July 31st, 2009
Richard Bach said “argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.”
After posting my story on meditation and Dr. Larry Dossey, I found this rather nasty thread at the Huffington Post regarding an excerpt of Dr. Dossey’s book. The skeptics weigh in with their predictable arguments, repeating the tired but incorrect mantra that no evidence exists.
This used to really annoy me, but I’ve come to an understanding about it. Basically, what other people think about psi doesn’t change my psi ability one whit, so I will pay it no mind. They can go on merrily believing it does not exist. That does not change the fact that it does occur for me and thousands (if not millions) of others.
Let them believe it’s impossible to see the future. Let them believe one can’t read another’s mind. Let them believe they’re secure in their worlds. No need to upset the apple cart.
It is not my role to show skeptics the error of their ways. Maybe they’ll eventually catch on, but that’s not important to me anymore. I have far too many more interesting things to do with my time.
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July 31st, 2009
As I was listening to Larry Dossey, MD, speak about his new book, The Power of Premonitions, something clicked in my head. I’ve been following remote viewing for a few years now, and have had psychic moments off and on throughout my life. I’ve read books about the power of psi. Most of this material describe how it works when psi is functioning well. Little of it talks about what it takes to get there.
Dr. Dossey’s new book opens with the statement that one of the best things one can do to improve one’s psi abilities is to take up meditation. I wasn’t intrigued by this but didn’t yet make the connection.
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June 25th, 2009
Author Stacy Horn was interviewed by Frank Stasio on WUNC’s The State of Things two months ago to discuss her new book Unbelievable, which is a history of the Rhine Center. Horn provided many good stories from her research and did well in presenting the topic. She made it sound far more exciting than it probably was (imagine staring at Zener cards, day in and day out)!
Stacy is as engaging in person as she is on the radio. If you get a chance to hear her speak about her book or her research, don’t pass it up!
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June 25th, 2009
Geek blog Boing Boing linked today to a video of Skeptic Magazine’s Michael Shermer presenting what he calls a “baloney detection kit.” Essentially the “kit” is a way to weed the truth from what someone only claims is true.
In spite of the biased, derogatory scenes that accompanied Shermer’s talk, he did provide many good points. Shermer kept referring to using science to test claims, and for “following the data” when trying to prove a claim. It sounded like the recipe for good science: when confronted with new phenomena, test it.
Then around the 13:10 mark of the video, Shermer throws this advice out the window. Read the rest of this entry »
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June 2nd, 2009
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan told Vanity Fair that sometimes she ‘sees’ her late husband, Ronald Reagan.
“At night time, if I wake up, I think Ronnie is there, and I start to talk to him… And I see him,” she told the magazine.
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June 1st, 2009
This week, University of Hertfordshire professor Richard Wiseman will use Twitter to conduct a remote viewing outbounder experiment. At 3 PM (UK-time) each day this week, Professor Wiseman will travel to a certain location. Participants will then try to get an impression of where he is and “tweet” this information to Wiseman’s Twitter account. Thirty minutes later, Wiseman will upload photographs of the target location.
While it will be good fun, I would hope the good professor will make everyone well aware that this experiment is not being conducted under laboratory conditions. I also have concerns that reading the Twitter stream will unduly influence the imagination of many participants. However, if a participant were to simply concentrate on Wiseman’s location rather than the Twitter feed, I would think some good results could be obtained.
It would be interesting to have some of the more seasoned RVers I know join in on Wiseman’s experiment. If you’d like to try your hand, go to his Twitter Experiment website, visit his blog, or follow his Twitter feed.
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April 27th, 2009
I took the kids for a hike around a new nature preserve north of the city. We walked the perimeter of the property under the cool shade of hardwoods and pines. As we hiked along over tree trunks and leaves, we got into a rhythm and I let my mind wander a bit. Looking down as I chose my footsteps, a thought crossed my mind that it might be wise to watch for poison ivy.
Instantly, Hallie’s voice piped up from behind me. “We should watch for poison ivy!” she cheerfully declared.
I chuckled all the way back home, thinking how Hallie seemed to have read my mind once again!
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April 6th, 2009
I’ve long seen tornadoes in my dreams and used them as lucid dream triggers. They usually work well as triggers as my dream self easily recognizes that I’ve never before seen them in waking life.
I’ve noticed that these tornado dreams seem to precede severe weather events, usually ones threatening enough to spawn tornadoes. Now I wonder if the tornadoes I see in my dreams may be a mental weather forecast rather than a simple sign I’m dreaming!
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April 6th, 2009
I got an email today from the Lucidity Institute. As you may know, I’m a fan and practicer of lucid dreaming. I’m also interested in OBEs though its been years since I can claim to have had one or anything remotely similar. In the Lucidity email was a link to a paper Lynne Levitan and Dr. LaBerge wrote in 1990. Titled “Out-Of-Body Experiences and Lucid Dreaming,” Levitan and LaBerge attempt to brand OBEs as nothing more than dreams.
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April 6th, 2009
My grandmother died a few years ago after living to a fine age of 92 years. She was a widow for the last 30 of those years, living alone (and reasonably happy) right up to the end.
Since her passing my grandmother has occasionally appeared as a character in my dreams. Rarely do I get the sense that it’s really her, though: most of the time she appears more as a face in a crowd, so to speak. Or it could be that our communication occurred on a much deeper level and what remained in my groggy conscious mind was simply jumbled snippets.
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