Dr. Colin Ross's challenge

trentwray said:
Without having read every post of this thread .... was Ross essentially trying to exploit a clearly natural aspect of the human body by rewording things to make it "look" paranormal, and then get it into a "you told me it was legit, now give me the money!" kind of con vs. rube game?
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Pretty much...
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Colin Ross said:
"I claim I can send a beam of energy out of my eyes, capture it in a special set of goggles I have built, and then use the energy to make a tone play out of a speaker." This was accepted as a claim of the paranormal by the JREF, so it is paranormal by the JREF's definition..... The JREF rules did not require me to specify the type of energy and I was not asked to do so. In fact I was instructed not to submit any theories about how my challenge would work.
These are the JREF rules and definitions, not something I devised. My challenge has been accepted - there is no going back at this point, we can only go forward.
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Colin Ross said:
I did not claim that the energy comes from only my eyes and I did not say anything about whether anyone else could do anything - I only said that I could do so. The JREF did not ask me any questions about the energy coming only from my eyes or about whether anyone else could do the same thing.
.... but the JREF rules mean your arguments don't apply (as I see it).
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Colin Ross said:
In response to recent posts:

This quotation from a Swift article by James Randi plus my receiving a 2008 Pigasus Award establish that the JREF regards my claim as a claim of the paranormal. The JREF did not request any rewording of my challenge prior to accepting it.....
I remind all that the JREF rules state clearly that after a challenge is accepted, demonstrating how it works scientifically does not invalidate the challenge. Nor does the JREF require a claimant to demonstrate that only he can do what is claimed...
It appears that there is disagreement on the JREF web page as a whole as to whether my claim is impossible, or unremarkable and scientifically real - the shift from human ocular extramission being "woo" or "paranormal" to being a scientific fact seems to be underway, then.
I do not claim to be a physicist or electrical engineer but I have taken a four-day course on neurofeedback, read a number of neurology/EEG and neurofeedback texts, and have a basic understanding of EEGs that is likely above average for an MD psychiatrist.
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Colin Ross said:
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"The paranormal" is a category invented by humans - some phenomena assigned to that category by modern science in fact belong to the category of scientific fact.
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trentwray said:
Without having read every post of this thread .... was Ross essentially trying to exploit a clearly natural aspect of the human body by rewording things to make it "look" paranormal, and then get it into a "you told me it was legit, now give me the money!" kind of con vs. rube game?
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Well I think he has made his argument clear in that last quote which I kindly bolded and coloured for your convenience,
the problem is that HUMANS are involved.
And of course he has concluded:
"...my receiving a 2008 Pigasus Award establish that the JREF regards my claim as a claim of the paranormal. The JREF did not request any rewording of my challenge..."
therefore he thinks that this "major award" proves he has paranormal abilities.

Dr.Colin Ross likes to play with words and manipulate people.
Is he pulling some kind of con vs rube game on the JREF ?
Of course, his gigantic ego makes him believe he'll get away with it too.
 
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trentwray said:
Without having read every post of this thread .... was Ross essentially trying to exploit a clearly natural aspect of the human body by rewording things to make it "look" paranormal, and then get it into a "you told me it was legit, now give me the money!" kind of con vs. rube game?
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This is it in a nutshell (or is it nutshill, I'm never sure how this is spelled).
 
He exploited the well known fact that all sorts of energy, including heat and EEG emissions can be detected all over the head, and with sensitive sensors, at some distances. He then claimed that some of these were "extramissions" from the eyes. As I pointed out, Lilienfeld,et al, correctly defined these extramissions as a myth, because the concept implies that they are a necessary component of seeing. They are not.
Dr. Novella had previously identified the changes in EEG produced by blinking the eyes as the artifact that Ross was using to try to send signals.
 
I think Colin Ross is still hoping to do the challenge and get the money. The revised protocol for his challenge application is still up on his website:

Dr. Ross' James Randi Paranormal ChallengeRevised Protocol
Posted February 13, 2009

Dear James Randi,

I would like to revise the proposed protocol I sent you on October 14, 2008. These revisions will minimize if not eliminate false positives and false negatives. In addition to the change in protocol, the left side of the goggles will be open so that you can observe the musculature around my left eye, and the electrode is a very sharp micro-electrode, which clearly would cut my skin or eyeball if physical contact was made.

