i need some skeptic input... dreams that come true (page 10)

LittleToe

Methinks you're doing just fine, and your arguments are rational, too

Jeffro

It pays to have some idea of just what one is sceptical about. What kind of sceptic would I be if I didn't have some basic idea of what it is I don't believe in? ;)

Mary

Jeffro said: Astral travelling is essentially the belief of an out-of-body experience where an ethereal part of a person separates from, and is able to travel independently of, the physical body.

LittleToe added: It's akin to an OBE (Out of Body Experience), where you leave the physical constraints of the body and travel wherever you will.

God, that'd come in handy during the summer assembly.

How many times do you have a dream that *doesn't* come true? All the time! But if a dream did seem to be a premonition of sorts, wow..that would really stand out.

I once had a dream that I saved some boy from drowning in a pool. And a couple weeks later, I did. It was kinda weird but I chalk it up to coincidence.

LittleToe

Watson:How many times would it have to happen before you'd stop calling it coincidence and started looking for a new frame of reference?

Three, four, more?...

drwtsn32

Good question, LittleToe... I honestly don't know. I guess it would take a significant number of regular events for me to start thinking there might be something going on outside of coincidence. Are there people that have a dream come true once a month? Or once a week? That'd get my attention!

tetrapod.sapien

a few double-blind experiments by skeptic scientists would get mine.

Jeffro

I would need to be given details of a dream that has not yet been fulfilled, and then later be advised of its fulfilment.

The circumstances of the dream would have to be such that one would not reasonably expect them to predictably happen (eg dreaming that I will go to work on a day that I would ordinarily go to work anyway is too predictable), and the fulfilment of the dream would have to occur without the dreamer (or any other person being told of details of the dream) deliberately manipulating events to aid the fulfilment.

LittleToe

Watson:So it would have to occur, for example, on a certain day of the week?
You wouldn't be convinced if you had a series of vivid dreams, which you wrote down before you forgot them, and then had them come true during the following few weeks, for instance?
Why does there have to be a regular time-bound pattern, in your opinion?

Tetra / Jeffro:You may be missing my point. I'm not talking about other people convincing you, because to be frank, even if you had it in black and white from Einstien himself, you wouldn't believe it. You'd probably complain about his hair style reducing his rationality, or somesuch.
I'm talking about it happening personally to YOU.

This is the point about the arguments with believers. They aren't really trying to convince anyone, they're just chatting about something that they believe happened to them. But they do get a little sensitive when folks start questioning their personal experience, especially when the inquisitor is psychically-blind.

sonnyboy

even if you had it in black and white from Einstien himself, you wouldn't believe it.

I'm not pinpointing anyone in particular, but this seems true for many hard-core skeptics. They already have their minds set that something is impossible to exist or that an event is impossible to occur, so an unbiased view is difficult for them to achieve. They immediately look for ways to discredit something rather than exploring the possibility that it may exist.

This isn't necessarily a negative mindset, but our science isn't advanced enough to explain everything in the universe. We have a way to go. Many people put too much faith in science [as we know it] while completely ignoring other methods of understanding.

i need some skeptic input... dreams that come true

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