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bngbuck
SFN Addict

USA
2437 Posts

Posted - 01/23/2008 :  18:06:57   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send bngbuck a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Dude.....

You really don't get it, Dude. The "betrayal" was a joke! I really want somebody, anybody, even Humbert!, that truly can Think Critically to offer a sensible, logical explanation for this. I can't! I may be too close to it! It really happened!

Rain on my parade, hell, all of you can shit on my parade if you can tender something more than the trite old "you're hallucinating" or "you're lying" cop-outs. Give me a real explanation, and you can use all the perjorative and invective you choose; if you make sense, I'll genuinely thank you! I have thought about this for 32 years, and I don't have a clue!

With that, here goes:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The year was 1976. July 27th, 1976. Hot summer day in Denver.

I was working the sales floor at my Honda dealership near downtown Denver. We were short a couple of salesmen that day, so I was out of the office, greeting customers. Another salesman was with me, whom I was going to turn the "lookie-lou" over to, if I could get the guy interested in the bike he was looking at.

As I was showing the new Honda CB450, climbing on the saddle in the showroom, I suddenly stopped in the middle of a sentence. I was jolted with adrenaline! Suddenly, from nothing, I knew that my 13 year old son, Brad, was in trouble! Big trouble, big hurting trouble! That's all, no details, no "voice", no cry for help except that I knew that he had been hurt!

I had seen him that morning, asleep in his room, when I left for work. My wife and seven year old daughter were also home. Everyone was fine. Except that now I was suddenly in a panic because my son was hurt, bad! I had to go to him!

I told the customer I had to leave; told Jan, the salesman, to carry on as I had to leave; it was an emergency! Jan asked "What's an emergency?", puzzled as hell. I shouted over my shoulder as I left, "BRAD, He's in trouble! He's hurt!"

I raced outside and looked at the motorcycles we had lined up in front of the store - about thirty, different sizes and models. There was a 450cc, fast street bike with keys in the ignition. I climbed on and then stopped. I knew I had better take a CR250 steet-legal dirt bike! Why, I didn't know. But I jumped off the 450 and kick started the dirt bike, and took off in a cloud of two-cycle smoke!

I went directly to my home in Englewood, a suburb 10 miles south of downtown, riding way too fast for anyone's safety. I laid the bike down on the lawn in front of my front door and ran to the door. My wife, came running, saying "Bill, Bill, what's the matter? I shouted "Where's Brad?"

"He went trail riding about an hour ago," she said. "Where?" I yelled.

"Santa Fe trails", she said, "what's the matter?" "He's hurt", I said and took off.

Santa Fe trails was an off-the-street, several square mile open area of trails and dirt, and trees and hills that was popular as a dirt bike recreation area; about five miles from our home. I HAD NEVER BEEN THERE BEFORE, but I had an idea of where it was, and I raced in that direction as fast as I dared on the bumpy two-stroke. Somehow, I managed to ride directly to the area, race over several miles of dirt trails and hills, and go directly to where Brad was lying on the ground!

He had taken a little jump on his bike, turned the wheel in mid air, landed tipped and caught his foot in the frame crotch, breaking his leg! There was another kid with him, his friend Bill Campbell, who was scared to death and crying, but not hurt. I said, "Bill, how long ago did Brad fall? " "About 20-30 minutes", Bill said. "Have you called for help?" "No. I didn't know what to do."

I said, "Bill, ride back to the street, get to a phone, call Swedish Hospital and get an ambulance to the trailhead. I'll get Brad up to the trailhead, GET AN AMBULANCE. NOW!" He took off in a cloud of dust.

I lifted Brad up, quiet before but now screaming with pain, and got him on the back of the narrow saddle of the 250. I managed to negotiate back to the trailhead with Brad crying and holding on for dear life. The ambulance arrived, took Brad to the ER, and directly into surgery. Compound fracture of the tibia!

Well, all's well that ends well. He healed with no complications, I got back to the store late that afternoon with an incredible story to tell, and Jan sold the 450 to the customer I abandoned!

Here's the problem as I see it:

1. I had absolutely no idea that Brad had gone, or had intended to go trail riding that day! He was asleep when I left, he had not talked about trail riding for weeks or more, and that was only the second time he had done it that summer! In fact, it was the only time in over two months that he had ridden his trail bike!

