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Psychics and science
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Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Psychic abilities are no more a scam than astrology, tarot cards, biorhythm readings, astral projection, past life regression, scientology, infomercials, snake oil, communicating with dead people, the loch ness monster, or religion.
tumbleweed41
Resident Liberal Hippie
Exactly how would science test psychic abilities that would be more correct that the current scientific method?
Ignore the lack of empirical evidence? Accept hearsay as gospel? Allow the claimant to control the testing standards?
I suppose that would satisfy the claimants.
Ignore the lack of empirical evidence? Accept hearsay as gospel? Allow the claimant to control the testing standards?
I suppose that would satisfy the claimants.
PolyHedral
Superabacus Mystic
Once someone's came up with a evidenced mechanism for psychics, I'll start listening.
Alceste
Vagabond
It's not exactly an either-or proposition. Science hasn't got much to say about psychics. Scientists who have attempted to study phenomena like, for example, people who claim to know who is calling before they pick up the phone, have usually abandoned the topic due to the controversy - neither passionate skeptics nor passionate believers can handle the results.
Suffice it to say, weird stuff apparently happens to people (I'm one of those people who is good at guessing who is calling). I'm convinced it must have a natural explanation though.
Suffice it to say, weird stuff apparently happens to people (I'm one of those people who is good at guessing who is calling). I'm convinced it must have a natural explanation though.
no-body
Well-Known Member
It's hard to prove a negative and people who usually are involved in psychic phenomena always end up making claims like the scientists doubt messes with their "powers" or that the supernatural event is so random that a scientist can't gauge it because it's not repeatable.
Really it's the same reason Randi's million dollar challenge has never been won, when the "psychic" can't manipulate people and has to pony up something real it all turns out to be bull.
For stuff like UFO's and Ghosts, reptoids, etc never doubt the ability of the human mind to fantasize and totally warp what really happened. People also hate to be told that they imagined it.... and well the thing is they probably did imagine it. Witch attacks in prior centuries match up almost exactly to people who claim to have seen/attacked by ghosts and ufos today, I have no doubt that they really believe even in cases of abduction that something really happened but that it has a natural explanation and they are distorting it.
Really it's the same reason Randi's million dollar challenge has never been won, when the "psychic" can't manipulate people and has to pony up something real it all turns out to be bull.
For stuff like UFO's and Ghosts, reptoids, etc never doubt the ability of the human mind to fantasize and totally warp what really happened. People also hate to be told that they imagined it.... and well the thing is they probably did imagine it. Witch attacks in prior centuries match up almost exactly to people who claim to have seen/attacked by ghosts and ufos today, I have no doubt that they really believe even in cases of abduction that something really happened but that it has a natural explanation and they are distorting it.
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Octavia156
OTO/EGC
There is no money to be made from proving psychic abilities - therefore there will never be proper research conducted upon it.
Gunfingers
Happiness Incarnate
Is that a joke? Can you imagine the capabilities it could bring? If you could prove psychic abilities you could find out what causes them. We could synthesize it, and a lot of people would pay a LOT of money to be artificially made into a psychic.
Oh yeah, there's money to be made. Or would be, if psychics weren't baloney.
Engyo
Prince of Dorkness!
Yeah, but who wants to be a human lab rat?
Alceste
Vagabond
IMO, studies are difficult to find takers for because the weird **** that happens is experienced passively and randomly at unexpected times. IMO, people who claim to be able to control or induce geographically or temporally displaced awareness are charlatans more often than not. I've experienced lots of weird **** but would never call volunteer for an experiment. I once had an intermittent electrical problem in my car that I couldn't get fixed for years because the problem didn't happen to occur on the days I tried going to the shop. Same kind of thing.
Gunfingers
Happiness Incarnate
Many people with potentially useful genetic mutations have subjected themselves to testing. If i could see into the future i'd wanna do some research and figure out how and why it worked.
Or i'd look into the future and see what the research showed, thus making it completely unnecessary to actually do the research.
Engyo
Prince of Dorkness!
If you could reliably look into the future, I'd be willing to bet you would never reveal that ability to anyone, based on what the likely consequences of that revelation would be.Many people with potentially useful genetic mutations have subjected themselves to testing. If i could see into the future i'd wanna do some research and figure out how and why it worked.
Or i'd look into the future and see what the research showed, thus making it completely unnecessary to actually do the research.
Being a CIA/National Intelligence rat would be even worse than being a lab rat.
It suggests that psychic abilities do not exist.
That is a possibility.
That is a biased question.
Octavia156
OTO/EGC
Not a joke... maybe it would be more accurate to say its too dangerous to invest in this kind of research.
It was starting to be proven in the 50s that test subjects on high doses of psychedelic drugs attained various forms of ESP.
But that research was soon stopped and the chemicals made illegal.
What does that say about Science?
Engyo
Prince of Dorkness!
It says nothing at all about Science. It does say something about ScienTISTS, however; that they can be just as good or bad as any other people.
Octavia156
OTO/EGC
Well it does tell us something - that Science is governed by those who use her Method - who will only venture where it is convenient.
Tells me that Scientific endeavour is biased towards the pragmatic
Thus Science is limited.
OR in answer to OP - YES the Scientists are to blame for not conducting experiments properly
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Engyo
Prince of Dorkness!
So, then you support the method of scientific inquiry that states that if the science does not produce the desired result, the scientist is at fault?Tells me that Scientific endeavour is biased towards the pragmatic
Thus Science is limited.
OR in answer to OP - YES the Scientists are to blame for not conducting experiments properly
[sarcasm]I like this! We can blame anybody for not producing the desired results, no matter whether those results are realistic or possible or not! Great thinking! [/sarcasm]
HonestJoe
Well-Known Member
It says some people will come up with all sorts of irrelevant rubbish to discredit it for some reason (unless you have some kind of... sorry... evidence for your claim).
Science is not limited in any kind of manner you claim it to be. Science is simply a general process. The only limitations on science are limitations of the people practicing it.
There is nothing fundamental about science that prevents it's use in studying claims of psychic phenomena - indeed, it has been used for that purpose in all sorts of different times and places (and with varying levels of competence).