patrickg
Veteran Member
RobertN, I'll agree to something close to part of what you say. (Recall, I am a skeptic not a "True Believer"). Often what passes for "psychic" or paranormal phenomena is caused by just a few things: 1. our ability to remember cases that support our contention (or can be contorted to do so, especially if you are a true believer type) while ignoring instances that do not agree/support your contention. 2. something that seems extraordinary may in fact be rare but normal, like when someone really gets adrenalized and performs some "superhuman feat" (been there done that a few times but was lucky to not tear any ligaments or pull muscles or break bones) and so forth. I recall one researcher at Duke University (Dr. Rhine?) who had found a young girl subject who seemed to be telepathic. With her mother in one room and the girl in a "sound proof" booth, researchers would give the mother objects to hold-gaze on or a picture would be shown her and the little girl amazingly could most often KNOW which object or describe the picture in general terms. Psychic ability? NO! Bad experimental setup. The little girl was truly amazing, just not psychic. She had SUPER HEARING way beyond normal and was actually hearing enough of what was being discussed to KNOW her moms thoughts. Little girl wasn't a sham. She was not aware she was subconsciously perceiving enough of the talk to appear psychic. Mom and kid went 0 for 100 when a REAL soundproof booth was used.
Of course in the words of Red Buttons, "Strange things are happening!" Some of them are probably normal but perhaps rare, others may be sorted into a number of categories but there is usually a residual that is just plain unknown and inexplicable via known processes (play theme to Twilight Zone here or maybe more appropriately the X-Files).
Not to get toooooo picky but you said,"The Force. An energy field that surrounds all living things, animate and inanimate."
Help me to underestand... Please give me a couple examples of living inanimate things.
Some south american (or was it central?) indians (if I recall correctly) are the ones that believe in "prana", sort of the spirit of water. True believers can put water in their mouth and adsorb the prana, spit the water out and derive the benefits of the water anyway without filling up. Maybe the dowser's third eye chockra is interacting with the water's prana.
Oh, lest you don't think me incapable of belief, I participated with a friend once in a double blind scientifically constructed sort of ESP test. None of the other skeptics want to believe the results. 86% accuracy predicting something with a 1/3 chance of random success with nearly 150 trials performed one a day for about 5 months while he and I were at the antipodes (nearly the exact oposite sides of the earth. I was in San Diego and he was in the Indian Ocean. For those of you who slept through statistics class, this is WAY statistically significant and the odds of doing that good are real small. Unknown to me his shipboard room mate participated as well and scored almost exactly as random chance would be expected. But then we had several real strange happenings between us including such things as my picking up the phone and saying hello Ed before it rang and he was on the line. Stuff like that. I was distracted and did not realize that it hadn't rung. The other members of the Physics study group at my place studying for a test thought I was joking till I handed one of them the phone. Not interesting in trying to be a water witch though.
Patrick
Of course in the words of Red Buttons, "Strange things are happening!" Some of them are probably normal but perhaps rare, others may be sorted into a number of categories but there is usually a residual that is just plain unknown and inexplicable via known processes (play theme to Twilight Zone here or maybe more appropriately the X-Files).
Not to get toooooo picky but you said,"The Force. An energy field that surrounds all living things, animate and inanimate."
Help me to underestand... Please give me a couple examples of living inanimate things.
Some south american (or was it central?) indians (if I recall correctly) are the ones that believe in "prana", sort of the spirit of water. True believers can put water in their mouth and adsorb the prana, spit the water out and derive the benefits of the water anyway without filling up. Maybe the dowser's third eye chockra is interacting with the water's prana.
Oh, lest you don't think me incapable of belief, I participated with a friend once in a double blind scientifically constructed sort of ESP test. None of the other skeptics want to believe the results. 86% accuracy predicting something with a 1/3 chance of random success with nearly 150 trials performed one a day for about 5 months while he and I were at the antipodes (nearly the exact oposite sides of the earth. I was in San Diego and he was in the Indian Ocean. For those of you who slept through statistics class, this is WAY statistically significant and the odds of doing that good are real small. Unknown to me his shipboard room mate participated as well and scored almost exactly as random chance would be expected. But then we had several real strange happenings between us including such things as my picking up the phone and saying hello Ed before it rang and he was on the line. Stuff like that. I was distracted and did not realize that it hadn't rung. The other members of the Physics study group at my place studying for a test thought I was joking till I handed one of them the phone. Not interesting in trying to be a water witch though.
Patrick