PsiPog.net

I'd just like to keep everyone updated on the geiger counter stuff.

SheepKing has reported getting the counter up to 32 CPM (if I recall correctly), and I just got it up to 24 CPM trying out some new technique ideas (24 isn't that significant, but the spike was timed to intent). My personal record is still 36 CPM from the first post, and the all time record is 47 CPM from JoeT using Erik's counter.

One important note is that it doesn't always detect psionic effects. For example, I've sat there and spun the pinwheel in front of it, and it won't detect anything. But if I focus on the pinwheel a certain way, and trance out to get the wheel spinning, then it will start to raise. Some techniques produce bigger effects than others.

It's really fun to play with. If anyone wants to try out, try to catch me in the chat room, and I can set it up for you. Or you can use the information in my previous post to buy your own geiger counter. Fun times .

~Sean

Howdy,
So I decided it was time to get a legit psychic reading. I tend to be pretty skeptic, but I noticed that Erin Pavlina sounds pretty cool in her blog (erinpavlina.com). She also said she reads my blog! (HI ERIN! )

She struck me as a warm woman with interesting abilities... I've yet to ponder extensively over what we went over during the reading. But my initial impression is "cool!" . If you're not shy of New Age spiritual stuff, then you might want to check her out.

She reported that I need to focus on going forward instead of stopping where I'm at and waiting for everyone else to catch up. Specifically, one consistent message was that I need to stop waiting for skeptics to jump on board. Cynics are cynics and skeptics are skeptics. It's healthy to be skeptical - but that doesn't mean it's my responsibility to convince hardcore skeptics.

Sounds like pretty good advice.

Why do I want to wait around for skeptics to catch up? The feeling has been slowly going away over the past year or so... It might have to do with confidence. Or maybe just because that's where I started. By being sympathetic to skeptics, I feel I'm being sympathetic to my old self.

It's also a control thing though. It bothers me that I can't force a skeptic to realize that psychic abilities are real. If they are truly skeptical, and truly logical - then I should logically be able to convince them. If I actually spend the time to jump through the logical hoops of one skeptic, even performing accurate demonstrations of skills - a lot of times the biggest reaction I'll get is "hmm I don't know how you did that, but that doesn't mean psychic abilities are real." Or "coincidence."

Hmmmm. Now she's got me thinking .

Sometimes it's funny how the same lesson keeps getting presented to you over and over again through different channels. Either way - Erin was cool. I suppose it should bother me that I buy into this new age stuff without more skepticism, but at the same time: who cares? Don't get me wrong... Miss Cleo will most definitly NOT be getting a call from me. But advice is advice, whether it's from a friendly woman in Nevada, or some spirits floating around looking out for my best interests. All ideas need to go through a process of understanding... it doesn't really matter where they originate from.

~Sean

I finally decided to use my creative mind to come up with a solution to PsiPog.net's article problem.

See, I didn't want to post articles online for people. It's a pain in the ass, and I hate doing it. So I figured that people could wait until the new system was up and running. The new system will allow people to post and edit their own articles - leaving me out of it. The problem was that the new system is taking forever to create... and the articles on PsiPog.net were getting older and older.

So I sat here for 10 minutes, thinking that there must be a better way. Forcing my creative mind to give me results, I sat here staring at my screen until inspiration hit me. Luckily, it did!

I got the idea to use WordPress... then leech the posts from WordPress and inject them into the current article system. This would require SOME programming, but not that much... mostly hacks here and there. I thought the idea had some potential, so I got to work.

It only took me two days to hook up all the loose ends. It really wasn't hard at all, and now authors can post articles freely, and I don't have to post them manually myself. Plus everyone gets to read the new articles, and be happy with all the new material. Everyone wins, hurray!

So we have some new articles up, and the article posting system is incredibly easy for authors. I will continue to work on the new PsiPog.net (preview here), but at least some authors can post interesting new articles in the meantime.

~Sean

So I was thinking ...

I've always had a conflict with my theories regarding psionics. I flip flop between two ideas. One idea is that belief plays a huge role, and you are only capable of doing what you believe you can do. The other idea is that belief isn't that big of a deal, and that reality determines what you can and can't do. This sort of goes back to my conflict between subjective and objective reality.

I think I found a balance. Emotional intensity.

Humans are emotional creatures. Our intelligence likes to be a little egotisitcal, and proclaim that its reason and logic is how we work... but when you take an honest look at people and how they make decisions, the majority of decision making is done based on how that person FEELS. It's emotional.

