dean@mind.UUCP (12/29/86)
I hope that readers of this newsgroup realize that there is a vast difference between academic parapsychology and the practice of witchcraft and other occult arts. The former is a scientific discipline, no different in principle than experimental psychology or physics; the latter is essentially a belief system. Whether there are any legitimate connections between occult beliefs and claims and the small magnitude, statistical psi effects as revealed in the laboratory, remains to be seen.
das@ulowell.UUCP (01/04/87)
[] In article <429@mind.UUCP> dean@mind.UUCP writes: >I hope that readers of this newsgroup realize that there is a vast >difference between academic parapsychology and the practice of >witchcraft and other occult arts. The former is a scientific discipline, >no different in principle than experimental psychology or physics; the latter >is essentially a belief system. Vast difference, yes. Yet, *both* involve strict adherence to appropriate belief systems. The scientific belief system, however, is based on an approach of objectivity, reductive simplicity, repeatability, locality, etc.. Objectivity implies that the experiment is EXTERNAL, and presumably *independant from consciousness*, for conciousness is not understood, and this unknown must be excluded from the equations. If an experimental outcome is not repeatable by skeptics, it is immediately suspect, for there are few known ways that thought can affect physical results. Scientific discipline requires simplification to a few variables for easier analysis. For me, psychology falls somewhere in the middle ground between witchcraft and the hard sciences. Occult practitioners probably understand that every observer creates his/her/its own reality, and use this fact in modifications to one or more of the 'personal-universes' (perceptual contexts, if one prefers) which are involved. >Whether there are any legitimate connections between occult beliefs >and claims and the small magnitude, statistical psi effects as revealed >in the laboratory, remains to be seen. Our collective universes harbor many more interconnections than we currently realize. Does it matter whether we dicover a connection via quantum physics or parapsychology? The attitudes of Science and ( psi,witchcraft,parapsychology,etc. ) are quite at odds at present, but we as humans will not understand ourselves or our place in our universe(s) until we fill in some of the continuums between. Exciting times, yes? You can try this one at home: apply your scientific curiousity to understanding your own inner worlds, and also apply the insights gained in your inner experiences to your Science. Amazing things can and do happen. ** ** Contents product of personal perception. Some settling ** ** das ** of contents may have occurred during translation. ** ** ** Return reality to personal creator for a full refund. **
mod-psi@ulowell.UUCP (01/06/87)
In article <429@mind.UUCP> dean@mind.UUCP (Dean Radin) writes: >I hope that readers of this newsgroup realize that there is a vast >difference between academic parapsychology and the practice of >witchcraft and other occult arts. The former is a scientific discipline, >no different in principle than experimental psychology or physics; the latter >is essentially a belief system. False. Parapsychology is the belief system, as demonstrated by the many cases of experimenter fraud motivated by an obviously preconceived belief that in the end the subject matter would prove to be real: a few little twiddlings here and there are merely helping things along. Parapsychology is a pseudo-scientific extension of the nineteenth century cult of spiritualism, as is made clear by, for instance, William James' summary of the early work of the Society for Psychical Research, reprinted in "The Will to Believe" (available from Dover). It is obvious if you read Targ or Rogo or any of the other respected and popular psi authors that they have always believed in psychic powers: that they entered research with the aim not of discovering whether such powers exist, but of proving that they do. They make all sorts of grandiose claims for which no experimental evidence is offered, such as how to build up one's psychic powers. I suggest that if they knew how to build up psychic powers, they would be able to train themselves or others sufficiently well that repeatable experiments would be possible. There is still not a single repeatable experiment to demonstrate the existence of any psychical phenomenon, after over a century of ostensibly scientific work. No legitimate science has ever suffered from this problem; but we are supposed to believe that psychical effects are somehow harder to study than nucleon shells. A less preconceived response would simply be to assume that the subject matter does not exist, if it resists so tenaciously all attempts to observe it. If physics worked like parapsychology, we would all be making up rationalizations for the existence of the ether despite Michelson-Morley. Occultism and witchcraft, however, present a large number of repeatable experiments in ritual and meditation which have been shown to have an effect on the psyches of a number of people. Unfortunately, psychological experiments in these religious traditions and others have been avoided like the plague, at what I believe to be an incalculable cost to psychology. Occultism and witchcraft, unlike dogma-oriented religions like Christianity (but like Buddhism and Taoism) are oriented towards action and inaction, or in Gurdjieff's well-turned phrase "work on self", rather than belief. The primary reason for the avoidance of such experiments has been the perception in the West that religion is primarily a matter of belief and explanation, which of course is true only of the monotheistic religions. >Whether there are any legitimate connections between occult beliefs >and claims and the small magnitude, statistical psi effects as revealed >in the laboratory, remains to be seen. Oh sure. Let's see even one such repeatable and falsifiable psi effect. I have nothing against people who believe in psychic powers; I get rather disgusted with Randi-style blanket condemnations of the intelligence and honesty of such people. It is not my intent to insult anyone who disagrees with me, but I was not about to let such a ridiculous and inverted comparison pass without comment. -- Tim Maroney, Electronic Village Idiot {ihnp4,sun,well,ptsfa,lll-crg,frog}!hoptoad!tim (uucp) hoptoad!tim@lll-crg (arpa)