quote:

Superheroes have been something that I have been thinking about quite a lot. When they were first invented in the late ’30s, they were wonderfully naive and optimistic. They were the creation of young men and, in some cases, teenagers who were on the peripheries of science fiction and who wanted to create wonderfully fresh and extravagant ideas.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDaveGuy69

MM
That's just more of the same new age psychobabble we've been hearing for 30+ years. I would have thought you to be less gullible. Do you also work at aligning crystals in your spare time? Have you had yout thetans audited lately?

If prayer is SO effective, why do people with loving, caring, prayerful families still die?
If prayer makes SUCH a big difference, why does anyone ever seek medical assistance?
With those extreme right-wing xian fundies trying to "pray the gay away" why are there still gay men and women in the world?

Are they simply not praying hard enough? Are they mispronouncing the words? Or is it all really just another part of the religious con-job?

But like I said elsewhere, whatever gets you through the night... Just don't try to convince me until you have real proof.

quote:

That's just more of the same new age psychobabble we've been hearing for 30+ years. I would have thought you to be less gullible. Do you also work at aligning crystals in your spare time? Have you had yout thetans audited lately?

quote:

If prayer is SO effective, why do people with loving, caring, prayerful families still die?
If prayer makes SUCH a big difference, why does anyone ever seek medical assistance?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Dave,

Aside from the fact that you're being a dick in your choice of moment...

There was a time I'd have been in agreement with your position, if not your lack of tact. But a surprising amount of research points in the other direction. You don't have to go as far as a supreme being--intention alone has a measurable effect. William Tiller (yes, of the Einstein/Tiller model of the universe) did some fascinating work, raising and then lowering the pH of water by 1 pH through intention alone. He's also measured the energy of seminar rooms, finding it increases several hours before the seminar even begins, levels off while the speaker is presenting, and dropping off afterward back to normal.

We also know from quantum mechanics that space/time is meaningless at the quantum level, and we know that thought affects particles, from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (once we observe mass or energy, we can't know the other) to experiments over distance with paired spin of particles (changing one changes the other, regardless of distance). There's more to our nature and our world than Newtonian physics.

Plenty of work regarding the effects of positive and negative thoughts in a wide range of fields, at the very least, is sufficient to give one pause, and certainly doesn't warrant a blanket dismissal. There's more going on here than we understand yet. Even the placebo effect alone, with quite a body of research behind it, points to the power of our thoughts and their direction.

There are also a wide variety of metaphysical approaches to medicine. I'd have been the biggest skeptic of Reconnective Healing...until I experienced it and learned to do it myself, observing remarkable results. We are on new frontiers of information energy, working directly with the light absorbed and sent in every cell from our DNA, communicating our information blueprint and our adherence to it and to our environment. Read journalist Lynne McTaggart's "The Field," covering a vast range of research...along with her earlier book, "The Intention Experiment."

I'd also have dismissed spiritual experiences at one time, perhaps with more understanding than you display here, saying something like they know what they thought they saw, interpreted it, and so forth. That's until I had my own. I'm not so cocky now. There's simply more going on than we're typically consciously aware of, Dave.

No, you don't have to convert, believe, adhere, nothing like that. But don't be so quick to dismiss and criticize. There's more going on than you or anyone else can explain. What we can all do is remain open and observant, learning from what happens.

But on the prayers/thoughts front? You're wrong, Dave. They do make a difference.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kaliko

quote:

ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Dave,

Aside from the fact that you're being a dick in your choice of moment...

There was a time I'd have been in agreement with your position, if not your lack of tact. But a surprising amount of research points in the other direction. You don't have to go as far as a supreme being--intention alone has a measurable effect. William Tiller (yes, of the Einstein/Tiller model of the universe) did some fascinating work, raising and then lowering the pH of water by 1 pH through intention alone. He's also measured the energy of seminar rooms, finding it increases several hours before the seminar even begins, levels off while the speaker is presenting, and dropping off afterward back to normal.

We also know from quantum mechanics that space/time is meaningless at the quantum level, and we know that thought affects particles, from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (once we observe mass or energy, we can't know the other) to experiments over distance with paired spin of particles (changing one changes the other, regardless of distance). There's more to our nature and our world than Newtonian physics.

Plenty of work regarding the effects of positive and negative thoughts in a wide range of fields, at the very least, is sufficient to give one pause, and certainly doesn't warrant a blanket dismissal. There's more going on here than we understand yet. Even the placebo effect alone, with quite a body of research behind it, points to the power of our thoughts and their direction.

There are also a wide variety of metaphysical approaches to medicine. I'd have been the biggest skeptic of Reconnective Healing...until I experienced it and learned to do it myself, observing remarkable results. We are on new frontiers of information energy, working directly with the light absorbed and sent in every cell from our DNA, communicating our information blueprint and our adherence to it and to our environment. Read journalist Lynne McTaggart's "The Field," covering a vast range of research...along with her earlier book, "The Intention Experiment."

I'd also have dismissed spiritual experiences at one time, perhaps with more understanding than you display here, saying something like they know what they thought they saw, interpreted it, and so forth. That's until I had my own. I'm not so cocky now. There's simply more going on than we're typically consciously aware of, Dave.

No, you don't have to convert, believe, adhere, nothing like that. But don't be so quick to dismiss and criticize. There's more going on than you or anyone else can explain. What we can all do is remain open and observant, learning from what happens.

But on the prayers/thoughts front? You're wrong, Dave. They do make a difference.

Everything I know and believe, but said 100 times better than I could.

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

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ORIGINAL: farglebargle

That's why the "New Testament" is a bunch of bullshit. G-d doesn't love his enemies. He smites them.

Oh goody. An asshole contest.

K.