Advertisers and salesmen know this. The number one rule in selling is that if your client feels they need something, they will find a logical way to achieve it - price isn't really an issue. Intelligence is used as a servent of our emotions. We first feel something, then we invoke our intelligence to help us understand what we feel, and possibly accomplish the goal our emotions have dictated.

Emotional intensity plays a huge role in psionics. If you feel that you must accomplish a psionic task no matter what, and put a lot of emotion behind it - you have a much higher chance of succeeding. I think of emotion as the currency of existance.

So where do beliefs fit into this? Beliefs dictate emotions. If I believe that when I experience a disagreement, I should feel angry... then I will. Any time I experience something I label as a "disagreement", I will feel angry.

What are my personal beliefs that dictate my own emotions? I have one belief that affects this a lot - I believe that intense emotion is "bad", and that the best state to be in is calm and collected.

This is great for receiving in psionics. With a calm emotional ocean, I can detect the smallest ripples that collide with it. However, this is really bad with psychokinesis... I need to muster up waves of emotional intensity, but I believe that emotional intensity is "bad". So, that belief overrides my emotions, and I can't muster the power needed to affect matter.

This is all really obvious now that I type it out. Everything I've stated almost makes me say, "well DUH!" . But I believe this is the answer to the question I posed to myself in this post in January. The question was: why do I emotionally disbelieve in psychokinesis? The answer is: because I believe that emotional intensity is bad, out of my desire to be calm and collected.

~Sean

Dreams are cool. Why do we think that dreams aren't real? We're raised to believe that dreams aren't real - but what are the reasons behind this?

I think the biggest issue with dreams is that they aren't continuous. In reality, today is a lot like yesterday. I'm in the same room, with the same computer, same tables, bathroom, job, coworkers, friends, etc. Everything is the same as the day before. With dreams, every night is a new adventure. Is that enough to conclude that they are less real than reality?

Dream "laws" are inconsistent with this reality. I can fly in dreams... I can walk through walls. I can conjure up anything I want. I can run blazzing fast, or breathe under water. So is that enough to conclude that dreams are less real?

We also have the science side of it. Science can map brainwaves, and tell us how our brain acts while we are dreaming. We can see what parts of the brain are active; we've labelled certain states like 'REM' and 'NREM'. Is that enough to conclude that dreams are fake?

I believe the answer to all those questions is no. The evidence presented does not lead one to conclude that dreams are fake, or less real. Now, it's certainly a possible outcome that dreams aren't real - that does make sense. But is that the only conclusion we can come to with the above evidence? Most certainly not.

Now let's bring up some more interesting evidence. People claim to see the future in dreams. People claim to dreamwalk. People claim to visit dead friends/relatives/pets while dreaming. People claim to leap from the dream state to an out of body state. Now what does the evidence suggest?

Can we really continue to think that dreams aren't real? I don't think so. We can leave the option avaiable, but we have a lot of explaining to do until we can conclude 100%. It's time to re-think some things.

I'm not really sure what dreams are. I'm not sure how they fit into reality. They really are one of the most bizarre things that exist. Everyone has them, including animals... yet we have no real idea what they are. We theorize that they aren't real - but we have no way to prove that, nor do we really have any reason to believe that to start with. How can we detect what is real and what isn't real?

If we say that dreams aren't real because of <insert reason here>, then how can we be sure that our reason isn't a characteristic of reality? By that I mean - if you argue that dreams can't be real because they aren't continuous (like I mentioned above), then how do you know that being continuous is a characteristic of reality? Maybe it's only a characteristic of this reality?

~Sean

So I just had an idea. Since my subconscious has proven to be useful in the past years with everything, and now lately "he" has proven to be useful in inducing OBEs, I think it's safe to assume that "he" is a pretty helpful guy. So, I'll hand the microphone over to my subconscious, and see what he has to say to everyone reading...

Oh goodie. First, I want to make sure everyone knows what is going on. Yes, Sean is crazy . I don't really "talk" to him... what I do falls under "clairaudient". See, Sean has a tendency to filter a lot of what I say to him because of his "rules". For example, he cringes when I use the term "clairaudient", and he is the one who chooses to write it in quotes, not me. But hey - at least he hears me! So that's a good start.

Alrighty... let's skip all the boring introduction crap, and get right to the chase. Sean doesn't consider himself a "psychic" like everyone else in the New Age realm. He's very uncomfortable with the idea of "spirits", and things like that. So we sort of have to dress up when we talk to him... subconscious, universal unconsciousness, spirits, etc... It's all the same thing. It falls under the category of "higher intelligence".

