Thank you for speaking your mind, even though you're being downvoted. We need more people to come forward and speak openly, anonymously or not.
People who are militant-debunkers have made lives hell for people who are genuinely experiencing different things. Be it general public or researchers. This topic needs to be researched, not shunned or ridiculed.
Real science is not based on ridicule or praise. It is not based on ego or status. It is based on data, and an honest determination to increase our understanding of the world.
Throwaway account because I want to keep my identity hidden.
It is very difficult to talk openly about this for many of us, especially on places like HN, where the overwhelming majority already has a very fixed mindset (a far cry from critical thinking, ironically).
I'll tell you a different point of view here.
There's a lot of mockery and ridicule about this topic in the world, and in the academia. This has hindered the scientific study on this topic for many decades now. This happened due to many factors, but some are highlighted in the article above.
This is similar to "war on drugs" propaganda, the effects of which is still intact today. So don't underestimate how science can be hindered, or simply denied.
There are a lot of us that directly experience the so-called "paranormal" phenomena, or psychic "gifts", et cetera. But we can never talk about it because most people are not actual critical thinkers. People are often extremely aggressive in trying to invalidate you, ridicule you, or "debunk" you, even if you are actually a software engineer working for $BIGTECH, and not someone sitting in a tent trying to "scam people." They've made up their mind - their thinking cannot be changed.
And this is how people become the very thing they're opposing: Blindly following a figure or a movement without critical thinking, without being open to other possibilities, by having a very rigid world view and a very fixed mindset which cannot be changed.
Eerily similar to many religions, don't you think?
I'd instead suggest you to be a true skeptic. This is the very ideology people tried to follow in the first place, but without the corruption that it got entangled in.
Very few people are actual skeptics. Very few people are willing to look at both sides of the story without any preconceived notion. This is evidenced by many comments on HN (and in other places), where people are very quick to accuse the author of the article, instead of focusing on the information presented objectively. They're acting from their deeply-held beliefs which cause strong knee-jerk reactions without reason or logic. They've become the very thing they're opposing.
Simply look at the downvoted comments. Did they have to be buried down, shunned? Did they not have a right to exist as a different point of view? This just shows the hypocrisy. This shit-slinging cannot be something you stand for.
And this is not how science or critical thinking works.
As I mentioned, there are many of us that experience these "phenomena." And they're only called "phenomena" because our current scientific model isn't sufficient enough. When scientific understanding increases, these things will no longer be "super"natural (as they never actually are), but they'll simply be a part of the modern sciences.
Now, do you actually want to advance our civilization, and enable the scientific studies on the leading edge of modern sciences, or do you simply shun it with simple ridicule, and look the other way and pretend none of it is worth researching?
You can't actually do the latter, because these topics and these "phenomena" is never going to go away. In fact, it will become more and more relevant, simply because you can't shun anything that is real, and experienced by many. (But don't believe my word for it)
Just like many scientific breakthroughs and ideological movements, a new paradigm is always met by incredible resistance. But this resistance is only temporary, until the new paradigm becomes widely accepted. This simply points to how narrow human thinking can be. I'd like you to be aware of it, and rise above it.
But of course, as I said, don't believe anything just because I said it is real. I don't want you to do that at all. But I do want you to be open to the possibility, and to become more aware of your own line of thinking and emotions. So, read up scientific studies on it with an open mind, but most importantly, with an open heart. Because without an open heart, you'll just shun everything without using your mind.
People who are militant-debunkers have made lives hell for people who are genuinely experiencing different things. Be it general public or researchers. This topic needs to be researched, not shunned or ridiculed.
Real science is not based on ridicule or praise. It is not based on ego or status. It is based on data, and an honest determination to increase our understanding of the world.