PsiPog.net

I highly suspect this will be a long post on skepticism and how certain beliefs will affect our practice in psionics. I will try to keep it interesting .

It is healthy to be skeptical. I won't go into specifically why, but the basic idea is: not everything is true, there are crazy people out there, and overall it's just a good policy to not take someone's word for it. It's more effective to be intelligent and ask questions, to figure out exactly what's going on. This is skepticism - to postpone judgement until enough evidence is presented to prove either way, and then still be open for more evidence to make you reconsider your judgement.

This is healthy! This is good! A sharp and intelligent mind will make you more effective in discovering what things are legit, and what things are bullshit.

However, this skeptical mind can mutate a little bit and become a problem. Unhealthy root beliefs can exist that apply healthy skepticism in a bad manor. The major holes in skepticism are that: 1. we must judge how much evidence is needed to be convinced of something, and 2. when we are presented with more evidence, and decide to reconsider something, we are required to remember all the old evidence that first influenced our original decision.

It's good to need evidence, but how do you determine how much evidence is required? It's largely intuitive and subjective. For example, if you tell me that you have $100, I could require you to show me the contents of your wallet. Upon seeing the evidence of the money, I could then be convinced that your claim is accurate. This is reasonable.

What if you claim you have $1000? I could ask for evidence. And then you produce the cash in bill form. Now I am thinking: why on earth would you have $1000 cash just laying around? That is weird. And what is your motivation for convincing me you have $1000 cash? All of the sudden, the requirements for "enough evidence" has changed.

Now I have a whole lot of other questions that need to be satisfied before I would be willing to draw a conclusion. Perhaps you counterfeited the money? If that was the case, then your original claim would be false. However: it never really crossed my mind in the first example to demand proof that the $100 was counterfeit.

So, in this example we can see how the magnitude of the claim will make us require more evidence. Where does skepticism lead us astray though?

What if we go back to the original claim: you have $100. I ask for proof, and you present the $100 bill. Now I demand that the $100 might be counterfeit. So I demand a method by which you can prove the bill isn't counterfeit. Maybe I will check out this site from the Secret Service for instructions on how to determine if a bill is counterfeit. Suppose we go through every test on that page (which is about 8 pages of information), and I still demand more evidence. I demand that we must check the serial number to determine where the bill came from. If you pass that test, then I demand that we must perform chemical tests on the paper to see if we can find traces of counterfeit methods. I could even go so far as to demand that we check EVERY SINGLE $100 serial number to ensure that your $100 is unique.

This is just silly. Clearly, I am demanding way too much proof. Skepticism allows us the freedom to demand as much proof as we want, but there becomes a point where it is unreasonable. Where do you draw the line? Where do you say, "Ok, this is getting a little silly, don't you think?".

Where does this happen in psionics? I notice this phenomenon a lot, but the most obvious display is when you talk to people about the Media section at PsiPog.net. Some will be completely content with the amount of evidence provided, and conclude that it is "probably real". Others will demand some other form of proof. For example, the media section was created when people kept demanding that I make a video of me doing the psi wheel. I said, "Ok, sounds reasonable". So I made a video and put it online.

Now a video online can be easily faked in a million ways. Some skeptics came to me after that, and said that what I should really do was get a video of a psi wheel under a container.

So we did that.

Then the skeptics came back and said we should get a video that shows the inspection of the objects involved.

So we did that.

And when you ask around, you will STILL hear people complaining about how the media on psipog.net is bullshit and that it's "obviously fake", and other things like that.

Well, 1. the media on PsiPog.net is not meant as evidence to PROVE that psionics is real - because that is impossible to make. But more importantly: 2. as we presented evidence, more people would change their qualifications for what evidence they needed.

I.e., when we gave the skeptics what they wanted, they would change their demands. In their minds it was the same demand - the demand for evidence and proof. However, when they asked for something specific, and we provided it, they would backtrack and talk about how it really isn't proof and that we would have to do more to be convincing. If it wasn't really proof in the first place, then why did you demand it earlier?

This is an example of the "receding evidential horizon" (which you can read about here).

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Ok, so maybe you are thinking: "Yes, I hate that, and I can see how that can be a problem! Damn those bastard skeptics." But what you might not realize is that you could be doing the same thing to YOURSELF. I know I do it to myself.

