Past life or just weird

[dahamsta]

Simon Singh, the man is intelligent, but he takes everything too seriously, even songs http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...ereducation.uk

I think that was somewhat tongue in cheek. The line at the bottom of the article might explain why he wrote it.

[Schumi]

Katie's latest little ditty is deeply annoying

Now that's a fact.

[thischarmingman]

I was just about to post that. Halfway through Goldacre's book at the moment and think it should be on the curriculum. I would recommend it to anyone. There's another book in the same vein I read earlier this year but I can't remember the title now, I'll get back to you!

Risk! That's the other one: Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner is the book I couldn't remember. It's equally readable and full of cool, reasoned, arguments as to why we really shouldn't worry about things as much. It's like having a refreshing wind blowing on you.

[dahamsta]

Added to my enormous Book Depository wish list, thanks!

[thischarmingman]

Added to my enormous Book Depository wish list, thanks!

If you're ever in Dublin I'll give you a lend of it

[dahamsta]

Definite on-the-bog reading tcm, I don't think you'd want it back.

[BohsPartisan]

Easy explanation, kids have a short attention span so they are not consciously taking in what is going on around them but a lot of it is absorbed subliminally. That's how adverts work on you when you don't even realise they're working.

Comprehension follows perception. How do you get them to see the reality you see? After all, it is only one reality out of many. Images are a basic constituent: pictures. This is why the power of TV to influence young minds is so staggeringly vast. Words and pictures are synchronized. The possibility of total control of the viewer exists, especially the young viewer. TV viewing is a kind of sleep-learning. An EEG of a person watching TV shows that after about half an hour the brain decides that nothing is happening, and it goes into a hypnoidal twilight state, emitting alpha waves. This is because there is such little eye motion. In addition, much of the information is graphic and therefore passes into the right hemisphere of the brain, rather than being processed by the left, where the conscious personality is located. Recent experiments indicate that much of what we see on the TV screen is received on a subliminal basis. We only imagine that we consciously see what is there. The bulk of the messages elude our attention; literally, after a few hours of TV watching, we do not know what we have seen. Our memories are spurious, like our memories of dreams; the blank are filled in retrospectively. And falsified. We have participated unknowingly in the creation of a spurious reality, and then we have obligingly fed it to ourselves.

[kingdom hoop]

There are no angels or fairies, you weren't abducted by aliens - or Aliens for that matter - and crystals are just minerals that have organised themselves into pretty patterns. Read Singh's book, then come back and read your own post. You'll probably try to justify it, but you'll feel dirty doing it. Science is science, facts are facts. You can't argue with them.

adam

(Hmm, I've just had a gush of previously unformed thoughts streaming into my head after reading your post, especially the emboldened bit. Forgive me for probably completely misrepresenting what you said as I go off on one. )


I think that what may appear in your mind to be utterly farcical fiction, can in the mind of another appear very much substantive fact; and science isn't always the bridge between the two.

While there may be one Earth, there are ~6 billion human perceptions of Earth, each creating their own concept of reality. So I find it odd that all that amount of individual experience can be reduced to “science is science, facts are facts. You can't argue with them.” It is the deification of science inherent in your statement that I find odd: conscious life is way too complex to expect science to currently have a handle on everything; and it is equally impossible to conclude that what science has not yet established has no basis in reality*. Thus, your attractive statement is thoroughly incomplete (though I appreciate you weren't trying to make it so!).

(*And if there's one thing science likes doing, it's ignoring the things it cannot explain. Plus, science is 'merely' a body of knowledge giving a snapshot of human understanding of reality at any one time. It is an empirically justifiable report on what we do know, not what we might know. That which is not fact is not necessarily fiction - it could just be a fact-to-be, waiting for the scientific world to become smart enough to marry postulation to provable theory: Shaolin Monks didn't feel pain from smacking their heads against brick long before Western science said they didn't feel pain!)


In relation to aliens and fairies, I'm personally with you on that (seems completely ludicrous in my mind). And further, I agree that society as a whole would be better off if we would all lead structurally sound and content lives built upon the solid foundations of scientific fact - without the potentially destabilising influence of interfering angels, destructive demons, ridiculous salt-consumption, or whatever other vice. But I think there's a world of difference between broad societal conception of 'alternative stuff' versus the personal value 'alternative stuff' brings to the individual. In other words, depending on where you approach (say, that of a medical physician versus me), you will have a completely different perspective.


I'm not sure I'm making any kind of point that can be neatly packaged (help appreciated!), but my overall opinion is that it's reasonable for an individual to determine what their individual 'science' is. By all means consult the available mainstream science. But if there's something you have experienced, and is therefore fact in your mind and nowhere else, then it is up to you to determine how best to deal with it. You are your own personal scientist!

[dahamsta]

I had to do a lot of scanning there kingdom hoop, felt like I was in a Vulcan mind meld.

