Philosophy of Paranormal Activity and Morality

Philosophy of Paranormal Activity and Morality Haldane says that the universe is not as strange as we imagine, but it is far stranger than we can think it is. Over the years, several people have claimed to have experienced paranormal happenings with most experiences being unproven, believed entirely on word of mouth. There has always been a high debate on the topic of paranormality which may never see an ending. For instance, one of the fundamental reasons that certain phenomena are described as paranormal is that they are unexplainable and, as of yet, unproven. The term paranormal describes any event that is unexplainable and unexpected based on our current scientific knowledge  [ii]  . This means it designates experiences that lie outside the range of normal experience or outside of sciences current ability to explain or measure. Some of the types of phenomena or occurrences that are typically described as paranormal include Crypto zoology, Clairvoyance, Extra Sensory Perception (ESP), Ghosts, Apparitions or Poltergeist, Pa rapsychology, Precognition and so on. This essay will highlight various aspects of paranormality and how people get influenced by it and how it should be prevented as it is morally wrong. Everyone in this world is psychic to some degree. This is sort of inherent in all of us.  [iii]  Every person has their own personal degree of sixth sense. For example, some people have a relatively poor sixth sense sensation whereas; some people have a considerably high level of sixth sense. In fact, they are able to predict future happenings or they just sense the oncoming of a mishap. A psychic is sensitive to the electrical, magnetic and other energies emanating from the individual and known as the aura  [iv]  . What is aura? The aura is an energy field- it is our life force. Aura takes two forms -cosmic vibratory energy which is present everywhere in the universe and specific aura which sustains every human body. In this, you will learn how to use both these sources of energy.  [v]  . Psychic readings can be pretty accurate as they contain vital information of a persons life. Furthermore, a psychic also uses his natural ability to be aware of non-verbal communication that is body language, facial expression, dress sense etc. ESP or extrasensory perception is perception occurring independently of sight, hearing, or other sensory processes  [vi]  . In fact, people who have ESP (extrasensory perception) are said to be psychic. In addition, some think that a lot of people have ESP; others think it is a talent that only some have. ESP in some way; refers to telepathy. Usually, Psychic people are said to be quite convincing; such as in day to day life we have definitely seen people who are able to predict small happenings around the house or maybe the forthcoming of a particular person. Moreover, sometimes people who do posses such abilities begin to practice it on a regular basis, and also experiment it on others. They also try to earn money out of this practice because people who do not know much about physic activity get easily dragged into it. Such practices should strictly be restricted as it can cause social instability. Conning people thro ugh this method to earn money is just wrong thus, this practice should be completely banned. It is against normal human behaviour. Another aspect to paranormality is ghosts. There is also a high debate on this matter. hearing is the easiest of the five senses to deceive. Milbourne Christopher  [vii]   Ghosts (Poltergeist) in its modern definition are now associated with physical paranormal activity inside homes such as mysterious disturbances, moving of objects etc. The most common type of examples being moving or throwing of small or large furniture, loud noises or shrieks, rain of objects from around the house, odours of which the source cannot be detected etc. They have been known to have caused interference in telephones and electronic equipment, and appliances and lights on and off. They may even become full bodied or half bodied apparition. Hence, it is better to stay away from such entities that are disturbing humans. Clearly, they can be extremely dangerous. Ghosts can also cause harm to humans as they are not at peace. For instance, if we trouble them they are also going to do the same in return. Some people also call ghosts deliberately either for the fun of it or to study them better. Therefore, human beings have no right to disturb those at rest whether they exist or n ot. Ghostly experiences usually have an adverse effect on people. In fact, some even go crazy to the extent that they kill people around them, thinking that they are out to get them. There have been many cases of people who commit suicide or get into drugs. Some people deliberately call ghosts using the Ouija board also called planchette. An Ouija board can be a simple piece of paper or a delicate wooden plank with alphabets and numbers written on it. This is used to call ghosts or spirits by a group of people where they all sit around it and try to get in contact with spirits. There is a very low success rate to this. Aside from that, this can also be extremely dangerous and can lead to harmful effects. Sometimes after a successful session when one tries to send the spirit back, it just does not leave and behaves stubborn. Thus, this can be extremely dangerous for people performing this practice. Spirits sometimes do not leave the place at all, just stay there and maybe also harm people . Such practices can disturb everything around you sometimes. Therefore, it is better to stay away from such practices and not perform them as this is taking away the peace of the spirits who are at rest. The debate on the existence of such practices still has not come to a conclusion so far. However, there is a belief that this practice does actually exist. This does prove to some extent that ghosts do exist because some findings actually prove their presence using devices like EVPs. The existence of these happenings and bodies are even being studied using scientific technology. Science has progressed so well today and far today that it can accept multi dimensional reality  [viii]  . The entire scientific community has been shocked by Quantum physics due to its contrary to normally held scientific theories  [ix]  . There are tests to measure and qualify the ability for ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) that is psychic. Such as, voices of spirits recorded on site of activity are being provided as evidence. This is called Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVPs). This is used to record voices that are made in the presence of ghosts. EVPs are then used as evidence to prove the presence of ghosts. Shocking and startling facts have been revealed by people who have experienced supernatural bodily experiences. Usually people say that the first sensation of a presence is that the temperature around them drops considerably and it gets really cold. Various different kinds of sensitive machinery have been created by scientists to study this phenomenon. In fact, proofs ha ve even been found in the form of photographs. For example, it is common to see pictures taken in a church or a shabby stairway where you can see a faint figure in the background or just dust in a picture. These faint figures are normally like a hand or maybe someones face or a whole entire body. Such an instance usually has an adverse affect on the person experiencing it and also in rare cases it affects the person seeing it. As stated earlier, we see that psychic people who posses Extrasensory Perception and ghosts do exist. It is evident that ghosts actually exist as if they did not, there would not be much controversy and high debate about them. EVPs and video recordings that are genuine do prove the existence of ghosts. In some cases, these stories definitely cannot justify their existence. The proof is not enough. But, according to me the process of calling of ghosts should not be practised. This is morally wrong and also unethical at the same time. Spirits should be left at peace as we have no right to disturb them. To conclude, I feel that this practice should be banned and be conducted at all. There should be some legal action taken against the practice of the Ouija board. This might reduce instances of paranormal activity in the future. Word count: 1397

