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fandomhigh2006-02-01 10:23 am
romanywitch) wrote in fandomhigh2006-02-01 10:23 am
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Magical Theory 101 (Wednesday, 02/01/2006, 4th Period)
CLASS IS CLOSED
The door, as usual, is closed in order to minimize disruptions from the hallway, and Jenny's got coffee, bagels, and strawberry cream cheese sitting up on her desk by the sign-in sheet. "Today? Magic and science meet. Well, sorta, given that not everyone thinks parapsychology is a real phenomenon.And I'm totally not cribbing off this lecture for Psych 101 later, why do you ask? Parapsychology is the study of certain extrasensory abilities that researchers believe can be quantified in a laboratory setting. Extra-sensory perception--ESP--is also known as anomalous cognition, and includes telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairalience, clairgustance, clairsentience, precognition, postcognition, psychometry, and dream transference. Anomalous operation includes psychokinesis--aka telekinesis--out-of-body experiences, astral projection, near-death experiences, mediumship, and reincarnation.
Some parapsychologists specificially study hauntings hauntings. You guessed it, ghosts.In fact, I think our esteemed Gremlinbusting team has some credentials in the field of parapsychology. ;) Not that I know or care IC, because gremlins going away is a good thing in Jenny's eyes.
So. The larger scientific community? Pretty skeptical. Go figure, right? It's common for parapsychological research to be held to even more strict standards of the scientific method than most standard psychological research. For example, two researchers must always be present during an experiment in parapsychology in order to ensure that the results are considered valid. Valid results? Anything over a twenty-five percent success rate is considered valid by the parapsychological research community. But we're going to treat it as real here. Anybody here skeptical that sort of stuff exists? Seriously, if you are? Okay. No problem there. I just disagree. Sure, there are frauds out there. I've got no problems with stricter research standards. I just don't think the scientific community at large is ever going to be in the mood to recognize that parapsychological phenomena is real and quantifiable.
So. Some basic definitions are needed, right? Here are a few of the basics. Your worksheet has more definitions for you. Psychokinesesis: Movement of physical objects by force of will. Telepathy: Ability to communicate mind-to-mind. Clairvoyance: Knowledge of distant events, places, or, hey, whatever. Basically, knowledge of current events transmitted by inexplicable means. First you want to prove it exists before you prove how the information is transmitted, I think anyway. Hauntings? A little more complicated. You could call it looking for ghosts. Or some people think a ghost is just an empathic residue of an individual or a particularly strongly felt event that took place at the site of a haunting.
Extra reading is up on the desk for you if you want it. We've got "Parapsychology Without The Para (Or Psychology) and and your worksheet is next to it.First link is a pdf file, second link is our usual Wikipedia link.
A lot of these things are tested with Zener cards, which are those five sets of cards with different symbols that one person holds up and one tries to guess. You can actually test telepathy, clairvoyance, or precog with those--depending on your test setup.
I've actually got a laptop set up here with an online Zener card experiment. Can't test telepathy that way, but since the results are preselected, what you're testing is clairvoyance--if you want to play around with that.
Parapsychology is a big field, and I've boiled it down a lot for you here. Questions on anything more that I didn't cover? Further explanations on what I have covered? Randomness?"
OOC Note: Things are busy today. Expect slow replies. :)
Useful Links:
Ms. Calendar's Voice Mail
Ms. Calendar's E-Mail
{{OOC: OCD comment threadsgoing up shortly are up now.}}
The door, as usual, is closed in order to minimize disruptions from the hallway, and Jenny's got coffee, bagels, and strawberry cream cheese sitting up on her desk by the sign-in sheet. "Today? Magic and science meet. Well, sorta, given that not everyone thinks parapsychology is a real phenomenon.
Some parapsychologists specificially study hauntings hauntings. You guessed it, ghosts.
So. The larger scientific community? Pretty skeptical. Go figure, right? It's common for parapsychological research to be held to even more strict standards of the scientific method than most standard psychological research. For example, two researchers must always be present during an experiment in parapsychology in order to ensure that the results are considered valid. Valid results? Anything over a twenty-five percent success rate is considered valid by the parapsychological research community. But we're going to treat it as real here. Anybody here skeptical that sort of stuff exists? Seriously, if you are? Okay. No problem there. I just disagree. Sure, there are frauds out there. I've got no problems with stricter research standards. I just don't think the scientific community at large is ever going to be in the mood to recognize that parapsychological phenomena is real and quantifiable.
So. Some basic definitions are needed, right? Here are a few of the basics. Your worksheet has more definitions for you. Psychokinesesis: Movement of physical objects by force of will. Telepathy: Ability to communicate mind-to-mind. Clairvoyance: Knowledge of distant events, places, or, hey, whatever. Basically, knowledge of current events transmitted by inexplicable means. First you want to prove it exists before you prove how the information is transmitted, I think anyway. Hauntings? A little more complicated. You could call it looking for ghosts. Or some people think a ghost is just an empathic residue of an individual or a particularly strongly felt event that took place at the site of a haunting.
Extra reading is up on the desk for you if you want it. We've got "Parapsychology Without The Para (Or Psychology) and and your worksheet is next to it.
A lot of these things are tested with Zener cards, which are those five sets of cards with different symbols that one person holds up and one tries to guess. You can actually test telepathy, clairvoyance, or precog with those--depending on your test setup.
I've actually got a laptop set up here with an online Zener card experiment. Can't test telepathy that way, but since the results are preselected, what you're testing is clairvoyance--if you want to play around with that.
Parapsychology is a big field, and I've boiled it down a lot for you here. Questions on anything more that I didn't cover? Further explanations on what I have covered? Randomness?"
OOC Note: Things are busy today. Expect slow replies. :)
Useful Links:
Ms. Calendar's Voice Mail
Ms. Calendar's E-Mail
{{OOC: OCD comment threads
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