From: ladislas@sobeco.com (Ladislas A.)
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal
Subject: Re: psychics and other related phenomena
Date: 14 Dec 92 07:55:17 GMT
Organization: Sobeco Ernst & Young

In <Bz0L3v.IH5@cs.uiuc.edu> mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu (Robert McGrath) writes:

>In article <1992Dec9.074258.19465@sobeco.com>, ladislas@sobeco.com (Ladislas A.) writes in part:
>|> Telepathy is like a phone call or modem communication:
>|> 1) both must want the communication.
>|> 2) both must trust each other.
>|> 3) both must be timed.  Full duplex does not, IMHO, exist with normal humans.
>Interesting analogy.  What is the mechanism through which the communication
>occurs?  How do "thoughts" get transferred from the human nervous system
>to the transmission medium and back again?  How do humans control this
>process (according to "wanting")?  And how does "trust" influence this
>process?

If I had answers for your questions, I'd have written a book, proposed new
experimentation techniques and have gotten a lot of publicity over it.

Unfortunately, I tend to forget to include in my sentences that my opinions
are nothing more than conclusions based on how I evaluated my past experiences.
Such conclusions do not come from a scientific method of testing.  It is merely
common sense, as I perceive it.  This being made clear, let me propose to you
a POSSIBLE way of explaining how such communications occur:

How it is possible to transfer thoughts from one human to another (note that
I'm making no specific reference to any part of the brain or human anatomy):

Two possibilities: 1) emissions of complex chemicals by the transmitter's
brain which the receiver's brain interprets.
2) subatomic level vibrations

Measuring the second possibility is not possible at the moment if what is
needed today to see traces of such particles requires a cyclotron.  As for
measuring chemicals in the ambiant air, I suppose it is possible.  But if
you don't know what combination to look for, and you don't know exactly how
the brain reacts to different chemical combinations, the solution is still
out of your grasp, as is the proof that anything did happen.

Would you agree with me that "wanting" is likely to cause a reaction within
the brain?

If so, then you have a triggering mechanism.

Would you agree that if you don't trust someone, you are less likely to want
personal contact with that person?  Would you also agree that you will tend
to concentrate on your personal safety (physical or psychological - the
latter as in wondering if the person's discourse's intent)?

If so, then you have a situation where you cause distortions in a possible
communication since you're not concentrating on what the other might try
to transmit.

>Maybe you can recommend something particular to read, since you
>know so much more about what telepathy is and isn't than I do.

Nope, I don't know what to recommend.  Aside from looking at telepathy as
something possible and then figuring out what would make it possible, while
trying to keep God and the spirit world out of the equation.

I recognize that I'm guilty of trying to impress upon you that I know more
than you do on the subject.  I seem to forget every now and then that this
is a discussion where either can be right, and that my conclusions might
not be based on the same approach to the problem as yours are.  This then
leads me to consider what I view as common sense to make more sense than what
you bring forth.

>-- 
>  Robert E. McGrath

Ladislas.