Hello from a non-skeptic

[Mirrorglass]

As said, she actually got to keep the title "Princess" as part of her divorce settlement.

In a completely unrelated development, people I know from high school still call me Butt Monster.

You must have had an awesome lawyer.

 

[Sledge]

I knew what to expect when I first posted

Are you familiar with the term "self-fulfilling prophecy"?

Thanks Olowkow. It was a joke for Sledge really, he being a stalwart of long-running UFO debates so I thought he'd appreciate it*, and not a dig at Charles Boden at all. Just lightening up the conversation.

*and I fancy his avatar so I guess I was flirting

Do go on, everyone.

Mmm, Smith & Wesson Model 629.

Wait, did you mean David Rasche?

I haven't seen any attacks on our new friend. My comment was certainly not meant as an attack, and was what I genuinely think. Given the extremely complex nature of what Charles wishes to discuss, I would be doubtful of most people's ability to have a meaningful discussion in a language other than their primary one.

 

[Charles Boden]

Hi all,

Concerning what was said to me regarding Lady Di, perhaps I should be more specific:

For 12 years I took part in a spiritualist center here in Rio. The story as to how and why I came to join one is rather long, so I won't go into the details right now here in this post. The sessions were held on Saturday nights and usually went into the early hours of Sunday. For whatever relevance this may have, though to me it seems rather picky, I could mention that what was said to me was in the early hours of Sunday, so therefore the accident took place within the "one week". Without my having asked or said anything, one of the mediums at the session approached me and said:

"A member of that Royal Family you have associations to is going to die this week. Pay attention to whom it might be..."

I have the "Stuart" as one of my middle names coming from my mother's side of the family, and more recently I found that I am descended from a Scottish clan known as the Stewarts of Appin, who are descended from, among others, an illegitimate daughter of Queen Mary Stuart's grandfather, King James IV, also an ancestor of the current Royal Family.

I am also a believer in reincarnation, btw.

I took part in this spiritualist center for twelve years. In all the twelve years I took part in it, why would the medium choose to say what she did precisely on that day and in that week? This was also the case when I was told of my wife's pregnancy. Nothing like that had ever been said to me before, nor was anything similar ever said afterwards, so the chances of a "coincidence" were minimum. Furthermore, I gave these two cases merely as examples and in attempt to make a long story short, but the cases of such "impossible coincidences" that I came to encounter were numerous throughout all the years I took part there.

Returning to the case of quantum waves collapsing into particles under observation, however, would the results be the same if a light were projected without the experiment being under observation? That would be an interesting experiment to carry out and verify...

And please forgive me, but when walking into unknown territory it is almost inevitable that one should walk into it with a shield in one hand and a sword in another...

 

[Nonpareil]

Without my having asked or said anything, one of the mediums at the session approached me and said:

"A member of that Royal Family you have associations to is going to die this week. Pay attention to whom it might be..."

I have the "Stuart" as one of my middle names coming from my mother's side of the family, and more recently I found that I am descended from a Scottish clan known as the Stewarts of Appin, who are descended from, among others, an illegitimate daughter of Queen Mary Stuart's grandfather, King James IV, also an ancestor of the current Royal Family.

So you happen to share a name and be ridiculously distantly related to a(n ex-)member of the royal family who happens to die within a week of someone saying that an unnamed member of the royal family that you have associations with will die this week?

I don't really think that counts.

Sharing the "Stuart" name is hardly a strong connection. There must be hundreds of people with that name. I don't think that counts as a connection. And the "descendant" bit is a stretch as well. If you go back far enough, everyone - and I mean everyone - is related to someone famous. For example, I am a blood relative of William the Conqueror, Pocahontas, and several other famous names which no one really cares to hear. This is not surprising, and pretty much anyone else can say the same simply because, once you go back a few generations, pretty much every family tree out there has some overlap with every other.

I am a believer in reincarnation, btw.

What does that have to do with the prediction?

I took part in this spiritualist center for twelve years. In all the twelve years I took part in it, why would the medium choose to say what she did precisely on that day and in that week?

Why not?

Did you have any other predictions made to you, by that person or any other? Did anyone else have any predictions made to them?

This was also the case when I was told of my wife's pregnancy. Nothing like that had ever been said to me before, nor was anything similar ever said afterwards. So the chances of a "coincidence" were minimum. Furthermore, I gave these two cases merely as examples and in attempt to make a long story short, but the cases of such "impossible coincidences" that I came to encounter were numerous throughout all the years I took part there.

