vivid dream. I saw a small, white house on the side of a hill. As I approached the house I saw that the door was below grade, and three steps made of brick led from the grassy lawn down to the landing pit in front of the entry.

When I went inside, the entire volume of the room was filled with a forest of closely spaced, vertical strings from floor to ceiling, that I had to practically swim through to make my way across the room (dream-stuff!) . When I was approximately in the center of the room, I turned to my right and walked toward a window, out of which I could see at a distance below, the ocean, and a magnificent castle built right on the beach.

A few days later a friend asked me to go with her to Atlanta and help her move some of her remaining belongings from a house she had been sharing with some "hippie" friends. We parked the car on the side of a steep road and as we walked across the lawn I remarked that the house on the hill looked a lot like one I had seen in a dream the week before. Turned out it was not really a house, but something more like a mother-in-law suite in back of a larger residence. It was finished in stucco with many layers of white paint.

My eyes really bugged out when I found myself descending three red brick steps to reach the door that was set slightly below grade. Inside, the occupants had taped to the ceiling, about every three inches across the entire room, long strands of Christmas ribbon that nearly reached the floor - a trippy experience, indeed, to walk through.

I'm thinking to myself - I'm glad Atlanta is nowhere near the ocean or I would be afraid to look out the window, but I couldn't resist glancing in that direction. I could tell there was no window there, but in the same approximate location someone had pinned a large black-light poster to the wall. I moved through the ribbon-field to get a better look. It was a fanciful illustration of a large castle near a beach, with the ocean stretching out beyond. Mind. Duly blown.

Some coincidences in life are just too detailed and specific to be dismissed as mere pairings of a pattern-seeking mind. But that doesn't mean that we have to turn to the supernatural for instant explanations. Some experiences are best dropped off in the "we-don't-understand-yet" bin, while we wait for science to deliver a proper explanation. It is, after all, a much larger bin than the one labeled "we understand (because we did the work)".

skado Level 9 Dec 17, 2018

It is well known that our brains play all sorts of tricks on us. These are commonly called heuristics. Some heuristics which best characterize what you describe are called: False memory, Misattribution of memory, Self-Consistency bias, Hindsight bias, Telescoping effect and Outcome bias.

These heuristics are subsets of what are called cognitive biases. The three primary cognitive biases are categorized as: Information bias, selection bias and confounding. Specifically, the heuristics I mentioned for the story you gave are subsets of three primary cognitive biases. 1) We project our current mindset and assumptions onto the past and future. 2) We edit and reinforce some memories after the fact. 3) We are drawn to details that confirm our own existing beliefs.

Whether or not you do these things purposely; they are a result of the fact that we as humans really don't do much thinking in comparison to the amount of thinking that happens to us subconsciously.

I have a list of heuristics and cognitive biases if anyone is interested in seeing some of the many ways our brains cheat and plays tricks on us. Just inbox me your email address and I will email them to anyone interested. They are truly fascinating.

@BryanLV

I recently had an interesting experience, and I see no way for it to be explained away as heuristic. I woke up one morning and as I was making the bed I suddenly started wondering if the comforter needed washing. I inspected it closely and decided it was ok.

I went downstairs and greeted my partner who was just waking up. She told me that she had been dreaming about the white comforter and wondering if it needed washing.

This was obviously not coincidence, and as far as mind tricks, I simply don’t see how that could be.

Must be magic!

@BryanLV I have recently been converting some home movies of my grandmother's 72nd birthday party from 1988 to DVD to send out to family for the holidays. I had remembered the day quite well, I thought. And had watched the video tape several times 4-5 years after the event, but not since then (so I was certain I at least remember THE TAPE very well). Watching it now...there were things I had completely forgotten about, but THINK I remember now that I've seen them on tape. But I'm not entirely sure I'm remembering them, or the fact that I see them on tape has just tricked my brain into believing I'm remembering them. Other parts I am certain I had forgotten completely. Even now, watching them, I don't remember having ever seen them--either in person, or on tape in the few years after the event (I would have swore up and down they were not on the tape before viewing it in the last few days). Even stranger, my parents still have the same house where we hosted the party nearly 31 years ago. The carpet is different, the windows are different, the doors are different, the appliances are different, the furniture is different, neighbors houses were not there yet, paint was different, trees outside were less than half the size, the view was different (no trees blocking it), even the wind through the windows was different as the old windows opened on the opposite side (seeing the weird breeze on a plant in the corner struck me as extremely odd yet perfectly correct for all those years ago). I guess what I'm saying is that before watching the tape, I felt like I remembered things very well. AFTER watching it...even while I was watching it...it felt like the past had come alive in a way that disturbed me. It was as if my memories were rearranging themselves, and things I was certain of suddenly became uncertain, and then certain again solely because of the tape that I had largely misremembered for 25 years at least. Thinking about it now makes me queasy...akin to sea sickness.

