Evolution of the Mind

[BEAKER]

When you consider all the examles of "intuition" that we take for granted; ie - varrious animals following migratory paths that they could never possibly know without some kind of inner connection to the unknown, it seems reasonable to say that they, never gave any effort or thought in trying to manifest what was there from the beginning. If it wasn't genetic, or inherrent in them - they were simply out of luck.

[Turtle]

___I accept the idea of extrasensory ability; I refer you to the thread "Hypography Mind Experiment". In my view this experiment is positive in result, ie. some people who responded, responded 'accurately'.
___In regard to perception, it is both inherent (pattern recognition) & cultural/environmental. Some tribes in Amazonia can recognize/identify the odor(s) of dozens of different kinds of animal urine. This adaptive use of the sense of smell is essential to the success of their hunting, whereas for many 'Westerners', smelling urine is not a desirable ability.
___I believe 'extrasensory' ability exists, & that I have & use it.___**

[C1ay]

I think the mind has many hidden abilities. Idiot savants are evidence of some of the abilities of the human mind that some may call extrasensory. Does a savant with an ear for music have extrasensory ability or has the genome simply turned on some switch we don't understand yet. I think we have many things to learn about the mind before we can draw a line between what is extrasensory and what is not.

[Turtle]

___C1ay said, "Idiot savants are evidence of some of the abilities of the human mind that some may call extrasensory."
___Indeed we are.

[maddog]

I suppose their may be a genetic component to paranormal talents. I do feel they can
be learned to some degree. I feel that often these arise in people who have gone
through some trauma, either emotional or physical. This may be latent abilities we
have unlearned in the past that we are now relearning.

Maddog

[Turtle]

That is a good point about forgetting. We live much safer in general than ancient people who might benefit from extrasensory perceptions; a sudden 'hunch' or 'insight' that a bear is soon to attack.
___If you train to improve physical ability, it makes sense you may train extrasensory ability as well. I think we all start with similar potentail & then the world has its way with us.

[Fishteacher73]

Much os ESP/psychic/paranormal/etc. just does not stand up to scientific rigor. AT BEST, support is anecdotal. Many times has been proven to be fraudulent. But to mee it seems that most of these events are just natural phenomenon that the viewer is imparting some sort of meaning upon.

"Ghosts" in pictures are often just reflection, dust, condensation, or smoke.

As for hearing voices...they have medication for that now.

Premonitions are nothing more than a good guess. And always easy to tie to an event in retrospect.

I do not mean to belittle anyone or rain on their parade. Pehaps these things are out there, but I have yet to see anything remotely plausible as evidence.

[Turtle]

---I don't mind rain & by what means do you think you caused it on me? There exist legitimate double blind studies demonstrating psychic ability beyond the curve for guessing.
---Is that a glass jar with pencils in your room?

[pgrmdave]

Where are these studies? I've seen studies that disprove some psychics - although I don't know that it is possible to completely disprove it. I haven't seen any scientific studies that give creedence to the idea that people can sense things beyond what we know.

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by pgrmdave

I've seen studies that disprove some psychics - although I don't know that it is possible to completely disprove it.

It hink it's easier to turn it around: So far any close scientific investigations of ESP, remote sensing, spoon-bending etc have either revealed that it was a scam (often unwittingly by the person in question) or that the abilities for some reason "do not work" when scientific personell are in the vicinity.

Here is the ESP entry in the online SkepDic:
http://skepdic.com/esp.html