>From Terry: > http://publicparapsychology.blogspot.com/2007/11/brain-response-to-future-event.html
> A Brain Response to a Future Event? > Whenever we suddenly encounter something that frightens or startles > us, our body has a tendency to "jump" in response. Over the past > decade, a considerable amount of evidence has been gathered to suggest > that, on a very subtle and unconscious level, our body's autonomic > nervous system may also "jump" in response to frightening or startling > stimuli. However, it does so even before our body encounters such > stimuli. This evidence comes from various experiments designed to > explore the possible physiological signatures of a > precognition-related experience that has come to be known as > presentiment or pre-stimulus response. Seems to me that people will either believe that precognition exists or they will refuse to accept the possibility no matter what evidence is presented to them. In the end I think it has to be personally experienced - and THEN you still wonder. I doubt endless scientific studies will ever convince card carrying skeptics since there are too many ways to manufacture convenient excuses and logical rationalizations that present alternate prosaic explanations. A friend of mine calls these incidents: "woo-woo" experiences. The funny thing about "woo-woo" experience is how incredibly mundane they often can be. A good example of a recent mundane "woo-woo" experience that happened to me occurred a couple of months ago when I found myself occasionally thinking about the Mayan Calendar, particularly the fact that this highly advanced culture had created a numeric system based on base 20. The key point here is that I found myself occasionally thinking about the Mayan base-twenty numeric system on and off for several days. Quite frankly, I didn't pay much attention to the thought other than the fact that I was aware of it. A few days later I got an email from my brother who lives in Vermont. He is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at a local college. He told me he had recently interviewed a professor at the college he attends who had spent a month down in Mexico in a village where the inhabitants remarkably still base their numeric system on the ancient Base 20 Mayan calendar. Oh, so THAT's where that odd "woo-woo" experience came from I sez to myself. I suspect certain skeptics would scoff at my conclusion, my personal interpretation, and tell me why didn't I know or accurately determine that my "woo-woo" experience had originated from my big bro. Why didn't I know that "Ah! I had just received a thought transmission from my big bro who resides in Vermont about the Mayan numeric system!" Why can't I just as easily conclude that my random Mayan base-twenty thought concept wasn't just some random process I concocted all on your own? The problem with these quaint nineteenth century objectified notions of thinking is that it presumes we "own" the thoughts we experience, that we personally manufacture them, and as such, can "project" them as if they were exotic sub-atomic particles, that we also "receive" them from external sources as well. This theory only makes sense if one believes we are all distinct isolated entities with barriers around our "psyches". Seems to me that this whole "woo-woo" concept becomes less mysterious (less outrageous) if one considers the possibility that our sense of acutely experienced separateness that most of us tend to feel is nothing more than a convenient illusion - to help us play the video game more effectively. What is more remarkable to me is the notion that we aren't more conscious of everyone else's "woo-woo" experiences. But that would mess around with the agreed-upon rules. Oh, sure, we all slip up on occasion. We occasionally break them, accidentally. We quickly make up convenient excuses to explain away our rude fopah so that everyone will continue playing with us, cuz nobdy would if we constantly cheated. There are RULES one must follow if one wishes to play in the sand box with one's fellow playmates - so keep your thoughts to yourself! Did I take the red pill or blue pill today. Have I downloaded the latest SpyWare updates? Aw, who cares. Pass me the pale. ;-) Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
