parks@aquila.UUCP (08/17/84)
I realize that anecdotes are not proof of anything, but here is merely
one of my experiences with PSI: I had been sleeping peacefully. I had
no cause to think of my grandparents, and had not been in contact with
any of my relatives for over a month (I go for several months without
contact from family). Suddenly, I was violently awakened with the
certain feeling that my grandfather had taken seriously ill. He had a
history of heart trouble, and I was sure something had occurred in the
middle of the night, perhaps even his death. (I should note here that up
to this point I had been a firm skeptic. Also, I have never before or
never since be prone to violent awakenings in the night.) I knew that if
I received confirmation of this incident, I would be a converted believer
for life. With shaking hands, I called my grandparents to hear the news
for good or ill. The answer was: "Hello. Good to hear from you. How
are things down your way?" In fact, my other grandparents were fine, too,
as were all my family and all my friends. In other words, there had been
absolutely NO cause for my prophetic dream.
In another case, I had been visiting some friends. These people were
very into occultism and psi (independently, not affiliated with any
group) and even though I was a skeptic, it did not effect my fondness for
them. Suddenly, the girl looked up. Her eyes dialated, and she said,
"NO! NEVER!" The boy came into the room, and looked where she looked.
He closed his eyes and concentrated. "Leave us alone!" he shouted. In
moments, both fell to the couch in exhaustion. Through the entire
affair, I had been watching both them, and the spot they were concerned
with. I had perceived nothing except for their odd behavior. When they
recovered, they began to tell of what had happened: She had seen the
image of Satan appear before her. The figure said nothing, but seemed to
offer her a knife for her to use in her own suicide. She had cried out
in denial. The boy had heard her, and come rushing in to aid. He had
realized where the evil emanations were coming from, and used his psychic
powers to drive off the being. After discussing it, they both agreed on
virtually all the facts. And yet, I perceived nothing except for them.
In yet a third case, I was at a party. The attendees were mostly
believers, and the non-believers were uniformly the quiet type. A
disturbance began to circulate at the party. Word spread that there were
evil forces present. I felt nothing odd. The mood began to grow tense
and expectant. Suddenly, one girl leapt up. "My cross is gone!" she
shouted. She had been wearing a gold cross on a necklace, and it had
inexplicably vanished! People began to feel the evil very closely after
that. There was near-hysteria. The girl and several friends bravely
ventured into the celler (the source of the disturbance) and began to
pray over an open Bible. As the girl held the Bible, her cross
miraculously appeared and fell into the Bible! The evil was gone! And
yet, neither I nor any of my non-believing friends felt anything amiss,
except the odd behavior of the others. (No, it was not the same girl as
in episode 2, above).
These and other similar episodes have caused me to examine my position
with respect to psi. If it exists, then I must conclude that I am a
'grey' mind to it. I do not inhibit it, but I do not perceive it. In
all my life, I have never had a single episode which I could honestly
attribute to psi. I have never been present at an episode where psi
explained things better than alternate explanations.
When comparing believers and non-believers (the bias of the names applies
equally to both sides) I think the case is very similar to optimists and
pessimists. The believers see all the possibles, remember all the fluke
events, and ignore the flops and failed attempts. The non-believers see
all the alternate explanations, simple co-incidences, and remember every
flop and failed attempt. Is the glass of proof half-full or half-empty?
I have no wish to tell you how to run your life, or what you should
believe in, but in science we must tread the most pessimistic path when
attempting proof. Only by accepting doubt and critisizing research can the
truth be sought out. The classic case is Einstein's disbelief in quantum
mechanics. Each time he brought out an objection, Bohr and his comrades
would retire to modify their theory. In the end, quantum theory was far
stronger, Einstein's own works became a major support of it, and the
theory had been enormously refined. No, Einstein never did fully accept
quantum mechanics, but most of the rest of the scientific community did.
If we focused on the optimistic path of science we would be stuck with
N-rays, alchemy, and patent medicine cures. Only through open-minded
skepticism and solid proof can science be advanced.
A skeptic,
Jay Parks
(decvax!hao!ihnp4!seismo)!noao!parks :uucp
Kitt Peak National Observatoryliberte@uiucdcs.UUCP (08/21/84)
#R:aquila:-36300:uiucdcs:97400001:000:660
uiucdcs!liberte Aug 21 02:30:00 1984
There is a classic experiment in PSI research that compares the scores
of believers of PSI (sheep) with that of disbelievers (goats). The
classic result is that sheep tend to score above chance and goats tend
to score below chance. Both results are improbable. If added together,
they tend to cancel each other out.
I would be interested in doing an experiment of this form on the net.
We would need a trustworthy skeptic, a program to automatically
score the mailed in responses and a site to run it on.
Daniel LaLiberte (ihnp4!uiucdcs!liberte)
U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Computer Science
{all absolutes are false -- including this one}