Why Do We Base Reality On Our Five Senses?

[Reality Amplifier]

Now suppose some people claim to have intuition or abilities that allow them to do something like remote viewing or communicate with animals or talk to people on the other side (Jonathan Edwards) or whatever... and because the rest of us can't validate it... does it really mean it doesn't exist? Do you think there MAY be in some of us now, the ability to develop other senses, dimly and obscure at first... but maybe in the milleniums to come, it will be part of every person?

An inability to disprove a hypothesis is not the same thing as proving it true.

 

There are many whacky hypotheses out there that have yet to validated - on God, the flying spaghetti monster, the invisible pink unicorn, and the invisible dragon in my garage, etc. They may all exist, but some simple, general questions we could ask ourselves to test these hypotheses are:

 

1. What is the evidence?

2. How good is the evidence?

3. How reliable is the source of the claim?

4. Have the claims been validated by another source?

5. Has anybody gone out of their way to disprove the claim (confirmation bias)?

6. How does this fit with the what we know of the world and how it works?

6. Does the preponderance of evidence converge on the claimant's conclusion, or a different one?

7. What does reason tell us?

 

Cold reading is just an interactive psychological technique - there is nothing supernatural about it. Dr. Michael Shermer played psychic for a day for a PBS special with Bill Nye in January 2003. Shermer did extremely well with his cold readings by using tips from Ian Rowland's, book Full Facts Book of Cold Reading to prepare for the show. He nailed it too.

(Full Story Here - Psychic for a Day: How I Learned Tarot Cards, Palm Reading,Astrology, and Mediumship in 24 Hours

 

“I am not a psychic and I do not believe that ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, or any of the other forms of psi power has any basis whatsoever in fact. There is not a shred of evidence that any of this is real, and the fact that I could do it reasonably well with only one day of preparation shows just how vulnerable people are to these very effective nostrums. I can only imagine what I could to with more experience. Give me six hours and a day of practice for a couple of months and I have no doubt that I could easily host a successful syndicated television series and increase by orders of magnitude my current bank balance – I cannot do this for one reason – it is wrong.” – Dr. Michael Shermer, Science Friction (Time Books. 2005)

[willybilly30]

what would they gain by lying to me. these people i know to be sane and honest

 

 

 

i know people who have.

 

Well...I know of people who have "seen" santa clause. But you have to use common sense and not just believe what other people tell you thay can do.

[Reality Amplifier]

You should read the book "Blink!" (I don't remember the author and can't find the book at the moment), it's a short book and easy read, but will give you a brief introduction to how amazing our subconscious is in analyzing and finding patterns.

It's by Malcom Gladwell. Great read!

Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

[Ouroboros]

what are phychic abiltys such as telepathy, communication with the dead, seeing spirits and near death experiances if their is not a supernatural anybody got an explanation?

Yes, there are plenty of tricks to do this. There are both books and TV documentaries explaining these tricks. As I mentioned to Amanda, the first and mostly used in TV shows is ... editing... *gasp* That's what they do after they filmed the whole thing, and cut out the pieces that weren't that good, like completely missed the mark.

 

Some people have developed and trained an ability to read peoples facial expressions. They start talking to a person and say "I feel that you have some sickness in your family", and he see the "victim" is making an expression of surprise and wonder, and the "reader" then continues with "or some financial or other kinds of problems", and the victim shines up without saying anything.

 

Do you see where this is going?

 

To tell you the an interesting fact, your face and your body have a very hard time lying. It will tell more about you and your thoughts than you know. I only started reading a book about body language, and I already can read a little in people, and I also started to use it to subconsciously give a different impression in people at my will. Just by a handshake you can give a person the feeling of equality or making them feel inferior. Without one word spoken.

[Reality Amplifier]

what would they gain by lying to me. these people i know to be sane and honest

I know people who tell me God talks to them. I'm sure they believe it too, but that doesn't make it true.

[willybilly30]

what about people not trying to be famous or be on tv who can do this? whove never read a book i mean from childhood they know how. i know some people who say they can who isnt trying to be famous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

what are phychic abiltys such as telepathy, communication with the dead, seeing spirits and near death experiances if their is not a supernatural anybody got an explanation?

