On Sat, 09 Jun 2012 05:14:17 -0700, Scott O Lilienfeld wrote: >Daryl Bem was my undergraduate advisor at Cornell from 1978 to 1982. He was >beginning to conduct work on psi (using the ganzfeld procedure, if I recall) >even back then. He also spoke quite favorably about the possibiilty of >paranormal phenomena in his courses. So he has certainly been open to the >existence of psi for many decades. The article's implication that data >"changed his mind" following many years of skepticsm of psi strikes me as >exceedingly dubious.
My dissertation advisor, Marvin Levine, who did his original research on hypothesis theory (Harry Harlow was one of his advisors) and would go on to do research in spatial problem solving (the area of my dissertation). He was also a somewhat unconventional person (i.e., "flake") because he had he practiced yoga and studied Buddhism before it was fashionable. I was somewhat concerned about how these activities might influence his view of science until we both were exposed to some research involving PSI/telepathy. I was extremely skeptical of the whole business but wasn't sure what Marv's reaction was. I asked what he thought and his response impressed. Paraphrasing from a potentially faulty memory, Marv said: |"We know an awful lot about energy from physics and the big problem |here is the person either doesn't know physics or how what he's talking |about violates what we know about physics. Regardless of the results, |he still has to explain how his results fit into what we know is true and |valid in physics. Bem did not go into much detail about physics in his JPSP article but when I looked at some of Bem's writing in the parapsychology journals, he went into detail about the mechanisms (i.e., how the future affects the present). I think the real question is how does Bem's explanation and theory are inconsistent with current physical theory. Does anyone know of any physicist's critique of Bem's theory or model? If Bem relies upon empirical results for his beliefs, shouldn't be taking into account what the standard results are in physics? -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18283 or send a blank email to leave-18283-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