For example, when I first started practicing psionics, I would tell myself, "if only I had some substantial proof that psionics was real... then I would believe in it fully, and commit all my time towards it! it would be awesome!". So I started practicing PK. I wanted solid evidence. My first experience consisted of me bending a key. After it happened, I experienced about a half hour of awe, followed by a large demand for more proof - "well, it could have been a lot of other things... it could have been that the key was already bent before I even started, or that I bent it without realizing it... I need more proof!" So I wanted proof, my mind delivered, but that didn't convince me.

So I wanted more. After that, I moved a key using PK. Then demanded more proof. A few months later I started with the psi wheel, and got amazing results... then demanded more proof. Always with the same pattern that if I could just get "one piece of substantial evidence!" then I would "totally believe and be convinced!"

Well, I've been getting a constant stream of proof over the past 7 years. And my mind STILL DEMANDS MORE PROOF.

I'll come back to this toward the end of the post.

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Another flaw in the skeptic procedure is that we are human . When more evidence becomes available, we must then re-evaluate, and try to get a better idea of what is going on. The problem is that when you do things over the course of a couple months to a couple years - the evidence really starts to pile up in both areas. I have a lot of memories where I was completely blown away by an experience... and I also have a lot of memories where I was really disappointed and failed.

Now, when more evidence presents itself, I have to remember all the old experiences, and then remember this new experience, then try to fit it all together. However, over time I've noticed that I have selective memory. I will easily forget the experiences where something amazing happened. But I will easily recall all the experiences where I felt disappointed and upset. Let's say I have another amazing experience... now I selectivly recall mostly bad experiences (and a few other good ones), and then ask myself to re-evaluate the results. Now obviously, with an overflow of bad experiences I will re-evaluate things to be more negative than before. I.e., an awesome experience could make me change my beliefs to think that psionics is less real! (assuming that I recall a large porition of failed attempts).

Selective recall is a very big problem. In fact, it's such a big problem that it's one of the motivating factors for me creating ths blog! I created it to record my awesome experiences that happen ALL THE TIME, but that I almost instantly forget about. This is why I always suggest other people keep journals.

Selective recall can also work in the opposite direction - for example, you might recall every time that you were successful and forget the times you failed. This is also bad! You might now think that you are some awesome pimp psychic who rarely fails. However, you just don't remember the times that you fail.

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Ok, so I've gone over two problems:
1. Constantly demanding more proof, even after previous demands have been met.
2. Selective memory that produces biased conclusions upon re-evaluation.

Now, what are the roots? What is making us have selective memory? What is causing us to make unreasonable demands for evidence? We might think that we are being skeptical, and that being skeptical is good - but there is something else going on here.

I believe that the problem originates from a deep rooted incorrect belief that psychic abilities are not real. This belief is constantly being attacked from amazing experiences... but it will not give up (for some reason or another, depending on the person). It will then manifest itself by saying, "we need more proof... and remember, I'm not saying this because I am a deep rooted incorrect belief, I am saying this because we are just skeptical, and being skeptical is a good thing!" The belief will hide behind skepticism.

Skepticism gives the belief a channel to express itself.

Now when something amazing does happen, and we go to recall our past experiences, this belief will taint our memory. Instead of recalling an equal proportion of good and bad experiences, this belief will tip the scales to ensure that it will survive.

I like to talk about negative beliefs as external entities that manipulate our thoughts and guide our decisions in a negative way... but the reality of the situation is that these negative beliefs are a part of ourselves! We buy into them for some reason. And the reasons we buy into them are very important. We know that the belief is wrong in some parts of our mind, and when we notice it manifest, we will reasons that, "oh, all I need is more proof. If I had more proof, then the belief that psychic abilities are false would go away." But that might not be true - depending on your personal reasons for buying into that belief.

If the only reason you think psychic abilities aren't real is because you don't have enough experiences, then yes: more amazing experiences will change that belief.

However: in my situation (and in the situation of some other people), I notice that no matter how much evidence I have, the belief still remains. I buy into this belief for some other reason that is unknown. Instead of searching for more evidence, and then searching for even MORE evidence, and then MORE and MORE... I need to address the OTHER reasons why I buy into the belief.

Now, it does sound strange, right? The leader of a large psychic organization has a deep rooted belief that psychic abilities aren't real. But I think a lot of us have this belief to some extent. I know about the evidence. I can produce results. I can even teach others to produce their own results. But there still exists a reason why I have this deep rooted belief. This deep rooted belief is serving a purpose that I still need to be served. I don't know what it is, but it does exist, and I will rip the root out when I figure out why exactly I buy into it.

~Sean