Yes, there are plenty of tricks to do this. There are both books and TV documentaries explaining these tricks. As I mentioned to Amanda, the first and mostly used in TV shows is ... editing... *gasp* That's what they do after they filmed the whole thing, and cut out the pieces that weren't that good, like completely missed the mark.

 

Some people have developed and trained an ability to read peoples facial expressions. They start talking to a person and say "I feel that you have some sickness in your family", and he see the "victim" is making an expression of surprise and wonder, and the "reader" then continues with "or some financial or other kinds of problems", and the victim shines up without saying anything.

 

Do you see where this is going?

 

To tell you the an interesting fact, your face and your body have a very hard time lying. It will tell more about you and your thoughts than you know. I only started reading a book about body language, and I already can read a little in people, and I also started to use it to subconsciously give a different impression in people at my will. Just by a handshake you can give a person the feeling of equality or making them feel inferior. Without one word spoken.

[Ouroboros]

what would they gain by lying to me. these people i know to be sane and honest

It's not necessarily they lying, they might believe in their "powers" too.

 

There are people that have learned these abilities without knowing what they've learned and how it works. Over years they have learned by experience, and suddenly they discover they can do things and recognize patters in life and in people that they don't consciously think about.

 

So, no, they might not be lying, because they believe this too, but the explanation is not supernatural.

[RedPillAddict]

Penn and Teller debunked John Edwards and many others on their show "Penn and Teller's Bullshit" by showing how people train themselves how to do those kind of tricks. Many of the readings are very generic and can apply to almost anyone. Sometimes they overhear your conversations before you enter the studio. Sometimes they hire actors.

 

Your friends probably arent lying to you. They may actually believe that they have magical powers. But, to date, nobody has ever been able to prove that they were psychic in any way. Its all mind games.

[willybilly30]

ok explain this:

my sister who is 14 said:

1.at age 3 she predicted dads death a day before it happened

2.predicted my grandmas death 3 days before

3.talks to dad and a grandfather she knew as a baby

4.when my grandma was alive she dreamed one time her daughter would call woke up saw her daughter in a vision with a blue shirt and pants. her daughter called and grandma asked what she was wearing? a blue shirt and pants.

5. before grandma died before she even got sick she gave me some stuff and said this is to rember me by.

6. when i was little i seen shadows moving around and heard voices

is my whole family insane, magic trick people, liars what?

[Ouroboros]

Interesting. Some of it can be explained, but some of them I have no explanation for.

 

But do understand one thing though, is that those experiences doesn't prove God, but more disprove the Biblical God. Since according to the Bible, you can not talk to the dead (According to Jesus in NT), but in OT people actually did, and God warned about doing that. It was dealing with evil spirits.

[RedPillAddict]

I have had a lot of the same kinds of experiences in my life. I think most of it can be explained by human emotions. Getting feelings from people....noticing their attitude and body language.

 

But, there is not one person on the planet earth,who claims to be psychic, that will sit down in front of the world and prove it. Its always "I knew that was gonna happen!"

 

I cant even count how many times I've been thinking of a song that I havent heard in 5+ years, and I turn on the radio and its playing. Who knows why that happens .

[John]

Read the Sago Mine controversy. LOL!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Brown

[willybilly30]

i find it interesting my grandma and my sister were both raised christians it isnt like they were taught to do that. does it prove spirits exist? to me it does.

 

 

Interesting. Some of it can be explained, but some of them I have no explanation for.

 

But do understand one thing though, is that those experiences doesn't prove God, but more disprove the Biblical God. Since according to the Bible, you can not talk to the dead (According to Jesus in NT), but in OT people actually did, and God warned about doing that. It was dealing with evil spirits.

[RedPillAddict]

Read the Sago Mine controversy. LOL!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Brown

I cant stand her. What a joke!

 

i find it interesting my grandma and my sister were both raised christians it isnt like they were taught to do that. does it prove spirits exist? to me it does.