2. I had not talked to my wife from the time that I left in the morning until I saw her at the door when I raced home!

3. I wanted to ride the 450 fast street bike to home, but instead I took the 250 dirt bike. Only a dirt bike could have taken me to Brad!
It seemed irrational to take the dirt bike as a fast transport to home on the streets, but even not knowing or guessing where I was going to find him, I changed and took the dirt bike!

4. The sudden "feeling" that I had at approximately the exact time Brad was hurt, was during a sales presentation (which I took very seriously), it was overpowering in it's intensity, and I acted, from the standpoint of everyone at the dealership, completely irrationally when I stopped in the middle of a sales pitch, ran outside yelling about Brad being hurt, jumped on a dirt bike, and took off like a madman!

5. I had never been to or inside of Santa Fe trails park. It was not my marketing area and too far to use for demos from my downtown dealership. I knew of it and had a vague idea of where it was, but that was all. I rode directly to the entrance, and more, several miles inside the park directly to my son! I found him in a matter of minutes inside of a several square mile park area, full of hills and trees!


That's about all there is to it, call me what you like, this event happened exactly as I have described it. I am not postulating any kind of supernatural deities or apparitions or powers or the like as having advised me of my son's plight. But one second, Brad was the farthest thing from my mind, the next second he was all I could think about.

Telepathy, or much more unlikely to my mind, clairvoyance (in the sense of present time "clear seeing", precognition is so far beyond the woo-woo pale that I can't even hardly type the word) are the only explanations that I can think of. I definitely do not believe in clairvoyance because it sounds to me like throwing a ball into an empty field and having "something" throw it back. Some have compared the concept to radar or sonar, reflective in nature, but it's too damn far out for me in the first place to start fucking microdefining it!

Telepathy, which I have to be agnostic about because of this experience, is the only answer that I can muster! At least, it would be analogous of radio, whether one-way or tranceiver transmission!


Jan, the salesman, went on to his own dealership. I talk to him frequently, and he remembers the story precisely! Jan shrugs his shoulders and says, "Things happen!"

Bill Campbell, is still Brad's close friend and remembers the incident vividly! He thinks it was Jesus or some such crap!

Brad lives in Denver, I am in Idaho. Almost every time I see him, he brings up the subject-- what do I think? He's a pretty good skeptic, He remains noncommittal!

Woo, Woo, here comes the BNG Express! Somebody STOP ME!(Apologies to Jim Carrey, AKA the Green Mask!)
Edited by - bngbuck on 01/23/2008 18:15:22
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 01/23/2008 :  19:48:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
bng said:
You really don't get it, Dude. The "betrayal" was a joke!

Really? Gee, I hadn't noticed....

Seeing as how it wasn't really all that funny, I just addressed the point you were trying to make under the mask of humor. My bad, I guess, if you didn't get that I got your joke and decided to ignore it.

As for the rest, hrrmmm.... Sadly, the only way I can think of to test it would be to take your son, without your knowledge, and cause him some injury while observing your brain under an MRI, also without your knowledge.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That's a joke, FYI.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I dunno. Its interesting, but in the abscence of a way to verify and test such events all we are left with is an unexplained event. How does a mother lift a car off a child? That sort of thing.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 01/23/2008 :  19:48:59   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
You know Bill, I for one, would love it if it was telepathy that motivated you that day. My mother has a few such stories that I simply can't debunk.

These kinds of stories are interesting. Unfortunately, “interesting” is as far as I can get to without more information. I get stuck because all of the evidence for telepathy really is anecdotal, as far as I know.

We don't know everything. I keep the door open that far.

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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Chippewa
SFN Regular

USA
1496 Posts

Posted - 01/23/2008 :  19:50:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Chippewa's Homepage Send Chippewa a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by bngbuck

If anyone is curious and feels that they might be able to offer a sensible, rational explanation - that is not telepathy - for an experience that I and several others had years ago, I would be glad to share it with you!


A partial explanation that is not telepathy:

1. You worked at a motorcycle dealership. Therefore you and your family had access to motorcycles.
2. Your son had a dirt bike and being young, was apt to ride it.
3. Accidents happen - especially to young men seeking fun on a dirt bike.
4. You had been to the place where the accident occurred before and were familiar with the topography, thus the dangers.

Therefore:
It didn't matter that you had no idea your son was going to ride that day. The factors made for a probability of having an accident greater than zero.

