Can I ask the science minded skeptics a question?

Question

I have a great deal of respect for skeptics of psychic phenomena. If it wasn’t for one rare experience I would be a skeptic too. What I would like to ask is a favor. Would you do a thought experiment? Assuming for a moment that PSI could occur, what do you think could cause it? Do you think it could be a Quantum phenomenon? Does something happen when brain cells split? Could space time irregularities account for it? I really would value your thoughts!

Come on skeptics! What if you had to find a way? Maybe along the lines of how metal in the body (dental work for example) can sometimes pick up radio transmissions. What about light spectrums outside visual (some animals can sense them)? Don't just say it doesn't exist so I won't even try! Didn't Einstein say imagination is more important than knowledge?

Answer 1

I'm a skeptic but I'm also a scientist who is often asked to understand something that happens which according to our current scientific understanding shouldn't. So I'll bite on this one.

Activity within the brain, or within our muscles for that matter, is electrical. This electrical current produces a corresponding electromagnetic field in accordance with Maxwell's equations. We can measure brain activity through analysis of these fields and we do it everyday. We call them EEG's or EKG's, but they are, in essence, reading out minds and looking into our hearts.

It isn't impossible, though it is HIGHLY unlikely that on some unconscious level all or some of us can percieve those fields however weak they may be. In the lab you can use an electromagnetic field to induce electron motion (like in a generator). So to go out on the furthest limb yet, it is theoretically possible that those ambient fields we might (but probably can't) percieve may induce electronic motion in us.

This theory doesn't violate any laws of physics (though it stretches the heck out of a couple) but the practicallity of it is almost zero. We only measure brainwaves in frequency so there is no distinction between thinking of an apple or thinking about a beach (its just that there is thought so there is electrical activity). And those fields are very weak and require sophisticated machines to detect. Thus, we can't detect them, they can't be re-materialized, and ESP is for the psychologists to explain, not scientists.

Answer 2

Let me just point out that the term "Skeptic" does not mean someone does not believe anything. It means that someone requires evidence before they are willing to believe in fantastic claims.
I don't think there is a logical explaination that could define the mechanics of psychics. I am sure if there was, someone would have thought of it and experimented on it.
All I could give you is a little pseudo-science religios thought.

At an atomic level there is little difference between air and solid matter. Thus thoughts, which travel on electrons, have an opportunity to escape your head into the air. Other people can pick up these electrons, and the thoughts that they carry will be transplanted into thier head.
These thoughts are going all over the place, and can last for centuries. This is why so many people tend to think of things at the same time. For example, taiwan seems to produce products almost identical popular products in our country and sells them for much cheaper. Writers will sometimes think up stories that are very close to stories already written...etc.

The fact is, until its been shown that such a thing exists, its rediculous to even ponder the mechanics of it.

Answer 3

i think of the rather clever skeptics upload lots to the examination and questioning approximately many matters, yet there are additionally skeptics who're purely damaging. It exceptionally much looks like an obsession sometimes. Why berate each thing it rather is asserted approximately some thing? in case you do not have self assurance a observe of it, positive. If some thing hadn't befell to persuade me, i does no longer have self assurance it the two. yet i won't have the capacity to work out myself gazing for signs and indications of concept and leaping throughout them when I observed them. what's the factor of that? ok! We get it. some don't have self assurance. I comprehend that, yet why get obsessed on it? some individuals have experienced issues that go away us no decision yet to have self assurance! Excuse us!

Answer 4

Far be it from me to come up with a reasonable hypothesis when no one, pro or con, has been able to for over a hundred years of attempted scientific investigation of these phenomena. Nor has anyone been able to produce one iota of physical evidence under properly controlled conditions. Nor has anyone been able to produce any significant data which hasn't been manipulated to get results. Even when they cheat, they can't come up with impressive statistics.