As stated on October 14, I have obtained and checked out a higher impedance electrode which can detect an EEG signal inside the insulated goggles but far enough away from my eye that neither my eyelashes nor eyelid make contact with it. This electrode picks up a physiologically active signal as demonstrated by simultaneous alpha blocking detected by the eyebeam electrode (Channel 1) and an electrode at Fp2 (a standard position just above the right eyebrow) (Channel 2). The amplitude of alpha waves (8-12 Hz) in microvolts is higher with eyes closed than with eyes open in both channels simultaneously. Hence, alpha is blocked with eyes open, a well-recognized phenomenon in the EEG/neurofeedback literature. This proves that both the eyebeam signal and the signal coming through the skull at Fp2 are physiologically active and vary in the same direction with brain state. ...
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He certainly knows how to blind the uninitiated with science! He can sound very knowledgeable with all the technical wording he uses. What chance did his patients have of being able to detect his malpractice in time to save themselves from harm when they were up against someone who could sound as if they were so well-educated and thus competent to the task!
 
Myriad said:
The claim that was accepted as paranormal is, according to Dr. Ross, this:

I claim that I can send a beam of energy out of my eyes, capture it in a special set of goggles I have built, and then use the energy to make a tone play out of a speaker.​

So the question is, as I have asked before with no reply, what powers the speaker? Is it, as is claimed, the energy from the eyes captured by the goggles? . . .
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You've homed in on another sign of bad faith in his application: The speaker clause. It's written to

  1. Sound very woo and lead us away from seeing this as a standard application of an EEG+computer, and
  2. Give the impression of another 'impossible' claim: that any kind of human energy can cause sound to come from a speaker.
 
Welcome to the thread Snacky,
yes the "speaker" is absolutely in question here,
and as Myriad asked: "what powers the speaker?"
if his paranormal eye beams of energy are causing the tone to come out of the speaker then why should it be plugged in ?
And why won't Colin Ross answer that question ?

Does he answer any of these questions in the book about Human Energy that he is trying to peddle ?
I guess we'll never know since none of us would buy it, not even to burn if we were freezing to death.
 
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Thanks, Roma — I'm excited to have finally joined the boards. My background is computer science and I'm currently in law school. I watched Ross's news report video:

It's clear to me that the speaker clause is true only in the most facile, unnatural sense. He hooked himself up to an EKG/Biofeedback machine which went to his laptop via USB.

The sound we hear from the "speaker" isn't generated by his energy; it's just how the biofeedback software is programmed. Sounded like either (a) a wave/mp3 file he chose to have played when a signal was detected, or (b) the result of a simple macro in the software which plays a pitch based on the biofeedback level.

From the video, you can see the machine's box with its mass-produced molds for safe keeping. This is just off-the-shelf stuff used by therapists; he just changed the configuration to play an extra creepy sound.

His saying his energy created sound from a speaker is like saying energy from my foot makes my car move forward.
 
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Colin Ross said:
Note that I do not claim to be an electroencephalographer or neurologist.... That's how the Brainmaster equipment I purchased works ..... I think.
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See? He bought a "Brainmaster" (and a Suzanne Somers thigh master),
of course Ross doesn't know much 'bout this lectrikul stuff.
 
Roma said:
See? He bought a "Brainmaster" (and a Suzanne Somers thigh master),
of course Ross doesn't know much 'bout this lectrikul stuff.
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I can't wait for his infomercial: the Colin Ross Eye BlasterTM! :tinfoil
 
I realize this is peripheral (pun intended) to this thread, but I've been thinking about a possible mechanism for the "feeling that someone is looking at you," and it might be peripheral vision. We concentrate so much on what we are conciously looking at we forget that our eyes also receive light from elsewhere--our visual field extends to about 100 degrees to the left and right and our brains process that data as well, though it's limited as to the detail it provides. That's why we can react to objects approaching us "from out of the corner of our eyes," and the way our brains are constantly looking for recognizable patterns may explain why a facelike set of blotches in our high periphery might cause us to believe that something or someone is looking at us. A nice skill when the something is a human checking us out; a necessary skill when a leopard is checking us out.

