John Edward - psychic or what?

[pakeha]

I'm not surprised, Robin.
You also stand by JE's claims to communicate with the dead.

ETA
As often happens, to actually learn about a given subject wiki is a good starting point.

 

[kerikiwi]

Kerikiwi, sure, exactly like that, if Harry Potter was a medium. But he wasn't. So , no.

So a movie which has a character who is a medium is an indication that mediums are real, but a movie which has a character who is a wizard is not an indication that wizards are real.

 

[pakeha]

^
In a world where JE communicates with the dead, that's how it is.

Here's another take on motivationalist speaker Jill Bolte Taylor's promotion of left/right brain activity:
http://consciousstarstuff.tumblr.co...rain-vs-right-brain-and-other-myths-about-the

 

[Stray Cat]

Pakeha, I stand by all my right brain/left brain comments. And, Dr. Jill Taylor, that Harvard trained brain scientist with all the personal experience, is standing right behind me.

Well if you were wanting the queue of people who are right, you're both in the wrong queue.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

ParaNorman was a great film. Really well-written. What a person believes about reality doesn't have anything to do with what they find good in fiction, so far as I know. I mean, come on, nerds like us are the ones who play D&D, and no one actually believes that they are an elf mage wielding the helm of invisibility.

Speak for yourself.

*I put on my robe and wizard hat*

 

[John Jones]

Pakeha, I stand by all my right brain/left brain comments. And, Dr. Jill Taylor, that Harvard trained brain scientist with all the personal experience, is standing right behind me.

Even though they're wrong?

Jill Taylor's views are not supported by her peers.

 

[Robin1]

Even though they're wrong?

Jill Taylor's views are not supported by her peers.

You mean the peers thinking merely with the left side of their brain? : )
I think it would be more accurate to say that some peers don't support her views.

 

[stanfr]

Even if 100% of Americans believed in creationism, evolution would still be true...Evidence is evidence. And how many people believe in a thing is not evidence that the thing in fact exists.

I dunno, preponderance of belief has a lengthy precedence in American jurisprudence, if not science (experts)...
If "100% of Americans believed in creationism" youwould believe in creationism, and all the 'evidence to the contrary' would be irrelevent.
Is reality objective or subjective?
But i digress...tis a topic for some other Thread

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

You mean the peers thinking merely with the left side of their brain? : )
I think it would be more accurate to say that some peers don't support her views.

Ah, now there's a statement of objective fact. If you know of peers who support her views, then I'm sure you'll have no trouble naming them and linking to articles and papers in which they express that support.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Well, conversationally anyway.

That reminds me of one bit of the Demetri Martin monologue "Findings". In it he has a flipchart of various charts and graphs, etc, and he talks you through each one. One of those is "Cuteness of Girl" plotted against "How Interested I Am In Hearing About How Intuitive Her Cat Is". There's a direct correlation between the two until it hits a certain point at which "I don't care how cute the girl is - stop talking about your *********** cat".

 

[Garrette]

There is a marvelous discussion of Dr. Taylor’s TED talk here.
I recommend reading the comments, too. The blog’s author says what I often think about belief in such conveniently comforting yet un-evidenced vagaries as Dr. Taylor describes.

Rather, after several days of reflection and listening to it several times, I think the issue for me is that this can represent a waste of an important educational opportunity. Rather than opening us to an important new direction for thinking about the human experience, I fear that this talk will produce a kind of ecstatic tranquilization. And, because its poetry and showmanship is so good, it may be a strong misdirection.

The author summarizes his critique this way:

So, to show what worries me about Taylor’s talk, I will say something about what I think is going on in the talk. Ms. Taylor’s narrative is constructed as a collection of metaphors and metaphoric descriptions. She builds from factual beginnings about her stroke and her experience of the stroke, moves to a description of her experience that is couched in metaphors that look like facts, but are not, and leads to a speculation about the construction of the human being and human experience, which she expresses as as a series of declarations.

For real science, though, try these two papers, both of which demonstrate how the left-brain/right-brain idea is mistaken. Note that one of the authors of the second paper, Sperry, is one of those who first proposed the whole left-brain/right-brain idea, so perhaps his new opinion that he was mistaken is worth some attention:

Yates, F. E. (1980). Two minds about brain asymmetries. American Journal of Physiology, 238, R1-R2.


Ellenberg, L. & Sperry, R. W. (1980). Lateralized division of attention in the commissurotomized and intact brain. Neuropsychologia, 18, 411-418.