@BryanLV Also, since we are giving personal experiences, I had a dream once in about '83 or '84. I was 9 or 10. I felt like I awoke suddenly, and felt a presence in my room. My mom was there, just as she had been in a family picture. It was as if she was saying "It's all right," and she was almost glowing. I felt safe, and happy mom was in a better place. She faded away...and as she faded away, I realized mom wasn't dead. She was sleeping in the next room. And even at that age, I remember thinking...wow. If mom HAD been dead, I would have thought that was her ghost for sure. Now I know it was aliens (just kidding, lol).

@greyeyed123
That first one was a great story, and very interesting as well. We all rearrange and edit our thoughts. There are tons of heuristics that have tons more cognitive biases. Our brains are sneaky little devils!

I recall reading articles and watching lectures on how the brain stores memory connections in sort of a branch form. Each memory branch is like a word document on your computer. If you do not use the file branch, or build connected memories directly off of it, you can just lose connection to that file branch. Also, like a word doc, once that file branch is accessed by your conscious thinking mind, that file branch can be edited (even old information as you previously recalled it) and then resaved as the edited version.

Our memories are not necessarily fixed. We have a conscious mind that we do tasks with and direct thinking as we are awake. Our subconscious mind, on the other hand, has many subsets for storing information, and controls all other areas of thinking, reaction and physical functions that we do not really think about or control: blinking, dreaming, breathing, flight or fight, immune, digestive, heart beats, deciphering from all of the senses, and the release of certain chemicals into the blood stream. As our senses collect tons of information, our subconscious and conscious mind are using lots of tricks on our waking mind to more easily deal with constant stimuli it must react to as it is interpreted by our mind. It's really true that for the most part we do not think; thinking happens to us.

2

Considering we can't even define the force that causes gravity, nor how gravity and space/time are interrelated...I do think parallel universes are completely possible.

Gravity is caused by the uneven distribution of mass causing curvature in space-time. That answers both your questions, and all I had to do was look it up on Wikipedia.

Some interpretations of quantum physics require that every possible outcome causes a new quantum universe to form, for instance, if outcomes A and B are possible, then universe A and universe B will come into existence in parallel with one another. This has nothing to do with "prophesy" as human senses have no way to perceive these different universes, and they remain a theoretical possibility.

Humans can definitely define the forces that cause gravity, and much more that that.

@BryanLV @Paul4747 - No we can't - [livescience.com]

@jondspen Yes we can.
[math.ucr.edu]

@Paul4747 We can explain it, and observe it, but we can't define what a 'particle' of gravity is. That is the whole problem facing us to create a unified theory of physics (currently working on M-theory). We can observe it and make predictions about how it should act on the physical world, but we can't define what it is that exactly causes it.

[curiosity.com]

@jondspen Umm... yes we can. (Notice how this is descending into pantomime?) It's caused by mass impinging on space-time. The greater the mass, the greater the effect.

Just picture all of space-time as a rubber sheet. Drop a ping-pong ball on it, and the effect is tiny. Drop a planet on it, and the effect in more noticeable.

Perhaps there is no particle involved. Perhaps it's like light, which acts sometimes like a wave and sometimes like a particle. In any case, we have sufficiently defined gravity that we can go to the Moon and back trusting gravity to have the same laws there that it has here.

@Paul4747 Apples to oranges with the word 'define' here - you say we can define a reaction or effect - I say we can't define what causes that effect, and why they are connected. Regardless, if we understand gravity, how does gravity grab a particle of light and keep it from escaping a black hole? And I already said we understand the effect mass causes in your example, but again, we don't understand the why, the how it happens. We can see it, but we can't define why that interaction occurs (again, the relationship in the physical world between the gravity 'widget' and matter - be that time, space, light). But ok...I will admit this is not my primary field of study; is it yours? Considering every book and documentary I've read/watched about quantum physics/mechanics, and every top level physicists today says we can't point to X and that is the 'thing' that is causing it and here is how they are connected in the sub-atomic physical world, I am leaning toward their professional opinion and stick by my original assertion.

1

I don't do much thinking about things that probably do not exist except when writing my books of fiction, and even there I try to avoid too much nonsense. I also have no idea what you mean by 'our plane of intelligence' or what you actually mean by 'metaphysical.'

By saying, "...our plane of intelligence," are you meaning what is commonly referred to as our reality?

When you say, "...metaphysical?" are you trying to say supernatural?

Quite right

0

Not if by "prophesy" you mean by divine, or supernatural inspiration. But, if you mean just making a prediction, based upon history, statistics, or other rational means, prophesies can come true.

I don't know what you mean by, "dimensions exist on our plane of intelligence." The metaphysical, in philosophy, is the fundamental nature of reality and being.

0

Since I believe everything is a series of often unrelated events, then no, prophecy is not possible. Read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and time is always and locked with no changes possible.
As far as other dimensions, quantum physics indicates they exist, but we have no idea what they are like.

The tapioca dimension is disgusting.

4

The only true prophesies are those that go something like:

"And in that time, a friend shall lose his friend's hammer, and the young will not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers, that their fathers put there only just the night before, around eight o'clock..."

