For homework I asked you to write a comment on the paranormal and Susan Blackmore. You had to:
i) Describe an one of your own paranormal experiences and try to explain it rationally.
ii) Secondly comment on Susan Blackmore's decision to abandon her research into the paranormal.
I invited Dr.Blackmore to respond to the comments of Jerome, Saba and Adrien, and she generously accepted.
Jerome G. said...
.....Finally, we don't know everything about some fields which can explain paranormal phenomen, for example quantic physic. Maybe, we'll made some breakthroughs which will prove that there is nothing of paranormal, but only sciences and logic. For example in medecine to explain how in few cases, diseases disappear without explanation. But obviously, it's more difficult to try to demonstrate an event than believe that it's paranormal.
I would like to finish with the Susan Blackmore's decision. I think it's a pity to stop something which occupyed 30 years of her life. Besides, all the researchers find one day in front of them deep deadlocks, but they don't stop ... A real researcher stop only when he finds what is looking for.
REPLY
Yes, it is a pity to stop something you've devoted your life to and become an expert on. On the other hand it is also a pity to sepnd your whole life seeking something that may not exist. In my own case I felt I had done all I could usefully do. Perhaps it is true that I am a psi-inhibitory experimenter and will never find the phenomena. Perhaps it is that I was looking in the wrong places, or using the wrong methods (although I tried so very many different ones). Or perhaps, as I suspect, there are no paranormal phenomena to be found.
Whichever is the truth, I felt it was far better for me to get out and leave others to carry on the search. I was clearly getting nowhere and expected I would go on getting nowhere if I persisted. In the event I have loved exploring new fields - throwing myself into memetics, and consciousness studies for example. I think this has been a far bettter use of my time and energy than carrying on with parapsychology. As for the others who have carried on; so far they have still failed to find any convincing evidence but they might, and if they do I can only wish them luck and congratulate them. I don't think it will ever happen but if it does it will be a great discovery of enormous importance for science.
Saba said...
So you asked us today to write a comment about the idea of Ms. Blackmore concerning the inexistance of the paranormals. I think it's a personal approach. I don't know how we can generalize such an aspect. It's so related to the society and personal beliefs.In my country ,Iran, for instance paranormal is something normal!
Everyday in the media, at school, in the public transportation you can hear people explaining their paranormal observations and experiences. It's something deeply hacked on the culture and after that on the religion(like they believe in the religous ceremonies they see the ghosts of the imams) .Whereas here in France it's compeletely different.
Personaly something that happended to me several times and I can't find the explanation is that I sleep but I see me from exterior, I shout, I can hear me, I even see the room, the person beside me, I try to move but it's IMPOSSIBLE, it's like something so heavy is on me! this situation lasts 2 minutes more or less and then it's like I come back to the world!
I don't know if it's a good example of paranormal, may be there are some classical psychological reasons,I don't know, so I can't judge Ms. Blackmore if she's right or not. If she couldn't find any reason to be right in 30 years I can't find it in 1 week :)
I just wanted to add that I'm glad to have this occasion of learning something that I never had time or chance to deal with. This is really amazing! Thanks
REPLY
Saba gives a classic description of sleep paralysis; an experience that occurs in all cultures (at least in all those studied) and often to around 10-20% of people, with just a very few people having it frequently. Many cultures have their own "sleep paralysis myths" such as the Old Hag, the grey ghost, Kanishibari, and many more.
We now know that it happens when the physiological mechanisms keeping waking separate from dreaming sleep fail. In REM sleep all your muscles are paralysed so that you do not act out your dreams. Usually you never know about this, but on rare occasions (e.g. with disturbed sleep, shift work, anxiety etc), you partly wake up while still paralysed. If you try to breathe you feel as though you can't because breathing is under automatic control. This gives rise to the feeling of being suffocated or held down by a heavy weight on your chest.
Out-of-body experiences sometimes happen at the same time, perhaps because of the attempt to move. Indeed some traditional methods for inducing OBEs use sleep paralysis as a starting point. We now know that OBEs can be produced by stimulating areas of the temporal lobe, and are also quite common. Although it feels as though something has left the body, it has not. The OBE is a wonderful, and sometimes life-changing experience, but it is not paranormal.
Sleep paralysis is a perfect example of something that appears at first to be mysterious and frightening but is in fact perfectly understandable. Personally I love finding out the truth about weird experiences - but I know some people prefer them to remain a mystery. The thing is, there are so many amazing mysteries out there (consciousness itself for example) that it's best, I think, to solve the ones we can and move on. This is one of the joys of doing science.
with best wishes,
Sue.
For more on SP see http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/SI98.html
For more on OBEs and NTE see http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/si91nde.html.
For Dr.Blackmore's own OBE experience please go to
http://www.issc-taste.org/arc/dbo.cgi?set=expom&id=00075&ss=1
Adrien said...
Personally, I have just one paranormal experiment: I was 15 and with my friends we played the well-known game of the glass : Scrabble’s Letters, a glass and a circle of friends with a lot of beliefs…. . Ha, there’s also a sad story behind : a loss in a family, someone to get in touch with… Well, this experiment was rather impressive. First I was skeptic, we all put a finger on the glass except me (skepticism…), in the middle of a circle of letters, unsorted. The glass did move. (Well, They had our fingers on it so someone pushed it, don’t you think ?). Of course someone pushed it but what is strange is that nobody thinks that he is the one moving the glass ! We have been in touch with the grandfather of a friend, who “claimed” things apparently true… Hard to believe but what is strange is that, in my opinion ,no one could have been able to move the glass fluently enough to point at each letter so fast… A strange experiment…To explain that materialistically, I would say that their beliefs were so strong that their subconscious made them believe what they wanted : a mind, a spirit took control of their fingers… In my case, I was not touching the glass, but It seems paranormal to me … I guess I wanted to believe in too….
REPLY
Adrien describes the modern version of the "Ouija board". I have had plenty of experience with this, and it can be very disturbing, and even dangerous if people ask the wrong questions and believe too strongly in the answers.
I have done several experiments in which we turned the letters upside down, so that the people round the table cannot see them. Presumably the spirits ought not to be fooled by this trick, but the Ouija board does not work unless everyone can see the letters. I think Adrien is right, no single person pushes the glass (except rarely when they want to cheat), but everyone together can move it very effectively. This is "unconscious muscular action" first described by Michael Faraday in the 19th century. Usually nothing much happens for a while, until everyone's arms are getting tired, and they begin to sway a little, and then become synchronised in their movements.
I have never seen any evidence that this is paranormal, but I have seen many people convinced that it is. If you want to try it yourself don't ask silly questions about when you're going to die etc - it will only upset you. Try the experiment I did, or try concealing something in the next room and asking what it is. If the people round the table know the answer then the glass will spell it out; if they don't it will not. This is a simple way to show how it works.
with best wishes,
Sue.
Return to
Cultural Evolution Mainpage
Return to
Nature, Art & Language
No comments:
Post a Comment