 

I'm a firm believer that we all create our own realities. The brain is a very complex thing. If you want to see somebody bad enough, you will see them. If you want to believe that dead people are around you...you might make yourself see them. If you believe in Heaven....well, you are out of luck because the brain is completely dead within 15 minutes of the body dying.

[willybilly30]

is it possible we do have phychic abilty i dont guess that says theirs a god tho. it just proves were all phychic to some extent.

 

 

I have had a lot of the same kinds of experiences in my life. I think most of it can be explained by human emotions. Getting feelings from people....noticing their attitude and body language.

 

But, there is not one person on the planet earth,who claims to be psychic, that will sit down in front of the world and prove it. Its always "I knew that was gonna happen!"

 

I cant even count how many times I've been thinking of a song that I havent heard in 5+ years, and I turn on the radio and its playing. Who knows why that happens .

 

 

were are you when the brain dies i just have hard time believing we dont exist we dont have no thoughts no feelings nothing were just a brain. we got to be more than that.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a firm believer that we all create our own realities. The brain is a very complex thing. If you want to see somebody bad enough, you will see them. If you want to believe that dead people are around you...you might make yourself see them. If you believe in Heaven....well, you are out of luck because the brain is completely dead within 15 minutes of the body dying.

[Ouroboros]

is it possible we do have phychic abilty i dont guess that says theirs a god tho. it just proves were all phychic to some extent.

I've been thinking about that too for some time, and considering how particles are intertwined with quantum entaglement and much more. Maybe in the end, we are the gods, and we are connected together with the universe in a big consciousness, but we haven't been able to tap into it yet. Who knows...

[willybilly30]

i like that idea

 

 

is it possible we do have phychic abilty i dont guess that says theirs a god tho. it just proves were all phychic to some extent.

I've been thinking about that too for some time, and considering how particles are intertwined with quantum entaglement and much more. Maybe in the end, we are the gods, and we are connected together with the universe in a big consciousness, but we haven't been able to tap into it yet. Who knows...

[Ouroboros]

i like that idea

 

 

is it possible we do have phychic abilty i dont guess that says theirs a god tho. it just proves were all phychic to some extent.

I've been thinking about that too for some time, and considering how particles are intertwined with quantum entaglement and much more. Maybe in the end, we are the gods, and we are connected together with the universe in a big consciousness, but we haven't been able to tap into it yet. Who knows...

Me too. It has been the only "faith" in anything supernatural since my deconversion, but I don't see it as supernatural at all, but natural in the sense we just don't know yet how it works.

 

Just consider dark energy or dark matter that is studied now by scientists is pretty much going back to what 150 years ago was called ether, and was removed as an idea when the idea of vacuum replaced it, and now we're going back to this "hidden" energy we can't test or prove yet.

 

I'm open, but I'm skeptic.

[Reality Amplifier]

ok explain this:

my sister who is 14 said:

1.at age 3 she predicted dads death a day before it happened

2.predicted my grandmas death 3 days before

3.talks to dad and a grandfather she knew as a baby

4.when my grandma was alive she dreamed one time her daughter would call woke up saw her daughter in a vision with a blue shirt and pants. her daughter called and grandma asked what she was wearing? a blue shirt and pants.

5. before grandma died before she even got sick she gave me some stuff and said this is to rember me by.

6. when i was little i seen shadows moving around and heard voices

is my whole family insane, magic trick people, liars what?

Explain these: Reality Amplifier's Psychic Abilities Am I really psychic? Or did I take some educated guesses?

 

I can come up with a number of naturalistic explanations for your list.

 

1. Maybe she did, and maybe she didn't. Remember, these are the recollections of a 3-year old. Maybe she imagined this prediction after the fact. Maybe she noticed something physically about your father the day before he died that others didn’t, and it raised an alarm inside her. Nothing necessarily supernatural here.

2. Correlation does not equal causation. I predicted the death of Dean Martin the day before he died in front of a group of co-workers. They all thought I was psychic the next day. It was just a coincidence. Dean Martin was just old.

3. If your sister is talking to dead people, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I would tend to think that her conversations are probably one-sided.

4. Correlation does not equal causation. Lot's of people sport a blue shirt and blue pants ensemble at any given time. I wore a blue shirt and blue pants just yesterday - Blue adias workout pants and a navy blue t-shirt.

