Well I thought those were the two main ways to levitate without using mental powers.
OK, assume my mate satisfies you that he has conducted a scientifically rigorous test to stop me using known methods of levitating.
And I now fail to levitate.
Is he now an scientific expert in Levitation?
What does a parapsychologist study, exactly? What do you learn on the first day of a parapsycholgy class? What exactly is the subject of the field?
It sounds like you’re trying to define the testing of extraordinary claims as a field of science unto itself. It may be a trained skill but but those who do it are not actually studying anything.
No. No, no, no. You take that back. 
-FrL-
Obviously you’re not a Philosopher!
What you can do (as your interlocutor pointed out) is show that the scientific evidence weighs against the existence of the IPU etc. If there were enough people arguing there is such a thing as an IPU, then I can well imagine some people spending their careers arguing against the existence of the IPU based on the scientific evidence. And why not call these people “IPUologists?”
Similarly for parapsychology.
-FrL-
No, he’d need to do a lot more tests. And be up-to-date in tests that other people have done on the same subject.
The paranormal, I suppose. Psychic abilities, the existence of ghosts. Not religious things as in “Does so-and-so a god exist?” but perhaps statues crying blood and physical “manifestations” of spirituality. I suppose, really, the area being so filled with crackpots, it’s hard to say there’s a “field of parapsychology” that everyone would agree on. I’m really only using the term in a very general way to avoid having to type out “the field of psychic-and-general-paranormal-stuff” everytime I want to refer to this kind of thing.
Really? Surely many claims are extraordinary at some point… the heliocentric nature of the solar system, the existence of evolution, and if we go back far enough even any claim that gods had nothing to do with a certain area. I’m really not attempting to say all extraordinary claims = parapsychology.
I agree. That doesn’t mean the results aren’t useful, though. For one thing, it means we’re able to say “Ok, there’s pretty much nothing to found here, so let’s concentrate on other, more reasonable stuff” which is certainly pretty helpful.
Well it’s hard to find anyone who’s tested the mental power of levitation scientifically. There are no levitating applicants I can find for the Randi $1,000,000 for example.
But if my mate knows the following, does it make him a levitation scientist?:
‘Today’s science knows only one way to achieve REAL levitation, i.e. such that no energy input is required and the levitation can last forever. The real levitation makes use of diamagnetism , an intrinsic property of many materials referring to their ability to expel a portion, even if a minute one, of an external magnetic field. Electrons in such materials rearrange their orbits slightly so that they expel the external field. As a result, diamagnetic materials repel and are repelled by strong magnetic fields.’
http://www.hfml.ru.nl/levitate.html
'Self Levitation is a specific type of levitation, which involves one levitating in thin-air. It is debatable whether Self Levitation can be performed spiritually, however, there is no denying many magicians govern the ability to seemingly rise several feet in the air, without the use of “special powers”. ’
'In it’s rawest form, levitation can supposedly be accomplished through a number of ways. In Buddhism it is believed one can levitate himself through spiritual meditation, which involves a complete focused state of mind. In isolated areas of Asia there are apparently many accounts of this phenomena taking place.
Crossing continents to Africa and South America, many members of tribes practice magical acts, such as levitation. Unimaginable feats take place within tribal areas, and records of African inhabitants lifting themselves, along with other physical possessions, such as cows are not rare occurrences.’
http://www.levitation.org/self-levitation.htm
'Yes telekinesis is real as is the ability to link with the energies of an individual’s auric atmosphere. I am not sure why anyone would want to damage anyone, either remotely or locally. There are laws in place which are quite clear and can be found in practically every religion/philosophy: As you give so shall you receive so I guess it would be preferable if we didnt try hurting each other. ’
'One of the most celebrated levitations in history was performed by spiritualist medium D.D. Home during a séance in 1868. He reportedly floated out of a third story window and back into another in front of three friends. ’
'Her mother was a devoutly religious woman and forbade Frances from displaying this ability outside. Her father was fascinated however, and made a number of stereo photographs of his daughter as she floated about their house. ’
Right. Because humans can’t levitate; anyone who says they can is a fraud or deceiving themselves. But you’re only looking at one side of the equation - you’re saying if there are no people who’ve studied it and claim it as real, there are no people who’ve studied it. Which is obviously incorrect, since there’s also the group of people who’ve studied it scientifically and found it to be false. And by using Randi, you’re eliminating the scientific research into levitation that isn’t paranormal in origin, such as that using magnetic fields.
Well, I’ve read them now, as have you; are we both now levitiation scientists? Of course we aren’t. Reading random snippets about levitation on the internet does not make one an expert in the field.
