Discussion Places, spaces and energy

[Forever Sleep]

Do you believe places, buildings, spaces hold their own sort of energy? Or, memory as to what happened there? Some people feel very definite 'energies' around former battle grounds, holocausts etc., areas where awful things have happened.

Do you have places you find comforting to be in or feel unsafe in for no clear reason?

Weirdly, in my Grandma's house, both my Dad and I were afraid of one particular room. To be fair, he had reason to be. He spotted a potential burglar once from that room as a child. I had less reason really. The vacuum cleaner was stored there though- and I was scared of that as a child! (You'd think I'd still have that problem with my aversion to cleaning.) But, I literally used to run past it.

Whereas my Nanas house was in an already deteriorating area. Some of the rooms had very little furniture in and probably would feel a bit creepy but, I always felt safe there. I used to feel like my Mum was with me there somehow. (She died when I was 3.)

I remember watching an interesting documentary on the idea of hauntings. Some research scientists working in a laboratory had noticed that quite a few of them were having spooky experiences. Being very rational, they investigated what had changed in the building. They realised that they had recently installed ceiling fans that gave off a low frequency sound- not perceptable to human hearing but that can induce feelings of fear, unease, even visual disturbancies. They then tested for this in locations where ghost sightings/ supernatural experiences were common and found many of them had this low frequency sound (infrasound) present.

What do you think though? How much of it is just instinct? So- a subway at night may reasonably feel frightening if there are unseen areas potential attackers could hide. I guess our instincts let us know when we are in potentially dangerous spaces. Or, do you suppose it is just other effects like low frequency sound that make us paranoid? Or conversely, associating a place with a loved one that we trust can make it feel safe? Or, do you suppose the place itself can somehow send off certain vibes?

 

[Mirrory Me]

It really depends on the apperence, overall energy and people who visit there. They could easily manipulate the scereny, or change their perceptions of the situation. Old, dusty / cold apparments seems bit gloomy / ghostly while some decorative and colorful spaces seems more innovative.

 

[InversedShadow]

Yes, I believe so, that every place can hold its own energy, based on the people that lived there in the past, and I do think that surrounding area adds to that too.
Im one of those too, I think that places where traumatic experiences took place, do have a certain stench.. a few times I had an occasion of walking next to haunted houses, and you can place trust in me, that what I was feeling wasnt something imagined by me, but an actual thing that such a place did have an aura of ''stay away''. Part of the reaction is surely an instinct, we can turn paranoid too, but the spiritual world exists for sure, especially if there is more than one witness to the sightings, and if it repeats it means it's real – Negative energy that humans produce remains even after they pass away, or even worse it corrupts them so they never can leave this world for real, it's fearsome, that's why we hope for peaceful passing, even if it's cbt, it must be a rational decision, not a one made hastily leaving your mind in this world, and the soul on the other.

 

[KillingPain267]

Do you believe places, buildings, spaces hold their own sort of energy? Or, memory as to what happened there? Some people feel very definite 'energies' around former battle grounds, holocausts etc., areas where awful things have happened.

Do you have places you find comforting to be in or feel unsafe in for no clear reason?

Weirdly, in my Grandma's house, both my Dad and I were afraid of one particular room. To be fair, he had reason to be. He spotted a potential burglar once from that room as a child. I had less reason really. The vacuum cleaner was stored there though- and I was scared of that as a child! (You'd think I'd still have that problem with my aversion to cleaning.) But, I literally used to run past it.

Whereas my Nanas house was in an already deteriorating area. Some of the rooms had very little furniture in and probably would feel a bit creepy but, I always felt safe there. I used to feel like my Mum was with me there somehow. (She died when I was 3.)

