The Ghost Of Nescience
 

I observed something recently that made me evaluate the line that divides ignorance and superstition, and tried to visualize the distance between those shores without being blinded by the invariably murky waters between them.
I didn't get far.

The scenario:
I was lying in bed and I heard the door knob to my room rattle as though someone were trying to open it. I wasn't asleep, and no one else was in the house.
The process:
My first thought was "someone's trying to open my door".
The following thought was "no one is here but me".
The third thought that followed became:
The superstition:
Is there a supernatural force causing my door to rattle?

Now, I'm a huge skeptic of all things paranormal. But due to not having an explanation at the time, my instinct was to challenge my own belief system to provide an answer.
Are my beliefs set in such a shakeable foundation? Are everyone's?

I was able to recover my questionably infallible sense of logic when, upon inspection, I remembered that my printer makes a rattling noise when it auto-aligns itself after a period of inactivity. It sounds like a door knob.
And it's sitting on a shelf, right next to my door.

I'm using that experience as a way to ask these questions:
Is superstition merely a comfort, or just a stand-in solution to a riddle until it's finally solved?
How do believers in the paranormal justify their stance? Have they had experiences they can't explain, or never had an experience and just believe because it fits their way of thinking?

I know what youre saying, I feel the same. I think its because it is always in the back of my mind. If there was no initial idea what so ever of paranormal events or activity in our minds, I think these thoughts wouldnt even canoe down our stream of conciousness. I had a semi-similar experience last night. I had a crazy ass dream about gremlins. Then when I was awake I was terrified that they might be in my house. I logically ismissed the entire thought knowing 100% it was a dream, yet I was still pretty scared. The best part is they were only like a foot tall, so in real life I would have just kicked the shit out of them. This also pertains in the slightest degree of how I feel about people that 'hallucinate' on MJ. I have had a few strange experiences on it where I thought I might have seen something out of the corner of my eye, but I didnt believe it. I think thats the difference between real hallucinations. While tripping, I definently believe whole heartedly the event that didnt eally occur, or even the object that I didnt really see. Something that sort of ties in, but is an opposite of the original discussion, is an experience I had not too long ago while experimenting with research chems. I was outside walking through the woods/graveyard at about 3am and saw a man standing there smoking a cig. I tried talking to him but he didnt talk back at all. As I approached him, I realized maybe I was just hallucinating, but had a very difficult time dismissing it from my mind. In this instance I knew I was more positive it was real then false, and this event confuses me about reality. Maybe it was a ghost! Kidding, sorry for gettin so off track. Twas a long Natty Light night.

Interesting thread Veridical :)

I think what you want to know, really, when the door knob starts shaking is if there's any kind of danger to yourself. There's a fear or worry that something dangerous is happening and that needs to represent itself somehow in the mind - is it a break-in? Is it a ghost?

From the way you write, it seems these thoughts were pretty instinctive but then you overcame them with rationality. I also force myself to think rationally when stuff like that happens. :p

This is slightly off topic (a good one by the way!), but can anyone explain this being anything other than a supernatural presence:

When I was boarding in a hall of residance (or dorm as you call it in America) which used to be an old maternity hospital, a girl on the 2nd floor woke up one night with a blue girl beside her. She thought at first it was her friend so said hello, and the figure didn't respond, but just glowed and she realised it was not normal so freaked out and ran out of her room screaming. Can you imagine that kind of thing or is it possible it was real? There had been other sightings in past years, repeatedly of a woman ghost who wandered around the stairs from ground to first floor crying out for her baby.

Could be a fever fantasy if the girl was sick.

I was once in bed with a heavy fever, yet I couldn't sleep or I was in that half-sleep stage. I "saw" one of my friends sit on the floor with his back to me, then he turned his head round slowly to face me and he had red glowing eyes. Weird, huh?

Of course I know my friend is not a ghost and I had a fever which sorta makes it easy to explain and cope with. :p

I have also had one of these 'fever fantasies' I was sick and saw small twisters all over the house. I ran out onto the farm and saw them there as well. I was a youngin', I remember running around in my PJ's. Sorry Verid for destroyin the thread so far with stories.

we call 'em both. res hall is more formal of the two. the Brits are all about that 'dormitory' business though.

This is a bit of a stretch but when someone dreams its caused from the brain naturally releasing dimethyltriptomine. It might be possible that she was in the middle of a dream and thus woke up with enough DMT in her system to still be hallucinating.

Back on topic, I've always viewed superstition as a manifestation of fear. People expect the worst to be true so they counteract it with paranormal comfort thoughts.

Interesting replies. :)

To add to the pot a little:
I always hear people's personal supernatural experience stories start with "when I was a child".
To me, that automatically lowers the credibility level somewhat considering how powerful a child's imagination is. When I was a kid, I remember laying down to sleep and seeing a zombie head float up from the bottom bunk. Scared the shit out of me.
I mean, everyone knows zombie heads can't float. ;)

Some believers in the paranormal might say that children are more sensitive to spiritual manifestations because they haven't been dulled and desensitized by logic over time.
I don't believe that.
I say that logic merely counters the tendency to freely imagine things into perceptual existence.
You grow up and learn how things work. Suddenly magic turns out to be only an illusion. It's not that we're killing off all the faeries, it's just that we're learning they never existed in the first place.

Dormitory seems so...old. Hall of residence seems far more formal and appropriate to me.

True, but it doesn't explain the fact that she felt a cold wave beside her, and the people who spotted that woman it can't have just been made up when more than one person saw her. Just saying.