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Presentation
Speech Outline:
Skepticism
vs. Psi
By Winston Wu
Author of Debunking
PseudoSkeptical Arguments Of
Paranormal Debunkers
I.
The 2 general kinds of skeptics
A.
Open-minded skeptics
-
Typical traits: honest doubt, inquiry and investigation of both sides,
considers evidence on all sides and seeing their good/bad points,
asking exploratory
questions, acceptance of evidence, good common sense, nonjudgmental
B. Closed-minded skeptics (also known as
pseudoskeptics, debunkers, hard core materialists, scoffers, atheists)
-
Typical traits: Automatic dismissal of all paranormal claims,
predisposed to
discredit all testimonials of a paranormal nature, denial of any and
all
evidence, scoffing, giving off an air of superior rationality,
judgmental about
things they know nothing about, quick to draw conclusions without
evidence,
using philosophical semantics to win arguments and invalidate
paranormal or
spiritual experiences
· The
skepticism of closed-minded skeptics is a philosophy,
not a science
II.
Examples of organized skeptical groups which seek to
debunk/discredit spiritual or paranormal claims:
A.
CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal)
- Publisher of Skeptical
Inquirer magazine. Website:
www.csicop.org
- Former staff member Dennis Rawlins resigned
after
finding hard evidence of CSICOP intentionally suppressing its own
findings
which supported astrology (known as the "file drawer effect"), thus proving the organization's true agenda was simply
to
discredit/debunk in any way possible rather than to find the truth, in
order to
appease its subscribers. You can read
Rawlins' report at http://cura.free.fr/xv/14starbb.html
B.
JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation)
-
Founded by magician and professional debunkers James Randi,
who is infamous for his million dollar psychic challenge.
Website:
www.randi.org
-
Critics claim that his challenge is a publicity stunt that no one can
win,
citing claims that applicants for the challenge go unanswered.
III. Common underhanded
tactics of
organized skeptics
A. Raising the
bar or moving the goal posts endlessly and undefined
B. Dismissing ALL
anecdotal evidence on purely philosophical grounds
C. Double
standards in accepting only anecdotal evidence that supports their
claims
D. Ignoring
facts and evidence that don’t fit into their beliefs, rather than
updating
their beliefs to conform to the facts (but this is human nature, which
we all
do)
E. Forcing or
adhering to any explanation rather than a paranormal one, even if it's
been
ruled out.
· Some
articles that describe these type of tactics/tricks in detail:
- Zen and the
Art of Debunkery (satire on skeptics),
http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/pathskep.html
- 10 Stupid
Tricks of Skeptics, http://www.primenet.com/~lippard/stupid-skeptic-tricks.txt
- Extraordinary Claim? Move the
goal posts!,
http://www.anomalist.com/commentaries/claim.html
IV. Common arguments
of organized skeptics
A. Anecdotal
evidence is invalid
B. Extraordinary
claims require extraordinary evidence
C. Occam's
Razor
D. Invisible Pink
Unicorn analogy or Santa Claus gambit
V.
Scientific evidence for psi
A. Ganzfeld
- Done repeatedly during the 70's and 80's,
subjects
choosing one our of four targets got
between 33 and 45
percent hit rate rather than the chance rate of 25 percent.
B. Auto-Ganzfeld
- Same as above, but used computers for the
testing, during the 80's and 90's.
-
Repeated by
· For
more reading on Ganzfeld, see Dean Radin's book The
Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena.
· Links
to scientific reports on Ganzfeld
http://www.psych.cornell.edu/dbem/ganzfeld.html
http://www.psych.cornell.edu/dbem/does_psi_exist.html
http://www.psych.cornell.edu/dbem/response_to_hyman.html
C. PEAR (
- Done over 20 years.
Psychokinesis experiments revealed
consistent
statistical anomaly throughout thousands of trials. Skeptic Ray Hyman
investigated and could find no lack of controls. See
PEAR website at: http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/
D. Recent
experiments by Dr. Gary Schwartz involving mediums and sitters
- The mediums got a hit rate far above
chance, between
70 - 90 percent. Results summarized in
Jan 2001 edition of the Journal for the
Society of Psychical Research. His
recent book The Afterlife Experiments is
convincing evidence of survival of consciousness and of telepathy.
E. Overwhelming
anecdotal evidence for telepathy and ghosts
- At least half the population of the world
has
experienced either telepathy or ghosts that defied any conventional
explanation, and everyone knows someone who has too. Therefore, it is
extremely
likely that these are real phenomenon.
For example:
http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Mysteries-of-the-Mind/ESP-Researchers.html
In their
biennial report on the state of science
understanding released in April 2002, the National Science Foundation
found
that 60 percent of adults in the
VI. Conclusions
A. For
most paranormal phenomenon, the jury is still out, since the evidence
is scanty
and ambiguous. However, the evidence for
both telepathy and ghosts is very strong when you combine the strong
scientific
evidence and overwhelmingly common anecdotal evidence.
Therefore, they are very likely to be real or
at least there is something to it other than fraud, delusion, mistake
or
misperception.