heyjude said...
"Spirits have no mass, occupy no space and seem to be independent of the reality we can see and touch."
The reality that you say is not prevable anyway?

I'll try to explain in terms even an American could understand.

I see the computer. I touch the keys. My fingers don't go through them. From that I deduce the computer is real. It's not absolute proof because it's just nerve impulses firing, but it's enough to work with for now.

There are amputees who deny the limb in question has been amputated. They see it, they feel it, they genuinely believe it's still there. To them, it is absolutely real. To the rest of us, it is not. Who's right? The majority? How do you know they're real? Perhaps you imagined them agreeing with you to support your conclusion. Americans do that, I believe, especially presidents.

There's enough in that one example to make an intelligent person start to question reality. I doubt it will filter through the American mind, since it doesn't involve invading somewhere.

If I were to place you in a lightproof, soundproof room (an appealing prospect) and play the sounds of a large animal moving around, for how long could you convince yourself it wasn't real? To your mind, it would be real. You'd start to smell it. You'd feel it brush past you. It might even chase you around the room.

What we perceive as real is only the total of what our senses tell us. Ghosts pass through walls, yes, but usually not through walls that existed when they were alive. They hover above the floor because they're walking on the floor that existed - still exists - for them. New walls don't exist for them. They walk through. Old walls are real. They go around. They are seeing a reality which is different from the one we see. Which is the right one? Could it be that we are the imaginary beings, dreaming up our own world and superimposing it on some existing world? We see the ghosts when our imagination falters and the real world peeks through.

That's enough for now. I don't want to overstrain the colonial mind, I know you have important things to do, such as burning hamburgers and polishing your guns, so I don't want to force you to think too hard.

I realise that's not the American way.