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divineseraph

PostPosted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:16 am


ChiyuriYami
divineseraph
There is a difference between believing things that can be perceived, with significant evidence that they do exist, and randomly believing EVERYTHING you're told. The difference is this- Assuming that the world is an illusion under which the senses are lying to us about everything, then I have evidence from the sources given. I have evidence that, at least in the illusion, certain rules apply. Yours don't even hold up in this illusion-world with substantial evidence.


Just like that.. what rules are you talking about and in what do they make what I said impossible? So far in all the rules I ever understood of reality, none come to contractic anything I did..


divineseraph
And if you truly believe everything, I have just turned off the soulsun. Wallow in despair.


Like I said.. I only take it as a possibility. I do not believe or disbelieve your soulsun thing. So far I ain't feeling despair so I take it into acount it might take time for it to have effect on me, or that I am resistant to it. or other kind of possible turn out since I lack the information to confim or contractic these possibilities.

divineseraph
I'm using evidence that human beings don't have the capacity to change the weather. It's based on induction, and millions of years of evolution with only a handful claiming to have the ability, and all of that evidence is largely circumstantial and luck-based anyway.


"evidance that human beings don't have the capacity to change the weather"... just like that.. can you even give me such an evidance, or atleast try to explain it if it can not be exposed over the internet.

People believe the world was flat a long time ago for many many years and only a few did believe it was a sphere... Now which one was right.. the majority or the minority of only a few little people compared to almost a full world? ((Taking into acount that the earth really is a sphere))

Your existance itself can be quite circumstantial and luck-based... Am I ignoring your existance for that kind of reason? You might be a bot, you might be an allusination.. or a computer virus for all I know.


divineseraph
But that's just it- Walking has been done before. Weather changing? Nope. No evidence that it CAN be done. In fact, much of the evidence says it CAN'T be done.


Yet you still can't prove to me you can walk? If it is such an easy thing and that most people can do it. For all I know you might have leg paralizy or even have lost both of your legs. That possibility do make it so that an human can't walk. ((Here I am just trying to use your logic of wanting proof to believe in something.. I couldn't care much if you can walk or not.. just trying to make you see how wrong it can be))

Also where is it said that "Weather changing haven't been done before"
ok maybe this question isn't very well formed.. anyone can just come in and say it haven't, you just did yourself. I mean that like there is no accepted proof of weather changing, there haven't been any accepted proof that it can not be done yet either (well to my knowledge there isn't any yet).

divineseraph
Again, all luck and placebo. If we ever meet, you can try your mumbo-jumbo on me. I assure you, I will remain quite unchanged. Unless it requires an open attitude, as some "magickckcxs" or however many letters they're tacking on now, do. Then that is just more evidence of placebo affect.


For soul alternation I don't think it require much open attitude.. The soul can be toyed with easily. I removed peice of them from people who didn't even know so been open minded or not doesn't have much of a difference I think.

Like you said it could all be luck and placebo but... it also can be something else. Under what reason would it "obviously" be the fault of luck?

The people I removed peice of their soul from didn't know so no placebo can take place in their case.. The only one I changed the proprieties of her soul did know what I was trying to do but I don't remember telling her the side effect. She is good enough to maybe have guessed those side effects herself but in the case she didn't do, no placebo effect here either could have happened.

While placebo might be present in the case of the only soul alternation I did, there is probably no evidance of placebo effect on the other ones.
or maybe the placebo effect was on me, forcing me to hear other people notice how they looked down and different and notice such change myself.. Quite a powerfull placebo by itself if such thing did happen..

Maybe you are the one that have a placebo on himself to ignore things that look different then the reality you see..

It's all a matter of probabilities.


It is an extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Oh, so my soulsun isn't good enough for your immediate belief? trust me, you're sad. It's making you sad. My confirmation of it by repeating that I can do it proves it, does it not? So be sad already!

Actually, as early as civilization has existed, at least to the time of greeks, the world was known to be round. This fact was ignored by some people, but they had the mathematics to prove it. My proof is the induction that it has never been done, and can easily be shown to fail.

You're missing the point of "luck based"- It's not that the means to the magic or psionics or whatever you're calling it is luck based, it's that the end result IS luck. Anything that claims to change luck is bullshit, plain and simple, because it cannot be proven, firstly, and secondly flies in the face of statistics and basic mathematics.

I don't believe that YOU SPECIFICALLY can't change the weather. I think that NOBODY can. Your argument is not a mirror of mine as it focuses on an individual's capacity rather than the general human population. The general human population can walk. Nobody can change the weather. This is why someone claiming to be able to must be able to prove it, or else they are full of s**t. extraordinary claims and all that.

Firstly, the soul is indivisible. I have evidence from studies done with autistic children- their minds, it seems, are intact, despite mental disorders that disconnect the mind with the physical brain. But no, really, I challenge you. Find a skeptic, me preferably, and alter my soul. I assure you, I will sense no difference, you will have no affect. You will fall back on the reasoning that you just did it wrong or that I have some sort of magical resistance. Fact is, nope, you just can't do it.

I have taken no placebo- I am not the one claiming to be able to change the weather because once upon a time I thought really hard and the next week it rained.
PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:53 am


divineseraph
ChiyuriYami

Just like that.. what rules are you talking about and in what do they make what I said impossible? So far in all the rules I ever understood of reality, none come to contractic anything I did..


It is an extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.


First.. I asked to know of these rules you spoke about.. I am still waiting for them.. Also I would like to know why extraordinary claim need extraordinary evidence. I'm going to give you once more a little exemple you might have gotten sick of hearing but..
What kind of evidance would you give to convince someone who is blind that colors do exist?
Even if evidance exist for some of my claims, not everyone can actually receave the evidance... a blind person can no understand and experience color.. any evidance that colors exist aren't things that person can experience for himself/herself.


divineseraph
Oh, so my soulsun isn't good enough for your immediate belief? trust me, you're sad. It's making you sad. My confirmation of it by repeating that I can do it proves it, does it not? So be sad already!

Well I ain't much feeling more sad so far. Oh and I also do not see how repeating a fact can prove that fact (well I can think of one way it can work but it's out of topic) Mind you explain how repeating a fact prove that fact? (I'm also taking into acount that you are probably been sarcastic to some point)



divineseraph
My proof is the induction that it has never been done, and can easily be shown to fail.

if induction really was a 100% sure thing to be true then yes it would be a proof of inexistance... But the real truth is that induction can be wrong also. They aren't always right and even I can make up faulty inductions..

An exemple would be "I never saw that you existed.. so I can make the induction that you don't exist". As you can see it does look weird and lack logic.
Another exemple would be that if you ignore every event that it have happen, there is no event left of it happening that you look at... So it's a little too easy to just induce that it have never been done?



divineseraph
You're missing the point of "luck based"- It's not that the means to the magic or psionics or whatever you're calling it is luck based, it's that the end result IS luck. Anything that claims to change luck is bullshit, plain and simple, because it cannot be proven, firstly, and secondly flies in the face of statistics and basic mathematics.


Luck alternation by itself is a change in the concept of luck. It goes beyond just been a physical change. It never was something to be proven, it just is something to take as a possibility.
Also you didn't explain why something that can not be proven is bullshit. The world itself can not be proven... so far evolution haven't been proved, it only have been accepted as an highly possible theory.. Your existance haven't been proven to me yet..
Is the world bullshit? Is evolution bullshit? Are you bullshit??



divineseraph
I don't believe that YOU SPECIFICALLY can't change the weather. I think that NOBODY can. Your argument is not a mirror of mine as it focuses on an individual's capacity rather than the general human population. The general human population can walk. Nobody can change the weather. This is why someone claiming to be able to must be able to prove it, or else they are full of s**t. extraordinary claims and all that.

Alright then I'll change my exemple a little to fufil your need of it been less specific... Take for exemple someone who live alone in an house for all his life. He lost his memory, both his legs and only remember up to his last year.. He doesn't remember ever seeing people before... Without ever meeting that guy, by just talking over the internet.. can you ever prove to him that walking is possible for most people?
Just talking isn't enough to convince him. A picture or a video and he'll say you faked it or maybe he is blind and can not see such a thing as a picture or a video...

