[MD] Intention changes physical world

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Case <Case at iSpots.com>:

> [Platt]
> If those of a scientific bent are looking for evidence of Pirsig's 
> metaphysics that presupposes a Dynamic force that affected physical 
> evolution, Jahn and Dunne's experiments should satisfy.
> 
> [Case]
> An interesting post Platt, that raises several interesting issues. The first
> is that taken at face value what Jahn and Dunne showed was an effect where
> human intent had its effect on 1 in 10,000 of these micro events. Not an
> especially profound effect.

Any effect of intent over matter, no matter how small, is profound.

> Second if you look a little deeper your will see
> that most investigators are skeptical for other reason. Was the "random"
> equipment in the experiments really random in the way the researchers claim?
> Were trials done where subject ignored the equipment? Where the results
> reproducible by others in the field or even the same researchers? It turns
> out, no.

Few investigators have tried to reproduce Jahn's results, and those who did
probably began with a negative bias which, if the experiment can be affected
subjectively, skewed the results. 

> Third this really illustrates the problem with this and all
> parapsychological research to date. It is not that it has not been done, it
> is that it either gets done badly or it does not show any meaningful
> results. From J.B. Rhine to Charles Tarts to Rupert Sheldrake to Jahn and
> Dunne this line in inquiry has a long history of ambitious claims supported
> by little but wishful thinking.
 
Undoubtedly a lot of such research is bogus and skepticism is called for. But
be careful of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Science advances by
the contrarians such as Jahn and Dunne, and Jahn's reputation as a serious
scientist is impeccable.


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