bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) (07/27/86)
>>We shall see. If such techniques show paranormal effects in >>anyone's hands, it might be interesting. >Are you saying any researcher or any subject. If a researcher >finds several subjects with high latent PK ability (or whatever >might influence) the results may be different for different subjects. >Note: The influencing factor might not be PK at all, but something >as simple as GSR or conductivity. But at least "high scorers can >be investigated for such factors". Best: Any subject can do it in any laboratory under any researcher's supervision at any time. Acceptable: Find a subject who can do it repeatably in Randi's lab, or Flew's lab, or Blackmore's lab. Excuses like "Experimenter Effect", "Decline Effect", etc., will not be tolerated, much less accepted as "evidence" of paranormal effects. >Statistics are useful in marketing and politics. Very seldom are >they convincing arguements themselves. I agree wholeheartedly. As they say, "If you have to use statistics in your experiment, you ought to have done another experiment." This overstates it, of course, but it contains an important truth that parapsychologists have largely ignored. Let's quit using statistics to "market" the paranormal! >Could you give some references of works by Susan Blackmore? "The Adventures of a Psi-Inhibitory Experimenter", in _A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology_ (Paul Kurtz, Editor, Prometheus 1985) has a chapter by her entitled "The Adventures of a Psi-Inhibitory Experimenter", in which she recounts her 15 years of failure to get results supporting psi. This chapter also has references to sixteen of her articles and books. According to _Skeptical Inquirer_, she has an article, "The Making of a Skeptic" in the April, 1986 _Fate_ (I haven't seen this). She also appeared in the NOVA special several years ago. >>For example, why study PK by rolling dice (to give a simple example)? >>If a psychic can really exert enough force on the dice to affect the >>roll in a nonrandom way, surely he or she can exert enough psychic force >>on a sensitive torsion balance to move it measurably! >THIS IS THE BEST SUGGESTION YET! >Interestingly enough, there are several such experiments, to test both >transmission (PK), and reception (ESP). The number of subjects able >to do this are very small, 1 per 5000 tested. However, study of those >subjects has led to subsequent research that makes results easier to >achieve. If these individuals can demonstrate paranormal effects using these techniques in Randi's lab, or Blackmore's lab, or... Are you aware that Sir William Crookes (who believed in psi) and Rhine each attempted many experiments of this type to find such effects, with no success whatsoever? Crookes did his experiments in the nineteenth century, so this idea is hardly new. One wonders why Rhine could get PK from dice rolls but not from delicately suspended magnetic needles. -- Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them? -- Henry IV Pt. I, III, i, 53 Bill Jefferys 8-% Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (USnail) {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!bill (UUCP) bill@astro.UTEXAS.EDU. (Internet)