skepticalme Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Alright Deva, I read one of his papers. http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_14_2_sheldrake.pdf First, I want to point out that his sample size is one person and one dog. More conventional research would follow several dozen, if not more. Second, he is very keen on showing results that support his conclusion. For example, when the dog was left at home he only demonstrated an anticipatory behavior 15 out of 50 times. Anticipatory behavior was demonstrated more frequently when he was left at family members houses. This could be explained simply by anxiety. When the dog is left in a less familiar place, it goes to the window more and more frequently over time. As such, the period when it's going to the window the most often is just before the owner gets home. When the dog is at home in it's familiar surroundings it doesn't have that same anxiety so it doesn't go to the window 70% of the time. Rupert's own data supports this because he goes out of his way to describe an increase in anticipatory behavior prior to his signaling the owner to return via pager. If the dog's window visits are directly linked to a mental connection with the owner, how would it know the owner is coming home before the owner does? Third, Rupert's experiments have been replicated with stricter criteria, on the same dog and owner, to a different conclusion. http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/psychicdogreply.pdf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Well, at least you read one paper. I would not base my conclusion off just one experiment. Anyway, I think I am just going to bow out of further discussion on this thread. I am not going to convince you and you are not going to convince me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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