And to clarify, I’m not looking for the mechanisms by which psychic phenomena happen (though they would be fascinating if discovered, I’m just saying I don’t even need that much).

Newton demonstrated gravity long before Einstien explained it. Nobody seems to be able to demonstrate psychic ability, so why look for ‘how’ something is happening if you can’t even prove it’s happening at all?

We have the technology to test whether a psychic can read minds. All we need is a two separate rooms with two video cameras. Feed information to one person, and see if the other can read their mind. Every time I bring up a practical test like this, to you (or like when I said ‘if i was a psychic, I’d make it my mission to prove to the scientific community that I’m for real), I’ve never gotten a response.

So I’ll ask directly, why hasn’t any psychic just gone and performed test after test, until there is no shadow of a doubt that they have psycich abilities? Again, if they actually have these abilities, this would be EASY to do. They could demonstrate their ability right in Dawkins face (like the fabled apple falling on newton’s head, demonstrating gravity). Why does no one do this?

Well, whenever I’ve seen a practical test attempted, the psychic fails. Which helps lead me to my conclusions.

On hallucination: it’s not a ‘coincidence’ (this is a misunderstanding parallel to saying that evolution is an ‘accident’), if you take into account how homo sapiens evolved and spread themselves across this planet, and also the common heritage (the stars) of all religion (and science), also the common heritage of all humans, for that matter… the similarities would even be expected.

When you start to understand and take these things into account, you start to see how these hallucinations coincide with the global cultural zeitgeist, which existed even into the past, when tribes had been seperated for some time, because we all share a common heritage and common tendencies.

You’re more than welcome… to interview me, btw. Perhaps it may give you more insight into my thought processes.

Anyway…

Ever consider that present-day scientific instruments which are used to try and confirm psychic phenomena + afterlife may be inadequate for the task? What ever did mankind do before the invention of the electron microscope? Because we couldn’t see that small did that make the microscopic world non-existent? What do you think of Traditional Chinese Medicine and its basis of “qi” in the human body which is not measurable by any scientific instrument, and yet the effects are repeatable? Surely, you don’t believe that the Chinese have been fooling themselves for millennia?

My comment about your hallucination hypothesis is: you should examine the research a bit more closely because the “coincidence” of people hallucinating the same thing over time & vast distances of the planet are statistically improbable.

I’d like to leave you with a quote i recently discovered that made me think of our conversations…

“The close minded orthodoxy of religion is equaled or exceeded by the close minded orthodoxy of scientists who, in our society, have become the new high priests. Remember scientists are humans first and scientists later. So they all have the failings and the foibles of human beings. Just because a Harvard professor has a PhD, does not mean he/she does not have the same pitfalls that a priest would have in terms of self-aggrandizment and egotism. They too can become fanatical and dogmatic in the belief system in which they’ve been indoctrinated, in lieu of searching for the truth.” – Steven M. Greer

Are you inferring that my lack of travel somehow coincides with our races collective lack of studies that confirm the existence of an afterlife?

Also, you never, ever, comment when I bring up the hallucination hypothesis, one, singular, simple explanation based on the evidence that we have gathered.

Shared hallucination is not evidence for other realms. Other realms may exist, but I’ve still never seen any studies that confirm their existence.

∂_∂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJsWSEKboTk

Unless they can provide outside observable proof, s’all I ask for… there I go being ‘obsessive’ again. :)

I’m actually kind of glad I don’t know anyone, as people’s personal stories can be powerful, emotionally, especially if that person is close to you, and powerful emotions can lead you to overlook things quite easily, as we see with people who ‘let the holy ghost take them over’ and start speaking in tongues, or believe they have spoken to Angels or God.

The simplest explanation is the most likely one, and the simplest explanation for these types of experiences is brains working overtime… hallucination / vivid dreams. And when the events reported by people who’ve had out of body experiences don’t tend to coincide with the events witnessed by awake and conscious observers, that lends further credibility to the hallucination theory.

S’why I think that death is an ultimate tragedy, and we as a species should be focusing our efforts on keeping as many people alive and healthy for as long as possible.