Excellent post, Salyavin. FWIW, this is what I mean when I say I don't rule something out: Can minds affect and influence each other at a distance? I still actually keep an open mind to it, but I don't believe it.
Also: Regarding proof, I think it doesn't matter whether everyone accepts it or not, as long as it stands up in court, or makes a case no reasonable person could refute. Important point. It isn't as if nobody has ever accepted what they had thought was impossible. The idea that the earth wasn't the center of the universe after all blew many minds and caused enormous outrage when it was first proposed, but eventually the evidence was enough to outweigh the skepticism almost universally. science only works if something is repeatable, reading about someone's experience and passing it off as something we already understand is fraught with obvious dangers, but is a good place to start the planning on how to test it for real. One reason I don't rule paranormal stuff out is that I'm not convinced science knows how to test for some of it. I could not possibly disagree more strongly with the notion that only what is measurable is "real." Actually, measuring (in the broadest sense) is the only tool science has. As one philosophy blogger ;-) has noted (in the context of theism specifically, but it applies here as well): Just as the success of metal detectors in finding metal does not entail that there are no other, non-metallic aspects of reality, so too does the success of science in capturing those aspects of nature susceptible of prediction and control give us no reason to think that there are not other aspects that are not susceptible of prediction and control -- aspects we should not expect to find by the methods of science.... http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2013/03/rosenhouse-keeps-digging.html#more http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2013/03/rosenhouse-keeps-digging.html#more Are there methods of investigation other than measurement/prediction/control that might convincingly detect paranormal events? Some paranormal researchers (Lawrence Le Shan in particular) have suggested potentially fruitful systematic, social-science-like approaches. See Le Shan's book "A New Science of the Paranormal: the Promise of Psychical Research" for details.
