--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > ... Debbi claims that there may be some as yet > unmeasurable by > science connection between her numinous experiences > and the rest of > the universe. Very similar to some claims of > astrology. I would not > have made the comparison if there were no "testable > predictions" ...
Mmmm, hadn't looked at it quite like this before, but what you're saying is that I have *faith* that scientific knowledge will progress to the point that what I am referring to as a 'sixth or seventh or spiritual sense' will be, in the future, to some degree, measurable and verifiable... OK. Let me give an example of 'phenomena that had been investigated for centuries' to no avail, until after the proper equipment was invented and the phenomenon was explained scientifically: blood circulation. Blood had been known to be important for life from early in recorded history (and likely for centuries before that, but we have no record). The heart was thought to be somehow related to blood, but exactly *how* was unknown. Millenia of cutting up animals and each other, yet humans had little idea of how blood actually worked in the body. Even though several people *had* put forth the proper idea that blood was circulated around the body, in the ~1400 years since Galen, there was no evidence convincing enough to dispute him.[1] According to Galen, "blood ebbs and flows in the arteries, distributing the vital spirit. Blood moves similarly in the veins, nourishing the body, but generally in an outward direction from the heart...In order to keep the blood from falling down in the venous system, Galen had hypothesized the existence of an "attractive force..." " http://www2.gasou.edu/facstaff/etmcmull/HARVEY.htm "...Galen in the second century, who said that the blood reaching the right side of the heart went through invisible pores in the septum to the left side of the heart where it mixes with air to create spirit and then is distributed to the body. According to Galen's views, the venous system is quite separate from the arterial system, except when they come in contact by the unseen pores..." http://www.kfshrc.edu.sa/annals/152/mh9422ar.html Building on the ideas of others, and his teacher's discovery of vein valves, and defying Western 'knowledge' of over a millenium, Harvey reasoned and experimented his way to a theory of blood circulation. http://www.arkanar.com.by/harvey_s_heart_the_discovery_of_blood_circulation.htm "The tale of this discovery is one of ingenuity, imagination and perseverance, and a remarkable use of experiment, observation and skill. In the seventeenth century, William Harvey, physician to King James I and Charles I, made one of the greatest discoveries in anatomy, revolutionising our understanding of the human body. He found that the blood vessels form a closed system and that the blood circulates rapidly around the body, pumped by the heart. Having stood unchallenged for 1,500 years, the accepted view – that blood was generated in the liver and slowly consumed by the body – was overthrown. "Andrew Gregory’s extraordinary account of Harvey’s crucial work places it against the background of the art and science of the Renaissance, and narrates the dramatic struggle Harvey fought for its acceptance." Actually, it _wasn't_ accepted widely at the time, and later when capillaries were better visualized through the use of an improved microscope, the theory was further bolstered. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/medicine/nonint/renaiss/as/reasbi1.shtml "After his work was published, Harvey actually lost patients, as his ideas were considered eccentric. It was not until after his death that others became convinced that he was right. Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), an Italian physician, used better quality microscopes to prove that Harvey's ideas were correct." [1] For the interested, one of the doctors who also disagreed with Galen's assertion was the Arab Ibn Nafis, who in the thirteenth century described blood's pulmonary circulation: http://www.kfshrc.edu.sa/annals/152/mh9422ar.html So just because something hasn't been shown in 2000 years doesn't mean that it won't ever. And for an even longer timeframe from observance to 'scientific revision,' look at the change from an Earth-centered to a sun-centered system! :) Debbi Revisio, Revisiari, Revisierunt Maru ;) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
