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The Japanese Guy and Water

Posted on: June 6, 2007 - 2:45pm
DelphicRaven
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The Japanese Guy and Water

I guess a while ago there was some movie out I didn't see called 'what the bleep do we know' or something along those lines. It was really popular so I'm sure most people have seen it or heard of it.

 Anyway, I guess some Japanese scientist did some experament showing how positive thoughts can influence things on a molecular level. So I have noticed that a lot of mystics out there use that experament to "prove" that we are all connected and all this stuff.

 I'm never quite sure what to say when they say that. I should look into it more, I realize. I'm interested in thoughts, though. 

--Sarah-- 

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Posted on: June 6, 2007 - 2:46pm #1
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Oh, I'm at work which means

Oh, I'm at work which means I'm too lazy to use spell check. Forgive my errors, as I am sure they are there.

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Posted on: June 6, 2007 - 8:50pm #2
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That DVD is still the #223

That DVD is still the #223 DVD on Amazon right now and the #12 "documentary".

Apparently there's now a part 2: What the Bleep!? - Down the Rabbit Hole (QUANTUM Three-Disc Special Edition)  which is the #7 documentary at this moment on Amazon.

 

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Posted on: June 6, 2007 - 8:58pm #3
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto


Posted on: June 7, 2007 - 3:02am #4
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DelphicRaven wrote: I

DelphicRaven wrote:

I guess a while ago there was some movie out I didn't see called 'what the bleep do we know' or something along those lines. It was really popular so I'm sure most people have seen it or heard of it.

Anyway, I guess some Japanese scientist did some experament showing how positive thoughts can influence things on a molecular level. So I have noticed that a lot of mystics out there use that experament to "prove" that we are all connected and all this stuff.

I'm never quite sure what to say when they say that. I should look into it more, I realize. I'm interested in thoughts, though.

--Sarah--

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=511382 is a good source for this dude. Basically, he's all pseudoscience.

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Posted on: June 7, 2007 - 10:02am #5
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The PEAR lab at Princeton

The PEAR lab at Princeton was working on something similar til their funding ran out.

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/

Nobody was ever able to decide 100% whether this work was psuedoscience or an unknown phenomenon.

"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert


Posted on: June 7, 2007 - 11:32am #6
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Textom wrote: The PEAR lab

Textom wrote:

The PEAR lab at Princeton was working on something similar til their funding ran out.

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/

Nobody was ever able to decide 100% whether this work was psuedoscience or an unknown phenomenon.

Given that it was the PEAR lab, it's probably pseudoscience

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Posted on: June 7, 2007 - 6:28pm #7
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I just hear a lot of

I just hear a lot of mystics say "we're all connected by this energy force and what we do effects everyone and everything" and then backing it up with that science experiment. I never quite know what to say. On one hand, if that was really a well done science experament, wouldn't it have been talked about more? On the other hand, I don't really know much about it so I need to read up on those links I was given before I can really say anything.

 I guess I see no real "reason" for everyone and everything to be connected in some mystical sense. We can't even prove there are spirits, so how could we prove we are "connected"? It's always said like it's some profound mental hurdle they had just crossed. I just don't get the point of being "connected" or anything of that nature.

Maybe I am far too skeptical.

--Sarah-- 

Prayer: How to do nothing and feel like your doing something.


Posted on: June 7, 2007 - 8:17pm #8
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BenfromCanada

BenfromCanada wrote:
Textom wrote:

The PEAR lab at Princeton was working on something similar til their funding ran out.

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/

Nobody was ever able to decide 100% whether this work was psuedoscience or an unknown phenomenon.

Given that it was the PEAR lab, it's probably pseudoscience

What have you heard about PEAR, Benfromcanada? 

I've been trying to get a read on where they fall on the spectrum from plausible to tinfoil hat.  Really mostly all I have to go on is their own press and stories about them that mostly say "nobody knows what to make of them."

"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert


Posted on: June 8, 2007 - 4:06am #9
BenfromCanada
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Textom

Textom wrote:
BenfromCanada wrote:
Textom wrote:

The PEAR lab at Princeton was working on something similar til their funding ran out.

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/

Nobody was ever able to decide 100% whether this work was psuedoscience or an unknown phenomenon.

Given that it was the PEAR lab, it's probably pseudoscience

What have you heard about PEAR, Benfromcanada?

I've been trying to get a read on where they fall on the spectrum from plausible to tinfoil hat. Really mostly all I have to go on is their own press and stories about them that mostly say "nobody knows what to make of them."

Essentially, their whole purpose was to examine paranormal claims, such as astrology, psychic phenomenon, UFOs and Extraterrestrial life, Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch/Bigfoot, etc. Their detractors accused them of attempting to legitimize these beliefs, especially with UFOs and psychics. Their experiments rarely, if ever, were published for peer review, and the general concensus is that they gave it a good try, but they weren't scientific in their endeavours. I used to be really into the UFOs and such, and I was rooting for these guys, so I heard all the criticisms. Turns out they weren't too far off

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Posted on: June 8, 2007 - 8:53am #10
Textom
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BenfromCanada

BenfromCanada wrote:
Textom wrote:
BenfromCanada wrote:
Textom wrote:

The PEAR lab at Princeton was working on something similar til their funding ran out.

http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/

Nobody was ever able to decide 100% whether this work was psuedoscience or an unknown phenomenon.

Given that it was the PEAR lab, it's probably pseudoscience

What have you heard about PEAR, Benfromcanada?

I've been trying to get a read on where they fall on the spectrum from plausible to tinfoil hat. Really mostly all I have to go on is their own press and stories about them that mostly say "nobody knows what to make of them."

Essentially, their whole purpose was to examine paranormal claims, such as astrology, psychic phenomenon, UFOs and Extraterrestrial life, Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch/Bigfoot, etc. Their detractors accused them of attempting to legitimize these beliefs, especially with UFOs and psychics. Their experiments rarely, if ever, were published for peer review, and the general concensus is that they gave it a good try, but they weren't scientific in their endeavours. I used to be really into the UFOs and such, and I was rooting for these guys, so I heard all the criticisms. Turns out they weren't too far off

 Really?  That version of PEAR's activities seems to be very much different from the version I know (and from what the list of their publications suggests).

As far as I'm aware they never had any interest in paranormal, ESP, UFO's and such.  Their activities seem to have been limited to documenting the effects that human interaction had on the measurements made by machines.  They had some speculation on what might have caused the observed anomalies, but mainly they were limited to hardcore gathering and analyzing the data.

Are you sure we're talking about the same organization? 

"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert


Posted on: June 8, 2007 - 9:03am #11
BenfromCanada
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Textom wrote: Really?

Textom wrote:

Really? That version of PEAR's activities seems to be very much different from the version I know (and from what the list of their publications suggests).

As far as I'm aware they never had any interest in paranormal, ESP, UFO's and such. Their activities seem to have been limited to documenting the effects that human interaction had on the measurements made by machines. They had some speculation on what might have caused the observed anomalies, but mainly they were limited to hardcore gathering and analyzing the data.

Are you sure we're talking about the same organization?

On the contrary, ESP was their main objective from the start. They did also work on UFOs and astrology, though I am wrong when I mentioned the cryptozoological stuff. Essentially, their studies on the interaction of minds and machines was a study of ESP and parapsychology and psychokinesis  http://skepdic.com/pear.html

 

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