New Beischel paper and the hype..

[Aepervius]

Found a new red flag for me when it comes to Beischel and her work in general. She is has a strong motivation for the paranormal to be true:



Taken from: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlo...de-to-afterlife-awareness/Content?oid=2503767

Here are her own words about it:



Taken from: http://www.ascsi.org/feat/life_after/julie_beischel_interview.php

I think this shows her commitment why she wants it to be true.

Also she is a believer in astrology:



Taken from: http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/the_excluded_middle_a_skeptic_explores_the_extraordinary/

So I would be careful to believe in her research.

Who cares ? I met people having done great work in physic believing in all sort of nonsense.

One should judge a work on the past habit or nonsense belief a person has but based on the evidence and claim in the paper. As such the analyzis of MuDPhuD is good. And any mention of her belief or past is superfluous.

 

[Lukas1986]

But not so careful that it would stop you bringing endless such bits of nonsense to the forum's attention.

I only post stuff which I cannot find some skeptical information on it around the web. Also its one of the newest stuff in the pro-paranormal circles and many people believe it proves their pro-paranormal world views.

 

[Joey McGee]

If people only paid attention to research by people who don't believe what they are publishing, and don't believe any nonsense at all, we'd have basically no research. That's like saying you're not going to believe in evolutionary theory because Darwin didn't believe in God.

That said, the idea that our loved ones aren't dead, we'll see them all again, and we don't die at the end of this magnificent and wondrous life we have the opportunity to live, it's the most attractive idea in the world. If there was a shred of evidence for it, everyone in science would be all over it, scientists are people too. If you look into the history of science, this wasn't an easy process. So, maybe we should take it a little easy on the believers, it's true that some tragedy or some longing for something beautiful is what is driving it. What can't be ignored is the fact that such beliefs waste what time we do have, and spoil and screw up the memory of our loved ones, imagining we are communicating with them through delusional mediums.

 

[Lukas1986]

If people only paid attention to research by people who don't believe what they are publishing, and don't believe any nonsense at all, we'd have basically no research. That's like saying you're not going to believe in evolutionary theory because Darwin didn't believe in God.

That said, the idea that our loved ones aren't dead, we'll see them all again, and we don't die at the end of this magnificent and wondrous life we have the opportunity to live, it's the most attractive idea in the world. If there was a shred of evidence for it, everyone in science would be all over it, scientists are people too. If you look into the history of science, this wasn't an easy process. So, maybe we should take it a little easy on the believers, it's true that some tragedy or some longing for something beautiful is what is driving it. What can't be ignored is the fact that such beliefs waste what time we do have, and spoil and screw up the memory of our loved ones, imagining we are communicating with them through delusional mediums.

I agree with you here. I just wanted to point out that this motivation, when someone dies is a very dangerous one. It can lead to that fact that you abandon the scientific method all together and wants it to be true. Even Dr. Steven Novella shows that smart people who loose someone falls for this strange stuff:

A commenter to yesterday’s post pointed out an interview in which Lanza discusses the death of his sister, and how this helped him realize that death is not permanent because consciousness exists outside of space and time. Here we have a significant motivation to embrace something like biocentrism. It is likely that biocentrism is ultimately the sophisticated rationalization of a smart guy dealing with the pain of mortality.

Taken from: http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/biocentrism-continued/

I actually do not mind when people believe in mediums but I am sick when they try to convince others that mediums and psychic powers exist because they believe in it for their personal loss.