Posts by Sirona

49

Premonitions and Prayer - Explained!

by Seeker4 in

yesterday and today i had a couple of things happen to me that i think tie in well with why many people believe in the supernatural, or in their ability to foresee events.

yesterday, i had to travel a few hundred miles to do an interview for a magazine article, and i knew stormy weather was coming here in vermont.

i had a bad feeling about the trip and the possible weather complications, so much so that i actually called my insurance company and checked on my coverage.

Sirona

So Seeker4 can assert that there is no scientific evidence, then when I provide some, he doesn't want to reply to this thread all of a sudden?

Or anyone else for that matter?

Sirona

49

Premonitions and Prayer - Explained!

by Seeker4 in

yesterday and today i had a couple of things happen to me that i think tie in well with why many people believe in the supernatural, or in their ability to foresee events.

yesterday, i had to travel a few hundred miles to do an interview for a magazine article, and i knew stormy weather was coming here in vermont.

i had a bad feeling about the trip and the possible weather complications, so much so that i actually called my insurance company and checked on my coverage.

Can I forbid my ex to see my son???

by babygirl75 in

jw
friends

before i start, i know a lot of you will say for me to consult an attorney, but just wanted to see if any of you have had to deal with this..... i have primary custody of my son.

my ex was ordered to pay child support the first of each month.

well i hardly ever see a dime of it unless i call him and have to bitch him out to send the state a payment for child support.

My mother told my biological father that I already had a "daddy" - her partner. This was a total lie. My daddy was my biological father and no other daddy replaces one's biological father. Those of us who are adopted know that whilst accepting the adopted parents as parents, there is still a strong desire in many to seek out their biological roots and there is an issue in the heart of the individual in this regard.

No step parent replaces a biological father and your child will be worse off for it and will resent you for it later in its life. Believe me.

Sirona

49

Premonitions and Prayer - Explained!

by Seeker4 in

yesterday and today i had a couple of things happen to me that i think tie in well with why many people believe in the supernatural, or in their ability to foresee events.

yesterday, i had to travel a few hundred miles to do an interview for a magazine article, and i knew stormy weather was coming here in vermont.

i had a bad feeling about the trip and the possible weather complications, so much so that i actually called my insurance company and checked on my coverage.

Sirona

Just to address another point you made:

You wrote, "...everyone demands countless replication and pathetically stringent controls" - yes, those damn scientists! How dare they! Considering the huge number of charlatans out there claiming to have supernatural powers, it seems a good thing actually to make people prove what they claim

.
In what I wrote, the operative word was "countless" when referring to replication.

My original point showed that some things which are accepted as scientific fact are accepted as fact despite surprisingly few replications! We are so happy to accept fact XYZ because three studies have shown XYZ to be so called proven.....but we won't accept fact ABC on the strength of 10 experiments because ABC doesn't sit well with our world view!

That was my point. Of course replicate replicate replicate! Just don't say the results are not there just because it rocks your atheist boat.

Sirona

49

Premonitions and Prayer - Explained!

by Seeker4 in

yesterday and today i had a couple of things happen to me that i think tie in well with why many people believe in the supernatural, or in their ability to foresee events.

yesterday, i had to travel a few hundred miles to do an interview for a magazine article, and i knew stormy weather was coming here in vermont.

i had a bad feeling about the trip and the possible weather complications, so much so that i actually called my insurance company and checked on my coverage.

Sirona

But with regard to your other points about evidence for some forms of ESP, as it says on Wikipedia: "Popular belief in ESP is widespread, but skeptics are still not persuaded that there truly is a sixth sense because of the lack of reliable theories and information. The existence of ESP abilities is highly controversial, and no scientifically conclusive demonstrations of the existence of ESP have been given."

Sorry, that indicates there are no studies with "scientifically significant results" supporting ESP, as you stated. Given time, maybe there will be.

Wikipedia. Well, all I can say is thank goodness science doesn't rely on Wikipedia to set standards.

Here are a couple of studies which have been conducted and their results. I have summarised - I do have much more information relating to the exact procedure of each experiment.