"Impossible" coincidences rarely are.

 

[godless dave]

Hi all,
Without my having asked or said anything, one of the mediums at the session approached me and said:

"A member of that Royal Family you have associations to is going to die this week. Pay attention to whom it might be..."

I have the "Stuart" as one of my middle names coming from my mother's side of the family, and more recently I found that I am descended from a Scottish clan known as the Stewarts of Appin, who are descended from, among others, an illegitimate daughter of Queen Mary Stuart's grandfather, King James IV, also an ancestor of the current Royal Family.

And that counts as an "association" to you? Millions of people are distantly related to the British royal family.

 

[23_Tauri]

Mmm, Smith & Wesson Model 629.

Wait, did you mean David Rasche?

Mmmm... You mean that's not you? Sledge, my dreams are shattered! But a quick google and I get where your moniker's coming from.

As an aside*, did you know Mr Kipling owns Smith & Wesson?

*not an attempt to de-rail, honest, there's more than enough separate strands to this discussion as it is.

I haven't seen any attacks on our new friend. My comment was certainly not meant as an attack, and was what I genuinely think. Given the extremely complex nature of what Charles wishes to discuss, I would be doubtful of most people's ability to have a meaningful discussion in a language other than their primary one.

Quite.

 

[Charles Boden]

By all means, but not here in Brazil... And yes, I encountered several similar cases as the ones I have already mentioned. Enough for me to raise a brow or two, as I said... Much more than that, in fact.

As for reincarnation, yes, both phenomenae are in my view connected. How could they not be if I am talking about the possibility of the afterlife?

 

[Nonpareil]

By all means, but not here in Brazil...

And yes, I encountered several similar cases as the ones I have already mentioned. Enough for me to raise a brow or two, as I said... Much more than that, in fact.

So predictions were made on a regular basis? How many did you hear? Were any of them any less vague than those that you have listed? How many of them failed?

As for reincarnation, yes, both phenomenae are in my view connected. How could they not be if I am talking about the possibility of the afterlife?

You misunderstand. I was asking what your belief in reincarnation had to do with that specific prediction. It just seems like a total non sequitur.

 

[Agatha]

A child (or [great] grandchild)* of one of James IV's illegitimate daughters may well have married into the Stewarts of Appin, but given that the Dugald, the first Chief of the Stewarts of Appin, was born around 1446 and was formally granted the land in 1470, and that James IV's illegitimate children were born between 1493 and some point prior to 1510, I think the claim that the Stewarts of Appin are descended from an illegitimate daughter of James IV is misleading. The S of A were there first!

*The marriages of all James IV's illegitimate children who survived infancy are known.

 

[23_Tauri]

Returning to the case of quantum waves collapsing into particles under observation, however, would the results be the same if a light were projected without the experiment being under observation? That would be an interesting experiment to carry out and verify...

Correct me if I’m wrong, because I know jack about quantum physics, but isn’t light made of photons?

Loss Leader said:

Observation involves probing something and sending back information to an observer. A tree may exist, but it cannot be observed until it is hit with photons from the sun, and those photons bounce back to an observing instrument.

You must be careful here because there are two separate phenomena: 1) being probed and 2) observing the results. It is important to note that the observer need not be a person. It can be a dog, or a chicken, or a camera, or a particularly reflective lake. The observer is irrelevant.

The only relevant thing is the probe - usually a photon. That hits the object and bounces away. It is this act that collapses the waveform - not the actual observation of it by any person, animal or machine.

So, your concept that consciousness somehow radiates some sort of energy that collapses waveforms is misguided. The waveform has been collapsed and the decision has been made before the observer even gets the information.

This is not a possible method by which clairvoyance or fortune telling could be accomplished.

My emphasis. So I think this answers your question.

 

[23_Tauri]

--

 

[Ladewig]

"A member of that Royal Family you have associations to is going to die this week. Pay attention to whom it might be..."


Furthermore, I gave these two cases merely as examples and in attempt to make a long story short, but the cases of such "impossible coincidences" that I came to encounter were numerous throughout all the years I took part there.

Can you explain in more detail why the Royal family prediction is an "impossible coincidence"?


ETA: also, did this psychic ever make prediction that did not come true?

