# The Phenomenon: What is it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 20, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583 "2025-05-20T13:19:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/401 "2025-06-07T16:34:23Z")
Thank you ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/402 "2025-06-07T16:41:03Z")
> [@Ryan\_Liam](#): > > If the anomaly keeps recurring despite that maybe we’re testing the wrong hypothesis. A number of non-supernatural, non-intelligent-alien, non-extradimensional hypotheses have been presented to you, repeatedly, in this thread, including: - The human brain’s tendency to interpret unexpected sensory inputs into recognizable and familiar shapes and sounds - The desire among many humans to believe that there is a higher supernatural explanation for mundane things in the world, **despite** those beliefs not standing up to scientific rigor If you deeply want to believe that these things have a supernatural origin – and you clearly do, given your posts in this thread, and your repeated efforts to reframe the discussion, when presented with proof of mundane explanations for things – then _ **go you** _. But, insisting to the others in this thread that we (and scientists, in general) are just too closed-minded, uninterested in wonder and imagination, and need to open up our minds to what is, in essence, thinking and belief without proof, isn’t going to get you anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/403 "2025-06-07T16:51:25Z")
> [@Ryan\_Liam](#): > > Right, but isn’t that what makes it more suspicious? If every case neatly collapses under scrutiny, yet the overall phenomenon never goes away, maybe we’re looking for the wrong kind of proof. What if it’s not about the events it’s about the pattern? I see the pattern just fine. False positives occur under conditions where we expect to see false positives. As equipment gets better, and these conditions change, the false positives change also. Seems a lot more likely than spooky things choosing to be seen in just these places. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/404 "2025-06-07T16:56:37Z")
If you hear “The supernatural is allergic to science” and your first instinct is to blame science, then you add absolutely nothing to the conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/405 "2025-06-07T18:41:13Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > the pattern of people suspecting that some number times 0 = 1 is still a pattern that needs to be explained. I’m not sure if we’ve addressed this in one of the many math threads, but could one simply postulate that there’s some mathematical entity (you couldn’t really call it a number) defined as zero times entity equals 1? Would that produce any meaningful or logically consistent results? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/406 "2025-06-07T18:47:47Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > A number of non-supernatural, non-intelligent-alien, non-extradimensional hypotheses have been presented to you, repeatedly, in this thread, including: > > - The human brain’s tendency to interpret unexpected sensory inputs into recognizable and familiar shapes and sounds > - The desire among many humans to believe that there is a higher supernatural explanation for mundane things in the world, **despite** those beliefs not standing up to scientific rigor On the other hand, don’t we have a few counter-examples of things that were dismissed as being mere psychology that did eventually turn out to be objectively true? A mild example would be ulcers supposedly being caused by stress turning out to actually be a bacterial infection. Or more infamously, “hysterical” women’s “fantasies” of rape and abuse by their father figures. In other words, should invoking delusion as an explanation be taken with caution? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/407 "2025-06-07T18:53:33Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > On the other hand, don’t we have a few counter-examples of things that were dismissed as being mere psychology that did eventually turn out to be objectively true? A mild example would be ulcers supposedly being caused by stress turning out to actually be a bacterial infection. Or more infamously, “hysterical” women’s “fantasies” of rape and abuse by their father figures. In other words, should invoking delusion as an explanation be taken with caution? Yes, to the point that there is a spin-off thread to this one, which discusses that, and in which the ulcer thing is mentioned repeatedly. > [@Has any modern woo been accepted as real science?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-modern-woo-been-accepted-as-real-science/1018724): > > Moving on from this thread. I made the statement, “AFAIK, not one single modern phenomenon that has been dubbed woo has proven to be real.” Of course many advances in science have been disbelieved at one point or another. Germ theory. Continental drift. The existence of atoms. The commonality of all is that the evidence was slim to non-existent - until scientists, no one else, provided irrefutable evidence. Woo, more formally known as woo-woo, has this [definition](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=woo): [woo woo(adj.)](https://www.etymonline.com/word/woo%20woo) also woo-w… ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/408 "2025-06-07T18:54:45Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > On the other hand, don’t we have a few counter-examples of things that were dismissed as being mere psychology that did eventually turn out to be objectively true? A mild example would be ulcers supposedly being caused by stress turning out to actually be a bacterial infection. Or more infamously, “hysterical” women’s “fantasies” of rape and abuse by their father figures. Those aren’t part of “the Phenomenon”, so they aren’t part of the _pattern_ under discussion. Also, that was _men_ whose rape fantasies were real (if you are referring to Freud). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/409 "2025-06-07T18:56:55Z")
News to me. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/410 "2025-06-08T01:27:10Z")
“Hysterical women” wasn’t about rape fantasies, it was a bogus condition from the Victorian age to justify women feeling sexual. Freud’s concept that was recently exposed was the Oedipal Complex, which is specifically about young men’s supposed desires to kill their fathers and have sex with their mothers. That’s the one now shown to be Freud covering men who raped their sons. None of which have anything to do with fuzzy sensor signals and potential aliens or extradimensional beings or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583/411 "2025-06-08T01:32:20Z")
Carl Jung talked about the [Electra complex](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra_complex) and daughters [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phenomenon-what-is-it/1018583.md?page=20)