Historical Criticism of Mans Fate :: essays papers

Historical Criticism of Mans Fate Man’s Fate is a fictional story based on the 1927 Chinese revolution in Shanghai. The main characters, Ch’en, Kyo, May, Katov, and Old Gisors represent different facets of Malraux’s belief system and personality. The story opens where Ch’en is in the room of a sleeping man who he’s about to assassinate. The assassination of the businessman can be seen as the destruction of the capitalism Malraux saw as the cause of the â€Å"oppressed and exploited Chinese† (Greenlee 59). Malraux came from a broken home and had great empathy for the working class. As Ch’en is holding the dagger, he focuses on his victim’s foot because he is about to destroy a living thing. Ch’en is conflicted â€Å"†¦torn by anguish: he was sure of himself, yet at the moment he could feel nothing but bewilderment † (3). We can see Malraux’s own conflict here. In 1923, Malraux made a trip to Cambodia where he and his wife, Clara, â€Å"...were arrested by the Surete and charged with archaeological theft a moral failure that Malraux now at last recognized in himself† (Lebovics) Assassination and violence were a common occurrence in China during the revolutionary years. The peasants were abused by the wealthy citizens and landowners,...it was from among their relatives and protà ©gà ©s that those who oppressed and lived off the peasantry were recruited: the bailiffs and stewards who not only collected the rents and debts due to their masters, but also took a substantial cut for their own benefit; the tax-gatherers in whose registers the landlords’ holdings were on an authorized ‘special list’, allowing them to pay taxes in inverse proportion to their wealth, or not at all. (Chesneaux 81-82). Malraux wants his readers to understand the reasons behind the revolt. Time and again, Malraux draws vivid scenes of violence and deprivation. The meeting place to which Ch’en flees after the assassination is that of a poor European shopkeeper, Hemmelrich. â€Å"At last a squalid shop † (11). Kyo is the main character in the story; he is determined to do everything in his power to lead the Shanghai revolt. â€Å"Kyo was one of the organizers of the insurrection, the Central Committee had confidence in him.† (14). Kyo wanted to see fairness for the proletariats. Likewise, Malraux was involved in leftist politics.