For that guy, you will never be able to prove it within those conditions.. Are your claims of people been able to walk now bullshit or a fact? if you were that guy, you would probably just have said they should be able to prove it or else they are full of s**t.. that such a thing as "walking" is an extraordinary claim...



divineseraph

Firstly, the soul is indivisible. I have evidence from studies done with autistic children- their minds, it seems, are intact, despite mental disorders that disconnect the mind with the physical brain. But no, really, I challenge you. Find a skeptic, me preferably, and alter my soul. I assure you, I will sense no difference, you will have no affect. You will fall back on the reasoning that you just did it wrong or that I have some sort of magical resistance. Fact is, nope, you just can't do it.

I have taken no placebo- I am not the one claiming to be able to change the weather because once upon a time I thought really hard and the next week it rained.


Over the internet I don't mind talking about such kind of thing.. in most case whatever people like you do, it will not come and affect me outside of the internet. But people who are around that are like you may react in really bad ways that could cause me unwanted troubles. I personnaly prefer not to attract such kind of attention just to try something on someone else. Such a thing for soul alternation require me to atleast ask that person first.. I don't do dangerous experience on other people without them knowing anymore.. Also.. even if I do get someone I can do the experience on and he/she is a sketic.. you can always refuse anything I say about it as either pure luck or that this person is faking it. or maybe that I invented everything about ever doing anything on a skeptic person..

Also just like you I can say I have no placebo. you might not be claiming to be able to change the weather but you are claiming that it is impossible even when you can't prove that it ain't possible yourself...
I never saw any proof I could give to others about such a thing happening but.. I never got any proof of it not been able to happen also..

If I have a placebo for accepting the possiblity of it happening without a proof that it can happen, then you have a placebo for belieiving it can not happen without a proof of it's impossibility..

ChiyuriYami


divineseraph

PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:16 am


ChiyuriYami
divineseraph
ChiyuriYami

Just like that.. what rules are you talking about and in what do they make what I said impossible? So far in all the rules I ever understood of reality, none come to contractic anything I did..


It is an extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.


First.. I asked to know of these rules you spoke about.. I am still waiting for them.. Also I would like to know why extraordinary claim need extraordinary evidence. I'm going to give you once more a little exemple you might have gotten sick of hearing but..
What kind of evidance would you give to convince someone who is blind that colors do exist?
Even if evidance exist for some of my claims, not everyone can actually receave the evidance... a blind person can no understand and experience color.. any evidance that colors exist aren't things that person can experience for himself/herself.


divineseraph
Oh, so my soulsun isn't good enough for your immediate belief? trust me, you're sad. It's making you sad. My confirmation of it by repeating that I can do it proves it, does it not? So be sad already!

Well I ain't much feeling more sad so far. Oh and I also do not see how repeating a fact can prove that fact (well I can think of one way it can work but it's out of topic) Mind you explain how repeating a fact prove that fact? (I'm also taking into acount that you are probably been sarcastic to some point)



divineseraph
My proof is the induction that it has never been done, and can easily be shown to fail.

if induction really was a 100% sure thing to be true then yes it would be a proof of inexistance... But the real truth is that induction can be wrong also. They aren't always right and even I can make up faulty inductions..

An exemple would be "I never saw that you existed.. so I can make the induction that you don't exist". As you can see it does look weird and lack logic.
Another exemple would be that if you ignore every event that it have happen, there is no event left of it happening that you look at... So it's a little too easy to just induce that it have never been done?



divineseraph
You're missing the point of "luck based"- It's not that the means to the magic or psionics or whatever you're calling it is luck based, it's that the end result IS luck. Anything that claims to change luck is bullshit, plain and simple, because it cannot be proven, firstly, and secondly flies in the face of statistics and basic mathematics.


Luck alternation by itself is a change in the concept of luck. It goes beyond just been a physical change. It never was something to be proven, it just is something to take as a possibility.
Also you didn't explain why something that can not be proven is bullshit. The world itself can not be proven... so far evolution haven't been proved, it only have been accepted as an highly possible theory.. Your existance haven't been proven to me yet..
Is the world bullshit? Is evolution bullshit? Are you bullshit??



divineseraph
I don't believe that YOU SPECIFICALLY can't change the weather. I think that NOBODY can. Your argument is not a mirror of mine as it focuses on an individual's capacity rather than the general human population. The general human population can walk. Nobody can change the weather. This is why someone claiming to be able to must be able to prove it, or else they are full of s**t. extraordinary claims and all that.