It could be explained that you had an unconscious notion perhaps through subtle clues observed earlier, that your son might have an accident. Something during your dealership demonstration triggered a subconscious dread of your son having an accident that by coincidence corresponded with your son actually having an accident.

The conscious or unconscious application of symbolic instances that authorize or justify a notion or premonition is sometimes referred to as "spontaneous divination." You may have experienced a series of these while making the sales pitch for the motorcycle. One need not be religious to have this feeling.

Anyway, I'm glad your son ended up OK.
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bngbuck
SFN Addict

USA
2437 Posts

Posted - 01/23/2008 :  21:03:12   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send bngbuck a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Chippewa.....

Thanks for your suggestions. You wrote:
4. You had been to the place where the accident occurred before and were familiar with the topography, thus the dangers.
I posted:
5. I had never been to or inside of Santa Fe trails park. It was not my marketing area and too far to use for demos from my downtown dealership. I knew of it and had a vague idea of where it was, but that was all. I rode directly to the entrance, and more, several miles inside the park directly to my son! I found him in a matter of minutes inside of a several square mile park area, full of hills and trees!
I don't understand your point.

However:
It could be explained that you had an unconscious notion perhaps through subtle clues observed earlier, that your son might have an accident. Something during your dealership demonstration triggered a subconscious dread of your son having an accident that by coincidence corresponded with your son actually having an accident.

The conscious or unconscious application of symbolic instances that authorize or justify a notion or premonition is sometimes referred to as "spontaneous divination." You may have experienced a series of these while making the sales pitch for the motorcycle. One need not be religious to have this feeling.
This is an interesting idea.Wiki defines:
Spontaneous Divination. An unconstrained form of divination, free from any particular medium, and actually a generalization of all types of divination. The answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear. Some Christians and members of other religions use a form of bibliomancy: they ask a question, riffle the pages of their holy book, and take as their answer the first passage their eyes light upon. The Bible itself expresses mixed opinions on divination; see e.g. Cleromancy. Other forms of spontaneous divination include reading auras and New Age methods of Feng Shui such as "intuitive" and Fuzion.
which isn't much help. I'm not really into cleromancy or Fuzion. There are many references to feng shui, which appears to me to be woo-wooey!

Do you have another reference to spontaneous divination?

It could be explained that you had an unconscious notion perhaps through subtle clues observed earlier, that your son might have an accident. Something during your dealership demonstration triggered a subconscious dread of your son having an accident that by coincidence corresponded with your son actually having an

I particularly like this idea, the implication that epiphany could be an associative event is indeed a stimulating notion!
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Chippewa
SFN Regular

USA
1496 Posts

Posted - 01/23/2008 :  21:36:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Chippewa's Homepage Send Chippewa a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by bngbuck

...I had never been to or inside of Santa Fe trails park. It was not my marketing area and too far to use for demos from my downtown dealership. I knew of it and had a vague idea of where it was, but that was all.


I missed that. I stand corrected.

Originally posted by bngbuck

..."spontaneous divination."...Do you have another reference to spontaneous divination?


I was thinking of how Julian Jaynes described some examples in his book; "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind". A simple description would be someone glancing out a window and seeing doves fly away, generating a symbolic feeling that this minor occurrence had significance relating to (maybe) something they were pondering or had unconscious concerns about. I've seen the term applied to more defined religious rituals and superstitions as well as carnival fortune telling, but it could have a subtle innate psychological effect.
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bngbuck
SFN Addict

USA
2437 Posts

Posted - 01/24/2008 :  00:29:36   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send bngbuck a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Chippewa.....

Jaynes' well-known bicameralism appears to many to be a Velikovskyian wild swing at psychohistory with little reference to the psychology of modern man. I frankly don't see its relevance to phenomena that may be suggestive of so-called psychic events such as telepathy. Daniel Dennet finds it "interesting, but far from persuasive", but the theory may indeed shed some light on the psychology of shamans and soothsayers, indeed on the very origins of religious belief.

But to substitute an even more highly imaginative postulate for one that admittedly is on pretty shaky ground to start with, seems to me to be escaping from the undertow to sink into the quicksand.

I mean, so some unknown and unrelated stimulus perhaps triggered my sudden panic concerning my son's safety? So far, so good, it's as good an explanation for the origin of the "epiphany" as any.

But for me to obsessively, and apparently irrationally, follow up on this wild hair and then find out within minutes that the "vision" was indeed 100% correct in detail, even to the timing; and then to blithely charge it off as a mere "coincidence"; is to me as simple- minded as saying "God did it".

The origins of "spontaneous divination" may very well be what you describe, associative in nature. But it is in the incredibly accurate confirmation of the 'divination' that "coincidence" appears to me to be a massive cop-out. One might as well say "you and all the others merely imagined all these events, they never happened" and truly dismiss it out of hand! The devil is in the detail that the divination actually occurred as imagined!
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Chippewa
SFN Regular

USA
1496 Posts

Posted - 01/24/2008 :  02:35:53   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Chippewa's Homepage Send Chippewa a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by bngbuck

...I frankly don't see its relevance to phenomena that may be suggestive of so-called psychic events such as telepathy....

It doesn't. That's what my point was. The so-called "telepathy" was within your perception, not in the actual events. Not externally brought forth to influence you.

Originally posted by bngbuck

...the theory may indeed shed some light on the psychology of shamans and soothsayers, indeed on the very origins of religious belief...

That's one of the best concepts in Jaynes' book. That, and the origins of religious authorization in the brain rather than from a "God". And likely also the concept based on clinical studies that consciousness is actually not necessary for thinking.

Originally posted by bngbuck

...I mean, so some unknown and unrelated stimulus perhaps triggered my sudden panic concerning my son's safety?...


Not necessarily "unknown and unrelated" and not mystical. The "stimulus" could have been the culmination of little behavioral clues subconsciously filed away; perhaps your son's enthusiasm for riding a motorcycle in general, his friends attitudes, something specifically related to the inherent dangers of motorcycles, a movie you saw, something someone said that day, all gradually compiled under an unrecognized growing concern over time to which your unconscious conclusion to suddenly take matters into you own hands and go see by chance coincided with an accident that you intuitively responded too. By hindsight it seemed to be connected. (I'm guessing, since I wasn't there.)

Originally posted by bngbuck

But for me to obsessively, and apparently irrationally, follow up on this wild hair and then find out within minutes that the "vision" was indeed 100% correct in detail, even to the timing; and then to blithely charge it off as a mere "coincidence"; is to me as simple- minded as saying "God did it".


God didn't do it. You did. Or, "the inherent quest for authorization" later justified it. Simultaneity and coincidence can occur without a deity getting involved. All these things seem trivial individually. You and your son like motorcycles. Accidents can happen.

Originally posted by bngbuck

The origins of "spontaneous divination" may very well be what you describe, associative in nature. But it is in the incredibly accurate confirmation of the 'divination' that "coincidence" appears to me to be a massive cop-out.


I'm suggesting coincidence is a factor, not a cop-out. The term "spontaneous divination" does not imply an actual belief in divine intervention. It derives from the study of religious rituals and the human need for symbolic representations. An atheist can equally be swayed unconsciously by a form of it. It also, I think melds into actual symbolism in art, music and literature, but that's another story.

Originally posted by bngbuck

One might as well say "you and all the others merely imagined all these events, they never happened" and truly dismiss it out of hand! The devil is in the detail that the divination actually occurred as imagined!


Not quite. The events actually happened. However, the interpretation of those events may contain imagined (or symbolically influenced) elements which disappeared afterward, allowing the two events, (the accident and your need to rescue your son,) to seem directly connected without coincidence.

The justification for "authorization" is deeply ingrained in the human mind. It can stem from irrational ritualistic behavior and ceremony to highbrow artistic symbolism as well as rational science and mathematics. In a subtle way I'm using it too by selecting Jaynes' theories as rational justification for the perceived "telepathy" of your experience.

Anyway, I offer this as an alternative explanation and maybe others can offer different insights.


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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 01/24/2008 :  07:37:25   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well, it's self-contradictory statements like this:
Originally posted by bngbuck

The sudden "feeling" that I had at approximately the exact time Brad was hurt...
that later get turned into statements like this:
Originally posted by bngbuck

...the "vision" was indeed 100% correct in detail, even to the timing...
that make me doubt statements like this:
Originally posted by bngbuck

...this event happened exactly as I have described it.
very much.

