This isn't really a creation/evolution topic, but it does touch on the limits of what scientific investigation can reveal, and how a phenomenon is deemed to be worthy of scientific investigation. Since spiritual and religious matters sometimes enter the equation (e.g. with near-death experiences, or those who believe that ghosts are the souls of the dead), then this seems as good a forum as any for this discussion.

What I am hoping is that those who post here can stick to discussing how phenomena typically classed as "paranormal" can be investigated in a scientific way. Statements of what people believe on faith, without reference to any evidence for these beliefs, will not move the discussion forward.

Speculation about what causes these phenomena could be interesting as well, but what we first need to establish is that certain phenomena actually exist and are not 100% due to hallucinations, mistakes, wishful thinking, or lies.

What's more, I would personally like to exclude use of the word "supernatural" because this implies something above and beyond nature which cannot be understood in a scientific way. I admit myself that such areas can and do exist, but there are many other areas which entail physical manifestations and these can be studied; in which case we are looking at something "normal" but not yet understood. For example, it may be difficult to study ghosts directly, but we might be able to study the conditions in which they appear, we could study the people involved in the sightings or manifestations (e.g. poltergeist foci, psychic mediums), and we could study the substantial body of anecdotal evidence and look for patterns which could point to useful avenues of investigation.

I'm not sure where this thread will go and I'm not going to be able to post here very frequently because of other commitments, but I wanted to move the existing conversation from the other thread where it began so that there could be a focus on it here and it would be easy to find. I will begin by pasting the conversation I have had with Russell2 and Mordred so far and I will add to this as I find the time. Anyone else is of course also welcome to contribute.