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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Mind and Brain and Ki
Message-ID: <960@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Aug-84 19:25:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.960
Posted: Fri Aug  3 19:25:56 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 02:40:50 EDT
References: <215@imsvax.UUCP> <118@mouton.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 49

> ++
> >	On the other hand, if he says, "This is true, but I can't prove it.",
> >	then I'll laugh in his face and tell him to move to net.religion :-).
> >			Ray Chen
> 
> I don't know how serious you were about that, Ray, but I think a lot
> of people take just that attitude, leaving a lot of possibly interesting
> phenomenae to be explored without the benifit of the famed scientific
> method.  No one is saying that quasi-unnatural effects should be
> accepted without doubt (even after rigorous 'scientific' proof, there
> is room for doubt). [MARK - mouton!mwg]

> A lot of people are saying "PSI does not exist," as if they're experts
> or something. 

A lot of people are saying exactly the opposite in much the same way.

> Does any one know of any people who try to investigate
> this stuff properly?

I think that's the problem.

> I suspect that if it were checked out, we would find quite
> natural (but as yet unknown) explanations for 95% of it. (And maybe expand
> our vision of 'science' a little for the other 5%.)

Investigations that *have* gone on have found quite natural (but well-known)
explanations for more than 95% of it. (including deception and trickery)

> When you people say PSI (and all that other mumbo-jumbo) doesn't exist,
> how do you explain (to yourself) the existence of acupuncture, all those
> wierd things the asians do with karate, aikido, ta-chien (no, wait, that's
> chicken...whatever), etc, and all the reports of ghosts, UFOs and so on.
> Do you just ignore it, or are you satisfied to say, "I don't know, I don't
> want to know."  Doesn't sound very scientific to me!

Those "weird Asian things" have to do with the results of intense concentration
in much the same way that meditation (intense non-concentration?) has an
effect on the brain.  The reports of ghosts and UFO's are just like the reports
of religious fanatics:  where the brain sees something, remembers a small piece
of it, and fills in the rest (marvelous patterning capabilities in our brains)
the way the individual preconceives it to be.

Sounds very scientific to me.

(I do hope Ray Chen was kidding.  Net.religion has more than its share... :-)
-- 
Now I've lost my train of thought. I'll have to catch the bus of thought.
			Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr