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Hello from a non-skeptic

Charles Boden said:
One nice little detail that I did not mention during the Ouija session was that I asked "Luiz Felipe" if he would like to listen to some music, to which the reply was "yes", and when I asked which song he would like to hear the glass spelled out "Hair of the dog".

"I have that record!" I said, and when I went to the record-player (boy, I'm getting old) the record that was there was precisely the album by Nazareth (for those here old enough to remember :)) with the side that had this song turned upwards.
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It isn't surprising that the song asked for was already on your record player. Have you considered that one of your guests saw the record sitting there prior to the seance and either played a prank on you or subconsciously spelled the song out through the ideomotor effect?
 
Lothian said:
Excellent we are agreed that a single replicable experiment demonstrating results opposite to our respective beliefs will do it.
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Except we are again in the area of trying to prove a negative. While a replicable, properly designed and run experiment that demonstrates that psychic powers exist would convince many skeptics, for Charles and other believers a negative result would very likely NOT convince them that psychic powers don't exist--they would argue that we are testing the wrong person, or following the wrong process, or fall back on another excuse.

So in actuality, I would say that his statement ("To answer the question as to what it would take for me to believe that there is no such thing as a psychic, I would have to say that the degree of difficulty is about the same as your believing that there is.") is not correct. It would actually be much harder, and probably impossible, to change his mind through the scientific process.

ETA: Lothian, I know that you probably already think this way too--I just used your quote to point out why Charles likely hasn't thought out his statement throughly.
 
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Perhaps you could read the book first. A book 'sounding' like something is a irrational argument. I thought Watership Down was a book about ships till I actually read the book and found out it was about rabbits.

My prediction that you wouldn't be interested in the book proved true anyway.

Lothian said:
No problem threads move on quickly.

It is of interest to me. If there is a book with a chapter called "YOU ARE NOT CLEOPATRA" it is not evidence your story is true. However if there is no such book then it is an excellent example of what has been discussed in the thread. Memory is fallible and anecdotes can not be trusted.

Back to the book. I don't think that is the right one. See your earlier post.



'The healing craft' does not sound like a book on debunking. Google only finds a book on witches.

Perhaps you could try again.
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Robert Oz said:
It isn't surprising that the song asked for was already on your record player. Have you considered that one of your guests saw the record sitting there prior to the seance and either played a prank on you or subconsciously spelled the song out through the ideomotor effect?
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Or Charles himself since he not only knew he had the song but also new he had recently played it.

Can't possibly be true, though, because Charles has assured us that the ideomotor effect does not apply in this case.
 
wareagle said:
There are no such things as female eagles?
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Non sequitur. If you were named "Rose" or "Daisy", would you object to being assumed to be female on the grounds that flowers contain both stamens and pistils?
 
wareagle said:
I'm curious. There are a few posts in here that refer to myself as a he or a Sir.

How did you arrive at the conclusion I was a man?

Just curious.
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Another poster on this thread recently assumed (wrongly) that I was a man. It tends to be the default assumption with internet posters, I find, unless it is very clear from the username that it is an incorrect assumption.
 
Charles Boden said:
One nice little detail that I did not mention during the Ouija session was that I asked "Luiz Felipe" if he would like to listen to some music, to which the reply was "yes", and when I asked which song he would like to hear the glass spelled out "Hair of the dog".

"I have that record!" I said, and when I went to the record-player (boy, I'm getting old) the record that was there was precisely the album by Nazareth (for those here old enough to remember :)) with the side that had this song turned upwards.
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Charles, have you read anything at all about the ideomotor effect and experiments done with Ouija boards?

Do you realize that your anecdote above is really a perfect description of the manner in which messages come to be spelled out in such sessions? There was information, easily accessible and available to those playing the game, that may not have been on their mind consciously, but may still have registered in the subconscious.

It would be more likely that a spirit was guiding you if it had spelled out a song that none of you knew, that wasn't easily seen on a record player by anyone in the house, or (even better) was from the future.

I mean, look what happens when Sam plays a song for his sister that hasn't been written yet. Olivia Burnette starts crying. That's some serious proof of the supernatural.

Also, could you please ask your spirit co-workers and your dead, reincarnated noblemen friends why Olivia Burnette doesn't get more work? Look at that clip - she cries in one uninterrupted long take. How can there be a god when Olivia Burnette has to play a homeless woman on Sons of Anarchy? Its on basic cable, for pity's sake. Basic Cable!
 
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wareagle said:
Perhaps you could read the book first. A book 'sounding' like something is a irrational argument. I thought Watership Down was a book about ships till I actually read the book and found out it was about rabbits.

My prediction that you wouldn't be interested in the book proved true anyway.
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So you are a troll.

The book is not a book on debunking, nor are there any chapters entitled "You Are Not Cleopatra."

Prove me wrong. I can prove I'm right.
 
Charles Boden said:
Hi all,

One of you here said to me: "Get a life..." Well, I do have one.
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Evidence that this has been said to you in this thread? Because I have just done ctrl+f through all 13 pages of this thread, checking every use of the word "life", and it has not been said.

Are you reading a different thread, or are there invisible posts somewhere? People have been, on the whole polite and non-confrontational, we've provided links and explanations for your experiences, but as Garrette said earlier, you're not really engaging in discussion. Did you prepare the posts in advance, for the way you thought/hoped the conversation would go?
 
Pixel42 said:
Another poster on this thread recently assumed (wrongly) that I was a man. It tends to be the default assumption with internet posters, I find, unless it is very clear from the username that it is an incorrect assumption.
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Thank you for your honest admission about assumptions.

Can it be safe to say that some participants make default assumptions?
 
I just noticed something about one of Charles' anecdotes. He said the psychic told him of his wife's pregnancy when she was just two weeks pregnant. I presume that means that she gave birth around 38 weeks later. Pregnancies are counted from the previous menstrual period, so the actual day the pregnancy starts is counted as two weeks in. It could easily be that they had unprotected sex that night thinking they didn't need birth control if she was already pregnant, and the conception happened then.
 
wareagle said:
Thank you for your honest admission about assumptions.

Can it be safe to say that some participants make default assumptions?
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Not some, all (including you). Those assumptions will be based on the viewpoints expressed (and the manner in which they are expressed) by each poster, and past experience of posters with similar viewpoints and manner. Your point?
 
Garrette said:
So you are a troll.

The book is not a book on debunking, nor are there any chapters entitled "You Are Not Cleopatra."

Prove me wrong. I can prove I'm right.
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That's what they said on Prison Planet before they banned me.

I stand corrected its not a chapter header but a heading on page 204, one third of the way down.
 
Agatha said:
Could be this.
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His only hope is that he can quickly find another one with the same name and the appropriately named chapter, because the one you linked to is the one I can prove has no chapter title mentioning Cleopatra.
 
Pixel42 said:
Not some, all (including you). Those assumptions will be based on the viewpoints expressed (and the manner in which they are expressed) by each poster, and past experience of posters with similar viewpoints and manner. Your point?
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Yes I make default assumptions periodically. I don't associate default assumptions with critical or skeptical thinking.

May be a personality quirk. I wouldn't want to present that as evidence of anything.
 
Goodness...

No, when I got home, I told my wife what had been said to me, and we took the utmost care from then on. The unprotected sex was the result of a good night out and a fair amount of beer, prior to the reading!!! You are all too quick in making presumtions...
 
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