Alright then I'll change my exemple a little to fufil your need of it been less specific... Take for exemple someone who live alone in an house for all his life. He lost his memory, both his legs and only remember up to his last year.. He doesn't remember ever seeing people before... Without ever meeting that guy, by just talking over the internet.. can you ever prove to him that walking is possible for most people?
Just talking isn't enough to convince him. A picture or a video and he'll say you faked it or maybe he is blind and can not see such a thing as a picture or a video...

For that guy, you will never be able to prove it within those conditions.. Are your claims of people been able to walk now bullshit or a fact? if you were that guy, you would probably just have said they should be able to prove it or else they are full of s**t.. that such a thing as "walking" is an extraordinary claim...



divineseraph

Firstly, the soul is indivisible. I have evidence from studies done with autistic children- their minds, it seems, are intact, despite mental disorders that disconnect the mind with the physical brain. But no, really, I challenge you. Find a skeptic, me preferably, and alter my soul. I assure you, I will sense no difference, you will have no affect. You will fall back on the reasoning that you just did it wrong or that I have some sort of magical resistance. Fact is, nope, you just can't do it.

I have taken no placebo- I am not the one claiming to be able to change the weather because once upon a time I thought really hard and the next week it rained.


Over the internet I don't mind talking about such kind of thing.. in most case whatever people like you do, it will not come and affect me outside of the internet. But people who are around that are like you may react in really bad ways that could cause me unwanted troubles. I personnaly prefer not to attract such kind of attention just to try something on someone else. Such a thing for soul alternation require me to atleast ask that person first.. I don't do dangerous experience on other people without them knowing anymore.. Also.. even if I do get someone I can do the experience on and he/she is a sketic.. you can always refuse anything I say about it as either pure luck or that this person is faking it. or maybe that I invented everything about ever doing anything on a skeptic person..

Also just like you I can say I have no placebo. you might not be claiming to be able to change the weather but you are claiming that it is impossible even when you can't prove that it ain't possible yourself...
I never saw any proof I could give to others about such a thing happening but.. I never got any proof of it not been able to happen also..

If I have a placebo for accepting the possiblity of it happening without a proof that it can happen, then you have a placebo for belieiving it can not happen without a proof of it's impossibility..


The rules are common sense and laws of physics and nature. Sure, humans can manipulate kinetic energy. But they cannot do so to alter storms or temperatures or things of this nature because they don't work by force.

Because EVERYONE ELSE CAN SEE THEM. Seeing is not an extraordinary thing. It is, in fact, extraordinary to be unable to see. Thus, you must prove your degree of a lack of sight, and if possible, be brought back up to the objective standard of sight. If only three people in the world claimed to be able to see, I would not believe them UNLESS they could prove it through means I could witness. For example, I would have them cover all their other senses and still navigate a maze, without echolocation or whatever we may use without sight. Given evidence, I would start to believe. There is no evidence that you can change the weather. I challenge you, actually, to change the weather in New England. Give us a lightning shower in mid december.

Oh no, I was absolutely being sarcastic the entire time. You SHOULD have no reason to believe what I said about being a dragon and a soulsun- It's just jibberish. It's a vague, extraordinary claim with absolutely no evidence and, in fact, significant evidence against it. Just as yours about changing the weather and such.

Except I'm interacting with you. This text is direct evidence that you are talking to some entity. Your proof is entirely nonexistent. Induction is not proof, but evidence. You hold no evidence. Thus, induction has more evidence than you do.

Again, I bring you to the illusion reference- Even IF the world does not exist, going by the information granted to us, we can discern certain things about the illusion, such as gravity, force, momentum, time. There is no evidence, even in the potential illusion, that what you claim is possible. Other than, of course, you claiming that you can. If it's highly probable, then that means that there's a very small chance that it's bullshit. Yours is highly improbable, thus, there is a very high chance that it is bullshit.

If he's really interested I'd go to his house and do a jig for him. Now, do a jig for me.

Then do it on me. If you change me, then I will not be capable of disputing it. I am not worried. You hold not power but those granted in your imagination.

A placebo affect requires taking a fake and claiming it to have a real, direct affect. I am calling you on your sugar-pill psionics, I am telling you that you've been eating sugar, not medicine. I have taken no such false drug and then claimed to be able to alter reality with them.
PostPosted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 8:51 pm


Seriously? Really? Do any of you really believe this?

Pics or it didn't happen.

