(01-11-2026, 05:43 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: Here's my full title for this opinion piece: 
"Any Explanation Other than Paranormal. Nullifying the Extraordinary."

I've been watching a lot of those paranormal and ghost-chasing reality shows lately. I've been watching Ghost Hunters in particular because I thought they were fairly professional and had some good techniques. They eliminated a lot with reasonable explanations. What they are usually left with is compelling, but unexplained, evidence of something that could be paranormal.

Now, when checking out reviews of programs and the documentation of evidence, the debunkers would always explain away the paranormal evidence with any other "rational" explanation they can come up with, no matter how unlikely it may be. The odds were never too great or astronomical to reject any theory or idea that could explain away the paranormal. Bigfoot research and UFO studies are treated much the same as ghost hunting.

I admit, I will debunk much of the evidence in many of these paranormal shows as I watch them, and it can be comical if it wasn't the same old tired BS all the time. However, some evidence is undeniable IMO, and still the debunkers will take long shots and clutch to the most unlikely "rational" explanations. In some ways their theories are as far out as any paranormal ones when the odds take them out of the "realm of possibility". 

If pigs could fly, until you see a flock of them, yet even then you can rationalize that away with something. They are telling you don't believe your own eyes, don't believe that recorder or camera or gizmo. Disregard all the precautions you take to keep the data untainted, because you can never do enough to the debunker's satisfaction when any other explanation could be used. Then, if that fails, you are accused of faking it.

(01-11-2026, 08:40 PM)rickymouse Wrote:

(01-11-2026, 05:43 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: Here's my full title for this opinion piece: 
"Any Explanation Other than Paranormal. Nullifying the Extraordinary."

I've been watching a lot of those paranormal and ghost-chasing reality shows lately. I've been watching Ghost Hunters in particular because I thought they were fairly professional and had some good techniques. They eliminated a lot with reasonable explanations. What they are usually left with is compelling, but unexplained, evidence of something that could be paranormal.

Now, when checking out reviews of programs and the documentation of evidence, the debunkers would always explain away the paranormal evidence with any other "rational" explanation they can come up with, no matter how unlikely it may be. The odds were never too great or astronomical to reject any theory or idea that could explain away the paranormal. Bigfoot research and UFO studies are treated much the same as ghost hunting.

I admit, I will debunk much of the evidence in many of these paranormal shows as I watch them, and it can be comical if it wasn't the same old tired BS all the time. However, some evidence is undeniable IMO, and still the debunkers will take long shots and clutch to the most unlikely "rational" explanations. In some ways their theories are as far out as any paranormal ones when the odds take them out of the "realm of possibility". 

If pigs could fly, until you see a flock of them, yet even then you can rationalize that away with something. They are telling you don't believe your own eyes, don't believe that recorder or camera or gizmo. Disregard all the precautions you take to keep the data untainted, because you can never do enough to the debunker's satisfaction when any other explanation could be used. Then, if that fails, you are accused of faking it.

If pigs could fly?  About ten to twelve years ago I was walking down to get the mail and heard a pig in a tree.  I sat there and wondered what the hell was going on.  It was a crow...not a very big one, but it sounded like a pig.  It grunted and oinked.  Off to the internet and I found there is a crow that does not come up into the U.P at all, it can mimic any animal it hears.  So after finding this out and studying the range of a crow I determined there might be someone close by that raised pigs.  I asked around, since the guy I got my pig from every year quit raising them...and found that about a mile away a guy was raising pigs to sell.  I called the guy and asked if he had any pigs for sale, he told me that I have to put in my order in the fall for the next October and I had to get ahold of the processing plant where we get our half cow processed to set things up.  He then asked me how I heard about his pigs and I told him the story...talk about laugh.  I never got back to him on getting a pig that fall, and I heard that he quit after the next year, so I didn't get one the next year either.  I guess he had some major health issue, he was in his mid seventies already and had to quit the animals.

(01-12-2026, 02:18 AM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: You guys realize that you are coming up with rational explanations for my flying flock of pigs example? You are actually debunking my exaggerated, pulling shit out of my ass, off-the-wall example with those bird stories. 

Was that on purpose?

(01-12-2026, 03:46 AM)rickymouse Wrote:

(01-12-2026, 02:18 AM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: You guys realize that you are coming up with rational explanations for my flying flock of pigs example? You are actually debunking my exaggerated, pulling shit out of my ass, off-the-wall example with those bird stories. 

Was that on purpose?

Of course.  Flying pigs are more interesting than the paranormal stuff is, and you did mention flocks, which is more how birds group up.  So, what is a bunch of pigs called anyway, I don't think it would be a herd of pigs....now you opened up a new can of worms.

(01-11-2026, 06:00 PM)F2d5thCav Wrote: Your comment made me recall Philip Klass and the contortions of logic he used to deny every and any UFO sighting.

The bit that always gives me pause is that even if only one of the countless reports of UFO or paranormal is substantially accurate, that means the phenomena exists, with all that implies.

And I've personally experienced enough weirdness to realize that probably many more than just one of the reports is substantially accurate.

(01-12-2026, 02:08 AM)Bally002 Wrote: I believe that.  Check out aussie Lyrebirds mimicking electronic devices in the bush.  Even chainsaws.  

Kind regards,

Bally

(01-12-2026, 08:38 AM)Ninurta Wrote:

(01-12-2026, 02:08 AM)Bally002 Wrote: I believe that.  Check out aussie Lyrebirds mimicking electronic devices in the bush.  Even chainsaws.  

Kind regards,

Bally

Wouldn't mimicking make them Liar-brids instead of Lyrebirds?

But yeah, crows mimic stuff, up to and including human speech, like parrots do. They also have a language among themselves, with regional accents and dialects. Believe it or not, crows know the difference between an empty handed man and a man holding a gun, and that distinction can be detected in their warning caws.

They also have names for each other, and even use names for certain humans. They can distinguish between individual humans, and remember how those humans treated them in the past.

Oddly, the bird talk DOES tie into the paranormal in a way - where do birds get this ability from, considering the tiny size of their brains? Birds' brains are barely big enough for them to know how to be birds. Where do the extra abilities come from? Might they be channeling information or abilities from sources outside themselves?

.

Quote:You're nearly a good laugh
Almost a joker
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying, "Keep on digging"

Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find
Down in the pig mine?

You're nearly a laugh
You're nearly a laugh, but you're really a cry