# Remote viewing is real--and the truth is being seen by the media...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 17, 2004, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916 "2004-01-17T11:04:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![Jon\_the\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jon\_the\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jon_the_Geek)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/161 "2004-01-23T19:09:34Z")

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I think I’ve decoded what Aeschines is trying to say here, and I want to make sure all of my fellow “skeptos” are debating the same topic.

He’s not saying RV is real _because_ it was on Japanese TV. He’s not even offereing this show as evidence that RV is real. He’s saying RV is real (we have to take that as a given), and finally the media has decided to stop covering it up!

Read his op again, that’s really what he’s saying.

So, I’m willing to let him off the hook on the “this entertainment show proves RV is real” thing.

I just want him to prove (or otherwise convince us) that

1. The media (and, by extension the pulbic in general) gives more credence to paranormal phenomena than they did at some point in the past, and
2. More people believing this hogswallop without evidence means we “skeptos” should give up.

Those seem to be the assertions he’s debating. He refuses to post cites on the other topics because he claims that’s not what he’s arguing… if we focus on what he IS arguing about, maybe we can get some sort of evidence.

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/162 "2004-01-23T19:33:04Z")

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> [@don't ask](#):
>
> Boy you guys had me going there. For ages I thought this was a real thread until I got to and then I realised it’s some Ed Wood kinda thing.

“My friend, you have seen this incident based on sworn testimony. _Can you prove that it didn’t happen?_ Perhaps on your way home, you will pass someone in the dark, and you will never know it, for _they will be from outer space_. Many scientists believe that another world is watching us this moment. We once laughed at the horseless carriage, the aeroplane, the telephone, the electric light, vitamins, radio, and even television! And now some of us laugh at outer space. God help us . . . _in the future_.”

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**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/163 "2004-01-23T20:10:42Z")

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Shoot. I was just about to post that I had a vision of **Eve** writing that very post, but she was too quick for me.

Still, I think you’ll all agree that I’ve proved I have visions. I mean, nobody would put something on line that wasn’t true, right?

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/164 "2004-01-23T20:19:31Z")

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> [@photopat](#):
>
> Shoot. I was just about to post that I had a vision of **Eve** writing that very post, but she was too quick for me.

Greetings, **Photopat**. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend _the rest of our lives_. And remember, **Photopat** , future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on Japanese TV. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friend we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about \*remote viewing on Japanese TV? \*

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**Author:** ![IWLN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5ac83/32.png) [@IWLN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IWLN)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/165 "2004-01-23T21:26:41Z")

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Below are just some fun highlights from **Aeschines’** participation in a recent thread. The purpose is only to remind you that it is not always possible to fight ignorance and doing so sometimes just causes it to flourish. Sometimes a good skeptic does fail to prove his point, but only because they mis-judge the aptitude of the one they are trying to reach. So take heart, it’s not your fault. There was really nothing you could do to save this one. He is lost.😉

