My name is David? You mean I’ve been going by the wrong name for the past 28 years? I’ll have to get my birth certificate, ID, and everything else changed.
Why oh why would you think my name is David?
Re-The Institute Of Etheric Scientists
Without an Actuallized MetaConscious Mind, you’ll never find any evidence. It’s there. But, you can’t percieve it. Your eyes and hands will skip past books or even entire shelves in certain libraries. Yet, you’ll be convinced you’ve searched the entire place. There are no legitimate Etheric web sites. All Etheric sites are on the Digital Web, a secondary layer of the Quantum Etheric Matrix. You may find some web sites which seem dedicated to Etheric Science. However, these exist only to spread disinformation.
Being Actuallized is the primary requirement for entry. I became Actuallized in college. One of my professor noticed the process. He was an Etheric Scientist. Under his guidance I began studying Etheric Science. Etheric Science teaches a fundamentally different way of conceptualizing and interacting with reality. Many of the basic ideas are similiar to those of quantum mechanics. In fact qm was the discovery of a group of Ether Physicists. Etheric Science’s ideas and methods can be applied to any branch of science. I was a psych major then, and psychology remains my focus. My PhD required the standard amount of electives, humanities, statistics etc as well as additional courses in Fundamentals of Etheric Science, Etheric Science, Advanced Etheric Science, Etheric Physics, Reality And The Developing Psyche, Introduction To [The MetaConscious Mind], Pathology of [The MetaConscious Mind], Actuallized Pathogens And Pharmaceuticals, the whole list is one of my closets in a cluttered file cabinet. All Etheric Scientists are also required to be proficient in the use of a slide rule. Sadly, along with Spanish, how to use a slide rule is something I’ve largely forgotten.
No source for the claim that he got the Legion of Merit for having and/or using psychic abilities, and most of the links provided look like unchecked press releases. Are there any sites available that do more than quote incredible and highly suspicious claims about him officially assisting the FBI, Customs, and numerous state and city police forces without bothering to check said claims?
The correlation between him receiving the Merit award and his “psychich abilities” i’ve never found. The cites I provided were in an effort to solely prove he did receive the award for his service. One MIGHT extropolate that since he worked for Star Gate as a psychic for such a long period and rec’d the award for his service, that he MIGHT have received it for that work. That isn’t what I was suggesting at all by posting the cites though. I could see it as plausible though.
I refer to my alma mater by a whimsical nickname. Therefore, it does not exist and I am a liar.
Apparently all the folks I met in Florida who attended Gator State were not referring to Florida State but to a fictitious college. I’ll have to tell all my friends that they did not attend college as Patterno(Penn State’s long time football coach) State does not exist.
Weird Science University is a slang term widely used by younger Etheric Scientists. It expresses both the wonder with which we view science and that though we may have attended different colleges, our graduation has made us members of the same organization.
I’m sorry Doccathode it’s hard to seperate the diarrhea from the crap in your posts. Provide a cite for where you’d get a PhD in etherpsychology at FSU then unless it’s from invisible Institute.
Now, I want to discuss “cold readings” the great logical blunder.
The theory goes according to Randi that psychics give readings that could apply to anyone, on some level of their life.
There must be at least 50 different common ways to die, and if you add some circumstances to them the figure will escalate to the thousands. In some areas of the country cancer is more common due to toxic waste dumps and such, while heart attacks may be more prevalent in other areas. The point is, certain areas of the country or world will be different than others in the way people live and die.
This is true of people also, no two people are alike, everyone is unique. So saying that one reading fits all is like saying one pair of pants fit all, or one pair of shoes fit all. Just not logical.
It is no wonder Randi will not permit third party testing of his methods, he would be found wrong immediately. The same goes when I suggested that it be tried here. It has proved wrong everytime.
I don’t think the average person will give any credence at all to the theory of cold reading. It is total non-existent in psychic circles.
Psychics actually “see” what they are talking about in the reading and are quick to say if they “see” nothing or something unknown to them.
This was shown on the Larry King show.
Now, no one in my family died of cancer, sorry it just didn’t happen. It is not uncommon for people to drop dead instantly from a heart attack either. And I know of no psychic asking the person they are reading for to support their comments when they said no. This was a real laugh.
The person went back three generations on her own choice, no one made her do it. So you are wrong there also.
My family is really small compared to most, nothing is known on my dad’s side and my mother"s parents died when I was very young. But I don’t know why I should tell you anything. The psychic wasn’t told anything and she hit just fine.
I don’t think after posting on this board for awhile that skeptics have any real evidence of fraud on psychics, they just have a lot of unsupported opinions.
