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Maglev
Skeptic Friend
Canada
65 Posts |
 Posted - 01/08/2004 : 12:01:42
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Found this on canada.com: Proof that the 'force' really is with us
From the article:quote:
"Basically visual perception then is two parts. It's got the sort of pictures we all know and love, and then we've got this other thing, this feeling, this using the force, this sensing stream, and they work in parallel, I think. They both operate at the same time,"
Not as woo-woo as this quote makes it sound. Interesting read at any rate... Be sure to check some of the comments left by readers; be warned, the comments are a lot more woo-woo than the article itself.
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Maglev
"The awe it inspired in me made the awe that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly, silly beside it. I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day."
--Douglas Adams, on evolutionary biology. |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2004 : 14:02:03 [Permalink]
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What a silly article (assuming that I read it correctly). My understanding is that if you are shown a picture and then later shown it again in which something has changed if you can't say exactly what has changed, then "YOU HAVE USED THE FORCE" to detect the change.
My wife came home the other day and I said, "gee, you look nice today". She said, "that's because I have a new dress on". Little did I know that I had just used the "FORCE" to detect the change in her. Give me a light saber and stand back!
The report said
quote:
The controlled experiment included about 80 participants, mostly UBC students picked at random, and while about one third of the group reported feeling a change or sensing that a change was occurring, about half felt nothing.
What happened to the rest - did they get capture by the Empire? |
If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2004 : 00:05:57 [Permalink]
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My sentiments exactly, furshur. The only real "woo-woo" thing here is the attempt to pin a popular-culture label ("the Force") upon an ability that apparently only a minority of college students have.
I can't deny the occassional feeling, upon entering a room, of "okay, what's different?!?" It stops me dead in my tracks until I figure out that, for example, my wife has moved the potted plants outdoors again because it's spring, so they are no longer cluttering up a corner of the living room I didn't pay much attention to, anyway.
There is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about such an experience, until someone attempts to identify it with a mystical telekinetic and psionic talent brought about by fictional microbes. The researcher may be brilliant in finding a way to measure a completely natural ability in humans, but is a complete idiot for attempting to popularize his discovery by conflating it with an obviously-fabricated mind power. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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