PsiPog.net

I have a lot to post, so I want to keep each section as compressed as possible. Long posts are boring to read .

1. Unfortunately, my Grandmother died this past week. It sucks, but it was very peaceful and I am happy I spent time with her before she passed away. This has really affected me in terms of my beliefs about life/death, and just everything about reality in general.

2. Over the past few months/years, I have been changing a lot. Basically, I've been growing up. More so though, I have been proactive in dismanteling negative beliefs, and just changing the person I am.

3. The majority of PsiPog is based on the beliefs I had when I was 16ish. Granted, a few things have sprung up, but ultimately it has followed some basic patterns and ideas.

4. The root beliefs that I have been using to motivate myself to work on PsiPog are now being dismanteled from my aggressive inward digging. Coupled with my Grandmother's passing, my emotional state, and my gradual shift in focus over the past years, I have noticed that PsiPog is not as good as it could be.

5. As a result, I am going to heavily reconsider the entire purpose of PsiPog. This doesn't mean PsiPog is going away - almost the opposite. The changes I see that need to be done will revolutionize the way we've been researching psionics up until this point.

Some themes that I will definitly be keeping are: emphasis on healthy skepticism, avoiding religion, no combat, and researching psychic abilities intelligently. Other than that, the entire website is going to be re-thought to accomplish my new goals and express my new understanding more accurately.

You heard it here first.

~Sean

Well, there are basically two updates.

1. Finally got the media up from JoeT. Two awesome videos of him doing macro-PK.
2. Finally scheduled a new PK Party. And in doing so, I realized that I didn't post the results of the previous PK Party (in Feb of 2005) on the Features page. I'll have to do that.

PsiPog has been dieing down lately. I think the problem is lack of new information. And while I enjoy helping newbies, I don't like how PsiPog almost exclusivly attracts newbies. I believe the reason for this is because I target the articles towards newbies. Now there's a benefit to that - they're so simple that anyone can understand them. That's a very nice quality. However, at the same time, if I want to attract more intelligent and advanced people, then I need to write more intelligent and advanced articles.

Now we come to an interesting point. Do I write articles so simple a newbie could understand it? Or do I write intelligent and advanced articles that make the audience think? I believe the answer is: BOTH! At the same time .

A lot is dependant on the new PsiPog backend, and the result of my next eBook. Two large projects that are coming to an end very soon. The next eBook talks about a LOT of completely new ideas ("new" as in they haven't been discussed on PsiPog), and it's been a challenge for me to write.

I believe the reason PsiPog is dieing down is because I am dieing down. Does that mean PsiPog will go away? No, not at all. I am becoming very bored and tired of psi balls, constructs, and all the typical answers to all the typical questions. As I present in my next eBook, I think it's time for PsiPog to address some important topics, that require serious thinking. The only thing I fear is that a lot of people don't want to hear the things I'm going to be saying, and possibly think I'm crazy .

If I am presenting a drastic change, then a lot of people won't like it. That's a fact. However, there will be a smaller porition that does like it. And with that drastic change, I will begin to attract different kinds of visitors to the website.

I personally think it's a change for the better (obviously). This change doesn't require us to throw out all the older articles, it just makes us think about the older articles in different ways.

How exciting, hm?

~Sean

Had some more strange states of consciousness last night.

It was in between OBE, dreaming, and being awake. Very bizarre... I couldn't really tell where I was. In one sense, I knew I was laying in bed, but then I kept hallucinating and slipping into the dream state easily. Then I would slip back out and be in bed again. At one point I wanted to wake up, and I tried to move my body - it didn't move at first, but I kept at it for a few seconds and eventually regained control. Fun stuff.

I've been practicing PK lately with some new ideas and a different approach. If I start getting results (which I think I will), then I will post my thoughts and new ideas here, and possibly convert it into an article. There's a big if there though; it requires that my new approach actually works . Time will tell.

~Sean

Hopefully in the next day or two I'll be uploading two videos from JoeT to PsiPog.net Media Section. In the first, he moves a book using PK. In the second, he moves a cell phone. They're very impressive, and I can't wait to hear different people's opinions (I assume a topic will be made on the forums).

Look forward to them - they kick ass. I wanted to upload them this weekend, just never got around to it and forgot. Hopefully I will remember tomorrow night and get them online.

~Sean

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

Forums should be up this weekend. I've ordered the robust hosting plan that I predict will be needed, and my provider is processing the order as you read this (assuming you're reading it on Jan 11thish). Hence, if you try to access psipogbb.net, you will get an error. Once the order is processed, then I will be uploading the necessary files. Hopefully it will be somewhat successful.

~Sean

Last night I decided to trance out. The noise from my neighbors was loud, so I decided to try and use some white noise to kill the distractions. (I chose white noise because it's used in Ganzfeld Experiments).

Needless to say, I had a very strange night. For those of you that have explored different states of consciousness, you might be able to relate to how an entire night can just be one strange experience after another. Not like dreaming... just totally new and strange states of perception and awareness.

I don't think I had an OBE... but I might have. I remember laying in bed and moving my consciousness all over the place. I was stretching it out, flipping it around, distorting it in knots, etc... it was crazy. Somewhere in there I might have had an OBE.

