Comment by Jim Valentine on May 10, 2009 at 8:33pm

Had you actually had an abscess, the dentist would have sent you off to get a prescription of penicillin and had you been in pain, some pain killers. I've had my share of these, that is what happens. The penicillin usually takes care of the problem after a couple days.

Only you know what happened. It sounds like you remember the event in a certain way, I had my share of events that I'd say were similar but once my mind was opened to other possibilities, I was forced to review my past experiences and challenge them. The first premise always being, there is no such thing as a miracle so there is another explanation and going from that point on.

Comment by Rick Watts on May 11, 2009 at 1:51am

Thanks for your comment, Jim. I'll stick to the term phenomena; I guess 'miracle' sounds sort of religious. I don't know what the dentist intended to do with me, probably something painful anyway, that sadistic turkey.
I was into psychic stuff in a casual way for about 3 years at one time and I would guess that about 1 in 10 people have some substantial psychic experience; deja-vu occurrence and foreseeing an event in a dream -usually the day before the event happens- seems to be two of the most common experiences that people have. I've never done much serious research into psychic phenomena but I know that it has been scientificly proven- when a genuine psychic person was placed into a Faraday chamber and was still able to do his psychic thing. But psychics has such a bad reputation for quackery, snake oil stuff and not always being reliable even with 'genuine' psychics. I believe that ability is a deeply subconscious brain function that does occur naturally with some of us.

Comment by Johnny on May 11, 2009 at 9:34am

"I would guess that about 1 in 10 people have some substantial psychic experience"

I would bet much less. I also would not call a dream the night before a "substantial psychic experience." Thinking about things you will being doing tomorrow before bed often causes you to dream about those things. The more emotion (excitement, dread, anxiety) is tied to that event, the more likely your brain will be playing through scenarios in dreams.

"I've never done much serious research into psychic phenomena but I know that it has been scientificly proven"

Do you have a link to a story? There are several scientists and miscellaneous organizations who have open invitation with a large purse reward for any psychic who can demonstrate their ability. As for anything I've ever read or found, no psychic's ability has ever been scientifically proven.

Here is a recent attempt in fact. The James Randi Educational Foundation has a standing offer of $1 million to anyone who can prove that they have psychic or mediumistic abilities.

Comment by Rick Watts on May 11, 2009 at 10:19am

Thanks Johnny.. No link to the story, this was about a year ago on the Scientific American site (sciam.com) when they were allowing people to create their own blogs. It was in a discussion with a NASA R&D engineer (Aet Radal) who had mentioned this experiment with the psychic in a Faraday chamber. What 'thing' this psychic actually performed I don't know but the experiment was conducted in such a manner to convince Mr Radal that the psychic phenomena is genuine. One experience I did have with a psychic clairvoyant lady was- she told me to picture anything at all in my mind- and as I did she could tell me exactly what images that I was imagining. Hmm.. what if I was riding the bus and the person sitting beside me happened to be clairvoyant and could 'see' what was going through my mind..

Comment by Rick Watts on May 11, 2009 at 11:33am

Thanks Michel.. I don't believe psychics is a supernatural phenomena but I am certain it can and does occur naturally. Maybe it ties in somehow with quantum dimensions.. But myself being convinced that psychic phenomena does occur- I'd like to find out HOW it can occur.

Comment by Johnny on May 11, 2009 at 12:12pm

Good point on the "statistically" Michel; sooner or later one of the predictions will be right (or close enough to call it right). Anyone who hasn't seen QualiaSoup's "Coincidence and Probability" video should check it out.

Comment by Johnny on May 11, 2009 at 12:49pm

On sciam.com or scientificamerican.com... Searching Faraday and Aet Radal don't return any entries related to psychics. Searching psychic nets 27 results; several relating to psychiatrist, psychology, or psychic trauma; one about the show Medium; and all the rest relating to scientific unbelief, repeated experiments that have failed to demonstrate any psychic ability, and the complete lack of evidence; also one on people's misunderstanding of probability; and even an interview with James Randi with the following quote from him:

"All psychic claims or abilities or whatever, they don't actually have to have psychic powers, they just have to demonstrate that such things exist and we don't claim that there isn't such a thing. We allow them to claim that there is and then we say, "Fine, prove it and you get a million dollars." And you'd be surprised there is not a lineup right outside. I'm looking out the window no there is no lineup this morning; in fact there wasn't yesterday, in fact there never is a lineup of people hammering at the door trying to get up the million-dollar prize."

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on May 12, 2009 at 3:57am

Yeah.. I've had a few, mostly medical related.
The first was having a major break in my wrist heal in a matter of weeks instead of months. It caused the pins they put in to become embedded in bone because it shouldn't have been physically possible. (It wasn't a happy "miracle" I had to have surgery to correct it.) Then my collar bone did the same thing. Bone healed in I think a matter of days. Then the wrist was fully healed of the huge holes where the pins had been in a matter of days, too! I was like a modern day X-Man! They started to do a closer check of me and found SIX extra bones in my body and two entirely missing from my foot.
...on closer inspection, I don't "heal" crazy fast. My body creates calcium deposits at any injury site nearly immediately. Even in my mouth (the extra bones)
Helpful in some ways.. a pain in the ass in others. I get bone spurs. I've had to have them shaved off. My body grew another deposit and I've had multiple surgeries in my hand and wrist because of it.

Another recent one involves testing for Type 0+ blood when I'm really Type 0-. It has something to do with the platelets being oddly suspended and having too many antigens on the cells so it "looks" like RH antigens.

If it's too good to be true, it is. Period. Strange things can always be explained by science. It just depends if we have the technology to do it or not.

Comment by Rick Watts on May 12, 2009 at 3:35pm

Hello Misty. That's interesting.. and too good to be true- I guess so, usually. I agree there is a scientific explanation for everything, even for all the 'weird' psychic phenomena that I believe people do experience. I have an idea how psychic stuff can occur so I'll try and word it together somehow and blog it here some day and let the skeptic minds have at it. That's how I learn and sometimes have to reluctantly agree with those evil skeptics and better educated people. Time to change the subject for now, I guess.

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