So it would be meaningless for me to speculate on the causes of something which has never been shown to exist and for which there is no plausible explanation within physical reality. And no, I will not presume supernatural forces because they are not part of the physical Universe and there is absolutely no reason to believe anything else exists.

Your experience may be impressive to you, but there are common psychological and sociological explanations for every strange experience anyone has ever had. The fact that some people remember things which never happened is a common explanation. Whether it can be proven or not, isn't important. What's important is that these prosaic explanations are far more likely, in the absence of compelling evidence. That is why anecdotal evidence is almost as unreliable as spiritual evidence.

Surely you don't think the examples given in your additional details, defy explanation. And as far as animals seeing auras, who says? That's an example of unbridled and reckless speculation. There is no evidence for it. It's a comical claim, like saying that if you dream you die falling, you'll actually die. Even if it was true, there would be no way of knowing about it.

Answer 5

You're asking use to hypothetically invent a cause that could explain the mechanics of something that has never been shown to exist? In other words, you want someone to use scientific tools (i.e. natural and real) to explain something that is supernatural. This isn't a thought experiment, it's science fiction. But I'll humor you:

ESP is made possible by a colorless, odorless and otherwise undetectable gas emitted by human beings after they eat sugar. This "ether" serves as a conduit between humans. It's a bit like the internet, but on a cosmic energy level. Silly isn't it?

Answer 6

Actually the more important factor of Einstein is his mass–energy relationship formula.

Something happens when all your cells split; they put off an ultrasonic sound...we just can't hear it.

Science has also discovered that they also produce a 'smell' and that diseased cells (like cancer cells) smell differently; perhaps this is why animals can smell disease in humans?

In conjunction; the sound produced by diseased cells is also different than that of a healthy cell.

Certain types of cancers are now being detected with ultrasonic receptors that are able to pick up the abnormality of these diseased cells splitting.

Answer 7

the funding for this would never come to pass. it much more important to fund how fast the universe is expanding than to explain why throughout human history there has been paranormal phenom. its much more important to fund serious investigations into the mating habits of fruit bats. or to try and prove the big bang theory. they know there was a big bang? but dont know why or what started it? and thats important because the entire structure of planet earth will crumble without the answer to this question, ( that can never be answered anyway).

Answer 8

I think that PSI occurs when you inflate something. I believe the tires on my car ask for 32 PSI, so I check it regularly to make sure I have the proper PSI.
I kinda figure that if I have four tires with 32 PSI each, that pretty much everyone should have at least 1 PSI laying around somewhere....right?

Answer 9

Assuming Psi is real, what could cause it? I appreciate what you're asking, but really there is no way to answer this from the scientific perspective. Hypotheses and theories are built upon established science, but here we don't have any established science to appeal to in order to posit any mechanisms for Psi. It ends up just being an exercise in conjecture, I'm afraid.

I am amused by how much quantum mechanics is brought up by paranormial enthusiasts. Back in the day, magnetism used to be the hot science buzzword that would sell a product. Today it's quantum this and quantum that, offered up as the sciencey explanation of choice while being entirely devoid of any mathematical derivations which are minimally necessary to justify such claims. As far as the other possibilities you suggested, again, there is nothing known in established science which would predict psi abilities arising from these things.

Your question does underscore the underlying pseudoscientific basis of much of the paranormal -- it's based on conjecture, not on established science.

Answer 10

If you ask me to assume it is possible, then one could assume pretty much any reason why it could be so, since you are then in a world of conjecture.
If I ask you to suppose for a second that unicorn exist, can I ask you if they are biologically more closely related to fire breathing dragon or to phoenix?
There is no basis to support an assumption on an unsubstantiated "if" pertaining to non-existing phenomenon. There is no psychic phenomena, therefore speculation about the origin thereof is an exercise in futility.



Additional detail: asking to use imagination is not helping. Again, you ask "what could it be" for something that does not exist. It could then be anything, including that all of this is an advanced simulation and we are just characters in a video game simulation where such powers are part of the play. Still have no realistic grounds for existence.