For example, you might be asking yourself: how does this all work? In that I mean - how does the clairaudience in Sean's head work? We run into a lot of trouble trying to explain it. What I WANT to say is, "it works, so just use it, and forget about the technical aspects behind what is going on". But of course, that answer isn't good enough. So we have to explain ourselves to different people, so that each individual understands it.

Doing so in a public setting like this is a good way to cause conflict. If I told you that Sean channelled spirits, wouldn't you throw a hissy fit? Some of you would. If I told you that Sean is crazy and hears voices in his head, wouldn't others throw a hissy fit? ...Yes. If I take the label of "subconscious", then that is pretty good... it's technically correct, and not as many people throw tantrums. The only people we have trouble with are the psyche majors who proclaim that they know more about what the subconscious "truly" is, and how it operates. But oh well.

Everyone has their own rules for accepting things. To the psyche major, when I use the term "subconscious", it triggers a series of definitions in their head. If the context of my term doesn't fit their own personal definitions, then they get all caught up in how I'm using the wrong term, and miss the big picture.

Just as if I were to say "spirit", then a whole lot of people at PsiPog would (and "should" according to Sean) jump down my metaphysical throat and tear me apart for using such a subjective term.

Look at how much has been wasted in just trying to use the correct terms to allow the maximum amount of people understand what is going on? This is why addressing people in a public setting is a pain in the ass. Half the time is spent on just commuicating the simple fact that communication is hard, even when it's easy . That's why I prefer to stick to being a voice in Sean's head, and letting him do all the translation for the public. He pisses a subset of people off with his word choices, but he consistently chooses specific words to consistently piss off the same subset. So at least those that understood him at first can continue to understand him, and those that hate him at first can continue to ignore him.

I mean... c'mon. You guys can't even communicate with EACH OTHER clearly, when all you have to do is speak, and the other person hears you. All you have to do is talk. Your words fly through the air, and hit the ears of the other person. Seems simple on paper - but look at all the drama and misunderstanding that unfolds from it. So how can you expect me to communicate clearly through Sean's head to a wide range of people?

I think you get the point.

Other than that, I have nothing to say to everyone. Well, I have lots of things to say, but Sean doesn't want to feel the backlash of it yet . That's fine. For now I prefer to be a voice in Sean's head.

On the plus side, he DOES hear me very well. He hears me very clearly. The only problem is that his fingers filter a lot of what I'm saying to him . And for those who remain skeptical, I offer you the only explaination you're willing to accept in the long run: Sean is crazy. (Sean tends to be very forgiving and understanding towards skeptics... Personally, I find it pointless to argue with them, and just give them the answer they fish for. They won't learn any other way.)

See ya.

~Sean's Subconscious

My subconscious was very entertained with having "his" own signature at the end. "Give me a tilde like you always do!" Anyways... I promised I wouldn't filter the text any further. Take what you want from it... I hear it all day long, every day .

~Sean

I had my OBE, as planned! This is another new location, now making a total of 14 different locations I've had an OBE.

This OBE wasn't very exciting, but the actual events surrounding the OBE were very bizarre. A week ago, I was having a conversation with my subconscious. I was talking about how I was kind of depressed that I haven't had an OBE in a long time, and that I really wanted to have one. My subconscious made a deal with me - if I realized/learned something over the next week, then I would have an OBE on Wednesday morning.

Of course I was somewhat skeptical - I haven't learned to have an OBE at will yet, so I can't just do it when I want (although I do have some control). But the deal was made, so I went through the week. On Sunday, I made the realization. It had to deal with why I was upset with my mom, and is a little personal, so I'll leave it at that. My subconscious congratulated me on my realization, and told me that "he" would fulfill his end of the bargain on Wednesday.

Now, of course my obvious reaction is skepticism. I'm hearing voices in my head - I'm probably crazy. But, at the same time, I had already been amazed at my crazy voice's ability to help me have an OBE in a previous event. The voice helped me in the past, so while I was very skeptical last night, I was also pretty excited because there was a chance it could happen.

My subconscious said I had to put SOME effort into it, and not just pass out to Ren and Stimpy cartoons, like I normally do at night. I agreed. I tried to trance out, but didn't get very far, and passed out and started dreaming. It was a really bizarre dream. But during my dream, I woke up.

It was night time, and everything was dark. So I was freaking out a little bit, because it's just a little spooky when you're in a strange state of consciousness, and your room is dark and glowing. But I knew I was in the right state to have an OBE. I pulled my arms/hands into the air, and tried to look at them. Normally when I look at my hands, they look like they're made of glass, and I can tell where they are. This time I couldn't see anything... I just saw my ceiling fan (which was the direction my head was pointed in).