Yes, I am challenging you. If you are offended, it must be because you cannot prove any of this, or else you have nothing to fear. Show me a controlling of a ball of ice, or even a temperature change of any kind.

Seriously, first-hand accounts don't cut it. Because if they do, then I can just as easily be a dragon who can control all of fire. In fact, my eyeball is the sun, and I'm sitting on jupiter, which is indeed larger than the sun because I said so. I'm watching you, and I can smite you, or give you bad luck or some other unspecific, ambiguous malady. I can also change metals into babies and babies into chocolate, just with my mind. I once destroyed three whole cities by using too big of a psi-ball. Remember Atlantis? Troy? Saddom? That was me and my uber magix. Which is spelled with an X because that's why it's special and actually works.

_______________________________

I appreciate your search for truth and wisdom and all that, but you're probably not going to get it here. Let's face it - the results we get in the guild are inconclusive. Since this is entirely online, there's very little we can do to validate one another's claims. All we can do is experiment, take each other's opinions meaningfully enough that they help our research, but lightly enough that we don't become mesmerised by what someone who could be lying says. Like Obscurus says, no amount of Internet proof will cut it for you. I've long since reconciled that since I can't expect others to be entirely truthful, observant or analytical, online or off, there's no point in believing any of the claims other people make on the site, but I will say that I do entertain the possibility that they are every bit as real for them as my experiences are for me. This guild is not about trying to prove that magick exists - it's to bring together those people that do believe it exists and allow them to continue their research with others' help.

If I could be so bold to make an observation, as you seem to have been pretty bold yourself: you seem really pissed that other people take things like magick seriously. Why bother being on a one-man crusade to debunk other's beliefs? Do you have any evidence that what you're doing is helpful and meaningful to whomever you're targeting?

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divineseraph

PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 6:52 am


Yes. By getting them from their foolish beliefs in the highly-improbable-with-no-evidence, they will have a freedom to find something productive to do.

I have challenged "witches" I know IRL, never to be destroyed or cursed or hit with a rank 3 fireball. I cannot stand the foolishness of claiming power but being powerless. It is arrogance and falsity, and when I see it, I challenge it. I tear down their delusions and with it, their supposed power. If they have no power, they have no purpose in claiming to unless they expect to be challenged.
PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:45 am


Yes. By getting them from their foolish beliefs in the highly-improbable-with-no-evidence, they will have a freedom to find something productive to do.

I have challenged "witches" I know IRL, never to be destroyed or cursed or hit with a rank 3 fireball. I cannot stand the foolishness of claiming power but being powerless. It is arrogance and falsity, and when I see it, I challenge it. I tear down their delusions and with it, their supposed power. If they have no power, they have no purpose in claiming to unless they expect to be challenged.


Why do you assume:

a) That you have the capacity and methods to change people's beliefs on the internet,
b) That being productive is more important than having fun,
c) That they will move on to something productive after they give up their faith?

Secondly, why bother? The people in this guild only get out of it what they put into it: it's for your own personal research and experimentation. Folk aren't here to tell people that they roasted someone with a rank three fireball; they're here to talk about their work, their findings, brainstorm for ideas and get answers to questions. If you went onto an art forum and someone was bragging that they'd created the best picture of Sunflowers since van Gogh, then we wouldn't take their word as gospel without evidence. However, if someone suggested, for example, that light feathery strokes would be a perfect way to draw rivers, we could take that, try it out, and if we get results, discuss them. We would not think, "Ah, this person says light feathery strokes are the best way to draw rivers, and I will believe them wholeheartedly!". Likewise here -- folk aren't here to brag about their Occultopenis, they're here to share ideas.

As a corollary to the above -- what's the point in asking for proof? You've already decided that This Stuff doesn't exist, so it's obviously not to help yourself seek the truth. Pretty much all the members of the guild here believe in This Stuff, have considered the ramifications and arguments against it, and come out with their faith affirmed. The only reason I can see that you'd pose a challenge like this is to say "You can't do it, therefore you're wrong and I'm right." So bloody what? You got the one up on someone on the internet - now go and watch an argument between Ninty fanboys and Sony fanboys, and witness the degree of futility of your wee challenge here. Honestly, you campaign for productivity on Gaia? Really? Surely your superior logic would have clocked in at this point and helped you deduce precisely how stupid, hypocritical and self-defeating your challenge really is. The only thing that could possibly have backed up this idea is some sort of weird blind conviction that you can somehow change people's beliefs by some inexplicable charismatic power you have.