Am I reading this wrong? Or are steadfastly claiming that no one in your family has died of cancer while admitting you nothing of your father’s side of the family?
No, not really. Cold readings are simply calls that are highly likely to be true. Like someone in the family dying of heart disease.
Heart diesease accounts for 30% of ALL deaths in the US. Cancer accounts for about 23%. Check out www.cdc.gov for stats, if you like. If you take a random dead person in the US, they are EIGHT TIMES MORE LIKELY to die of heart diseas or cancer than ANY OTHER CAUSE OF DEATH. Furthermore, places 3 and 4 go to “cerebrovascular diseases” and “chronic lower respiratory diseases,” both of which seem to fit very well into something as vague as “chest pains” (Hell, a gunshot could…).
So if you want a very likely-to-be-possitive call, go with “chest problems.” You’re ten times more likely to get a hit off “chest problems” than you are any individual cause of death other than cancer… And even then, plenty of cancers can be considered “chest problems” (Heart, lung, breast, etc).
Not all, but a very good number. We’re up to what, four completely possitive matches for that reading here on the SDMB alone. When a psychic gives a reading that can apply to such a large percentage of the population, that’s not solid evidence of psychic ability. In fact, it quickly approaches the rather boringly mundane.
Okay, I’m really curious, since you keep bringing this up. Randi and the person being tested agree on the condition of the tests. What will be performed. How many “hits” the person must get out of how many tries. The exact conditions of the area. Etc, etc, etc. Plenty of examples have been given. So now, what I’m curious about… What exactly do you propose to test of his “methods”? What do you mean by this? Because I can not figure out how you think you’re supposed to test this to support your argument. To use a well-used line, “I do not think it means what you think it means.”
The Larry King show didn’t show much of anything. Randi and a psychic, both going at it, the psychic making a whole bunch of calls that were all pretty sure shots statistically (Though only got 75% accuracy for that), and Larry being his typical neutral self.
As was pointed out, for not knowing anything past your grandfather on one side, that’s a pretty assumptive assertion you have there.
It’s not unheard of. Certainly much less likely than having at least a few seconds of symptoms before dying (And pardon me if this sounds a little snide, but death seems like a pretty serious “breathing problem.”). However, you still avoided answering my question. I didn’t ask if it was common for people to drop instantly dead from a heart attack. I asked if your father did. Considering the chances, I’m willing to bet it wasn’t instant.
Then you aren’t paying attention. Go read through that fourth call again, because she very specifically did. She told that person to go back and ask her family, because she was sure she was right and “they would know.” Funny how that’s okay for a psychic, but not a skeptic, hmm?
Heck, you say you’re psychic (Actually, you say everyone is, but let’s not get off-topic). Well, if you want to prove it… Give a reading of me, maybe? What can you tell me about me? Not counting, of course, information that can be dug up here, or through any links here. Feel up to it?
So you are saying “cold reading” is impossible, has never been done, can not be done? . So what happened on the Penn and Teller show? If “cold reading” can’t be done, then the man who did it wasn’t acting. Why would he admit to being a fraud if he was a psychic?
The problem Lekatt is that there is no real evidence of psychic’s. Their is evidence of fraud’s, I could have sworn you said earlier that Miss Cleo was one.
So let’s see:
No evidence of psychic’s: This can lead people to two different lines of thinking, in my mind. One: The person believes as a matter of faith, or Two: The person doesn’t see any evidence, so the person doesn’t believe.
I’m sure there is more than just two lines of thinking, but this is what’s going on in my head.
That’s the beauty of it all. The testing proceedures are agreed upon by all parties beforehand, so that the results will be self-evident to all involved. Only in this way can there be no accusations of partisanship in the judging process.
You mean no two people
• have unrealistic aspirations
• are extroverted
• are introverted
• are independant thinkers
• are sometimes worrisome & insecure
• are not sometimes critical of themselves
• aren’t living up to their full potential
• can simpathize with others
and so on.
These would be hits for probably 90% of an audience. And yet they say nothing of substance.
I think I can agree with you here. Cold readings such as the ones I gave above don’t mean anything, and they are BS. If only “psychics” would stop using them.
I guess you’ve never heard of elastic. I’ve got a few pairs of sweatpants that fit me (with a 32" waist) and fit my neighbor (with a 38" waist). Just like cold reading hits, they s-t-r-e-t-c-h to fit a wide variety of the population.
Lekatt, you have refused to look at a document I linked to because you didn’t like the URL where it was stored. When I linked to another copy of the same document, you gave no indication that you read it there, either. So I fear providing other material on this topic is a lost cause, but my masochistic streak is telling me to go ahead anyway.
