Reply With QuoteWow, things have really moved on since the 1880s, haven't they ...
This years' Parapsychology Conference will be held in Winchester on August 13 - Sunday, August 17 (in conjunction with the Society for Psychical Research). The PA programme chair* is Simon Sherwood from the University of Northampton and a "tentative" programme has at last been published.
As might be expected, the bulk of the programme consists of presentations from Northampton staff and students, or previous Northampton staff and students. Whereas nothing can quite touch the exceptionality of the paper on Long-Distance telepathy in Outer Space given last year by Liudmila B. Boldyreva, papers from Kimberly Robbins & Northampton's own Chris "Fluffy Earphones" Roe on An empirical test of the theory of morphic resonance using recognition for Chinese symbols and Serena M. Roney-Dougal and Jerry Solfvin's contribution on An exploratory study relating two Tibetan meditation techniques with the Stroop effect and precognition certainly have their own charm and uniqueness...Skeptical researchers Matthew D. Smith & Louie Savva will later give a paper on Experimenter effects in the Ganzfeld on 14th August. Given that Dr Savva spectacularly threw in his own chairmanship of the PA convention back in 2005 (and his employment as a researcher at Northampton) amid claims of poor research quality and the statement that Parapsychology is Pointless This might be one to watch... Bring pop-corn.
Moving on to the SPR conference section, best-selling author, historian and Satan look-alike Peter Lamont (Edinburgh University) will give a talk on The presentation and reception of anomalous phenomena in Britain prior to the emergence of psychical research on Friday 15th August. This alone is worth exorbitant entrance price. Peter Lamont is GREAT. Magicians rock...I want his autograph (and I won't even try and sell it on ebay) The SPR welcomes new members if you are interested in paranormal research- think about joining.
After that, the depressingly prevalent Steve de Selby & Co take up Sunday afternoon after everyone has gone home, starting with the question " Have the Lunatics taken over the (haunted) asylum?" and at this point, the answer is obviously and manifestly, Yes! Indeed they have...
Last edited by dalriada; 7th July 2008 at 02:47 PM. Reason: * composition of the programme committee will be in proceedings although Dr Sherwood has so far declined to make it public
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Wow, things have really moved on since the 1880s, haven't they ...
I won't have a word said against the 1880s...
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Looks like it could be, erm....., entertaining!
Actually yes, it sounds like there's a couple of good talks on there.
Are you going Dalriada? ???
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I'm apparently first reserve should anyone in the SPR programme drop out/ be unable to attend, so the answer to that is probably a "maybe" but only over someone's dead body...*
I would if you would though.
You can pretend not to know me, I'll understand...
Last edited by dalriada; 7th July 2008 at 03:03 PM. Reason: * This may not be improbable....
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Given that John is now bright blue and fluffy, I think you should pretend you don't know HIM!Originally Posted by dalriada
No worries. I'll be bringing my UK-Skeptics special issue, anti-recognition, master of disguises kit.
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So you'll be coming as Dean Radin then?
Awesome!
Last edited by dalriada; 20th May 2009 at 08:32 PM.
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Damn, I've been rumbled.
No worries, I'll also be packing my UK-Skeptics special issue auxiliary back up 'hasty disguises for when your anti-recognition disguise has been rumbled' kit.
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"Morphic resonance"....Thanks to Terry Pratchett I'll never be able to hear that phrase without thinking of a certain long-armed, banana-loving librarian!
"If I get rid of the cancer and the person decides they don’t want treatment any more ‐ either they’re too busy, or they’re too mean with their money, or they just think they know better ‐ the cancer often comes back. And if it comes back, I can’t get rid of it a second time. My healing doesn’t work a second time."
Adrian Pengelly
Is morphic resonance STILL around? Biology has gone way beyond any perceived problem with explaining animal body shapes since MR was invented. Even at the time of its devising, the theory 'explained' problems that didn't need explanation, like what exact structure a complex newly invented chemical compound might take. It was always going to be decided by 'minimum energy' even if we couldn't measure it at the time. It was also said to explain how two people might come up with a novel idea around the same time. Of course, both people probably moved in similar circles and had the same background information to look at. In short, morphic resonance is a solution looking for a problem.
It reminds me of how it was once suggested, by an SPR member, that ordinary human memory might be paranormal. In those days, memory was still moderately mysterious, however neuroscience has moved on hugely since. In both cases it is a sort of 'god in the gaps' approach, using the paranormal to plug perceived gaps in scientific knowledge.
Nutter and fraud Rupert Sheldrake is still pushing it.
'Croydon' Bob Newman. The ladies call him "Thrush" - as he's an irritating cunt.
I think Rupert Sheldrake would have made a wonderful Terry Pratchett and part of my grievance is that he isn't. Once upon a time when overworked academics stayed up too long and too late and started imagining things they wrote fiction... "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" there was none of this running around with the Nolan sisters, keeping psychic pets and trying to re-arrange evolutionary theory.
Never mind morphogenic fields, Narrative causality is where its at, therefore the question we need to be asking is, if Sheldrake lost the plot who found it for him? Who is writing his storylines? I suggest that if it turns out not to be Terry Pratchett or Umberto Eco then possibly we should think of Rupert Sheldrake, in himself, as pretty good evidence for the existence of God, a divine scriptwriter with a wicked sense of humour....
Last edited by dalriada; 8th July 2008 at 12:40 PM. Reason: Just to point out that Sheldrake is clearly and obviously a WIZARD'S name. Further proof that fictional characters run amok!
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Looking through the programme I notice one thing missing, considering it is a conference to consider current research - new ideas.
So are you planning on attending Mulder?
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