And i’m aware this is GQ, but could you please stop with the random examples of “does this make someone a scientist?” I believe i’ve put forward my position pretty clearly; that you keep coming back with pointless scenarios suggests you either need to read the thread again or you’re trying to be offensive. I’ll say it one more time; Parapsychology can be a legitimate, scientific field of research if tests are scientifically rigourous (and as astro added, if you’re not approaching the subject with a biased mindset and results already in mind). And I do not believe in the paranormal. It really isn’t that hard.
Sorry if I irritated you - I didn’t mean to.
But I was trying to understand your claim that ‘Parapsychology can be just as much a scientific discipline as any other field’.
If we have no scientific evidence of anything paranormal happening, nor any scientific explanation of it, how can it be scientific?
Isn’t this the same as studing religion? It’s interesting to see what different faiths claim, but there’s nothing for a scientist to study.
As for people who have studied paranormal claims, all they’ve done is use a scientific method of testing combined with ruling out trickery to show nobody so far can do what they claim. As Randi points out, it’s far more useful to be a magician than a scientist in doing these tests.
I’m sorry I was irritated. I’m in a bad mood today, so I apologise for being a bit snarky.
I’m not saying that the paranormal is scientific. I’m saying that the study of the parnormal can be scientific. Even if every single decent test shows no evidence for the parnormal (which is very likely the case), all those tests would themselves show the scientific study of the area. And the results would be scientifically obtained - we get to say “No, people don’t have ESP, not only because it’s nutty, but here’s all this rigourously obtained evidence to say so”.
Actually, there’s one area where the two do overlap - studies on the efficacy of prayer. And I would argue that the inability to study religion in a scientific way is due to the way adherents can dismiss scientific testing, rather than an inability to study subjects around it. We could say, for example, that our studies with medicine and corpses show that the dead cannot come back to life, but a Christian could say that God can raise the dead. People with psychic abilites cannot always rely on a deus ex machina. Plus, people with paranormal abilites are something that can be directly tested, whilst religions cannot.
Erm…yes. Isn’t that what all scientific testing works?
In order to recognise potential forms of trickery, certainly.
It seems to me like we’re getting bogged down in a semantic gap about what is being “studied.” Glee and I are saying that the paranormal phenomena itself can’t be studied because it doesn’t exist (or at least has never been proven to exist). Revenant Threshold is talking about scrutinizing the claims for such phenomena but studying the claims is not the same thing as actually studying the phenomena. No matter how many claims for pyrokinetic ability are scrutinized and debunked under scientific conditions, it still can’t be said that tester has actually studied pyrokinesis or discovered anything about it. So while it may be true that there are scientists who look for the paranormal, it can’t be said that any have been able to study it.
An anaolgy might be scientists who search for signs of extraterrestrial life in the universe. The search itself can be done scientifically but it can’t be said that there is any scientific field which actually studies aliens.
Three possibilities:
Cheating.
a “sixth sense” in being able to read the face of the dude who is holding the card.
pure chance.
In fact, if dudes do enough of these tests, someday some testee will choose above sigma quite a few times in a row. Monkeys, typewriters and all that.
Note that I don’t discount any possibility of a sixth sense- we are able to detect other things besides the conventional: sight, smell, sound, taste, feel. Some can detect depht due to pressures, others can feel changes in the barometric pressure, etc.
Ok, I see what you mean. You’ve convinced me. 
Wow. Someone here getting convinced by a convincing argument. Kudos!
There goes half of high energy physics. It’s perfectly legitimate to test for things that you believe to exist but can’t prove. Real scientists do it all the time. What distinguishes real science from pseudoscience is that real science is open to telling people theres currently no evidence that a phenomena exists.
I suppose if telepathy existed and could be shown to exist and could be studied and analyzed and replicated, it would be as valid a field of scientific study as, say, paleontology.
Until then… good luck.
I seem to be "post-cognitive…that is, I can recall EXACTLY what I did, sometimes YEARS after the event…is the “post-cognition” ability psychic? can I get a grant to study it? 
I ask: Are semiotics a legitimate Science?
If the skeptiks think otherwise, it will be telling.
Huh? Semiotics may be a branch of the social sciences, but it is no more a science than history is a science. Who thinks otherwise?
I think it is otherwise when it mingles with biology and other hard science.
It seems that the skeptik’s entrust another social science, Psychology. I mean, they seem to use it quite liberally in their diagnosis and slander of Crazy people.
hat is their strawman. Everybody is a nutjob if they perceive outside of their decidely limited perception and lacking worldview…