Monday, August 13, 2012

Pseudoscience and Pseudoskepticism


Yet an episode of Through the Wormhole, this time about the sixth sense and some similar parapsychological concepts. Some quite spectacular claims were made in the episode, so I had to check out the sources. Not that solid.


The essay has been moved to my personal website:

Pseudoscience and Pseudoskepticism


kl. 10:59 PM
Etiketter: ,

10 comments:

  1. michaelAugust 14, 2012 at 9:28 AM

    Our minds must be linked in some way,
    because I could not agree more... ;)

    One thing that has been bugged me for some
    time is the random number generators that have been running all over the world,
    with the intention of measuring a global consciousness. (GCP)

    How is one to determine what a global consciousness are?


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    1. Stefan StenuddAugust 14, 2012 at 5:41 PM

      I checked it out quickly when writing this blog post. Its results are seriously questioned. The research is funded or supported by the Noetic Institute, which is something questionable, as well.

      Jung had the idea of the collective unconscious, but he regarded it as mainly a cultural thing (hard to state something definite, since he was rather blurry at times).

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  2. JennieAugust 14, 2012 at 1:12 PM

    & at the moment when there are no frills left, no evidence for or against all that remains is attitudes. With carefully structured questions any nuance can be proved either true or false... & besides "true wisdom is quiet wisdom for it has nothing to prove" (tho' recently I've found a philosophical nuance in that phrase worth considering but then that might simply be an aberration of translation)

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    1. Stefan StenuddAugust 14, 2012 at 5:43 PM

      Truth needs no allies. It's us searching it that have the needs.

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    2. JennieAugust 17, 2012 at 12:22 PM

      @ the body level we have body needs (exsistance), @ the mind level we have mind (philosophical) needs & @ the spirit/soul level we have sprit/soul (energy/life force) needs.

      If we only bring our bodies to our experiences our minds & souls will remain unsatisfied & our body will keep searching because all that bodies sense is that @ a biological level there is a "lack", an unsatisfaction.

      For example: a body could experience euphoria when eating a peach grown & picked from your own tree - it is delicate, sweet, juicy & different to shop bought. The mind could experience joy - a deeper sense of I nurtured this tree & contributed to the growth of this fruit. However, the spirit/soul could experience ecstacy (as in ecstasis - out of body/self) with a deeper connection to the shared life-force in both tree & person.

      Although if we only bring our bodies all we will experience is a pleasant, sweet & tasty peach. Depends on personal attitude. Each experience is truth @ that level. Of course if personal attitude is "I" have rights & expect to consume this fruit, then 10 000 peaches would probably leave a feeling of un-satisfied... all depends on the level of experience/search/investigation.

      J

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    3. Stefan StenuddAugust 21, 2012 at 2:29 PM

      I can't see that what I said would contradict what you say.

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  3. W.LindsayWheelerAugust 14, 2012 at 3:40 PM

    Great post. Most scientists are materialists. Anything that smacks of the transcendent and the existence of soul, kind of attacks Science that is supposed to be all about Matter.

    Only Matter exists. The Soul does not. When Cultural Marxism is everywhere, where materialism is the ascendent and scientific, anything spiritual, or psychical is threatening. Basically, the Soul does not exist for most people. We are just bodies. Evolution from dead matter is science but the transcendent--those are for looney toon religious people.

    That is where your argument lies. The hatred of a material world for the spiritual realm. Believe in parapsychology, and next you have Satan, angels----and----(gasp)---God. Can't have that can we.

    We live in a strange world that all doesn't answer to "science". Not everything can fit into it.

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    1. Stefan StenuddAugust 14, 2012 at 5:49 PM

      Science is culture dependent and works according to contemporary ideals and concepts. Scientists are human, so if they think they can think "out of the box" they are probably folling themselves.

      Mostly they do like the rest of us: try to make a living, and dream of being praised.

      Fortunately, there are exceptions to the rule. Usually, they can be recognized by initially being dismissed by the scientific community. But that's true also for the loonies.

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  4. michaelAugust 14, 2012 at 4:27 PM

    "Nature is not only queerer than we suppose,
    it is queerer than we can suppose. "

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