really? reminds me of politicians... he loves to obfuscate issues by using a verbal scatter gun True to the antics of most "Intellectuals" really?, you are stretching what I said well out of proportion and in so doing either ignored completely or simply didn't get my point about "Psychic Testing" and the fact that Rationalists are never satisfied, they love to pick at nits and unravel sweaters and once they accomplish that they begin taking the yarn apart strand by strand until there is "nothing" of value... at least when it comes to the common man and what we perceive and hold dear.
Like the majority of Skeptics you wish to paint anyone that claims something miraculous or as some form of spiritual result as being "Nuts" and not intelligent. If that's not an act of bigotry and the on-set of being a bully I don't know what is. It is exactly the same attitude held just 60 years ago (and for much of the past three or four centuries at minimum) about why the white race (Western Europeans in particular) were superior to all other races and for that matter, why God and Jesus were white... even though they came from the Nomadic faith of a very dark skinned desert people. We still find IDIOTS that think they are smarter than the rest of the world, leaning on some of that old science that validated such claims... hell, it even "proved" clinically by peer review et al, that women were inferior to men... try convincing a modern woman that's CEO of a major corporation of that.
By all means, research must be done. I have no problem with that point. The problem comes from the attitude and bullying waged by the pseudo-intellectual; dogmatic views that reflexively condemn any and all that they can force into this or that pigeon hole... a pigeon hole that just happens to be filled with a plethora of totally non-related phenomena such as Big Foot, Nessy, ET and so forth none of which have anything to do with psychics, spiritual energy/beliefs/practices, the welding of Magick, etc. But the intellects put everything into the same marble bag because they aren't wise enough to put the hearts in one pile, spades in another, with diamonds over here and clubs over there... they mix it all together as one deck and claim it's incomplete and thus, everyone associated with the deck functions without a full one...
The idea that something is an "extraordinary" claim can be a matter of perspective given that those who claim to live a "magickle life" may see much of this as normal and perfectly natural, not something "extraordinary"... a claim or "charge" as it were, made by the intelligent folk out there who refuse to actually turn their logical mind off long enough to EXPERIENCE what the metaphysical patron knows.
I get paid once a month... a very small SSI check of less than $900.00 on which I'm to survive + another $80.00 a month for food...
How many of you could survive, even as a healthy and functional human being, on that kind of budget?
Due to the economy I've not seen a single Reading or sold a book in over a year... and I'm not the only "Psychic" type operator in the region that's felt this. Yet, I came exceptionally short this month and haven't the cash on hand to tend to certain important expenses. Sarcastically I laughed and muttered "so how is all my positive thinking paying off? Where's the money when I need it? All it would take is three or four Readings..."
Without doing a thing on my part, I ended up with exactly three appointments for Readings, one of which is for a very in-depth session that would more than cover what I'd normally see from three standard sessions. This was not self-fulfilling prophecy or the result of marketing, etc. It was simply the Universe responding to my NEED... that's the catch phrase here in that Need comes from the soul vs. want, a materialistic factor, comes from the mind. So "Magickly" my "needs" are being met. It is not something that can be "tested" in a lab and of course due to the anecdotal aspects of this story folks like yourself will write it off as "coincidence" or some such... an "out" used by intellectuals when they can't give you a rational explanation to certain forms of manifestation.
I've always found it interesting how, in the Metaphysical world and Hermetic view, there is no such thing as Accidents or Coincidence and yet the "sciences" that incorporate much of the Hermetic thinking as part of physics, depends on these two descriptives in order to "explain" phenomena that is "beyond" their current comprehension. Kind of makes you say "Hmmm"
My point in arguing against the "Challenge" of testing and sating the ego-driven hunger of the armchair skeptic is that it is a never ending, no win cycle. The tests are deliberately designed to muster failure and on some grounds, this is normal testing; much of what lab testing does involves pushing "ideas" (for lack of a better term) to their limits and if possible, shatter them. If such testing were applied to psychic-type phenomena then the only outcome will be "proof" of failure. But even if this isn't the case, the satisfaction for the "scientific" community on this front remains impossible to achieve in that reevaluation of the first series of tests will bring about a new type of testing... it is a vicious and deliberate cycle designed to protect the fragile egos of the intellectual that chooses to deny "something else" may be part of the claim.
Find the Crooks and prosecute them. This is what I've always believed and practiced but as the old timers in my trade have always said, "leave the rest of it alone and allow people to decide for themselves." When we beat them over the head with a logic puzzle, demean them, and taunt them they will eventually come to accept what the rationalist argues simply because of the "torture"... it's exactly the same approach taken by Evangelists and guilting folks into conversion; guilt & fear being two of the biggest levers exploited by man on so many fronts. This is why I refuse to jump through hoops and play the silly games self-proclaimed intellects want me and other psychic types, to play.
Pardon the long post but I wanted to attempt to make things a bit more clearer than the first dozen go-arounds explaining such things.