Ahem.

And, lastly: your ultimate aim is to convince people to stop spending their time doing something they enjoy in exchange for something productive? In that case, are you also campaigning against masturbation, fantasy fiction, dressing up your Gaia Avatar, designing and playing video games, roleplaying on forums, anime, and cuddling? I'm pretty sure you could be doing something more productive with your time than enjoying the above.

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divineseraph

PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 8:34 pm


The difference here is, I don't expect to find a dragon in my back yard because I read a fantasy novel. Or worse yet, expect to BE a dragon because I read about one in a fantasy novel.

It's not that it's a recreation- I have no problem with people who STUDY witchcraft or magic or psionics. But since nobody has yet to actually DO it, anyone claiming to had better throw down.
PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 9:16 pm


Consider for a moment that magic(k), psionics, witchcraft, energy manipulation, etc., etc. does not fit your current paradigm or worldview.

There's something to be said for wishing to help people, but I don't believe your motivations are entirely altruistic.

As I've said previously; go try these things for yourself. That's the only way you'll have your proof (or affirm that there is none). Give it a whole-hearted attempt and examine your findings. If you feel that there are more productive things to do, then don't waste our time expecting us to hand the proof to you on a silver platter; we also have more productive things to do.

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divineseraph

PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:16 am


Giving proof, if there is any to be had, will be good practice.

If there is no proof to be given, then what are you doing but pretending? If someone claims that it is possible for them to run ten miles in ten minutes, I'm not going to try it myself. I will challenge them to do it, I have a car and 10 minutes.
PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 1:01 pm


Giving proof, if there is any to be had, will be good practice.

If there is no proof to be given, then what are you doing but pretending? If someone claims that it is possible for them to run ten miles in ten minutes, I'm not going to try it myself. I will challenge them to do it, I have a car and 10 minutes.


That's fine - you don't need to believe what anyone says without proof. However, this is the internet, and it's a Gaia forum. If you want proof of anything, it's bad form to look for it here.

That isn't the point, though. These forums are here for people who have experienced something of their own and want to discuss it with the same. It's not a contest; no-one here is bragging about running ten miles in ten minutes. If you want that, there are other Gaia Guilds. Everyone here is willing to suspend their disbelief for a little while in order to get some insight and feedback into their own and other people's experiences. Our BS-Radars are working fine, and I'm pretty sure most of us, when faced with people posting horrifically disproportionate scenarios like the ones you've suggested, would either call the person out and start and argument, or shrug their shoulders and let it fly. The latter group are not admitting defeat to the person posting the nonsense, they're simply acknowledging the futility of trying to prove or disprove any scenario presented to them on the internet.

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divineseraph

PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:10 pm


Mitsh
Giving proof, if there is any to be had, will be good practice.

If there is no proof to be given, then what are you doing but pretending? If someone claims that it is possible for them to run ten miles in ten minutes, I'm not going to try it myself. I will challenge them to do it, I have a car and 10 minutes.


That's fine - you don't need to believe what anyone says without proof. However, this is the internet, and it's a Gaia forum. If you want proof of anything, it's bad form to look for it here.

That isn't the point, though. These forums are here for people who have experienced something of their own and want to discuss it with the same. It's not a contest; no-one here is bragging about running ten miles in ten minutes. If you want that, there are other Gaia Guilds. Everyone here is willing to suspend their disbelief for a little while in order to get some insight and feedback into their own and other people's experiences. Our BS-Radars are working fine, and I'm pretty sure most of us, when faced with people posting horrifically disproportionate scenarios like the ones you've suggested, would either call the person out and start and argument, or shrug their shoulders and let it fly. The latter group are not admitting defeat to the person posting the nonsense, they're simply acknowledging the futility of trying to prove or disprove any scenario presented to them on the internet.


I cannot just let these fools spout nonsense unfounded. If they claim to be able to change the weather from way the hell on the opposite end of the internet, I want proof. I want to see a damned weather change. That is something that I could see. Otherwise, it makes ALL occult research look like dumbass little kids pretending and playacting and making up stories for attention. I feel the same way about "Alchemists" who think that alchemy is done with a pocket watch, clapping your hands together and drawing pretty circles. They couldn't tell you Mercury from mercury.
PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:31 pm


Pseudoscience doesn't make all science look like kids with telescopes playing with numbers.