The fact is that neither you nor Bill Campbell knows to this day how long it was between the time your son broke his leg and when you showed up. The best he could manage was a ten-minute range of times, but your self-reinforcement of your astonishment has transmogrified that into "exactly," and then you use that to brush off "coincidence" as a perfectly rational explanation.

Had you been thinking straight when all that occured, you would have called home first to find out where your son was, so you could ride directly to him rather than waste time going home. Because you obviously were in a panic, and thus irrational to some extent, the idea that the story you've told would be verified if we could build a time-travelling helicopter from which to watch you is on highly unstable ground. After all, nobody else involved can verify anything about the story during those times that you were alone.

People get "feelings" that their loved ones are hurt all the time, and most of them turn out to not be true. Most of them we ignore because we don't also get an adrenaline dump. Other times, we call to check and find the person to be okay. But if this sort of feeling happens to 0.001% of people each day, then it happens nearly three thousand times a day in the United Stated alone - about a million "events" every year. Some of those are bound to correspond to actual harm.

As they say, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

- 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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bngbuck
SFN Addict

USA
2437 Posts

Posted - 01/24/2008 :  16:14:30   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send bngbuck a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Chippewa.....

The so-called "telepathy" was within your perception, not in the actual events. Not externally brought forth to influence you.
and
....to which your unconscious conclusion to suddenly take matters into you own hands and go see by chance coincided with an accident that you intuitively responded too. By hindsight it seemed to be connected.
I'll go along with the possibility that my concern for Brad's safety could have been a result of unconscious machinations of my mind triggered by various miscellaneous events of the day, and therefore was internal, not an external "telepathic" stimulation. But the astonishing coincidence in time of the conception of hurt and pain with the actual event of hurt and pain is what puzzles me.
God didn't do it. You did. Or, "the inherent quest for authorization" later justified it. Simultaneity and coincidence can occur without a deity getting involved. All these things seem trivial individually. You and your son like motorcycles. Accidents can happen
Chippewa, I have never indicated in any way that I felt God, Jesus, the angel Moroni or any other supernatural being, deity, or power; was a factor in my experience. To conceive of telepathy as a possible psychological phenomenon is in no way tantamount to invoking gods, angels, Saviours, or any such religious gibberish. Please! Surely you don't equate parapsychology with religiosity! Both may be utter nonsense, but, if so, they are entirely different forms of nonsense!

Of course there is such a thing as coincidence and simultaneity of events. There is also a well developed science of statistical probability which I have studied academically and professionally practiced both in the private and the public sector. The statistical probability of the two events that I described happening within a relatively few minutes of each other is almost incalculable!
Not quite. The events actually happened. However, the interpretation of those events may contain imagined (or symbolically influenced) elements which disappeared afterward, allowing the two events, (the accident and your need to rescue your son,) to seem directly connected without coincidence.
There certainly was coincidence. The question is, what is the probablity of such a coincidence? Astronomically low! When such unlikely coincidences occur in scientific investigation, frequently the investigators look diligently for other explanations! For me, God or his lieutenants, is not an explanation!
....to suddenly take matters into you own hands and go see by chance coincided with an accident that you intuitively responded to.
"an accident that I intuitively responded to" You have stated it well! That is the whole problem here, Chippewa I responded at almost (within minutes) the same time that the accident happened. Did I respond or was it a mere coincidence? To me, the improbability of the latter suggests the possibility of the former. Was it telepathy? I would desperately like to find another explanation that does not involve negatively SC (Skeptically Correct) terminology. Your comments on the possible origins of my "vision" have been very helpful, and I thank you for them. You, or no one yet, has addressed the improbability of the temporal CO-INCIDENCE of the two events.

I believe Dave is struggling with that matter in a post below yours that I have not read in it's entirety. I leave now to read his analysis and think through a response! Thank you again for your insights and help.