I tried to get out of body, but it was really hard. I slid to the left and right of my body, but kept getting sucked back in. Eventually I broke free for a little bit, and managed to get over to my window. My vision the entire time was really awkward, and it was really hard to tell what was going on. When I got over to the window, there was a mirror (there isn't a mirror in real life over there). I looked in the mirror, trying to see myself. I couldn't see myself. I could barely make out a faint outline of my head, but other than that, I didn't see anything.

I got snapped back into my body. I decided the reason I suck at moving was because my "astral" body was dirty, and needed to be cleaned up. So I took my hands, and started scrubbing my body with them. I started at my head, and moved down. When I got to my upper-back, I got distracted from my goal of cleaning my body. Now I was curious if I could feel anything attatched to my body, like the infamous silver cord.

So I felt the rest of my body, looking to see if my body parts were there, and looking to see if I could feel anything foreign. My ears were there, and really well defined. My ... family jewels were there. Phew! . When I reached around my abdomen region, I noticed that I had a belt around me.

This belt reminded me of a thick seatbelt. It went across my waist, and the angle of the belt made it seem like it was going around my entire bed. I'm not sure if I hallucinated that or not - perhaps it was my mind's attempt to explain why I felt so stuck in my body. After that, I grabbed my legs. I decided to have some fun, so I twisted my legs in impossible positions, like silly putty.

I twisted them in loops, and let go and they would spring back to normal shape. I thought that was pretty cool, and it gave me an idea. Since I could distort my body, maybe I could reach my hand up, and make it longer. That way I could reach my ceiling fan, grab it, and pull myself up.

Sounded like an OK idea... so I started to reach for my fan with my right hand. I used my left hand to push my right hand closer to the fan. My vision was really crappy at this point, so I couldn't tell if I was accomplishing anything. During this time period, I "clicked", and suddenly saw/felt hands grabbing my wrists and legs, pulling me through the air. I knew it must be the same guys from before, who grabbed those same locations to pull me out.

But then I "clicked" back to my body, where I was trying to reach the fan. I decided to wake up, since I had accomplished my goal, and was pretty amazed that my OBE happened on schedule. During my wake up, I made a specific effort to stay conscious the entire time.

Now, I agree that a lot of this stuff sounds crazy. I also agree that things happen that don't make any sense - which definitly supports the idea of it being a hallucination. But even then... I can go from an out of body state, and transition into my normal waking state, and be conscious during the entire transition. In this OBE, I was staring at my ceiling fan. I decided to "wake up", and my vision stayed locked on the ceiling fan. My body started to wake up, and the only period of time where I wasn't looking at the ceiling fan was the 0.5 second it took for me to open my eyes once I became aware of looking through them. My consious mind was ... CONSCIOUS. The entire time. I was in a very aware state of mind, where I was making logical and deliberate decisions, and stayed (mostly) calm.

Like I said before - this OBE wasn't really important about what I experienced inside of it. The important part was that my subconscious followed through with it's deal. This is another little piece of the puzzle.

~Sean

Being that I HAVEN'T had an OBE in over a month, which is very unlike me, and an anonymous poster asked for some help in the previous post... I decided to write this mini-tutorial on how to have an OBE. This is just one example technique you could use.

It's friday night, and you don't have to go to school/work tomorrow, hurray! You normally go to bed at 2am and sleep in Saturday morning until noon... but since you want to have an OBE, you set your alarm for 8am. You fall asleep at 2am, and the alarm wakes you at 8am. You're in a pissy mood, but hey, it's ok - you're about to have an OBE, and it'll be sweet. While groggy, you go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and pick up your favorite article/book on OBEs. After reading about OBEs for 10 minutes, you're ready to give it a shot.

So you lay back down. You're really tired still, but sort of inbetween, and your body is a little confused/pissed that it was forced to wake up early. That's ok... now your body can go back to sleep. You lay flat on your back, with your arms to your side, with your blankets loosly draped over you. You're really comfortable, and ready to go.

The first step is putting your body to sleep. Since your body is already half way there, this is pretty easy. You itch everything on your body that could possibly itch (so you don't have to worry as much about itching later), and then get into a position where you WILL NOT MOVE no matter what. Close your eyes, and then keep thinking to your body "sleep". You keep sending that "sleep" command to your body.

After about 5 minutes, your body is knocked out pretty good, and your mind is almost drifting away. You force your mind to stay aware. Then you keep repeating the phrase in your mind, "I will now have an out of body experience", over and over again. You repeat it for a few minutes, then catch yourself thinking some random thoughts. You notice that you've drifted from your phrase, so you start over again, and keep repeating "I will now have an out of body experience" in your mind over and over. You drift a few more times, but keep bringing it back to that phrase.