@Elganned And Trump is the antichirst

1

As a person who leans toward the concept of Universal Consciousness I do not reject prophecy out of hand. However, if it is a valid phenomenon it must be seen as simply a part of nature rather than something supernatural or magical.

The concept of dimensions is a human-mind thing, tied to our superficial model of matter, space, and time. Ultimate Reality has no dimensions. According to quantum gravity theory space is made up of granules the size of the planck length.

Prophecy is probably metaphysical by current consensus, but things metaphysical today could become mainstream physics tomorrow.

Explain length of plancks isn't that similar to the Pauli principle?

@Dazeypanda

According to my source, the planck length is about a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter.(10^-33 cm) nothing smaller can exist.

“Reality is not What it Seems” by Carlo Rovelli is a fascinating look at quantum gravity theory, and it explains the idea that space is granular. Also chapter 7 is called “Time Does not Exist”.

1

My answers to your three questions are:

  1. Question
  2. Research
  3. Hypothesis
  4. Experiment
  5. Analyze data
  6. Draw conclusions
  7. Communicate results

Anything short of these steps is hooey, nonsense, unscientific and bunk. There is no evidence that prophesy exists; although the lack of evidence does not mean that prophesy is not real or possible. Prophesy has yet to be proved at any time, on any level.

I might suggest the James Randi challenge if you have evidence or knowledge to the contrary.

I hope this helps.

SCal Level 7 Dec 17, 2018

I prefer rounding off a square and squaring off a circle

0

I think they are "silly, random, & fun".

3

No on prophesy... We have 4 dimensions we are aware of... But there may well be more than that!

0

I agree with blumandolin but I would also like to add that doctor who said it quite well too. He said sometimes we remember things in the wrong direction.

Nardi Level 7 Dec 17, 2018
1

Prophecy has no foundations. As for dimensions, we are still learning.

2

The vast majority of prophesies turn out to be false. There is nothing metaphysical about them.

0

Well, if you believe string theory, there are at least 11 dimensions, but not in a way that affects us at all, so it's kind of moot. Prophecies all have one thing in common: they fail. They are then forgotten until the next prophecy is issued, which also fails. People seem to have short memories. Then there are people who are so desperate for a prophecy to be true that they try to force it, like that group of Jews in Israel who are trying to make the prophecy of the 3rd temple come true by doing everything the prophecy says, using it like a recipe. I don't think they will be successful either.

Orbit Level 7 Dec 17, 2018
3

If you find someone who can do it let me know, I want to take them to the racetrack.
I had a juror once who announced to the judge that she could tell the future and I suggested that in this trial we don't care what's going to happen, the purpose was to decide what already happened

lerlo Level 8 Dec 17, 2018
1

Like others have said we live in 4 dimensions, and 11-13 may exist but that doesnt mean multiverses like ours. Multiverse theory is another possibility but whatever it winds up being won't be metaphysical anymore once we understand and expand how we understand the universe to work physically.

Premonition, intuition, and inspirations can come in strangely accurate ways but no one is communicating with a spiritual entity, reaching into the future or a different dimension to know the future. The closest thing to a fullfilled prophecy Ive ever experienced is my grandpa had a dream that my dad was going to try to hit me and had my mom put me in Tae Kwon Do. A couple months later he did and I was prepared. But that didnt take any divine intervention to see coming really. I was gettin bigger and he's a shithead with anger issues, it was inevitable.

Most of the time we self fulfill our prophecies or retroactively explain coincidences in hindsight by looking for patterns in a desire to explain causative chain reactions. In reality there are no separate connected incidents. It's all one continuous moment of happening, of course it's all going to appear connected. It very much is but theres no mystery as to how and why if you look at the whole picture.

0

I can accept the possibility of prophesy/foresight in as much as it may be connected to the unknown in relation to what our brain and mind are capable of. But on tap or to order then no, certainly not at this present time.

0

No one has ever predicted the future in any prophetic sense. Depends on how one is defining other dimensions.

1

I don't believe in prophesy.

0

Prophecy on the other hand is simply a thing of chance if you look for something long enough or hard enough you’ll find it.
Jesus was just 1 of at least 70 messiahs so that means that there was at least 70 times that the messiah prophecy was anything but accurate
But they attempted this process for hundreds of years for nothing more to have a hope for their future.

2

prophecy schmophecy

2

There were some types of prophecy that I could always count on. For example, when my mom used my full name... I could prophesy that I was ass was going to hurt.

When someone says to me, "Hold my beer!" I can prophecy that there will be some great YouTube video.

When someone says to me, on a date, "I have so much love to give..." I can prophecy that they are super needy and are going to suck the life right out of me.

When a BMW pulls in front of me, I can prophecy that he's going to go as slow as he can so long as I can't get around him.

1

I always wanted to hoax a prophesy, analogous to the way George Castanza always wanted to pretend to be a marine biologist. And with the low standards people have for prophesy anymore, I can think of half a dozen ways to fake one more compelling than the ones people already believe.

0

I believe that the world / space we inhabit has any dimensions & we share that space with multitudes of different beings.

0

Prophecy isn't a real thing, except for the self-fulfilling kind.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:245895
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.