Leaderboard

No, and I think this really highlights an underpinning of the skeptical reaction that makes witnesses so uncomfortable, even when you're trying to be nice and generous as you are with this statement. It's not their belief that deserves respect, it's the reliability of their senses. You're telling them they're mistaken about things they saw and heard unambiguously, leaving them no rebuttal except "I know what I saw," to which you respond "No, you don't." You're denying their most basic connection to the external world, their vision and hearing. At the level of an individual story, it's disrespectful, at the level of tens of thousands of stories, it becomes kind of an untenable position. And to be firmly on-topic for this thread, I think findings need to be shared a lot more widely, and you're absolutely right about one thing: your type of reaction is a big reason people don't share.

Not really sure where I stand on all this, my own interest in the subject started waning this spring, I have not had any noticeable activity this year yet. That has kind of put things on the back burner so to speak. I am so busy at work and home I have not given it any time or thought really. I used to be thinking about this 24/7, and now it is simply a passing thought. Maybe I have achieved the proper perspective on the matter. If they exist what is the ramification for me, basically nothing changes. If they do not exist, well still nothing changes. I have not a vested interest in them existing, only that I have used that to explain some experiences I was fairly convinced about. Now with time being removed from those experiences I do not feel as much need to explain them, although they remain a mystery. I am sure this is the path of many so called experiential circumstances, it runs out of steam after a season. You just cannot prove things conclusively either way and that eventually needs to be let go of.

Horseback is the way to go squatching. No question.

And then there was this too.........

I used to have a fairly long ignore list myself. I agree it does get tiresome constantly seeing the same old arguments from certain posters in the forums, but then I took a step back. I took into consideration that people who hold different ideas about this subject than I do have just as much right to express their opinions as I , and it is up to me as to what level of significance I give their posts. Some I simply just move past because I have no interest in what they have to say, it is always the same thing regardless of what side of the issue they are on. Yes, trolls can be on both sides of an issue, and they are there just to stir the pot, and have little to no interest in a cogent conversation, those are the ones that I do a fly over on. Deniers are going to deny, believers are going to believe and trolls are going to fling feces everywhere. I just mentally ignore them and move along. Then there are some that I had previously put on ignore that I actually clicked on their post to see if they were still holding to their past behavior. To my surprise they actually had a valid post. I kept running into this over time, and decided to unblock all those people. One may be surprised to find that there are some who actually are willing to have a calm, rational and sensible discussion on the subject at hand if you listen to what they are saying and not read their post through your own filters. I admit, it isn't easy to ignore one's own predisposition towards an aspect of this subject, or a prejudice towards a certain person on the forums, but in the end I always manage to learn something new about a person if I can engage them in a decent conversation. Sure, there are some that you just can't do that with, but it is always worth a try. Nothing is learned or advanced if you only share info and opinions with like minded people. One needs to have an intelligent conversation with someone of a differing opinion once in a while if for no other reason than to check and see if what you believe still holds up. I don't have all the answers, no one truly does, but if one listens with an open mind to others, you just might get a bit closer to the answers you seek.