[ExI] Psi (no need to read this post you already knowwhatitsays )

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Sat Jan 9 23:27:30 UTC 2010


On 1/9/2010 3:48 PM, john clark wrote:
>  > What are your equivalent credentials, John?

> Irrelevant, I have not presented experimental results that you are
> supposed to believe.

Okay. As my dear old departed Mum used to say, "A cat may look at a king."

But of course you snipped out the real point of that post, which was Dr. 
Sheldrake's credentials, very far from the straw yokel you always push 
at us.

You will probably reply (if you've bothered looking Sheldrake up): "Oh 
that idiot--he believes all sort of mad BULLSHIT, and look, Nature's 
editor said his first book should be burned!" My response: I also find 
some of Sheldrake's theories over the top or silly, but (1) that has 
nothing to do with his experiments, and (2) he seems to have been driven 
toward them by experimental results that standard science hasn't 
accounted for, or just denies. So we're back in the trap I mentioned 
before: if a scientist with a solid background speaks up for psi, it 
*means* he's a lunatic/gullible/lying etc, so you don't need to consider 
anything further that he says. Meanwhile, your list of drooling 
backwoods cretins includes:

Dr. Edwin May, PhD in experimental nuclear physics at UC Davis, 
long-time scientific director of the long-classified Star Gate program 
funded for some 20 years *on an annual basis, requiring scientific board 
oversight and approval* by its government sponsors. Dr. May is a friend 
of mine; I have read much of his work since it was declassified, and I 
trust him.

Dr. Dean Radin, masters in electrical engineering and a PhD in 
psychology from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. For a 
decade he worked on advanced telecommunications R&D at AT&T Bell 
Laboratories and GTE Laboratories.

Professor Robert Jahn, former Dean of the department of Mechanical and 
Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering/Applied Science, Princeton 
University.

Dr. Roger Nelson, PhD in experimental cognitive psychology, long-time 
member of the Princeton University PEAR team.

Dr. Stanley Krippner, B.S University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, MA and 
PhD Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

I could go on at some length. Most parapsychologists these days have 
their work card from the academy.

So why aren't their papers published in Nature and Science? Suppose stem 
cell papers were routinely sent for review to Jesuits at the God Hates 
Abortion Institute at Notre Dame, or to the Tribophysics Dept at 
Columbia. Why, the referees mutter, this is BULLSHIT or wicked, or 
worse, you think we're going to waste our time on such nonsense? Reject! 
(I've read some such referee reports, such as one from Science; they are 
shamefully empty of critique.)

Btw, how many papers in perceptual psychology are published in Nature? I 
don't know, maybe quite a few. Neuroscience might allow psi in, but it'd 
be a squeeze. My impression is that Nature tends to focus on physics, 
cosmology, cell biology, genetics, genomics, etc.**

Damien Broderick

**eg:

# Nature
# Nature Biotechnology
# Nature Cell Biology
# Nature Chemical Biology
# Nature Chemistry
# Nature Clinical Practice Journals
# Nature Communications
# Nature Digest
# Nature Genetics
# Nature Geoscience
# Nature Immunology
# Nature Materials
# Nature Medicine
# Nature Methods
# Nature Nanotechnology
# Nature Neuroscience
# Nature Photonics
# Nature Physics
# Nature Protocols
# Nature research journals
# Nature Reviews journals
# Nature Reviews Cancer
# Nature Reviews Cardiology (formerly Nature Clinical Practice 
Cardiovascular Medicine)
# Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology (formerly Nature Clinical Practice 
Oncology)
# Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
# Nature Reviews Endocrinology (formerly Nature Clinical Practice 
Endocrinology & Metabolism)
# Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology (formerly Nature 
Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology)
# Nature Reviews Genetics
# Nature Reviews Immunology
# Nature Reviews Microbiology
# Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
# Nature Reviews Nephrology (formerly Nature Clinical Practice Nephrology)
# Nature Reviews Neurology (formerly Nature Clinical Practice Neurology)
# Nature Reviews Neuroscience
# Nature Reviews Rheumatology (formerly Nature Clinical Practice 
Rheumatology)
# Nature Reviews Urology (formerly Nature Clinical Practice Urology)
# Nature Structural and Molecular Biology
# Neuropsychopharmacology





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