[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
Either claim to be an English major and pursue pedantic nitpicks, or make jokes and deliberately misunderstand, but not both, please, if you want to be understood.
[/quote]
A teacher once told me that I have not only a highly logical mind, but also a highly creative mind. That’s rare, because most people only have one or the other. The practical effect, unfortunately, is that most people can only follow 50% of what I’m saying. 
You seem to be an extremely literal, black-and-white thinker – good for solving puzzles, but not so skilled at understanding metaphor & humor. Your failure to understand synchronicity (a scientific principle) gives me pause, because it’s something I understand intuitively. Not that it means there’s anything wrong with either of us…we simply have differing mindsets, which (especially in this type of debate) is fertile ground for mis-communication.
So I promise, from now on, to try and be as literal as possible, in order to facilitate communication. You may not always understand my words on the first try, but trust that I am being honest, and sometimes I use flippancy and cite creative works because that is how I deal with the real world. Ok? Now, to answer your questions:
Ok, first of all, when I said “hear them”, I was using those words as an idiomatic phrase. For example, if you say, “I heard from Aunt Bessie yesterday,” it doesn’t necessarily mean you literally heard her voice. You could have received an email, or a text message, or even a birthday card, and refer to that connection as “hearing” from them. I don’t “hear voices” in the traditional sense…when it comes to communicating with ghosts, it’s more of an empathetic connection. Follow me?
As for ghosts “bragging” about what they’ve done…boy, do they ever! They are like small children in that regard. Sometimes, they outright lie. Luckily, I’ve learned enough about the world to know that certain large-scale events (like Katrina, or the Northridge earthquake) cannot be affected by ghosts, period. As for car accidents…well, it only takes a small distraction to trigger an accident. Even a real, living person can do that.
Ah, so you have seen the show. Good. (Funny show, isn’t it? I love Mandy Patinkin’s character.)
Now…keep in mind that Dead Like Me is a fictional show, and any comparison I draw between fiction and my subjective reality is an analogy, and nothing more. In other words, certain aspects of the show are similar, but not identical, to my beliefs. Follow me? Ok…
Ghosts (at least the ones I’ve seen) are basically like gravelings. No, they don’t look like deformed monsters – they look like people. As for how they affect the the real world…you remember how “gravelings” cause people to die by making a very small change in the physical world? It’s basically the same concept. How that works exactly, I’m still working on – my current theory is that real ghosts don’t interact directly with physical objects (since ghosts have no matter, they can’t affect real matter, I think) but they do affect a “rhythm” in the energy field which, in turn, affects the physical object. And not even that is necessary. Sometimes all it takes is a reflection in the rear-view mirror to distract the driver long enough to cause an accident.
And please don’t jump to the conclusion that I believe ghosts are responsible for ALL accidents. 99% of the time, it’s just a random distraction. (I suppose it’s possible that every aspect of our routine lives is directed & guided by unseen forces…but that concept is so gigantic, it doesn’t fit in my head. And I’ve got a pretty big head.
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