Friday, January 4, 2008
Relax: No One is Reading Your Mind
Filed under: not funny
At first, scientists from Harvard, a college in Massachusetts, were trying to randomize a medical study so God wouldn't know. Now a group of venerable academic psychologists under Dr. Stephen Kosslyn from the same institution reports developing a methodology to study extrasensory perception (ESP), and obtaining the "strongest evidence" yet against the existence of ESP.
From the Harvard press release:
To study whether or not ESP exists, Moulton and Kosslyn presented participants with two types of visual stimuli: ESP stimuli and non-ESP stimuli. [Samuel Moulton is a graduate student in the department of psychology at Harvard --ed.] These two types of stimuli were identical with one exception: ESP stimuli were not only presented visually, but also were presented telepathically, clairvoyantly, and precognitively to participants.To present stimuli telepathically, the researchers showed the photographs to the participants' identical twin, relative, romantic partner, or friend, who was seated in another room. To present stimuli clairvoyantly, the researchers displayed the photographs on a distant computer screen. And to present stimuli precognitively, the researchers showed participants the photographs again in the future.
Does this conclusively prove that ESP does not exist" "No," says Moulton. "You cannot affirm the null hypothesis. But at the same time, some null results are stronger than others. This is the best evidence to date against the existence of ESP. Perhaps most important, this study offers scientists a new way to study ESP that avoids the pitfalls of past approaches."
Can anyone read these researchers' minds? We surely can: these folks are out of their minds.
Press release: Researchers use neuroimaging to study ESP ...
(2)
examples: <b>Bold</b> <i>Italic</i>
