[Traveler]

Originally Posted by WANDERER

I'd always hold the railing and go down the stairs carefully and avoided the middle bit of the stairs. There was another footpath that I took to using. Completely illogical behaviour. It wasn't a 'feeling' however, I'd made observations on a subconscious level possibly of other people's behaviour who had been there when the accident happened. I'd also interpreted it as illogical and an 'intuition' and therefore silly. And yes, I felt completely ridiculous and would sometimes walk down the middle of the stairs.

The accident had happened a year or two prior (not in the premonition category) and skeptical was my view of it until I chatted to the lady involved. But this is not a story out of Ripley's believe it or Not because I don't claim to have known there was an accident, just that I should be careful. But aside from whether this is believable or not the parallel is not all forms of knowledge have 'substance' and definitely not according to what we call strict science.

I have no definition of how you should know something through faith. But I don't think it should be written off as invalid because it doesn't follow hard scientific processes.

Empirical (history), artistic (literature), interpretative (law), descriptive (accounting), logical (mathematics) or practical (language) : subjective areas of knowledge not based on reproducible experimental data or sometimes called soft sciences. Still valid forms of knowledge but not considered scientifically objective.

Edit/adding: I just don't think science on it's own works as a line of thought against faith, given this situation. Anyway it's an attempt to explain why I think so.

My Wanderer Friend: Thank you for responding. Please do not think that I do not believe you at all even though I am quite skeptical. There has been a lot of research into the “ghost within the machine” of the human mind and the origin of thought or from the scientific or religious perspective – the whisperings of the spirit as many in religion attempt to express. I am also well aware that some things cannot be quantified such as love, joy and anger.

Obviously if your story has any credibility then you are not the origin of some of your thoughts that you entertain. So I would ask you if you are capable of thought generation and if you are – how do you distinguish your thoughts from the foreign thoughts that so easily invade your person beyond your control? How do you know if your conclusion to your dilemma was not planned and planted? And if so – how do you determine if you are being deceived and giving “voice” to something that desires no more than to exercise some kind of control of your conscious cognitive processes.

The Traveler