10. The Body/Mind Connection
Medicine is just beginning to understand how the mind affects the body. Placebo effect, for example, shows that people sometimes can provide a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the treatment to be effective - whether they are genuine or not. Using processes only poorly understood the body's ability to heal itself far more impressive than anything modern medicine could create.
9. Psychic powers and ESP
Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception (ESP) rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than to believe in them is so widespread. Many people believe that intuition (see # 3) is a form of mental power, a way to access mysterious and special knowledge about the world or in the future. Researchers have tested people who claim to have psychic powers, though the results under controlled scientific conditions have so far been negative or equivocal. Some have argued that psychic powers can not be tested, or otherwise fall in the presence of skeptics or scientists. If this is true, science would never be able to prove or disprove the existence of psychic powers.
People who were once near death have sometimes reported a series of mystical experiences (like going into a tunnel, and come up in a light, to be reunited with their loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.) that may indicate an existence outside. While such experiences are deep and has no return with proof or verifiable information from "beyond". Skeptics suggest that the experience is explained as natural and predictable hallucinations of traumatized brain, but it is not possible to know with certainty what causes near-death experiences, or whether they are really visions of "the other side."
7. UFOs
Here is no doubt that UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) exist - many people see things in the air that they can not identify, from aircraft to meteors. If there are any of these objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter together, as the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from the universe, such a scenario is unlikely. Still, while careful investigation has revealed known causes for most sighting reports, some UFO incidents will always remain unexplained.
6. Deja vu
Deja vu is a French phrase meaning "already seen", referring to the various, confusing, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before. A woman can go into a building, for example, in a foreign country she had never visited, and sense that the setting is eerily and intimately familiar. Some attribute deja vu to psychic experiences or uninvited glimpses of past lives. As with intuition (see # 3), research into, human psychology can offer more naturalistic explanations, but ultimately the cause and nature of the phenomenon remains a mystery.
5. Ghosts
From Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for the NBC show "Medium" spirits of the dead have long made a part of our culture and folklore. Many people have reported apparitions seen by both dark strangers and departed loved ones. Although definitive proof of the existence of ghosts is elusive, sincere eyewitnesses continue to report see, photograph, and even communicating with ghosts. Ghost investigators hope one day to prove that the dead can contact the living, and give a final answer to the mystery.
4. Mysterious Disappearances
People disappear for various reasons. Most are refugees, some succumb to accident, someone is kidnapped or killed, but most are eventually found. Not so with the truly mysterious disappearances. From the crew of the Marie Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have disappeared without trace. When missing persons are found, it is always through police work, confession, or accident never by "psychic detectives"). But when the evidence is lacking and leads are lost, even police and forensic science can not always solve the crime.
3. Intuition
Whether we call it gut feeling, a "sixth sense" or anything else, we have all experienced intuition at one time or another. Of course, gut feelings are often wrong (how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been sure that the plane was going down?), But they seem to be quite a lot of time. Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it. But cases of intuition are difficult to prove or study, and psychology can only be part of the answer.
2. Bigfoot
For decades, major, called the hairy manlike animals Bigfoot has sometimes been reported by eyewitnesses across America. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist a breeding population, not a body is found. No one is killed by a hunter, struck and killed by a faster car, or died of natural causes. In the absence of hard evidence as teeth or bones, support comes down to eyewitness sightings and ambiguous photos and films. Since it is logically impossible to prove a universal negative, science would never be able to prove that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster exists, and it is possible that these mysterious beasts lurk far from prying eyes.
1. The Taos Hum
Some residents and visitors in the small town of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hummed in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is due to unusual acoustics, while others suspect panic or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a WHIR, hum, or buzz, and the psychological, physical, or supernatural no one has yet managed to locate the sound comes from.
Some residents and visitors in the small town of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hummed in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is due to unusual acoustics, while others suspect panic or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a WHIR, hum, or buzz, and the psychological, physical, or supernatural no one has yet managed to locate the sound comes from.