James Randi shows his ESP
May 09, 2016
in 1 - 7 MINUTES, DEBATING IDEAS / BELIEFS, PHILOSOPHY / SKEPTICISM
Extrasensory perception (ESP) or not?…..
If we don’t have the knowledge and accumulate all possible reasons why something could seem so real but may not be, why we may have possibly been fooled…… If we avoid learning how our own mind can be fooled by itself even, then, we are lying to ourselves when jumping straight in and believing full on in the paranormal, just because it seems so real and beyond doubt initially.
The large majority of such believers, have no or very little knowledge about how cognitive biases work within the mind, how placebo / nocebo work, how surrounding culture or peer pressure can influence, or even how perception is formed by a complex brain for that matter…. For believers of such, they can giggle and applaud a magician for their trickery and showmanship, understanding that the rabbit out of the hat was just trickery and slight of hand, but paradoxically they will actually and easily believe in something paranormal without ever asking questions, observing it through a different lens despite it possibly being within the same ‘magician’ type category of mind trickery, susceptibility and gullibility….. HOWEVER, NO QUESTIONS ASKED….
Questions, comparisons and critical thinking rarely, honestly asked to oneself when diving into forming any BELIEF and once an emotional hook is formed to that belief blindly… It’s good night to rational investigation and hello to multiple and articulate justifications to help amplify that irrationally formed belief. Even if it does turn out to be ‘real’ the appropriate rational breakdown of all possibilities would not have taken place more often than not. For this reason, plenty of ambiguity and also thousands of charlatans fooling the vulnerable to make lots and lots of moneyyyyyy!!!
Comments
Atheism / Freethinkers / SkepticismBody languageCheating / Deception / LyingDogma / Faith / Ideology / PseudoscienceEthics / MoralityJames Randi
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