Cinema of Attractions

The cinema of attraction. ‘A matter of making images seen. ’ This is what Fernand Leger was writing in 1902 about the new art, trying to describe the possible changes in cinema, by emphasizing the fact that imitating the movements of nature is not necessarily the best way of defining cinema’s essence. This is only one of the writings concerning this topic which influenced Tom Gunning in characterizing the cinematic period before 1906 as that of the ‘cinema of attractions’.In this essay I am going to talk about the cinema of attractions and its main characteristics with examples from several early films, with an emphasis on ‘Un homme de tetes’ (Georges Melies, 1898) and L'arrivee d'un train a la Ciotat (Auguste and Louis Lumiere,1895). History of the cinema of attractionsThe term of ‘cinema of attractions’ was introduced into the study of film by Tom Gunning and Andre Gaudreault in 1985, describing a filmmaking technique used for early films, until 1906, in which the main interest is in the spectacle and the audience’s visual experience rather than in the narrative side. The cinema of attractions employed delights like colors, costumes, commentary, sometimes even grotesque features, like freaks or indigenous people. In the simplest terms, it was a cinema based on entertainment, shock and sensations, the ability of showing something.The main difference between this style and the cinema in later years is the focus: the cinema of attractions is trying to take the spectators on an unique trip to an extraordinary place, by inviting them to look, get involved and be amazed by these perfect illusions, rather than telling a story, while the narrative cinema focuses on human psychology, continuity of the plot and characters. The term ‘attract’ is defined by the english dictionary as ‘to draw by appealing to the emotions or senses, by stimulating interest, or by exciting admiration; allur e; invite’.In cinema, Eisenstein was one of the first people to use ‘attraction’ as a way of describing his techniques, which had either a physical or psychological unexpected impact on the audience, due to its direct address towards it, sometimes causing an emotional shock, through aggressivity and due to the unpredictability of the moment. Attractions of the early cinema. The first film that I am going to analyze is directed by the Lumiere brothers, which interpret cinema as the transcription of real unstaged life, opposing to Melies who saw cinema as invention, artifice, illusion, fantasy.Around this 50 seconds film there are different myths, some of which say that in the first showing of the movie, a lot of the spectators screamed, thinking that the train is going to hit them, and some of them even left the room, because of the illusion of the train moving towards them. This myth is why nowadays people tend to think of the early audience as naive, but at the same time, they forget to take in consideration other aspects, like the transformation which is occurring in front of their eyes, the idea of change and also the historical and social background.The primary object of most early films seems to be the personal space, which is invaded on a certain level. By triggering stress or fear, or choosing real-life danger objects like trains and other vehicles, the personal space is invaded and bodily reactions are being triggered, which is the main purpose of the cinema of attractions, by engaging the viewer in the exhibition. In 1986, Maxim Gorky writes a review of the Lumiere programme, and he uses words like ‘straight at you’, ‘shield’, ‘will reach you’, which, once again, shows the physical reaction that people had. Nevertheless, one must not confuse this with a complete illusion.People did not actually believe that the train will physically hurt them, but they were allowing themselves to enjoy the thr ill of the cinematic magic. If we were to take a clear example of the details which change this perspective of a credulous audience, the exhibition of The Black Diamond Express is one of the strongest ones, as the movie had a presenter, described as a ‘terrorist mood setter’ which introduced the audience in a dramatic atmosphere, by describing the images of a locomotive rushing into the camera as an unique moment in history, in which it will come towards them with its dreadful ‘iron throat’.This puts the danger that people believed to be in, in a new light, showing that their emotions and anxiety were influenced by the atmosphere created, together with the novelty of this type of entertainment. This type of delay, the suspension, the wait for an already announced unusual thing to be happening accentuate its impact over the image perceived by the crowd. Locomotives, trains and generally moving objects were preferred by directors, as they easily created a sen sation of fear, which could also represent a sensual reaction, as we saw earlier, viewers running out of the movie theater.This experience could nowadays be compared to that of a roller coaster, described by Gunning as ‘sensations of acceleration and falling with a security guaranteed by the modern industrial technology’, which in my opinion precisely describes people’s experience from 100 years ago as well, as they were well aware of the fact that it was just an illusion, but that didn’t mean they were refusing to be drawn in the experience, especially considering its innovation.Another aspect of the cinema of attraction is confrontation, which holds the viewer and makes it impossible for him to lose himself into absorption, like before in other arts like painting or sculpture: ‘attractions address the viewer directly, soliciting attention and curiosity through acts of display’. [1] This type of art ask for an immediate response from the audi ence, as the images are moving, evolving- a living screen. ‘Unlike psychological narrative, the cinema of attractions does not allow for elaborate development, only a limited amount of delay is really possible’. TG, p122) It is exactly this newness that makes it exciting, as it instantly produces a show with a high impact, offering sensational thrills through powerful images in motion, without the traditional narrative structure. In this type of cinema, the spectator identifies himself with the camera more than a character and his confrontation with the film is rather unmediated by the story. Hence, seeing this exhibitionist style as a precursor for the later narrative structures would show a misunderstanding of its value. Another iconic film for the cinema of attractions is Un homme de tetes, 1895.I have chosen to discuss this film because of its director, which most of the time is put in contrast with the Lumiere brothers, because of their different styles. The first one uses editing and multi shots, while the Lumiere brothers show nature caught on camera, in a single shot. Still, both styles have the same essence, that of the act of display, the pleasure of the spectacle. One aspect that one can definitely notice in Melies’ film is the presence of a showman/monstrator whose role is to present the film to the audience, a mediator between the crowd and the experience itself.As Gunning states, ‘The showman rather than the film themselves gives the program an overarching structure, and the key role of the exhibition showman underscores the act of monstration than founds the cinema of attractions. ’( TG, p. 122) As an example, Melies, who was a performer himself, during the movie which lasts less than two minutes, gesticulates with his hands towards himself and the heads, in a way directing the public’s attention to the main points, the heads, which are part of his magic trick. This, once again, puts the spectator in an ex ternal position, making him aware of the act of looking.This does not distance him, but, on the contrary, makes him part of the whole show, emphasizing the realism and the interactivity of the cinema. The tricks found in his films represent the typical burst of attraction, when there is a transformation of an object into something else: ‘In its double nature, its transformation of still image into moving illusions, it expresses an attitude in which astonishment and knowledge perform a vertiginous dance, and pleasure derives from the energy released by the play between the shock caused by this illusion of danger and delight in its pure illusion’. (TG, p. 29) One more time, it is emphasized that the audience knew how to make the difference between reality and illusion, and that movement is what cinematography promised, while still experiencing sensational thrills and feeding their hunger of consuming the world through images. From the examples above, we can see Tom Gunnin g’s idea of cinema of attraction come to life, and the way in which it dominated the first decade of early cinema, through the first silent movies and their exhibitionist characteristics. Their ability to show something without a narrative structure has fulfilled the audience’s visual curiosity of thrills, danger nd magic, while drawing them in the film, creating strong bodily sensation. Therefore, cinema of attractions is a primary response to people’s wish of seeing a spectacle apart than storytelling, in which their body is engaged rather than the mind through a succession of instants. Claudia Mangeac 1623 words Bibliography: 1. Tom Gunning: An Aesthetics of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator 2. The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded, edited by Wanda Strauven, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2006 3. Tom Gunning -Attractions: How They Came into the world . Encyclopedia of early cinema, edited by Richard Abel, Routledge 270 Madison Avenu e, New York, USA 5. http://scan. net. au/scan/journal/display. php? journal_id=109 6. http://www. scribd. com/doc/65086032/Tom-Gunning-Primitive-Cinema 7. Tom Gunning, The Cinema of Attraction(s): early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde 8. Un homme de tetes’ (Georges Melies, 1898) 9. L'arrivee d'un train a la Ciotat (Auguste and Louis Lumiere,1895). ———————– [1] Tom Gunning, ‘An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (ln)Credulous Spectator’ (pg. 121)

