The Noetic Universe
This is the cover of a reprint of The Conscious Universe, to be published in the UK soon. I wrote a new Preface for this book, which is aimed to ride the wave of interest in noetic science as a result of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.
Publishers often look for books that accommodate the public's request for more information on certain topics, and that's what happened here. I approved the publisher's recommendation for the revised title and new book jacket (which I like much more than the original jacket with the silly floating spoon!).
Comments
Presumably the idea is that these scientists spoke anonymously.
This book will be published next year by an academic press. The conference was private in the sense that it wasn't open to anyone who wasn't invited. Chapters in the book will not be anonymous.
Cool. Will be keeping an eye out for it.
Still, I suppose that makes my copy collectible now. :)
And Chris is right; maybe the silly floating spoon edition will be worth a thousand dollars on eBay in a few years. :)
http://tinyurl.com/yzog5k4
I won't deny the possibility, but experience tells me that when someone claims 100% accuracy (meaning both perfectly accurate and reliable), it is much more likely that they are schizophrenic rather than psychic.
Some people believe that they are 100% accurate, but if that belief were verifiable then psi would have been accepted into the scientific mainstream long ago. This hasn't happened because most people vastly overestimate their actual abilities. However, enough people can perform at better than chance levels in controlled tests often enough to provide confidence that psychic abilities do exist.
Maybe one in a billion is super accurate. But if I were one of those 6 or 7 folks, the last thing in the world I'd want to do is become known for having that ability.
Lol! Of course. You'd be too afraid that even parapsychologists like Dean Radin would think that you are crazy. Maybe I didn't make myself entirely clear in the last post. If a person, somewhere out there, really does have almost 100% accuracy and is willing to be tested the last thing that we want is for even parapsychologists to start accusing them of being delusional - even if it is true. We can't take the chance that they really are telling the truth and we missed the opportunity to prove psi once and for all. If you would rather not test such people, then rather than referring them to a psychologist, (and saying so on podcasts) refer them to somebody like Stephen Braude.
If I were a person with such exceptional skills, I would care less about what other people think, especially scientists.
> If you would rather not test such people, then rather than referring them to a psychologist, (and saying so on podcasts) refer them to somebody like Stephen Braude.
I've conducted investigations with Steve, and so far neither of us (nor anyone else I know) has been able to verify claims of super psi abilities. In any case, what's wrong with speaking to a psychologist? Most people find it helpful at times. Those who are most reluctant are oftentimes the very people who ought to be seeing a psychologist in the first place.
Have there been any experiments done specifically determine the accuracy people who claim to be psychics? Don't most parapsychology experiments force the test subject to try for a hit even if they don't feel they have the answer? Wouldn't the best way to determine the accuracy of a psychic be to only count trials where the psychic agreed that they thought they knew the answer? Have any experiments like that been done with some of the better psychics?
"I've conducted investigations with Steve, and so far neither of us (nor anyone else I know) has been able to verify claims of super psi abilities."
Has this this failure to verify super-psi abilities influenced your assessment of super-psi as an explanation for evidence of survival of consciousness after death? ;)
"I won't deny the possibility, but experience tells me that when someone claims 100% accuracy (meaning both perfectly accurate and reliable), it is much more likely that they are schizophrenic rather than psychic."
I agree that psychic perception is not 100% accurate. One of the occupational hazards of mediumship is the delusion of infallability. A medium can become convinced they are infallable because they believe they are following the guidance of spirits. This contradicts Spiritualist philosophy which says that 1) spirits themselves are not infallable, and 2) spirit guides won't intervene in the minute details of a person's life. A person is incarnated to learn from experience. Perfect spirit guidance would be cheating. Despite this, I've seen such a delusional person break up a Spiritualist church, it is not a pretty sight.
Well, I don't trust them, myself, but I won't say that there is something wrong with seeing them under certain circumstances. What I do think is wrong is saying that the sole reason (or even the main reason, usually) that someone should be referred to a psychologist is because of the fact that he or she thinks of himself or herself as an extremely accurate (100% or nearly 100%)psychic.
I do believe (yes, the belief factor again) that through all I have read about the space-time continuum, those could be transmissions of past realities through the ubiquitous "cloth" possibly by means of everlasting or long lasting consciences, some of them possibly nominated as angels by religion.
After all I find it very hard to believe in reincarnation, which may rather be a precursive form of explaining this kind of transmission.
These consciences may add up in time to the "pool", possibly offering an equilibrium to the growing population on Earth among other effects such as an apparantly increasing speed of positive perception within the visible pool of individuals with leading to the creation of more means towards general comfort, problem solving and charity, and thus enhancing even more the positive outcome. Call it "noetic communication?" The negative on the other side is still quite poignant, but the world looks better than in the 30's, doesn't it?
Add the disolution of dualism into oneness, entangling, quantum and life after death all together and we might just find The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost into one indivisible truth that shows no dichotomy between religion and science?
As someone with a strong grasp of science but also some remarkably unscientific psychic abilities... I can tell you that doubting ones own psychic abilities really interferes with them.
Tricky huh?
"As someone with a strong grasp of science but also some remarkably unscientific psychic abilities..."
Why not come and talk on the Skeptiko forum - we need people like you!
Hope you'll answer my question.
Good luck with your researches, This kind of science is very interesting!
Best wishes!