Just a hypothesis that requires no woo.
 
dropzone said:
I realize this is peripheral (pun intended) to this thread, but I've been thinking about a possible mechanism for the "feeling that someone is looking at you," and it might be peripheral vision. ...

Just a hypothesis that requires no woo.
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It requires woo if you have your back to someone. No one is talking about sideways glances.
 
But without any studies demonstrating it.... ;)

If your head is in constant motion, as it would be if you are on edge, that 200 degrees peripheral vision can quickly expand to 300+, which is 5/6 of the way to 360.
 
Ross is claiming paranormal energy coming out of his eye balls,
energy that can be detected by something that doesn't even have eye balls
(speakers don't have eye balls)
so peripheral vision in people is irrelevant to his claim.
 
I know that, but he uses it to explain, in part, how one can sense another creature's gaze. Unconscious use of peripheral vision plus confirmation bias (how often do we forget about the times nobody was watching us?) could quickly explain most events.
 
Okay you may need to make yourself a drink before you read this,
it's copied straight off here:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rel...u-Really-Can-Feel-a-Persons-Stare-1142475.htm

SOURCE: Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma


Apr 05, 2010 09:24 ETPsychiatrist's Research Finds You Really Can Feel a Person's Stare
Paper by Dr. Colin A. Ross Explains How to Measure the Eye's Electromagnetic Energy
DALLAS, TX--(Marketwire - April 5, 2010) - Noted psychiatrist and author Colin A. Ross, M.D., has published experimental data that supports his scientific hypothesis that the eyes emit energy that can be captured and measured. Dr. Ross' paper, "The Electrophysiological Basis of Evil Eye Belief," is published in the current issue of Anthropology of Consciousness, a journal of the American Anthropological Association. The full paper is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123310535/PDFSTART.

Although nearly everyone has experienced the sense of being stared at only to find that a person or animal really was looking, Western science has long rejected that the human eye can emit any form of energy. Dr. Ross says his findings move "human ocular extramission," which he also refers to as an "eyebeam," from the realm of superstition to science.

"We used our patent pending Electromagnetic Beam Detection System, which includes modified EEG neurofeedback equipment, to prove that the human eye emits an electromagnetic signal that can be measured scientifically," said Dr. Ross. "I hope that future experiments will determine why energy emitted from the eye is so strong and whether it can be harnessed through focused attention."

A series of videos in which Dr. Ross discusses the paper can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=78E31282619EEF4D.

Dr. Ross has been researching a new science and medicine focused on the human body's electromagnetic field, which he detailed in his 2009 book, Human Energy Fields (ISBN-13: 978-0-9821851-0-0).

Dr. Ross previously made headlines by applying to the $1 Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge administered by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) (www.randi.org). Although Dr. Ross can prove that his eyebeam can make a tone sound out of a computer, JREF insists that no energy can be emitted from the eyes and mocked Dr. Ross with its Pigasus Award. JREF has not responded to Dr. Ross' test protocol.

Dr. Ross is the author of 140 papers in professional journals and 23 books. He has lectured widely in North America, Europe, China, New Zealand and Australia, has reviewed for many different psychiatry journals, and received a number of research grants. His writing also includes short stories, poems, aphorisms, plays and essays on a wide range of topics. For more information about Dr. Ross and the Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma, visit www.rossinst.com.
 
It is amazing.
Psychiatry have come up with some really far out ideas over the years, and often without any kind of backup other than "I think it sounds cool".
I think it took something like 30-40 years from someone came up with the "obese mentality" and until anyone bothered to test it, and invalidating it.
 
Dr. Ross is using his application for the MDC as a publicity stunt to sell product, and probably has no intention to actually take the test. We were nothing more than a means to an end, and for this reason, he should be dropped.
 
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