The Power of Belief(chanters, card readers, fortune tellers, healing touch)

I know there's been alot of religious stuff on the forums recently, but this is an interesting news story I was shown in my psychology class. It discusses the topic of psychics, interviewing both sceptics and the psychics themselves. Most things talked about are non-religious like card reading, healing touch, or fortune telling. However, it does also talk about what the 'bright light' might be that people claim to see in near-death experiences.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXUlUJIa8mk

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG_bm0vthg4

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9l-BNbn8Q8

Part 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmgoDwJAWcA

Part 5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEnsmFj_COk

Personally, I don't believe in psychics and fortune tellers, nor I do not think that believing in a religion or ritual is truely bad. The only bad thing about it is when people will believe it to the point of throwing common sence out the window for the sake or belief.

No flaming will be tolerated. Main reason its in the lounge, and ot SJ, is that I want a somewhat decent discussion and no spam.

 

Fact. Humans have a natural selected compulsion to be superstitious, and to otherwise find patterns regardless of their significance or consistency.
Fact. The clearer a scientific investigation into the paranormal is, the less believable and convincing it becomes.
Fact. Factors such as confirmation bias and primacy effects will cause people's beliefs to reinforce themselves.
Conclusion: Paranormal events are the product of the natural superstitions of mankind, spawned by attempting to find patterns in the fringes of our perception and knowledge. Furthermore, it can be expected that people will become zealously tied to their beliefs beyond all reason, often with their beliefs in direct contradiction with other equally zealous individuals.

 

It's interesting how they discard most superstitions in favor of "power of belief". Isn't that non scientific as well?

 

actually it is,
though in some cases there has been a lot of scientific research as to why and how it works

 

Recently around where I live, they aired a news report on fortune tellers who scammed people out of thousands of dollars by claiming that they knew of a special way to cure diseases and that it would take quite a bit of money for them to tell you. So I don't believe in those people with crystal balls or "magical" cards. Although... psychic powers, maybe. If only we had some true evidence. Anyone heard of Sylvia Brown? One gigantic fraud...

 

I think a lot of people don't realize the power of suggestion and believing. It can really make a lot of difference if you have a positive attitude and believe in something as cliche as that sounds.

Most of this healing touch and immune to extreme pain religious stuff is actually a lot based on suggestion and state of mind.

I would say the power of belief can be scientific as well since it involves the brain and the different waves and states it can be in. Just because we don't know how it works completely or think its impossible doesn't mean its not scientific. For example a lot of the technology and stuff we have today could seem like magic to people 1000 years ago just because they don't understand it fully.

 

Wow, that power of believing. I could use that... hehehe there are some gullible people at my school.

The person who put that 1million out there is brilliant. So was that little girl. They did tests on paranormal things. It's just sad for me to see that people believe in this stuff. Yes they get hope, but it's false hope.

 

False hope is better than no hope.

 

It's totally awesome on exams

 

Fact: Did you know that you only use 3/10 of your brain and that if you used your whole brain you would be tepathic and be able to control other brains.

 

Ive heard of stuff like that, but I don't believe it.

I don't see how we couldn't be using our whole brain, else parts of it have no function in normal life and thus would wither away due to not being used, similar to how muscles wither away/desintegrate if not used for many months/years (hence why people bed-ridden for a long time need muscle therepy before they're able to stand/walk again properly).

EDIT: i talked to my roommate about it, and he says that the "we only use xx% of our brain" is wrong. What the original article was is "we only know what xx% of our brain does" and was misquoted by other papers.

 

On brains: 10% myth

Basically the source of the "humans only use such-and-such percent of the brain" is disputed. The first explanation in the article seems to be what Eon's roommate was talking about and dates back at least to the early 1900s, so it is so far out of date to be easily ignored. A later section of the article appears to be what Hayden351 is talking about: the supposedly unused portion being available for psychic power.

Since the brain-usage myth is just a myth and because there have been no well documented examples of psychic (or other) demonstration, I remain skeptical and doubt the existence of such things.

 

Unused portions of brains may contain psychic powers? I don't think so. If that is true, a brain should be literally connected to another brain to read what that brain's thinking, and it's impossible for "brainwaves" to travel in space.

 

How is it impossible for waves to travel in space?

 

My point eactly.

 

uhh... what?

 

lol, this guy wins

 

I don't see why people believe in all these myths and other stuff just because someone supposedly did it...

 

I don't see why people believe in religions and other stuff just because some stuff apparently happened...

See what I did there?

That sentence can be applied to anything. Anything.

 

I don't see why people believe in bigfoot and other stuff just because someone supposedly did see it..