Ian Rowland, an English magician, has written a tell-all book, “The Full Facts of Cold Reading.” From this book, here are three commonly-used techniques. If you read the praagh.pdf doc/transcript linked to above, you will find many examples of them in use:
N.B.:You might see a similarity with some of these techniques and astrological statements.
In the interest of full disclosure, I obtained the Rowland book quotes from a page on the Skeptic’s Dictionary. Thank you, Prof. Carroll, you saved me a lot of typing.
Your answer shows you are missing knowledge of how psychics get their information. It shows you are missing the fact that if I didn’t have any information before, why would I have any now. But most of all it is just missing common respect for the beleifs of others, and what is know as common sense.
Well, I do answer them, and then the answers are twisted in whatever direction the poster wants, reposted to mean something entirely different.
All hate groups have two things in common, they really don’t know anything about the people they are hating. They also are not aware that the hate destroys them, not the people they hate.
I have experience unbelivable hate on this board from Skeptics. Everything I say is distorted, twisted, made fun of and even my knowledge of my own family was challenged. I have never been treated so badly in my life. (that should give you a good laugh)
I have never known a psychic to condemn, judge and ridicule people in any manner as is done on this board.
They are honest, caring people, who help those that no one else will, I love them. And you too.
You have offered no proof of what you say, you only condemn.
I believe you are part of the problem with what’s wrong in our society today.
Carl Sagan said: “Being skeptical of everything because you are a skeptic is insanity.”
Lekatt I dropped out of actively participating in this debate because you were not answering questions. Asserting that you do in the face of reality is just not going to work.
I have asked repeatedly how you prove that Doc Cathode is a fake. You have never answered. Saying that you have is just an out and out lie. Point to your post in which you have answered that question.
Pheonix Dragon and myself applied the Altea readings to ourselves honestly, and you dismissed our posts, saying you wouldn’t trust anything by sceptics, which is really just a roundabout way of saying that we are lying.
And yet when others query your own application of the Altea readings to your family, you get all huffy. Why don’t you apply the standards that you would like applied to you, to others such as myself and Pheonix Dragon? Explain to us all why you are not a blatant hypocrite.
Spoofe’s query is perfectly reasonable. You said that you knew nothing about your father’s side of the family. You also said that no one in your family had died of cancer.
How do you know that no one in your family has died of cancer, if you know nothing about your father’s side of the family?
It’s a perfectly simply, perfectly reasonable question. We are waiting on an answer. Moaning about how horrid we all are is not convincing anybody of anything. Asserting that you answer questions when you quite simply do not is not going to work, given that the whole history of this debate is written right here in this thread where we can all read it.
Right now, I’m at a neutral state. I don’t know if psychics are real or not. However, nothing that the psychics claim to be able to do seems to be beyond the abilities of much more mundane abilities. Every psychic that has been tested by fair equal tests (As they agreed they were before the test!) has not performed their extraordinary abilities to extraordinary extents. Instead, they fare as well as could be expected of a normal (Though often, bright) person would.
Absent of any proof, the default possition would be to not believe.
I’ve offered a couple times to let you try a display of your abilities, since you claim to have psychic abilities. It would be a very easy way of proving psychic abilities, if you can perform anything extraordinary, like you’ve claimed. Now that it’s offered, though, you’re dodging. Why?
And at the same time, you either avoid answering questions posed to you, or answer in extremely vague answers (Which can only be left open for interpretation, since you refuse to clarify them), or give what seem to be self-conflicting answers (And when asked to clarify, you get huffy). And then you complain about us being hostile. Calm down a little.
And for the record, I don’t hate psychics, per se. I’m rather suspicious of them, since there are a good number of cases of fraud, or of psychics who are ultimatly detrimental to the people they’re supposed to help (Like the above article). I do, however, get a bit annoyed at people telling me I’m ‘full of hate’ because I don’t automatically believe someone’s word when it’s contradicted by solid evidence (Like the person that got pissed off because they kept sending me virus warnings, and I kept replying with a link to the symantec hoax-virus page for that particular hoax…)
I’ve been keeping up with this thread since I posted something back in page 2 or so, and I must admit that I have become quite fascinated/confused with it.
See, I am not sure if I should commend all the brave Dopers that have been digging their heels in the fight against ignorance or if no praise is necessary as they are likely masochists caught in the throes of their favorite kink.
Either way, I imagine there must be a tremendous amount of relief once you stop. Wish I knew for sure, but I’m no psychic