I remember watching an interesting documentary on the idea of hauntings. Some research scientists working in a laboratory had noticed that quite a few of them were having spooky experiences. Being very rational, they investigated what had changed in the building. They realised that they had recently installed ceiling fans that gave off a low frequency sound- not perceptable to human hearing but that can induce feelings of fear, unease, even visual disturbancies. They then tested for this in locations where ghost sightings/ supernatural experiences were common and found many of them had this low frequency sound (infrasound) present.

What do you think though? How much of it is just instinct? So- a subway at night may reasonably feel frightening if there are unseen areas potential attackers could hide. I guess our instincts let us know when we are in potentially dangerous spaces. Or, do you suppose it is just other effects like low frequency sound that make us paranoid? Or conversely, associating a place with a loved one that we trust can make it feel safe? Or, do you suppose the place itself can somehow send off certain vibes?

My memories are very "spatial", meaning when I think of the past, even an event, I picture the place/building/park where it happened. This is is why I can get crippling nostalgia just from the sight of a building or picture of a room, even while not even also picturing the people I made the memories with there. Although I know rationally that the reason for the nostalgia is missing the persons, not the building. But I wouldn't quite call it having an energy. That is a form of "contagion bias" and I think it's related to the phenomenon of "magical thinking." It's the idea of "would you wear Hitler's sweater?" Fashion aside, if it's washed totally clean, would you feel comfortable or even just normal wearing it, knowing it was once worn by Hitler? That sort of thing. It's kind of superstitious, but yes, while I feel something about familiar places, apart from ocassional temperature or low-frequency hums, I don't think there is anything material going on, like energies, except in my brain. So it's mostly "instinctual".

While I'm a Christian, and do believe immaterial beings exist, I am skeptical of such stories since the Bible describes very little of the supernatural realm. Many Christians mix in superstitious folk beliefs from pre-Christian heathen times, and this often makes Christianity look irrational even though it's one of the most rational religions that exist. I most often would go with the atheist/scientific explanation in any given modern ghost legend, especially since anything that has been seen or heard has to do with PHYSICAL senses, so why would it be SUPERnatural, lol.

Lastly, the idea that objects have vibes or energies is actually something that comes from a bastardized New Agey version of Eastern religions. So some of it could be cultural aside from instinct.

Or, do you suppose it is just other effects like low frequency sound that make us paranoid?

There was an experiment where they put a person in a room alone, but with a robot hand gently tapping on their shoulder. And even though the test subject KNEW it was the machine tapping them, they still developed an eerie feeling of something being there in the room with them. So there is definitely something going on with instinct in our brains and nervous system.

 

[Forever Sleep]

My memories are very "spatial", meaning when I think of the past, even an event, I picture the place/building/park where it happened. This is is why I can get crippling nostalgia just from the sight of a building or picture of a room, even while not even also picturing the people I made the memories with there. Although I know rationally that the reason for the nostalgia is missing the persons, not the building. But I wouldn't quite call it having an energy. That is a form of "contagion bias" and I think it's related to the phenomenon of "magical thinking." It's the idea of "would you wear Hitler's sweater?" Fashion aside, if it's washed totally clean, would you feel comfortable or even just normal wearing it, knowing it was once worn by Hitler? That sort of thing. It's kind of superstitious, but yes, while I feel something about familiar places, apart from ocassional temperature or low-frequency hums, I don't think there is anything material going on, like energies, except in my brain. So it's mostly "instinctual".

While I'm a Christian, and do believe immaterial beings exist, I am skeptical of such stories since the Bible describes very little of the supernatural realm. Many Christians mix in superstitious folk beliefs from pre-Christian heathen times, and this often makes Christianity look irrational even though it's one of the most rational religions that exist. I most often would go with the atheist/scientific explanation in any given modern ghost legend, especially since anything that has been seen or heard has to do with PHYSICAL senses, so why would it be SUPERnatural, lol.

Lastly, the idea that objects have vibes or energies is actually something that comes from a bastardized New Agey version of Eastern religions. So some of it could be cultural aside from instinct.

