Would someone accurately reporting a series of digits after "seeing them" "out of body" prove that consciousness can exist independently of the body?
It depends entirely on how the "experiment" is "controlled". What's the protocol involved?Would someone accurately reporting a series of digits after "seeing them" "out of body" prove that consciousness can exist independently of the body?
Them just reporting they'd done that? No.Would someone accurately reporting a series of digits after "seeing them" "out of body" prove that consciousness can exist independently of the body?
No!
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It depends entirely on how the "experiment" is "controlled". What's the protocol involved?
It's not particularly difficult to understand. All you really have to do is eliminate the possibility that the person either had a lucky guess, or is actively cheating.I do not have much knowledge about how science is carried out so I might not be able to answer that to your satisfaction.
Them just reporting they'd done that? No.
It's not particularly difficult to understand. All you really have to do is eliminate the possibility that the person either had a lucky guess, or is actively cheating.
So let's start with the basics - how many digits did this person accurately report?
Who picked which digits they were, and how were they concealed from the subject?Five digits.
Who picked which digits they were, and how were they concealed from the subject?
Why do you ask this? Does someone claim this happened to your knowledge, or is this a random musing?
Say the person "sees" the numbers in one room while "out of body" while their physical body is in another room. The researchers would be in the room with the persons body and when the person "comes back" the person reports the numbers without having left the room before reporting or without going into the room while in body with the number in it after the number has been placed.
This one is fairly easy to test. Buttonhole the nearest Astral Projectionist, put them in a room laying on a couch blindfolded.
Have a friend go into the next room, and write down a series of five numbers. Give your Astral Projectionist five minutes, then ask him/her to write down the numbers.
Bring your friend into the room and compare the two bits of paper. (And, preferably, film the entire thing in both rooms). Get back to us with the results.
Norm
Ah, so this is not something that actually happened then. It's something that you would like to happen.A team of researchers can pick the numbers and before the subject who has the out of body experience enters the building they place the numbers in a closed room, and they monitor that person as they make their way to the separate room from which they will "leave" their body all while someone watches them in that room the whole time from when they come in to when they "leave" their body and come back and report the number.
I wouldn't restrict them to reading numbers, as they could claim that they lack sufficient control in that state to focus on a small detail or whatever. Eliminating the possibility of confederates or other magicians' tricks, you could accept almost anything unique as a proof.
Of course, astral projection would have to be a real thing first. Happened to me twice and I am stone cold convinced that they are very vivid hallucinations, like lucid dreaming.
A sequence of 5 digits yields a 1/1,000,000 chance of guessing by chance alone, which is an acceptable preliminary demonstration, but to be absolutely sure you should expand to 6 or more digits.
Ah, so this is not something that actually happened then. It's something that you would like to happen.
That's okay. We can work with you to develop a good protocol for such a demonstration. In the case of your suggestion, I believe that there may be an opportunity for someone on the team of researches to give cues to the subject, which would be cheating.
Rather than a team of researchers, I propose that the numbers be picked by a single person, who then plays no additional role in the demonstration. The person writes the numbers down and leaves them in a sealed envelope on a table in an otherwise empty room, then departs the location - preferably the building - and does not return until the test is over. No other person is to enter the room containing the envelope until the demonstration is over. That way, there is no chance for anyone present at the test to know what the numbers are until the envelope is unsealed.
A sequence of 5 digits yields a 1/1,000,000 chance of guessing by chance alone, which is an acceptable preliminary demonstration, but to be absolutely sure you should expand to 6 or more digits. After all, if remote viewing is real, it should be no more difficult to perceive 6 digits than 5.