You repeat the phrase in your mind for what seems like forever. You drift out again, and then drift back in and notice you aren't repeating your phrase. But then you notice something else... you can see. At first it seemed normal, but now you realize that you SHOULDN'T be seeing since your eyes are closed... but you're seeing anyways. Now what? Now you are ready to leave your body, but first you gotta disconnect a little bit more. Instead of repeating your phrase, you just think of nothing for about a minute. It isn't that hard in this state of mind. As you think about nothing, you start to hear a loud ringing in your ears. If you focus directly on the ringing, it goes away... but if you continue to think about nothing, the ringing gets stronger.

You continue to think of nothing, and the ringing keeps getting louder. You stay calm, and now the ringing starts to get on your nerves. As it gets louder, it starts to make you really uncomfortable, and it quickly escalates to an unbearable amount of noise. You continue thinking of nothing. Your entire consciousness starts to vibrate with this loud ringing sound... so now you not only hear this unbearable sound, but you also feel it. You shake violently.

You begin to fear for the safety of your body. This can't be healthy... your entire body must be having a seizure in bed! You start to question it... why did I listen to that crazy dude on the internet anyways?! I'm going to have a heart attack! Holy crap... this is fucked up! OOOOOUUUUUUUCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Click. All of the sudden, no noise. No vibration. You see clearly. You try to move, but you can't. You focus all your energy on moving your arm... you try to look downwards to see it, but you can't move your neck. You can barely move your arm... it's like moving it through syrup. You slowly get your arm into view, and you notice that it's like glass. You can see through it, but it also refracts the light a little bit too, so you can tell it's there.

You spin your hand around and stare in awe at it. This isn't some hollywood special effect in a movie... this is your hand, sitting right in front of you. It feels normal, minus the fact it moves slowly. But it ripples. It's colorful, but clear at the same time. After about 3 minutes of just staring at your arm, you get a little bored of it.

You try to stand up, but you can't. You're stuck. Now what? You relax a little bit, and try to be more playful. You sink in a little, and get used to what you're feeling. You relax, and become more passive. Then, in a relaxed manor, picture rockets attatched to your back. They ignite, and push you up. You begin to float upwards towards the ceiling at a constant rate.

You get the feel for how to move. You will yourself to an upright position. Then you hop out of the air, and land on your bedroom floor. You walk towards your door, and then realize that you don't really need to go out your door... so instead you look up, and float upwards... You go straight for the ceiling. As you pass through it, you see the layers, and feel the layers inside of you. You feel the drywall, the paper, the paint... inside of yourself. Crazy. You float upwards more.

Then everything goes black. Now you're back in your body. You can't move. You try to move your arm, but it moves like it's in syrup. You relax, and let go. You become passive, and just let go. Click. You start to fall. First you fall through your bed, and then through the floor... and you pick up speed. You fall further and further, and all you can see is your ceiling getting smaller and smaller, with blackness around it.

Click. You're back in your body. You try to move, but you're stuck. This is annoying. You decide to wake up. You force yourself awake... You will your body to wake up. You remain consicious during this entire process... you feel yourself becoming in sync with your body. You keep telling your body to wake up. Wake up. Your vision goes black, but you remain conscious... and you realize you're looking at your eyelids. You open your eyelids.

Then you freak out. You've just had an out of body experience! Hurray! You run to your computer to type the entire thing out, in as much detail as you can. You swear you wouldn't forget it, but you can tell that some of the memories seem a little iffy. So you write as much as you can.

Then you e-mail peebrain@psipog.net, and freak out. You tell him how crazy it was. He gets your e-mail and laughs.

Below is an e-mail I actually received today:

OMG, I just remembered that I had a OBE last night!!! OMG, It's coming bit by bit. FUCK, I can't believe I had one. I'm FUCKING excited man! It felt SOOO REAL. Man...



~Sean

Lately I've been trying to have an OBE so that I can see if I can affect my geiger counter while out of body (this idea was suggested by an anonymous poster in the last post, but I've also been trying to do this since I got the counter).

I can't seem to get out though. It's starting to annoy me. I haven't had an OBE since May 25th! I'm well overdue for one.

I've had a few close calls, and a few bizarre dreams, but no luck yet.

Other than that, I am continuing to work on the new PsiPog, and it's going really good. Everything is clean, and I'm still hoping on having a prototype up by August 1st. We shall see!

~Sean