After all was said and done, I had a normal trance from 11:00pm to 11:45, and then from about 11:50 to 6:20am I just swereved in and out of consciousness, and into different strange states. It's always hard to put it into words. Either way, it was fun, and I think the white noise had a large contributing factor to it.

So try out some white noise on a loop with headphones if you have trouble trancing out from distractions.

~Sean

Hello,
This post will concern PsiPog.net and the Articles, and have nothing to do with actual psychic experiences.

I haven't posted new articles on PsiPog.net in a while, and that sucks. One, it sucks because I have discovered a lot of cool things since my last article, and I still haven't written about all the other new things I've discovered about psi manipulation, etc. So I have a lot to write about.

Two, it sucks because the lack of new articles is a reflection of a bad system for posting articles by other people. I can post articles by myself pretty easily, however, posting an article from someone else (ESPECIALLY new authors) is very tedious, hard, long, boring, and overall difficult.

Three, I am working on new code as the back-end of PsiPog.net. This means that the way articles are stored on the PsiPog.net server, along with how all pages are delivered to the client (that's you), will be changed. This change is being made to partly solve the "bad system for posting articles" problem, but also a few other problems. For example, in the new back-end system, it will be 100 times easier to update articles and fix corrections.

The current system requires me to do about 10 minutes of work to correct one misspelled word on a page. Or another 10 minutes of work to add a new link to the links page. Pretty much any update (with the exception of making a new poll and posting in the news) will take me minimum of 10 minutes. That sucks.

With the new system, updating an article will take about 4 clicks. This is MUCH better. I.e., if I find a misspelled word, or want to add a link, or want to update one little thing, it will take me literally 1 minute.

This new system will allow for the entire website to run smoothly, and also allow the website to be updated when I'm not even at my computer (I can update the site on other computers, or even give other users to update the website).

Now: the problem is that I want to post articles. I currently have articles completely DONE. But I don't want to post them, because it will take a long time to post it, and it will then take even longer to convert to the new system.

So, I am focusing my efforts in two areas:
1. Getting this new back-end system up and running smoothly.
2. Getting the forums online and functional.

Now, on top of that, I also have goals for writing as well...
1. Write more for my book (which I have started)
2. Write more for my eBook (which I have about 25% done)
3. Write more articles (which I have a million ideas for)

With the new article system in place, we will have more categories to write for. If you want to see the current progress of the new system, check out: http://psipog.net/bn/articles.php. That is where I am working on getting things correct. Once I have it STABLE (not 100% done, just STABLE), then I plan on updating PsiPog.net to the new system.

Once it's on the new system, then I can start updating everything with more content a lot easier.

~Sean

Finally freaking got internet in my new room, hurray!!!

Had an OBE this morning, around 4:30am, in my new dorm room (that makes 12 places).

I was pretty scared the entire time, but I tried hard to calm myself down and relax. I had the realization that my inability to move around in all my previous OBEs had been from fear and deep rooted beliefs that I can't exist outside of my body. I'm still figuring out exactly what the fears are, and working on dealing with them. I do know that in this OBE, I felt the fear very strongly... and I couldn't move that much because of it. However, since I knew that the fear was what kept me from moving, I did manage to calm down and give myself more freedom than I've had in a long time.

My OBEs over the past few years have been very boring and my "other"-body was always almost glued to my physical body. In most OBEs, I could get a limb free and move it around, or even float around a little bit uncontrollably in very close proximity to my body, but I very rarely got more than 10 feet away.

In the OBE last night, I didn't manage to get more than 10 feet away, but I did feel the fear directly and could notice that it was the fear specifically that kept me close to my body (in past OBEs, it was a mystery what kept me close). After I targetted the fear specifically, I gave myself a lot more freedom.

I floated up and had pretty good control over my "other"-body. My vision didn't flicker or distort badly, like it usually does. I floated up to my ceiling, then came back down so I was standing on my physical body's shins. (My physical body was laying in bed, face up, while my "other"-body was floating in the upright position). I looked down at my "other"-body and for the first time, I actually saw my "other"-body as solid.

In the past, I either couldn't see my "other"-body, or it was like glass that refracted the light behind it. This time, my "other"-body looked very solid - it looked just like my physical body. I was wearing white boxers. When I saw the boxers, I looked back up and thought, "Hmm, this is the first time I've seen my other-body as solid... I guess I'm wearing the same thing I went to bed in, however, I went to bed in blue boxers, not white ones...". I looked back down to see the boxers again, and they were blue.

After that, I called out mentally for someone to take me somewhere exciting. I called out for someone to help take me to a place where I could learn to control my OBEs better. But no one showed up . Then I started getting strange sensations - I couldn't tell where it was coming from, but I quickly figured out it was coming from my physical body. So I got back in. After I was fully in, and opened my physical eyes, I noticed that the strange messages were from my body actually falling completely asleep. It was bizarre, and very hard to put into words.

Either way, this was not one of my normal OBEs, and it definitly sticks out in my mind (as you can probably tell from this long post). Most of my OBEs are somewhat boring and repetative... this one did not follow the normal mold, and it challenged me to face some of my fears and beliefs about what OBEs are. It was really cool and interesting.

~Sean