> [@](#):
>
> _by IWLN_  
> Aeschines  
> I’m just curious about the reason that you’re even interested in participating in this setting. There is no true debate going on. Every thread I’ve seen you in seems like your main agenda is negative. Your purpose seems to be to run down atheists and skeptics and if other people don’t agree with you, then you just give them one of those titles. Maybe I’m missing something and if so, I’m sorry. But, why are you here? Below is just a quick hilight of of your participation here so far. It seems your agenda or purpose isn’t the paranormal or any enlightenment at all. It is simply your forum for your bias against skeptics. If that is the case, why don’t you stop pretending to be interested in honest debate? You are just wasting the time of those who are here for the right reason.
> 
> _Aeschines’ Priceless Pearls of Wisdom_  
> \<I’m saying that I’m going play on this playground precisely as I please, albeit keeping within the boundaries set by the moderators and common decency.  
> \<I don’t see the skeptics here as eager to engage with evidence, so my motivation to provide any is less than meager.  
> \<When following the purported rules of the forum, however, I have not felt the action to be reciprocated. Also, the level of logic and reasoning to be found here often approaches the piss-poor.  
> \<The skeptics reply: it’s all hoaxes, hallucinations, goofs, and mistakes.  
> \<As always, the skeptics show what poor scientists and logicians they are.  
> \<But so it always is with the skeptics.  
> \<Many atheists, agnostics, and “skeptics” get a kick out of thinking themselves as intellectually superior to “believers,” who are irrational, credulous rubes, in their view. Hence, not only is their reasoning extremely poor and disingenous, their tone is arrogant and nasty as well.  
> \<Skeptics won’t accept the idea of God/spirit no matter what.  
> \<Tsk tsk, the mocking, self-superior tone of the “skeptics” is in evidence here.  
> \<Close-minded skeptics stonewall: they simply refuse to take any evidence contrary to their position seriously. It’s just like the creationists.  
> \<Sure, that’s true. It’s best just to ignore idiots, not attack them personally. Why lose one’s cool?  
> \<No shit, Sherlock.  
> \<proves that you are not taking the base data seriously. For that reason, I don’t take you seriously. This will be the final time I respond to your childish posing. G’bye.  
> \<Like most close-minded skeptics (er, at least the amateurs on the web), everything you write is replete with mockery and disdain.  
> \<Disingenous and childish.  
> \<BTW, not all evidence is “empirical.” Go back to school, chum.  
> \<Look up the word “empirical” in a dictionary before you use it again. I’d hate for you to continue to demonstrate your ignorance of its meaning.  
> \<Well, this is the standard skeptic hyphothesis.  
> \<Close-minded skeptics: always such extreme and poor use of logic.  
> \<You close-minded skeptics are tiresome in precisely the same way that creationists are truly to refute the evidence for evolution. If only you knew how damn silly you seem.  
> \<This kind of rhetoric is just irresponsible and disingenuous.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/166 "2004-01-23T22:02:17Z")

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> [@Eve](#):
>
> Greetings, **Photopat**. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend _the rest of our lives_.

To be perfectly honest, I preferred the past; some folks say the past is a foreign country, but the food was better, to be sure, and the people didn’t smell.

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**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/167 "2004-01-23T22:13:04Z")

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> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> To be perfectly honest, I preferred the past; some folks say the past is a foreign country, but the food was better, to be sure, and the people didn’t smell.

Well, the food _might_ have been better, but a lot of the people did smell.

As Monty Python put it:

“'E must be a king.”

“How can you tell?”

“'E’s not covered in shit.”  
🆒

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**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/168 "2004-01-24T02:23:54Z")

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Looking now over this thread, it is hard not to cringe in shame. My OP was not only poorly written, it was poorly conceived as well.

Further, I was naive to think that this would be a civil discussion, a mutually satisfying attempt to explore new truths. Rather, having merely stated my premise (though poorly, as recognized above), I was greeted with a fussilade of mockery. Outright derision. Insults that cut to the bone.

I have been called a “tinfoiler” and a “credulous fool.” My language skills have been doubted, if not outright denied. And, sadly, my childish reaction to this crass but cunning negativity was to lash out with my own crude expletives and pejorative palaver.

Truly, it was like Neo versus the Smiths in the park. One against hundreds. But in this case Neo was defeated within two minutes, despite his ignorance of that fact. Blackened and absorbed by the hand of his foe.

In short, my friends, you have made a skeptic of me. I sit now an acolyte in the Temple of Reason, praying that you will not toss me to the Cerberus of Belief, that waits in hunger outside the door. Nor will I light a candle for the faith I’ve lost, but rather one to that true light of modernity: skepticism.

Friends, it is your choice whether to greet me with arms widened for embrace, or sullenly akimbo. I truly hope it is the former pose.

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remote-viewing-is-real-and-the-truth-is-being-seen-by-the-media/224916/169 "2004-01-24T02:52:51Z")

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Yeah, right.  
Next time, bring facts.  
Since you do not wish to participate in an actual debate on the issue _you_ brought up in the first place, I think I’ll just lock this thread.

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