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Kunark wrote:

Has anyone ever tried mind abilites, witchcraft, etc?

Like has anyone ever tried to use Telekinesis, Remote Viewing, Telepathy, or successfully used a voodoo doll, successfully used a ougi (spelling?) board, or successfully casted a ritualistic spell?


Just wandering if anyone actually knows if anything like that works or have experienced it first hand.

If anyone finds that they can do this sort of thing reliably, they can win a million bucks:

http://www.randi.org

I don't usually talk about this stuff on BYOND since I would rather that religion be left off the forum, but since the subject is up... I actually use ritual magic on a weekly basis and minor bits of sympathetic magic on a daily basis. I can't offer any evidence that it works, because from a purely scientific standpoint, it doesn't. I'll repeat that for emphasis: strictly speaking, nothing happens. Matter is not created or destroyed and no effect is caused without some connecting medium. If I use magic to influence events in my favor, will I have any evidence that events would not have come to pass the exact same way? Nope. In most cases, it will be extremely easy to explain the results away as being "the power of positive thinking" or just an unremarkable coincidence within the realm of ordinary probability. I treat anyone who boasts of results or offers proof of magical or psychic abilities with serious skepticism.

Take, by way of example, the tarot deck. You can learn a lot about a person (or yourself) by doing a tarot reading. The fact is that you've got 78 cards with meanings that are so flexible that any one card at random could be interpreted to apply to a given person or situation... however, the act of drawing the card at random and seeing how it fits forces you to examine a problem or situation in a way you might not otherwise do it. If the tarot is nothing else, it is a system for organizing information into a coherent picture or story. Is that all it is? Who knows. Does a mystical force guide the reading? Maybe. How would we ever know, though? All we know is what actually happens. Cards are drawn and the results interpreted. That's all we can see and all that we know.

Take, by way of another example, a spell to protect your sleeping mind from bad dreams. If the "spell" works, is it nothing more than the power of suggestion? Would any random, made-up but convincing sounding "spell" have the same effect? Would a sugar pill or other placebo cure bring the same results? Heck, probably. So why does the spell work... is it magic, or psychology? It could be either. It could be both.

I could go deeper into this, about my metaphysical view of the world, but that's beyond the scope of this thread. The short answer is, yes, I use magic, and no, it doesn't work. :P

[EDIT]

Now some people would say that the tarot deck works by the "power of the subconscious." I.e., the mind of the person shuffling the cards guides their hands in such a way as to reveal hidden truths. This is another thing we should be skeptical about. The power of the subconscious is greatly, greatly overrated. It can't see through the backs of cards, and will not be able to reconstruct the order of the whole deck even if it is afforded fragmented glimpses as the cards are taken out or change hands. It doesn't matter what mystical or pseudoscientific explanation you may have... the only measurable activity that takes place is that cards are drawn and interpreted.

It is highly unlikely that a person could transmit thoughts from their brain to a person directly, if it was possible to make your thoughts be able to be heard, then it would most likely be like talking(Which is already one way!). It would probably require that you extend the energy that allows thought in your mind outside of your brain mass, then it would most likely just be like a field someone could enter to read your thoughts, which probably wont happen until we can use more of our brain. If we can survive within the next 100,000,000 years we will probably be able to talk with our minds to others, but not in our current state of evolution.... There is also the possibility of slight physical mutations developed throughout breeding in a family for the past few hundred years, but that is unlikely in any case.

Hey, if your family can actually use telewhatever, then you better go for that million!


<<>>Kusanagi<<>>

Garthor wrote:

Actually, we CAN use all of our brain. The 15% thing was crap made up by so-called psychics to explain their supposed powers.

I can't claim to actually know this, but as I recall, the deal is that we use different parts of our brain at different times, sometimes for the same thing, sometimes for different things.

It's much like a big telephone network...at any one time a line may not be in use, and a little bit later it might be in use. If one repeater station goes down, the call will be routed to another repeater station.

But you couldn't really say "Hey 85% of these telephone lines aren't in use at this instant, so we're losing 85% of our potential telephone productivity!" In fact, 100% of the lines might have been used in the last hour for one purpose or another.

I personally have no belief in the paranormal...

I see the human body as an organic machine, run by a highly complex biochemical computer... Nothing more...

So, along those lines, I do not believe that the mind can "transmit" or otherwise control any energy outside of the body... All energy that is within our mind is in the form of electrochemical pulses... It is not an extendable field... The energy only exists between the cells that create it...and can only be passed through a circuit, just like the electricity in our homes...

It is also along with this belief that I do not believe in the afterlife... My body is not inhabited by a spirit or a soul... My body creates and maintains my spirit/soul... Once my body quits working, my "spirit" no longer exists, because the electrical impulses that create it are no longer firing... Plain and simple...

However, I do feel that the mind is more powerful than most people use... But only on a scale of within the human body...

All sensations within the body are nothing more than electrical impulses from nerves that are sent to the brain that are interpreted by the brain to tell us what we feel...

Therefore, everything you ever sense is quite literally "all in your mind"... The key, then, is to control how your brain interprets things... And this is entirely possible...

For instance, I am now able to "ignore" headaches... Instead of suffering through them, or taking an aspirin, I am able to "turn off" the pain by simply willing my mind to ignore it... This is not limited to headaches, either... I'm able to make myself ignore a lot of minor pain...and cold/heat sensations (to a point)... I can also ignore minor itches...

Of course, I'm far from perfect at it, as it takes a LOT of willpower to force your mind into ignoring nerve impulses (essentially going against the very purpose of those impulses...which is to tell you when something is wrong with your body) but with a bit of concentration, it is indeed possible...

For practice, I sometimes stop myself from sneezing...lol It's a really simple thing, but it boosts your control...

So, I give the power of the mind much credit... But definitely not to the point of telepathy or telekinesis...

It almost makes you feel bad for those that can't do it, doesn't it? lol

In the case of major pain/major injuries, though, another factor may be at work... The body releases certain pain relieving chemicals (endorphines, and even adrenaline) in the case of severe trauma as a safety measure... If you're severely injured, you can't save yourself if you're in too much pain...so, the body has evolved a way to block the pain right away to give you the time you need to get help...

So I'd say that for those types of cases, anyways, it's more likely due to your own body's automatic reactions rather than mental control... At least at the very instant of injury... Later on, after the chemicals have worn off and the pain emerges, it's entirely up to you to mentally control the pain...

But regardless, it's a very handy skill to have...

Think of the human mind like a single computer. Its very possible to actually connect to other consciousness' alive or dead we just need a means to communicate, at least.. thats a theory.

I believe all consciousness is always constant, I believe its as visible as the internet. The internet, regardless of where you are. is always present. You merely need a means to connect to it. I believe the internet can also be used for the so called "magick" aswell.

In the end, I believe that if enough people have enough faith something impossible can occur.

I can trigger all parts of my brain at one time. Do it long enough and everything becomes funky. You see lights, hear incoherent voices, feel sound, hear your own pulse like a river. Just sit down, be comfortable. and think quickly, about everything and nothing at the same time. Force memories, force thoughts, force everything into your mind.

Go ahead, try it.