Psi is vastly more extensive (types) and complicated than Daryl seems to 
recognize. Based on the abstract, his experimental method precludes the 
possibility of obtaining any but negative results. I would attempt to explain 
why, but I doubt anyone on the list is interested.

davew


On Sun, May 10, 2020, at 4:18 PM, Frank Wimberly wrote:
> Here is an abstract by Daryl Bem (I thought there was only one 'r'):
> 
> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> Abstract

> The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer 
> that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological 
> mechanisms. Two variants of psi are* precognition* (conscious cognitive 
> awareness) and premonition (affective apprehension) of a future event that 
> could not otherwise be anticipated through any known inferential process. 
> Precognition and *premonition* are themselves special cases of a more general 
> phenomenon: the anomalous retroactive influence of some future event on an 
> individual's current responses, whether those responses are conscious or 
> nonconscious, cognitive or affective. This article reports 9 experiments, 
> involving more than 1,000 participants, that test for retroactive influence 
> by “time-reversing” well-established psychological effects so that the 
> individual's responses are obtained before the putatively causal stimulus 
> events occur. Data are presented for 4 time-reversed effects: precognitive 
> approach to erotic stimuli and precognitive avoidance of negative stimuli; 
> retroactive priming; retroactive habituation; and retroactive facilitation of 
> recall. The mean effect size (d) in psi performance across all 9 experiments 
> was 0.22, and all but one of the experiments yielded statistically 
> significant results. The individual-difference variable of stimulus seeking, 
> a component of extraversion, was significantly correlated with psi 
> performance in 5 of the experiments, with participants who scored above the 
> midpoint on a scale of stimulus seeking achieving a mean effect size of 0.43. 
> Skepticism about psi, issues of replication, and theories of psi are also 
> discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

> 
> 
> On Sun, May 10, 2020 at 3:50 PM Frank Wimberly <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Eric Charles,
>> 
>> As you read this recall that I have an MS in psychology so you can think of 
>> me as a disenchanted former psychologist.
>> 
>> You hint at something I have wondered about. Psychologists seem to have 
>> physics envy. They want to make wonderful counter-intuitive discoveries like 
>> the photon slit experiment, etc that seem incredible. But some (not I) claim 
>> that their findings are either obvious or incapable of replication. I took 
>> classes from Darryl Bem who could fascinate undergraduates with his 
>> self-perception ideas. He was also an amateur magician who was in his 
>> element when he was performing before an auditorium full of amazed people. 
>> Admittedly he explained how he did his illusions. He must have been expelled 
>> from the magicians union.
>> 
>> Frank
>> 
>> ---
>> Frank C. Wimberly
>> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
>> Santa Fe, NM 87505
>> 
>> 505 670-9918
>> Santa Fe, NM
>> 
>> On Sun, May 10, 2020, 2:35 PM Eric Charles <[email protected]> 
>> wrote:
>>> Frank,
>>> So far as I can tell, no one is denying thought. I'm certainly not. There 
>>> are phenomenon at play, and one of the things that happens when you science 
>>> a phenomenon is that you end up with descriptions of the phenomenon (and 
>>> explanations for the phenomenon) that don't match mundane intuitions about 
>>> things,. We should expect that the science of psychology defines its 
>>> subject matter different from mundane intuitions in the same way that the 
>>> science of physics and the science of biology did for their respective 
>>> subject matters: Sometimes those definitions end up pretty close to the 
>>> mundane intuitions of a given era, other times you end up with definitions 
>>> that are radically different. 
>>> 
>>> In these contexts, I like to remind people how mindbogglingly unintuitive 
>>> Newtonian momentum is. When was the last time you moved an object and it 
>>> didn't come to rest? Aristotle's system is much more intuitive. 
>>> 
>>> -----------
>>> Eric P. Charles, Ph.D.
>>> Department of Justice - Personnel Psychologist
>>> American University - Adjunct Instructor
>>> 
 <mailto:[email protected]>
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, May 10, 2020 at 10:46 AM Frank Wimberly <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> As I said to Nick approximately a dozen years ago, people who deny thought 
>>>> must not have it. I don't mean that as an insult. It's that for me thought 
>>>> is the one thing I can't deny because it's the first *experience*
>>>> At that point Nick dismisses me as a Cartesian.
>>>> 
>>>> ---
>>>> Frank C. Wimberly
>>>> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
>>>> Santa Fe, NM 87505
>>>> 
>>>> 505 670-9918
>>>> Santa Fe, NM
>>>> 
>>>> On Sun, May 10, 2020, 8:34 AM uǝlƃ ☣ <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Ha! Well, by ignoring the poignant example, you've ignored my entire 
>>>>> point. And it's that point by which I can't agree with the unmoored 
>>>>> distinction you're making. The celery example isn't about being alive. 
>>>>> Sorry for injecting that into it. The celery example is about *scale*. 
>>>>> Celery's movement *is* movement. An antenna's behavior *is* its movement. 
>>>>> I introduced antennas' behavior in order to help demonstrate that 
>>>>> behavior is orthogonal to life.
>>>>> 
>>>>>  Now, the distinction you're making by saying that behavior is a proper 
>>>>> subset of movement, would be fine *if* you identify some movement that is 
>>>>> *not* behavior. I didn't see that in the Old Dead Guy text you quoted ... 
>>>>> maybe I missed it? Anyway, that's the important category and celery and 
>>>>> antennas fit right in. 
>>>>> 
>>>>>  But the behavior/movement discussion (including observer-ascribed 
>>>>> intention) is a bit of a distraction. What we're actually talking about 
>>>>> is *hidden* states (a.k.a. "thinking", maybe extrapolated to 
>>>>> "consciousness"). So, the examples of light-following or higher order 
>>>>> objective targeting is like trying to run before you can walk. Why do 
>>>>> that? Why not talk about, say, the hidden states of an antenna? If we 
>>>>> could characterize purely *passive* behavior/movement, we might be able 
>>>>> to characterize *reactive* movement. And if we do that, then we can talk 
>>>>> about the complicatedness (or complexity) of more general 
>>>>> *transformations* from input to output. And then we might be able to talk 
>>>>> about I⇔O maps whose internal state can (or can't) be estimated solely 
>>>>> from their I&O.
>>>>> 
>>>>>  We don't need all this philosophical rigmarole to talk about the 
>>>>> complexity of I⇔O maps. 
>>>>> 
>>>>>  On 5/9/20 6:17 PM, Eric Charles wrote:
>>>>>  > Ok, so it sounds like we agree there is a distinction can be made 
>>>>> between behavior and "mere movement". So what is that difference? I would 
>>>>> argue, following E. B. Holt, that it is the presence of intentionality. 
>>>>> Note crucially that the directedness of the behavior described below is 
>>>>> descriptive, /not /explanatory. The intention is not a force behind the 
>>>>> behavior, it is a property of the behavior-to-circumstance mapping that 
>>>>> can be demonstrated by varying conditions appropriately. 
>>>>>  > [...]
>>>>>  > P.S. I'm going to try to ignore the celery challenge, because while we 
>>>>> recognize plants as living, we do not typically talk about them as 
>>>>> behaving. And I think the broad issue of living vs. not-living is a 
>>>>> different issue. We probably should talk about plants behaving a bit more 
>>>>> than we normally do, but I think it is worth getting a handle on what we 
>>>>> mean in the more normal seeming cases before we try to look for 
>>>>> implications like those. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>  -- 
>>>>>  ☣ uǝlƃ
>>>>> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Frank Wimberly
> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz
> Santa Fe, NM 87505
> 505 670-9918
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