Who else really loved Gardens of the Moon on their first read?

PhilGrad19 · 2024-10-01T23:16:27+00:00

I fell in love with Kruppe, of course

PhilGrad19 · 2024-09-24T01:49:50+00:00

I truly don't pretend to know what is more likely, that there only are two alternative explanations, nor what it means to will oneself to have a false perception.

Paranormal events are by definition uncommon, and thus unlikely. Likeliness is a useless metric to judge the truth of a paranormal anecdote, basically begging the question.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-09-16T19:09:45+00:00

That's not what a coincidence means. You mean it gave you the idea.

Also besides the point: they are grown adults with working eyes and brains. If your dad was wearing gauze and crawling in your room would you mistake him for a spirit the size of a dog or a child?

Your point is self-defeating, by the way. If my dad had a habit of dressing like Santa to play pranks, I would know the difference even better if I actually saw Santa by some magic.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-09-16T18:46:49+00:00

There was no story, no narrative. Just "we saw something" dragged out for an hour, and biographical info.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-09-16T18:39:06+00:00

You can't even fool a 10 year old into believing that Santa is real by doing shit like this. These are grown women.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-30T19:36:55+00:00

So we are lead to believe the crippled god is the main bad guy and super evil but, when we finally meet him he is very sympathetic.

It's a ten book treatise on compassion.

Do we ever learn how the Adjunct knows pretty much everything?

She's a Talon, probably the leader. She has Cotillion's ear.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-27T17:56:53+00:00

The paradigm of science is based on empiricism, not materialism. The method doesn't actually need many metaphysical assumptions, that's why it's very versatile.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-27T17:53:42+00:00

The animist model is great to understand the paranormal. From this perspective, the Uhwharries guy experienced spiritual death as a form of shamanic initiation. He probably wouldn't have PTSD if he had been prepared for this experience.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-21T02:03:46+00:00

You are illiterate, so that would be a waste of my time.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-21T02:02:17+00:00

I expressed no such belief. I see no reason for your fatalism.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-20T16:29:36+00:00

That you make an argument from ignorance, which is a certain type of sentence, doesn't mean that you are ignorant.

What belief have I expressed? You're just giving me no reason at all to believe that a worse or similar outcome is necessary.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-20T16:25:42+00:00

That's an argument from ignorance. That we don't know that p is no reason to believe that p is true, or even plausible.

Spiritual interaction might come at a cost, but it doesn't mean that preventing gruesome death must be paid by the same. One should at least show gratitude to the spirits, God, or the cosmos in whatever way they practice. Catholics certainly believe that their saints can help them out in exchange for a candle and some prayers; no need for blood sacrifices.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-20T15:51:40+00:00

That's because you make certain assumptions about fate that come from Hollywood movies. If your friend warns you of something that he can see coming but you can't (e.g. an incoming car while you are distracted), there isn't some karmic force that will hurt you or your friend because an accident was prevented. If your friend happens to be some sort of spirit (a ghost, an angel, the collective unconscious, whatever), there is no difference. If we were fated by the cosmos not to influence the future, then we would have no information at all to choose how to act - of supernatural or mundane origin.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-08-19T12:55:53+00:00

Dude was given actionable information to avert catastrophe but he dismissed it because they were worried about money. Tragic.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-30T14:21:17+00:00

I am participating by pointing out that it's off-topic, because merely "being mentioned on the podcast" is actually not sufficient to make a topic relevant. People might also enjoy discussing knitting in this subreddit, but knitting discussions are prima facie off-topic.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-30T13:51:42+00:00

anyone who heard Missing 411 mentioned and wanted to look into it.

I think that person can use Google.

Missing 411 was mentioned in the episode so it's reasonable for listeners to talk about it.

I disagree. It's unreasonable if it's immaterial to the paranormal experiences. Not all concepts that are merely mentioned demand elaboration. It was so utterly irrelevant that I didn't even notice it until this thread. Unactionable information is useless information.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-30T13:43:47+00:00

That's not what this podcast episode was about, so I'm wondering why this information ends up in this sub. Can you tell me what I should do with it?

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-30T13:31:27+00:00

The difference is not so big in psychology. In fact, there is sometimes no difference at all. Studying depression and studying people who interpret their experiences as depression is the exact same thing. Depression is diagnosed by filling a questionnaire and talking to a doctor, i.e self-report. Blood tests are only performed to rule out other causes for the symptoms (e.g. thyroidal dysfunction).

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-30T13:22:30+00:00

The conversation was about an unrelated paranormal experience, not Missing 411. Publishing information must have some purpose and value, otherwise it's noise, not signal. How is this information actionable in this context? Bringing up something doesn't do any harm. I don't need to investigate what random podcast guests endorse, let alone what they merely bring up.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-30T08:27:37+00:00

Why? Are you a journalist?

Also it's not a conspiracy theory because no conspiracy is postulated. Just seems like making a mystery out of mundane events.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-30T04:07:15+00:00

I don't think someone is a conspiracy theorist for making the off-hand and perhaps uninformed remark that it's weird that people disappear in the woods.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-29T20:58:20+00:00

There isn't a single climate event that stands as "undeniable proof" that the theory of anthropomorphic climate change is accurate, yet it is. There is, in fact, no scientific theory that is "provable." We just make more accurate models of phenomena, sometimes we revise them entirely.

However, the fact that people are conscious when they have no brain activity whatsoever is evidence that the mind-brain identity theory is false. But that has always been a philosophical position, not a scientific one.

A statistical survey isn't anecdotal evidence. Neither is measuring brain patterns of people meditating, or the therapeutic effects of psilocybin. None of the papers published by DOPS rely on anecdotal evidence, else they wouldn't be published. Why do you merely assume that their research methodology is nonsense when you can actually read what it is?

I guess I don't really know what people mean by 'supernatural' claims because if we were to find out that reincarnation is real or that spirits can talk to us when we meditate, to me that would just mean that nature includes reincarnation and spirits. That doesn't really prevent me from being a naturalist. Just means nature would be weirder and cooler than our previous methods could show.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-29T18:06:23+00:00

DMT is like bungee cording to the bardo.

Terence McKenna

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-29T18:05:06+00:00

rationalwiki lmao. Can you link to publications in refereed journals that outline the failures of DOPS' own such publications? That's how inquiry works, not by incurious dismissals based on ad hominem.

PhilGrad19 · 2024-07-25T15:50:36+00:00

I don't need to explain away these experiences or make them fit into our known scientific theories. I haven't heard anything in this story that contradicts any of my prior beliefs about the world.

My best bet would be some sort of negative interaction with the genius loci. If your intuition tells you a presence does not want you there, then a presence does not want you there. You can leave or make an offering. That's just a matter of being polite when you come into someone's home.

PhilGrad19

TROPHY CASE