Parapsychology lecture

[Magical Realist]

I attended a lecture last night by a prominent parapsychologist Neil McNeill. I'm happy to report that all that shit is real. Ghosts, poltergeists, remote viewing, telepathy, out of body experiences, pk, healing, ufos, bigfoot, precog, reincarnation, afterdeath communications. The whole nine yards. Now it's not like I hadn't concluded that already. But it was assuring to get all that confirmed from someone who has been researching this for over 15 years now. He also confirmed that mainstream science won't touch this research with a ten foot pole, which is strange considering it's prominence back in the early 1900's with such figures as Crooks, Doyle, Jung, Rhine, Raudive, Freud, William James, Edison, Tesla, etc. Unfortunately he takes a dim view of TV ghost hunter shows, which bewilders me insofar as they confirm many of the phenomena he researches. He DID say there is more acceptance of the paranormal now because of them, which I agree with. They're having a parapsychological conference in a castle near Seattle this fall. Maybe I'll go. But should I take my holy water?

[C C]

They're having a parapsychological conference in a castle near Seattle this fall. Maybe I'll go. But should I take my holy water?

Would that be Thornewood Castle, or is 42 miles south of Seattle too far too count as near?

[Magical Realist]

They're having a parapsychological conference in a castle near Seattle this fall. Maybe I'll go. But should I take my holy water?

Would that be Thornewood Castle, or is 42 miles south of Seattle too far too count as near?

Well..I think it's this one. But I have to confirm this..

http://portgamble.wix.com/pt-gamble-paranormal

[scheherazade]

I can provide you with a vial of well water, drawn from a deep well that lies in an enchanted grove of trembling aspen that some 70 years ago did part a wall of forest fire and remain unscathed while all around it succumbed to the flames. That should have some power of protection over both conventional and other-worldly aspects.

(Mind you, the reason that the flames parted has more to do with the fire not burning as well as it went down the slope of a ridge 60 meters to the east, and the trembling aspens being not quite as quick to ignite as the prevailing black spruce and lodge pole pine.)

It is my contemplation that many people have indeed experienced phenomena which as yet remain uncorroborated by science. I fully expect that as we learn more about the function of the human brain, an understanding of what these perceptions are and how and why certain individuals encounter them while others do not will become clear and verifiable.

Note that I am not saying that people have not experienced some really unusual stuff, rather that it is not easily demonstrated or consistently able to be verified but that is exactly what science is designed to test. There have been numerous incentives offered for verifiable evidence over the years although take note that one of the most famous, the James Randi paranormal challenge, was officially terminated in 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pr...paranormal

[Magical Realist]

Correction:

http://www.manresacastle.com/

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I can provide you with a vial of well water, drawn from a deep well that lies in an enchanted grove of trembling aspen that some 70 years ago did part a wall of forest fire and remain unscathed while all around it succumbed to the flames. That should have some power of protection over both conventional and other-worldly aspects.

(Mind you, the reason that the flames parted has more to do with the fire not burning as well as it went down the slope of a ridge 60 meters to the east, and the trembling aspens being not quite as quick to ignite as the prevailing black spruce and lodge pole pine.)

It is my contemplation that many people have indeed experienced phenomena which as yet remain uncorroborated by science. I fully expect that as we learn more about the function of the human brain, an understanding of what these perceptions are and how and why certain individuals encounter them while others do not will become clear and verifiable.

Note that I am not saying that people have not experienced some really unusual stuff, rather that it is not easily demonstrated or consistently able to be verified but that is exactly what science is designed to test. There have been numerous incentives offered for verifiable evidence over the years although take note that one of the most famous, the James Randi paranormal challenge, was officially terminated in 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pr...paranormal

There's an interesting analysis of the Randi prize and how superficial skeptical arguments tend to be:

http://debunkingskeptics.com/forum/viewt...f=7&t=1753

[scheherazade]

I walk the line between traditional knowledge and science as presents with new technologies, many of which would be considered 'magical' to an observer from even a mere 100 years ago.
Personally, I have experienced some rather unusual events which at the time certainly seemed paranormal but with a better understanding of how the body deals with extreme stress, I am comfortable in accepting that they were hallucinations and perceptions provided by my own biology in an effort to survive life threatening circumstances.

That does not stop me from having personal conversations with the universal experience of life and I have found that I can draw upon any source of light for energy and inspiration when I am nearing exhaustion, possibly a healthier stimulant than caffeine or nicotine. Far from being a 'fruitcake' there is plenty of evidence that our brain is stimulated by light and I live in the land of the midnight sun, where summers are at an unparalleled pace because of our 24 hours of daylight for about 4 weeks mid-summer.

(Interestingly, it was the First Nations people of Yukon who came to the Science community seeking answers for why their marshlands were drying up and the caribou upon whom the relied were changing their migration routes, both events of which they had no living experience or traditional oral history. An interesting example of traditional knowledge leading the scientific in observing the first evidence of what we now call global warming.)

[Magical Realist]

I try to be open minded up to and excluding the point of letting everything I know fall out of it. If someone had told me years ago that the mere act of observing could cause light to change from a particle to wave, or that 70% of the matter of the universe is totally invisible, or that spacetime is curved, I probably wouldn't have believed it. So much for relying on my own sense of the credible as a criteria for determining what is true or real. So I remain open to the possibilities and to the experiences of myself and others. It's pretty much how I live my life. There's so much we don't know about reality. And science has only scratched the surface of it.

Would that be Thornewood Castle, or is 42 miles south of Seattle too far too count as near?

BTW, I actually stayed at the Thornewood Castle for two nights, hoping to have a paranormal experience. Unfortunately I never got up the nerve to turn the lights off, and never watched Stephen King's "Rose Red" which had been filmed there and which the mgt had provided a copy of in my room. So I never saw a ghost. But strangely enough, after I drove back to Portland half asleep, I walked into my apt and turned on the TV. Guess what movie is on? Rose Red! A really crappy movie btw but somehow synchronistically entangled with me since my stay at that castle.