From: wolfe@wolves.Durham.NC.US (G. Wolfe Woodbury)
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal,alt.out-of-body,alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Psychics and other related phenomena
Date: 17 Nov 92 18:40:41 GMT
Organization: Red Wolfe @ The Wolves Den
X-Md4-Signature: 11e956eda70900c7cf7ea12e3221aee2

In article <Bxs6yu.y8@fc.hp.com> reykja@fc.hp.com (Reykja Sigurdsson) writes:
>Stephen Kuhn (SWK105@psuvm.psu.edu) wrote:
>: Does anybody out there really, truly, and above all, HONESTLY Believe in all of
>:  the psychic,etc., BULLSHIT?
>
>      Gosh, that is an interesting way to put it. ;-)
>
>      Someone was talking about this in an earlier thread and I think he
>put it really well. The essence of his message was that psychic 
>phenomena can not be actually proven or disproven because it comes from
>intuition, emotions and 'feelings' (meaning senses, I would assume,
>rather than just 'emotion'). 

Yes, 'twas me that made that sort of response in that thread.

Basically, the concept was that there is currently no way to DISprove
the existence of such phenomena.   THe best that can be said in terms of
scientific studies is that there is no statistical evidence for them in
controlled studies.    This is a *long* way from saying that they don't
exist.

I went on to postulate that these phenomena may operate under such rules
and conditions that they may be unable to be studied by the currently
available methods.  (I likened it to the Heisenberg uncertainty
principle, which notes that by the nature of the particle, and the
methods of measuring the particle, it is not possible to know with
certainty both the position and the energy values of an electron.)

I note also that there is a mass of anecdotal evidence that indicates
that there is some sort of phenomenon "out there" but there seems to be
no means for rigorous experiment to demonstrate its existence.  For
example, Uri Geller claims to have certain abilities.  James Randi
claims that Uri doesn't have any abilities that he can't duplicate by
"normal" means.  Uri Geller has never been able to demonstrate his
abilities under rigorous circumstances that don't allow Randi to
demonstrate a "normal powers" way of doing the same thing.

Having met James Randi, and having watched Uri Geller several times, I'm
willing to bet that Randi won't have to give up his $10,000 dollar prize
to Geller.  But I'm also willing to bet that the conditions that Randi
has imposed on the prize will never be met to his satisfaction.

I won't say whether there are or are not such "psychic" phenomena.  I
have not got enough information to make such a statement with
supportable certainty according to the current rules of scientific
evidence and theory.

From my own experience, there are events that have occurred that I
cannot explain through any combination of processes known to me.  For
lack of a better word, they might just as well be called "psychic"
experiences.

It is all bound up in how *you* view the world.  What models and
metaphors do *you* use to explain what you observe?

Arthur C. Clarke stated it as:  "Any technology sufficiently advanced,
is indistinguishable from magic."     I would restate it as: "Any
technology that is unknown to the viewer, is indistingushable from
magic."

				Wolfe
-- 
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