I'm not a believer in the supernatural, but I recently had an experience that reinforced to me one of the reasons WHY people believe.
I was riding my bicycle one evening around 8pm, and I went past a noodle restaurant that has counter seating at the front window (I live in Japan). As I zipped past, I very clearly saw my father eating a bowl of noodles at the counter. My father has been dead for 30 years and was last in Japan in 1945, so this was a bit surprising. I turned around and rode back, and saw an old Japanese man eating noodles. He was bearded, bald and wearing glasses, but that's where the resemblance ended. But I had SEEN my father, every detail of his face...I'd have sworn it. And back when I believed in that sort of thing I'm sure I'd have told people I had seen his ghost. It was that vivid and detailed.
So what had happened? I remembered that that morning I had been talking on Skype to my sister. We had been discussing holidays from our childhood, and had talked in-depth about my father's holiday pranks and jokes. How he had dressed as Santa in his later years, and once had his hat blown off as he opened the door to greet a visitor. Lots of memories of his face and head when he was older.
So my mind was primed with memories, and when I saw someone fitting the basic description out of the corner of my eye, my brain helpfully filled in the rest. I DID see him...or my brain did, but only because my eye saw just enough to trigger a pattern match and memories filled in the details. And in retrospect, the image was FAR more detailed than a peripheral glance could have been.
Our eyes actually take in very little of what we "see". The brain is constantly filling in gaps, because our eyes can't focus on everything, and sometimes that system screws up. My dad was himself a freethinker, so I think he'd have gotten a laugh out of this as well.
Everything happens for a reason, and that reason is usually physics.
I was riding my bicycle one evening around 8pm, and I went past a noodle restaurant that has counter seating at the front window (I live in Japan). As I zipped past, I very clearly saw my father eating a bowl of noodles at the counter. My father has been dead for 30 years and was last in Japan in 1945, so this was a bit surprising. I turned around and rode back, and saw an old Japanese man eating noodles. He was bearded, bald and wearing glasses, but that's where the resemblance ended. But I had SEEN my father, every detail of his face...I'd have sworn it. And back when I believed in that sort of thing I'm sure I'd have told people I had seen his ghost. It was that vivid and detailed.
So what had happened? I remembered that that morning I had been talking on Skype to my sister. We had been discussing holidays from our childhood, and had talked in-depth about my father's holiday pranks and jokes. How he had dressed as Santa in his later years, and once had his hat blown off as he opened the door to greet a visitor. Lots of memories of his face and head when he was older.
So my mind was primed with memories, and when I saw someone fitting the basic description out of the corner of my eye, my brain helpfully filled in the rest. I DID see him...or my brain did, but only because my eye saw just enough to trigger a pattern match and memories filled in the details. And in retrospect, the image was FAR more detailed than a peripheral glance could have been.
Our eyes actually take in very little of what we "see". The brain is constantly filling in gaps, because our eyes can't focus on everything, and sometimes that system screws up. My dad was himself a freethinker, so I think he'd have gotten a laugh out of this as well.
Everything happens for a reason, and that reason is usually physics.