5. I'm very sorry about your Grandmother. My dad passed away last year in January. It turns out he left a journal and knew he was in failing health. Maybe the same thing happened with your Grandmother, and she didn't tell anybody.

6. Infrasound has been known to create hallucinations in people. Also, children’s brains are developing, and they can be quite imaginative.

 

I test supernatural before accepting such hearsay accounts from people. I have not confirmed any of them. However, many people automatically tend to discount the natural as they have not trained themselves to approach topics skeptically or to test knowledge claims. Plus, supernatural claims seem to have a certain mystique and allure in them, and people seem to want to believe in them. Possibly for the same reason people want to believe in religion. My sister says she talks to God and Jesus. I don't think she's crazy. I do think she is having an internal dialog with herself and incorrectly attributing one part of that internal dialog to a non-existent entity.

[willybilly30]

i like that idea

i wish scientists could prove you live after the body and brain dies and you go somewere else.

the non existance after death thing bothers me alot. but i guess thats impossible to prove its either we dont exist or spirits are not allowed to prove them self.

 

 

 

 

is it possible we do have phychic abilty i dont guess that says theirs a god tho. it just proves were all phychic to some extent.

I've been thinking about that too for some time, and considering how particles are intertwined with quantum entaglement and much more. Maybe in the end, we are the gods, and we are connected together with the universe in a big consciousness, but we haven't been able to tap into it yet. Who knows...

Me too. It has been the only "faith" in anything supernatural since my deconversion, but I don't see it as supernatural at all, but natural in the sense we just don't know yet how it works.

 

Just consider dark energy or dark matter that is studied now by scientists is pretty much going back to what 150 years ago was called ether, and was removed as an idea when the idea of vacuum replaced it, and now we're going back to this "hidden" energy we can't test or prove yet.

 

I'm open, but I'm skeptic.

[Amanda]

I can agree with being a bit skeptical, yet to close our minds all together to these possibilities of what now might be referred to supernatural or paranormal behavior may be the limiting or inhibiting factor in it's reality! Dr. Wayne Dyer has suggested that although we tend to believe it when we see it, there may be instances where we'll be able to see it when we believe it! If we rule out it's existence, how can it ever be developed if it is actually there in some dimly obscure form?

 

A few of some fairly credible sites that seems to give validity to some of these areas...

 

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377..._telepathy.html

 

http://www.zak.co.il/deaf-info/old/telepathy.html

 

http://www.crviewer.com/

 

http://skepdic.com/morphicres.html

[John]

Maybe in the end, we are the gods, and we are connected together with the universe in a big consciousness, but we haven't been able to tap into it yet. Who knows..

 

Huh?

[Ouroboros]

Maybe in the end, we are the gods, and we are connected together with the universe in a big consciousness, but we haven't been able to tap into it yet. Who knows..

 

Huh?

Huh! Back to ya'!

[John]

Hans, it didn't make any sense whatsoever. Could you explain the "big consciousness?"

[RedPillAddict]

I can agree with being a bit skeptical, yet to close our minds all together to these possibilities of what now might be referred to supernatural or paranormal behavior may be the limiting or inhibiting factor in it's reality! Dr. Wayne Dyer has suggested that although we tend to believe it when we see it, there may be instances where we'll be able to see it when we believe it! If we rule out it's existence, how can it ever be developed if it is actually there in some dimly obscure form?

 

A few of some fairly credible sites that seems to give validity to some of these areas...

 

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377..._telepathy.html

 

http://www.zak.co.il/deaf-info/old/telepathy.html

 

http://www.crviewer.com/

 

http://skepdic.com/morphicres.html

But that just goes back to creating our own realities. I'm not ruling it out...I'm just going off of what I've learned so far. psychics are always being debunked or are caught lying. When someone can prove it, I'll believe it. The idea isnt going to just disappear if we claim that its false.

Religion works of off that basic idea: You have to believe it to see it. Psychics always say "well, it didnt work with you because you arent a believer." But, If somebody believes hard enough, it may become real, even if it isnt. Then we are just lying to ourselves and playing make-believe.