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Hello from a non-skeptic

Jack by the hedge said:
I gather you're saying you can't pick the numbers with certainty but you can generally do better than pure chance.

That's a claim which can be quantifiably tested (and a talent which can win the JREF's million dollar prize if true).
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hmm.. well reasonably I'd say why win a million when you can win 130 million. But certainly something I'd take into consideration if the tester would be willing to participate in the practice with me.


The numbers can be picked with certainty after a reasonable amount of practice time is given. To begin with you may be off by a number always, and then off by a number sometimes, and then it becomes a more consistent return. Like... You are off only 8 out of 10 times. Then it becomes more consistent.

Psychically I find it impossible to draw lottery numbers because I have pre existing prejudice concerning it. One becomes more inclined to be more accurate in circumstances where there is no pre existing prejudice. There is a lot of prejudice concerning winning the lottery. This is what the practice times for the lottery winning times are for. The more you get a consistent return the less merit the pre existing prejudice has.
 
wareagle said:
I cannot psychically provide lottery numbers, I can use a trained mental ability to provide a mostly constituent return. The more its practiced the better the consistency. Like any other mental ability.
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Not all mental ability works like this. Multi-tasking, for instance, gets more and more difficult the more you do it.

Also, while it may SEEM like you get better and better at guessing the more you do it, you actually are no better than when you started. The probability that a particular guess about lottery numbers is correct doesn't change just because you get better at guessing.
 
wareagle said:
Where did I ask you to have faith? I would expect that you take coherent tools, and mental excercizes and do it yourself so you can make your own mind up about the result with no external influences. No faith is required. There is some mental and time investment though.
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When you ask me to invest my time and mental energy in doing these exercises, you're asking me to believe, or to have faith, that they will work, and I will develop some ability that no one has ever been able to prove that they have.

wareagle said:
One, please show me the post where I said the ability predict lottery numbers is a special power. You are asking me to provide evidence of something I didn't even say.
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I wasn't talking about the whole lottery number thing at all. I was talking about your beliefs that psychics and psychic powers exist in general. Please show me the post where I said that you said that the ability to predict lottery numbers was a special power, because I haven't addressed the lottery number thing at all.

wareagle said:
And there is a big difference between asking people to use their mental abilities to provide what they are looking for and asking them to drink tainted kool aid.
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No,you see, there really isn't. Everyone who drank the Kool-Aid was in Guyana because Jim Jones promised them that they would find what they were looking for if they moved to Guyana with him.
 
Pixel42 said:
The ability to predict lottery numbers is a special power. Whether or not you have specifically stated this - whether you are even aware of it - is irrelevant. It's the ability to predict future random events, which according to everything we know about how the universe works is impossible, and is therefore a paranormal ability. It certainly qualifies for the JREF $1m paranormal challenge.

ETA: Note that, as with any other such paranormal ability, to win the $1m you do not need to predict 100% correctly, just significantly and consistently better than chance.
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I see. Because much of the population is unwilling to learn how to do well...nearly anything...that thing becomes a special power?
 
Jack by the hedge said:
Yep - that would seem to be a good control.

Or if that's not the sort of question the spirits bother to answer, how about a ouija board printed with abstract symbols and a handy translation chart visible to the spirits but not to the participants?
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My point was more that, as well as establishing what it is we might be testing for, we'd also need to establish what spirits are (said to be) capable of before continuing.

Where/how do they get their information? What are their limitations? what can they 'see' (e.g. can they see the dice in the next room)? can they see the future? the past? how far temporally and spatially? how reliable are they? are there different kinds with different capabilities? how can we tell? etc.

Without this, devising a secure protocol seems unlikely.
 
wareagle said:
I see. Because much of the population is unwilling to learn how to do well...nearly anything...that thing becomes a special power?
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No. Nothing to do with anyone's unwillingness to learn. As already stated, it would be a special power because it is impossible if the world works in the way we have observed it to work 100% of the time up until now.

If, in fact, it turns out to be possible and you can demonstrate it, then you win $1M and science gets an exciting and brand new phenomenon to investigate (and a whole lot of rethinking to do). It's a win-win.
 
wareagle said:
I see. Because much of the population is unwilling to learn how to do well...nearly anything...that thing becomes a special power?
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Many people are unwilling to learn how to juggle. That is not a special power. It's the fact that an ability defies the laws of physics that makes it a special power.

I'm pretty sure most of the population would be willing to learn how to predict future random events. I know I would. But strangely the only such predictions which you could make that we could easily verify, lottery results, is the very one that you are unable to predict because of your "prejudices". Bummer.
 
Just my two cents, but while I think (though not with certainty) that Charles is sincere, wareagle is already demonstrating a lack of faith in his own professed ability. He is already backing off the claim of his ability to predict lottery numbers, adding restrictions and limitations.

It's worth it to keep talking to him, though, just to point out the hollowness of the position to others.

Then again, I'm co-dependent...
 
Pixel42 said:
Many people are unwilling to learn how to juggle. That is not a special power. It's the fact that an ability defies the laws of physics that makes it a special power.

I'm pretty sure most of the population would be willing to learn how to predict future random events. I know I would. But strangely the only such predictions which you could make that we could easily verify, lottery results, is the very one that you are unable to predict because of your "prejudices". Bummer.
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I know see why people can't learn anything.
 
wareagle said:
I know see why people can't learn anything.
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I now see that you are afraid to demonstrate your claim.

You have fear. You have doubt. You are co-dependent. You spout words you do not understand and make claims you do not know.

Charles is far more interesting than you.
 
Garrette said:
Just my two cents, but while I think (though not with certainty) that Charles is sincere, wareagle is already demonstrating a lack of faith in his own professed ability. He is already backing off the claim of his ability to predict lottery numbers, adding restrictions and limitations.

It's worth it to keep talking to him, though, just to point out the hollowness of the position to others.

Then again, I'm co-dependent...
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The fact that I didn't express an ability YET pretty much undermines your statement. The practice has nothing do with faith.

Don't worry about your co dependency most of the US expresses it that's why we are in the political -economical fix that we are in.
 
wareagle said:
I know see why people can't learn anything.
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But I just said I was willing (actually I'm eager) to learn how to predict future random events, and you said you would teach us. So come on, how do I go about it? I've got some dice around somewhere I could use to practise with.
 
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