Are uncertain possibilities: hope, luck, chance, or other?

For any of those phenomenon, something is real, the people involved experienced something.
That something could be the effects of brain chemistry imbalance or the touch of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s noodley appendage, or swamp gas or pan-dimensional comedy show hosts poking fun at us.
Until more clear observational data are available, the mind will insist on a story to explain what is experienced and “ghosts, aliens, astral travel, time travel, reincarnations, etc.” are as good as it gets sometimes.

It depends on which uncertain possibility you are talking about. They are not al the same thing.

Sorry, just something I want to interject here. Why are ghosts on the list? That’s not an uncertain possibility, that’s just a nonsensical idea that somehow just won’t die. It’s hardly well-defined enough to be either true or false, but insofar as it is, it’s definitely on the side of being a certain impossibility. We know the basics of how minds work by now and what we know pretty much wraps it up for any kind of non-man-made mind disembodiment.

As for things like “astral travel” and “reincarnation”, I recommend trying to explain exactly what those words mean, before you start thinking about whether they’re real or not. And by ‘exactly’, I mean down to the drop-dead basics, like you’re trying to explain it to a robot from Mars.

With that said, not sure I understand your question. I do hope aliens exist right now that are nice to other species and reasonably nearby, and time travel would be mad awesome. I don’t think hoping those things affects their probabilities a whole lot though.

Um. Does that address your question at all?

I don’t think we hope that they are real as much as we delight in pretending they are real. An alien movie is a lot more entertaining when we don’t know.

@marinelife Can you please explain? In my sense, I am uncertain as to whether intelligent beings outside of Earth exist, but the possibility is greatly positive, although uncertain. As for the others, I was simply adding filling.

@Fyrius Do you find Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Starship Troopers, Starchaser, The Last Starfighter, Battlestar Galactica, and the likes fascinating?

The primary function of an individual’s mind is to make some sense of diverse experiences had and heard about. One is perturbed when something seems incomprehensible, such as why we are born and die, and the mind will go to great lengths to rationalize mental conflict. In seeking relief from angst, convoluted convictions readily arise.

When other people share such beliefs they become creeds, especially when they have been passed on for generations. I do not think that “we hope these are real because they can be real,” but we believe because they reduce feelings of anxiety, apprehension and depression.

I agree and I have come to that conclusion once before.

Well, I think it is more likely that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe than that astral travel exists.

I would be sad to think that human beings represent the highest level of intelligent functioning in the Universe. With the nearly infinite number of planets in the uncounted galaxies, it seems improbable that there are no life forms anywhere but on Earth.

For as long as human experience has been recorded in some form, we have projected our uncertainties and unanswered questions in mystical and fantastic ways. Many of these fantasies remain unconfirmed and many are, by their very nature, unconfirmable. It seems our need for certainty is greater than our need for good sense and in the absence of knowledge, we are too often content with nonsense.

@whiteliondreams
Starbucks, Starsky & Hutch, starlings.
Sure. I’ve only seen the first two of that list, but I like them a lot, even though I don’t think the real thing would be much like that at all.
I’m still not sure what the question is, though.

It isn’t a question as much as a personality test. Astral travel, ghosts, and reincarnation re “nonsensical” ideas to you, but considering your interests. I know what you were trying to get at when you attempted to answer my question. As far as “addressing my question at all” goes…....No.