Full disclosure: I have read only abstracts of these two papers since the papers themselves require purchasing, and I am not that dedicated. It is not, however, difficult to find discussion of them by scientists, nor is it difficult to realize or to have pointed out that Dr. Taylor engages in speculation without much evidentiary support. I am not sufficiently informed of her background or activities to come to a firm conclusion, but my impression is that she is not attempting anything dishonest but rather was overcome by the emotions of her experience and confused her perceptions with science. Public acceptance likely reinforced that condition while discouraging any attempt at objective review.

 

[pakeha]

You mean the peers thinking merely with the left side of their brain? : )
I think it would be more accurate to say that some peers don't support her views.

Ah, now there's a statement of objective fact. If you know of peers who support her views, then I'm sure you'll have no trouble naming them and linking to articles and papers in which they express that support.

Trust a wizard to ninja me!
In any case, I have no doubt Robin will find other motivational speakers to back up Jill Bolte Taylor's premises.

Meantime, here's a Buddhist perspective on the subject to read:
http://mindbodyspirit4health.com/20...e-of-jill-bolte-taylors-my-stroke-of-insight/

 

[Resume]

Trust a wizard to ninja me!
In any case, I have no doubt Robin will find other motivational speakers to back up Jill Bolte Taylor's premises.

Meantime, here's a Buddhist perspective on the subject to read:
http://mindbodyspirit4health.com/20...e-of-jill-bolte-taylors-my-stroke-of-insight/

After reading the link I have only one question: What the hell is "Oprah's Spirit Channel?" She doesn't have enough woo on Own?

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Trust a wizard to ninja me!

Surely a better candidate would be a ninja?

 

[pakeha]

There is a marvelous discussion of Dr. Taylor’s TED talk here.
I recommend reading the comments, too. The blog’s author says what I often think about belief in such conveniently comforting yet un-evidenced vagaries as Dr. Taylor describes. ...

Thanks for the link, Garrette. That provided of some of the best reading I've had this year.

She says that the two halves of the brain are all but unconnected, and shows us the absence of tissue between them. Then she asserts a number of connections between them that, as a number, is simply an abstraction. While physically unimpressive in her presentation of the physical brain, the dimensions, role, and capacity of the corpus collosum that connects the two halves of the brain are more impressive. (From Wikipedia: “The corpus callosum is a structure of the mammalian brain in the longitudinal fissure that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres. It is the largest white matter structure in the brain, consisting of 200-250 million contralateral axonal projections. It is a wide, flat bundle of axons beneath the cortex. Much of the inter-hemispheric communication in the brain is conducted across the corpus callosum.”)

You have to wonder how a Harvard trained brain scientist missed that detail.

 

[Resume]

I'm not surprised, Robin.
You also stand by JE's claims to communicate with the dead.

ETA
As often happens, to actually learn about a given subject wiki is a good starting point.

Generally speaking, breakthroughs, discoveries, innovations in science are teased out, criticized, tested, perhaps provisionally accepted in things like academic journals, not on book tours, motivational speaking engagments or $100 a ticket personal appearances. Or $800 personal readings.

Generally speaking.

 

[Resume]

This

Pakeha, I stand by all my right brain/left brain comments. And, Dr. Jill Taylor, that Harvard trained brain scientist with all the personal experience, is standing right behind me.

Was meant to have been included with these.

I'm not surprised, Robin.
You also stand by JE's claims to communicate with the dead.

ETA
As often happens, to actually learn about a given subject wiki is a good starting point.

Generally speaking, breakthroughs, discoveries, innovations in science are teased out, criticized, tested, perhaps provisionally accepted in things like academic journals, not on book tours, motivational speaking engagments or $100 a ticket personal appearances. Or $800 personal readings.

Generally speaking.

 

[Garrette]

Thanks for the link, Garrette. That provided of some of the best reading I've had this year.

I thought so, too.

You have to wonder how a Harvard trained brain scientist missed that detail.

In her defense, she did have a stroke.

 

[poblob14]

I'm a bit late to this part of the party, and if I missed another reply mentioning this I apologize, but back to the "Cards and pizza" thing. On the Odds Must Be Crazy blog, the pizza recipient says in a comment:

The card was purchased in a gas station with a very limited selection of cards.

I don't know about where all of you live, but around here it's extremely common for convenience stores attached to gas stations to sell greeting cards and pizza. Casey's is one such chain.


And a similar chain - not Casey's, one with fewer but larger stores - that's prominent around here has a book and greeting card selection that's very religious-oriented.

I admit that I've never seen a Sistine Chapel pizza card, but if I were bringing someone pizza, and I saw such a card, I would certainly buy it immediately.

 

[meg]

The first time I watched Dr Taylor's talk, I remember thinking, "Hmmm, I wonder if that's how religions, notions of god, the spirit world, or whatever you want to call it started so many thousands of years ago. By listening to people with serious brain damage."