Justice Jackson s Steel Seizure Concurrence - 1442 Words

As the decided cases make clear, focusing mainly on mere historical acquiescence by Congress when examining the President s exercise of a particular power does not by itself prove that Congress lacks the authority to limit the exercise of that power when it gathers the courage and wisdom to do so. Justice Jackson s Steel Seizure concurrence carried the warning that only Congress itself can prevent power from slipping through its fingers† and that warning presupposes what is argued here: that Congress, if it so chooses, can regain power lost to the executive branch through its own course of action. If the Congress does not act when conditions demand action, then the President will exercise power because power must be exercised. But the fact that the President exercises a power when Congress does not, does not render that power as inherent in the executive or even make it remotely valid. At best, the power is inherent in the overall government of the United States of America. T herefore, the argument that Presidents have always controlled troops without congressional interference proves no more than perhaps its own premise: that Presidents have always done this. In particular, that historical conclusion makes no statement at all about congressional authority to alter that long-standing state of affairs. Failure to see this crucial distinction accounts for occasional citation to the line of cases beginning with United States v. Midwest Oil Co., as authority for theShow MoreRelatedPresidency and Foreign Policy Making Essay1692 Words   |  7 Pagescontext of Justice Robert Jackson’s concurring judgment within the 1952 Steel Seizure Case. Taking this case into perspective, Justice Jackson affirmed that, Presidential powers should not be considered to be rigid, but on the contrary, these powers should be considered to be fluctuating powers, conditional upon their concurrence or disjunction with the powers of Congress. Justice Jackson fashioned a glidin g scale in application of executive power in comparison with congressional power. Justice JacksonRead MoreNational Security Outline Essay40741 Words   |  163 Pagesgenerally interpreted as outlawing only aggressive war and not the use of force short of war, such as reprisals. a. A major step in the evolution of the international law of conflict management. WWI caused fear of destruction, peace was sought over justice. iii. UN Charter era 1. two great strands of the league period a. substantive requirements of the KB Pact outlawing war except in defense b. the principal of collective defense from Article 16 of the League 2. improvements, focus on force orRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesand permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to 201-236-3290. Many of the designations by manufacturers