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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist

USA
4955 Posts

Posted - 01/24/2008 :  17:06:21   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Cuneiformist a Private Message  Reply with Quote
This obviously hasn't happened, before, bngbuck, correct? That is, on other occasions when your son was seriously, hurt-- or other child(ren) or your wife, or siblings, or parents, or dear friends-- you didn't react in any way unusual, correct?
Edited by - Cuneiformist on 01/24/2008 20:03:16
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 01/24/2008 :  17:34:40   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by bngbuck

The question is, what is the probablity of such a coincidence? Astronomically low!
The Law of Truly Large Numbers suggests otherwise.
I believe Dave is struggling with that matter...
I struggle with nothing. I've provided a plausible explanation that doesn't involve any sort of magic. You reject that explanation on the basis of improbability, but without having done a single calculation. In fact, with your saying that the probability is "almost incalculable!" you give away the game: if it's incalculable, then you have no support for your claims that it's actually improbable or "astonishing" or any other superlative you'd like to apply. You are instead required to throw out the "well developed science of statistical probability" you've studied and practiced and instead go with a gut instinct that the coincidence is improbable.

But the least skeptical thing you've done, bngbuck, is to suggest that because you can't find an explanation, that somehow opens the door to "telepathy." By such logic, it also opens the door to the idea that invisible unicorns came and whispered in your ear, or that Jesus touched your heart. You've obviously got a preferred woo-woo notion that doesn't involve unicorns or Jesus, but all of them are equally logical.

"I can't explain it" may not be satisfying, but the universe doesn't give a damn about how much you might like all your experiences tied up tight with neat little bows. And "I can't explain it" doesn't make any dreamt-up explanation any more plausible or probable.

- 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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bngbuck
SFN Addict

USA
2437 Posts

Posted - 01/25/2008 :  12:43:07   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send bngbuck a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Dave.....

Thanks very much for the reference to the work of Diaconis and Mosteller in 1989. I knew of Mosteller's presence at Harvard in the 60's, but I was into the money game by that time and didn't follow events in the world of the statistician as closely as I did when in college or the Army.

Persi Diaconis, a twice MacArthur Fellowship recipient, was originally a well known performer mentored by Dai Vernon and revered by Ricky Jay and others; later becoming a highly respected theoretical statistician! I knew his name as a magician only, his prominence as a statistician is a surprise to me!

I had time on my hands in 1989, as I do now, but I obviously wasn't paying attention to important work going on in statistical theory.

However, if you had only informed me of this work at that time, I might not have had to agonize a Hobson's choice of alternative explanations for my experience in 1976! Hell, you should have done it in 1976! Clairvoyance would have aided you in locating me and my dilemma, and the information could have been telepathically conveyed. I think you were rude and insensitive for not extending me this courtesy! That innocent infant face conceals a black and wicked heart!

I'm going to retire from this particular discussion for a few days until I can read up thoroughly on D&M's work and the five other references I have found so far on the same subject. I have not been into the mathematics of statistical probability for years, and I am a bit rusty!

I'm simply not prepared at this point in time to proceed with further discussion, I will by next week. You, Dave, and to some degree Chippewa, so far have definitely given me new insight into a puzzlement that I have struggled with for years! I hope to hear from others that may have bitten on my carny pitch!

As to Jesus and the Unicorns, being a horse's ass, I've always tried to stay as far away as possible from horny horses; and Jesus jive just ain't my jones! But we'll discuss that in a few days! Along with Wisdom!

I'll be back on this one!
Edited by - bngbuck on 01/25/2008 13:01:30
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bngbuck
SFN Addict

USA
2437 Posts

Posted - 01/25/2008 :  12:54:44   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send bngbuck a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Cune.....

This obviously hasn't happened, before, bngbuck, correct? That is, on other occasions when your son was seriously, hurt-- or other child(ren) or your wife, or siblings, or parents, or dear friends-- you didn't react in any way unusual, correct?
Well, to the best of my memory, I have never had another experience that was even remotely similar to this one! I was aware of my father's death at about the hour that he died, I called and it was verified, but his death was expected and I was not in the least surprised at making the call or receiving the information! Aside from that, nothing I can think of.
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Dave W.
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Posted - 01/25/2008 :  13:31:35   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by bngbuck

I think you were rude and insensitive for not extending me this courtesy!
I was ten years old in 1976, so rudeness and insensitivity should have been expected.

Interestingly, I had a dream last night that a relative called to tell me that my father had had a heart attack and died last night. It was a vivid dream and emotionally intense, and I woke up thinking I should call and check on him. Before I did so, though, I discovered that he'd written an email to me this morning.

Thus, my experience is just one of many thousands or millions of "misses" this year that will be ignored by the proponents of telepathy or precognition when they talk about the "hits" like yours, bngbuck (see "confirmation bias").

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
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Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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