Special

Is there such a thing as the paranormal? Short answer - I'm not sure... could be.. maybe not.

Long story (as there always is here on my blog). Scott Adams once again raises interesting questions. I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to think the way he does. He must be borderline psychotic.

Anyway.. apparently Adams is Captain Distructo to electronic equipment.

This story is about the “Adams Luck with Mechanical Things.” And by luck, I mean bad luck. My Dad had it, and I inherited it. I was reminded of it the other day in San Francisco (where for once I did not get mugged). I was there to give a speech but had forgotten my watch. I like to have a watch with me on stage so I know when to wrap up. So I bought a cheap watch ($13) just to get me through the morning. The watch lasted only a few hours and then stopped right before I walked on stage.

But here’s the question: How many things have to malfunction around you before you stop calling it a coincidence and give it a name? For example, if everywhere you walked, the lights went out and vehicles came to a halt, you wouldn’t require a rigorous scientific study to rule out coincidence. My experience is near that end of the spectrum. Indeed, I have a long and humorous track record of making street lights go out when I’m near, only to come back to life as I walk away. For example, if I park under a street light, it often goes dark and stays that way until I pull out to drive away hours later. It happens so often that even other people have noticed.

If I had never seen anything weird that shouldn't have been possible, I would merely dismiss any claims of the paranormal out of hand. The reason - people want to think they are different.

That's one of the themes that Hollywood reinforces on us constantly. In every movie, somebody is special and different. After Star Wars, who didn't want to be able to do Jedi mind tricks? Holy cow, how much fun would that be? You could lay anybody you wanted!

Some people want to have special powers so bad that they attribute odd things to their paranormal ability, that only very very few people have.. like the Jedi. Religious fervor can also cause misinterpretation of natural events.

But in this case, Adams reports a phenomenon that other's have. Some background on it here:

As for me.. I'm special in certain ways - much different than other people, but it really has nothing to do with super powers... although some people think it's pretty super. But, like I said - had I never seen anything that should not be, I'd probably make fun of the nutty psychics. The only problem is, what I saw could be explained as a natural occurance pretty easily I'd imagine... which sucks because I'd like to believe we can all develop super powers.. but then we really wouldn't be special anymore if everyone could do it.