--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > There was a study I read about years ago--but didn't > note the citation info--that (as I recall) had around > 1,000 subjects (from the U.S., I believe), randomly > chosen, a statistically significant sample.
Samples themselves are not usually "statitically significant". Finings are, or are not. That is, a finding that has only 5% chance of being false, is often termed a statitically significant finding. A threshold sample size is needed for given significance level (95%), for a given "error term" -- the often heard "+- 3% accuracy". For example, the "real" figure for the population has a 95% chance of being within -3% to + 3% of the sample mean (average of the sample). The larger the sample size, the better. Better in terms of tighter error term for a given level of significance. Though there is a tradeoff of cost and increased sample size. The former being linear, the latter exponential. Thus the cost per extra unit reduction in error term is always increasing. >They were > put under hypnosis and asked to remember their past > lives. > > The *vast* majority of these people recalled lives as > brown-skinned people working in the fields. Only a very > few--three or four, I think--remembered lives in > identifiable historical periods, much less exciting > existences. > > I keep hoping I'll come across a reference to this > study somewhere to get a fix on the details. I > doubt the study was published anywhere. I do recall > that the researchers made a big effort to be as > scientific as possible--the hypnotic inductions and > the questions asked during hypnosis were the same for > all subjects; the evaluations of their reports were > not done by the researchers themselves, so the study > was single-blind, at least; and so on. > > I *think* I recall that the researchers' hypothesis > was that most of the subjects would improbably recall > thrilling lives in historically identifiable periods > and were astonished that they did not. > > I had a roommate once years ago who was very into > New Age stuff, particularly reincarnation. She went > weekly to consult a spiritualist and would come home > bursting to share with me the past lives the > spiritualist had told her about--a court fool to > Henry IV, a slave girl of Cleopatra, the father of > Patrick Henry, one of Walt Whitman's lovers (male), > etc., etc. > > One day I asked her, "Did she tell you about your > life as Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate daughter?" > > Her jaw dropped. "No, she didn't," she said. "I wonder > why not? Maybe she didn't want me to know about that > one for some reason. I'll have to ask her next time." > To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
