Evidence based existence is what I believe in personally. Speculation and fantasy can be useful in some parts of life, but for me, imaginary friends are a mental health disorder in anyone claiming they are real.
It is weird the feds admit UAPs are real now. Of course they don’t say “it’s aliens” but then again we wouldn’t yet know, it could or could not be. Maybe China has sufficiently advanced tech that we think shouldn’t be possible, maybe they’re aliens, maybe extra dimensional, maybe under the water somewhere, but what we do know is that there does appear to be something strange in the neighborhood.
No it isn’t. While it’s as easy as ever to fake it, the ease of sharing evidence these days makes denying that “weird stuff sometimes happens” much harder than it used to be, and it is such an obvious claim that denying it doesn’t serve much purpose.
but what we do know is that there does appear to be something strange in the neighborhood.
Usually, when it happens often enough that we can actually investigate rather than just saying “this one time weird fluke in our cameras was weird,” it turns out to be “the atmosphere is bendier than most people think” or “wow, what weird things your shadow can do sometimes.”
I don’t know what it is, but I also don’t know what it’s not. And neither does the Navy or anyone else. Those videos are still in the “one weird fluke” category (unless the Navy figured it out later and didn’t tell anyone).
The thing is that it could be “shadows” or something similar mundane, but it could also be some kind of civilian drone or something combined with a software glitch that made the instrumentation report the numbers wrong. It could be a piece of experimental or otherwise new technology that’s actually behaving the way the computer thinks. Nobody knows, and without more evidence of some kind, nobody will.
And sure, it could be aliens. But the prior probability on that one makes it exceedingly unlikely compared to the less exciting and more mundane explanations.
Those FLIR thermal videos from far off naval ships spotting strange objects in the sky that in some cases do things our airships cannot, like submerge in the ocean and maneuver in ways that would physically break our planes, can’t be showing conventional shadows, unless you mean something else by “shadows” I guess.
I didn’t say it was aliens, but it would honestly be weirder if it was “shadows” on those videos.
Imaginary friends are quite common among children, and there are processes in some mental wellness practices that invoke imaginary friends.
One of them is the wise mind in Dialectic Behavior Therapy, in which one taps into their adulting conscience (related to the adult in transactional analysis).
If a patient struggles directly invoking the wise mind, they can invoke a fiction, similar to the Christian tradition of WWJD A patient struggling with a home management problem might imagine asking Albert Einstein for advice, and then imagine how Einstein might respond. (Substitute anyone, including darker archetypes: Satan, Darth Vader, Joan Collins, Barbara Bush…)
Given some people who do believe in spiritual or supernatural elements might get the same effect from talking to God, or channeling spirits, they can get the same benefit even if their beliefs can be inconsistent either with modern science, or with their own ministries (who want their parishioners to go to them for direction).
So, no, regardless of whether or not delusions, misinformation or self-deceptions are involved, imaginary friends are not intrinsically dysfunctional or a sign of mental illness.
I’m totally with you and I get it, and the previous commenter could have written in a kinder tone, but
imaginary friends are a mental health disorder in anyone claiming they are real.
I don’t think therapists usually encourage their patients to claim they actually got the advice from Einstein or Darth Vader or whomever. And I can give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they meant “adults” rather than “humans” when they said people.
You are comparing a mental exercise to a belief in an alternate reality. These are not the same. I don’t support making excuses for people that lack fundamental logic skills.
Evidence based existence is what I believe in personally. Speculation and fantasy can be useful in some parts of life, but for me, imaginary friends are a mental health disorder in anyone claiming they are real.
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Sort of like how you can only get so much evidence for aliens or Bigfoot and you just have to trust the conspiracy theorists about the rest
It is weird the feds admit UAPs are real now. Of course they don’t say “it’s aliens” but then again we wouldn’t yet know, it could or could not be. Maybe China has sufficiently advanced tech that we think shouldn’t be possible, maybe they’re aliens, maybe extra dimensional, maybe under the water somewhere, but what we do know is that there does appear to be something strange in the neighborhood.
No it isn’t. While it’s as easy as ever to fake it, the ease of sharing evidence these days makes denying that “weird stuff sometimes happens” much harder than it used to be, and it is such an obvious claim that denying it doesn’t serve much purpose.
Usually, when it happens often enough that we can actually investigate rather than just saying “this one time weird fluke in our cameras was weird,” it turns out to be “the atmosphere is bendier than most people think” or “wow, what weird things your shadow can do sometimes.”
Idk if you have seen the videos released by the navy during covid, but it ain’t shadows.
I don’t know what it is, but I also don’t know what it’s not. And neither does the Navy or anyone else. Those videos are still in the “one weird fluke” category (unless the Navy figured it out later and didn’t tell anyone).
The thing is that it could be “shadows” or something similar mundane, but it could also be some kind of civilian drone or something combined with a software glitch that made the instrumentation report the numbers wrong. It could be a piece of experimental or otherwise new technology that’s actually behaving the way the computer thinks. Nobody knows, and without more evidence of some kind, nobody will.
And sure, it could be aliens. But the prior probability on that one makes it exceedingly unlikely compared to the less exciting and more mundane explanations.
Those FLIR thermal videos from far off naval ships spotting strange objects in the sky that in some cases do things our airships cannot, like submerge in the ocean and maneuver in ways that would physically break our planes, can’t be showing conventional shadows, unless you mean something else by “shadows” I guess.
I didn’t say it was aliens, but it would honestly be weirder if it was “shadows” on those videos.
Logic and reasoning preferably with scientific evidence.
Imaginary friends are quite common among children, and there are processes in some mental wellness practices that invoke imaginary friends.
One of them is the wise mind in Dialectic Behavior Therapy, in which one taps into their adulting conscience (related to the adult in transactional analysis).
If a patient struggles directly invoking the wise mind, they can invoke a fiction, similar to the Christian tradition of WWJD A patient struggling with a home management problem might imagine asking Albert Einstein for advice, and then imagine how Einstein might respond. (Substitute anyone, including darker archetypes: Satan, Darth Vader, Joan Collins, Barbara Bush…)
Given some people who do believe in spiritual or supernatural elements might get the same effect from talking to God, or channeling spirits, they can get the same benefit even if their beliefs can be inconsistent either with modern science, or with their own ministries (who want their parishioners to go to them for direction).
So, no, regardless of whether or not delusions, misinformation or self-deceptions are involved, imaginary friends are not intrinsically dysfunctional or a sign of mental illness.
I’m totally with you and I get it, and the previous commenter could have written in a kinder tone, but
I don’t think therapists usually encourage their patients to claim they actually got the advice from Einstein or Darth Vader or whomever. And I can give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they meant “adults” rather than “humans” when they said people.
You are comparing a mental exercise to a belief in an alternate reality. These are not the same. I don’t support making excuses for people that lack fundamental logic skills.