"Parapsychology is a pseudoscience"

[ciscop]

well if people think of psi
like that in the cartoon
is because some parapsychologist have been tricked and have been cheated
so many times since they are looking for positive results,
all the way back to J.B. Rhine his testes were flawed and some people cheated
then again..
it happened with uri geller
and it happened again with banachek and john edward in the alpha project hoax

so yeah..
dont blame people for being skeptics of parapsychology
since is their own fault

by the way..
i saw once a link to a study in radin´s blog
it was a study done by YOGA MAGAZINE to this guy that had psychic powers..
the idiots were doing the test to GERARD SINEHI a known mentalist.. what a bunch of dummies
so.. i kind of lost interest in Radin since i saw him supporting the study. he didnt care of doing reserch to know the background of the guy being tested just like parapsychologist dont admit how easily they get fooled.

[NucleicAcid]

Yeah, that was the one where they did the brain scan of the guy, but he was a straight up mentalist? My friend and I tore that thing apart, it was really stupid.

I think part of it is just the nature of the field attracts craziness and credulity, and it takes a lot of internal mental balance and strength to be able to sort through it all, and see if there is any real effect underneath all the fakes, frauds, coincidences, noise, and mistakes.

But someone's gotta do it.

Also, to really grind out any last bit of that silly "Psi disappears when you use proper controls" argument, here's one more doozie:



Here's a basic overview of the controls employed:
1. Subjects had no idea it was a psi test (no chance of fraud/magicians)
2. Material was rated using a standardized rubric for several parameters
3. Full randomization of target selection, plus post-hoc analysis of thoroughness of the randomization and balance
4. The entire process was done on computers, this eliminates the "VHS wear and tear" issue entirely, as well as automating the process, further removing the experimenter from the experiment, and recording all the data automatically
5. Rooms with subjects were isolated (obviously), physically, acoustically, and electromagnetically
6. After the experimenter begins, the only connection between the rooms is by digital communication between computers and closed-circuit TV
7. Experimenters communicate with each other through phone calls, and controlling experimenters never directly interacted with any subjects at any point.

What is your retort to that, really??