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Author Topic:   What do you think of the evidence for psychic abilities?
Dogmafood
Member (Idle past 349 days)
Posts: 1815
From: Ontario Canada
Joined: 08-04-2010


(1)
Message 10 of 37 (816879)
08-12-2017 3:41 PM


My brother used to live with my wife and I and our 2 children. He was a genius wrestling with a bipolar disorder and a tendency to be nervous. He had lived with us for about 3 years and was 50 yrs old when he died. At 7 in the morning, about 6 hrs after he died, our mother called me and asked if he was ok. This type of call was completely unprecedented and absolutely out of character for my mother. I went to his room and discovered him there.
Some time later I asked my mother about it and she said that she had awoke with the overwhelming compulsion to call. I don't know. Its weird.
So yeah this is anecdotal but wtf?

Replies to this message:
 Message 11 by Faith, posted 08-12-2017 7:02 PM Dogmafood has replied

  
Dogmafood
Member (Idle past 349 days)
Posts: 1815
From: Ontario Canada
Joined: 08-04-2010


(2)
Message 12 of 37 (816884)
08-12-2017 9:39 PM
Reply to: Message 11 by Faith
08-12-2017 7:02 PM


In Porosity's defense there really isn't much reason to believe in the supernatural, From a life time's experience this is about the only event that I can point to that defies explanation. Singular and yet substantial enough to maintain a doubt.
And so what is more likely? The existence of a supernatural realm or the possibility of a missed explanation.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 11 by Faith, posted 08-12-2017 7:02 PM Faith has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 13 by Faith, posted 08-13-2017 12:49 PM Dogmafood has replied

  
Dogmafood
Member (Idle past 349 days)
Posts: 1815
From: Ontario Canada
Joined: 08-04-2010


Message 20 of 37 (817011)
08-14-2017 6:25 PM
Reply to: Message 13 by Faith
08-13-2017 12:49 PM


...the evidence is hard to come by and pretty spotty except for those who've had such personal experiences.
That is the thing about evidence. It needs to be confirmed in order to qualify as evidence and so personal experience falls a bit short. At the same time it cannot be entirely discounted because it is actually a personal experience. So an anecdote doesn't qualify as evidence but is worthy of investigation. In fact, it is usually the odd event that spurs most discoveries. So far, they have all been discoveries that reveal some natural process at work.
So again, isn't it far more likely that some perceived psychic event is really a result of some hard to spot natural cause than it is the result of some undiscovered force? I think that there is more to be discovered about the ways that people can communicate perhaps with pheromones or body language but I doubt that we will find anything like telepathy or the spirit realm.
Then again, how would the supernatural go about interacting with the natural?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 13 by Faith, posted 08-13-2017 12:49 PM Faith has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 21 by Faith, posted 08-14-2017 6:41 PM Dogmafood has replied

  
Dogmafood
Member (Idle past 349 days)
Posts: 1815
From: Ontario Canada
Joined: 08-04-2010


Message 22 of 37 (817014)
08-14-2017 8:25 PM
Reply to: Message 21 by Faith
08-14-2017 6:41 PM


Does investigation actually "reveal some natural process at work," or is it just that if the investigator can dream up a plausible naturalistic explanation it's accepted without actual evidence?
No, the investigations do reveal truths and they are confirmed and that is how we know that they are truths.
Not to say that there isn't enough fraud in this arena to justify such dismissal in many cases, ...
It is the explanations that are dismissed and not necessarily the events.
I don't know why anybody would expect psychic phenomena to be produceable on demand, but since it isn't, that is made an excuse to dismiss the whole idea.
I agree that that is not a reasonable expectation and that some forces are sporadic. My question however, remains. Why is the whole idea more plausible than the employment of natural forces?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 21 by Faith, posted 08-14-2017 6:41 PM Faith has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 23 by Faith, posted 08-15-2017 2:46 AM Dogmafood has not replied

  
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