A recent study conduced by Dean Radin et al at the University of Nevada, conducted a test on physiological responses to photographs. Photographs were categorised as "calm" or "emotional". The results showed that participants' electrodermal activity rose before a picture appeared on screen (in anticipation of the picture). What was significant was that despite pictures being shown totally randomly, participants' electrodermal activity rose more when the picture was going to be an "emotional" picture - before the picture even appeared on screen.

Measuring electrodermal activity, heart rate and finger blood volume for participants showed a significantly greater response in participants when the picture was going to be an emotional one. This indicated an ability of the participant to "know", at least physiologically, whether the picture which was about to appear was going to be one which is classed as "emotional". This is precognition (or a form of knowing the future). This experiment has since been replicated with similar results.

Another experiment tested whether information could be "sent" by one participant to another participant. These were conducted by Honorton et al starting in 1983. Due to critisisms of experimental method, this test has been refined over and over again to eliminate any problems in testing. Basically the "sender" would be in a sound proofed, steel walled, electromagnetically sheilded room. He would view a random (computer randomised) image. He would attempt to "send" this image to a person who was in a totally different room, often miles away from the sender's location. The receiver would then verbally give impressions they were "receiving" and later would view four images - and would pick one image which they thought the sender was trying to send.

There would obviously be a certain number of participants who would pick the right image just by chance. The scientists gave a statistical figure which represented what would be expected just by chance. The results of this experiment were that there was a significant effect beyond chance with odds of around 50000 to 1. Other similar experiments have been conducted so that this experiment is well replicated, adding all results together produces odds against chance of a million billion to one.

This appears to suggest that in scientific experiments human beings are able to transmit information to other human beings outside of our normal senses.

Sirona

You wrote, "...everyone demands countless replication and pathetically stringent controls" - yes, those damn scientists! How dare they! Considering the huge number of charlatans out there claiming to have supernatural powers, it seems a good thing actually to make people prove what they claim.

50

Can I forbid my ex to see my son???

by babygirl75 in

jw
friends

before i start, i know a lot of you will say for me to consult an attorney, but just wanted to see if any of you have had to deal with this..... i have primary custody of my son.

my ex was ordered to pay child support the first of each month.

well i hardly ever see a dime of it unless i call him and have to bitch him out to send the state a payment for child support.

Sirona

Your child having a father figure is more important than your arguments over money.

He might be a loser but he is the child's father.

It damages a child to grow up without their father.

Sirona

49

Premonitions and Prayer - Explained!

by Seeker4 in

yesterday and today i had a couple of things happen to me that i think tie in well with why many people believe in the supernatural, or in their ability to foresee events.

yesterday, i had to travel a few hundred miles to do an interview for a magazine article, and i knew stormy weather was coming here in vermont.

i had a bad feeling about the trip and the possible weather complications, so much so that i actually called my insurance company and checked on my coverage.

Sirona

Robert

Did I say it was GOD or SPIRITS?

I'm saying that there is scientific proof and you come back with that?

There are experiments which show that human beings can perceive things at a distance (sometimes of miles) which couldn't be conveyed using normal senses. How has that got anything to do with God or Spirits?

ARGH

Sirona

49

Premonitions and Prayer - Explained!

by Seeker4 in

yesterday and today i had a couple of things happen to me that i think tie in well with why many people believe in the supernatural, or in their ability to foresee events.

yesterday, i had to travel a few hundred miles to do an interview for a magazine article, and i knew stormy weather was coming here in vermont.

i had a bad feeling about the trip and the possible weather complications, so much so that i actually called my insurance company and checked on my coverage.

Sirona

S4

There are experiments involving certain types of extra sensory perception which have produced scientifically significant results. So your statement that there is no proof isn't accurate in my opinion.

There are scientifically accepted ideas around today which are accepted because they fit with scientists' world views and which have not been replicated that many times. Contrast that with replicated experiments which show that human beings can sense things beyond normal senses and everyone demands countless replication and pathetically stringent controls.

So it is my opinion that you are wrong. Science has proven that sometimes human beings are able to perceive things outside of our "normal" senses. They just don't know how the information is being conveyed.

Sirona

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