 

[majamin]

Sorry to be repetitive, Charles (and others), but I will continue to ask and formulate questions until you attend to them.

(1) How do you know your predictions couldn't have happened by chance only?
(2) Does every occurrence of somebody predicting a future event necessarily imply that they are clairvoyant?
(3) Should the events that we can significantly influence be considered?
(4) Does your medium often make predictions, on a regular basis, that come to pass?
(5) Is your claim that, because you are related to these royals, that they are able to communicate with your medium?

You spoke to (1) briefly here, but did not state why you concluded that chance could not have played a role in your circumstances. Loss Leader asked you about chance here (last paragraph), which you did not attend to. I would like you to speak to the other questions, as well.

 

[Hokulele]

Returning to the case of quantum waves collapsing into particles under observation, however, would the results be the same if a light were projected without the experiment being under observation? That would be an interesting experiment to carry out and verify...

If you mean "observation" as something being watched by a sentient being, then yes, the results are the same regardless of if anyone is watching or not. When I performed this experiment in school, we didn't personally watch the light beam hit the slits, it was a closed system with a recording device. We only observed the end result, not the splitting process itself.

And you really should post this in the Science forum, as the phrase "waves collapsing into particles" isn't correct.

 

[Charles Boden]

The questions are being posted at such a rate that I am honestly finding it difficult to keep up, so I apologise if I am not managing to reply to all of them.

The fourth Lord of Appin, Duncan Stewart (1515-1547), married Janet Gordon, daughter of Lord John Gordon (1477-1517) and Lady Margaret Jane Stewart (1493-1517), eldest but "illegitimate" daughter of King James IV and Lady Margaret Drummond (1476-1501). I am descended from the 2nd son of Duncan Stewart 6th of Appin (b. abt 1570), John Stewart.

The prediction concerning my wife's pregancy was by no means vague, and neither were several others...

I'll read back on some previous posts and attempt to answer some more questions, if you would all be kind enough to hold a moment so that I might have time to do so.

 

[Sledge]

Mmmm... You mean that's not you? Sledge, my dreams are shattered! But a quick google and I get where your moniker's coming from.

As an aside*, did you know Mr Kipling owns Smith & Wesson?

My mind, she is blown. Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good firearms? Love it.

*not an attempt to de-rail, honest, there's more than enough separate strands to this discussion as it is.

I'm not sure this thread has rails to go off. Are we discussing psychics, genealogical links to famous people or quantum physics?

 

[Charles Boden]

(1) How do you know your predictions couldn't have happened by chance only?
The sheer volume of them would make it difficult for this to be so...
(2) Does every occurrence of somebody predicting a future event necessarily imply that they are clairvoyant?
No, but I do believe that we all carry a mediumnic capacity to a greater or lesser degree.
(3) Should the events that we can significantly influence be considered?
Absolutely. But had I been told specifically that the prediction concerned Lady Di, I might have found myself frantically attempting to warn her. Mediumnic predictions do not work in this way.
(4) Does your medium often make predictions, on a regular basis, that come to pass?
I have had no contact with her or any other medium from the center I took part in for 5 years now, but the answer to your question throughout the 12 years I had contact with her would have to be "yes".
(5) Is your claim that, because you are related to these royals, that they are able to communicate with your medium?
No, that is not what I am saying. The relevance of this is of a different nature. It is my own association to them in the past that was relevant, which was why I mentioned being a believer in reincarnation.

 

[Charles Boden]

I'm not sure this thread has rails to go off. Are we discussing psychics, genealogical links to famous people or quantum physics?

In my case, and according to my beliefs, they are all associated, Sledge...

 

[Olowkow]

I think what is bothering Charles Boden about the double slit experiment is what no one ever seems to state unambiguously: what is the cause of the collapse of the wave function when one attempts to observe which slit the single photon is going through?

I am not expert in this, but my understanding is that no matter how subtle the measurement instrument attempts to be, no matter how delicate the probe, you will always cause some information (phase, intensity, wavelength, etc) to be lost, and the consequence is that the interference pattern is lost. The real reason is that the photon is really going through both slits, but you cannot confirm this because it is only true if no measurement is made. It is the act of detection that kills the effect of the interference pattern.

Well I tried my best.

 

[Charles Boden]

Correct me if I’m wrong, because I know jack about quantum physics, but isn’t light made of photons?

Yes, which was why I suggested the experiment...