I realise my statement was incorrect shortly after I posted it and I intended to amend it, but I've been out most of the day. Not to validate your criticism though, since I don't agree with it. My statement wasn't that everything has been proven or disproven, scientifically or otherwise, it was that what's proven is proven, and you can't argue with that.

...to which I should have appended: except with science and facts.

The General Theory of Relativity, is a perfect example. It looks increasingly likely that Einstein's General Theory will have to be adjusted at some point in the not-to-distant future, to cater - properly - for quantum. But it still stands, because the science isn't there to handle it.

Science is science and facts are facts, you can only change them with more science and more facts. Snakeoil salesmen need not apply.

adam

[First]

Nothing unusal in his tv diet. He was watching a documentary on WWII yesterday evening before he went to bed but usually its Zac & Cody & Wizards of Waverly and other generic american kids shows.

I find it fascinating that he gets such a perfect posh English accent in his sleep. I know he was here before in the late 70's early 80's and was about 5 yrs old when he got hit by a bus and killed and I think he is a very old soul so may have been around a number of times.

Yes am one of those hippy freaks.

I had to post as I find this statement very disturbing , I am trying to imagine looking at my little girl and instead of seeing her for the beautiful creation she is I am seeing her as something recycleable who has been here before and has previously been involved in a terrible accident.

I am not knocking your beliefs but to me this view just makes me shudder, probably because I live in the here and now mind frame.

[Wolfie]

I was doing some deep healing on him a few years ago and it was like watching a movie of his other life. I have also seen my mothers other life and now know why everything to do with the orient scares the bejaysus outta her.

As for being barking mad, maybe I am but maybe Im not.

Fair enough on the past lives bit - what about future lives?

If possible, could you check out if Ireland make the play-off's and who we draw?

Last thing - next weeks Lotto numbers would be nice.

(Although, keep that on the down low, in case someone posts them on the Internet or something).

[dahamsta]

I'll have the Euromillions numbers so please, I don't like settling for second best like Wolfie there.

[Wolfie]

I'll have the Euromillions numbers so please, I don't like settling for second best like Wolfie there.

Good point.

You see, safe in the knowledge of the football's play-off results of the future, I'll bet all of my Lotto money on those results - hence yielding a bigger windfall!!!

[dahamsta]

I'll see your Lotto wager and raise you by a Euromillions jackpot.

[Magicme]

Ha ha. Yeah am working on the future viewing but have to clear the clutter from the past first.

First, I get what you are saying and I also view my children as amazing unique and created by me but we all carry the past in our genes, so are all therefore a recycled version of a past. Doesnt make us any less wonderous though.

I know it might seem mad to some of you (or most of you!) but I have had various expereinces in my life that have led me to my beliefs and have as KH said shaped my individual world. We all have our own reality. No one person's is more correct than anothers. We all think we are right throughout our lives otherwise we would give up on ourselves.

[micls]

Ha ha. Yeah am working on the future viewing but have to clear the clutter from the past first.

Reminds me of the joke "Why is the headline never 'Psychic wins lotto'"

[Magicme]

Mainly as it goes against the code of ethics. Its considered cheating. Ill gotten gains will only harm you more and that is why if am casting a spell I always conclude with "and if it harms none, so mote it be". It is possible to get the lottery numbers but its considered a no no as it would appear to demonstrate greed.

[micls]

Mainly as it goes against the code of ethics. Its considered cheating. Ill gotten gains will only harm you more and that is why if am casting a spell I always conclude with "and if it harms none, so mote it be". It is possible to get the lottery numbers but its considered a no no as it would appear to demonstrate greed.

And there are no greedy psychics I'm skeptical!

[kingdom hoop]

Adam, I did not and do not quibble with your statement of itself. Indeed I think it's an excellent way to approach issues, for the most part. Where I think it can distract is when science is simply incapable of offering an explanation for something that exists. What happens then?

Does the reality become false because it cannot be explained? Do you just ignore what cannot be explained by science? Or do we sometimes necessarily have to engage in faith-based 'reasoning'?

Take our individual conceptions of the world. There is no scientific fact to explain why I view the world the way I do. I know there's "My Reality" - it exists, it is a current state; but the exact process, how I got there, is inexplicable. And just because it can't be explained doesn't make it untrue, nor does it mean I shouldn't place any emphasis on my intuitive experience. Some things aren't 'there' to be made facts of or available for scientific comprehension. That's why I don't think it's fair to categorically state “there are no angels or fairies” - there are! Just not in a form available for you or I to understand.

[Hairy Bowsie]

This is some funny stuff There's a lot of nonsense on foot.ie at the best of times but this thread is by the far the best of it. Past lives, holisitic healing, alien abductions and faires, i had to double check the date to make sure it wasn't april fools

As for being barking mad, maybe I am but maybe Im not.

Make no mistake about it love, you are a loop the loop!!