Many people claim that supernatural things have happened to them or that they have seen them. If they are telling the truth, it is obvious that these events are important for shaping what we believe about the afterlife, spirits, God, etc. We should start, then, with whether to believe any such accounts, followed by some examples. Finally, I will summarize the evidence and suggest next steps.

Are Supernatural Events Possible?

If you saw something supernatural take place, you might be tempted to try any possible avenue to explain it away. You might have been trained to doubt your sanity rather than believe in anything beyond the physical world, because you don't want to be embarrassed. However, if you understand what I am writing, you are a sane person: you can grasp things. Therefore, there is no reason to dismiss what you experience if it seems supernatural. Instead, you should re-evaluate your worldview, if necessary.

Moreover, to consider using sheer reason whether supernatural events are possible, we must answer the query of whether there are things beyond physical stuff. Since ideas are not physical stuff and yet do exist, clearly the answer is yes. We also have consciousness and free will, which have no logical reason to be dependent on matter, yet we can clearly influence matter though our will (see The Argument from Reason). This is already strong evidence that things beyond matter can have an effect on it, which certainly opens the door to miracles, but if you agree that the universe had a beginning, like most people in the West these days, there is further proof. That is, something does not magically appear from nothing, no matter how much time passes (see The First Cause). Therefore, there must be something that existed before the universe and had the power and understanding to create it.

Since there is a God and he had the power to create the Universe, could there be other supernatural beings, or could God manipulate the usually constant rules of the universe which he set up? Of course. Therefore, miracles are possible, and angels and demons could be real based on what we have so far.

See also

• The First Cause
• Arguments for God's Existence
• C. S. Lewis On Miracles By Arthur W. Lindsley
• Miracles by C. S. Lewis

Credible Supernatural Events

Firstly, if you are considering whether there have been any real supernatural events, have you asked many of the people you know? You might be surprised how many of them, even if they call themselves atheists, oddly enough, will tell you that they have had undoubtedly supernatural experiences. If the events were not just odd but clearly supernatural, there are only three possibilities: the person telling you is lying, he was somehow temporarily insane, or he is telling the truth.

The Good

Ancient Miracles

Ancient people were not all gullible or stupid, as is often supposed. Just like today, there were both atheists (such as many Greeks) and polytheists 2000 years ago. There were philosophical debates and jobs that required very impressive skill sets. With that in mind, consider that there are two kinds of ancient accounts of miracles: historical and mythical. We cannot take seriously some claims about miracles involving Greek gods written long after the supposed events, whereas other miracles were reported shortly after the things themselves. Here are a couple of serious claims of miracles:

• The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• Honi's prayer for rain being granted.

Modern Miracles

There have been, of course, many sham healings, but serious claims of miracles exist too.

• A teenager (John Smith) was dead for 45 minutes after drowning under ice, but when his mother prayer for him to come back to life in that hospital room, he did. Remarkably, he also suffered no neurological damage. This story is shown in the movie Breakthrough, and there are a number of articles and videos about it (e.g., Miracle true story of Breakthrough: How boy died for an hour then 'came back to life').
• In the 2000s, a young girl called Anna was found to have an incurable, nasty disease. Some time later, she fell 30 feet, headfirst down a hollow tree, yet remarkably, she was uninjured by this accident. Even more miraculous is that after this event, her disease was gone, and she said that when she was in the tree, she went to Heaven. Watch Miracles from Heaven or read the book by the same name for more (or read a short article here).
• As told in the movie Heaven is for Real (also a book), a little boy who received an emergency appendectomy (removal of the appendix) claimed he went to Heaven during the surgery. He was able to tell his parents things he apparently could not have known otherwise about their family to prove this (such as that his mother had a miscarriage).
• There was a study on a group of hearing and vision-impaired subjects who received prayer during a Christian revival and subsequently showed significantly improved vision or hearing, respectively.
• A case of spontaneous healing of blindness after prayer was reported in a scientific journal.
• Sudden healing of gastroparesis (which required tube feeding) after 16 years of the condition, occurred due to prayer. See a summary or the case study.
• There are books of miracles doctors have claimed to witness: The Miracles and Journey of a Medicine Man: Doctor Confirmed Miracles.
• Several cases of near death experiences are reported here, along with a discussion on the topic.

The Evil

I knew people personally who would outright deny the existence of God but insist that something demonic had happened to them. This is common from what I hear, but how strange a thing is this? There is virtually no taboo in society about believing in demons and having terrifying experiences, yet believing in God is seen as far more questionable. If troublemaking, nasty spirits exist, the master of all who they are rebelling against certainly exists too!

Examples

• An ex Satanic Priest tells his story in Out of the Devil's Cauldron. There are multiple videos where he talks about his story on YouTube (e.g., see here).
• Dr. Richard Gallagher, a psychiatrist, claims to have observed real demonic possessions. He specifically mentions that these people can suddenly speak another language, have unnatural strength, and know things about others which they should not be able to. This article is worth a read.
• Roland Doe is a fake name assigned to the boy The Exorcist (film) was based on. The story may or may not be true. This article sums it up.
• The Smurl Family reported to experience horrendous demonic activity. See the Wikipedia page and an article.
• Roger and Carolyn Perron's story has become a movie, and it is a disturbing story indeed, if true. Read it here.

Next Steps

You could seek out the supernatural stories of people near you. These may help you to break free from the stubborn modern belief (among intellectuals especially) that there are no supernatural events. You should also carefully consider what can be known about God, since He is the supernatural being you ought to be most concerned about (see Christianity).

Finally, unique among supernatural events is the resurrection of Jesus, since no other religion has made a comparable claim with any believability. Nothing could be more important than this event, if true, since He promised "no more death or mourning or crying or pain," and "pleasures forevermore." If there is a true religion, it should be your first suspect, so you ought to study the resurrection carefully.