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Bending spoons (pg. 4)
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| Flyboy217 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Arbiter
I am a bit skeptical about similar phenomena generally, but I think it would be a mistake to dismiss these claims. That said, there are a couple of questions that would have to be answered before I could accept it as real:
- Why hasn't anyone been able to demonstrate the ability under controlled scientific conditions?
- Why cutlery (and only cutlery)? I can't imagine that the ability would only apply to forks and spoons. If I had such an ability, you could bet I'd be spending hours looking for a practical application for it instead of writing about it on the internet. The behavior of those who claim it is real seems rather inconsistent with the claims...
That said, there are few people who believe in dowsing and I am quite certain of the existence of such an ability.
I wish there were more concrete information regarding this phenomenon. The UA article suggested that "laboratory tests would commence within the next couple of weeks." Given that the article is from 2001, I would assume they're finished. If so, the data should be available unless it was never released due to positive outcome bias. I can't find it, however. Not a good sign. |
Yes, that is the main difficulty, isn't it? I see at least a few potential causes for this, none of which I am certain should be strong enough to yield the present lack of evidence for psi. Consider the following quote from Crichton:
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But I had bent a spoon, and I knew it wasn't a trick. I looked around the room and saw little children, eight or nine years old, bending large metal bars. They weren't trying to trick anybody. They were just little kids having a good time. Staying up past their bedtimes on a Friday night, going along with the adults, doing this silly bending stuff.
So much for the controversy between magicians, I thought. Because spoon bending obviously must have some ordinary explanation, since a hundred people from all walks of life were doing it. And it was hard to feel any sort of mystery: you just rub the spoon for a while and pretty soon it gets soft, and it bends. And that's that.
Then I got bored. I didn't do any more spoon bending. I went and got coffee and a cookie. I was now far more interested in what kind of cookies they had then anything else. |
"Oooh, I can bend spoons with my mind. Oooh, cookies!" It's almost farcical. Material that is more "far-fetched" than the sci-fi he writes, and he can brush it off so easily? Keep in mind he wholly accepts its reality--he doesn't think it's a trick. Several quotes from the other links show that others feel an equal amount of enthusiasm. Solid metal melts and turns to putty for no reason, I shape it, I giggle and then go home. So there is a clear lack of real interest in these things.
As for why there's no hard laboratory evidence for it, I can think of several things. First is performance anxiety, which is in general scoffed at. The "fork-you" link sums it up nicely though:
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The general attitude was that if it can't be proven by being reliably performed under laboratory conditions, then it's totally bogus. A hoax. That's like saying if you can't get an erection at will in a laboratory with bright lights and strangers measuring your willy, then you're obviously impotent. Give me a break! I may be a girl, but I know about performance anxiety. |
In addition, most scientists would prefer to do their testing with small-scale events. Much easier and safer to test micro-PK than macro-PK, they argue. The thing is, there actually IS a considerable amount of statistical evidence that has been amassed for psi. Under the current heap of results, even the hard-nosed skeptics have been forced to admit that there is "something interesting" going on that warrants "further attention." It's mostly the general populace (read: the moron TAs posting idiot comments on here) that are wholeheartedly convinced that there is no reality to it. In fact, several studies have shown that belief in psi is correlated very positively with both education and intelligence.
Amongst the intelligent friends I have with whom I've discussed this, I've found several underlying issues:
- It can't feed me or build me a house, so who cares?
- We have more important issues, like defense.
- It would take too much practice to learn to use.
The majority of intelligent people I talk to are willing to consider the evidence, but none care enough to spend the time to investigate such matters themselves. Again, it's just not that interesting.
Personally, I heartily disagree. If I witnessed the same things Crichton did, you can be sure I would make it my goal to educate people about it. Very few people seem to have the credibility, intelligence, and most of all desire to do that. They are far outnumbered by the religious and scientistic (see "scientism") zealots who apparently do all in their power to refute it, true or not.
For some good meta-analysis of statistical results in the field, check out Dean Radin's "The Conscious Universe." It is decidedly unscientific to dismiss these claims out of hand any longer. |
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| xGirlx |
If this was stated already (forgive me) but it's still morning for me and I'm not reading every long, in depth post concerning this.
Is there any video documentation on this? |
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| Absolut_Vodka |
| Yeah I cant believe people are so ignorant to actually believe David Blaine. Yes his tricks are good, but does it not cross your mind that if the things he did were possible he wouldnt be doing street magic. Remember, its his tv show, so you're just seeing what he wants you to. *Sigh sigh sigh* |
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| Orbax |
It is not so much the spoon you are trying to bend, rather, the WILL of the spoon
"rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon rubber spoon" |
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| sharpeye00 |
| quote: | "I looked down. My spoon had begun to bend. I hadn't even realized. The metal was completely pliable, like soft plastic."
-Crichton |
mmM.D rug.s |
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| {b.s.e.} |
i don't think the human brain could generate that much energy..
this guy would be on Real TV or a Fox TV special, if this were true.
i mean, come on. it's one thing to pontificate (ooh, good word) about a subject like this, but it's impossible. the military would have already taken his brain for research, and kidnapped all those kids that were bending metal bars so that they could create supermutant robot babies. |
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| Flyboy217 |
| quote: | Originally posted by {b.s.e.}
i don't think the human brain could generate that much energy..
this guy would be on Real TV or a Fox TV special, if this were true.
i mean, come on. it's one thing to pontificate (ooh, good word) about a subject like this, but it's impossible. the military would have already taken his brain for research, and kidnapped all those kids that were bending metal bars so that they could create supermutant robot babies. |
You might be interested to know that the military does employ such people. Check out the CIA's Star Gate program. It's declassified now, and they claimed to have great success with it. |
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| Floorfiller |
| i like to think that somewhere in a deep forest is a temple of monks that can bend spoons with their minds hehehe |
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| Orbax |
| And they use the spoons to make Black and Tans |
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| Floorfiller |
| i like to think that somewhere in a deep forest is a temple of monks that can bend spoons with their minds hehehe |
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| Slylee |
| quote: | Originally posted by benh
wow! pictures of bent spoons! that is so amazing! where can i sign up! hahahaha |
hahahahahahha
i know seriously...video or stfu. ahhhhhhhhhh i just said that didn't i!
im a ing geek. |
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| KilldaDJ |
| why the hell would i want to bend a ing spoon? |
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