Matt Rouge on Why Skeptics will never accept the existence of psi

[gigmaster]

Mr. Prescott's blog starts off with an erroneous assumption. He has no way of knowing that Skeptics, or anyone else for that matter, will never accept the existence of psi.

I submit the assumption is false, because I know beyond any reasonable doubt that Skeptics, and science in general, will gladly accept the existence of psi just soon as as it is proven to be valid, according to our current understanding of science. They are many cash awards available, some as high as $1,000,000.000 and more, to anyone who can demonstrate the existence of psi under only the most basic of scientific parameters. In other words, it has to be testable, and it has to be repeatable, under controlled conditions. That's it. And so far, no award has been claimed. No valid test has had a positive result. Until that happens, the existence of psi is regarded as highly unlikely.

If that bothers some people, then show us some proof. There is money to be had. Come and get it.

 

[fuelair]

On Michael Prescott's blog one of his friends Matt Rouge wrote a piece "Why Skeptics will never accept the existence of psi".



Michael Prescott apparently bans most skeptics from commenting on his blog. Anyone want to take a stab at refuting Matt Rouge's claims about skeptics?

http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/...s-will-never-accept-the-existence-of-psi.html

For those who do not know who Michael Prescott is, he is an author of crime fiction but also known for his credulous acceptance of paranormal and pseudoscience topics.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michael_Prescott

Prescott believes in ectoplasm, demonic possession, "earthbound spirits" and reincarnation and has a history of defending fraudulent spiritualist mediums such as Eusapia Palladino.

Who does this silly Red Matt be that he offends us with his silliness!!!!

 

[Resume]

Credules don't care very much for skeptics, and often present straw-man versions of them to knock down, when all they actually need do is present proper, convincing evidence for their claim. As a general rule, the flimsier the fringe claim, the more vociferious the criticism of the skeptical position.

 

[MuDPhuD]

And?
The religious believe they talk to GOD, and some people who have survived cardiac arrest believe they have seen the afterlife. When valid alternate rational explanations exist there is no need to pursue unevidenced fantasy explanations.
The Defense department calls their program,
(From the article)
" Under the Perceptual Training Systems and Tools banner, ... In official Defense Department literature sensemaking is defined as “a motivated continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively.”"
The defense department apparently does NOT call it "precognition", ESP, or psi. The author of that article, on the other hand, does call it those things. I wonder why? Could it be she has written a 550 page book about it which has come to market in March 2017?("Jacobsen is a journalist and the author of Phenomena, from which this was adapted")
This "article" is essentially an advertisement, a teaser if you will, for her book. Have you read it?

When "information about things they could not know about is provided to them, which would make it extrasensory perception", be sure to let me know.


Your straw man is becoming overstuffed.

In the interest of open mindedness I have purchased the woman's book (Kindle version). Perhaps the long version will be more forthcoming with the "information about things they could not know about" being provided through extrasensory means.
It will take me many weeks to plow through 550 pages but I'll let you know what I find.

I read the wretched book "Phenomena". Recall from earlier in this thread that an excerpt from this book was used to support the notion that the military in fact uses ESP as a tool.

The book really appears to be essentially a promotional story to support Uri Geller as a genuine psychic, with genuine psychokinetic, map dowsing, and remote viewing capabilities (he's made millions after all!). He figures prominently start to finish, with the final chapters describing the author's personal visit with Uri at his fabulous home, and Netanyahu's support of Uri as an amazing phenomenon, and of course Uri's possible role as an agent of Mossad. Honestly I would not be at all surprised to learn that the majority of sales of this book were to Uri himself as a form of kickback to the author.

The book also makes a number of callous digs at James Randi, reinforcing my impression that it is primarily a Geller promotional.

With regard to this thread, indeed the current military program does not appear to be psi based in the slightest and occupies a very small fraction of the volume of the book (I guess because Uri is not involved).