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From: das@ulowell.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.psi
Subject: Re: psi research vs witchcraft
Message-ID: <8701022243.AA26475@CCA.CCA.COM>
Date: Sun, 4-Jan-87 00:41:58 EST
Article-I.D.: CCA.8701022243.AA26475
Posted: Sun Jan  4 00:41:58 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Jan-87 20:37:19 EST
Sender: rickheit@ulowell.UUCP
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
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Approved: rickheit@ulowell.UUCP
Posted-Date: Fri, 2 Jan 87 17:43:44 EST
To: mod-psi@ulowell.UUCP
In-Reply-To: <429@mind.UUCP>

[]


In article <429@mind.UUCP> dean@mind.UUCP writes:
>I hope that readers of this newsgroup realize that there is a vast 
>difference between academic parapsychology and the practice of
>witchcraft and other occult arts.  The former is a scientific discipline,
>no different in principle than experimental psychology or physics; the latter
>is essentially a belief system.

Vast difference, yes.  Yet, *both* involve strict adherence to appropriate
belief systems.  The scientific belief system, however, is based on an
approach of objectivity, reductive simplicity, repeatability, locality, 
etc..  Objectivity implies that the experiment is EXTERNAL, and presumably
*independant from consciousness*, for conciousness is not understood,
and this unknown must be excluded from the equations.  If  an
experimental outcome is not repeatable by skeptics, it is immediately
suspect, for there are few known ways that thought can affect physical
results.  Scientific discipline requires simplification to a few variables
for easier analysis.  For me, psychology falls somewhere in the middle
ground between witchcraft and the hard sciences.

Occult practitioners probably understand that every observer creates
his/her/its own reality, and use this fact in modifications to one 
or more of the 'personal-universes' (perceptual contexts, if one 
prefers) which are involved.

>Whether there are any legitimate connections between occult beliefs 
>and claims and the small magnitude, statistical psi effects as revealed 
>in the laboratory, remains to be seen.

Our collective universes harbor many more interconnections than we
currently realize.  Does it matter whether we dicover a connection
via quantum physics or parapsychology?   The attitudes of Science
and ( psi,witchcraft,parapsychology,etc. ) are quite at odds at
present, but we as humans will not understand ourselves or our 
place in our universe(s) until we fill in some of the continuums
between.  Exciting times, yes?  You can try this one at home:
apply your scientific curiousity to understanding your own inner
worlds, and also apply the insights gained in your inner experiences
to your Science.  Amazing things can and do happen.

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