There was an experiment where they put a person in a room alone, but with a robot hand gently tapping on their shoulder. And even though the test subject KNEW it was the machine tapping them, they still developed an eerie feeling of something being there in the room with them. So there is definitely something going on with instinct in our brains and nervous system.

That's an interesting question. No, I wouldn't wear Hitler's jumper! Unless there were extreme circumstances I suppose. I was at rist of hypothermia or something. There's that feeling of endorsing something if you wear it. I think it's more the worry of that rather than believing it would actually turn me into a Nazi.

A family member is also very religious and refused to go in a museum about witches. I found that interesting. I think it was white witches too- healers.

I think our relationship to places is interesting. How some places are designated sacred. Kind of strange if it's a grave because- they're obviously no longer with us but, it still makes sense in terms of respect. I feel offended when landmarks are defaced. I quite like graffati in urban areas but, not on monuments etc. Again- weird though because it's not exactly doing harm.

 

[KillingPain267]

That's an interesting question. No, I wouldn't wear Hitler's jumper! Unless there were extreme circumstances I suppose. I was at rist of hypothermia or something. There's that feeling of endorsing something if you wear it. I think it's more the worry of that rather than believing it would actually turn me into a Nazi.

How about if nobody but you knew the sweater was worn one time by Hitler? Would you still refuse?

I think our relationship to places is interesting. How some places are designated sacred. Kind of strange if it's a grave because- they're obviously no longer with us but, it still makes sense in terms of respect. I feel offended when landmarks are defaced. I quite like graffati in urban areas but, not on monuments etc. Again- weird though because it's not exactly doing harm.

Sigmund Freud believed that magical thinking was produced by cognitive developmental factors, and described practitioners of magic as projecting their mental states onto the world surrounding them, similar to a common phase in child development. From toddlerhood to early school age, children will often link the outside world with their internal consciousness, e.g. "It is raining because I am sad."

 

[Forever Sleep]

How about if nobody but you knew the sweater was worn one time by Hitler? Would you still refuse?

Sigmund Freud believed that magical thinking was produced by cognitive developmental factors, and described practitioners of magic as projecting their mental states onto the world surrounding them, similar to a common phase in child development. From toddlerhood to early school age, children will often link the outside world with their internal consciousness, e.g. "It is raining because I am sad."

Yeah, I still wouldn't like the idea of it really. Would you wear it?

Ha ha. That's fine. I kind of wish I really did have magical thinking. Life might be more interesting!

I think a lot of adults still feel persecuted by unconscious things in the world. My friend would complain it was 'just her luck' to get caught in the rain without an umbrella. Like a rain cloud was stalking her around. At uni, the printer had a notice by it to say: It knows if you've left it to the last minute to print out your essay and it will choose that moment to break down.

Maybe that will be possible in future with AI. Lol- Google gets hijacked and starts giving out all the wrong answers.

 

[KillingPain267]

Yeah, I still wouldn't like the idea of it really. Would you wear it?

See? That means you have a little of this magical thinking too, because it is an invalid causal inference that wearing it would have anything to do with the man or even your beliefs about the man and his ideology or atrocities. I would personally be averse to wearing it too, but only if I had enough other clothes. But I would know this is simply the fallacious part of my brain deciding.

Maybe that will be possible in future with AI. Lol- Google gets hijacked and starts giving out all the wrong answers.

Oh yeah, I had some thought experiments a few years ago about what I thought might happen in the future with the virtual world and deepfakes. You know, bots taking over the internet and making us think what is on the internet is pure truth, even though it's controlled by a private for-profit company. I concluded that maybe they will be able to hook us into a virtual world so much that reality would shift and the virtual would be real and the real virtual. Then I thought, what if this had already happened and we didn't know it??!! Haha, but then I snapped out of it actually because I anchor my basic ideology to the Bible, and the Bible doesn't have an account of such an event. If I was a full "free-thinker" my brain would probably have broken.