Sunday, January 23, 2011
Science & ESP!
I read an article about a science journal that has been around monthly for 45 years. Recently they published an article about a study that was done on ESP. Evidently many professionals in the industry are upset that this study was published. The journal defends itself by stating the study went through the normal process of submission just like any other study would. It was submitted to 3-4 peers and feedback was given, they felt as though the study met the guidelines required to be published. Its a little confusing as I was under the impression that you were only allowed to submit scientific topics. Is ESP testable, apparently from this study of 1,000 student's it is! The topic sounds like the X files or Alien but fascinating. A comment was made by a women in the scientific community who said it might have been published to attract readers and get noticed? Maybe a media trick, a ploy to increase readership and stir up questions in that field. I was enjoying the lack of drama in science but this shed some new light on the fact that everywhere in every field there is going to be different opinions.
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I never thought something like this could get published either. Just like the topic of morals or the supernatural. I know there are things in this world that we cannot explain but that does not mean they are not real. But to test it? Maybe by holding up cards and seeing if someone can guess what they are might have some false validity to ESP that is measurable but lots of things can be averaged out to make seem factual. I think it is all just opinion based on what we personally think is truthful. I can be swayed either way on such topics by how a person says things or conveys the information. If they sound like they know what they are talking about, it becomes valid. I could go on and on over this but I personally DO believe in some (a small fraction)of the weird things out there.I had some strange experiences but I certainly cannot prove anything.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like he told volunteers there was a picture behind one of two curtains, and asked them to guess which one. The pictures were only placed behind the curtains (randomly, by a computer) after they had guessed, and the volunteers were right 53% of the time. That doesn't seem particularly significant to me - very close to a 50/50 chance. So he did test something, but a lot of scientists think it's a waste of time and brings negative publicity to science when people test things like ESP that have no reasonable cause that anyone has identified. Of course, occasionally people don't start looking for and finding causes until after they find an unexpected result. The person who did the study is claiming that it's not up to him to decide which hypotheses are worth testing.
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