I'll be the first to tell you that most people claiming occult prowess are either delusional or don't understand the deeper mysteries. That's why when making a claim it's always a good idea to have reference material to fall back on that you took your ideas from. That's how it's done in traditional academics.

And you're right, people making such claims should be able to demonstrate it. The thing is, given the ephemeral nature of this field, repeatable results rarely manifest under laboratory conditions. Results usually depend upon the mindset of the practitioner and possibly the mindset of the observers.

My point is that most of the people that actually do have "gifts" don't publicize it. They may wax philosophic on forums like this, but "To remain silent," is still a part of the Hermetic Quaternary. The very act of disclosing their attempts could contaminate them, and if they reveal them after the fact it's seen as them telling a tale or coincidence.

I think most older members here (those few that still post) would agree with you that the majority of these claims are absurd, but despite all the people saying the world is flat or that the earth is the center of the universe there will still be people speaking the truth.

I think we forget that the purpose of occult or esoteric arts is not for bragging rights or even the pursuit of power, but they are for transformation and betterment of self and others. So in that sense, if someone claims to cast a spell to cause it to rain during a drought, and it does, does it really matter if it's coincidence or not?

Obscurus

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divineseraph

PostPosted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 4:32 pm


That's not the point either. Someone claiming to be a scientist, say, why claimed to have found a way to teleport, or a "master of karate" who claims to have a mastery of ki. Put up or shut up. Since this is extraordinary and thus requires evidence, show me what you can do, and I will believe it.

I don't want their tales unless they are true. And the only way to prove it is to do something. Again, it's like a scientist who will wear a white coat and a name tag, but when brought to the lab can't figure out which way a test tube goes, or what binary is. If they claim to be something they are not, then they are still nothing. And how do they become what they are what they say they are? By actually doing something. Which is why I force them to come to terms with this and stop their acting. Or like a "master of karate" who can alter his aura at will, who bruises his knuckles on a single board in demonstration. I force them to put up or shut up.

I am an alchemist. If you ask me to prove it, I can share my experiences with spagyrics and I can replicate them. I do not claim to change the weather, and if I did, I would need to be quite accepting of the challenge to do so. Do not claim to do something you cannot, or I will ask you to.
PostPosted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 8:25 pm


divineseraph
That's not the point either. Someone claiming to be a scientist, say, why claimed to have found a way to teleport, or a "master of karate" who claims to have a mastery of ki. Put up or shut up. Since this is extraordinary and thus requires evidence, show me what you can do, and I will believe it.

I don't want their tales unless they are true. And the only way to prove it is to do something. Again, it's like a scientist who will wear a white coat and a name tag, but when brought to the lab can't figure out which way a test tube goes, or what binary is. If they claim to be something they are not, then they are still nothing. And how do they become what they are what they say they are? By actually doing something. Which is why I force them to come to terms with this and stop their acting. Or like a "master of karate" who can alter his aura at will, who bruises his knuckles on a single board in demonstration. I force them to put up or shut up.

I am an alchemist. If you ask me to prove it, I can share my experiences with spagyrics and I can replicate them. I do not claim to change the weather, and if I did, I would need to be quite accepting of the challenge to do so. Do not claim to do something you cannot, or I will ask you to.


If you don't want to utilise sources that cannot definitively prove their effectiveness, and don't want to take each scientifically-unprovable-but-otherwise-reasonable statement liberally in order to get a general idea of something, then Gaia is not for you. Like I said - this place is not for bragging or proving anything. It's for helping one another.

If all you want to do is verify veracity, stick to science. We won't miss you.

Rustig
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divineseraph

PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 7:21 am


Hey. Watch it buddy. I'll shut off my soulsun, and then you'll be sad. My finger is on the switch right now.

It's not that there's any non-scientific-but-reasonable proof either. All I see is non-scientific-and-also-unreasonable evidence, such as claiming to change the weather, or claiming power over a soulsun. When I see it, I challenge it. If they can prove it, it will be reasonable. I don't need scientific proof, but I do need more than a photograph or simply saying that you can. I leave my challenge open- Give us a thunder storm over New England in the middle of december. Do this and I will believe weather changing COULD be possible.
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